Chapter Twenty

When Qibli came to collect Peril around mid-morning, she almost snapped at him. The only thing that stopped her was the look on his face. He was probably the only dragon in Jade Mountain who looked more tired than she felt. He had said he would stay up as long as it took to figure out the right spell; but she hadn't expected him to stay up all night.

Since the ambush, Peril had been constantly on the move. If she wasn't in Jade Mountain running between helping Clay or conspiring with her friends, she was out on patrol. Tsunami wanted security around their territory to be increased, now that their secret was out. Peril hardly had any time left to herself to eat or sleep. And if anything, last night had proven that these measures, though taxing, were necessary.

On her patrol, she'd managed to catch sight of a NightWing, spying on the barrier to see if anyone had come through. She'd chased him nearly half way to the Mud Kingdom. Despite her advantage of speed and durability, the NightWing was almost impossible to see in the dark, and she'd been given direct orders to incapacitate and capture, not kill. Which was very hard for her, especially in mid-flight, considering one brush of her wing in the wrong place could kill her target. The NightWing eventually escaped, and Peril was left to race home, fearing that she'd stupidly been drawn away and now someone else was coming for those she cared about.

But nothing had happened, and she'd managed to catch at least a few hours rest before Qibli came to get her. She could afford an hour or two before she had to go to the prey centre at noon for something to eat before getting back to her duties. A part of her missed the forge in the bottom of the mountain - the heat was soothing and forging the metal helped to clear her mind.

She followed him carefully to his cave where the rest of their oddball "winglet" had gathered. As always now, their mood was grave and quiet. Peril did her best not to get swallowed by the immediate guilt that rose up in her chest. She'd talked Moon into letting Soar in, and because of that Morrowseer had been able to set his trap and then everything had gone down the drain. Now everyone was so focused on getting Moon back. Qibli was using that annoyingly fast brain of his to puzzle out the universe to find Moon, and Turtle was willing to use magic to do it. Peril felt the scales on her back itch. She knew they were doing everything they could, but this sitting around stuff really irked her. She preferred to be doing things, even though her logical brain told her flying around the world shouting Moon's name to see if she'd respond was kind of a bad idea.

"I got it!" Qibli announced quietly once they were all assembled. They'd all mutually agreed to keep their plans private for the time being. Peril knew why, but she hated the thought of lying to Clay. "I've worked out the right spell."

Peril frowned. "I thought we weren't going to because of Turtle…"

"I'm fine." They all glanced at his ever-so-slight snappish tone. Turtle never raised his voice. He flattened his ears, embarrassed. "I mean, I want to help find Moon. And so long as it's a small spell…"

Heat snaked up Peril's arms and she let out steam through her nostrils. She stamped down her temper, at the flare of hurt she felt. Over and over she'd tried to handle this, but it was getting tougher the more they talked about things like this.

"Can we really do this?" asked Winter as he looked over the large scroll Qibli laid out for them to scrutinize. Peril peered over all of enchantment he'd laid out was specific and covered many bases. Obviously the SandWing had had to think of everything to be sure that Darkstalker wouldn't discover what they were doing.

Qibli smiled despite the bags under his eyes. "I don't see why not! Let's do this and see if it works."

"Now might not be a good time," said Kinkajou.

"What? Why not?"

"Not because of the spell," she said quickly. "I mean it might be the wrong time to contact Moon. Even when she lived here, Moony was always a night-owl. She won't be up yet."

Winter huffed. "If she's a prisoner, I doubt if she will get much choice."

"Or…" Qibli tapped his chin in thought. "Kinkajou's right. Think about it. They're NightWings. It makes sense they could be nocturnal."

"But we also need to do it when Darkstalker won't be able to witness her talking to herself."

"Give Moon a little credit," Peril said, rolling her eyes. "She's not going to talk to thin air right in front of his face."

"We'll wait for sunset." Qibli nodded. "Hopefully, she'll be awake and he'll either still be asleep, or just getting up. We only need a quick conversation to make sure it works, and to confirm she's alright. Then we can worry about when to contact her more regularly."

Peril left them in order to get on with her duties. She skipped the prey centre in favour of using her hunger as an excuse to come back just before sunset. Patrols were being organised into groups of four, but no one offered to go with Peril - except Clay whenever he had the time. It didn't bother her most times, she didn't let it. But today, as she circled around the mountain, surveying the area, it let her thoughts swell inside her brain.

At one point, she turned towards the north-east corner of the territory and found the hole. The crater, the ruins in the earth where Darkstalker burst out of the ground. Sunny had warned everyone away from it for now. From the sky, Peril could see straight down the long shaft into what appeared to be an endless pit. Boulders and mounds of earth had been flung outwards, crushing trees and gouging the ground. It was obvious the ancient NightWing had used magic in his escape, but she could also see the huge furrows where he'd clawed his way out. It was like looking down the throat of a shark as the teeth closed in. A shiver ran down her scales and she promptly left the scene.

Returning to the mountain, she snatched herself some food and ate the burnt meat stiffly, her mind far away as she thought about… well, everything. Her food didn't seem right in her stomach, so she left her meal unfinished in favour of finding her friends once again.

The sun was just beginning to set. She found them in Moon's cave - a better assurance of privacy. Turtle was sat in the middle of the cave, the others around him. In his talons, he gently held a large, round, spiral seashell. Was that what they were going to enchant for their communication spell?

Kinkajou brushed his wing with hers. "Are you sure you want to do this, Turtle?"

"It's not the spell I'm worried about," the SeaWing said. He tried to smile, but it came out a grimace. "It's the idea of Darkstalker somehow knowing about this… about him coming after me… The thought of him being anywhere near me is just so terrifying."

"I think he has bigger concerns," said Winter. "Such as bringing all his subjects in line."

Peril quirked a brow. "What makes you say that?"

"Isn't it obvious? The whole reason he was sealed away - aside from being an abomination - was because he tried to steal the NightWing throne. Of course he would pick up right where he left off. I say he's taken Moon to the rainforest."

Kinkajou's ruff flared wide and red-orange. "If he has, I can get Moony out! No one knows the rainforest as well as me!"

"Sorry, Winter, but that's wrong." Qibli shook his head. "For one, when Darkstalker fled Jade Mountain, he went in the opposite direction as the other NightWings. And for two: he's as much as a nightmare to them as he is to your tribe. They wouldn't accept him so easily."

They all thought about that. Once again, Qibli pointed out the smart things. Peril was both awed by that, and sometimes annoyed.

Everything that had been piling up in her head all day suddenly felt fit to burst, so she let it spill out. "I feel like we're all purposefully avoiding the topic, so I'm just going to come out and say it: Moon's prophecy. Yes, I heard it too. Frankly, the idea of the sky falling on us is terrifying, and I think we should try to avoid that wherever possible."

Winter snorted. "Obviously it's about Darkstalker. He's come to destroy everything. What else is there to discuss?"

Kinkajou wrinkled her snout. "Wouldn't that be a bit too obvious, though?"

"Or maybe," said Turtle, "making us think it's too obvious is just misdirecting us when it actually is him?"

"But it hasn't happened yet," Qibli said. "'When earth and palace crack and fall' is very specific."

Peril huffed. "Then let's be sure to watch out for when all the palaces fall off their foundations."

That made Kinkajou and Turtle laugh. Qibli opened his mouth to correct her, but obviously thought better of it. As each of their points were made, the accusatory expression on the IceWing's face slowly lessened. He actually looked like he was thinking about his next words - shocker.

"A 'silver-tongue' is what one might call a liar," he said. "So, Darkstalker, obviously."

Kinkajou shook her head. "Still think that's too obvious."

"Obvious or not," Qibli interjected before Winter could snap at her, "the part it's very clear on is that we need to find the Lost City of Night if we want to avoid this doomsday."

"But broken fragments of what?" Peril asked.

"Find the tale of the brother lost, find the sword from on high…" Turtle intoned.

Peril felt the urge to ruffle her wings in annoyance. "Or else let darkness swallow the world, and bring down the sky' Yeah, that's the part we want to avoid."

"Could it mean a sword from the SkyWings?" Qibli asked, turning to her. "They're the best fighters. They make loads of weapons - is there any super sword they've ever made?"

"I don't know." She shifted on her talons, uncomfortable at the emotions burning up through her scales. Other dragons got to shred things when they were agitated, why couldn't she have even that? "Osprey was the only one who ever wanted to teach me my heritage and even then it was only the bits and pieces his senile mind could recall."

Winter sighed. "The brother's tale could be anyone. There's no use trying to go after that."

"To clarify," Qibli said, "the only thing we can deduce from this, is that we need to find the Lost City."

Turtle's ears pricked up, his eyes bright. He carefully put the seashell down and then rummaged around in the pack he always carried, pulling out a scroll and laying it on the floor. "I can try to find it. I enchant this scroll to become a map of Pyrrhia, including notable landmarks to each of the tribes." As he spoke the words, the scroll seemed to stain itself, black ink appearing over the page where it had not been there a moment before. It created a map, just as Turtle had commanded. He pointed to Jade Mountain as it appeared on the scroll. "So we're here. And Darkstalker was last seen heading west."

"Could he have gone into the desert?" Kinkajou asked.

Qibli shook his head. "Someone would've seen him."

"Maybe he's gone to an island off the west coast this time," said Winter, pointing a claw out towards the ocean on the map. "Makes sense - if the NightWings had to move from their old home to a new one, they'd probably jump from island to island."

"Let's find out." Turtle murmured, and touched a claw to the scroll again. "Mark on this map exactly where Moonwatcher the NightWing is at this moment." Peril felt a shiver run down her spine, even though nothing happened. The map remained exactly the same. Turtle frowned. "Show me where the Lost City of Night is!"

But the map ignored him.

"Ask it to find me," said Winter. Turtle and the others frowned, but he did as instructed. Still the map was unchanged. "As I suspected. You aren't able to find Jade Mountain because the shield protects all those inside from all forms of detection. Darkstalker must be concealing his location in a similar manner."

Qibli, of course, began to rattle off ideas about how they might bypass these barrier spells. Peril watched them all discuss how to use Turtle's magic. Anger simmered, hot and fierce, inside her. All at once she wanted to be anywhere but here. It hurt too much. But then she remembered Moon sitting with her on the ledge, trying to offer her comfort and friendship. Moon needed her - she wasn't a warrior like Peril. And though Peril wasn't very good at being 'friends' she'd learned this much: friends don't abandon friends.

"Peril? Are you okay?"

She snapped her head up, startled. Turtle was right beside her, broken off from the others whilst they continued to discuss the spells they needed. His brown eyes were sincere, concerned. He'd looked at her that way so many times, he'd even looked like that when they'd first met. Back when she thought he was her friend.

"Fine." she said bluntly. "Question is, are you alright? You're doing a lot of spells all at once."

The pudgy SeaWing rolled his wings a little. "I don't feel too bad. Don't worry, no murder-thoughts for me."

If her eyes could burn, she would've thought they'd be smoking now. She turned her head away to glare at the wall. "Great."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Turtle's ears slowly droop, his smile fading. "That was a joke, Peril. You know, like how we met?"

"Yeah. And then you decided to never fix me."

"Fix you-?"

She stood up and walked away from him. "Doesn't matter."

If he dared to try and talk this out with her right now, she might very well explode. Thankfully, before Turtle could try, Qibli saw Peril approaching their group and called them over. Sitting with her wings folded tightly and tail twined around her feet, she tried her hardest to occupy as small a space as possible. Turtle stepped past her to get into the centre of the ring they'd made, glancing her way uncertainly. She refused to give him eye contact.

With a deep sigh, Turtle sat by the seashell and held it between his talons. He uttered the spell that Qibli had written for him. It's instructions were clear: speak the name of any dragon you wished, and the shell would transport your voice to speak in that dragon's ear. Only they would be able to hear it, and when they spoke back, their voice would come back through the shell. No mind reader would be able to see this conversation or its enchantment in the thoughts of others, nor see it in any possible future. The connection could be severed by mentally 'disconnecting' from it.

"Okay, shall we try this?" Turtle wet his lips and hunched over the shell to speak into it. "Contact Moonwatcher."

Initially, all they heard was silence. The Jade Winglet all looked at one another. Had they failed?

A little panicked, Turtle tried: "Hello?"

A pause… then:

"Hello?" came Moon's voice from the seashell, making them all jump. "Is someone there?"

"It worked!" Kinkajou squealed with delight, her scales shining a rainbow of colours.

"Moon!" Qibli rushed closer, hovering beside Turtle. "Can you hear us?"

"Qibli?! Is that you? … no, I must be going crazy…"

They all grinned at one another. More than one of them had tears in their eyes. "You're not crazy, Moon," said Turtle. "We're here. We enchanted something so that we could talk to you!"

"Moony, are you alright?" demanded Kinkajou. "Did that snotty-frog-face try to do anything to you?!"

"Kinkajou?!" Moon exclaimed suddenly. "You're alright!"

"Of course I am, nothing can keep the heroic Kinkajou down from fulfilling her epic destiny that is going to be TOTALLY heroic and epic and… stuff."

"I'm so glad you're alright - I've been so worried!"

Peril, unable to get close enough without touching anyone, shouted over their shoulders. "Not as much as we've nearly torn our scales out worrying about you. Where are you?"

"I… I'm in the old NightWing Kingdom," Moon's voice grew quiet with awe. "The one they had before they left the continent. The Lost City of Night."

"You're there?!" Qibli's eyes went wide. "Where is it? Can you tell us how to find it?"

"No." She told them grimly. "I was unconscious the entire way here. The city is vast, but I don't recognise any of the surrounding countryside either. It could be anywhere."

Winter held out his talons, and Turtle carefully placed the seashell in his palm. Holding it up to his face, he asked only a little shakily: "Moon, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"Hurt?" she even gave a little laugh. "Why would I be hurt?"

The IceWing gaped. "The Darkstalker is holding you prisoner! He kidnapped you! Who knows what he has planned for you."

"Winter, it's not like that. Darkstalker would never hurt me."

"How can you say that?"

"Because she knows so." Qibli said slowly, scales going pale. "When he got out, he spoke as if he knew her. And the only way he could get out would be with her permission. And seeing as he was underground… that meant he had to hear her another way."

Turtle caught on first. "They're… both mind readers…"

"You knew…" Winter whispered to the shell. So many emotions zapped through his eyes, most of which Peril didn't recognise, but she saw a few: hurt and anger. "You knew he was under there this whole time?! I told you what he was! How could you-"

"I didn't know at first!" Moon said desperately. "I… I first heard him not long after the rebellion arrived at the mountain. He helped me control my powers - being around so many dragons at once, it was overwhelming me. He became my friend, and I didn't know anything about him, I swear. Not until you told us that story."

"And you still communicated with him?!"

"I was angry too, at first. But he was one of my first friends. And he said that the stories about him have been greatly exaggerated."

Winter hissed through his teeth. "How convenient for him."

"Winter, he's not a monster."

"And you know because you've managed to keep yet another secret from everyone!"

Qibli stood and came towards his friend, reaching out a wing to try and get his attention. But it was no use, he was far too angry to notice anything. "Winter, calm down-"

"His existence wasn't my secret to share, at first," said Moon.

"Moon, don't you realise how much danger you're in? Every minute you spend with him allows his trap to better ensnare you. It's obvious he wants you to give him his magic back. He'll play the nice-drake for now, but soon that facade will slip, and then who knows what he'll do to you to take it by force!"

"That won't happen!"

Kinkajou looked frightened. "Moony, how can you-"

"You need to trust me!"

"As we have now established," Winter spat at the shell. "Your judgement is sorely lacking, so why should we put any faith in what you say?!"

"Winter!"

He finally snapped out of it at the shout. The Jade Winglet stared at him, and he stared back. The silence laid bare what they'd all just witnessed. Winter's face went slack, and then he stared down at the shell in his talon with mountain horror. But there was only silence. Had she gone?

Kinkajou was the one to slowly approach, testing to see if the cornered wolf would snap or not. "Moony…?"

"I-I have to go." Moon's voice was choked as if with tears. "I think I hear Darkstalker coming."

And then she severed the connection. They all stared at the shell. It felt like waking from a dream, talking to her one moment and then coming back to the reality that she was actually gone.

"You can't keep it together, can you?" Qibli growled. In a rare display of anger, he marched in front of Winter, flaring his wings wide. "Not even for five minutes!"

Winter hid the hurt in his face behind a stoic mask of insufferable indifference. "What are you babbling about, SandWing?"

"You! You and your igloo-for-brained, arrogant, cactus of a temper! You didn't need to go that far!"

"She lied to us," the prince glared. "Again. She's sticking up for that monster, and you expect me to play nice?"

"It's okay to feel hurt," Qibli argued, "but Moon is out there, on her own, doesn't know who to trust, and needs our help! How're we supposed to find her now - because I doubt she's going to talk to us again for fear of being screamed at by you!"

Turtle tried to get their attention. "Um, guys? Maybe we should-"

"Moon's not an idiot," Winter snorted. "She won't cut us off."

Qibli's venomous tail swished from side to side. "I'm surprised to hear you admit that - because you told her the opposite. Do you even hear yourself when you get like that? Like everyone is beneath you. Like your problems and fears are more important than ours."

That got to him. "I… I don't know what you…"

"You think you're the only one who worries about her?" the SandWing hissed, coming in close until he was snout-to-snout with the IceWing. "We're all worried about her! None of us are sleeping for fear of what she's going through - by the sand, Moon's living through all this and you still can't put someone else first!"

Peril didn't know if those words had gotten through to the ice-cube's brain or if this would escalate into a real fight. But she had to be sure it wouldn't. So, she stepped up next to them and stuck her arm between them. The pair leapt away from her - and coincidentally from each other.

"Look," Turtle butted in again. "We're all tired. Why don't we all go get some rest? Things'll look better in the morning."

"Good idea." the pair said at the exact same time.

Winter thrust the seashell into Turtle's talons and then skulked off out of the cave. Peril watched him go. She didn't know what compelled her, aside from the fact that she really didn't want to talk to Turtle right now and if she stayed he would try. So she went after the moody IceWing, and found him on the ledge outside, the exact spot where she and Moon had had their conversation the morning of her hatchday. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

She tried to sit on the ledge with him, as far as possible so as not to brush him even by accident. Winter attempted to ignore her presence, instead scowling out into the darkening evening. If this was going to be a game, she'd win, so refused to speak first.

"What do you want?" he asked at last.

"Hello to you too, freeze-face."

"Why do you do that?" he snapped, turning his head to glare at her. "Aggravate me with the name-calling?"

To further rub it in, she refused to look his way. "You made it very clear from the beginning we wouldn't be best friends. I learned a long time ago to always be on the offensive to those who don't like me."

"I don't dislike you," he said after a small pause, surprising her. "You've more than proven yourself as a soldier capable of not ruining everything you touch."

Her lips twitched. "See, I'm bad at social things, but even I recognised there was a compliment buried in there somewhere."

He took a breath, gaze far off in the distance as if he could see his inner workings on the air and had to study them to make sense of them. "When you first arrived, we knew who you were right away. You represented everything we'd ever heard about Queen Scarlet and her arena. I'd thought my brother died on those sands. I guess it felt easier to take out my grief on something I had right in front of me."

Wow. This hadn't been what she'd intended when she'd come out here. It felt almost sacrilege to break this moment.

"I understand, in a weird way." She stared at her claws, burning a patch of moss into a blackened smear on the rocks. "I was told my whole life that I burned up my twin in our egg. And then I learned that he lived and was killed by our mother in some twisted way to save me. When I finally met her, I was hurting over the brother I'd always blamed myself for murdering, and I wanted to take it out on someone else. So I took it out on her. And then… she died. And I never got to take it back."

Kestrel had not been in the realm of anything she'd imagined her mother would be. But the grief of losing her still hurt. If she'd gone with her, would her mother still be alive? Those kinds of questions haunted her at night.

"I'm sorry." Winter said quietly. "For everything."

Peril couldn't help the surprised laugh that burst out of her mouth. "Wow, Qibli was right."

Winter rolled his eyes. "That I'm an igloo-for-brained cactus? Who… who pushes dragons around because I can't control my emotions..."

"No. He said you were better than you thought you were." That earned her something in his gaze. She wasn't quite sure what, except that it wasn't bad. The pair of them returned to searching the horizon for nothing in particular. "I get her, you know."

"Who?"

"Moon." At his frown, she elaborated: "For as long as I can remember, I was told I couldn't touch anyone - not unless I was ordered to kill them. I had to be careful about my own body wherever I went. Dragons avoided me because of it. But then I met Clay. He was nice, he told me I wasn't a monster, and I could touch him and he wouldn't die. Even after Scarlet fell, after I came here, I clung to him because there was something special about the first person who showed me I was worth something, the first person to accept me and not be frightened of me."

There were so many things she wanted to say about sweet, brave, wonderful Clay. But those were not words she wanted to share with Winter. Only on a day when she was sure Clay felt the same way, and she had the courage to say them aloud would she dare to even try. Right now though, she had a point to make.

"That's what Moon has with Darkstalker. Don't get me wrong, she's completely misguided, because it's obvious he's evil. But I understand why - she had a father who was awful, and then lost everything she ever knew, and then came here and her powers must've been terrible, hearing everyone all at once all the time. She nearly fell apart and he put her back together. He was the first one who accepted her."

Winter didn't talk for a while, his brow and muzzle creasing as if he'd eaten something foul. "I hate it when you make sense." He hung his head in defeat. "Alright. I'll apologise to her. She's owed that much from me, at least."

With the connection severed, Moon slowly released the bedsheets from between her fists. Her jaw ached, and she realised she'd been clenching it. She took one deep breath, and then another.

The tears came no matter how much she tried to fight it. In the end, she gave up fighting, grabbed an old, stinking pillow and sobbed into it. For just a moment she'd been so happy to hear her friends again, to know they were alright - that Kinkajou was alright! But then everything had fallen apart. All her lies had been laid bare and she felt rotten from the inside out. She was the worst dragon and now her friends knew it. But even so, she was hurt by their reactions - Winter's most of all. His scathing remarks cut her deeper than she thought he could. Did he really not trust her? Had she lost her friends forever over her lies?

She cried until long after sunset, when the moons had started to shine through to her antechamber windows. It wouldn't be long before Darkstalker came to find her, if he would at all after last night. Maybe he had had enough of her too. Moon tried to wipe away her tears, feeling wretched.

There was a knock at her apartment door.

"Moon?" called Darkstalker's voice through the wood. "Are you up?"

For a moment, she panicked. Had he heard that conversation? Would he learn it from her thoughts? Her talon reached up to brush her ear - the earring was still in place. Scrambling out of bed, she passed a dirty mirror and tried to check her face to be sure no tears remained.

"Yes, I am. I'm coming." She called as she hurried out of her bedroom, through her antechamber and to the door.

The doors were old and soft with rot - it would be easy for a dragon of Darkstalker's size to break it in half without even trying. Opening the door, she welcomed him inside her rooms. He swept in, his scales shimmering in the light streaming in through her windows.

"I wanted to apologise for leaving so abruptly last night. I -" He stopped, staring at her, dark and blue eyes widening. Moon panicked that something was wrong, and then he stooped in front of her, reaching out with a claw to touch her face but stopping just short. "Stars and skies, are you alright? You look like you've been crying."

"I'm fine. Really." She rubbed at her face, self-conscious under his worrying gaze. "Bad dream. Thinking of my mother, and my friends."

That hadn't been a lie. She actually had had a bad dream about her mother during the day. It had been awful, which was why she'd been so happy to hear from her friends… until that all went south. Darkstalker watched her, but Moon couldn't see anything in his eyes to tell her he could read what had actually happened from her mind. It made her shoulders relax a little. It proved that the earring was working and that Turtle's spell had gone unnoticed.

"It'll be alright, Moon." Darkstalker unfolded a wing and settled it across her back in comfort. "You'll see them again soon, I promise. We're going to make the world better for them all. Nothing should keep us apart from the ones we love..."

His voice was quiet but filled with certainty. For a moment, Moon genuinely believed him. He had this way of making her believe anything was possible with his voice alone.

He pulled away with a smile. "How about we take your mind off things with a good breakfast and some lessons?"

A new night, a new opportunity to learn. Her friends might not have faith in her right now, but Moon would prove to them she had a handle on this. She smiled and followed Darkstalker out. "That's just what I need."