The SandWing's barb shot forward, grazing the side of Sunny's neck as she ducked to the side, her head over the edge of the balcony. She screamed out in pain as venom was injected beneath her scales, twisting away. The barb ripped out of her neck, spraying spilled venom onto the side of the balcony. The SandWing quickly came in for a second stab, his eyes cold as he this time attempted to stab his barb through Sunny's soft underbelly. In defense, Sunny whipped her tail up, the veil over her missing barb, grazing the inside of the SandWing's foreleg with it. He yelled out in surprise, before realizing that Sunny hadn't actually stabbed him with a venomous barb.

In the attacker's moment of shock and confusion, Creosote leaped down on the SandWing, grabbing ahold of his horns and slamming his head to the ground so hard it felt like the balcony shook. The SandWing's wings and legs splayed out, and Creosote lifted the attacker's head again, and once more shoved it into the hard floor. The attacker started to cough, and Creosote shoved his tail beneath the SandWing's forearm, pointing his barb up against his neck. He looked towards Sunny, as if asking for permission to end his life.

"Don't kill him!" a voice suddenly yelled out. With a flap of his wings, Armadillo rose up from the crowd, onto the balcony. "We need to interrogate him." He glanced towards Queen Sunny, as if to make sure she didn't order Creosote to kill the SandWing instead.

Sunny yelled in pain again, breathing hard as the venom started to spread through her neck. It felt like the flesh beneath her scales was on fire. She moved her paws up to the wound, although it didn't help at all.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Armadillo said frantically, "it'll be fine." He glanced down at the venom that the attacker had spilled. "It wasn't a full dose." He raised his head over the balcony. "ZEBRA!" he yelled. "Get some Brightsting right now! Poppy too!"

"I know," Sunny whimpered, still clutching at the wound, "poor Flame."

Armadillo gave her a confused expression, then looked down at the crowd. It was in chaos. SandWings were yelling and pushing, some trying to leave, others trying to get a closer look at their fallen queen. Armadillo winced. They'd need a lot more Brightsting by the time this was all over.

It was maybe a minute or two before a reddish-orange SandWing landed on the balcony, a glass bottle in each of her forepaws. Armadillo stepped aside as Zebra walked towards Sunny. "Open your mouth," she ordered, gently pulling the stopper out of one of the bottles. Sunny complied, and Zebra poured a small amount of the liquid into Sunny's mouth. It tasted bitter, but Sunny got it down. Within moments, the pain of the venom started to dull.

Zebra quickly opened up the other vial, and shook it a few times, a greenish-white cream falling out of it, onto Zebra's claws. She squinted at the wound, and carefully scraped a healthy portion of the cream around it. "This will both neutralize the venom and make an infection less likely."

"Will she be alright?" Armadillo asked.

"Yes," Zebra snorted. "She was lucky. She only received a small dose and the wound was treated quickly. I don't know a SandWing who hasn't gotten at least a barb wound like this at least once, usually by accident. There might be a small scar."

Armadillo sighed in relief. "Thank you." He stepped forward onto the balcony. "Don't worry," he yelled at the panicking dragons below, "the queen is safe! Her injuries are minor and are being treated right now."

Sunny winced. She certainly didn't feel safe. The attacker shouldn't have been able to touch her. What if she wasn't so lucky next time? Armadillo had said he'd removed a lot of the staff in the palace, for fear that they had taken part in Queen Thorn's death. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea, after all.

Still, a small nagging thought lurked in the back of Sunny's mind. What if Armadillo had set this up, and let the attempted assassin through? Zebra had been right there at the time, that seemed maybe a bit more than coincidental. Yet, that didn't make sense. If Armadillo had wanted to kill Sunny, he'd had plenty of chances to do so. And if he had set this up, he probably would've had the assassin killed to cover his tracks.

Sunny tried to raise her head to look at her attacker, but her muscles were stiff. "Don't try to move," Zebra suggested. "It'll make the wound worse. We'll take you back to your room in the palace. You can rest there."

Sunny woozily tried to nod. She kept her head laid back, and closed her eyes as the poppy took its effect, and she started to drift off into a daze.

Queen Sunny awoke to a gentle light, shining through the crack of a window. She slowly raised her head from the mattress. Her dreams had been restless and painful, and she gave out a yawn. It was like she hadn't slept at all.

"You're awake," a dragon grumbled. Sunny glanced over to Zebra, who was reading a scroll by the bedside. The two of them were alone in Thorn — no, Sunny's bedroom.

"Yeah," Sunny replied. She winced as she moved her neck. The wound was dull, but it still hurt. She moved her paw up to it, and felt a moist bandage, soaked in brightsting cactus juice. "Thank you."

Zebra snorted. "Don't bother thanking me. It's what you pay me to do."

Sunny sighed. It had barely been a week since Thorn's death. Sunny had been queen for only days, and she'd almost had an assassination attempt succeed. She started to understand a little bit why royal challenges favored princesses with the best fighting abilities — they were less likely to get killed. And Sunny had to do this for the rest of her life? Maybe she should have thought a little bit harder before crowning her mother queen.

"How long have I been out?" Sunny asked Zebra. Hopefully not too long. What if something had come up while she was asleep? An emergency?

Zebra shrugged her wings. "Dunno. A bit less than a day?"

That wasn't so bad. Sunny slowly got up from the bed, trying to move her neck as little as possible. She slowly walked over to the bedroom doors, and glanced towards Zebra, wondering if the doctor was going to try and stop her, or tell her that she needed to rest more. Zebra didn't, and just continued to read her scroll.

Sunny walked out of the bedroom, and into the palace's corridor. It felt quiet, and empty here. That was right. She wanted to tell Armadillo that he needed to hire more guards for the palace. She didn't want the next assassination attempt to succeed.

Sunny walked further into the heart of the palace, only stopping until she came to Armadillo's small alcove. The SandWing was in his usual place, reading over a scroll. He looked up happily as he saw his queen.

"Sunny!" he said, relieved. "You're awake."

"Yeah," Sunny said, keeping a smile on her snout. "There was something I was wondering if you could do for me."

"Hmm?" Armadillo asked. "Of course, your majesty."

"I want us to hire more palace guards," Sunny suggested. "Make sure that they're loyal, but I want to make sure we're safe in the palace, especially if Aloe is trying to kill me."

Armadillo nodded, and Sunny sensed a hint of guilt in his expression. "Yes, definitely. I'll get on it as soon as possible."

"Good," Sunny replied. Why did Armadillo feel guilty? Maybe it was just that he felt it was his fault Sunny had been attacked. She wanted to tell him it wasn't, but honestly, she wasn't sure if she should. That was his job, right? Someone should have caught the assassin. "What happened after I passed out?"

Armadillo shuffled his wings. "Not much. The crowd calmed down, and we offered brightsting up from our supply to any dragons who'd gotten injured in the chaos. Almost everyone left after that, without a fuss. But a few of the local aristocrats stayed behind, and wanted to make sure you were okay. They weren't happy with how the fight turned out. One said that Burn would have ripped the SandWing to shreds."

"Well, I'm not Burn," Sunny responded with a shiver. She certainly didn't think that being Burn was a positive quality.

"Yes, but your mother would've been able to defend herself."

Sunny snorted. "Are you telling me it's my fault that he attacked me?" she asked. "That's ridiculous. Sure, I'm not the best fighter, but I can fight. He just caught me by surprise."

Armadillo tapped his claws on the desk, clearly concerned. "I think there's something you need to hear. The SandWing who attacked you: I'm currently holding him in the dungeons. He had a message for you."

"Alright," Sunny replied. "Take me there."

Armadillo nodded, and stood up from his desk. "Follow me," he said, with a swish of his tail.

Armadillo led Sunny to a thin passage, leading downwards beneath the palace. Sunny shuddered as the dry walls closed in around her, only the dim light of the occasional lantern lighting the way. This place felt far too much like the caves she'd grown up in for her liking. There were a number of gates on the way down the tunnel, which Armadillo unlocked with a few keys from a set hanging on the golden chain between his horns. I should probably ask him for a set of keys, Sunny thought. And maybe for a more thorough tour of the palace.

Eventually, they reached the final gate, where a single guard stood in front of. She bowed her head towards Sunny as her queen passed, and Sunny did the same in response. Armadillo quickly opened the gate, and Sunny walked down into a small antechamber, with four tunnels exiting from it. Armadillo locked the gate behind him.

"Are these the dungeons?" Sunny quietly asked. "How many dragons are down here?"

"Just three, if you include us," Armadillo replied, "Thorn rarely used these. She freed the prisoners down here not long after becoming queen. At the moment, the only other dragon down here is our attempted assassin."

Sunny nodded, touching a talon to the bandages on her neck, still sore. Armadillo picked up a small lantern from the side of the room, and blew a touch of flame into it, providing dim light. "This way."

It wasn't long until they found the SandWing who had attacked Sunny. Four chains stretched from each of his ankles, bolted into the wall behind his cell. He glowered at Sunny as she approached, almost hiding against the back of the cell.

He seemed to be maybe around twenty or thirty, but unlike many of the dragons who had fought in the war, he had no visible scars on his body. His scales were a dark shade of orange in the dim lantern-light, and his eyes were sunken. His beady black eyes met with Sunny's, and they stared into each other for a long moment.

"Are you the one who killed my mother?" Sunny asked, holding back a growl.

The SandWing was silent, and other than the faintest twitch of the end of his tail, he was motionless.

"He isn't," Armadillo answered for him, an air of certainty in his voice. "He's not skilled enough to be a real assassin; he's just a normal soldier playing pretend. He also didn't have anything magical on him."

Sunny frowned. So, did that mean that Aloe didn't have anything to do with Thorn's murder? She still wasn't quite sure, but it was seeming more and more like that.

"I also don't think he was trying to kill you," Armadillo continued.

Sunny glanced at him. "Are you sure?" she asked. She looked back to the not-so-assassin. It sure had felt like he'd tried to kill her. "I thought that's what Aloe wanted."

"Yes," Armadillo mused, "but I don't think she was expecting him to succeed, or even get as close as he did. He attacked you in broad daylight, while dragons were on-looking. I think she just wanted to cause a commotion in the crowd, and make dragons worry about how safe you were. She wanted to make it seem like you were unsuitable to be queen."

And she succeeded, Sunny thought, maybe I am unsuitable to be queen. She looked close at the SandWing in his cell. "So you did it, even knowing you were going to be caught?" Sunny asked. "Even knowing you'd probably be killed?" That was brave. If he hadn't tried to kill her, she might have admired that.

The SandWing finally opened his mouth. "I would gladly lay down my life for the rightful queen," he growled.

"The Eye of Onyx chooses the rightful queen," Armadillo countered, pointing a talon to the gemstone hanging from Sunny's neck. She winced, he knew as well as she did that it was a fake.

The SandWing stayed silent in his cell, expressionless. Maybe more proof that Aloe didn't have the real Eye.

"Please, can you tell us what she's planning?" Queen Sunny asked. "If you do, we can let you go."

Armadillo gave her a glance of surprise, apparently not sure that was a good idea. Sunny ignored him. Maybe Aloe had just manipulated the SandWing into doing this, like how her mother and Morrowseer had tried to manipulate the dragonets. He might not be a bad dragon.

The SandWing snorted. "Aloe didn't share her plans with me. She knew I'd be caught. But the SandWing throne will be returned to its rightful owner soon enough."

Sunny sighed, and glanced towards Armadillo. "You said he had a message for me, didn't you?"

Armadillo nodded. "Spit it out," he growled at the chained SandWing.

The SandWing started to stand up, and let out a laugh. "Aloe has requested a royal challenge against you. One week from now, in the palace stadium."

Sunny stiffened up. She had been afraid of this. She was small, and didn't even have a barb. She couldn't hold up in a battle against a normal SandWing. She looked towards Armadillo. "Do I have to accept it?"

"You don't," Armadillo responded. "Aloe isn't part of the royal family anymore. She doesn't have the right to challenge you."

"Coward!" the SandWing in the chains hissed. "A weak dragon who won't even face her opponent shouldn't be queen!"

Sunny glanced down. He was right, wasn't he? "It would look bad if I didn't accept, right?"

Armadillo nodded. "It would, especially because it breaks the precedent your mother set when she accepted Onyx's challenge. It might also mean war."

"War?" Sunny asked, alarmed. "We can't have war. Can't we settle this peacefully?"

Armadillo shook his head grimly. "The only way that could happen is if one of you backed down."

Sunny scratched her talons against the stone floor. Maybe she should back down. She wasn't suited to be queen. Three moons, she wasn't even a real SandWing, how could she rule the Sand Kingdom? But she couldn't let Aloe be queen, not if she was like her mother. She couldn't let everything Thorn did for the Sand Kingdom be undone.

"I can't make this choice for you," Armadillo continued, "but if you want to talk, that's my job." He turned back to the SandWing in his cell, who seemed to be slightly amused be the whole ordeal. "You. What's your name?"

"Soldier 513," the SandWing replied with a smirk. "My name is for my queen alone."

Armadillo growled, staring straight into the chained SandWing's beady eyes. "You're going to tell me everything about Aloe that you know."

"No!" the young SandWing queen suddenly objected. "Please don't hurt him!"

Armadillo glanced back to her. "You don't want war, right? Maybe there's something he knows that will stop Aloe."

Sunny shook her head. "I don't want to be that type of queen. I might as well give the throne to Aloe if I'm going to be as bad as Burn or Blister." Yet, what if Armadillo was right? Sometimes, queens needed to hurt dragons, didn't they? Thorn had killed Preyhunter and Onyx. If Sunny couldn't do that, maybe she wasn't fit to be queen. She was too weak, too kind, too happy.

"Fine," Armadillo responded, not arguing. "Then what do you propose?"

Sunny glanced at the SandWing, still in his chains. He looked straight towards her. Was he scared? "We're going to have to keep you locked up for now, you understand that, right?" The SandWing didn't respond. "If you can tell us stuff about Aloe, we can move you to a nicer cell, up in the barracks. Are there any foods you like? We could make you whatever you want, and bring it down here."

Armadillo winced, but Sunny just continued the smile. Finally, the SandWing let out a rattling laugh.

"Aloe will tear you limb from limb."