Queen Diamond stood regally outside the IceWing palace, flanked by twenty armed IceWing guards. Surely she knew by now that Prince Arctic couldn't be trusted around guards. Or perhaps she thought him too cowardly to use his powers again.

I'll stick to my plans this time, Arctic promised himself firmly. No more mistakes. He was here to make things right. Starting with rescuing Foeslayer.

Diamond's eyes flicked between Arctic and his dragonet, silently appraising them as they approached. Her eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly for a few brief moments, then regained their usual haughtiness as Prince Arctic and Whiteout cautiously landed at precisely the distance appropriate for Seventh Circle dragons before their queen. Arctic was still technically banished, after all, even if he had been First Circle when he left. He and Whiteout bowed so deeply before her that their snouts pressed firmly into the snow.

Despite the trepidation he was trying to hide in facing Queen Diamond, Arctic felt some long-held tension leave his muscles as the cold of the ice and snow began cooling his body again after all this time. He was home. Beside him, Whiteout trembled slightly in the cold.

"Arctic. My dear son," Diamond said, dragging out the word "dear" a beat longer than necessary. "I've been expecting you."

"Your Majesty," Arctic replied. "I–"

"I see that your dragonet still has its head attached to its shoulders," Diamond interrupted. Whiteout kept her snout almost touching the snow as she dared to lift her bright blue eyes toward her new queen, then shifted her gaze toward her father.

"Your Majesty," Arctic began again. "I present to you Whiteout, my beautiful daughter." He caught Whiteout's gaze and nodded ever so slightly. Whiteout lifted her head just a few more inches to speak.

"Your Majesty," she said flatly. "I pledge myself to your service."

"She carries my blood in her veins, Your Majesty. Please. Through her future eggs, animus power may be restored to its rightful place among the IceWing royalty." Arctic paused, but Queen Diamond did not interrupt. "She will be a loyal IceWing, and she will not disappoint you. She has learned from my mistakes, Your Majesty. We both have."

"I hate the NightWings," Whiteout said obediently. Diamond indulged in the smallest of smiles.

"I want to come home, Mother."

"And the other?" Queen Diamond demanded.

"I hate Darkstalker," Whiteout said automatically.

"I cannot kill my own dragonet," Arctic responded, a touch of fierceness re-entering his voice. "I'm not a monster. But now that I am home–" his voice softened and cracked slightly when he said the word, "-now that I am home, you can stop the war."

"You know the terms of my offer," Queen Diamond said coldly. "I will keep Whiteout alive, for now, to test her loyalty to the IceWings. But Darkstalker cannot live."

"How do you know his name?" Prince Arctic snapped.

"All the soldiers know his name," she answered sharply. "He stalks them in the night in the Sand Kingdom and murders them in their sleep. He gave the NightWings the animus gift that I had the right to, with power that came from you, which came from me."

"Wait– he does what?"

"The animus gift. Darkstalker's Teeth."

Arctic stared, dumfounded. Queen Diamond huffed.

"You really are stupid, aren't you? The NightWings, lacking all creativity, stole the idea of the Great Ice Cliff and your dragonet gave them 'Darkstalker's Teeth.' Since you allowed him to live, that gift should have belonged to the IceWings."

Arctic blinked. She meant the magical barrier over the mountains that kept IceWings out of the Night Kingdom. Darkstalker's Teeth?

"But that doesn't extend into the Sand Kingdom."

"YOU SENTIMENTAL FOOL!" Queen Diamond exploded. "DARKSTALKER. Has that always been his name? General Squall, inform Prince Arctic about the NightWing that stalks about in the dark attacking my troops in their sleep like the coward all NightWings are."

An IceWing whose scales glinted bluish-silver with icy blue along the edges of his wings stepped forward.

"Your… Majesty," he said awkwardly, addressing Prince Arctic with the slightest of bows. "The Darkstalker–" Prince Arctic cocked his head slightly. The Darkstalker? "-enters the Kingdom of Sand every full moon and murders one of our soldiers in their sleep. I was there once. He moves silently and leaves no trace. He left a message nearby." General Squall closed his eyes, remembering. "The Darkstalker is coming for you all. Soon you will all be dead." General Squall failed to repress a shiver. "It's the same message every time; our troops report it every time a moon is full."

Arctic's stomach felt as if it had fallen deep into the layers of ice below him. What abuse of magic was this? Queen Vigilance hadn't ordered those murders. And he didn't sign his notes from "The Nightwings" as if it was an act of war. He signed them from "The Darkstalker." Arctic knew Darkstalker was reckless, but now he was murdering Arctic's tribe, one by one, for the sadistic pleasure and twisted personal glory of it. Arctic may not have been enough of a monster to kill his own dragonet, but his dragonet might indeed be a monster beyond all he could have ever imagined.

Could that happen to Arctic, too, if he kept using his magic? Might it already be too late for his own soul?

There was silence for a long minute. Arctic vaguely noticed that his mother appeared as disturbed by this story as if she had been there, too, though he knew she would not have been camping with the troops in the Sand Kingdom. What was going on?

"So you see," Queen Diamond finally broke the silence. "The war cannot end until Darkstalker is killed."

Arctic shook his head as if to shake away his own dark thoughts and took a steadying breath. He continued speaking.

"I just want to come home. I want to live in the Ice Kingdom again, with my daughter. I want to sleep at night, like a dragon should. If it's true about Darkstalker…" he trailed off, disturbed. "With me back in the Ice Kingdom, the NightWings will be sorely outmatched. I have all their information. Maps. Ways around the magical barrier. I even know the personalities of the NightWing queen, her generals, and her council intimately. I will share them with you, and we will defeat them swiftly."

He paused and took a deep breath, immediately realizing that he had revealed too much, and braced himself for Queen Diamond's reaction to what he would say next.

"Just give me Foeslayer. I know you have her alive. Just give her back to me, and I will live in the Ice Kingdom with her and my daughter and give you everything you need to defeat the NightWings within a week. I cannot kill my dragonets, but I can give you the whole Nightwing tribe, if you give me my wife and allow her to live safely with me."

"I hate the NightWings," Whiteout repeated. Queen Diamond ignored her, staring at Arctic thoughtfully for what felt like an eternity.

"You really are a sentimental fool and a coward. Just like I knew you would be. Guards," Queen Diamond commanded. "Stand down. Return to the palace." She turned to Prince Arctic. "Come with me," she said. "Let's talk alone."