Moon Rising (12 page)

“I’m sorry,” she said to Qibli, and then gasped with sudden pain. She couldn’t stop herself from doubling over as a new vision blistered through her mind.

This wasn’t a passing memory. Those were always a little blurred and jumbled together with the dragon’s other thoughts.

But visions like this, scenes of the future, came bright and clear, even if just for a moment, usually along with a lightning-sharp headache.

In this one, the same old SandWing loomed over Qibli, his snout twisted with hatred. Behind him hulked Qibli’s brother and sister, now fully grown and even more menacing, wearing medallions etched with some kind of bird. Qibli curled his tail up dangerously and shouted, “Where is she?” into their sneering faces.

“Hey,” she heard his voice saying in the real world. “Whoa. What happened? Moon? Everything all right?”

Moon blinked, shaking the vision away. The pale gray walls of the prey center came back into focus around her. Bright sunlight reached across the floor to glint off Qibli’s amber earring; one of his talons was resting lightly on hers, and his mind was spiraling with curiosity and concern.

“Yes, sorry, it’s nothing,” she said. “I get these headaches. It’s gone now. Sorry … you were saying, about your family?”

Does she really want to know?
Qibli wondered.
Or is she distracting me? Should I be worried? Headaches like that don’t sound normal. Thorn took swordleaf root for her headaches; I wonder if I can find some of that for Moon. My family — she doesn’t need to know all the horrible details. It’s all sand in the wind now anyway.

He shrugged casually. “I joined the Outclaws when I was three, and Mother was happy to shove me out the door. The best news of my life is that I’ll never have to see any of my family ever again.”

But that’s not true,
Moon realized. Not according to her vision. If that was really the future, then Qibli’s awful family wasn’t done with him yet. What did they want from him? Who was the old male SandWing? And who was the “she” Qibli had been asking about? His mother? Thorn?

I wish I could warn him.

I wish I could save him.

Moon turned back to her lunch with a sigh. If only she lived in a world where dragons weren’t afraid of her powers — where she could tell everyone about them without losing her new friends. A world where they’d believe her and wouldn’t hate her for what she could do. If only the NightWings hadn’t ruined everything with their centuries of lies.

Then I could do some good with everything rattling around in my brain. I could use it to help dragons, couldn’t I?

Her mystery voice didn’t respond.

I have to go to the library,
Moon remembered.
Maybe I can’t help Qibli, but if I can find out about the dreamvisitors and figure out whom I heard last night … maybe I can still save someone.

“I should go,” Moon said to Kinkajou as soon as the RainWing came back from the fruit pile.

“No!” Kinkajou cried. “We’re eating together! You haven’t even finished your hairy smelly carcass thing! Sit!” She nudged Moon back to sitting. “Just for five minutes,” she wheedled.

Moon wanted to argue, but there was a thread of anxiety in Kinkajou’s mind —
Don’t leave me alone, please stay and be my best friend
— that she couldn’t resist.

“Sure, OK,” she said, and was rewarded with glowing pink scales.

“Can you tone that down?” Umber asked Kinkajou as he and Turtle joined them, each carrying a fish. “I mean, it’s a very exciting color that I can’t say I’ve ever seen before, but it’s a little —”

“Bright,” suggested Turtle.

“Noticeable?” tried Umber.

“Eyeball-scorching,” offered Qibli.

“This happens when I’m happy,” Kinkajou said, unruffled. “But if you’d prefer something more sedate —” She turned a vibrant shade of lime green splashed with violet spots. Moon nearly choked on her goat.

“Aaaah!” Qibli yelped, covering his eyes.

“I don’t actually know you,” Umber said to Kinkajou. “You might be totally serious right now.”

“No, I’m just kidding,” Kinkajou said with a giggle, bumping Moon’s side again. “I can be totally ordinary and boring, don’t worry.” Her scales shifted again, rippling to the same quiet brown as Umber’s, and she gave him a wide-eyed, “see? boring” stare.

“
Boring
hasn’t exactly made it onto my list of words to describe you,” Moon said.

“Winter!” Kinkajou shouted.

The IceWing paused in the act of sweeping majestically past them. “Yes?” he said frostily to Kinkajou.

“Don’t you want to sit with us?” Kinkajou asked. “I mean, since we’re your winglet now, and everything.” A wave of ice blue shimmered across her scales and then vanished again. Moon tried and failed to stuff all the dreamy thoughts from Kinkajou’s head into a raindrop.

Winter looked down his nose at the RainWing. “Absolutely not,” he said, and stalked away toward another IceWing perched on a ledge slightly above the rest of the dragons.

“He’s so tortured,” Kinkajou sighed happily.

“You’re a little weird,” Moon pointed out.

Kinkajou was about to reply when a hush fell over the cave. They all twisted around and saw Anemone pace slowly through the door with her head held high, followed by a thin, quiet-looking SandWing.

The SeaWing princess
, rippled through everyone’s minds.

“Oh, thank the moons,” Anemone said, spotting the net of fish, her voice clear and high. “I haven’t eaten since we left Queen Moorhen’s palace yesterday.” She stepped delicately around a SandWing who was chewing something on the floor, and surveyed the few small fish that hadn’t been claimed yet. A number of MudWings, SeaWings, and SkyWings were clustered nearby, brown and green and red scales side by side as they ate.

“Hmmm. I’d like that one,” Anemone said sweetly. She pointed at a giant gray fish with a pale, speckled pink belly. A NightWing — the one Moon didn’t know — already had his claws around it and was lifting it to his mouth. He paused and stared at her.

She gazed back innocently, her chin raised.

“Uh,” said the NightWing. “This one?”

“That one,” said Anemone. “It’s my favorite kind.”

“This one that I’m eating?” he said.

“You heard her,” snapped one of the SeaWings, a skinny grayish-blue dragon whose hostile mental vibrations seemed familiar. Moon thought for a minute, and then guessed that he was the same one Clay had separated from Carnelian in the hallway yesterday. Pike, if she remembered right.

“But … I’m eating this one,” said the NightWing in a tone of deep confusion.

“Oh, but I would like it very much,” said Anemone.

“Anemone —” Tsunami tried to interrupt, stepping forward.

“Don’t you know this is the SeaWing princess?” Pike snarled. He shoved himself in the NightWing’s face and flexed his webbed talons. “The heir to the throne! Give her the fish. Now.”

“Uh —” said the NightWing.
She’s not
my
princess, though,
his brain mumbled.

Clay hurried over through the silence that had slowly fallen around Pike, Anemone, and the NightWing. Most of the other dragons were staring at them, except for Coconut, who was deeply focused on a bunch of grapes.

“Hey, this is an understandable mistake,” Clay said, gently scooting the NightWing back away from Pike. “We haven’t posted any prey center rules yet, but we will. Basically whoever gets their claws on it first, they get to eat it. If we find that doesn’t work, we’ll revisit the rules in a couple of weeks. But that’s how it is right now. All right?”

Pike scowled. “But the princess wants that fish!”

This one’s going to be trouble,
Moon heard from Clay’s mind, clear as day. He sighed.

“I do,” Anemone agreed. She looked up at Clay with large blue eyes. “Mother would want me to have it.”

“There’s lots of other fish,” Clay said, “and you’re welcome to join us in the evening when we go out to catch more in one of the mountain lakes.”

“That’ll be fun,” Tsunami said, elbowing her sister heartily. “I’ll come, too. There are some awesome lakes I want to show you, not far from here.”

Anemone blinked. She looked from Clay to Tsunami, and then narrowed her eyes at the NightWing, who was surreptitiously starting to chew on the fish’s tail.

So that’s how it’s going to be? I don’t like this at ALL,
said her mind, but her mouth said, “Oh. Very well.”

Moon wondered if she’d imagined the ghost of a smile that whisked across Turtle’s face.

“You can have my fish, princess,” Pike said, handing her a dripping salmon that he’d already sliced lengthwise with his claws.

Anemone looked down her nose at it, then shook her head. “I’m not actually that hungry after all. Come on, Ostrich.” She swept out of the cave, deliberately avoiding Clay. The SandWing glanced around, thinking disappointed hungry thoughts, but hurried after the princess.

Pike hissed at the NightWing. “You’ll pay for this, Bigtail,” he snarled. “Nobody disrespects the SeaWing princess.”

“Time to cool down, Pike,” Tsunami said sternly.

Pike hissed again, but slunk off with his salmon.

Oh, dear,
thought Clay. Moon watched him smile at the NightWing as if nothing was wrong, and then give Tsunami a “we should talk about that” look. She rolled her eyes and hurried after her sister.

Umber’s whole face lit up as Clay paced over to them. “Hey,” Clay said affectionately, nudging his little brother. “Where are Marsh and Sora?”

“Coming over now,” Umber said, waving his wings.

Moon sat up and saw Sora approaching with another dragon who looked like her, only more fidgety and nervous. Sora’s expression was subdued, but painful anxiety clawed at her insides, all jumbled into scraps of thoughts:
are we safe; miss Reed; I saw her; can’t sleep; not safe anywhere; oh, Crane, I wish you were here.
The MudWing took a deep breath and started the same internal ritual Moon had found in her mind the night before. Sora imagined mud slowly pouring over all her worries, leaving only a rippling, peaceful swamp.

She’s like me,
Moon thought. Everyone here was anxious in some way, but with Sora it ran deeper, all the way to paralyzing fear. She wanted to escape as much as Moon did.

Or at least, the way I wanted to escape yesterday.
Now … Well, she had to admit now she was wondering if maybe her mother was right. Maybe school wasn’t so terrible after all.
Poor Sora. She needs a crazy, enthusiastic clawmate like Kinkajou to take care of her.

Or maybe I can help her. Maybe because I know how scared she is — maybe I can make her feel better. Maybe that’s one good thing I can do with my powers.

“This is my brother and sister,” Umber said. “Marsh is really fast — you should see him fly. And Sora knows everything; she’s the only one who ever practiced her reading.” He beamed at them both as if they were the most special, perfect dragons in the world.

“Hey,” Qibli greeted them, his mouth half full of goat. He looked as though he wasn’t particularly paying attention, but a part of him whispered,
That’s the MudWing sibling bond. Loyal like the Outclaws are to Thorn, probably more so. Wish I had a brother and sister I liked that much. Actually a brother and sister who didn’t actively try to kill me every time they see me would be a dramatic improvement.

“I’m Moon, remember?” Moon said to Sora, trying to look friendly and nonthreatening. “Would you like some?” She held out a piece of her prey.

Sora gave her a shy smile. “Thank you.” She took the goat leg in her claws, tore it in half, and gave the other half to Marsh.

“Who’s in your winglet?” Umber asked. “Marsh, you’re in the Copper Winglet, right?”

“Yeah. That’s my clawmate,” Marsh said, nodding over at Coconut.

Ha,
Qibli thought.
That’s perfect. Put the slowest, least threatening dragon in the world with the most nervous. Not even this twitchy MudWing could be scared of that sloth masquerading as a dragon over there.

Marsh looked around, twisting his claws in nervous circles. “I don’t remember the other names yet.”

“That’s all right, you’ll figure them out. Sora?” Clay prompted his sister. “Anyone really nice?”

She fiddled with the meat in her talons, pulling out tufts of fur. “There’s a RainWing in my winglet who seems nice — she’s blind.”

“Tamarin!” Kinkajou cried. “Oh, you must be in the Gold Winglet. She’s my best friend!”

Moon decided not to be hurt by this. She knew Kinkajou would have other best friends. Possibly six more by the end of lunchtime.

“A SandWing named Onyx,” Sora said, counting on her claws. “That SeaWing over there, Pike. His clawmates: a NightWing called Bigtail, and a SkyWing with a bad scar across his snout. And my clawmate.” She nodded at the far wall, at the IceWing seated on the ledge next to Winter. They were both gazing disdainfully down at the eating dragons. Above them, sharp, twisting stalactites studded the roof of the alcove where they sat, almost as though they were glaring out of a mouth filled with enormous teeth.

“Winter’s sister?” Qibli said. “Then you and I are in the same tent, friend. Is she as stuck-up as her brother? Has she mentioned being in line for the IceWing throne yet?”

Sora blinked at the IceWings. Ripples shuddered across the mud puddles in her mind, but she refused to let whatever was under there escape. “Her name is Icicle.”

“To be honest,” Clay admitted, “from what we’d heard about Icicle, we figured we had to put her in the same cave as the nicest, least offensive dragon we could think of, so there wouldn’t be any casualties the first week of school. I hope it’s going all right, Sora.”

His sister dropped her gaze to her claws. “It’s fine,” she said.

“Let me know if not,” Clay said gently. “It’s really important to me that you be happy here.”

Sora nodded, thinking of the same brothers and sisters Moon had seen in Umber’s mind.

“Don’t we have history together next?” Turtle asked. “Our winglet and your winglet together?”

“Do we?” Umber said, delighted.

“I think so,” Qibli said. Moon could see that he had the day’s schedule memorized, plus a detailed layout of the school map in his head, but he was pretending to still be figuring things out with the rest of them.

“I have to go to the library first,” Moon said to Kinkajou. “But I’ll catch up to you.” She stood up and paused, listening to the uneasy rippling quiet in Sora’s mind. “Um … do you want to come with me?” she asked Sora.

The MudWing blinked at her in surprise. “I
do
,” she said, standing up. As they headed out of the prey center together, Moon could hear the reactions stirring behind them.

That was nice of Moon,
Umber thought.

Aw, maybe they’ll be friends,
went through Clay’s mind.

Does she like her better than me?
Kinkajou thought forlornly.

My boring little clawmate with a NightWing?
came a frigid thought from across the cave.
What’s that all about?

Moon hurried into the stone tunnel, trying hard to think about raindrops. They were halfway to the library before she realized that neither she nor Sora had said a word the whole walk.

“Um,” Moon said. “The library is great, isn’t it?”

Sora nodded.

“I like the leaf windows,” Moon added.

Sora nodded again. “Me too,” she whispered.

Is this what I seem like to everyone else?
Moon wondered.
Shy and really hard to talk to? Maybe I should try a little harder. It’s easy to talk to my mystery friend … but I don’t have to hide anything from him. I guess I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.

Starflight sat up as they came into the library, setting aside a stone tablet with letters carved into it. “Hello?” he said tentatively.

“It’s Moon and Sora,” Moon said.

“Oh, hi,” he said, relaxing. “Sora, I found that scroll on IceWings for you.” He slid a scroll across the desk with his claws.