The Brightest Night (2 page)

Description
: blue or green or aquamarine scales; webs between their claws; gills on their necks; glow-in-the-dark stripes on their tails/snouts/underbellies

Abilities
: can breathe underwater, see in the dark, create huge waves with one splash of their powerful tails; excellent swimmers

Queen
: Queen Coral

Alliances
: currently allied with Blister in the great war

Description
: silvery scales like the moon or pale blue like ice; ridged claws to grip the ice; forked blue tongues; tails narrow to a whip-thin end

Abilities
: can withstand subzero temperatures and bright light, exhale a deadly freezing breath

Queen
: Queen Glacier

Alliances
: currently allied with Blaze and most of the SandWings in the great war

Description
: scales constantly shift colors, usually bright like birds of paradise; prehensile tails

Abilities
: can camouflage their scales to blend into their surroundings, use their prehensile tails for climbing; no known natural weapons

Queen
: Queen Dazzling

Alliances
: not involved in the great war

Description
: purplish-black scales and scattered silver scales on the underside of their wings, like a night sky full of stars; forked black tongues

Abilities
: can breathe fire, disappear into dark shadows, read minds, foretell the future

Queen
: a closely guarded secret

Alliances
: too mysterious and powerful to be part of the war

When the war has lasted twenty years …

the dragonets will come.

When the land is soaked in blood and tears …

the dragonets will come.

Find the SeaWing egg of deepest blue.

Wings of night shall come to you.

The largest egg in mountain high

will give to you the wings of sky.

For wings of earth, search through the mud

for an egg the color of dragon blood.

And hidden alone from the rival queens,

the SandWing egg awaits unseen.

Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn,

two shall die and one shall learn

if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher,

she’ll have the power of wings of fire.

Five eggs to hatch on brightest night,

five dragons born to end the fight.

Darkness will rise to bring the light.

The dragonets are coming….

It is nearly impossible to steal from a dragon, particularly a royal one with a palace and guards and very high walls.

At least, that’s what Queen Oasis kept telling herself as she hurried along the dark halls, breathing fire to light her way.

Nearly impossible and decidedly stupid.

And yet, she had this terrible feeling….

Something was wrong. There was
something
scrabbling around in her palace. With her exceptionally sharp SandWing hearing, she was sure she could hear squeaking, like faraway mice, and perhaps the clinking of coins.

But mice didn’t steal treasure.

So what was it? Was she imagining it? She’d woken from a deep sleep with a start, as if someone had stabbed her in the chest with his venomous tail. It seemed unlikely, but … she was going to check on her treasure anyway.

The SandWing queen whirled around a corner and collided with two of her daughters, Blaze and Blister.

“
Ow
,” Blaze complained, hopping backward with a grimace. “Mo
ther
, you stepped on my
foot
.”

Blister said nothing, but sidestepped into a corner to get out of the queen’s way. Her dark eyes were fixed on every move Oasis made, in that unsettling way she had. Oasis had had a feeling from the moment Blister hatched: this was the daughter who was going to kill her. Her oldest daughter, Burn, was bigger and stronger, but Oasis and Burn actually got along, in a way. They understood each other, apart from Burn’s obsession with mutilating animals. And it was easy to distract Burn: give her something creepy-looking and she’d disappear into her rooms for days.

Blister, on the other talon, always seemed to be calculating the moments until her mother’s demise, and she’d been like that ever since she was a small dragonet — ever since she’d first realized that killing her mother would make her queen.

Go ahead and challenge me,
Oasis thought scornfully, glaring down at Blister.
I’d squash you like a bug and you know it.

“What’s the hurry?” Blister asked smoothly, as if she couldn’t sense the malevolence in her mother’s gaze. “Is there a royal crisis? Let me guess — Smolder tried to run off with his girlfriend again.”

“No, I took care of her,” Oasis said. “I’m just going to check the treasury.”

“Ooo, sparkly things.” Blaze yawned. “Good night, Mother.”

Dizzy Blaze,
Oasis thought as she hurried on.
She’d be a terrible queen, but she’s an acceptable daughter. I don’t have to worry about what she’ll do to me.

She heard claws click on the stone behind her and whirled around. Blister held up her talons and flared her wings, filling the narrow passageway.

“Sorry to startle you,” she said unconvincingly. “I just wondered if I could come with you.”

Oasis hesitated, but she knew if she said no, Blister would find a way to sneak along anyway. It was always better to keep her where you could see her. “Fine. But don’t touch anything.”
I know what you want to see, you conniving viper. It won’t do you any good until I’m dead, though.

They whisked down the long passage that led to the four treasure rooms.

Everything looked in order — the torches flickered peacefully, the doors were closed and locked.

But there was a strange
smell
, something hairy and woodsy and flowery at the same time. Something had definitely been here.

Oasis crouched to peer under the doors. There was a large gap between the doors and the floor…. Not large enough for a dragon, of course, but …

“Do you smell scavenger?” she asked Blister.

“I wouldn’t know what those smell like,” Blister said, wrinkling her nose. “They’re too bulky and squishy for my taste.”

Queen Oasis selected the right keys from around her neck and unlocked all the doors, then did a sweep through each room, leaving the doors open.

She came back out glowering with rage.

“That looks ominous,” Blister remarked.

“
Scavengers
,” spat the queen. “Robbed
me
. How
dare
they?” She lashed her tail, hissing. “They can’t have gone far. Wake up Burn and tell her to meet me outside.”

“Burn?” Blister echoed, glancing over her mother’s shoulder at the treasure rooms.

“Just in case there are a lot of them and we need to fight,” Oasis said. “I’ve seen what their tiny swords can do. I’m not such a fool as to go out there alone.”

“Oh, no, of course not,” Blister said. “But why Burn, when I’m here?”

Oasis gave her a withering look. “I need a real fighter,” she said. “Not someone who thinks she can use her brain to get herself out of anything, and isn’t even as smart as she thinks she is.”

“I see,” Blister said coldly. “I’ll wake her at once.” She took a step up the corridor, then turned back. “What did they take?”

“Small things, for the most part,” Oasis growled. “But they also took the Eye of Onyx.”

That actually made Blister’s face twitch, as if a hint of a real emotion — worry? surprise? — was trying to come through.

“We’ll get it back,” Oasis promised. “And we’ll have roasted scavenger for breakfast.” She pushed past Blister and stormed toward the nearest route to the sky. “I’m going out there. Wake Burn, and hurry.”

“Oh, yes. Right away,” Blister said.

As Oasis charged into the courtyard, spread her wings, and lifted into the sky, she thought for a moment that she saw Blister turn to look back at the treasure rooms instead.
I forgot to lock them up again,
Oasis thought uneasily.
But this will only take a minute. And if she’s stupid enough to take anything, I’ll have a good excuse to kill her. She’s smarter than that.

She wheeled toward the outer walls, scanning the sands. A disturbing thought occurred to her:
What if she doesn’t wake Burn? What if I’m going to face the thieves alone, with no backup?

Then she spotted them. Three scavengers — two of them waiting on the sand, the other climbing down from a window. None of them watching the sky.
Scab-infested idiot monkeys.
Oasis growled and folded her wings to drop down silently behind them. Maybe she could scare them to death; prey always tasted better when it died like that.

Only three of them,
she thought.
I don’t need to wait for Burn, if Blister’s even getting her. I can certainly handle three annoying scavengers by myself.

She narrowed her eyes, advancing up the dunes toward the sound of squeaking.

After all … what’s the worst that could happen?