Was Coral deliberately making Tsunami look foolish in front of the other dragons?
Tsunami studied her mother while Coral helped herself to the largest pieces of fish and crunched through talonfuls of crabs. She dropped bits of food into Anemone’s open mouth as she ate.
Maybe not. Maybe Tsunami was seeing problems where there weren’t any.
But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more careful from now on.
“Pearl, report,” ordered the queen after the dragons had eaten in silence for a while.
“No change,” said the elegant pale green dragon in the trea sury pool. “All your jewels are safe, as always. No scavengers can get to them, and no dragon would dare to try.”
“Splendid,” said Coral. She upended the last of a cauldron of crabs into her mouth. “Shark, report.”
“I am concerned about our defenses,” snarled the gray-green dragon. He glared at Tsunami. “The intruders in our midst are a danger to us. We have no idea whether they might have led others to our palace, or what they might be planning.”
“Now, now,” said the queen. “Those are our guests, not intruders. If my daughter trusts them, then of course I do, too.”
“Oh, good,” Tsunami said quickly. “Because I was thinking maybe they could join us for breakfast. I’m sure they’re hungry. And if they could see that they’re really welcome here . . .” She trailed off as Coral shook her head.
“Only Council members and royalty are allowed at Council meetings, darling,” Queen Coral said, running one claw along a strand of her pearls. “But they certainly won’t go hungry. Lagoon, did you make sure they were served an ample breakfast?”
The turquoise dragon nodded.
“They can have the rest of this as well.” Queen Coral waved her talons at the breakfast leftovers. The same small dragons from before darted up from the kitchen level, collected the platters, and flew down to the cave with them. Tsunami watched over the edge of the pavilion. None of her friends even poked their heads out. Were they sulking in there? Were they still mad at her?
Well, she was doing a fine enough job of embarrassing herself. She didn’t need them to come out and help. Raised by barbarians, friends with other tribes . . . not the stuff most queens were made of.
“Whirlpool, report,” said the queen, smiling at him.
Whirlpool touched the hoop in his ear and flared his wings. “Anemone’s lessons are going wonderfully,” he said. Tsunami wasn’t sure why his voice was so irritating, but it felt like claws scraping on stone to listen to him. “And your scrolls have never been more popular. The latest has been bought by every single SeaWing in the tribe.”
“Mostly the underwater editions,” Moray jumped in. “Those tend to sell the best. Of course, I spend all my energy promoting them —”
“But I’ve or ga nized another reading,” Whirlpool interrupted. “Every high-ranking dragon is clamoring to attend. We’re charging an emerald apiece this time.”
Queen Coral waved her tail thoughtfully. “I want to be sure I’m reaching the eel-eating masses as well, though,” she said. “I mean, my writing should be shared with everyone, not just those who can afford it.”
“Of course,” Moray said. “That’s why the schools have all changed their curriculums again to be sure the dragonets have enough time to read every thing you’ve written. It’s the most important subject they study.”
“You can’t be serious,” Tsunami burst out. “More important than how to fight the war?”
Cold silence.
Queen Coral pressed a talon to her chest, looking injured. “Darling, my writing is about every thing. As you would know if you’d finished the scrolls I gave you yesterday. What did you think of them?”
Tsunami guiltily remembered the scrolls she’d tossed aside as they flew off to see Kestrel’s body. She hadn’t even gone back to the library to get them.
“Uh,” she mumbled. “The Missing Princess is still my favorite.”
A chuckle ran around the assembled dragons. Tsunami felt hot with embarrassment. Councils were so stupid! She would never ever have something like this when she was queen!
“That reminds me,” said the queen. “Whirlpool, Tsunami needs lessons in Aquatic. Can you believe she never learned it, poor thing?” She tapped her claws on the stone in front of her. “Such a sad upbringing.” Her face was sympathetic, but her stripes were flashing, and Tsunami wondered angrily if she was saying something different to the Council, knowing Tsunami couldn’t understand.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Whirlpool said. He inclined his head toward Tsunami. “I would be happy to instruct the princess.”
“Piranha, report.” Queen Coral snapped her head around to the war pool.
The war commander was so clawed up that she seemed to be more scars than scales. One horn was snapped in half, and several of her teeth were broken.
“Still no information about the dead SkyWing,” Piranha growled. Tsunami ducked her head. Eventually she had to tell her mother the truth — who Kestrel was, how Tsunami knew her. But she didn’t want a harness attached to her, or some kind of permanent guard. And she felt like she should tell her friends first. I’ll tell her later. I will.
“A war party returned early this morning,” Piranha went on. “Do you want to hear their report?”
Queen Coral sighed and gestured with her claws.
Piranha called over the edge and two soldier SeaWings came flying up from a lower level. One was too injured to fly, so the other supported him. They spiraled in a jerking, awkward motion and landed heavily in the center of the Council meeting.
The SeaWing who couldn’t fly had long burns along his side and one wing was scorched almost entirely black. Claw marks along his underbelly were still oozing blood, which dripped into the sparkling channels between the Council dragons, staining the pearls red. Tsunami saw the queen give her decorated floor a concerned look.
The other SeaWing had a scorch mark in the middle of his tail and a horrible gash in his neck. He was breathing heavily, and bubbles of pale red blood foamed out of his gills.
“Let’s hear it,” Queen Coral ordered.
“Something strange is happening in the Sky Kingdom, Your Majesty,” said the one who couldn’t fly. “The battalions — it’s as if nobody knows who’s in charge. We were patrolling the outer islands, and we were attacked by three separate wings. The first squadron was half SkyWings and half SandWings. During the second attack, we heard the SkyWings yelling, ‘For Ruby!’ and in the third, at least one dragon shouted, ‘The queen is not dead! Long live the queen!’ ”
Queen Coral sat forward, splashing water over the edge of the pool and squashing Anemone over to the side. “For Ruby?” she echoed.
“One of Scarlet’s daughters,” growled Piranha. “Does that mean Queen Scarlet is dead?”
Tsunami clenched and unclenched her talons. How much should she tell the Council? She didn’t want to reveal Glory’s secret weapon. They never knew when they might need it. And they weren’t even sure Glory had killed Queen Scarlet during the escape.
“We would have heard if there had been a challenge, surely,” said Moray.
Queen Coral shot a stern look at the blue dragon in the secrets and spies pool. “Why don’t you know anything about this?”
“None of my spies have reported in for days,” he protested. “I had no idea anything strange was happening in the Sky Kingdom.”
The soldier who couldn’t fly was leaning more and more dizzily against his companion. Puddles of blood soaked their claws.
“Mother,” Tsunami said. “Shouldn’t somebody look at their injuries?” She pointed at the soldiers.
Coral eyed them up and down. “Anything else to report?”
“Twelve casualties,” the soldier croaked. “All the rest badly injured.”
“But nobody followed you back to the palace?” demanded Shark.
“We were careful,” he promised, wincing with pain. “We took the longest r
outes back.”
“Very well.” Queen Coral waved her talons dismissively. “You may go.” She flicked her tail at the smallest Council member, in the DRAGON HEALTH pool, who ushered the soldiers away. Moray immediately jumped out of her own pool and started cleaning up the blood on the floor.
“If there is chaos in the Sky Kingdom, maybe this is the time to strike,” Coral said. She wrapped one strand of pearls around her claws. “We should send the rescue mission now. We could get him back today.”
“We don’t know enough,” growled the secrets and spies dragon. “If Scarlet is dead, how did she die? Did Ruby kill her, or is she fighting with her sisters for the throne?”
Moray hissed at the blood under her claws. “Like the SandWing rivalry all over again. Making the war even worse.”
“Or has Burn taken over?” Piranha suggested. “She would, if she was there.”
“But Scarlet’s daughters might not listen to Burn the way Scarlet did,” said Moray.
“What could have happened?” Coral said. “Queen Scarlet was so strong.”
Tsunami shifted uncomfortably, feeling the cold water seeping through her scales. She couldn’t hide what she knew, not when her mother needed the information so much. Or at least she could share some of the dramatic highlights. “Um,” Tsunami said. The entire Council turned to stare at her. “That . . . might have been us.”
There was a shocked pause.
“You!” barked Piranha.
“Ridiculous,” snarled Shark.
“Queen Scarlet found us under the mountain,” Tsunami said. “She held us prisoner in her palace, and when we escaped, we sort of might have killed her. Maybe. I’m not sure. I will say we tried.” She quite liked the horrified look on Shark’s face at that bit of news. Starting to respect us a bit more? she thought.
“You were at the SkyWing palace?” Coral lunged out of her pool, swarmed across the stone, and seized Tsunami’s front talons in her own, clutching them so hard it was a little painful. Behind her, Anemone was yanked half out of the pool with a squeak of protest, but Coral didn’t seem to notice.
“Did you see a SeaWing named Gill?” the queen cried. “Green scales, big and powerful, with brave eyes?”
Tsunami felt sick. Gill. Yes, she remembered Gill — but not the way Queen Coral described him. She’d been forced to fight Gill in Scarlet’s gladiator arena after he’d been deprived of water for months and driven mad with thirst. He’d been covered in scratches, as if he’d tried to drink his own blood.
The sound of dragon bones snapping between my talons.
“I did see him,” Tsunami said slowly. A gasp went up around her, whispers traveling from one Council member to the next. Shark’s pale, unfriendly eyes were like octopus arms coiling around her neck.
“Can you tell us where he is?” Queen Coral asked ur gently. “We’ve been planning a rescue mission, but he’s not in the regular prison with the others. And we’ve got to get him back, Tsunami. You have no idea how important it is.”
Tsunami curled her tail in close to her talons. She wanted to dive into the lake, crawl down to the bottom, and stay there forever with her wings over her head.
“He’s —” Her voice cracked. She swallowed and started again. “He’s dead.”
She’d had no choice but to kill the desperate SeaWing in the arena. It was his life or hers. She hadn’t wanted to kill him . . . at least, she was pretty sure she hadn’t wanted to kill him. But when she did — the truth was, Tsunami had loved the look on Queen Scarlet’s face when she broke Gill’s neck. She liked the feeling of being powerful and dangerous.
Gill’s sanity had been long gone anyway. It had been easy for Tsunami not to think about where he came from or what his life was like before he landed in the SkyWing prison. It was easier not to think of him as a real dragon.
She’d never imagined her own mother desperately planning to get him back — or that she’d have to explain his death to anyone.
“Dead?” Queen Coral released Tsunami’s talons and staggered backward. Her claws splashed in the winding channels, slipping on pearls. “How?”
“Um,” Tsunami stammered. Did she really have to admit this in front of all these dragons? “In the arena.”
“But he refused to fight,” Coral said. “We heard about it, through our spies. He convinced each of his opponents to lie down and refuse to fight along with him. He has — had a way with words. No one who met him would be able to kill him.” A smile flickered across her snout and vanished. “Queen Scarlet was furious, I heard.”
“She was.” Tsunami swallowed again. “She punished him. It was — really awful.”
“What do you know about his death?” Shark demanded coldly.
Tsunami stirred the water with her claws. “She drove him mad. She kept him away from water until he lost his mind and — and when he was crazy, he was dangerous. He was barely even a dragon anymore. He had to be killed.”
“Really,” Shark said, and Tsunami felt horribly sure he had guessed the truth.
“Why?” Tsunami asked. “Who — who was he? An important general?”
“More than that,” said Queen Coral in a hollow voice. “Much more. He was my husband.”
Darkness seemed to be rushing into Tsunami’s vision, sucking away all her breath. She knew what Queen Coral was going to say next, and she would have fled back to the mountains to avoid hearing it if she could.
“Tsunami . . . Gill was your father.”
Queen Coral dropped her head and slowly dragged herself back to her pool. “Dead,” she said. “My Gill is dead.”
“No more eggs,” Moray whispered. She was still crouched in the center of the floor, scrubbing at the blood. Her eyes had a weird glow to them. “No more dragonets, no more challenges.”
“Not necessarily. She could marry again,” Whirlpool murmured. Moray shot him a glare.
Coral didn’t seem to hear either of them. She pulled Anemone into her wings and clutched her tightly. The little dragonet wriggled a bit, then gave up and rested her head on Coral’s shoulder. She blinked in a resigned way at Tsunami over their mother’s back.
Tsunami felt like oceans were pressing against the back of her eyes. Her scales were heavy, as if they were clogged with seaweed.
But I didn’t have a choice.
Did I?
He was my father. And I had no idea.
But he wasn’t a real dragon anymore. He wasn’t anyone, inside his parched scales. He was gone, and I had to survive. I had to survive to protect my friends and fulfill my destiny.
Nothing helped. She hadn’t really thought about other options when she’d killed the SeaWing in the arena. It was impulse and wanting to prove something to Queen Scarlet.
Shark was still staring at her, unblinking. Tsunami bared her teeth at him.
“I must grieve,” said the queen. “Council dismissed.” She stepped to the edge of the pavilion and flew off to her cave, still holding Anemone.
The Council dragons peeled off to various caves and other levels of the pavilion. Tsunami buried her head in the pool and clutched her horns. Now what was she supposed to do?
She definitely was not in the mood for seeing her friends. It would not make her feel any better to face their remarks about what a terrible dragon she was. The kind of dragon who attacked other dragons for no reason. The kind of dragon who did what she thought was right, but was always wrong.
The kind of dragon who could kill her own father.
Something tapped her on the top of her head.
She emerged from the water and found Whirlpool rubbing his claws together. “Time for your first lesson,” he said in his oily voice.
“Now?” Tsunami said.
“Why not?” He spread his talons. “It is never too soon to begin filling our minds with knowledge.”
Tsunami hissed softly under her breath. This was not going to be fun. But perhaps it would be distracting.
“Come,” he said, strutting to the edge and d
iving over. Tsunami reluctantly followed him into the cavern lake. He was hovering several lengths below the surface, flashing his stripes at her.
Tsunami sank to his level and watched him. She kept her own scales dark. She most definitely did not want to say something to him like what she’d said to Riptide. If Anemone was right about Coral’s plans for him, Whirlpool did not need any encouraging.
After a few moments, Whirlpool swam up to the surface again. His pale green eyes seemed far too big for his eye sockets.
“What’s the matter?” he said. “Don’t your stripes light up?”
“Of course they do!” Tsunami snapped. “But you haven’t told me what we’re saying or anything.”
“Just imitate me,” he said officiously, and dove again before she could argue.
“Rrrrgh,” Tsunami growled.
This time she imitated each flashing path of light — along her wings, her tail, her sides, alternating and sometimes flashing faster or slower. It seemed to go on for an eternity. Finally Whirlpool nodded with satisfaction and rose to the air again.
“Excellent,” he proclaimed.
“What’s excellent?” Tsunami demanded, spreading her wings to float. “What did we just say?”
“We recited the first chapter of the queen’s very first work, The Tragedy of Orca. It’s extremely moving, glorious writing. You nearly repeated it perfectly.”
Tsunami wanted to splash seawater up his annoying snout. “But I didn’t learn anything.”
“Oh, you will,” he said. “With repetition comes perfection. Shall we go on to the second chapter?”
“No!” Tsunami said. “Teach me something I can use. How do you greet strangers? How do you warn other SeaWings of danger?” How do you say “I’m sorry I killed my father?” She shook herself. “For moon’s sake, at least show me how to say ‘I don’t speak Aquatic.’ ”
“All knowledge can be found in the queen’s writing,” Whirlpool insisted. “If we recite three chapters a day, we should get through her entire body of work in about five years.”