"What's happening ?" Tsunami asked, feeling her heartbeat suddenly fasten. Something was not right.

"It's Ashley !" Sunny cried. "He passed out !" She had run to him as soon as she noticed the fall, preceding Tsunami from short. She didn't have time to turn around before her friend was already standing in front of the thin pool.

"Oh no." Starflight said, rushing to Sunny's position. Both dragons were standing between Tsunami and Ashley, so she couldn't see him. But she could see them lean down to the Scavenger's height to try and help him. "He didn't hit his head." The Nightwing continued. "And I think his bag protected him from any shock. But we need to get him out of here."

Sunny backed away, letting Starflight grab Ashley by the shoulders and slowly pull him out of the water. Tsunami finally saw what condition he was in.

His body was limp, feet weakly scrapping the floor. His eyes were closed, unmoving. And drips of blood were falling from his left arm, still strapped inside the same piece of fabric found at the Sky Palace. The pool he had fallen in was slowly turning red.

Starflight put him against the bigger throne in a sitting position. Glory walked closer, showing no particular emotion. But splotches of pale green danced on her scales. "He's not dead, is he ?" She asked in a flat tone.

"What ?" Sunny cried. "No, he can't be !" Her Sandwing friend looked at Ashley with distress, trying to find any sign of life. "Look, he's breathing !"

Tsunami didn't have time to see, a commotion from below interrupted the scene. Her heart sank. Oh no, not right now.

She sprang to the edge and gazed down at the lake. A huge blue Seawing, exactly the colour of her scales, burst out of the tunnel. Vines of

pearls were woven around her horns and neck and wings, and a twisted white horn with a wicked-looking point was attached to the end of her tail. She had odd black stains on her claws, but she was the most beautiful sight Tsunami had ever seen.

All over the palace, dragons were folding down into low bows. Tsunami didn't know how to react, this was the moment she had been waiting for her whole life, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time.

But as Queen Coral shot out of the water, Tsunami saw that she wore a thin, webbed harness with a long cord... which led to a harness on another dragon, flying close behind her.

That dragon was much smaller, probably only about a year old. She was flapping her wings frantically, trying to keep up. With a jolt of shock, Tsunami spotted the royal pattern of stripes on the underside of her wings.

"Who is that ?" She hissed at Riptide.

"That's Anemone," he said, blinking in surprise. "Your sister."

An enemy.

Anemone.

An enemy.

It took Tsunami a few moments to realize what Riptide had actually said. Until she realized she'd been telling a name. Anemone. Her sister. Another heir to the throne.

She turned around, wanting to cry on Starflight for not telling her, but she stopped. He was busy taking a careful look at Ashley.

"What do you want me to do ?" He cried to Glory. "I don't know scavenger anatomy !"

"I don't know ! Something ! You're the one to know those kind of things ! Didn't you read everything ?"

Tsunami turned her attention back over the ledge. Now was not the time to argue with her friends.

That could have been me. She thought, looking at Anemone. I could have been the one with matching pearls and a matching throne and a mother who loved me, if the Talons hadn't stolen me from my home.

She didn't have a chance to notice anything else, because suddenly Queen Coral was landing and running toward her.

"My baby !" Coral cried. Enormous blue wings whooshed around Tsunami, enveloping her in a hug that smelled of sea air and starfish. Pearls pressed into Tsunami's face as Coral cuddled her close.

"I knew you'd come back to me." she said. "I knew you were out there, trying to find your way back. I never stopped searching for you."

Tsunami felt her heart become warmer, it was exactly what she had always wanted to hear. Actually, it was also word-for-word what the queen said in The Missing Princess, but Tsunami shoved that thought aside.

"Mother." Whined a tiny voice from behind them. "Ow. That was too fast. I think I hurt my claws."

Queen Coral let go of Tsunami, whirled around, and tugged Anemone closer with the harness cord. The little dragonet crept under her wing and held out her front talons with a pitiful expression.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Coral said, carefully examining Anemone's claws and giving them a quick lick with her forked tongue. "Is that better ?"

"I guess." Anemone said, flexing her talons mournfully.

Anemone blinked at Tsunami. She was really tiny, no taller than a scavenger, actually, she was probably even smaller than Ashley. She didn't look very strong.

For a moment, tsunami considered that she could be easy to defeat, but then a stab of guilt struck her. It was her first-ever meeting with her family after all. She held out one of her front talons to Anemone, and after a small pause, Anemone pressed her own talon against it.

"Hi." Tsunami said. "I'm Tsunami."

"Ah." Queen Coral said. "A good name. Webs did one thing right." She narrowed her green eyes. "Where is he now ? I have been planning his punishment for years."

She glared over Tsunami's shoulder, but when Tsunami looked around, the only dragon there was Riptide, who was ducking his head the lowest he could to look the smallest possible.

"I knew he was a coward and a deserter." Coral said. "but after he returned to steal my egg... well, let's just say it won't be a quick death."

"Oh, no." Sunny squeaked from behind. "Please don't hurt him. He was the only one who was really nice to us."

"We don't know where he is anyway." Tsunami said as Queen Coral turned to stare at Sunny. "He escaped when-"

"What are you ?" Coral asked Sunny with a displeased tone. Then her gaze fell on the other dragonets, and her tail lashed dangerously. "WHY IS THERE A MUDWING IN MY SUMMER PALACE ?" She took a step toward Clay, gills flaring. Her eyes darted from one to the other, then her gaze fell upon Ashley. "AND A SCAVENGER TOO !" This time, her tail banged the floor directly, making it tremble under Tsunami's talons.

"These are my friends." Tsunami cried, leaping in front of Clay. "You can trust them, I promise. We were all stolen from our homes as eggs. We're the dragonets of destiny, from the prophecy."

"Oh." Queen Coral said slowly. "Oh, I see." She studied Clay suspiciously, then turned her gaze to the other dragonets. "Yes, that was the rumour. Dragonets of Destiny... That, however, doesn't explain the scavenger." She hissed.

"He's important." Tsunami said, uncomfortable. Coral squinted at her daughter. "He helped us." She admitted.

"Helped you, you say ? We hear everything nowadays." She went thoughtful for a time, before raising her head. "Well, Queen Blister will be so interested to meet you. We'd better make sure you don't go anywhere." She flashed the patterns along her wings and clapped her front talons Seven burly SeaWings rose up behind the dragonets, claws twitching ominously.

"Put these fives in Blister's cave." Coral commanded. "And set a guard so they stay there."

"What?" Sunny cried. "But we came here to be safe ! Not to be prisoners again!" She squeaked in terror as one guard snatched her into the air.

"Nobody touches me." Glory snarled at the SeaWing who was reaching for her. Clouds of blackness spread on her scales.

"Don't hurt Sun- ow !" Clay yelped as three SeaWings landed on him at once, pinning him down.

"Wait," Tsunami said. "Your Majesty... Mother. You don't have to do this.

They're my friends, and I brought them here so you could protect us. I swear they're trustworthy."

"It's for their own safety, too, dear." Coral said, stroking Tsunami's head. "We won't hurt them, of course. You've come to the right place for protection. But they shouldn't wander the palace unsupervised. Most of my dragons will attack MudWings and unfamiliar SandWings on sight."

"And Scavengers." Shark muttered as one of the Seawings pulled him up by the arm. His head swayed a little, his body still limp. "What's wrong with it too ?"

"Don't hurt Ashley !" Sunny cried. "He needs help !"

"Ashley ?" Coral tilted her head. "You named him ?"

"It's complicated." Tsunami said.

"I guess this means no feast ?" Clay said mournfully.

"Food can certainly be arranged." said the queen. "Lagoon, make sure our guests are well fed." A plump turquoise dragon bowed and dove off the ledge. "See, darling, we'll take good care of you all. Please tell that one to stop looking so fierce." Coral flicked a claw at Glory, who was still facing off with a nervous-looking Seawing guard.

Tsunami thought of Glory's venom capabilities they had discovered at the Skywing Palace, which was a skill no one seemed to be aware of. But Tsunami hoped Glory would decide to keep her venom a secret for now. Melting one of the queen's guards probably wasn't the best way to introduce themselves.

"You don't have to tie them up." Tsunami said. "They'll go with you."

"Speak for yourself," Glory growled.

"Calm down, Glory." Tsunami said. She hoped her mother and the other dragons would see her as the leader of the dragonets. "You heard the queen. It's for your own safety. You'll be fine."

Please don't argue with me in front of my mother. She prayed.

"All right." Glory eventually snarled. "I'll go with you. But I still say nobody touches me."

"Fair enough." Coral said. "Off you all go, then. Tsunami, darling, come sit with me and let's talk." She swept over to her throne, towing Anemone behind her. The tiny dragonet settled onto the small throne, flicking her pearly wings and watching Tsunami's friends with big eyes. Although her attention was most set on Ashley, who was being dragged rather carelessly by one of the guards. Tsunami sighed.

"It'll be all right." Tsunami said to Clay as the guards hefted him into the air. "I'll come join you very soon." He nodded, still looking rather anxious.

Tsunami watched her friends spiral down to the cave by the entrance, all of them so out of place here, contrasting with the blue and green of the palace. She saw them vanish into the dark hole, and then the guards emerged and planted themselves outside.

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At least it's better than the SkyWing palace. she thought. At least we're not being forced to fight to the death. My mother is keeping us safe. She's

really being welcoming, in her own way. She glanced up at her mother's warm eyes. Especially to me.

Her mother reached out her talons to her, smiling. She was perfect. Just what Tsunami had always imagined. Alright, maybe she was a little bit biased, but still. She was home with her family now. This was her lifelong dream.

There's nothing to worry about. she told herself. Nothing at all.

"Here." Queen Coral eventually said, taking a strand of pearls off her horns. "You're so unadorned, my beautiful dragonet. I have to start making up for all the presents I missed giving you."

My first treasure. Tsunami thought as her mother draped the pearls around her neck.

Tsunami stroked the pearls with her claw and tucked her tail around her back talons. She wished Anemone would stop staring at her so intensely.

"Can we talk alone ?" Tsunami asked. The ten dragons were still perched like creepy sentinels, with Shark the creepiest of all.

"Of course." said the Coral. "Council, you are dismissed. Moray, send a message to Queen Blister and see how quickly she can get here. As for you, creature, go back to your guard outpost and stay there until someone actually wants to see you."

Riptide crouched, nodding, and dove over the edge. Tsunami leaned out to watch him swimming into the tunnel.

"What's wrong with Riptide ?" she asked. "I thought he was nice."

"Oh, no." Queen Coral said with a shudder. "He can't be trusted. Webs is his father. Their bloodline is tainted with betrayal."

"Webs is his father ?" She echoed. She felt like a giant wave had just struck her. She liked Riptide, but all along he was the son of her kidnapper ? Something he had carefully never mentioned.

"Nasty family." Coral went on. "Not fitting company for royalty by any means. We keep him as far away from us as possible."

Poor Riptide. Tsunami thought. It wasn't his fault his father had turned traitor, but he suffered for it anyway.

Was Queen Coral right about him ? Surely she knew her own subjects better than Tsunami did. However, there was still a part of her that hoped she'd see him again.

She glanced at Anemone. "So. we were saying 'alone' ?"

"Oh, no, Anemone never leaves my side." Queen Coral said. She reached over and lovingly patted the little dragonet's head. "I finally got a living daughter, and I'm keeping her that way."

"By watching me every second." Anemone said. She widened her eyes at Tsunami, who wondered if the sarcasm in her voice was just her imagination playing tricks.

"And now I have two daughters !" Queen Coral said proudly. "Possibly four by the end of next week, if Tortoise does her job right." She gave Tsunami a worried look. "Maybe we should make a harness for you, too, dear."

"Oh, no, that's all right." Tsunami said, eyeing the straps that lashed Coral and Anemone together. "I've managed to take care of myself up to now. I promise I'll stay alive."

"Hmmm." Said the queen. "Well, we'll think about it." She studied Tsunami's shoulders as if she was already measuring for a harness anyway.

"I have to tell you something." Tsunami said, hoping to change of subject. "I- I don't know the underwater language. Webs never taught it to me."

Queen Coral stared at her. "What is wrong with that dragon ?" She growled. "It's all right, sweetheart. We'll have Whirlpool teach you. He's a terrific teacher. Right, Anemone ?"

Anemone shrugged.

"So what do you know ?" Queen Coral asked. "Did they teach you anything ?"

"Of course !" Tsunami said. She didn't want her mother to think she was unfit to be queen. "We had lots of battle training. And Webs taught us the history of Pyrrhia. We learned all about the Scorching, how the tribes were founded and how we nearly wiped out the scavengers." She paused at that, remembering Ashley. She shuddered, why did dragons do that ? They were considered a threat, but why ? And did they know what they were doing ?

She continued, slower. "Um, and he did geography, too. Dune taught us hunting. Kestrel was supposed to teach different tribe strengths and weaknesses, but mostly she just yelled and tried to set us on fire a lot."

"Why don't I get to learn those things, Mother ?" Anemone asked as her eyes brightened with interest.

"You will, dear." said Queen Coral. "When I think you're ready."

"What do you study?" Tsunami asked.

"How the Council works." she said. "Aquatic, of course. How to interpret battle reports and order our defences. Managing the food supply and the treasury, although the Council commanders really do all that."

"It's still important to stay on top of them." purred the queen. "Dragons do their best work if you watch them closely the whole time."

"But mostly I'm stuck in training sessions with Whirlpool." Anemone said, dropping her wings.

"For what ?" Tsunami asked. "Aquatic ?"

"Never mind, dear." Queen Coral interrupted. "You'll see eventually. Were the Talons of Peace very cruel to you ?"

"Terribly !" Tsunami said. "They never let us out of the caves at all ! They acted like we were brainless snails ! Nobody ever listened to me. And they wouldn't tell us anything about our families or where we came from. I only found out about you a few days ago."

"My poor, poor baby." Queen Coral said, stroking Tsunami's head again.

Exactly, Tsunami thought. This was the sympathy she'd always wanted. However, she didn't appreciate the sceptical look on Anemone's face.

"What are these?" Tsunami asked. She leaned forward and touched the dark stains on the queen's talons with one claw.

"The perils of my job !" Queen Coral said with a laugh. "Well, my hobby. My art, you might call it. I should show you." She sprang to her feet, tugging Anemone up with her. "And then you can meet Whirlpool. You'll adore him. He's just the most wonderful, brilliant young dragon."

Tsunami was nearly certain she caught Anemone rolling her eyes at that. She followed the two of them down four levels to a floor with low walls and several shapes like large cauldrons moulded into the stone.

There were black talon prints all around the floor, and a podium raised at the end with enough space for an audience of thirty dragons. At the other end was a long grey stone table with a scroll spread out on it. Tsunami

peered at the scroll, which looked only half-written.

"That's my work in progress." Queen Coral said proudly. "Whirlpool, come here !" She bustled over to one of the cauldrons, and Tsunami realized they were all packed with neatly rolled scrolls.

"This is beautiful." lifting one of the carved seahorses that served as legs for the table. They were heavy and intricately detailed, with curiously dragonlike expressions on their tiny faces.

"Orca made those." Queen Coral said sadly. "My first daughter. She was a very talented sculptor."

First daughter? What happened to her ? She thought all heirs had died early, too young to have time to become artists. She gave Anemone a quizzical look, but her sister was watching the queen intently. I'll ask Starflight later. Orca must be in that lineage scroll he was going on about.

A dark green dragon with pale green eyes rose from the Council level. He had a remarkably large gold hoop piercing one ear and dappled, light green scales in wave patterns along his back. He also had the same

dark stains on his talons.

"Your Majesty," he said with an elaborate bow. "And Your Smaller Majesties." His voice was oily and slow, slimy, even. She guessed this was Whirlpool, although he didn't look particularly 'wonderful' or 'brilliant'.

He bowed to Anemone and Tsunami as he settled onto the floor behind the stone table. He looked from them to the scroll in front of him. After a moment, he dipped one of his claws into a small pool of ink, then, he scratched a few more words at the point where the scroll went blank.

"Oh," Tsunami said, glancing from his talons to her mother's. "Oh, it's ink."

"Yes, dear," said Queen Coral. She pulled an armful of scrolls out of the cauldron. "It's a special formula made of squid ink and a touch of whale blood, so it never fades. Immortality is worth a few claw stains, don't you agree? Whirlpool invented it. He's terribly clever." She peered at the words Whirlpool had just written. "Exactly what I was thinking! This is an exciting one, isn't it ?"

"Certain to win all the awards in the kingdom, Your Majesty." Whirlpool oozed.

Queen Coral piled a few scrolls into Tsunami's talons. "These are my favourites. You can read them all tonight, and tomorrow I'll give you four of my other favourites."

"Read all these tonight?" Tsunami echoed, dismayed. Reading was Starflight's speciality. She liked it fine, but only if there were exciting stories and female warrior dragons.

"Start with this one." Queen Coral said, plucking one of the scrolls free.

It was The Missing Princess ! Relief flooded through Tsunami. "I've read that one!" she cried. "That was my favourite story ever."

"Really ?" Coral looked delighted, and Tsunami was pretty sure Anemone had rolled her eyes again. "I wrote it for you !"

"You-" Tsunami looked from Queen Coral to Whirlpool and the scroll on the table. "You wrote The Missing Princess ?"

"I wrote all of these." Queen Coral waved her talons at all the scrolls in the cauldrons. "I'm really quite prolific. Whirlpool makes sure hundreds of copies are instantly made and distributed all over SeaWing territory and wherever else on Pyrrhia we can send them. My communications herald, Moray, is in charge of the printer dragons who make the underwater copies. She also makes sure they go to all the schools. But Whirlpool organizes my readings here. Isn't he brilliant ?" She lowered her voice and winked at Tsunami. "And don't you think he's very handsome ?"

Whirlpool looked up and gave Tsunami a toothy smile that didn't reach his eyes. His teeth were weirdly small, and his eyes were too pale and blobby, like frog eyes.

In all honestly, she found it a much more repellent sight than anything else. If you asked her, Riptide looked much more handsome.

"He'll make a fabulous king one day." Queen Coral added.

Oh dear. Tsunami hid her shudder, suddenly filled with disgust. Is Queen Coral throwing him at me ?

She looked at Anemone, who quickly erased a hopeful expression on her face. She bet Anemone could clear up a lot of mysteries if Tsunami could ever get her alone for a moment.

"Your Majesty." They all turned and found another Council dragon hovering in the air behind the queen, with a smaller dragon beside her. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Urchin just arrived with strange news. I knew you'd want to hear it right away."

"Of course, Moray." said Queen Coral. "You always know what's best."

"That's because I have had excellent training at the side of the most wonderful queen in Pyrrhian history," she said with a brief smug look on her face.

Oh my word. Tsunami thought. This time she was able to catch Anemone's eye, behind the queen's back, to make an "Is she serious ?" face. Anemone looked startled for a moment, then made a face back which seemed to confirm her thoughts.

Moray went on. "Apparently dead dragons have been found only a few islands from the Summer Palace."

"Oh, how sad." said Queen Coral with a little yawn. She glanced at her scrolls as if she wanted to get back to them. "What happened to them ?"

"Two dragons." Moray continued. "And we don't know yet, but the strange part is that although there is a Seawing, one of them is a Mudwing.

"WHAT ?" Queen Coral leapt to her talons. "That close to the palace ?" She snapped at the air and spread her wings. "Get Shark and Piranha and take me to the bodies. Now."

The queen shot into the air with Anemone flapping wildly to keep up. Tsunami dropped the scrolls and jumped after them. They flew down in a spiral to the water. This was her chance to see her mother in action !

She thought she heard someone shout her name as she splashed down. Sunny maybe ? Or Clay ? But the water rushed into her ears and muffled the cry.

Shark whipped past her fast, putting himself between Tsunami and Coral. She swam after them as fast as she could, pulling hard on her legs and wings. She felt another dragon close on her tail but didn't turn around or slow down.

It felt like only moments later when Tsunami's snout emerged into the kelp curtain, not having to stop every second made it considerably faster. She followed the trails left by the dragons' tails ahead of her and quickly realized they weren't going to the surface.

So they weren't flying to the bodies, they were swimming there. Which made sense. They were Seawings, after all.

All right. I can do this. Tsunami ignored how tired her wings felt and beat them harder, determined to keep up. Even so, the two dragons behind her quickly passed her, Moray and another from the Council, who she guessed was Piranha.

Both dragons dipped down in the water and suddenly sped up. Despairing, she tried to do the same thing- tipping her wings to dive down to the same level. A fierce current immediately caught her up and shoved her along after them.

For a moment, Tsunami struggled against it. She didn't like being caught by anything stronger than her. But then, she remembered something Ashley told her a few days ago when they were still travelling. She remembered they were talking about currents, like the very one she was in.

"...find the ones that lead to your destination and use them without care. It'll even make it so easy that you won't need to move your hands to swim through the water." He had said. Although she still didn't know what a 'hand' was, she thought she figured out what he meant pretty easily.

She looked forward, the other dragons were barely even moving once in the current, paddling slowly and giving a kick to the water just from time to time to get a bit more speed and correct their direction.

She relaxed and spread out her wings, catching the stream, and let the current sweep her along. This gave her time to glance around. There were multiple schools of fish, all reflecting the sun with their silvery scales, spinning in formation. At the bottom of the sea, large translucent mushrooms and corals were clustered on the ground, with tiny orange fish swimming from one to the other.

On her way, she noticed a movement behind a swarm of jellyfish, squinting, she managed to notice a dragon semi-hiding behind a coral reef. Realizing it was Riptide following her from a distance, she lifted a wing and waved at him. After some time, he awkwardly waved back, then made him smaller behind the reef to escape notice from anyone else.

She didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, but this probably wasn't it.

Still, she kind of liked having him there, so she wasn't going to tell Coral about him. Not until she settled how mad she was about the "Webs being his father" secret anyway.

They swam for what felt like miles, over wide stretches of algae-covered coral reef that looked like ancient stone ruins : palaces and temples that had collapsed long ago. Occasionally, a large fish would dart up, swim alongside Tsunami for a moment, notice her with an alarm, and flash away again. She was hungry but too fatigued to attempt eating any of them.

Even with the help of the current, Tsunami felt ready to collapse. Eventually, up ahead, she saw Moray and Piranha sweep up to the surface. Relieved, she struggled out of the current and followed them into the air.

Queen Coral was already standing on a large, sharp boulder that bulged out of the sea at the base of a towering cliff. Anemone was crowded on a small outcropping beside her, breathing strongly.

Waves pounded the rocks, roaring like angry dragons and spraying salt water over everyone who was clustered around the queen on smaller rocks.

Tsunami found a peering black boulder of just the right size for her and clambered up. For a moment, she just breathed, content not to be moving. Far off to the North, she noticed a bank of dark clouds huddled on the horizon, flashing with blue-violet lights.

"They've been dead a day or two." Shark said grimly. "Killed quite violently, by the looks of it."

Tsunami glanced at her mother, Coral was gritting her teeth strongly, her eyes fixated forward. Her face was straight and unmoving, but her glance was loaded with an intense fury. Tsunami shuddered.

She slowly turned her gaze in the same direction. There, she saw Shark standing above the two corpses, studying what looked like deep claw marks and crushed limbs.

When he took a step back and cleared the view. She finally had the opportunity to acquire a better look at the two bodies.

One was an unknown typical brown chunky Mudwing, and the other was a blue Seawing with familiar scale patterns. It took her a moment to realize that she knew this Seawing, and she quickly figured why Queen Coral was making such a face.

That Seawing, it was Webs.