Prince Cliff was by far the teeniest dragon Peril had ever been this close to. If she hadn’t known that her scales were safe to touch, she would never have dared to stand so close, no matter what Queen Scarlet’s orders were. She tried to wink at him in a friendly way, but she must have done it wrong — friendly winks weren’t exactly something she’d ever had a chance to practice — since it just made him throw his wings over his head and curl into a shivering ball.

She didn’t love that. She wanted to hug him — she could hug dragons now! — and tell him not to be scared, that she wasn’t scary at all, not anymore. But she had her orders, and she couldn’t ruin Queen Scarlet’s plan, not when it was working so well.

They’d marched the dragonet out of the wingery and down the long winding tunnels with SkyWings scattering in panic before them. Three guards had tried to resist, standing firm at the entrance to the throne room. But when Peril stepped toward them with her talons outstretched, one outright fainted with terror, and the other two were distracted long enough for Scarlet to leap forward and kill them.

“Much better,” Scarlet said with satisfaction, shoving the bodies to the side of the door and then setting all three guards on fire. The one who was only unconscious woke up screaming, but the screams didn’t last very long.

Chameleon herded Cliff into the throne room and plunked him on the lower visitors’ throne, which Burn had often used during alliance meetings. Queen Scarlet swarmed onto her own throne, the tall column carved in the shape of clouds that sat in the center of nearly all Peril’s memories of her. Queen Scarlet, issuing orders. Queen Scarlet, scolding Peril for whatever new thing she’d done wrong. Queen Scarlet, choosing who would die under Peril’s talons today.

The queen poked at her throne for a few minutes, sniffing with disgust as though she could smell traces of Ruby on it, and then she settled herself majestically and stared out the open wall opposite her. From up there, Peril knew, the queen could see a sweeping view of her kingdom, the Claws of the Clouds Mountains scratching the sky all the way to the far horizon.

“Stand next to the prince,” Scarlet ordered Peril. “Close enough to grab him if anyone comes in.”

Cliff whimpered and tried to make himself smaller.

“I remember when you hatched,” Queen Scarlet said to the little red dragonet. “It was like someone had woken up Ruby for the first time in years. I’m afraid your mother has always been very, very boring. No spark in her at all, which of course is why I allowed her to live. But when she saw you for the first time, suddenly there were sparks. You’d think your scales were plated with gold and you’d crawled out with sapphires wrapped around your tail. I can understand a dragon getting excited about treasure, but that excited about an ordinary dragonet? It was very weird. You are merely ordinary, aren’t you, little grandson? I can tell.”

“No,” Cliff said suddenly, sitting up and puffing out his chest. “I is not.”

Scuffling and stamping sounds came from the hall outside the throne room, as if a couple of dragons were trying to put out the last of the fire. The queen watched with narrow eyes as a dragon with bright red scales edged inside and threw himself into a deep bow before her.

“Mother!” he said with a little too much enthusiasm.

She kept her gaze fixed on him, smoke rising from her nostrils.

“Your Majesty!” he added quickly. “You’re alive! You’ve returned! What a, uh — what a glorious day for the Sky Kingdom! We’re all so, so, so, uh, blessed and lucky and relieved! Yes. This is thrilling, it really is.”

“Vermilion,” said the queen, and Peril shivered. The weight of the fury in that one word — Peril hoped she’d never have to hear Scarlet say “Peril” like that. She might as well have called her son “Disappointment.”

“A great day,” he said, his voice hiccupping over the words. He threw a confused look at Peril, as if he didn’t expect to see her there, which was odd because where else would she be? “So … great.”

“Tell me, Vermilion,” the queen growled. “Why exactly did you allow your sister to steal MY throne?”

“Steal — she —” he stammered. “I didn’t — we thought —”

“Did you really think I was dead?” Queen Scarlet sat up and spread her wings so she loomed over the whole space. “Me?”

“Y-y-yes?” he tried, his expression clearly indicating that he wasn’t sure which answer would get him killed faster.

“Really,” she said. “Oh, never mind the dreams, is that it? Every night for MONTHS, I came to you. I told you where I was. I told you to send an army for me. Then after I escaped from Burn, I told you to meet me. I told you to form a plan to get my throne back. I told you to kill your sister. Did you do even one of those things, Vermilion?”

Yikes, Peril thought. She remembered the nightly visits from Scarlet, full of guilt and rage and expectations. It hadn’t occurred to her that Queen Scarlet might be using the dreamvisitor to stalk other dragons besides her. Poor Vermilion.

“But — I didn’t know it was real,” he protested weakly. “Could have been my, um … subconscious.”

“You mean your guilty conscience?” Queen Scarlet snapped. “Except I told you about the dreamvisitor. I followed you through every normal dream you had. Every night you promised to do as I commanded.”

“And then I woke up,” he said miserably, “and it seemed crazy to obey a dream … ”

“Or a queen who wasn’t right in front of you,” Scarlet guessed. “Because it was easier to be a coward, and obey my little mouse daughter, and hope I never came back, rather than to be loyal to your true queen.”

“I’m sorry.” Vermilion dropped his head and his wings drooped to the floor. “I know you’re going to kill me. Or would you rather have me kill myself?”

“Not just yet,” Scarlet said, flicking her tail. “I want to know what Ruby has ruined in my absence. It looks like she’s been prying my treasure right out of the walls in here.”

Peril glanced around and realized the queen was right. The throne room used to have so much gold inlaid in the walls that stepping inside on a bright day would give you an instant headache. At least half of that gold was gone now, leaving only wisps of cloud shapes here and there.

“Um,” said Vermilion. “Yes. About that.”

“Or was it other dragons stealing from me?” Queen Scarlet guessed. “As soon as they thought I was gone and they knew a weakling was in power — did they immediately start stripping the bones of the palace?”

“No, no,” Vermilion said. “No one did that! It was Ruby. She took the gold and used it to, uh — she —”

“Spit it out,” the queen hissed.

“She turned your arena into a hospital,” he blurted. “She pardoned all the prisoners and brought in doctors and healers from other tribes to teach ours everything they know and she made space for all the wounded soldiers from the war and she’s been finding them all places to live and jobs to do and using the gold for all of that.”

A long silence followed. Queen Scarlet flicked her tongue out and in, regarding Vermilion with slitted yellow eyes.

“You like her,” she said suddenly. “You think Ruby is a good queen.”

“No!” he protested, flapping his wings with alarm. “Never! You’re the only good queen! I liked my arena job! It’s absolutely terrible here now! We always loved all the, uh, the fighting! We missed you so much!”

“Hmmm,” said the queen. “Well, luckily your opinion counts for nothing. The throne is mine again now, and Ruby can either accept that or fight me and die.” She cast a sideways glance at Prince Cliff, and a serpentine grin slipped across her face. “When is my hapless daughter scheduled to return?” she asked.

“Tomorrow morning,” said Vermilion. “She sent an advance messenger.”

“Excellent.” Queen Scarlet tapped her claws on the edge of the throne. “I think I’ll wait for her right here. Vermilion, make an effort to be useful and send up food from the kitchens.” She hesitated, then added with a growl, “Perhaps it’s worth noting to anyone involved that Prince Cliff will be tasting everything before I eat it.”

Oh, Peril thought. She’s afraid of being poisoned? She never was before …

Vermilion bowed again and stumbled out the door in his haste to be gone.

The night wore on with a procession of SkyWings skittering through the throne room, bowing and scraping and apologizing and extolling the wonders of Scarlet’s return. But Peril couldn’t help thinking there should be more of them. The halls were quieter than she remembered them being, and there was a general hush over the palace, as if half the dragons were in hiding, waiting for something to change.

Waiting for Ruby to return, presumably — waiting to see what would happen and who would win.

The ones who came in were betting on Scarlet, hoping that by throwing themselves at her feet right away, they’d be safe and perhaps even elevated in her renewed regime. Peril could see Queen Scarlet assessing them each, filing their faces away in her memory. Five of the biggest dragons were assigned to stand guard, filling the throne room the way it had always been filled.

And yet … Peril was sure she wasn’t the only one in here wondering how deep each SkyWing’s loyalty really went.

At least she has me, she thought. She stretched out her talons to look at them, feeling pleased. It’ll be worth it eventually, all these looks of hatred I keep getting, because soon they’ll know this new me. Soon Queen Scarlet will be back in power, safe and sound, and I can start changing everyone’s minds about me.

Still, there was something unsettling about the looks, as though her scales were thinner now that they weren’t firescales.

Or maybe the looks were different. There was something about them that said betrayal and backstabber where before it had just been normal fear.

Strange. Maybe she was imagining things.

Long after midnight, Queen Scarlet curled her tail in and fell asleep on her throne. Peril’s father, too, was already asleep, his big orange wings flopped out on the floor on the far side of the throne from Peril and Cliff.

The little prince was not asleep, though. He was tracing his claws along the grooves in the rock below him, singing softly to himself. At one point he sat up, looked up at the sleeping queen, and then glanced hopefully at Peril.

“Sorry,” she said, hoping her voice sounded kind, although to her ears it mostly sounded drippy. “I’m under orders to stay awake all night. Which means not letting you escape.”

He looked down at his claws again. “OK.” He poked the rock once more, then raised his giant eyes to her again. They were sort of the color of goldfish, a golden orange that was much prettier than Scarlet’s yellow eyes. “Want to hear a song?” he whispered.

“A song?” Peril said. “Really?”

“I made it up myself just nowish,” he said.

“All right, but quietly,” said Peril. “The queen would really hate to be woken up.”

“The quee — oh, you mean Grandmother,” he said.

Peril stifled a laugh. She didn’t think anyone had ever dared call Queen Scarlet “grandmother” before.

“Ready?” Prince Cliff flipped his wings back and stretched his long neck theatrically. “You the audience, so listen up:

We the dragons of the sky

We can fly and fly and fly

We go up so super high

We the dragons of the sky

And we know my mom is best

Better queen than all the rest

She come save us from this mess

We the dragons dragons dragons of the sky!”

Peril arched her brows at him. Cliff gave her a cheeky smile. “What you think?” he asked.

“I think maybe don’t sing that song to your grandma,” Peril suggested.

“I think maybe mess and rest don’t rhyme so right,” he said. “Test. West. Vest! Hmmm. I’m a good rhymer, Mommy says so.”

“You don’t seem all that scared anymore,” said Peril.

“Yeah,” he said with a small flick of his dark red tail. “Because Uncle Vermilion said Mommy’s coming in the morning, and she makes everything better no matter what.”

Peril wondered if she could actually collapse around the chasm that had suddenly yawned in her chest. She makes everything better. Peril had never felt that way about anyone. Queen Scarlet kept her alive, gave her a purpose, valued her … but made things better? No. Mostly Peril’s days were made worse whenever she encountered the queen.

So why do you follow her? whispered a tiny part of her brain.

Because what choice do I have? Peril whispered back. Who else am I going to follow? No one else wants me.

“Grandma’s kind of mean,” Cliff observed, watching Peril’s face closely. “Mommy said she was but I thought she couldn’t be because no one is ever mean to me but then she really was, did you see?”

“What did you think was so mean?” Peril asked curiously.

“She said I’s ordinary!” Cliff drew himself up to his full tiny height, looking outraged. “Me! I never! So mean!”

“What’s so bad about being ordinary?” Peril opened and closed her talons again, feeling her new secret prickle along her palms. “Sounds great to me.”

“WHAT?” Cliff’s voice was loud enough to make Queen Scarlet stir in her sleep and Peril shushed him quickly. He lowered himself into a crouch and whispered furiously, “Mommy says I’m special. Everyone say it. I be number one most beautiful singer in Pyrrhia one day! Friends with every dragon in the whole world! Mommy thinks I can do anything and great things and all things!”

“Wow,” Peril said. “Friends with every dragon?”

“Yup,” Cliff said proudly. “I gotta practice my ‘no, no, leave me alone’ face, or else everyone want to be with me ALLLLLLS the time.”

“Don’t wish to be alone,” Peril advised. “Alone is awful.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Probably. Better than ordinary, though.”

She shook her head. “You’re a weird little dragonet.”

Cliff’s eyes were hopeful again. “So … maybe escape now then?” He sidled toward the edge of the throne.

“Nope, no, sorry,” Peril said, waving him back. “We wait for your mother. And then she won’t be queen anymore — you know that, right?”

He hummed a line of his song. “We see.” He paced around the top of the throne for a moment before finally lying down and then, at last, quietly singing himself to sleep.

Peril did not sleep. She watched the stars creep slowly across the night sky; she watched a distant meteor streak between two of the moons; she watched the little prince’s breath rise and fall in small puffs of smoke. She watched the sun slide and sprawl lazily across the mountain peaks as it rose, and very soon after sunrise, she saw the shapes of a wing of dragons flying toward them at full speed.

Ruby knows, Peril guessed. Someone snuck out to warn her.

“Your Majesty,” she whispered to the queen. “Ruby is coming.”

Queen Scarlet was awake in an instant. She ran her talons over her spikes and flexed her claws. She made sure her jewelry was all adjusted perfectly. For a moment her talons hovered over her scarred face, as if she wanted to tear it off, but then they dropped and she lifted her chin, glowering defiantly out at the approaching dragons.

It wasn’t long before they swooped in through the opening — Ruby and more guards than Peril could count in a glance. But Ruby was in the lead, landing in a run that brought her nearly to the foot of the thrones before the five guards stepped in her way.

“Mommy!” Cliff cried. He leaped up, waving his wings joyfully.

“Not another step,” Queen Scarlet said in a voice of pure ice. “Or you know exactly what will happen to your precious dragonet.”