Winter roared with fury, struggling to fight back, but his attacker had him expertly immobilized.

“Stop it! Get off him!” Moon yelled. Winter couldn’t see much, with his snout pressed into the ground, but he felt the weight of dragons pushing and grappling on his wings.

“He’s on our side!” Kinkajou cried. “Or he was before you randomly attacked him for no reason. Now he’ll never like us again!”

“I wasn’t going to anyway!” Winter bellowed as best he could, seething with rage and humiliation. “I didn’t like you before either! I don’t like any of you! And I’m going to MURDER this NightWing!”

“I don’t know, he sounds kind of murder-y, Kinkajou,” said the voice. “And we heard there’s an extra-dangerous IceWing on the loose right now. So I’m going to keep sitting on him until I get further instructions.”

“I’m instructing you!” Kinkajou yelped. “He’s not the dangerous one! That’s his sister!”

“It’s true,” Qibli chimed in. “This one is honorable. He’s no sneak-in-the-night assassin.”

“Hey, ouch,” said the dragon on top of Winter. “Nothing wrong with assassins. Who said there was anything dishonorable about assassins? They’re just not allowed to kill my — my queen. It’s my job to stop them and drop some violence on their heads, but I’m not judging them, sheesh.”

“He’s not here to kill Glory,” Moon said. “If he were, he would tell you, and he’d challenge her in open combat.”

Would I? Winter wondered. True, I wouldn’t hurt a nothing RainWing, but if I’d had a chance to kill the NightWing queen, would I have done it the honorable way, or any way possible?

What would Mother have wanted me to do?

Any way possible, he guessed. That was how Icicle and Hailstorm had been trained.

“DEATHBRINGER!” another new voice thundered, loud enough to rattle the leaves overhead. “What are you doing?”

“Saving you, protecting the forest, defending our new home, sitting on a very cold IceWing,” said the NightWing from his perch on Winter’s back. “You know, the usual.”

A murmur eddied through the village as footsteps approached. Winter tried to wriggle around to see who was coming, but Deathbringer reached out and gently pinned his head to the ground again. A grotesque greenish-brown beetle with about four thousand legs came scuttling up and began creeping curiously onto Winter’s nose.

“Stop arresting my guests,” said the newcomer, pausing beside Winter. “It’s not romantic or heroic, it’s annoying. I’ve told you this before.”

“I know,” Deathbringer said, sounding aggrieved. “But look, it’s an IceWing. Sunny specifically said an IceWing tried to kill all the prophecy dragonets. This is definitely a pinion-before-asking-questions kind of situation.”

“All right, OFF,” Glory said firmly. The weight on top of Winter suddenly lifted as if she’d hauled Deathbringer off with her own talons. “I am going to replace you as my bodyguard if you seriously can’t tell the difference between a male IceWing traveling with my friends Kinkajou and Moonwatcher, and a lone female IceWing out to kill me. Pay a little more attention to detail, Deathbringer. Also, by the way, you’re one to talk about killing prophecy dragonets.”

Winter scrambled upright, flinging the beetle off his nose and baring his teeth as he spun around.

His attacker was a NightWing a few years older than him, wiry and graceful and clearly trained to fight from the way he stood and the way he was assessing Winter.

Winter lunged toward him and found his way blocked by a dark green dragon with flares of orange around her ears and along the underside of her wings. She reached out and took one of Winter’s talons, pressing it between hers and lowering her head in a small bow.

“We are so honored to have Queen Glacier’s nephew in our forest,” she said. “I sincerely apologize for the outrageous behavior of my brain-dead bodyguard. You should have been escorted at once to my royal pavilion, not attacked in such a disrespectful manner.”

She glanced around at the gawking NightWings. “Everyone back to work, right now.”

To Winter’s surprise, they obeyed her, although there were a few muttered grumbles and two or three dragons who moved deliberately slowly.

He hesitated. Every bone in his body wanted to fly into a rage and rip Deathbringer’s wings off. He couldn’t let a NightWing treat him that way, especially in front of all the other NightWings, and get away with it.

But he’d never been greeted as visiting royalty before, and there was something irresistibly compelling about the way Queen Glory beckoned him to walk beside her, as if they were equals.

“Will he be punished?” Winter demanded.

“Oh, yes,” Glory said, frowning at Deathbringer. “Creatively and firmly.”

“Very well,” Winter said. He shook as much dirt off his wings as he could and stepped up regally beside Glory. “I don’t have time to punish him myself anyway. We have urgent matters to discuss.”

“Indeed,” said the queen, turning to lead the way out of the village. Behind him, Winter heard Moon saying good-bye to her mother, and the others hurrying to join him. “Sunny told me some of the details, but I hope you can fill in the rest.”

“I can!” Kinkajou offered, bouncing up on Glory’s other side. “Winter’s sister, Icicle, who is, like, wicked scary, by the way, was secretly conspiring with Queen Scarlet because it turns out Winter’s brother is, like, actually alive, not dead like everyone thought, and Scarlet’s totally got him locked up somewhere, so Icicle was going to kill Starflight to get him back, except then Moon and Qibli and Winter completely heroically stopped her and it was apparently amazing and I missed the whole thing! Can you believe it? And so then Icicle flew off and we figure she’s coming here to kill you, so we’re here to completely heroically stop her again and also find out what she knows so we can rescue Winter’s brother ourselves. Also, hello, school is awesome, how are you?”

“You’re in as much trouble as Deathbringer,” Glory said sternly, looking down at the dragonet. “What were you thinking, leaving school without permission? When everyone was already in such a state? Do you know how worried Sunny and Clay have been?”

Kinkajou stopped in her tracks with an expression of deep dismay and an explosion of dark blue splotches across her scales. “Oh, no!” she cried. “I’m sorry! Didn’t Turtle tell them where we went?”

“Yes, and that certainly helped,” Glory said with a snort. “Good news: Four of your students have gone off to find a dragon who just tried to kill you, in order to find another dragon who has tried to kill you about ninety dozen times. Oh excellent, thanks, Turtle. Now we don’t have to worry at all. I mean, we were hoping somebody would take care of the vengeful and deadly Queen Scarlet for us. Preferably a bunch of five-year-olds. Very reassuring indeed.”

Moon ducked her head. “Sorry, Your Majesty,” she said. “This felt … urgent.”

She glanced sideways at Winter and an odd flicker of something like gratitude went off in his chest — stupid, stupid. As if he cared that she knew how important it was to find his brother.

I didn’t ask for help and I don’t need it.

“It is urgent!” Kinkajou said. “We think Icicle is coming here next! To kill you!”

“That’s what I said,” offered Deathbringer, who was trailing behind them with an expression that looked closer to amused than repentant. “Ahem. AHEM.”

Glory considered Kinkajou thoughtfully. “Do you really think so?”

“Absolutely,” Qibli interjected. “You’re the only target she has left. It’s the smart choice for her. I’d wager a month of lizards on it.”

“That would be irritating,” Glory said. “If Deathbringer turns out to be right, I mean. It makes him really insufferable.”

“I am here to search for my sister,” Winter said to Queen Glory. “I just need your assurance that no one will interfere with me while I do that.” He cast a dark glance over his shoulder at Deathbringer.

“I think we can do better than that,” said the queen. She stopped and tilted her snout at one of the branches overhead. “Banana?”

Winter frowned. “No, thank you.”

But as he spoke, he noticed a shimmering in the air around the branch, and then all at once there was a dragon sitting there in a rather hideous shade of pink that Winter had never seen before.

“Actually, it’s Heliconia, Your Majesty,” said the RainWing. “But good guess.”

Glory flicked her tail. “Heliconia, please tell my scout captains to meet me at the pavilion as soon as possible.”

The pink dragon’s scales started fading into shades of blue. “But I shouldn’t leave you unguarded, Majesty.”

The RainWing queen waved her talons at the surrounding trees. “I think seven guards are quite sufficient. One might call it overkill, in fact. One might even infer that somebody doesn’t think he can do his job properly on his own. Also that he must think I’m either blind and deaf or recently hit on the head, that I wouldn’t notice the addition of five more dragons following me around.”

“The whole point of a top secret invisible guard,” Deathbringer said severely, “is for them to be invisible and secret. Therefore it is extremely unhelpful for certain queens to go pointing them out and discussing them loudly with the entire rainforest.”

“Go now,” Glory said to Heliconia, ignoring Deathbringer. The RainWing guard bowed immediately and vanished. Winter could barely hear her wingbeats flapping away over the buzzing, dripping sounds of the rainforest.

He curled his talons and stared up at the trees. There were seven other dragons up there, watching them? He couldn’t see any sign of even one.

All right, he admitted to himself, grudgingly. That’s kind of an impressive skill. IceWings were good at hiding in the snow, of course, but here in the rainforest he stuck out like a broken wing. Which means Icicle will, too, at least.

“The pavilion is a short flight this way,” Glory explained to Winter. “I had it built halfway between the NightWings and the RainWings for anything official.” She took to the air, and Winter and the others followed her. He strained his ears to listen for the sound of seven extra pairs of wings flying alongside them, but it was impossible to separate them out from the others.

Queen Glory’s royal pavilion was a vast platform in the air, built on the branches of a circle of tall, overlapping trees. Winter guessed that it was about midway between the ground and the treetops — middle ground for the NightWings and RainWings. It had a roof made of the same translucent leaves he’d seen in the library windows at Jade Mountain, constructed atop twisted wooden columns instead of walls so the pavilion was open to the air but sheltered from the rain. Purple and blue morning glory flowers hung like bells from the vines that wound around each column, and delicate white-orange-pink orchids grew from the mossy crevices of the trees.

They landed one by one, shaking out their wings and sinking their talons into the clawmarked wooden floor. Winter’s gaze swept over the interior of the pavilion, which was almost empty. Two scroll racks stood on either side of a simple raised dais, only a few inches higher than the rest of the platform. Not much of a throne, Winter reflected as Glory climbed onto it and settled herself with her tail around her claws.

“Now,” she said, “I know who you all are, but let’s officially meet anyway. I’m Glory, queen of the RainWings and the NightWings. My overenthusiastic bodyguard there is Deathbringer.” She lifted one talon into the air and a sleek, beautiful gray sloth clambered down from the roof beams to curl up on her shoulder. “And this is Silver.”

“Royal pet, not royal lunch,” Qibli said to Winter, nudging his wing. “So try not to eat it, if you can restrain yourself. I’m Qibli, Your Majesty. One of Queen Thorn’s advisors.”

“Welcome. And then we have Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, and of course, Prince Winter,” said Glory. “My friends will be very relieved that you’re all safe. Jade Mountain is a bit of a mess right now, and it didn’t help to have one entire winglet disappear.”

“Sorry,” Kinkajou squeaked.

“Sorry,” Moon agreed, looking down at her talons.

There was a pause. The queen gazed sternly down her nose at the other dragons.

“All right, I’m sorry for making them worry,” Qibli said. “But Winter can’t go searching for Icicle and Hailstorm all by himself.”

“Yes, I can,” Winter said sharply. “That’s the entire plan. That’s what I’m going to do.” It suddenly occurred to him to wonder what would happen if someone else found Icicle before he did. Would they try to hurt her? They’d end up dead if they did; she was bigger, more ferocious, and ten times better trained than any of these little dragons.

His insides gave a weird lurch as he imagined what would happen if she found Moon unguarded. Icicle would definitely kill her — the NightWing who’d foiled her plan to kill Starflight. The NightWing who was already too close to her brother, from Icicle’s point of view.

If she knew how I’ve been feeling about Moon — she’d be even more likely to kill her, he realized.

Not that he felt that way about Moon anymore. He couldn’t. Moon had lied to him and invaded his mind. He could put her safely back in the category of “Despicable, Conniving NightWings I Hate.”

He glanced over at her as she lifted her head and met his eyes. Something in her expression said, “I will help you whether you let me or not.” Much like the first time they’d met, when she’d protected his scavenger no matter how he threatened her.

It doesn’t mean anything, this twisting feeling in my chest. I can hate her and still not want Icicle to kill her. It doesn’t mean that I care about her.

“Well, let’s see,” Glory said, sitting up alertly. “Here come my watchers.”

Dragons began appearing out of the leaves, materializing like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. In alarmingly bright shades of yellow, blue, and pink, they swooped into the pavilion and landed in a row in front of Queen Glory, until there were six dragons lined up. Although a “line” was hardly the right description for the slipshod way they were standing, some of them with their wings akimbo or their tails flopping all over the place.

No discipline, Winter thought disapprovingly, remembering the rigid, perfectly coiled lines of guards that attended Queen Glacier.

He also remembered practicing for hours to get that stance just right: his wings folded exactly so, his tail in the right position, his snout up and shoulders back. It was agony to hold that pose for too long, but his mother had made him stand like that before every meal, making him wait until she approved before letting him eat. These RainWings need someone to whip them into shape, he thought, resettling his tail with a small rattle of spikes.

“I called you in to ask if any of you have seen any sign of an IceWing today,” Queen Glory said. “For those of you who don’t remember the lessons, those are the white or blue dragons with spiked tails and cold scales.”

One of the RainWings leaned toward her. In a loud whisper that carried to the other side of the pavilion, he hissed, “Your Majesty, I think there’s one of them right behind me.”

The dragon next to him looked around in alarm, spotted Winter, and leaped backward, nearly knocking one of her companions off the platform.

“Oh my gosh, is that what they look like?” she cried. “Why’s it pointy all over?”

“Look at its tail!” yelped another. “It really is all spiky!”

“And can you feel how cold it is? Whoa, that’s so weird,” said a fourth, reaching for Winter’s wing. Winter twitched back and growled at her.

Glory exhaled slowly through her nose. “This is our guest, Prince Winter of the IceWings. Have you seen any dragons today that look like him?”

“No,” they all answered, almost in unison.

“Would’ve noticed if I did!” one of them offered. “Look at how sparkly he is, like raindrops on a cobweb or something.”

“I’ll say,” agreed another. “Plus brrrr, I think I’d have woken up if something that cold went by me.”

“Me too!” said a third.

The queen closed her eyes eloquently.

Deathbringer cleared his throat. “Permission to check with the backup NightWing guards?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” Glory said, waving him away. “But make sure you tell them if they do see an IceWing, they are to follow her, not attack her, especially if they’re on their own.”

Deathbringer bowed and spread his wings.

“That includes you!” Glory yelled after him as he flew away. “Keep your claws to yourself!”

“Can’t hear you,” he called back cheerfully.

Winter glanced sideways at Moon and found her staring intently at one of the RainWing watchers.

“Um,” Moon said. “Your Majesty, can I ask —”

“Yes?” Glory said, waving her talons. “Speak up.”

“Just — even if they didn’t see an IceWing,” Moon blurted in a hurry, “anything suspicious — like something frozen or colder than usual …” She trailed off.

She knows that RainWing saw something, Winter guessed. She saw it in his head. But of course, she hadn’t told Queen Glory she could read minds yet.

“Well … there was this weird spot near the oldest giant banyan tree,” the RainWing scout mused, almost to himself. “I did notice something funny there.”

“What do you mean?” Glory asked him.

“There was a spot on the ground that was all shriveled up, kind of,” the RainWing answered. His scales were royal blue, dotted with little swirls of dark pink. “It looked like something had killed all the plants in a circle there, and they were kind of crusty and white-ish and the berries were as hard as rocks. Oh, and kind of cold, too. Do you think that’s important?”

Winter flared his wings. “Where was this?” he demanded. “How far away?”

“I know where the banyan tree is,” Glory said, already rising. She untangled Silver from her neck and deposited the sloth on a nearby branch. “We can be there in a few minutes. The rest of you, stay here.”

“Can’t I come, too?” Moon asked. “I can be useful. I —” She stopped, struggling for words. Winter realized that she was hoping her mind reading could help.

“Me too!” Kinkajou cried. “I want to come!”

“No,” Queen Glory said firmly. “I am your queen, both of you, and I’m ordering you to stay here.”

Winter wished he could insist on going by himself, but he needed someone to show him the way. And if he was perfectly honest … someone who could sense Icicle’s mind nearby would probably come in handy.

“Moon can come,” he said with what he hoped was an offhanded shrug. “That’s fine. Not her, though; she’s far too loud.” He jerked his chin at Kinkajou.

“I AM NOT,” Kinkajou protested. “That’s so unfair!”

“Kinkajou, you wanted me to be queen, and now you have to listen to me,” Glory said. “Stay here, because if you get killed by an IceWing, I’m going to be extremely mad at you.” She glanced from Winter to Moon, a wrinkle of puzzlement on her forehead. “But all right, Moon, come along.”

Soon the three of them were soaring through the trees. Well, trying to soar — Winter kept getting his wings tangled in unexpected vines or spiderwebs or branches or, once, snagged on the nest of a large-beaked indignant red bird.

After a few minutes of flying, Queen Glory stopped abruptly and swung around.

“That is a level of noisy that makes me think you aren’t even trying to be stealthy,” she said. “Come on out.”

Qibli emerged sheepishly from behind a tree with huge leaves. “I was trying to be stealthy,” he protested. “But there’s too many things to crash into. I’m a wide-open-desert kind of dragon.”

Winter shook off a tangle of moss and branches, disgruntled to realize he agreed with the SandWing about something.

“What did I say about staying put?” Glory asked.

“You’re a great queen, I hear, but with all due respect, you’re not my queen,” Qibli said, setting his jaw. “I go where they go. Besides, Winter wants me along, he just can’t admit it.”

“I don’t,” Winter said. “You can send him back to the Kingdom of Sand for all I care.”

“He adores me,” Qibli said.

Glory rolled her eyes. “Fine, enough arguing. Let’s go.”

Qibli shot Winter a delighted grin and flapped over to fly beside Moon. She was surprisingly dexterous at moving between the trees and dodging stray branches. Even Glory still ran into things occasionally, but Moon slipped easily through the forest, like a seal diving in the waves.

Soon they were descending toward an absolutely enormous fat tree with bulging branches and knobbly roots sticking out of the undergrowth. From the air, Winter spotted the circle the RainWing had mentioned. The frozen berries had melted into mushy puddles of purple, while the leaves and undergrowth were all black and damp.

But it wasn’t a neat circle — there were patches of green still left within the circumference of it. Which meant something had been blocking Icicle’s frostbreath in those spots.

Something … or someone.

Glory and Moon circled the tree while Winter and Qibli landed and studied the rainforest floor. A sharp headache was starting to work its way through Winter’s brain. He didn’t want this to be true. He wanted to find Icicle, but he didn’t want to find out that she’d done something else terrible.

The layers of leaves and bracken were disturbed here, as if something had been dragged away. Qibli noticed it, too; his snout wrinkled with concern. Winter followed the trail, trying to guess what he would have done in this situation.

Hidden the body. To give myself more time before I was caught. But she couldn’t have dragged it far. Maybe I’m just imagining the worst. Maybe she killed a rainforest boar … a really big one? … and dragged it off to eat. Maybe …

Winter paced over to a wall of bushes where the ground began to slope up. The banyan’s roots extended this far, some of them nearly as fat around as a dragon.

Between one of the roots and the bushes was a mound of leaves, dirt, moss, and mulch that looked too big to be natural.

His heart sinking, Winter started to clear away the debris. Moon and Qibli joined him, helping silently.

The corpse of a NightWing guard lay beneath the dirt in a hastily dug hollow, his face contorted in frozen rage, his throat slashed, and his scales ravaged by frostbreath.

Icicle was definitely here.