Escaping Peril

by Tui T. Sutherland

  Peril hadn’t actually expected him to say yes. Nobody ever let her help with anything. Even Clay usually got sort of flappy and nervous whenever she offered.

  She folded her wings back and reached forward tentatively with one claw. Turtle closed his eyes, frozen in place.

  Peril’s claw lightly brushed the thorny seedpod, and it burst into flames. Immediately she saw a dark scorched patch start to spread where the thorns touched Turtle’s scales, but she only caught a glimpse of it before Turtle dove into the water and swam to the bottom.

  She paced along the bank, trying to squint at him through the shifting reflections. He was a huddled green lump at the bottom of the river for way too long — it made her own lungs ache to wait for him. But he was clearly fine, definitely moving, and fiddling with something that flashed white-gray.

  Weird.

  Finally he surfaced, spraying water out of his nose and looking extremely pleased with himself. Peril’s eyes went straight to the spot where she’d burned him … but there was no scorch mark there anymore. His scales looked whole and unblemished all over, as if neither fire nor thorns had ever wounded him. She couldn’t even figure out where the seedpods had been.

  “How did you do that?” she demanded. “Water doesn’t heal SeaWings that quickly.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Turtle said with a shrug. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

  “I’m not worried, I’m deeply suspicious,” Peril clarified. “That’s not normal scale behavior right there.”

  “Turtle?”

  They both jumped at the voice that came from the sky. Peril realized she’d been watching Turtle so closely she hadn’t kept an eye out for approaching danger — or anyone who might realize she’d set off the cactus. Genius, Peril. If there is an animus NightWing stalking you, you’re making it pretty easy for him.

  But the dragon above them was a SandWing, and Turtle gave a cry of delight when he saw him.

  “Qibli!” Turtle leaped into the air and nearly bowled him out of the sky. They swooped around each other for a moment, doing cheerful flips in the air and thumping one another’s wings, which appeared to be some kind of code for “happy to see you.” A moment later, a small NightWing came soaring over from the direction of the explosion and Turtle made more dopey delighted noises at her.

  I guess we found his friends. Peril flicked her tail and accidentally splashed herself in the face. Probably thanks to me, by the way. I bet they came to check out the fire. I wonder if Turtle will realize that.

  She stood up and paced in a circle in the mud. All the places she’d been stabbed with thorns still hurt, but at least the seedpods were gone. Maybe she should fly away before Turtle came down with his judgmental friends. Maybe she didn’t need anyone else to look for Scarlet anyhow.

  But it was too late; green and black and yellow wings were descending toward the island, along with three dragon faces that ranged from friendly through wary and straight on to hostile.

  Which is just fine, Peril thought, meeting Qibli’s eyes with all the fire she could put into hers. I am prepared to dislike you, too. Who cares what you think? Are YOU the most dangerous dragon in Pyrrhia, NO, I THINK NOT.

  “Peril, this is Moon and Qibli,” said Turtle, beaming all over his stupid round face as if this should be the most delightful thing that had ever happened to any of them.

  She couldn’t remember noticing either of these dragons before. They looked completely ordinary, not like anyone worth crossing an entire continent to find. Not like dragons who were so much more awesome to be friends with than her.

  The NightWing had a glittering silver scale at the corners of each eye, like teardrops, and little furrows in her forehead as though she had a perpetual headache. Now that everyone knew NightWings didn’t have powers after all, Peril was sure Moon would be an easy opponent to take down in the arena. Hypothetically, if there still had been an arena, of course.

  The SandWing didn’t look like much of a threat either, apart from that venomous tail. Peril had been in plenty of fights where her first move was grabbing a SandWing’s tail to burn off the barb at the end. As long as Scarlet didn’t need her to drag out the fight, most SandWings only took a few minutes to defeat. No doubt this one was pretty dim and correspondingly slow.

  “You’re wrong about that,” Moon said.

  Peril shifted her gaze to the black dragon, who was studying Peril intently. “What?” Peril asked.

  “Qibli is probably one of the smartest dragons in Pyrrhia,” Moon answered. “I bet he’s already figured out five different ways to defeat you right here if he needed to.”

  Qibli cocked his head and gave Moon a delighted sideways smile. “Only three so far,” he said. “But thanks.”

  Peril blinked at Moon, feeling like little dragonflame cacti were going off inside her head. “Did you — but —”

  “Yes,” Moon said. “I’m a mind reader. So you should probably stop thinking about how exactly you would kill us if you needed to.”

  “Was she really?” Turtle said, sounding perfectly astonished, as if that wasn’t the first thing most dragons thought about when they met dragons outside their own tribes.

  (Wasn’t it?)

  Peril whipped her head around to glare at Turtle. “You brought me to meet a mind reader?” she said. “And you didn’t think that might be worth mentioning sometime before now?”

  Was this a test? Maybe this was his plan all along … maybe he never trusted me, like Scarlet never trusted me, and he wanted to see what Moon would find in my head …

  Turtle shrugged. “It’s Moon’s secret. It’s up to her who she tells.”

  “I’m not entirely sure why Scarlet’s Dancing Monkey of Fiery Doom gets to be on that list, frankly,” said Qibli.

  “And remind me, you’re Thorn’s Dancing Monkey of what, exactly?” Peril demanded. “At least I was useful to my queen.”

  “I told her,” Moon interjected, opening one wing pointedly between them before Qibli could lunge at Peril, “because it’s the right thing to do, and because there’s no way to give her any skyfire, and also because I am hoping that if she knows I’m listening, she’ll try to have less disturbing thoughts.”

  That sounded complicated. Peril wrinkled her snout. How am I supposed to change my thoughts? They just appear in my head. I’ve never had to worry about them DISTURBING anyone before.

  “Maybe you should stop listening instead,” Peril said.

  Moon shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. But don’t worry about it too much … your thoughts are actually really hard to hear. Mostly all I get from your mind is heat and flames and —” She broke off, twitching her wings back awkwardly for a moment. “Anyway, it’s not as clear as most minds. You’re mostly safe from me.”

  “Tremendously comforting,” Peril said. She tried to fill up her head with more fire, hoping to burn out anything she didn’t want Moon to see, although really that was either everything or nothing. Whatever Moon already thought of her, from whatever scraps of thoughts she’d heard, none of the rest would make any difference — either she could stand all of Peril just the way she was, or she’d hate her for a small piece of her as much as for all the rest of it.

  Now she was giving herself a headache.

  “Is Kinkajou all right?” Turtle asked. “Where is she?”

  “And your hostile ice dragon?” Peril added.

  “Winter’s gone back to the Ice Kingdom,” Moon said. She glanced at Qibli. “Qibli thinks he’s coming back, but I’m not so sure. Kinkajou is … well, she’s recovering, we think, but she still hasn’t woken up.” She blinked several times rapidly. “She would be so excited to see you here,” she said to Turtle with a sad smile.

  “We were attacked by a dragon who’s working with Scarlet,” Qibli said. He squinted at Peril, then turned to Moon. “What did she think about that? Can you tell if she’s working for Scarlet, too?”

  “No, I don’t think she is,” said Moon, “… buuuut now she�
��s gone back to fantasizing about ways to kill you.”

  “Because that was RUDE,” Peril flared. “Poking around inside my brain to find the answer to a question I’ve already answered over and over. You can go stuff a mountain goat up your nose, SandWing! Horns first! I’m looking for Scarlet to stop her, not help her. Why are there so many stupid dragons who can’t see that?”

  “Well,” Qibli said, “you did help her escape from Burn’s stronghold not that long ago.”

  “That —” Peril sputtered. “That was just — that — but Burn was the bad guy then! I couldn’t leave my queen trapped in that place. Nobody would!”

  “Your queen?” Qibli challenged. “Isn’t Ruby your queen now?”

  Peril drew herself up, glaring at him, knowing that Moon must be hearing all her fears about Ruby scattering about inside her head. “I don’t have to explain myself to you, sand snorter. We are only here to find out what you know about where Scarlet is.” She turned her fierce gaze on Moon and the NightWing flinched. “Then I’ll take my disturbing thoughts right out of your life forever. Is the plan.”

  “It’s true, we have to find her,” Turtle explained. “She attacked Jade Academy!” Moon blinked and Qibli’s tail arched reflexively, his talons digging into the mud.

  “She did not,” Peril said, rolling her eyes at him. “She flew by, threw a decapitated head at us, and flew away again. That wasn’t an attack. That was more like a declaration of war. If she ever decides to really attack you, you’ll know.”

  “A decapitated head?” Moon echoed with alarm. “Sunny said Scarlet was there making threats … but she didn’t mention a head.”

  “Was it our fault?” Qibli asked immediately. “She must be furious about us escaping with Hailstorm. What if we enraged her into coming out of hiding?”

  “That seems extremely likely,” Peril said. “I imagine just meeting you would enrage Queen Scarlet to the point of wanting to kill several dragons.”

  “Ha ha!” Turtle said, as though Peril were kidding, which she clearly was not. “So where did you encounter Scarlet?”

  “In a part of the mountains not far from here,” Moon said. “But I’m sure she wouldn’t still be there. I don’t see how we can help you … the only way we found her before was because she was using the dreamvisitor and left clues.”

  Peril hated that dreamvisitor. Scarlet showed up in her dreams ALL THE TIME, and half the time Peril wasn’t even sure if she was real. Whether she was or not, there was always yelling and guilt and ominous remarks about Clay’s future.

  “I knew they wouldn’t be helpful,” she said to Turtle.

  “Well,” Turtle said uncertainly, “maybe if you show us on a map where she was, we can at least start searching from there.”

  Qibli looked up at the sky, where the sun was meandering toward the midpoint. “Sure, but right now we should get back to the clinic. The dragons from Glory are supposed to arrive soon.”

  Peril wondered if he was changing the subject because he didn’t trust her. Consider the feeling mutual, SandWing, she thought, eyeing him narrowly.

  “The clinic? Where Kinkajou is?” Turtle’s face brightened hopefully, then fell as he turned toward Peril. “But Peril can’t go into the city.”

  She spread her gold-veined wings to indicate Remember? Deadly firescales over here? but she accidentally hit a branch overhead, which burst into flames.

  Qibli promptly smacked his tail in the river, sending up a wave that cascaded over the branch and Peril, soaking her and putting the fire out.

  Peril regarded him coldly, water dripping from her snout.

  “Don’t feel bad,” Moon said to Turtle. “Kinkajou wouldn’t know you were there anyway.”

  Turtle’s wings drooped, and Peril had a sudden very strong feeling that there was a right thing to say here. It was written in the slump of his shoulders and the way he poked one claw gloomily at the mud puddle beside him.

  Something reassuring about Kinkajou?

  No … something else. Something she didn’t want to say, but she saw that she kind of had to, and the others were even leaving an odd moment of quiet in the conversation, waiting for her to say it.

  “You should go,” she said, forcing it out past the growl in her throat. “I’ll just … wait for you … out here … somewhere.”

  “Really?” Turtle said with an enormous smile. “You don’t mind? We’ll be back soon.”

  I bet. After you’ve all talked in secret about me and what you’re going to do next and whether to fly off without me.

  “Sure,” Peril said, then wondered if that sounded sarcastic, and tried again: “Suuure.” OK, that one sounded worse. “I mean, yes. Fine. I want to go hunt in the desert anyway.”

  “There’s a big sandstone arch west of the city, set up high so you can see practically the whole Kingdom of Sand,” Moon said. “That’s where Qibli and I have been going to wait for Winter, whenever we’re not with Kinkajou or in the library. Let’s meet back there.”

  “Winter still has two more days,” Qibli said quietly. “We told him we’d wait a week.”

  “He’s not coming,” Moon said. “I’ve seen inside his mind, Qibli. He’s so loyal to his family and his tribe … I don’t think anything will change that.”

  Qibli made a face that Peril couldn’t figure out. “Moon, sometimes you’re so busy listening to what dragons are thinking, you miss the things they’re actually doing. Which can tell you a lot more about what they’re really like.”

  “That … makes no sense,” she said.

  “Should I bring Kinkajou something?” Turtle said, hopping from one foot to the other in a very un-Turtle-like way. Peril had never seen him expend even an iota more energy than necessary for whatever he was doing. “Flowers? A fish? No, she doesn’t like fish. Um. Kumquats?”

  He likes Moon and Qibli, Peril guessed, but he’s really here for Kinkajou.

  Why did he even want to travel with me in the first place? He could have come here without me. Did he think I’d be useful protection along the way? He didn’t need to pretend to be friends with me. Boring green puddle dragon! Hrrmph.

  Peril caught Moon’s eyes on her and didn’t like whatever mysterious emotion was going on in them — sympathy? Pity? Bewilderment? Whatever she was getting from Peril’s brain, Qibli was right — it didn’t mean Moon knew anything about her, really.

  Peril sat down and started examining her claws as if she found all these dragons exceedingly boring. This was another trick she’d learned from watching Scarlet, although she had a feeling she wasn’t conveying quite the right amount of disdain in the tilt of her wings.

  “You don’t need anything,” Qibli said to Turtle. “Just having you there would be enough for her. Maybe she’ll be able to hear your voice.”

  “See you soon, Peril!” Turtle said enthusiastically.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Peril said to the empty air, drowned out by the flapping of their wings as all three of them took off and headed into the city.

  She waited a minute, to be sure they wouldn’t turn around, and then she lifted her head to watch the glowing green shape of her supposed friend flying away from her.

  Peril didn’t quite realize that she was still in pain from the thorn balls until she was up in the air again, flying with muscles that protested with tiny sparks of agony. She gritted her teeth, determined to ignore it until it went away.

  She spent the rest of the morning flying out into the desert, chasing down a desert fox (who escaped into a hole and was kind of too cute to eat anyway), and then catching a large white bird in midair and eating that instead. She also set fire to a tall cactus because it was giving her a superior look and she felt like it. One advantage of a desert: she didn’t have to worry about forest fires or accidentally scorching a field of SkyWing crops or whatever other reasons the queen had always had for keeping her in the palace.

  THE queen. I do still think of her that way. Qibli’s words kept going around in her head, which was VERY
annoying and made the next cactus over look like tempting kindling as well.

  “Isn’t Ruby your queen now?” Well … yes, technically, but how could you swear loyalty to a queen who didn’t even want you in her kingdom?

  How could anyone feel loyal to a queen who clearly just wanted you dead?

  Peril swerved to fly back toward Possibility and saw a huddle of camels a short ways off, to the south. Maybe a camel would make her feel better.

  But as she came closer, she saw that the camels were tied to a palm tree and surrounded by bustling scavengers — at least ten of them, setting up tents and scooping water from a small oasis pond.

  They all went gratifyingly still when she shot overhead. She studied their upturned faces, which looked like they were mostly eyes. Terrified eyes. She’d never seen such dopey prey; what were they doing out in the open desert, where it would be so easy to catch and eat them?

  She’d never eaten a scavenger before. Queen Scarlet always saved them either to fight in the arena or be served at special banquets, which Peril was never invited to, because blah blah setting the guests on fire would be unhospitable blah blah.

  She circled around again, trying to decide how hungry she was. As she did, she spotted one scavenger sitting apart from the others, a little ways up the nearest dune. This one wasn’t looking up at Peril. Its shoulders were slumped and its head was buried in its little brown arms, so all Peril could see was a thicket of dark fur on top of its head, a sand-colored cloth wrapped around it, and two little brown feet sticking out.

  It looked … sad.

  That’s hilarious, Peril thought. Do camels get sad? Do mountain goats mope? Does a hawk ever have a day where it feels like none of the other hawks want to be friends with it?

  Maybe I should burn up the other scavengers and see if that makes this one feel better.

  She thought about it for a moment, but there was something about the curve of the scavenger’s back that was almost too achingly familiar, and in the end Peril turned around and flew away, leaving the scavengers and camels to deal with their own problems.