The StoneWing's Secret

{4} Aerolite

    The dragons watched as Queen Goldmine dismissed them and walked away, rubbing her temples.
    Poor Queen Goldmine, Aerolite thought. She has to handle all this pressure, and she can't back down - she doesn't have any suitable heirs who have experience and her mother is dead (not that she'd be a good choice anyways). She can't back down from this - she has nowhere to turn.
    As the crowd dispersed from beneath the royal ledge (it was a big ledge) Ashlar covered the cage with Fatespeaker in it and followed Queen Goldmine back into the palace.
    She was just about to follow them when she felt a talon on her tail, pinning her in place.
    "I have grown impatient with keeping this secret for so long. I must tell someone." Lithic said. Aerolite lifted her head in confusion to meet the older dragon's eyes.
    "Secret?"
    "I'm going to request a private audience with the queen. With . . . " Lithic closed her eyes. "With the queen and you. I will explain everything there."
    "When is the private audience?"
    "Tonight, at midnight. Come with me. Someone needs to watch you." She winked. Confusion bubbled up inside of Aerolite, stronger than anything else, but she followed Lithic.
    All day she asked questions. Lithic would answer none. Instead she would reply with: "Want to see the surface? The grass is amazing!" or "Let's go hunting! I hear there are some delicious Cave Crayfish around here."
    So Aerolite never got an answer until that night.

    "You requested a private audience. What for?" Queen Goldmine said, curling up her talons. "If it helps me make a choice, you two are the ones I want to listen to the most." This surprised Aerolite - no one ever trusted her with making the right decision. But this time, she thought the right decision was to choose Fatespeaker. Of course she could enchant something to be able to tell her . . . she hadn't used her magic in a while . . .
    Aerolite remembered the scroll someone had brought her, long ago. Her name was Geode, and she seemed a little sad to see Aerolite. But the scroll was about a SeaWing named Albatross. The whole thing . . . it was horrible to read, and Aerolite knew then to not use her powers.
    I haven't done a soul spell yet though . . . I can totally do that.
    She focused back on the conversation.
    " . . . secret to tell you." Lithic was saying. Queen Goldmine tilted her head, and Lithic continued.
    "Do you remember what started this act of vengeance? What-who we're fighting for?"
    Princess Calcite? But what does she have to do with anything?
    "What does Princess Calcite have to do with this?" Queen Goldmine asked.
    Lithic took a deep breath. Then she reached up to touch an earring made of petrous, and a transformation took place.
    Lithic's light gray scales turned white, and her black underbelly became a white tinted with gray. Her underscales leading to her tail faded into blue - something that no StoneWing had seen for years. Or since Princess Calcite . . .
    Lithic's brown eyes became purple, and her black horns were replaced with gray ones. Sapphires and emeralds wove around her horns, and around her eyes there were lapis and diamond jewels.
    Her brown wings became white fading to gray. And a tiara rested on her head, elegant and imposing.
    In her talons rested blue spectacles - spectacles that no one had worn for years, again, ever since Princess Calcite had gone missing.
    But Princess Calcite had returned at last.
    And she was right in front of them.