Wings of Honor: Saving Grace

Chapter 10: Meeting Murphey

At first, I only felt Peril touching Winter's cold limbs, cold scales, cold wings. It was almost pleasant. But then momentum and the shock knocked the breath out of her, they tangled together in freefall.
It was then that I heard Winter's scream, a scream that instantly sent a shiver down my spine and blurred my vision. Peril shoved him away, I watched as he plummeted toward the ground, trailing smoke from his scales, falling as hard and fast as Peril's own heart.
Three moons, what have I done? Was Peril's second thought.
"Oh my," said the NightWing in the air above them. We had forgotten about her. "Firescales! I haven't seen that in a long time."
"Get help!" Peril yelped, as she plunged down after Winter, who missed the arch. He tumbled down to the hard rock below it. But at the last minute he managed to spread his wings far enough to slow him. It was a controlled crash landing. But as he splayed his wings you could see the streaks of black burns smeared across his pure white wings. He was burning, burning up everywhere Peril had accidentally touched him. He landed heavily in a thud of dust. He collapsed, writhing in pain.
I dove down alongside Peril, the NightWing winging away towards Possibility.
"I'm sorry!" Peril cried, landing beside him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was trying to get away! I didn't mean to burn you, I really didn't! I'm here to help your friends stop Scarlet! Stop dying and listen to me!"
I threw down my kit, but I already knew there was nothing I had that could treat burns like this.
He's going to die. Winter is going to die and Clay is never going to speak to me again. I'm going to be alone forever.
She took a hopeless step toward him, but there was nothing she could do — touching him would only make it worse. Not that it could get worse than it already was.
He still felt pain, so that was good at least. At worst: a third degree burn. Some of the patches looked leathery, others charred. I couldn't risk touching them to see if they hurt. I kept dousing him with water from my canteen to halt the heat's progress.
Except he'd die faster, and maybe that would be a mercy. Look at him. I am as bad as everyone thinks I am. I'm the one who did this, me and my monstrous claws.
Peril's mind broke through my barriers as I worked. She had never cried before; she wasn't sure if she could. But she had felt vast emptiness like this before, opening up inside her ... when Osprey died, when she had to leave Clay the first time, when she found out her mother was dead, and worst of all, when she saw the dragonbite viper sink its fangs into Clay's leg and she thought he would die and she would lose him and the world would not be worth living in anymore.
This emptiness, though, had freezing winds shrieking through the darkness — shrieking, "This is your fault, your fault, your fault ... you deserve to be the most hated dragon in Pyrrhia ... your fault, your fault ... "
"Moon," Winter gasped at me. "Tell Moon —" then he closed his eyes, folding into himself.
Shiiit!
"Winter!" a familiar voice shouted from the sky. "Winter!"
Of course they were here, just in time to see what I had done — to witness my monstrosity.
Peril leaped back out of the way as Moon, Qibli, and Turtle thudded down and surged into a crowd around me and Winter.
"Winter," Moon cried again, grabbing his front talons in hers. "Oh no, oh no, oh no —"
"It was an accident!" Peril said. "I didn't mean to burn him! I didn't!"
"What are our options?" Qibli said frantically towards me. "I know — Grace, frostbreath his scales! That should numb the injuries long enough to get him to the river. Isn't there a cactus sap that heals burns?" I looked at him, fearful, tears flooding my eyes. I shook my head. "Winter, come on, don't pass out. We can fix this!"
The silver dragon lay limply on the rocks in front of them, shuddering in agony. He didn't respond to either of us. Peril couldn't bear to look at him — at the black scorch marks imprinted all over his snow-white scales.
That had to be too many burns to survive. He was probably going into shock, if he hadn't already.
Shit. If he's going into shock, I can't do anything. His chest is completely charred, CPR would kill him. I could elevate him, but it wouldn't do much. Shit! Shit! Shit!
Peril couldn't look at Turtle either. He was clutching his head and pacing around Winter's tail, and she knew if she met his eyes she'd see how much he must hate her now. No, how much he understood. How much he wanted to help.
"What can we do?" Qibli asked me, but I was busy working on what I could. He asked Moon, and when she didn't answer because she was crying too hard, he whirled on Peril. "What can we do?"
"I don't know!" Peril cried. "I'm the problem, not the solution!"
"Use this," Turtle said, scrabbling in the pouch around his neck. I turned, looking at him with wide eyes. His voice choked, unsure himself if he wanted to do this. His expression was utter terror, more than anger towards Peril, now that she could see it.
"Your rock." I gasped out.
He drew the granite-grayish-white river rock from the pouch and held it out. Nothing could have looked more ordinary or useless in this situation.
"What?" Qibli said, blinking back tears.
"A rock isn't going to ... " Peril started, but she trailed off as Turtle pushed Qibli aside and placed the rock on top of one of Winter's burns on his tail.
Winter let out a yelp of pain at the sudden contact, and Moon reached toward Turtle's talons.
No! Wait!
She stopped.
Below the rock, the burn looked as if it was evaporating away. Fading away. The charred blackness disappeared, his scales began to smooth over, silver and unblemished once more.
Turtle moved the rock, sliding it gently over the burns all along Winter's torso and wings. It looked as though he was smoothing snow along behind it; every injury disappeared, every surface wound stitched itself back together and vanished.
The IceWing's breathing became slower and less ragged, he came out of shock. He opened his eyes and joined the rest of us watching the progress of the rock. His own face utter confusion and awe.
Within the minute, Turtle completely healed Winter.
Everyone stared at Turtle, who very much looked as though he wanted to escape into a deep ocean chasm and hide forever. He stepped back, awkwardly twiddling the rock in his talons, as if it was a strange growth that had just appeared. "Did I get all of it?" he meekly asked, almost squeaking.
"What —" Moon said. She looked up at me, then shook her head and crouched beside Winter, gently running one talon over a patch of smooth scales on his torso. "Turtle, what ... ?"
He saved him. The rock. I opened my thoughts to her
Her voice faded away, swallowed by the disbelief swooping across her face.
Winter sat up, holding out his talons with an awed expression. His wings cautiously expanded to their full width, then closed again. There was no residual pain. There were no tricks. The burns were gone, really gone.
"Turtle," Qibli said, watching his words carefully. "Why do you have a magic healing rock? No, wait ... HOW do you have a magic healing rock?"
Peril couldn't put her thoughts in order. She couldn't wrap her brain around Winter surviving what she'd done. She couldn't even feel relieved just yet; it was too immense and strange and impossible. There wasn't any room in her head for all her new questions about Turtle. She pulled her wings in as close as possible, watching Winter's perfectly unharmed scales shift and half expecting him to suddenly collapse into a pile of ashes anyway.
"It's an animus-touched object," I said Moon's thoughts. I would never betray him directly.
Moon turned to Turtle. "Where did you get — OH." Her eyes suddenly went wide, looking towards me. I nodded, canting my head in his direction.
Qibli got it a second later. "You didn't find it somewhere," he said, sounding awestruck. "You made it! You're an animus dragon!"
"That's your secret," Moon breathed, gasping breathless. She wore an expression like someone who's system managed to finally alphabetize a million scrolls exactly right after so long. "An animus."
That's why he thinks he can handle Queen Scarlet, Peril realized.
"Oooorg," Turtle said, shivering his wings. "I've never heard anyone say that out loud before. Grace knew, nobody else does. Actually, can we not talk about it? It's really not a big deal."
"NOT A —" Winter suddenly chimed in, then cut himself off with a growl, lashing his tail, accidently striking me.
"You could have told me," Peril said to Turtle. Wasn't that what friends did? He hadn't told her about Moon's power because it was "her secret," but he could have told her this.
I could've told her this. But I didn't.
"I was thinking about it," Turtle said to Peril. "I mean, so we're not so different, you and I. Right?"
Well, I never had the option of hiding my "gift," Peril thought. That's a pretty big difference.
I just shrugged, canting my head in her direction.
"Would anyone else like to make a dramatic confession?" Qibli asked. A cold front hit me. "Who else is hiding magic powers? Winter, anything we should know? A secret IceWing ability to kill dragons with a sneer?"
"No. Trust me, I'm nothing special," Winter growled.
"Same here." Qibli glanced around at Moon, Peril, and Turtle. "At least that makes two of us."
Moon looked up at me, but I shook my head. "When did you make this rock?" Moon started toward Turtle. "Are you all right? How much have you used your power so far?" She rubbed her forehead, her wings flickering like moths around a candle. I went around to envelop her. I can't believe it! Your-your soul! What about-
"Don't worry, my soul is fine," Turtle said, pawing at the air. "I haven't enchanted very many things. I mean, I didn't want anyone to notice I can do this, obviously."
"But why?" Winter suddenly exploded. "Why would you hide your power? You could have served your tribe during the war! Your queen needed you! You could have won the war easily, with a gift like that!"
"Well," Turtle said, shying away from him, towards me. "Um. Exactly?"
"Wait, so it would be all right with you," Peril said suddenly broke towards Winter, "for his queen to use him as a weapon, but it was the most unforgivable crime in history for my queen to use me as one?"
An awkward silence dropped over the group, I just shrunk ever further on top of Moon. Nobody else would meet Peril's eyes, not even Turtle.
"I get it," Moon said finally to Turtle. "You should be the one who decides what to do with your abilities, not your queen or anyone else."
I nodded along with.
Now Moon glanced at Peril quickly, almost as if she were throwing out a tail for Peril to grab.
And you too. You deserve whether or not to be...
A soldier, or a stalwart. I finished for her.
Me? Peril thought. Did she mean that for me, too? I never get to decide anything. If I did, I'd probably mess up and nearly kill or really kill someone else.
"Would that rock work on Kinkajou?" Qibli suddenly asked. "Could we heal her, too?"
I thought about it for a moment, but then shook my head. Not unless she was enchanted, there was nothing any of us had.
Turtle squirmed. "We could try," he said. "But I'm afraid I enchanted it to heal scales and muscles, not internal organs or bones — it was only supposed to help me feel less sore after flying all day. I know, I was an idiot, I should have made it more useful."
"And more obvious," Peril said. "What a dopey thing to enchant. It looks like every other rock in the world. If you drop it while you're leaning over a river one day, you'll never find it again."
"It's fine Turtle." I draped my wing around him two. He glanced a thankful smile up to me.
"It might work on your scar, though," Turtle said to Qibli. He held out the rock and Qibli jumped away from it.
"No way!" he said, touching his snout. "I like my scar! It's part of who I am! Get your magic nonsense away from me."
I smirked. Everything had calmed down enough.
"Hey," Winter interrupted suddenly. "Where's Foeslayer?"
Damn. I spoke too soon.
"Who?" Moon asked.
"I was traveling with a NightWing," the IceWing said. "Where'd she go?"
Peril glanced up and realized the big NightWing was no longer in the sky above them. She tried to remember when she'd last seen her — right after the fight? Before Turtle and the others showed up?
"Uh," she said. "I might have told her to go get help."
"I saw her fly towards Possibility." I commented.
"She might have decided I was dead and left before the same thing happened to her," Winter said bitterly. He stood up in one quick coiling motion. "We needed her! She was going to help us find the lost city of night!"
Oh shoot! Right! The prophecy!
"The what?" Peril said, confused.
"Hey," Moon said to Winter, trying to nudge him back down. "Maybe don't make any sudden movements until we're sure you're all right. Also, I'm glad you came back, by the way."
I went up to check him.
"I'm all right," Winter said, stretching his wings and neck again. He really was okay. "It's like it never happened." He turned accusing eyes on Peril, who felt them like little blades of ice stabbing her own eyeballs. "Except that it did. This monster threatened you and then claimed she was here to help you."
"I didn't threaten anyone!" Peril protested. "Not ... I mean, not really."
"She just sent some mixed signals." I turned between her and Winter.
"She is here to help us," Turtle said after me. "At least, I think so."
I nodded, only to be interrupted.
"You think so?" Peril cried, wounded.
"I mean," he said anxiously, "I guess I wish you hadn't burned Winter, is all ... "
"It was an accident!" Peril said. "I was trying to get away from him and we crashed —"
"It looked like a fight from what we saw," Qibli said accusingly.
"They crashed." I said. "I saw it."
"You were there, and you didn't help?" Peril suddenly turned towards me. Camouflaging, cowardly, sandsnorter!
Before I could stutter a reply. "Beware the talons of power and fire," Moon said softly. "Maybe it is her."
Peril looked from one face to another, her heart pounding. "What are you talking about?" she said.
"Moon had a vision — a prophecy," Turtle said.
"About me?" That couldn't be a good sign. If Moon saw me in a vision doing terrible things, then maybe my bad side really was going to win out in the end. Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe I shouldn't even try to fight it.
But Clay said ... Clay believes in me ... he can't be wrong, can he?
"Stop. Stop it." I tried to shake my head free of her negativity,
"Not specifically about you," Moon said. "I couldn't see any dragon's faces in the vision."
"No physical features we could identify." I inputted.
"But there was one line at the beginning —" Moon looked toward me.
"Excuse me," Winter said. "Are we really going to tell the villain everything we know about their evil plan?"
"I don't have an evil plan!" Peril said, starting to panic. "All my evil is spur-of-the-moment! Turtle, Grace, tell them how bad I am at planning."
"It's true." I managed to slip in. "Gossing can plan better than her."
"Maybe if she knows about the prophecy, she can do something different," Moon said. "We can change the future, you know." She turned to Peril and said, "Listen. Beware the darkness of dragons. Beware the stalker of dreams. Beware the talons of power and fire.
Beware one who is not what she seems. Something is coming to shake the earth. Something is coming to scorch the ground.
Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice, unless the lost city of night can be found."
Peril looked from her, to me, to the others. Peril thought Moon's eyes were glowing as though she was delivering a message from the stars themselves. Her voice got all low and shivery and it was decidedly creepy. I had already gotten used to the prophecy voice before.
"Well?" Moon asked. "What do you think?"
I turned to look at Peril.
"You think that first part is about me?" Peril asked. Was that what Turtle thought, too? Was he just keeping an eye on her in case she started scorching the ground and knocking over mountains? "I don't stalk anyone's dreams. And I'm exactly what I seem like on the outside. Also, sure, I have talons of fire, but no power whatsoever. If I did have any power, my life would be pretty different from what it is now, believe me."
"She's right." I nodded. "She would've broken free of Scarlet a lot sooner."
"Death is a power," Winter said. "You carry death in your talons." He lashed his tail again (now my flank began to actually sting) shooting a hard look at Qibli and Moon. "Is this really your new ally? I leave for five days and you start working with a mass murderer?"
"You left pretty firmly," Qibli pointed out. "You said you weren't coming back, so why should you get a vote? Also, she just showed up with Turtle and Grace."
"And I can just leave again, too!" Peril cried. To her, it felt as if the dragonflame thorns were still there, digging under her scales. It felt like another crocodile in the face. If what she had with Turtle was friendship, and this was what came with it, then friends were so not worth it. "I don't need this! I don't even want to work with any of you! I can find Scarlet on my own — that's what I wanted to do in the first place anyway!"
She launched herself into the sky.
"Peril!" Turtle shouted. "Wait!"
Her last thought was that was what she'd wanted him to say, but it wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough ...
I exchanged a scared glance between my friends. A sudden purple flash engulfed my vision. I stepped back.
"No! Wait!" Moon cried, reaching out for me.
Too late. I was going after Peril. Spreading my wings, and shooting up after her.
I spotted her almost instantly, the glimmer of a living copper statue of a dragon. I flew as fast and hard as I could manage, beginning to close the distance.
We flew directly over Possibility. A metallic Skywing, followed by the rain shadow of a partly camouflaged ginormous NightWing.
I had nearly caught up, yards away. Almost close enough to yell. And if that didn't work, I would bowl her out of the sky if I needed to. I couldn't let her go. I couldn't let her fall into the hands of Scarlet.
Suddenly, purple engulfed my vision. It was within the point of no return.
I reached out for my SkyWing friend. "NO!"
There was nothing I could do.