Wings of Fire: A New Regime (Book 3)

Chapter 5

“She left to go check on the heart of the Rain Kingdom. Some dragonet saw us, so we fled.” Bermuda finished, sinking her claws into the dead leaves beneath the snow.

"Ah," Shiver said, sitting peacefully in the frozen landscape, practically melting into a snowbank.

"What should we do?" Bermuda asked, brushing snow off her shoulder.

"Well, I'd have to talk it over with the others. But I'm open to suggestions, if you have any."

"No dice," Bermuda said. She balled up a small pile of snow in her talon, and rolled it across the snow, watching it pick up more bits. "Why are you guys doing all this, anyways?"

"Doing what?" Shiver said.

"You know, you and your 'friends', saving the world. Why?" Bermuda asked.

Shiver thought for a moment, and looked at Bermuda. "Why do you and your friends try to stop Aconi?"

"Well," Bermuda said. "Someone has to."

"Exactly." Shiver said. "Someone has to restore order to Pyrrhia, and if nobody does it, then how will we come back?"

Bermuda nodded. "But why? What made you guys decide to be Those dragons?"

Shiver grinned. "You mean how we all met?"

"Sure."

"Well. After the Last Day, I met Worldkeeper while hiding in the woods. She's the one who amputated my arm, saving me from the infection. We traveled East, under the impression that only the Night Kingdom had been wiped off the map. We found out the hard way that the rest of the world was fucked, too. One by one we met the rest of the maybe-queens, with exchanges from kindness to donwright hostility, ahem, Saline.”

“Why is Carmine so much younger than the rest of you?” Bermuda asked. She rolled her pile of snow into a ball, packing it tightly. She wondered how much Cloudy missed the snow, being an IceWing. He was probably having a guilty blast, given the circumstances.

“Well, originally, _, her mother, was in the spot for the new SkyWing Queen. She was married to Saline. I’m sure you know about the random assassins and theives, and generally aggressive dragons that now roam the continent, yes?”

“Yeah,” Bermuda said. The cold was stinging her talons. She honestly, truly, and very deeply hated the snow, but it was getting tiring being so irritated by it now. She started rolling another snowball.

“Well, she sacrificed herself to save Saline, and it was only logical to put Carmine in her place. We only had male SkyWing’s at the time. She has the same authority of Saline now, but Saline is still used to being the boss of her. It makes a complicated relationship.” Shiver added a pinecone to Bermuda’s snowdragon, for a nose.

“It sounds like it,” Bermuda said. “I’ve heard something similar from Jellyfish- her older brother took care of her because they’re parents weren’t around. When he died, she was put with Beige, or something like that. She feels like he shouldn’t be in charge, but also knows he does have some authority over her. Especially now that we finished school.”

That stirred something inside Bermuda- was it really only two weeks ago that they were celebrating hteir graduation? It felt like a lifetime ago- but then again, a lifetime of events happened in those weeks.

“How is Jeweldreamer? I haven’t gotten to really sit down and talk to him about stuff.” Shiver asked, a little tentatively.

“Like what?” Bermuda asked, adding tiny stick spikes to her snowdragon.

“Like, what happened after we were separated? Last time I saw him was in the Night Kingdom, but we got separated when his dad kept running when I got attacked by a New Pantalan.” Shiver asked, glancing at her arm subconsciously.

“His dad didn’t make it. I’m guessing his mother didn’t make it either, considering he lived alone in our underground village.” Bermuda said carefully.

“Oh,” Shiver said, crumbling a little. Bermuda could guess, by observation, that this IceWing had a very difficult life, and had been through a lot. “That’s horrible. Is he doing okay?”

“He’s fine, it was a long time ago.” Bermuda said. She looked up at her with a concerned look in her eyes. “Who.. who did you lose?”

Shiver looked at her, and then turned her head away. “I don’t know. I doubt they’re still alive.”

Bermuda could tell she was evasive on the topic, but had feeling that Shiver had never got a chance to talk about it. “Who?”

“I wanted to have a successful restaurant business, one that introduced IceWing cuisine across the globe, like ice cream, and frozen fruit desserts,” Shiver said. “But my husband, Grosbeak, and my tiny daughter, Crevasse, didn’t want to come with me. My husband was a true believer of the old IceWing code, and believed IceWings shouldn’t be anywhere but their own kingdom, and thought it was destroy the exclusivity of IceWing cuisine. My daughter didn’t want to go anywhere without snow, so she stayed with Grosbeak. We got a divorce, and I moved out and to the Night Kingdom within the week. He wanted me out after our exchange. I haven’t heard from either of them since.”

“That’s very hard,” Bermuda said, standing up, and gave her a sympathetic look.

“Yes,” Shiver said, she was quiet now, and Bermuda got the impression that she shouldn’t try to ask about it again in the near future.

Bermuda sighed, and stood up. It was starting to snow again, thick and heavy. It would be getting hard to walk in the snow soon.

“We should head back,” Shiver said. “Help dragons that needs it, made sure food and blankets are rationed out.”

Bermuda nodded and had only followed her for a few seconds when an enraged roar split the air.

Terrified, Shiver and Bermuda exchanged a glance a ran full tilt towards the camp, where the roar had originated.

What’s happening?

Are Aconi’s “Glass” attacking?

I mean, probably. Unless it’s some other random, bad event. Like a crazy loner showing up or a stranger showing up.

Or maybe Iodine tried to attack?

When they reached the camp, wings are flying, and fire was arching. The Glass were here, Bermuda could see the shiny reflection of the flames across their bodies, and the one molten Glass dragon, melting the snow around it.

Fear seized Bermuda, and she arched her back to leap into the fight, but Shiver put her mechanical arm in front of her, blocking her. The IceWing had a pit of terror and resentment in her eyes, that slowly turned to Bermuda.

“What? Why are you stopping me? My friends-” Bermuda, protested, wiggling past her arm.

“There,” Shiver said, pointing into the writhing mass of fighting dragons. “Is that her?”

Bermuda squinted past the flames, and saw a purple RainWing burst from the flames, turning them violet. Her sky blue eyes shined like sapphires in the flames. Strapped across her chest, the Heart of Pyrrhia pulsed against her scales.

“Yeah,” Bermuda said, her heart dropping into her stomach. “That’s Aconi.”