Wings of Fire: Secrets Shattered

Prologue

Blackberry the RainWing watched as five RainWings and six NightWings took off into the dawn. She flapped her wings and joined in the flight. They were going to the newly rebuilt Summer Palace in the SeaWing kingdom for the late Queen Coral's funeral and her daughter, Auklet's, coronation. Each tribe queen was required to go with five other dragons. Luckily, for the RainWings and NightWings, they were close to the SeaWing kingdom. 

Blackberry felt bad for the LeafWings, HiveWings, and SilkWings though. They would have to travel across the ocean and then some to get there! They would already be there when the RainWings and NightWings arrived because they left earlier to get there. They stopped by the IceWing kingdom and the RainWing kingdom before arriving. Since the War of the Othermind, the lost continent tribes had gotten new queens. All of them were heroes from the war. The queen of the HiveWings was Queen Cricket, the queen of the SilkWings was Queen Luna, and the queen of the LeafWings was Queen Sundew. Other important things happened after the war too, most of the queens had eggs that were ready to be laid or were already laid and the NightWings would soon be getting a new queen who wasn't a RainWing. They would be moving back to the original NightWing kingdom, but for now, they were still with the RainWings. 

The soon-to-be NightWing queen, Moonwatcher, was up at the front of the crowd of dragons with the RainWing queen, Glory. Blackberry liked both royal figures and was honored to be going to the funeral. 

The group approached the Bay of a Thousand Scales. Crystal blue water shimmered showing shadows of the soaring dragons. It was beautiful. Wow, the SeaWings must be pretty lucky to live here, Blackberry thought. The dragons dove towards a mass of what looked like an island with trees and bushes. But then they turned towards a smaller island and landed there. A SeaWing with a key around his neck was there waiting to greet them. Moons above, he's handsome! Blackberry thought. She found herself blushing. 

The SeaWing spoke, "I'm Carp and I'll point you in the direction to go."

Blackberry wasn't listening. She shook her head and forced herself to listen, stopping her thoughts about how handsome the SeaWing was.

"The Summer Palace is disguised to look like that leafy cliffside. We'll have to go underwater, but it won't be for too long. We'll have to dive into tunnel, but until then you can stick your heads above the water. Let's go!"

The RainWings and NightWings reluctantly followed Carp into the sea. The NightWings clearly didn't like it, and the RainWings didn't either, but they were more okay with swimming than the NightWings. In fact, Blackberry kind of enjoyed it. She'd gone swimming before in a small lake in the rainforest, so she was used to it. She wasn't as good of a swimmer as Carp, but she could swim better than some of the other RainWings. 

When they approached the island Carp said, "This is where we have to go underwater."

They all dove down. The deeper they went, the colder the water got. They didn't have to go too deep though, so it wasn't very cold, but it was cold enough for the RainWings and NightWings that it wasn't very enjoyable, even for Blackberry. 

Soon, they came to two tunnels. One had gates in it. Carp took the key around his neck and unlocked the gates so they could get through. Once they were in the tunnel Carp told them that they could breathe. Blackberry gulped in breaths of well-needed air.

"This tunnel, and all of the Summer Palace, was enchanted by our animi, Turtle and Anemone. The tunnel is enchanted so once the gates are closed on both sides dragons who aren't SeaWings can breathe. The other tunnel leads to the Summer Palace too, but there is water in it, so only SeaWings can go in it. Once we get out of the tunnel, you'll have to hold your breath and swim to the surface."