A scavenger bursts through the trees and Clay and Tsunami are disappointed in how small and unimpressive they are. The scavenger has treasure, which Tsunami takes from him. While Clay and Tsunami debate over how to divide up the treasure a new dragon comes along. She kills the scavenger and lays claim to the treasure. Clay realizes they are in danger and tries to get Tsunami to leave. Before they can, though, the new dragon reveals herself to be Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings.
Queen Scarlet tries to figure out why a MudWing and SeaWing are traveling together. Since she is allied with the MudWings she tries to get information out of Clay but he has none. Tsunami realizes that they are in danger and when she and Clay exchange a look she attacks Queen Scarlet. They race away and find their way back to the caves. After looking for a few minutes they find the entrance and Clay realizes he is looking at his prison from the outside.
They break into the caves where they find Sunny waiting for them. She leaves to get Starflight while Glory comes out of her hiding place. Starflight arrives with a sack of scrolls that everyone says have to be left behind. Glory says they need to leave before Kestrel comes back when a new voice pips up. It is Queen Scarlet with her guards. She is furious with the young dragonets and she is looking for Kestrel.
Queen Scarlet realizes they are the dragonets of the prophecy when Dune comes out of his room to see what all the commotion is. He calls for Webs and a fight breaks out (with Kestrel returning in the middle of it), but the dragonets and their guardians quickly lose. Queen Scarlet kills Dune and orders her guards to take everyone else prisoner. Before she can be stopped Kestrel pushes Webs into the water so he can escape. As everyone leaves the caves Clay sees Morrowseer flying up above. He knows, however, that Morrowseer won't actually help them because NightWings like to get others to do their work.
Clay is in the SkyWing prison, which is in the sky. All the dragons are kept separate but they are chained to each other. This way all the dragons would have to work together to fly away and since there are a hundred of them that would be impossible before the guards stopped them. A SkyWing brings him food and is overly nice to him. She is excited at the prospect of fighting a MudWing. Since they are allies in the war she has never fought one before. She cheerily tells Clay she doesn't want him to die before their fight. As they talk Clay finds out that the SkyWing's name is Peril, and she is the queen's champion. She fights dragons in the arena. All the prisoners fight each other in staged fights. If you win enough you get to go free - but if you win too many you go up against Peril, who has never lost. So far no one has earned their freedom. She tells him where Tsunami and Starflight are being kept (they are also in the prison) but she doesn't know where Glory and Sunny are. Peril leaves for the arena and the upcoming fight - and Clay notices that all the dragons deliberately stay out of Peril's way. Queen Scarlet arrives with her new "art" - which is Glory chained to a tree - and Peril prepares to fight.
I feel a bit bad for these dragons. They had a shitty upbringing and the Talons of Peace clearly did not prepare them for the real world - or the politics it. I have to say, Clay and his friends seem like the only normal ones to me. Everyone else is a complete wacko. Look at Peril. She is chatting up Clay and being super friendly to him while talking about how she is looking forward to killing him! And none of these dragons know how to work together, which is why it so clearly catches them off guard when the dragonets do. And now Glory is chained to a tree as "art?" It is like a world populated by only psychopaths.
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