Free Wings of Fire Book Three: The Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland Page A

yellow flower curtain.
    Because someone should care when a dragon disappears.

 
    Halfway across the bridge, Glory heard Clay’s voice behind her.
    “Wait,” he called. His heavy talons thumped on the walkway, making it shake and jump underneath her. “What missing dragons?”
    “Some big scary thing is prowling the rainforest,” Glory said. She resettled her wings. “Or, at least, something is making RainWings disappear. Probably the same something that killed those MudWings. I’ll figure out what. No big deal. I’ll catch up with you all afterward.”
    “We don’t all have to escort Webs every where,” Clay said with a smile. “I’ll come with you. And we’ll bring Starflight, too. Maybe we can help. Starflight!” he called. The NightWing poked his nose out through the hanging flowers. “Let Tsunami and Sunny take Webs. You come with us.”
    Glory shrugged, but her wing tips turned rose pink against her will. At least there were a couple of dragons who cared if she existed. After all, the only reason she was still alive was because Clay had been willing to risk his life in the underground river to save her.
    The golden sunlight was slanting sideways through the tall green trees. As Glory, Clay, and Starflight glided between the branches, small whirlwinds of orange and blue butterflies lifted off and landed again behind them. Funny-faced little monkeys with long tails chattered indignantly when the dragons swooped by.
    They found Mangrove on a small platform by himself, sorting fruit. Glory landed lightly in the middle, while Clay perched on the edge and tried to keep his feet and tail from squashing any of the berries. Starflight found a nearby branch and studied the fruit as if he were trying to match it with pictures from the scrolls he’d memorized.
    The red streaks in Mangrove’s ruff had been replaced by whorls of dark purple. He looked up and nodded brusquely at Glory.
    “You got me into this,” Glory said. “So I’m starting with you, since you might be the only dragon who even knows about all the missing RainWings. Who was the first to disappear?”
    Mangrove put down a banana and looked up at the sky, thinking. “It must have been Splendor,” he said. “She’d just finished her turn as queen and passed it to Dazzling.”
    “Whoa,” Clay said. “There’s a queen missing?”
    “Well, she wasn’t queen that month,” Mangrove pointed out. “And when she didn’t come back, they just started skipping her turn. If she wanted it, they figured she’d show up for it.”
    “Was anyone with her when she went missing?” Glory asked. She felt the sloth circle and settle around her neck again. She kept forgetting it was there; it felt like a warm floppy necklace when it wasn’t moving.
    Mangrove shook his head. “Not as far as I know. I noticed she was gone only when her turn came back around and she wasn’t there. But I can guess when she went missing because her sloth found someone else to live with right around then.”
    Glory tapped her claws on the platform and thought about the SeaWing court, where politics and intrigue and betrayal all simmered below the surface. Not to mention the SandWings, where three sisters were tearing apart the entire dragon world in their fight for power.
    “Maybe one of the other queens took her out,” she suggested. “Maybe Dazzling or someone wanted a longer turn or less competition.” Starflight nodded as if he’d had the same thought.
    Mangrove’s ears popped faintly yellow and then back to purple again. “Nothing like that changed,” he said. “The turns are the same length, one month each. And there were only six dragons in the tribe willing to be queen in any case — now five — so none of them have to wait very long in between. Besides, nobody enjoys being queen.”
    “Can I eat this?” Clay asked, poking a rubbery red sphere near his claws.
    “If you must,” said Mangrove. Clay scooped it into his mouth and started chewing with a