The Lost Heir Read Online Free Page B

and was slowly crushing her to death, and discovered that Clay had rolled over on top of her in the middle of the night. Grumbling, she wriggled out from under him and let his tail flop over onto Starflight’s head.
    The five dragonets were packed into a cavern halfway up a tall sea cliff. It was cramped and uncomfortable and smelled of seagull droppings. Clay had barely been able to scrunch his wings low enough to crawl inside.
    And why were they sleeping in this horrible spot instead of on the nice white sandy beach below?
    Tsunami sat down in the cave entrance and glared at Starflight, which wasn’t very satisfying since everyone was still snoring away. Clay was stuffed against the back wall with Sunny between his front talons and Starflight curled up alongside. Even Glory had her tail draped over Clay’s. Her scales glinted orange and gold in the light of the rising sun, with bursts of red when she shifted sleepily.
    Starflight had been acting
so weird
since the NightWings gave him back. Suddenly it seemed like he wanted to argue with Tsunami about
every thing
. If she said, “Let’s sleep on the beach! It’ll be fun!” he’d say, “No, no, we have to sleep in a hidden cave; that’ll be much safer.” Safer! As if there was anything to worry about all the way out here, in the middle of the night.
    But everyone was still mad at her about attacking that soldier, so they all voted with Starflight.
    She didn’t like that development at all.
    Tsunami watched them sleep for a moment. It was so hard to lead effectively when everyone kept
questioning
you and
complaining
about every thing. She only wanted what was best for them. Didn’t they know that? She’d always figured she would fight a hundred SkyWings to protect them.
    But maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe my friends don’t want my protection after all.
    Maybe they wanted Starflight to be their leader instead. Even though he’d never risked one scale on his body for them.
    Tsunami glanced down at the sea, sparkling aquamarine below her. Somewhere in those blue-green depths was her family — her parents, her kingdom, every thing that should have been hers, if the Talons of Peace hadn’t stolen her away and ruined her life.
    Perhaps the problem with her friends was that they were from different tribes, all stubborn and muddled up instead of sensible like SeaWings. Maybe her own kind would understand her better. They’d
appreciate
her instead of yelling at her.
    Well, she didn’t have to sit here waiting for everyone else to wake up. It wasn’t like they’d be much help when it came to searching anyway.
    Tsunami stretched her wings and then tipped forward out of the cave opening. Wind whistled past her snout, tugging at her tail as she plummeted down the cliff. At the last moment, she snapped her wings open and sailed across the top of the water, skimming it with her claws. Joy tingled through her scales. She spun and dove into the water.
    The sea was warmer here and busy with underwater life. Her splash sent what seemed like thousands of fish scattering away, several of them disappearing into a pinkish-orange coral reef that curled out of the sand like a petrified forest. A blobby dark blue octopus goggled at her from the branches. Tsunami kept seeing flickers of bright yellow and silver at the edge of her vision as fish fled from her webbed claws.
    No welcoming committee of delighted SeaWings, though.
    No glowing jellyfish marking a path to Queen Coral’s castle. No cavalcade of bowing seahorses and bejeweled lobsters to lead the way.
    Not that she’d been picturing the homecoming scene from
The Missing Princess
or anything.
    Tsunami swam along the coral reef, peering at the creatures hiding in the nooks and holes. A hideous thing she thought might be an eel stared back at her. Little orange-and-white fish nestled in the waving lavender anemones.
    She still wasn’t used to swimming in the sea, and that frustrated her. Unexpected currents kept knocking her off