The Dragonet Prophecy

In the arena, Clay must fight an IceWing named Fjord, who has already survived the arena twice. As the battle begins, Clay tries to remember everything he can about IceWings. He learns the hard way that they breathe deadly ice instead of fire. Like in the battle room with Kestrel, Clay tries to talk his way out of the fight, but Fjord attacks him relentlessly, saying, “shut up and let me kill you” (156).

When Fjord attacks Clay, instinct takes over and Clay manages to injure Fjord, who responds with surprise: “What is wrong with you? [...] That’s not how MudWings fight!” (159). As Clay apologizes, Queen Scarlet threatens to kill them both if they don’t make for a better fight. Motivated to stay alive, Fjord pins Clay to the sand. Clay loses his strength and prepares to die.

Up in the sky, Tsunami jumps from her platform and causes a commotion because the dragons connected to her lose their footing as well. Her antics draw Queen Scarlet’s soldiers and distracts everyone in the arena from the fight, including Fjord. While everyone looks away, Clay tries to talk himself into killing Fjord, but he can’t. He laments that the prophecy will fail because he can’t kill.

As Clay resigns himself to failure, “a jet of small black droplets” (163) land on Fjord’s face and neck. The substance melts him from the eyeball down. When Clay looks for the source of the spray on Queen Scarlet’s platform, he only sees Glory sleeping, Queen Scarlet looking “pleased,” and Peril looking horrified (164).

That night, Peril visits Clay to ask him how he killed Fjord. She also presents him with a bribe: She’ll tell him about Sunny if he’ll let her hide behind him and watch the trial happening in the arena the next day. Usually, she avoids the trials because they are boring and mostly for show. Queen Scarlet is the judge and executes everyone. Since Queen Scarlet specifically told Peril not to attend this trial, she wants to see it. Clay gently tells her she doesn’t have to bribe him because he would help her anyway.

Peril brings Clay mud from the nearby river to put over his wounds where Fjord’s serrated claws cut into Clay’s wings and back. Peril stirs the mud with her talons, warming it up before she throws it on his back. Clay marvels at how therapeutic mud is and wonders if it works wonders for other MudWings. Peril, amused by his ignorance, tells him that it does that for all MudWings, and certainly not for other dragons.

Through their conversation, Clay learns more about Peril. As she tells him about the black rocks that she must eat everyday otherwise she gets sick, Clay suspects that Queen Scarlet lies to Peril to control her. Clay also realizes that Kestrel is likely Peril’s mother. He wonders what will happen when Perils finds out the truth during the trial the next day.