Read Online The Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland - Free Book Online Page A

patrolling around the outskirts of it.
    “Are those all Outclaws?” she asked. “You guard the water in the Scorpion Den?”
    “In the desert, she who controls the water, controls everything,” Six-Claws said.
    “And here that ‘she’ is Thorn,” Sunny guessed.
    Six-Claws nodded toward a large white tent set up beside the water. The walls billowed like swans’ wings, and venomous tail points stuck out under the edges here and there. Two particularly mean-looking SandWings guarded the entrance, where a flap had been rolled up to allow dragons to pass through.
    As they approached, Sunny spotted a flash of black scales through the doorway and ducked behind Six-Claws.
    He peered over his shoulder at her. “Yes?”
    “I don’t want them to see me,” she whispered.
    “The NightWings?” he asked. “The ones you were … not following?”
    She nodded.
    “Why?”
    Sunny had a pretty strong feeling that it wouldn’t be wise to reveal her connection to the prophecy. Even if the Outclaws didn’t immediately sell her to Burn, someone else in the Scorpion Den was sure to pounce on that opportunity.
    “They tried to kill me,” she said. That was basically true.
    Six-Claws looked amused. “Here’s some free advice. When a dragon tries to kill you, fly the opposite way.”
    “I’m keeping an eye on them,” she said, bristling. “I need to know what they’re planning.”
    “That’s up to Thorn now,” he said. “Come along, and stay behind me.”
    Sunny’s heart thumped as they approached the tent. Should she try to run? Wasn’t it possible — even likely — that Thorn and the NightWings would team up to sell her to Burn? Thorn was the leader of a gang of criminals, after all.
    Sunny wouldn’t get far in this city, though, not with the Outclaws after her. Even in a place full of SandWings, she’d stick out like a fire on a dark night. She tried to keep the memory of the hungry dragonet in her head as she ducked under the soft white flap of the tent. A leader of criminals who fed small dragons didn’t sound so bad. Maybe Thorn could be reasoned with.
    The three NightWings were seated in a row on a bright orange carpet woven with alternating purple and white claw shapes. A skylight in the tent ceiling was positioned to shine a ray of sunlight down on them, beaming bright and hot straight into their faces. Sunny had a feeling that was deliberate. They were surrounded on all sides by SandWings, many of them rippling with scars or missing teeth, as if they’d fought hard for a place in this tent and weren’t planning to move anytime soon.
    The only clear spot was at the far end of the tent, where a pile of woven sky-blue rugs was arranged on a dais. After a few moments, the sound of laughter came from outside, and five more SandWings pushed their way into the tent.
    Sunny could tell which one was Thorn immediately, although she was smaller than the others, and she wasn’t wearing more treasure than anybody else. A solitary gold bracelet circled one of her upper forearms: a chain of flying dragons made from twisted wires. Around her neck hung a simple copper chain with a moonstone pendant — an odd jewel to find in the desert, Sunny thought.
    Her scales were sandy yellow and dappled with a pattern of small brown speckles down her back and along her wings. She looked young — probably barely twenty years old, if Sunny had to guess. Most dragons grew quickly for the first seven years of their lives, and then a little bit each year after that, so the oldest dragons were usually the largest, like Morrowseer and Burn and Grandeur. But Thorn was wiry and compact and looked as if she might stay that way no matter how long she lived.
    What was it that made her seem so clearly the leader of this group? She was laughing with the others as they came in, but she walked a step ahead of them, her wings half open and tilted forward as if she had somewhere to be, and her eyes scanning the room as if she were searching for