Read Online The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland - Free Book Online

balance. She wished the SeaWings would go back to whatever they were supposed to be doing.
    Riptide flew up beside her. He looked uncomfortable with all the scrutiny as well.
    “Tell me about the Summer Palace,” Tsunami said, trying to distract herself.
    He flicked his tail at the cliffs. “Guest rooms are in the caves. Queen Blister usually stays in the one closest to the tunnel. We brought in extra sand to line the floor for her, and it’s the only cave where fire is allowed.” His snout turned toward the pavilion as they flew higher. “She meets with Queen Coral on the second level from the top, which is only for visiting royalty. Each level has a different purpose — for instance, there’s a floor for dragonet school visits, one for celebration spectacles, and one for war planning. When they are here instead of the Deep Palace, the Council meets on this level, halfway up.”
    He paused, beating his wings, so Tsunami could look across the middle level. Twelve dragon-sized pools were arranged in a circle with small channels running from one to the next and crisscrossing the center. Glittering emeralds the size of fish eggs, which were embedded in the stone, spelled out words by each pool. Tsunami saw one marked TREASURY , one labeled DEFENSE , and another that said SECRETS & SPIES . Before she could read any further, Riptide turned to fly higher.
    “Council?” Tsunami said, catching up to him.
    “They prefer the Deep Palace, as does the queen,” Riptide said. “Only Shark and Lagoon are here at the moment.”
    Tsunami had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn’t want to reveal how ignorant she was of SeaWing politics. She wondered if there was anything about a council in Starflight’s favorite scrolls.
    “So which level is for missing princesses?” she joked.
    “I think the top pavilion would be best,” Riptide said. “That’s for new visitors, and we hardly ever have any of those. Queen Blister was probably the last — oh, no, it was that NightWing.” He landed gracefully on the uppermost ledge of the pavilion, his claws catching on polished ridges in the bluish-white stone.
    “What NightWing?” Tsunami asked, landing beside him. This level was bigger than she’d expected. A spiraling starburst of webbed talon-print shapes was carved into the floor and filled with glittering water, lined all along the bottom with tiny pearls. Tsunami realized the pattern was the same as the one on her wings.
    “I don’t know,” Riptide answered her. “He only spoke with Her Majesty and Queen Blister, and all I heard was that he wanted to fly out through the canopy instead of the tunnel — but of course they wouldn’t let him do that. He looked big and bad-tempered.”
    “Sounds like Morrowseer,” Tsunami muttered, although she didn’t exactly have a lot of other NightWings to compare him to. But he seemed more meddlesome than the rest of them. While most of the tribe hid in their secret location, being all mysterious and unhelpfully powerful, Morrowseer kept turning up . . . delivering the dragonet prophecy, inspecting the dragonets, trying to get Glory killed, saving Starflight (but no one else) from the SkyWings, then giving him back once everyone had escaped. Tsunami could easily imagine him poking around here, although she couldn’t guess why.
    Riptide glanced down at the dragons below, including Shark, who hadn’t moved from his spot on the pillar. “I can’t believe you spoke to Shark like that,” he whispered. “I’ve never seen
anyone
talk back to him, apart from the queen and Queen Blister.”
    “He deserved it,” Tsunami said, settling her wings. “Arrogant blowfish-head. When I’m queen, I’ll make him go sit in a lagoon and grow seaweed.”
    Riptide coughed hard to cover a laugh. “Don’t
talk
like that!” he whispered. “Don’t you know the difference between brave and reckless? Shark will eat you and your friends for lunch if he thinks you’re a threat to