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

him.”
    “Pfft,” Tsunami said. “He can try.” She shoved away the creepy memory of Shark’s unblinking, malicious eyes.
    “By the moons, you make me ner vous,” Riptide said.
    One end of the top floor was raised and carved into a magnificent dragon throne, studded with emeralds and sapphires and shot through with gold lines in the shape of waves. Beside and below the throne was another, smaller throne carved to match, with the same patterns made of tinier gemstones.
    Tsunami tilted her head at the second throne. It looked too small to be for a king. So was this for her? Had Queen Coral prepared a throne for her missing daughter, waiting all these years for her to come fill it?
    She took a step toward it, her heart pounding with excitement. A throne of her own! Already!
    The arrival of her friends stopped her, as the four dragonets crashed down around the ledge. Sunny landed lightly, avoiding the channels of water, but Clay somehow stumbled as his claws hit the stone and nearly somersaulted right off the other side. Glory darted in his way and pushed him back, then made another loop around and landed close to the throne. Her green eyes studied it closely; she looked almost ready to climb onto it herself.
    Starflight arrived last, catching on to the side and pitching forward as if his wings had barely been strong enough to carry him. He lay there like a woeful black puddle for a moment, taking deep breaths. Sunny hopped over a watery footprint to nudge his wing gently.
    Tsunami managed not to roll her eyes, but really. Couldn’t everyone at least
try
to act a
little
more impressive?
    “This is a really big thing!” Clay said to her and Riptide. His tail accidentally splashed Glory, but she was too busy looking at the throne to snap at him. “I mean, this thing we’re standing on. What do you call it? It’s really tall — taller than our prisons in the Sky Kingdom, I think.” He peered over the edge, missing Riptide’s sharp look. Tsunami realized they hadn’t told him about being captured by Queen Scarlet and the SkyWings.
    “I like it,” Clay went on, sitting down and splashing Glory again. “Of course, it’s much nicer to be this high when your wings are free. But at least the SkyWings gave us a pig sometimes. Do you have pigs? Octopi would be all right instead if you don’t. Or squid. Or manatees. I could go for a manatee right now. Or a whale. I’m not fussy, is what I’m saying. Say, how did you make this big thing? Did it take forever to build?”
    Riptide blinked for a moment, following Clay’s train of thought. “The pavilion? An animus SeaWing designed it, many generations ago, and magicked the stone to grow this way,” Riptide said. “Even so, it took nearly ten years to reach this form.”
    “Wow,” said Clay, and Tsunami couldn’t help being impressed, too. She hadn’t realized animus dragons had that kind of power. In their lessons, Webs had told them animus dragons could enchant chess pieces to play themselves. Sometimes they left curses on their jewels to poison anyone who tried to steal them. But making a whole pavilion grow from stone — that seemed like strong magic, more powerful than anything the NightWings could do.
    Starflight was clearly thinking the same thing, judging from his disgruntled snout. Tsunami hurriedly interrupted before he could begin a lecture.
    “This top level is where Queen Coral meets new visitors, like us,” she said importantly to her friends. “So when she arrives, everyone
please
act like dragonets of destiny instead of half-drowned seagulls, for goodness’ sake.”
    Sunny looked wounded, and Starflight sniffed loudly while Glory turned up her snout like she wasn’t taking any orders from Tsunami. Clay poked his nose over the edge and blinked at the lower pavilion tiers.
    “Which level is the feasting on?” he asked. “You do have feasting, right?” His wide brown eyes turned to Riptide. “No reason. Just wondering.”
    “Sure, sometimes