Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland

she followed Kinkajou, keeping her head down to avoid the looks from the dragons around her. That didn’t help to block out their thoughts, though. The ones who noticed her definitely remembered the scene from the prey center — there were echoing murmurs of Oh, there’s the weird NightWing who doesn’t talk and She’s the one who tried to steal that IceWing’s scavenger and Seems stuck-up like all the other NightWings, doesn’t want to make friends with anyone.
    After a minute she realized, though, that most of the dragonets were too busy worrying about their first class to pay much attention to her. What will they think of me? was the prevailing whisper in all their minds. Will anyone like me? What if I say something stupid?
    She didn’t catch any thoughts about strange dreams or murder plots, although it was hard to tell through all the noise.
    Carnelian went through the Great Hall — where Fatespeaker was sitting proudly with a mallet next to the bronze gong — and chose a tunnel on the opposite side, slanting up. To Moon’s surprise, this passageway was lined with plants: some with pale green heart-shaped leaves growing out of cracks in the rock, others with vigorous bundles of dark purple leaves, sprouting from small pots of dirt. Green vines covered the ceiling, winding around the green and yellow globe lights, with long blue flowers hanging down like dragon tails. A rivulet of silvery water trickled down the center of the tunnel, carving a small groove in the stone.
    As they went higher, the air felt more damp, until finally they ended up in a cave swarming with vines that was open to the sky on one side. Water cascaded down the back wall like a moving, bubbling tapestry, pouring into a small pool that fed into the stream in the tunnel.
    Tsunami sat on the ledge with the morning sun shining behind her, grinning at them as they came in. Her royal blue scales looked as if they were made of melted sky.
    About time, she thought. Her tail shifted, rustling the trails of leaves that spilled across the floor and out onto the mountainside. My own fault for getting up at the crack of dawn, but really it’s time to get started, let’s GO!
    Moon ducked her head. There was something about the SeaWing that made her nervous, and it was only partly the fact that her thoughts were so loud .
    BONG! BONG! went the gong, only twice this time.
    “Hello!” Tsunami said. “Welcome to your first class. Nice work finding the right cave. Carnelian, Kinkajou, and Moonwatcher, right? Oh, be impressed, I’ve been practicing so hard to memorize all of you. Thirty-five new names! Easy as cows for Starflight, but a whole lot trickier for me and Clay, believe me. I mean, it helps that I knew some of you before, of course.”
    “Like ME!” Kinkajou trilled.
    Tail kisser, Carnelian thought grumpily.
    Someone moved in the tunnel behind Moon and she turned to see a smallish MudWing coming into the cave with a SeaWing close behind him. She didn’t recognize the MudWing, but the SeaWing —
    “Turtle!” Tsunami said enthusiastically. “Oh, good, I asked to be given your winglet first. Hey, everyone, this is my brother. Can you believe I have a brother? Or a million brothers, apparently, but I’m just assuming this one’s the best, since he’s here right now.” She slung one wing over his shoulders and gave him a toothy grin.
    Turtle smiled back at her. “It’s true, I am.”
    Moon studied the green SeaWing dragonet, remembering the vision she’d had when she first saw him — the vision of him attacking Anemone. Could he be the one from the dream last night? Was someone trying to convince him to kill his sisters?
    She tried cautiously to reach into his mind, which she didn’t exactly know how to do; it was like trying to listen harder in one direction. Most dragons were constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings, but Turtle still had that odd quiet around him, as though his brain were wrapped in blankets. It was