All at once, the racing dragonets whipped their heads around, looking for the blue GemWing. Opal kept her eyes on the ravine, the last test, to see if he would appear. He did not. In fact, there was no sign of him anywhere.
"Zircon!" The voice yelled again. Through the crowd, Opal saw a duo of stressed dragons, Aquamarine, Zircon's sister, the one doing the shouting, and Andesite, Zircon's father. The were looking frantically around for Zircon. Zircon, however, was nowhere to be seen. Oh no! He must still be at the wind test! Opal suddenly spread her wings and bolted back to the other test. She could see the opening, just barely in the fog, but she knew was getting closer. Her wings hurt after the test, so she decided do land in the tunnel that led to the other cave. She regretted it instantly. As soon as she had landed, Opal had stepped in some sort of liquid. She looked down to see what it was and almost threw up. It was a small puddle of fresh, glistening blood. Zircon . . . . No . . . . . Please don't be . . . . Opal couldn't finish the thought.
Opal raced through the tunnel, seeing the other side. She reached the end of the tunnel and looked over the canyon for Zircon. She almost immediately spotted his bright blue scales. But the weren't blue anymore. Opal almost cried her eyes out and almost threw up at the same time. What she saw in front of her was Zircon, lying dead on the floor, with a stalagmite impaling him in the stomach. But that was not what had killed him. His throat had been so viciously ripped out, that his head was almost severed from the rest of his body. Only the spine kept his head from being severed. Opal heard Quartz and the other GemWings land at the other end of the tunnel. She heard Quartz come running towards her. Quartz skid to a halt when she saw the blood. Opal stood back, allowing Quartz to see Zircon.
"Oh no." Quartz murmured as she stared at the body. "What are we going to tell Aquamarine and Andesite?"
"I don't know." Opal replied.
Shulker and Seasnake came up beside Quartz and Opal, quickly spotting the body. It was Shulker who reacted the worst.
"No. No!" He cried, "I believed they would do this! I trusted them!"
Shulker narrowed his eyes and lowered his head to look at the ground. Opal knew who the culprit was, by Shulker's reaction. In fact, she had know the culprit as soon as she had seen the body. It was the VoidWings. Queen Rift was still killing innocent dragons. Opal spun around and sped back through the tunnel, passing by many GemWings on her way. She could hear Sea and Shulker behind her, but she wanted to get back to her room. As soon as the tunnel ended, she started to fly, not caring about her aching wings. Rift and the VoidWings had hurt enough dragons and someone had to do something about it. If not anyone else, it was down to Opal. She found the nearest entrance into Unakite and glided through the opening, startling many GemWings on her way through. She then shot down to the floor, avoiding colliding with any dragons on her way. As soon as her talons touched the ground, Opal started running, speeding toward the tunnel that led to her room. 6th cave on the left, that was her room. Opal hastily counted the caves on the left as she went by, slowing down when she counted the 5th cave. The next cave seemed smaller when she entered, but Opal shrugged it off as she headed to her scroll rack. Shulker cane in behind her with Sea not to far behind. Quartz finally came in, looking on with complete confusion. Sea was less confused but she didn't understand what Opal was doing. But Shulker on the other talon, fully understood what she was doing as Opal checked each of her scrolls, looking for a specific title.
"It's this one." Shulker said, pulling out the scroll with the map of Pyrexia drawn on it. She quickly scanned the map, trying to find where the VoidWings would live. Shulker took one look at the map, then put his long talon on the section of the map named, Obsidian Peaks. Opal stared at Obsidian Peaks for a few minutes before Quartz and Sea came over to the table to look as well.
"If I were the VoidWing Queen," Opal muttered to herself, "where would I live in Obsidian Peaks?"
"I don't know," Shulker said, probably answering her question, "I've never been to the Queen's palace before."
"Then we'd better start looking," Opal said, "something tells me this ain't gonna be easy."
                                                                                                   ***
Opal went to the entrance, only to be stopped by someone grabbing her tail. Opal turned to see Peridot had stopped her.
"Not now," he said, "the Queen requires all dragons attending, for the Gathering."
"The Queen has called a Gathering?" Opal asked just as she heard the sound of crying on crystal. The Gathering. She nodded to Peridot and raced down the main cave into the tunnel that led to the Gathering cavern. She met Sea and Shulker on the way and beckoned them to follow. The three of them eventually reached the cavern. Opal chose the spot next to Quartz, Quartz herself having saved that spot for her.
"You're welcome." She whispered in Opal's ear. Shulker chose the spot on the ledge at the back, and Sea tried to squeeze in next to Opal. Opal heard talonsteps on the large ledge in front of her and looked up. Queen Amethyst sat there gazing down on her tribe, flicking her tail in mild impatience. Once she was sure everyone was settled, Amethyst stood up and bellowed a huge roar to get everyone's attention. The whispering in the cavern immediately stopped as everyone turned their gazes up to their Queen.
"My tribe," she said, addressing her dragons, "I will be leaving for a visit to the Radiant Woodlands to meet with Queen Shimmer. We will discuss the matters of these attacks and decide what we are going to do about it."
The GemWings looked around as if to expect a VoidWing to suddenly show up.
"In the meanwhile," Amethyst continued, "my daughter, Princess Diamond will take charge of the tribe in my absence. I ask you to obey her as you would obey me. She will be the Queen until my return."
The GemWings all looked up to Princess Diamond, and lowered their heads in respect, Sea and Shulker doing the same. Satisfied with what happened, Queen Amethyst spun around and headed for the tunnel leading out of Unakite, calling for her guards Peridot and Tanzanite to accompany her. As soon as she was out of sight Diamond turned toward the tribe and smiled pleasantly.
"Thank you all for accepting me as Queen for the time being." She began, her voice confident, "I respect my mother's decision as you all do. I hope I can be as great a queen as her."
Diamond dipped her head, then turned and headed out of the cavern. All the GemWings headed for the exit tunnels, looking to head out of the cavern, leaving Moonstone, Quartz, Sea, Shulker and Opal alone.
"We have to leave." Opal whispered, not wanting the leaving dragons to hear, "before Diamond finds out about Shulker!"
"Leave?" Moonstone said, "who's leaving now?"
"Opal, Sea, Shulker and I were going to go and find out why the VoidWing Queen is sending her dragons to murder other tribes." Quartz explained, "we were going to find a way to stop them—"
"Absolutely not!" Moon said, "I can't let you leave sis! Do you know how much danger there is?"
"Yes I do!" Quartz argued, "I'm not going to let my friends do this alone! I have to be there!"
"No you don't!" Moon almost shouted, "I won't let my little sister wander off and potentially get killed!"
"Someone loves you." Sea said softly in Quartz's ear, shooting her a mischievous grin.
"Look, I mean, I can't loose you." Moon sighed, then turned and headed out of the cavern.
"Quartz, you don't have to do this with us." Opal said, "there is someone else that needs you more than us."
"Who?"
"Aragonite."
Quartz looked at Opal and smiled.
"Besides," Opal continued, "I wouldn't want my friend going on this crazy perilous adventure with me, if she could stay home and stay safe."
"You're right." Quartz said, "I have to look after her."
Just as she stood and started to turn away, Princess Diamond came walking majestically toward them. She stopped a few steps away from them. Opal saw how regal the small GemWing looked now that she was up close. She had shining ice-blue scales with white wings and sapphire blue eyes. Her snout was long and her horns were twisted inward. Her wings were shaped more like the queen's wings, a diamond. And her gem at the end of her tail had four sides instead of six. She looked at each of them with a calculating stare until her eyes fell upon Shulker.
"Opal," She said with a soft hissing voice, "I've heard a lot about you from my mother."
Opal sat there and blinked, not knowing what to do.
"The Queen told me about you and your friends." She continued. She eyed Shulker again, but he didn't move. "She never told me about him though."
Diamond flicked her tail at the VoidWing. It just occurred to Opal that the Queen never knew about her meetings with Shulker. Princess Diamond gave a soft hiss.
"I never knew you would bring a spy here, though I thought every VoidWing was murderous." She turned to look at the other two GemWings in the room. They were Coal and Jet the two burly GemWing that always followed the Princess.
"Wait," Opal began. She looked at Shulker who was shaking his head. Diamond paused then turned to Opal.
"What were you going to do?" Opal asked as the princess narrowed her eyes. She looked at Opal for a long while.
"Well we can't let this monster run around killing GemWings now can we," Diamond said flicking her tail at the two black dragons. "And we certainly have to punish the dragons who brought him here."
"Wait!" Opal cried, "don't do this! He didn't do anything!"
A set of black talons clamped her mouth shut and two more grabbed her wings and tail. Opal tried to look up but the talons were too strong. She caught a glimpse of Shulker trying to rift away before more GemWings came to pin him down. Opal could hear Sea hissing madly as it took five GemWings to pin her down. She could see or hear any sign of Moonstone or Quartz anywhere until she heard Quartz yelling.
"You don't have to do this! We weren't doing anything!" She cried.
"I do have to, because I'm  Queen," Diamond said. "It's for your own good and for the good of the tribe."
"No—!" Quartz began before she was seized too.
"Guards!" Diamond called, "put these dragons in the crystal dungeon until we figure out what to do with them!"
The dragons holding Opal suddenly heaved her up and flew her out of the Gathering Cavern, not towards the main cave, but down a tunnel that Opal have never been before. Opal guessed they were headed towards the prison caves. But just as they reached the entrance she head Coal speak.
"We should knock them out in case they try to struggle out." He said to the other GemWing guards. "You three go get some rocks we can use!"
Three of them spread out and searched the cavern. It wasn't long before all three came back with big rocks.
"Do that one first." Coal said. Opal knew who he was pointing to just before she heard Shulker's muffled scream. They did Sea next. Opal knew because she heard the guards struggle to get her head. She was hissing wildly and thrashing around. It looked like she was going to get away before it all went silent. No. Opal tried to struggle her head away as she saw the blue GemWing advance towards her. Coal had to hold her head down on the floor for the GemWing. This is it. We've failed. Trapped in the claws of my own tribe! Someone has to find out why the VoidWing Queen is doing this. But with me locked up, no one will—
Opal's last train of thought was cut off as the world went dark.