Darkness of Dragons
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Darkness of Dragons is the tenth book in the Wings of the Fire series. Tui T. Sutherland has confirmed at a book talk in Washington that the main protagonist of Darkness of Dragons will be Qibli. This book will be released on July 25, 2017, with 31 chapters and 399 pages. Darkness of Dragons will also be the last book in the second arc. Tui also said that a Wings of Fire fan could have their character in this book, if they won the auction. The auction ended on May 2nd, 2016. A wiki user named Typhoonseawing won the auction; and the character they made that will be in the book is named Typhoon, a SeaWing-IceWing hybrid.
Darkness of Dragons follows Talons of Power. It also precedes the third cycle, books eleven through fifteen.
Summary
TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
Qibli knows Darkstalker must be stopped. And he knows he could stop him—if he had magic. With even a sliver of the ancient dragon’s all-powerful scroll, Qibli could rewrite history the right way: end war forever; make every dragon happy; perhaps even cast a very small spell so that everyone would like him . . .
Instead, as Darkstalker’s dangerous influence spreads across Pyrrhia, entrancing or killing every dragon in the seven tribes, Qibli can only grasp the small animus objects he’s borrowed from Turtle. With some clever thinking, Qibli’s talons finally hold the power to make a difference.
But prophecies are not easy to rewrite. Can Qibli be the magical force Pyrrhia needs, or will he be the one to bring Jade Mountain—and his family, his friends, his whole world—crashing down?
Plot
Prologue
The prologue is from Palm's perspective. She is shown running away from Queen Oasis' soldiers, who are trying to take her back to the SandWing Palace. She flees, running for hours, and tries to find her sister's home whom she hasn't visited in a year. On the verge of passing out, she finds her sister, Prickle, in her hut. Prickle reluctantly lets Palm in and they start arguing about Smolder. Palm begs her sister to allow her to stay even for a day. In return, Prickle takes Palm's earring -her last connection to Smolder- as payment. Palm explains how about how she tried to elope with Smolder, but was caught before the two could meet up. Prickle and Palm have a hunch it might've been the SandWing princesses.
After a while, the guards then burst in, arresting Prickle by mistake, since the sisters are almost completely identical and she was wearing Palm's earrings. One of the guards recognizes the real Palm, but doesn't mention it. That guard decides to let Palm escape instead. Palm lies and pretends to be Prickle for the sake of her dragonet and they take the real Prickle away. Palm then decides to run away and travel to the mountains. As she runs away, she catches sight of three scavengers heading to the SandWing palace, but soon forgets about it. She plans to raise her child to show that the throne doesn't matter and to be ordinary, in the way Smolder couldn't.
Part One: Storm of Sands
The book then flashes to when Moonwatcher, Turtle, Darkstalker, and the other dragons following him are flying away from Jade Mountain Academy. Qibli notices that the dragons fall behind Darkstalker, despite him not knowing where the village was, because he acts like their leader so they follow him. He notices different observations about Anemone and worries about Turtle. He wonders if he should go with them. Qibli flashes back to his time before the Scorpion Den and his life with his horrible mother, Cobra, and siblings named Rattlesnake and Sirocco. Qibli has a flashback of when he was a little dragonet and tries to steal a coconut for his mother. His mother yells at him for that and draws the attention of her client, who becomes interested in Qibli. Thorn then takes him in after his mother sold him to her. She won his loyalty when she complimented him, as she was the first one to ever acknowledge that he did something right. He later has a conversation with Winter, and it seems like 'his brain is wrapped in walrus blubber'.
Winter tells Qibli to stop moping in the next chapter, and Qibli protests, saying Winter is the one who is moping. Winter denies it haughtily and Qibli modifies the term to "brooding" and Winter agrees. He tells Qibli that it is time to go to History but Qibli says they were in the middle of history right now and Winter scoffs, saying the excitement was in the rainforest now and they were just the footnotes, much to Qibli's disappointment. He gives up the argument and they go to the History cave.
When they get there, Tamarin is tapping cave walls and sniffing the air and Qibli asks her what happened. She asks Qibli if he smells smoke and he denies it. Tamarin decides it's just that she hasn't been able to get the scent of smoke cleared from her nose since the explosion. Tamarin says she just worries for Kinkajou now and Qibli agrees. He thinks back to the talisman and wishes his friends had let him have it so Tamarin could see, Darkstalker would still be trapped, and Kinkajou would be healed. Also that Moon would still be around him. Just then, Pike bursts in, asking where Anemone is and Winter responds that she went to the rainforest. Pike starts freaking out about Anemone alone and unprotected and he must go after her. Winter says that Turtle was with her and Pike isn't in the least reassured. Qibli points out that Turtle would be great at protecting her, deciding to not reveal Turtle's invisibility spell. Tamarin adds that Anemone is an animus so she can protect herself. Pike decides to go after Anemone anyways but Webs orders him to stay and Pike protests to no avail.
Webs says that since the Jade Winglet and Gold Winglet had shortages in population, the Gold Winglet will be joining them. Qibli is excited as his friend, Ostrich would be joining him. But Ostrich isn't among her winglet, much to his disappointment. Thrush asks if they can learn about Darkstalker, and Changbai agrees, saying he didn't seem like the legends. Boto is worried if Darkstalker is likely to murder them. Webs is irked, saying Darkstalker's legend happened 3000 years after where they currently were in their lesson, but Tamarin interjects, saying they desperately needed to know about him now. Winter snaps that they can see what Darkstalker's like without a history scroll, adding that he trusts his own instincts than a scroll. Sepia and Winter then start pointlessly arguing about who was more villainous, Icicle or Sora and Qibli interjects, saying Icicle did try to kill Glory and Starflight which doesn't help Winter at all.
Trivia
- It is the second book in the second arc of five books that doesn't include the protagonist's name in the title, instead following Talons of Power's naming pattern as the title is a line from the Jade Mountain Prophecy.
- It is also the first mainstream book to feature a full-blood SandWing, as Sunny is only half SandWing. However, counting Sunny and Six-Claws with Deserter, it is the third book to have a SandWing PoV.
- This is the first and likely only book to feature a WoF fan's character in a book.
- This is the third Wings of Fire book to feature the POV sitting or standing on a rock or other object rather than flying or swimming, the other books being The Dark Secret and Winter Turning.
- This is the third book where a dragon on the cover of the book has an accessory, the others being Talons of Power and Escaping Peril, with Turtle wearing his armband, Anemone is wearing a small silver earring (ToP), and Scarlet is wearing a necklace and bracelet (EP). Qibli is wearing his earring.
- In a few places, the book was titled as Storm of Sands. Tui confirmed that Qibli's name meant "storm of sands." Additionally, the first part of Darkness of Dragons is called "Storm of Sands."
- At 399 pages, this will be the longest of the WoF books, including Legends.
- In an interview, Tui confirmed that Blaze, Smolder, and Thorn will make appearances in this book.
Gallery
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Qibli by RhynoBullraq
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Angelturtle's illustration for Book 10's cover
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Helio's blank cover graphic (luster art)
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Qibli by Riftlight
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SandWing Sigil by Platypus the SeaWing -
qibli by voiidi
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Darkness of Dragons Full Cover
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Darkness of Dragons book
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Darkness of Dragons Book
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