The Hive Queen

by Tui T. Sutherland

  Are all LeafWings like that? Brave enough to do their own thing, no matter what anyone else thinks?

  Sundew’s parents, Belladonna and Hemlock, would have preferred to keep Cricket and Swordtail under their wings until they found another use for them. It was Sundew who had insisted on helping them free the flamesilks instead.

  And she’d kept the Book of Clearsight, instead of giving it to them. Cricket’s parents would NEVER have agreed to that or trusted her with something so important. Belladonna and Hemlock had grumbled, but when Sundew put her talons down, they accepted it.

  She didn’t have to help fight the HiveWings who spotted Luna and Swordtail, either, Cricket thought. But she didn’t even hesitate.

  Cricket wished she could ever be that sure of herself. Sundew moved like a dragon who’d already found all the answers to her questions.

  It was really quiet in the caves this far under the earth. If she sat still and concentrated, she could hear water trickling in the distance. And every once in a while, she heard weird little squeaky echoes, which she suspected — all right, she hoped — were more of those little reading monkeys, like the one she and Blue had seen at the bottom of a sinkhole on the savanna.

  If I could find them, maybe I could borrow one of THEIR books, she thought wistfully. Which made her laugh at herself. Of course she wouldn’t be able to understand the little reading monkey language (if that’s what it was). Plus her claws would be too big for their tiny books.

  But imagine holding a book by another species in her talons! What if she could translate it? What would it say? What did monkeys think about? What were their stories about? What did they know that dragons didn’t? It felt as if her head might explode, thinking about everything she might discover. In another life, where studying them could have been my destiny.

  A noise sounded from the stone passages beyond the cave.

  Cricket froze, all senses on alert.

  It came again … the scratch of claws on rock. The sound of a tail slithering along the floor.

  Someone else was in the caves.

  Cricket held her breath, her mind frantically darting through her options. Could she pretend she was guarding the cocoon? That maybe Queen Wasp had given her a secret mission?

  Not if the dragon who was coming had white eyes. If Queen Wasp was inside this dragon’s brain, she’d recognize Cricket as the dragon who’d stolen the Book of Clearsight and two of her flamesilks. She’d be able to raise the entire continent to descend on this cave in a heartbeat. And there was no way Cricket could hide Blue before they arrived.

  She stepped in front of his cocoon anyway and tried to make her face look menacing.

  But the dragon who appeared in the doorway was the green and gold of summer leaves, with two wings instead of four. Cricket had never been so relieved to see a scowl that fierce.

  “Sundew!” she cried, leaping toward her. “You’re all right!”

  “No thanks to any of you,” Sundew grumbled. She winced as she stepped into the cave, and Cricket spotted a trickle of blood running down her shoulder.

  “What happened?” Cricket asked, catching Sundew’s pouches as the LeafWing threw them off and setting them against the wall. “Have you seen Swordtail and Luna? I’m so sorry I couldn’t fly up and help you — not that I’m much use in a fight anyway — but Blue’s Metamorphosis started and I had to get him somewhere safe.” She waved her wings at the glowing lump behind her. “What did you do to the HiveWings? Do they know where we are?”

  She felt the shape of the Book of Clearsight in the last pouch and laid it carefully, reverently, on the stone floor. The queen had lied to everyone about the Book, but it was still very old and pretty sacred and most important a BOOK (something to read! At last!).

  “I led them away,” Sundew said, shaking raindrops off her wings. “I flew south. Those smug moss-brained monsters chased me all the way to Lake Scorpion, and then I lost them and came back the very annoyingly long way around Dragonfly Bay. It’s pouring outside — easy to lose a dragon in a storm.” She shook her head. “Didn’t see Luna anywhere, but I did find this bedraggled unhelpful mess.” Sundew ducked out into the passageway and Cricket followed her.

  Swordtail lay sprawled on the cave floor, unconscious. He seemed much wetter than Sundew, as though she had just dredged him up from the bottom of the ocean. Long strands of seaweed were tangled through his horns and his talons and wrapped around his dark blue wings.

  “By the Book, where has he been?” Cricket asked, crouching beside him to study his face. “Is he all right?”

  Sundew shrugged disinterestedly. “He’s alive. I found him like this on a rock in the bay. He’s lucky I found him instead of a HiveWing, although I was pretty tempted to leave him there.” She grabbed one of his back talons and started dragging him into Blue’s cave. Cricket followed, trying to hold Swordtail’s head above the bumpy rocks.

  “But he was alone?” she asked as Sundew dropped the SilkWing in a heap beside the flamesilk cocoon.

  “My guess is Luna got blown out to sea and he tried to follow her,” Sundew said. She stretched her wings again and shook out her talons as though her shoulder hurt. “But the storm chucked him into a boulder instead. Which he deserved, if you ask me. Did you see him fly off and leave me fighting two HiveWings alone? I mean, sure, Luna is great and I know he just got her back and all and I get it; I have a one true love, too.”

  “You DO?” Cricket said, fascinated. “Who?”

  “But on the other talon, HiveWings!” Sundew went on, ignoring her. “With pointy stabby bits! Plus, he left you guys in danger, too, which he apparently didn’t even think about.”

  “He probably thinks you could take on nine times that many HiveWings by yourself and be all right,” Cricket admitted. “I mean, that’s what I think.” She was still wrapping her mind around the last revelation. Sundew has a one true love! Another LeafWing, I guess. What kind of dragon would Sundew fall in love with? Is it someone equally terrifying?

  “Hm,” Sundew said, looking a little mollified. “Well, that would be the first sign of life from his brain, that’s for sure.”

  “I guess he never found Luna. And you didn’t see where she went?” Cricket glanced worriedly at Blue’s cocoon. Could he hear anything through the layers of silk? Probably not; she was pretty sure Metamorphosis was kind of a long dreamless sleep. But how would he react when he came out and discovered that the sister he’d worked so hard to rescue was … gone?

  “No, but I got a survivor vibe from her. That one can take care of herself, I think.” Sundew picked up one of Swordtail’s wings and dropped it with a wet thwapping sound. “Moon-faced, self-aggrandizing opinions to the contrary.”

  “But wait … how did you get him back here?” Cricket asked wonderingly. Sundew was about the same size as Swordtail, maybe a little smaller. There was no way the LeafWing could have carried him across the bay and into the cave, especially in the storm, and especially if she was trying not to be noticed.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?” Sundew snapped.

  “Oh, yes,” Cricket said. “All the time.”

  Sundew crinkled her nose, which Cricket hoped was her “trying not to laugh” expression. “Well, stop for a few heartbeats while I catch my breath.”

  “All right,” Cricket said, although wanting to know so many things and not being able to find them out felt like small creatures buzzing under her scales. “Can I get you some water for that?” She pointed to Sundew’s injury. “If you stay with Blue, I can go find the underground river. It can’t be far if we can hear it so well from here.” Maybe she’d have a better chance of getting answers if she did something helpful first.

  “Yes, all right,” Sundew said. “At least it’ll be quiet while you’re gone.” She pointed to one of her pouches. “There’s a moss in there that can absorb nearly a whole pond. Take some of that with you.”

  Cricket dug out a talonful of moss and bounded off into th
e caves. It wasn’t hard to make a mental map in her head as she followed the sound of water through the tunnels.

  The river she found was more of a stream, although she guessed it would get stronger if she kept walking down it, toward the sound of rapids. But a little bit of water was all she needed, so she dipped the clump of moss in until it was well soaked, then headed back to Blue’s cave.

  Sundew muttered, “Thank you” as she took the moss and pressed it to the cut on her shoulder. Cricket hovered for a moment, wondering if she could help more, but the green dragon looked extra scowly and prone to biting, so Cricket decided it would be safer to back away for a little while.

  “I hope Luna’s all right,” she said, circling Swordtail. “I wonder if she can swim.” At least Swordtail was unconscious and therefore unlikely to snap at her. Cricket started untangling the seaweed from his wings, piling it up nearby. There was a lot of it. Was it edible? She hadn’t eaten in … hmmm. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a very long time. She’d probably have to starve for another day or two before she’d find gloppy wet seaweed at all appetizing, though.

  “How long ago did you find him?” she asked. The pile of seaweed oozed and squished as she added more to it. Squelp. Thwerk. Splaf. “Do you think he’ll wake up soon? I wonder if he’ll stay to watch Blue come out or go off looking for Luna again. Maybe she’s stranded on another island in the bay. So maybe she’ll come back and find us? Should we leave a message in the beach cave so she’ll come down here? But no, then Queen Wasp’s scouts might see it — we sure don’t want them finding us. Hey, how did you find me?”

  “AARRRRGH,” Sundew growled. “You don’t even KNOW that you’re doing it. Here, wake him up so you can bother someone else.” She grabbed one of her pouches and threw it to Cricket.

  “Oh, sorry! Sorry,” Cricket said. She had in fact forgotten about not asking Sundew any more questions during her trip back and forth to the river. “What’s in here? I mean — um, I’ll figure it out!” She flipped open the pouch, which was woven out of large, shiny, waterproof leaves, and found three neat compartments with different bundles in each. She hoped none of them contained alarming insects like the ones she’d seen Sundew fight dragons with.

  “Middle section,” Sundew said. “Crush one under his nose.” She threw a few berries in her mouth and lay down with her back to Cricket, Swordtail, and Blue.

  Inside the middle compartment of the pouch, wrapped in a soft covering of cobwebs, Cricket found a trio of weird-looking plants. Each was shiny red, mottled with yellow streaks and curved in around itself so there was a hollow in the middle and a point at one end. Cricket carefully took one out, held it under Swordtail’s snout, and squished it between her claws.

  The scent that came out was unexpectedly horrible, and strong enough to make her own eyes water. Swordtail grunted, his face twitching in distress. Cricket held the plant in place as long as she could, then ran across the cave to throw it out into the passageway.

  When she came back, Swordtail was blinking and trying to sit up, rubbing his eyes. He unraveled a long strand of seaweed from his legs and managed to roll upright. His bewildered gaze took in the flamesilk cocoon and then Cricket.

  Cricket wanted to help, but the truth was, Swordtail made her a little nervous. She knew he was Blue’s best friend and Blue trusted him, but he was kind of loud and mad and she got the feeling he didn’t like her very much.

  There had always been dragons in her classes who didn’t like her because she got the right answer or made the class run long with her questions, or because she’d rather be reading a book than playing one of their recess games. Or because she understood equations better than she understood other dragons, and sometimes she was just awkward and out of step with everyone else and, you know what, normal conversations were hard; didn’t anyone else find them hard?

  But Swordtail disliked her entirely because she was a HiveWing. She couldn’t argue with that. She couldn’t help being a HiveWing, and she couldn’t defend anything her tribe had done, and it wasn’t useful to keep saying “but I’m not like them!” over and over. She just had to hope that eventually she’d do enough to prove she could be trusted.

  Cricket glanced over at the resting LeafWing, wishing she could talk to her instead. Sundew hated HiveWings even more than Swordtail did, but she seemed OK with Cricket, in her own ferocious way. Cricket suspected there was someone almost as kind as Blue under all Sundew’s layers of thorns, although so far she’d only caught glimpses of her.

  The LeafWing was also really smart and knew a million things about plants and insects that Cricket had never learned in school. Cricket kind of wished she could open up Sundew’s brain and read it like a book — especially all the parts about LeafWings and where they’d gone and how they’d survived. Sundew wouldn’t answer any of those questions, except with growling.

  “Where’s Luna?” Swordtail asked right away, raking another talonful of seaweed off his neck.

  “I don’t know,” Cricket said. “I saw her silk get caught in the wind and carry her out to sea, but Blue’s Metamorphosis was starting, so I had to bring him down here. I don’t know what happened next. What did you see? What happened to you?”

  Swordtail rubbed his forehead as if it hurt. “I tried to follow her — but the storm —” He took a step toward the corridor and stumbled over a trailing piece of seaweed. “I have to go find her.”

  “Shouldn’t you rest for a bit first?” Cricket suggested. “Sundew says it’s pouring outside. And you were just unconscious —”

  “I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “Luna needs me.” He took another staggering step toward the door.

  “Don’t be a skunk cabbage,” Sundew said grumpily, turning her head to frown at him. “You’re entirely useless to any dragon in the state you’re in.”

  “But —” He paused, struggling for words, and then slumped, perhaps feeling the extent of the battering the storm had given him.

  “Look for her tomorrow,” Cricket suggested. “Or as soon as you’re dry, or after you sleep, or whatever you want. But you’ll be much more likely to find her with well-rested wings and a clear head, don’t you think? Maybe we can do some calculations about wind speed and currents and figure out where she might be. It would help if I had some books, though; I’ve never studied the ocean on this side of the continent. I wonder how buoyant flamesilk is. Do you know anything about it?”

  Swordtail sighed, although Cricket couldn’t tell if it was an exasperated sigh or a resigned sigh or just exhaustion. “Not much,” he said. He turned away from the door, limped over to Blue’s cocoon, and touched it lightly with his talons. “Poor Blue. Was he … did he seem scared?”

  “Maybe a little,” Cricket said, “but he was very brave. He was mostly worried about you and Luna.”

  Swordtail rubbed at his eyes. “That sucks. I wish we’d been here for him.”

  She guessed they were both thinking the same thing — that they hoped Luna would be here when Blue woke up.

  The glow of Blue’s cocoon lit Swordtail’s face as he leaned down to study the silken strands. “So I guess this means Blue’s a flamesilk, too?” he said.

  “It looks like it,” Cricket agreed.

  “Good,” said Sundew.

  They both turned and blinked at her.

  “Good? Why? What does that mean?” Cricket asked.

  “It’s useful,” Sundew answered. “Our cause doesn’t need another normal boring timid SilkWing. But a flamesilk — that’s fantastic.”

  “You think Blue is going to be useful … for the LeafWings?” Swordtail said in a dangerous voice.

  “How?” Cricket took an instinctive step closer to the cocoon, as though Blue might sense her protection through the silk. “What do you think he could do?”

  Sundew flicked her wings back and tipped her head. “A few hundred awesome fiery things,” she said. “Starting with the most obvious: he’s going to burn down all the Hives for us.”

  �
�No way!” Cricket cried. “Blue would never do that!”

  “Burn down all the Hives,” Swordtail echoed, sounding a little more awestruck than Cricket was comfortable with.

  “Is that really your plan?” Cricket asked Sundew. She knew the LeafWings were here for a reason, and she thought she understood how angry they were at the HiveWings — but this was so much more violent than she’d expected. Did the LeafWings want to restart the war? Even after they lost so badly the last time? “I thought you said you just wanted the Book!”

  Sundew stabbed at the pouch with the Book of Clearsight in it. “Yes, when we thought the stupid thing would tell us the future. Instead it’s completely useless. So what else are we supposed to do?”

  “Not burn down the Hives?!” Cricket suggested.

  “They’re so big,” Swordtail murmured. He gazed up at the ceiling, as though he was imagining an entire city on fire. “Even Luna never suggested destroying a whole Hive.”

  “You’d be starting the Tree Wars all over again,” Cricket said. “If you try to burn any of the Hives, Queen Wasp will send her whole army after you.”

  “She’s not the only one with an army,” Sundew said, scowling. “This time we’ll be ready. The new Tree Wars will go very differently — especially if we start with burning the HiveWings out of their cities.”

  Are there that many LeafWings left? Cricket wondered. A whole army of them?

  “Blue won’t help you burn cities,” Cricket said to Sundew. She was sure of that. “He would never do anything to hurt anyone.”

  Swordtail gave her a strange look. “Excuse me,” he said, “but you barely know Blue. I’m the one who’s been his best friend basically his whole life.”

  “Well then, do you see him burning down Hives all across Pantala?” Cricket asked.