The Hive Queen

by Tui T. Sutherland

  “Nope. Not possible,” Morpho declared. “HiveWing LIE.”

  “But it is possible, because there’s me,” Cricket said. “I know, it’s weird and I can’t explain it. The queen can’t get into my head, I promise you. I wish I knew why! I’ve been trying to figure it out my whole life.”

  And the closest I’ve gotten is the theory that I’m half SilkWing. But nothing about me is very SilkWing — I mean, I think I look like a HiveWing from horns to claw tips. I don’t have a natural weapon, but neither do a lot of HiveWings. I know I’m different somehow … but I still feel like a HiveWing.

  She decided not to mention the SilkWing theory yet. She needed more evidence first.

  “This seems like a trick,” Morpho muttered. He stalked toward her and peered into her eyes. His were the same emerald green as his antennae, which curled and waved as though he was trying to sense the presence of Queen Wasp inside her.

  “It could be true,” said the yellow dragon. “She could be like the ones we heard about.”

  Cricket felt her heart speed up. “Other dragons like me? Who?”

  “We don’t know for sure. Cinnabar, come out and tell her about the story you heard.”

  The blanket boulder sighed enormously, and then the small orange SilkWing poked her head out. “If you’re going to keep using my name in front of total strangers, you could at least introduce yourself, too, Tau.”

  “Oh, sorry,” said the yellow dragon gently. “I’m Tau, that’s Cinnabar, and that’s Morpho.”

  “And I never said I believed that story,” Cinnabar pointed out. Her scales were a burnt orange with glints of dark red under her wings and along her spine. With a few black scales, slightly different wings, and a much scarier expression, she could almost have passed for a HiveWing.

  “What story?” Cricket asked.

  Cinnabar flicked the blanket off with her wings and edged closer to Tau. “It’s just a rumor. I heard it from a SilkWing who heard it from his cousin who heard it from a traveling theater performer. The whisper is that there’s a home for old dragons in Tsetse Hive, where none of them are allowed to leave ever because the queen can’t mind-control them.”

  “Fairy-tale nonsense,” Morpho spat. “She controls everyone.”

  “No, Morpho, you know that’s not true,” Tau said. “She doesn’t Hive-mind her sisters, or Lady Jewel.”

  “She doesn’t?” Cricket tilted her head. She’d never heard that before.

  “But she could, if she wanted to,” Morpho insisted. “She just doesn’t because she likes to give them the illusion of control. As long as they think they have their own Hives to run, they’ll bow and scrape and let her be the one who’s really in charge of everything.”

  “You’ve said that before,” Tau said, a tiny sliver of impatience slipping through her peaceful mask. “But I am sure it doesn’t work on Lady Jewel. I’ve been with her when the whole Hive is taken over, like when the entire tribe was sent to find these two.” She gestured at Blue and Cricket.

  “Three!” Swordtail protested, finally looking up from his talons. “They’re hunting for me, too!”

  “She finds it very irritating,” Tau went on. “Her whole day is disrupted and all Jewel Hive business has to be put on hold and she has to sit for hours waiting for her subjects to come back. She can’t even hide how annoyed she is from the SilkWings who work for her.”

  “That’s true,” Cinnabar agreed. “Even in the kitchen we can tell; it’s nonstop sugar orders all day.”

  “That doesn’t prove anything,” Morpho argued. “Wasp probably enjoys knowing how annoyed Jewel is. I don’t believe there’s a single HiveWing she can’t control if she wants to.”

  “Listen,” Cricket said reasonably. “If Queen Wasp could control me, would I be on a Wanted poster? Wouldn’t she just march me into her Hive from inside my brain? And use me to catch these two?”

  Morpho opened and closed his mouth a few times.

  “Oh, wow,” Cinnabar said. “You actually shut Morpho up for a moment. You can definitely be in my Chrysalis.”

  “This is a trap!” Morpho exploded. “HiveWings can’t be trusted! None of them!”

  “You’re just mad because this proves what Tau and I have been saying,” Cinnabar snapped back. “We could get HiveWings on our side if they were allowed to think for themselves!”

  “I don’t know about that,” Swordtail said. “Cricket might be the only one.”

  Cricket’s scarves felt too tight around her neck. He had to be wrong. The other HiveWings couldn’t be lost forever. She just had to find a way to set them free.

  “I think you’re right,” she said to Cinnabar. “I mean, I hope so. Do you know anything else about Queen Wasp’s mind control? Like, how it works, or whether anyone’s ever managed to break free from it?”

  Tau blinked and shook her head sadly. “Oh, I see,” she said. “You’re trying to free someone, too. I’m sorry; I’ve never heard of anyone escaping the mind control.”

  “And even if they did,” Morpho growled, “all the HiveWings have had Queen Wasp in their heads for so long, they can’t think for themselves anyway. They’ll keep believing her lies, no matter how free you think they are.”

  Cricket shivered, remembering her conversation with Katydid. I will get through to her. If I keep telling her the truth, she’ll have to hear me — she’ll have to believe me.

  Something flashed outside the window, like silver catching the moonlight, but when Cricket turned to look, it was gone. The night beyond the glass was empty; only savanna grasses waved in the midnight breeze.

  “I am not interested in wasting time on HiveWings,” Morpho said firmly. “I want to save SilkWings. There are enough of us to win if we join together and rise up!”

  Tau was shaking her head. “There aren’t,” she said. “It’s too dangerous. Too many SilkWings would die. I’m sorry, Morpho, but we have no weapons, and they have the queen’s Hive mind.”

  “Also stingers,” said Swordtail helpfully. “And venom. And toxic paralysis stabber bits.”

  “Sounds like you need an army,” Sundew said, timing her dramatic entrance perfectly. She emerged from behind the bookshelves and threw off her cape. Her leaf-shaped wings gleamed gold and green in the lamplight.

  The Chrysalis SilkWings all gasped. Tau sat back and pressed her front talons to her heart. Cinnabar crouched as though she didn’t know whether to fly or fight or scream. Morpho’s eyeballs looked like they were full of sunbeams.

  “Luckily for you,” said Sundew, “we’ve got one.”

  “Wait, but you’re not going to use it,” Blue interjected. “Right, Sundew? That’s why we’re here, because we’re looking for a better solution. We’re going to find an answer for your parents so they don’t restart the Tree Wars.”

  “You heard these dragons — there isn’t one,” she said, tossing her head. “There’s no way to break the Hive mind. So, backup plan. I’m here to make contact with the Chrysalis. If the SilkWings are ready to join the LeafWings this time, maybe the new Tree Wars will turn out the right way.”

  “But, Sundew —” Cricket started, horrified.

  The LeafWing brushed past her and held out one talon to Cinnabar. “What do you say? Care to destroy the HiveWings together?”

  “Sundew!” Blue cried.

  Cricket felt as though the floor was turning to glue, trapping her claws in place. Sundew couldn’t give up so quickly. There had to be something, some answer they just hadn’t found yet. Some way to save my tribe — to save all our tribes — from a new war.

  “YES,” Morpho shouted, elbowing Cinnabar out of the way. He took Sundew’s talon between his and pumped it up and down. “We’re in!”

  “You don’t speak for the whole Chrysalis,” Tau said to him. Cricket realized there were tears in her eyes as she stepped toward Sundew. “You’re alive,” she whispered. “I thought you were all dead. I thought we’d lost your whole tribe forever.”

  Sundew looked taken
aback. “We had no idea any of you cowards cared,” she said, a little awkwardly. “And no, we’re not all dead.”

  I cared, Cricket thought. I was so thrilled to find real actual alive LeafWings hiding in Queen Wasp’s greenhouse. Didn’t she see that I cared?

  “Sundew, what about freeing the HiveWings?” she said. “We wanted to give them a chance to make the right choice, remember? We agreed that breaking the mind control would help everyone.”

  Sundew shrugged, cascades of reflected gold glittering along her wings. “Like I suspected all along, it can’t be done. The only option is to crush the HiveWings completely.”

  “YES,” Morpho shouted again.

  “Fine by me,” said Swordtail. “I’m with Sundew.”

  Blue took a step closer to Cricket so he could brush her wings with his. “This isn’t right,” he said. “There are good HiveWings, I’m sure of it. I don’t think we can solve a tragedy of the past by just repeating it in reverse.”

  “Well, I don’t think we can solve a current tragedy by sitting around trying to understand the bad guys,” Sundew snapped. “I don’t want to hug a bunch of HiveWings and listen to their problems! I want them all punished!”

  Cricket buried her face in her talons. I would feel the same way in her place, wouldn’t I? But these were still her dragons. She couldn’t give up on her entire tribe — on Katydid and Lady Scarab and the Librarian and the little dragonets on her street and her father (even if he wasn’t her real father) and the students who’d shared books and seeds with her at school. She had to believe they were better than what Queen Wasp had turned them into, and that they could still be saved.

  “Where do we start?” Morpho asked. “What do we have to do?”

  Cinnabar glanced at Tau. “Wait. Not all of us want to kill all the HiveWings,” she said.

  “Or any HiveWings,” Blue interjected.

  “How many SilkWings are in the Chrysalis?” Sundew asked, ignoring them. “Tell me there are more than three of you.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Morpho. “In this Hive there are seven of us.”

  Sundew did not look impressed. “Seven.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Well. Maybe six.”

  “If you scared Argus away forever,” Cinnabar added.

  “Why aren’t the others here?” Sundew flicked her gaze over the three of them and frowned slightly.

  “They couldn’t make it tonight,” Tau said. “One had to make costumes for her dragonet’s school play. Another has an early morning meeting. And what did Temora say?” she asked Cinnabar.

  “That she was too tired,” Morpho answered disapprovingly.

  “Really,” Sundew said. “Very dedicated to this rebellion, are they?”

  “To be fair,” Cinnabar said, “we haven’t exactly done much at the last few meetings. Or ever. Actually ever. I mean, how can seven dragons change anything? We know there are more SilkWings in other Hives who want to fight back, too. But it’s just … everyone’s busy with their lives and no one knows what to do and, I don’t know, it’s over-whelming.”

  “But now that you’re here,” Morpho said to Sundew, “it’s very clear, right? Bring in your army, violence everywhere, SilkWings help you, things get better.”

  “How?” Sundew asked. “How, exactly, do the SilkWings help us?”

  Morpho shifted his wings with a confused expression. “By … doing whatever you want us to do? Maybe pointing to the worst HiveWings? Cheering when you kill them?”

  Sundew sighed and rubbed her forehead.

  There was another flash outside the window. Again, Cricket only saw it out of the corner of her eye, and when she turned, nothing was there. Maybe it was distant lightning. She pulled her scarves closer and stepped up to the dark glass.

  For a moment, all she saw was her reflection and the reflections of the dragons behind her. For a moment, she was inside a glass box with strangers, the piece that didn’t fit.

  And then her eyes adjusted, just in time to see a pair of dragons swoop by right below the level of the window.

  A pair of HiveWings, wearing armor and carrying weapons. And heading around the curve of the Hive, toward the back door of the library.

  She whirled around. “I think we’ve been seen.”

  “Unlikely. No one pays attention to the library,” Morpho argued.

  “Shhhh,” Sundew commanded, raising one claw.

  They all fell silent.

  A soft rattling sound came from the front door of the library … as though someone was trying a series of keys in the lock.

  Cinnabar and Tau exchanged wide-eyed looks.

  “They’re at the back, too,” Cricket whispered.

  “Do we fight our way out?” Swordtail asked Sundew.

  “We don’t know how many there are,” Cinnabar said. “And if any of them have Queen Wasp in them, she can summon a whole lot more in a heartbeat.”

  “Can you do that?” Morpho asked Sundew. “Summon a whole bunch of ferocious LeafWings?”

  “Not with my mind,” she said crossly. “Is there any other way out of the library?”

  Tau shook her head. “Maybe if a couple of us attack them, the others can escape,” she suggested.

  “I don’t want to leave anyone in the claws of the HiveWings,” Blue said quietly.

  Sundew whirled toward Cricket. “Your hiding place. You must have one nearby. Show us where you’d go if Wasp Hive-minded everyone while you’re in here.”

  Cricket hesitated. She didn’t know if all seven of them would fit. She also felt like there should be some conversation about betrayal and broken promises here, but there wasn’t exactly time.

  “This way.” She hurried through the aisles with all of them rustling behind her. At the edge of the balcony, she vaulted over without stopping and sailed down to the first floor.

  When she looked back, she saw Cinnabar throw Tau’s weak pair of wings over one of her shoulders so she could support the yellow dragon down to the next level. As soon as they landed, Tau’s wings folded back in and she was running again.

  On either side of the front doors and on either side of the back doors stood a tall column, built into the wall and stretching from floor to ceiling. This was the book drop, with slots on the outer walls where dragons could slide in their returned books.

  On the inner walls, each column had a door half as tall as a dragon, which the librarians could open to pull out the returned books. Cricket tugged one open and pointed inside.

  “Got it,” Cinnabar whispered. “Come on, Tau.” The two of them ran off toward the back doors, to hide in one of the columns there.

  “I’m going with the LeafWing,” Morpho declared. He ducked in through the door Cricket was holding open, scrunching himself around the pile of books inside, and held out one talon toward Sundew.

  “I can see how I deserve that,” Sundew said, “but no, you get Swordtail.” She bundled Swordtail into the cramped space with Morpho and closed the door on their protesting faces.

  “Don’t you want to be with your new Chrysalis friends?” Cricket couldn’t help asking.

  Sundew hurried across to the other column just as they all heard a click from the front door. Cricket’s heart tried to hurl itself out of her chest. She scrambled inside the book drop, burrowing through and up the pile of teetering library books inside. A moment later, Blue squeezed in beside her, and then the space went dark as Sundew leaped inside and shut the door behind her.

  Cricket braced herself against the walls and edged upward a little, but her wings were tangled with Blue’s and their scales were pressed so close together that she could feel his heart beating all the way through her own chest. He rested one talon on the wall behind her, his cape drifting around them like extra silken wings. She tucked her head under his chin, breathing in the scent of old books and Blue, who smelled a bit like fried bananas.

  Below them, she could sense the poised, still form of Sundew, still half-buried in books. The slide for the books from the upper
slot ended near Cricket’s head, and the edge dug into her neck, but she didn’t dare try to move away from it.

  I hope everyone else can be quiet, she thought anxiously. If the soldiers found dragons in one book drop, they’d check the rest and find all of them. This wasn’t the smartest hiding place. We should have spread out more.

  “Finally,” said a voice outside the book drop. Blue tensed, sending little shivers through Cricket’s scales. “Sorry that took so long. Lady Jewel has a lot of keys.”

  “And I suppose half of them are entirely decorative,” sneered another voice — unfamiliar but also unmistakably in the thrall of Queen Wasp. Cricket had heard that sinister cadence so many times in situations just like this, hiding in the dark while the queen used her subjects as puppets.

  Not just like this. She felt Blue’s shoulder, cool and smooth against her neck. This time I’m not alone.

  “Open the back doors for the others and then search every corner,” the queen ordered through the HiveWing’s mouth. Cricket heard two sets of talons walking away. She wondered why the queen wasn’t inside them, too, or if she was now. She might have needed one of them inside his own brain to get the library doors open, she guessed. The HiveWing would supposedly have a better idea of which key would work than the queen would.

  It still took a while, though, she thought gratefully. Was that on purpose? Did that HiveWing help us by taking longer than he needed to?

  Perhaps that was wishful thinking.

  He didn’t know who was in here, if anyone … maybe he just wanted to annoy the queen.

  Whatever his reasons, or even if he’d done it by accident, she was thankful.

  A long time seemed to pass. They heard talonsteps and thumps, as though boxes were being overturned somewhere.

  “No sign of anyone, Your Majesty,” a voice reported after a long while.

  “I know I saw dragons in here,” the HiveWing with the queen inside hissed. “Find them, or you will die.”

  Blue flinched, and Cricket tensed for a moment, wondering if she’d accidentally scratched him.

  But then she realized, Oh, he’s worried about the HiveWings out there, and what Queen Wasp will do to them if they don’t find us.