The Poison Jungle

by Tui T. Sutherland

  “Because I thought she was an idiot who nearly let her boyfriend destroy the world,” Tsunami said. “Although, to be fair, I guess so did we.”

  “What?” Willow asked.

  “Long story,” Tsunami said.

  They turned as Hazel swept into the room with a few LeafWing guards behind her.

  “Where’s Inchworm?” Sundew asked. If he was still here, in the village, with Wasp inside him —

  “I had my guards take him back to the Snarling River,” Hazel said. “Why? What happened? Where’s the queen? Did the antidote work?”

  Willow told her the whole story, as quickly and briefly as she could. By the end of it, Hazel was looking as shattered as Sundew felt.

  “So you think this othermind got everyone?” she asked.

  “I think we have to assume so,” Sundew answered. “Even if the smoke didn’t reach all the LeafWings, all it needed was Queen Sequoia. Once it had her, it could convince everyone else to take the ‘antidote,’ and no one would know that wasn’t a normal order from our queen.”

  “So … we have to get everyone and hide somewhere,” Hazel said, rubbing her forehead. She turned to the guards and put on her queen voice. “Gather the entire tribe. Tell them we’re using the evacuation plan and moving out before noon. Pack lightly, if at all. Bring weapons. Try not to panic the dragonets. Tell them … tell them all is not lost, if we move swiftly. Make sure they know we can still save our queen and our friends, and that I’ll tell them more once we reach safety.”

  “But where is that?” Willow asked as the guards nodded and flew away. “We can keep retreating farther into the jungle, but eventually we’ll hit the ocean.”

  “So then we cross it,” Cricket said. “I still think we have to get to the Distant Kingdoms. That’s our only hope.”

  “How?” Tsunami said, slamming the Book of Clearsight shut. “This thing is no use. Turtle and I can’t swim hundreds of you across.”

  “Let me see that book,” Hazel said.

  Turtle brought it over to her, and she flipped through it, brushing her claws across the pages.

  Sundew tried to think. Maybe we could build giant floating platforms, she thought, and pile everyone on to them … and take turns pulling them across the ocean? She had a notion, although she wasn’t sure where it had come from, that their earliest ancestors had arrived here that way, more or less.

  But we don’t have time to build platforms big enough for all the remaining LeafWings.

  Maybe we do. Maybe we can buy ourselves time. If I go back and fight … with Cobra Lily and some of the others … while everyone else starts building …

  “This book feels weird,” Hazel said in her regular voice, turning it over and running one talon over the back. “I can’t say I approve of whoever bound it.”

  Willow cracked a smile for the first time all day. “Trust you to care about the bookbinding of the ancient magical sacred text,” she said.

  “Well, look at how the back cover is thicker than the front cover. That’s just messy. The end pages are sewn down with these perfect little stitches — it looks like gold thread, but maybe it’s flamesilk, the kind that doesn’t burn? So someone put all this effort into perfectly sewing down the endpapers around the edges, but left the middle all lumpy.”

  She stared at the inside back cover for a moment.

  “Hazel! What are you DOING?!” Cricket gasped as the LeafWing sliced a long slit around the edges of the last endpaper. “You’re destroying the Book!”

  But Hazel wasn’t listening. She reached two claws between the paper and the leather, and carefully, delicately slid out the folded page that was hidden inside.

  It felt as if the whole world was holding its breath. Sundew wasn’t sure why this felt so important. It would probably be something like the rest of the book — a prophecy about something that happened centuries ago, or another sentimental letter about being nice to one another.

  And yet even her scales prickled with anticipation as Hazel carefully unfolded the secret note.

  “It’s … a map,” she said wonderingly.

  Hazel spread out the map on the throne, and they all crowded around to look at it. The ink was faded but still legible. Sundew stared at the odd shapes and recognized the peninsulas that jutted into Dragonfly Bay. Willow leaned against her shoulder, her scales warm and smooth.

  “That must be the Distant Kingdoms,” Cricket said, pointing to the coastline on the far-right-hand edge of the map.

  “Yes,” Tsunami agreed. “That’s the Ice Kingdom up here, the Kingdom of Sand all along here.”

  “And this is the eastern coast of Pantala,” Hazel said, pointing to the coastline on the left. Even in a one-page drawing, the distance between the two continents looked immense. Uncrossable. Sundew’s heart sank.

  “So these dots in between …” Turtle said. “Could those be islands?”

  “Yes!” Cricket cried, making them all jump. “That’s it! They’re islands! Look, Clearsight drew little arrows from one to the next. Start here, then fly here, then here next.” Her claw hovered above the map as she pointed out the route.

  “That’s how she got to Pantala,” Willow said wonderingly. “She must have used her future sight to see which direction the nearest island was so she could rest between flights. That’s amazing.”

  “And then she wrote it all out so someone could follow the islands back across the ocean one day.” Hazel’s face was aglow with excitement. “Or a whole tribe of someones. This is what we need to get to the Distant Kingdoms.”

  “Oh wow,” Cricket said. “We’re going? We’re really going?” She looked out at the trees, and Sundew could guess what she was feeling. On the one talon: the Distant Kingdoms and Bumblebee’s safety. On the other: Blue.

  If that were Willow trapped by the othermind, Sundew wasn’t sure she’d be able to fly away, no matter what the stakes were.

  “Yes. We’re going, all of us, right now,” Hazel said.

  “Oh … everyone?” Tsunami said, sounding slightly alarmed. “I mean — right, yes, of course. Everyone. I’ll just … come home with a whole other tribe of dragons.”

  “Make that two,” said a voice behind them.

  Sundew’s heart nearly flew out of her chest before she spun around and saw that the speaker was Io. The tall purple SilkWing glided into the throne room with a few other SilkWings behind her. Sundew recognized Cinnabar from the Jewel Hive Chrysalis, who waved at her and Cricket.

  “Oh,” Tsunami said. “I mean, sure, what difference does seven more SilkWings make?”

  “There are about two hundred more of us at the mouth of the Gullet River,” Io said. “I thought we’d sneak in the back way to join you, but it sounds like we’re too late.”

  “Two hundred …” Tsunami said faintly.

  “Two hundred SilkWings came to help us?” Hazel said.

  “Sorry — I only made it to Yellowjacket Hive, Wasp Hive, and Jewel Hive,” Io said. “I didn’t have time to get to the others, but I can round up more if I go back now. The Chrysalis is bigger than anyone thinks.”

  “Two hundred,” Willow said to Sundew, her eyes shining. “I told you they were worth saving!”

  “We’ve found a way to the Distant Kingdoms,” Hazel said to Io. “We need to go before Wasp and her army get here.”

  “Aren’t we going to fight them?” one of the SilkWings asked nervously.

  “We will, but not today,” Hazel said. “We’re not ready. Wasp can infect LeafWings and SilkWings now. If we stay to try to fight, we could all end up under her control, with no chance of ever fighting back.”

  Io flared her wings and growled. “She can control SilkWings? Then I have to go warn the Chrysalis! We need to get everyone out of the Hives!”

  Hazel hesitated, then looked at Willow as though she was hoping to find a plan in Willow’s expression.

  “What’s wrong?” Cricket asked. “Io is right — someone needs to stay behind to gather the rest of the SilkW
ings and bring them over the ocean, too.”

  Sundew realized what Willow and Hazel had figured out. “The problem,” she said, “is that we’d have to leave them a copy of the map. And if there’s a copy left on this continent …”

  “It could fall into the othermind’s talons,” Willow finished. “Or … tendrils, or whatever.”

  “Oh,” Cricket said, her wings starting to droop.

  “Hey, no,” Io said loudly. “Come on! There’s no way we’re flying to safety and leaving hundreds of SilkWings to be zombified! Could you seriously abandon them all like that? SERIOUSLY? When we could save them?”

  “But it puts our whole escape at risk,” Hazel pointed out. “If we leave right now with the map, Wasp and the othermind won’t be able to follow. We’d be completely safe over there. But if we leave a copy of the map, they could find it and come after us. They would come after us.”

  “Also, by the way, there are some other dragons over there,” Tsunami said in a rush, “who might not be super excited about you all arriving and, PS, also would definitely not like you to be followed by a creepy hive-brain army.”

  “They won’t get the map,” Io said fiercely. “I’ll hide it somewhere safe, so even if they catch me and take over my mind, they’ll never find it. You HAVE to let me save the SilkWings. Look, if Wasp gets them, it’ll double the size of her army. You don’t want that, right?! So this is practical, and also OBVIOUSLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO. I mean really!”

  Hazel sighed and rubbed a spot over her eyes. “I wish Great-grandmother were here to tell me what to do.”

  “She’s not,” Sundew said. “Which means you’re the queen for now.”

  Hazel gave her a wry half smile. “Unless Belladonna is right and it should be you.”

  “No, thanks.” Sundew shook her head. “You’re the exact right queen for us. You have the voice and everything.”

  “I do, I’ve been practicing it,” Hazel agreed. She lifted her chin and turned to Io, her entire posture becoming majestic and imposing. “Very well. We’ll make you a copy, and you’ll go save the SilkWings.”

  “I can make the copy!” Turtle volunteered. He fiddled with his claws when everyone looked at him. “I, um … I have excellent penmanship.”

  “Do that,” Hazel said, producing a sheaf of bookmaking paper from a hollow behind the throne. “Just one copy, and make it perfect. Io, decide who’s going with you.”

  “Me,” Cinnabar said immediately.

  “Um,” Sundew interjected. “One small thing. If you happen to run into three LeafWings out there, please bring them with you. Their names are Bryony, Pokeweed, and Hemlock.”

  “Hemlock,” Willow said. “Your father?”

  Sundew nodded. They weren’t exactly close, she and her father; he was usually too busy following Belladonna’s orders, and he was terrible with words. But he was still her father, and she was leaving him here. She had no idea where he might be, or how to get him a message. She just had to hope Io found him before the othermind did.

  Hazel was about to issue another order but stopped as they all heard crashing from overhead. Sundew felt all her muscles tense as she looked up. They couldn’t have reached us this quickly. They can’t be here already. Bumblebee squeaked, and Sundew realized she’d tightened her arms around her. The dragonet squirmed out of her grasp and clambered onto Cricket’s back instead.

  But it wasn’t a HiveWing who came hurtling pell-mell through the trees; it was one of Hazel’s LeafWing guards. He catapulted to a stop in the center of the throne room, gasping for air.

  “Are they here?” Hazel asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “But something else is happening. They’ve set the jungle on fire.”

  Oh no, Sundew thought. She opened out her leafspeak and had to slam it closed almost immediately. The shrieking trees filled her head with rage and sorrow. She couldn’t bear the entire jungle’s panic in there along with her own.

  She clenched her talons into fists. The othermind couldn’t win. She couldn’t run away and let it think it won!

  “Get everyone to the coast,” Hazel ordered the guard. “We’ll gather on the north shore of the mouth of the Gullet River. Use the evacuation plan — everyone was assigned to a trio, and all the dragonets and elders have someone responsible for them. Tell them to go right now.” He flew off and she spun toward Turtle. “Draw faster, dragon from across the sea.”

  “Our dragons don’t have an evacuation plan,” Mandrake interjected. He saw the look on Hazel’s face and stammered, “B-but we can make one. Right now.”

  Sundew grabbed his shoulders. “You can organize them. You’ll be great at this, Mandrake. It’s just like sorting the insect collection.”

  “Yes,” he said, his face brightening. “I’m good at that.”

  “So go sort LeafWings,” she said. “Make sure they know where they’re going or have someone to follow!”

  He sprang away, leaping from the edge of the platform. Sundew turned and found Willow watching her, standing only a winglength away with a worried look on her face. Beyond them, the other dragons had all leaped into motion, flurrying about as Turtle bent over the throne, drawing the copy of the map.

  “Why aren’t you going to organize your tribe?” Willow asked.

  “Because he’ll be better at it,” Sundew said.

  Willow narrowed her eyes. “You’re their natural leader.”

  “They should get used to following Queen Hazel’s orders anyway,” Sundew pointed out.

  “Sundew.” Willow hesitated, then took a step closer, spreading her wings. Sundew spread hers as well until the edges brushed together, encircling them in a small green bubble of quiet.

  “Please don’t do whatever you’re thinking,” Willow whispered.

  “I can’t run away!” Sundew protested. “I’m so angry, Willow! I want to go set all of them on fire! I want to set everyone in the world on fire! And drip poisonous sap on their heads! And pull out each of their claws and then stab them in their faces! And then set them on fire again!”

  “I know!” Willow said. “So do I!”

  That caught Sundew off guard. “You do?”

  “Yes!” Willow said. “They set our trees on fire — the only trees we have left! They stole my queen! And that — that thing was going to use your leafspeak to devour all of Pantala. When it said that, I felt everything you’re feeling, Sundew. I never let myself get mad like that before.”

  “And your anger helped you save us,” Sundew said. “With the thorn.”

  “Right,” Willow said. “Yes, fine, you can make the ‘I told you so’ face. But I’m going to make it right back at you. You’re right that you should be mad. But I’m right that you should focus on who deserves your anger and when to fight.”

  “They all deserve my anger!” Sundew said, her voice rising.

  “You know they don’t! There’s a monster inside them. There’s a monster leading them. If you scatter your anger around like dandelion seeds, you’ll hurt everyone, tire yourself out, and end up with a bunch of indignant dandelions. But if you summon it all together and aim for the monsters, you’ll win. I know you will. Because you’re Sundew, my forever dragon.”

  Sundew’s eyes filled with tears, and she covered them with her talons. “Aaaargh. That’s not fair. You’re turning me into you! Look at my stupid leaking face.”

  “I think you mean, ‘Aw, you’re my forever dragon, too, Willow,’ ” Willow said in a rather terrible imitation of Sundew’s voice.

  “You know you are, twigs for brains.”

  “You’re, like, really good at this romance thing,” Willow observed.

  Sundew laughed around her tears and thought, How can I be this furious and this sad and this terrified and this full of love all at the same time?

  “Wait, I have one more really excellent point,” Willow said. “If you go tearing off to fight the thing right now, fueled by super rage, it will one hundred percent gobble up your brain, and then
it’ll have Pantala’s most powerful leafspeak. Without Hawthorn, that plant can only grow at whatever speed it normally grows at.”

  “Probably pretty fast,” Sundew guessed. “Like a weed.”

  “But nowhere near as fast as it could grow if it had Hawthorn … or you. So you need to get far away from it more than anyone, if we want a chance of saving this continent when we come back.”

  Sundew sighed and leaned into her. “All right. You’re right.”

  “As usual, Willow,” Willow added in her Sundew voice, smiling through her tears.

  When we come back.

  Sundew kept those words close to her heart as they flew to the coast, as they gathered the bedraggled remnants of their tribes, as they looked west to the line of fire that rose toward the sunset, and then east over the beetle-dark ocean into apparent nothingness.

  She repeated them to herself as they all lifted into the sky, following Queen Hazel southeast to the first island on Clearsight’s map.

  We’re coming back. We’ll get everyone to safety, figure out how to stop the othermind, gather some allies.

  Sundew looked over her shoulder at the continent that was vanishing into the distance and the dusk.

  And then we’ll be back to deal with you.

  The white dragon paced furiously over the snow-dusted grass. The sound of frozen blades cracking under her talons carried across the wide-open tundra.

  Jerboa sighed and wheeled down toward her. She couldn’t keep hiding in the clouds forever. Each moment she delayed would only make the young IceWing queen more hostile.

  She landed on claws that were instantly freezing. Even though she’d been alive for so long, she’d never gotten used to cold temperatures. Her SandWing blood wanted to be out in the desert, rolling in warm sand.

  “Finally!” Queen Snowfall shouted, bounding over. “I don’t have time to wait around forever! I have an entire kingdom to run!”

  “Sorry,” Jerboa said. She inclined her head as politely as she could without actually bowing. “Queen Glacier usually arrived after I did.”

  “Well —” Snowfall dug her claws into the ground, scowling. Her wings gave a little tremor; Jerboa had noticed that happen before whenever she mentioned Snowfall’s late mother. It made her think maybe there was a heart under Snowfall’s icy exterior after all … one that mourned for Glacier. But there weren’t many other signs of it.