“Well then, do you see him burning down Hives all across Pantala?” Cricket asked.
“Maybe if he had a good enough reason,” Swordtail muttered.
“Exactly.” Sundew nodded, as though she believed any dragon could be turned into a murderer with the right motivation.
Cricket didn’t believe that. At least, she couldn’t believe it of Blue. She’d spent almost her whole life watching her friends and family turn into cold-eyed tools for the queen, doing things they’d never do if they had the choice. Blue was the absolute opposite of all that. He had free will. And with it, he always chose to be kind, to do the right thing.
Didn’t he?
In the five days you’ve known him? a voice like Swordtail’s whispered in her head. You think you know this dragon now? Because you hid together, freed Swordtail, broke into the Temple, and stole the Book? Does he always do the right thing, or could it be that you just think that “the right thing” is whatever he chooses to do?
What if he thinks burning down Hives is “the right thing” to do to save his tribe?
“Is that why you came back here instead of going to your parents?” she asked Sundew, trying to shake off her doubts. “You came for Blue?”
“Yes.” Sundew shrugged. “I’d rather have Luna. She got so excellently mad about the Book of Clearsight that I’m sure she’d help us. I’d take her with me to burn the world down any day. But if we don’t have Luna, we need Blue.”
“We’ll have Luna!” Swordtail blurted. “She’s coming back! I’ll find her!” He paced agitatedly from the cocoon to the door and back again. Sundew crinkled her nose and drew her tail out of the splatter zone from the seaweed still dangling off him.
“Blue will help you, but not by hurting other dragons,” Cricket said stubbornly. “How would burning down all the Hives help the LeafWings anyway?”
“Also, there’s a problem: even if Blue or Luna agreed to help you,” Swordtail chimed in, “one flamesilk can’t burn down a whole Hive. Let alone all nine of them.”
“Well, he can try,” Sundew said. “Or we start with Wasp Hive and then use those buried flamesilks to help with the rest. We have to do something. Whatever takes out as many HiveWings as we can.”
“Sundew!” Cricket cried. “How can you say that? That’s my tribe! I know some of them are terrible, but you don’t really want to kill all of them, do you?”
Now Sundew was scowling so ferociously that Cricket could almost see sparks coming out of her wings. Her claws dug into the stone below her. “Why not? That’s exactly what they tried to do to us!”
“I know, but doesn’t that make you see how wrong it is?” Cricket said.
“No,” Sundew growled. “We didn’t do anything to them. They deserve it. They deserve to be wiped out. Every single HiveWing.” She frowned and dropped her gaze to the pouch with the Book of Clearsight in it. “Except you, but you’re different.”
“What if I’m not the only one who’s different? Or what about the littlest dragonets?” Cricket said desperately. “It’s been so long since the Tree Wars. So many HiveWings weren’t even alive back then. Or what about the ones who refused to fight? There were protesters, I know there were; I read about them. There were HiveWings who tried to say no to Queen Wasp. There were some who wanted to help the LeafWings and save the trees. What about them?”
She stopped suddenly, struck by a thought that she couldn’t believe she’d never had before.
How could there have been protesters?
Wouldn’t Queen Wasp have shut them down with her mind control? She wouldn’t have allowed dissent during her war; she would never have let anyone disagree with her. So … how did they?
Were they like me? Why couldn’t she control them?
“Protesters,” Sundew scoffed. “Shouting enthusiastic rhymes at the sky while their friends slaughtered us. Maybe that would have been useful if they’d kept it up, but they all vanished by the end. Not a single HiveWing objected when the last tree was cut down.”
“Maybe they couldn’t.” Cricket’s mind was racing now. “Maybe the queen had them all in her power by then.” Did she get rid of any dragons who couldn’t be controlled? Or … was it possible Wasp hadn’t been born with her mind-control powers? Had they come to her sometime during the war?
“Personally, I vote yes for burning down the Hives,” Swordtail offered suddenly. “I think Luna will be all for it, if we can’t convince Blue.”
Cricket whirled toward him. “Haven’t you thought about this at all? Imagine a Hive burning. Who dies first?” She pushed her glasses up, wishing she didn’t sound so nervous and shaky. “SilkWing dragonets, Swordtail! They’re the ones who won’t be able to fly to safety! Innocent, wingless dragonets in their eggs and cocoons and schools and parks. And in your webs! The webs are connected to the Hives; if the cities burn, so do your homes! Most of the HiveWings will escape and be fine, but how would you save all the little SilkWings?”
Swordtail stared down at his claws, looking pale.
“Killing off all the HiveWings — or trying to — won’t solve anything,” Cricket said to Sundew. “It’ll just start another war that’ll be even bloodier than the last, and this time Queen Wasp will hunt you to the very ends of the continent to make sure you’re gone. And maybe all the SilkWings, too, if she thinks some of you were in on it.”
“She won’t kill us,” Swordtail said bitterly. “She needs our silk and our fire. We’re valuable resources.”
“She can make your lives worse, though,” Cricket pointed out.
Swordtail seized a talonful of seaweed and threw it against the wall with a damp splat. He stomped on her neat pile again and again, flattening it into a dark morass like crushed eels and bleeding squids.
“I just want to hurt them,” he said. “I want them to feel what it’s like to be powerless. I want them to be stabbed with nerve toxins and have their loved ones ripped away.”
“Yes. I want them to watch their homes burn to the ground,” Sundew growled. “I want them to feel in their souls what they’ve done to us.”
Swordtail turned to the LeafWing. “I’m in,” he said. “Whatever you want me to do. I’ll follow you.”
Cricket buried her face in her talons. They were right, but they were also wrong. She needed Blue — he was the one who understood dragon hearts. He’d know how to reach them.
All she knew was chemistry and biology and math and botany. How could she stack a pile of scientific logic up against their justifiable anger and hope to convince them?
Wait … there was something Blue had said …
“The queen,” she said suddenly, looking up. “That’s it. She’s the problem, just like Blue said. We have to start with her.”
“Or end with her,” Sundew said. “Or get to her in the middle, whenever it’s most convenient to set her on fire or bury her alive or feed her to vampire ants.”
“No, no, that’s what I mean,” Cricket said. “Queen Wasp is the heart of the problem, or, like, the brain, I guess. She controls the whole tribe — you saw her do it in the Temple. You’ll never have a chance as long as she’s out there, inside everyone’s minds. And more important, you’ll never know which HiveWings might be on your side if they could be.”
Swordtail snorted, and Sundew gave him a “right? As if” look.
“They might be,” Cricket insisted. “Like the Librarian! Remember how she helped us as soon as she was free of Queen Wasp? My sister would, too, if she had the choice. But none of them has a choice right now. If you can shut down the queen’s mind control, you’ll see who they really are. I think you’ll find more allies than you realized you had.”
I hope. I hope there are good HiveWings. Clearsight, please let there be good HiveWings underneath what we can see.
“Shut down the mind control,” Sundew said thoughtfully. “That would be useful. Is there a way to do that?”
Cricket sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve been looking for an explanation for it prac
tically my whole life. Why doesn’t it affect me? Whatever is wrong with me, can we do it to other HiveWings?”
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Swordtail said. He sat down by the door, folding his wings back. The orange streaks on his scales reflected the flamesilk glow like distant suns. “We have to figure out what’s right with you and wrong with everyone else in your tribe.”
Oh, wow. Maybe he doesn’t completely hate me after all.
“Can’t the LeafWings do that instead?” Cricket asked Sundew. “Wouldn’t it be better to break the mind control instead of starting a new war?”
“It’s a very sweet and SilkWingish plan, but how?” Sundew demanded. “Aren’t you the smartest dragon around? Who else would know, if you don’t?”
Swordtail jumped to his feet and stared at them.
“Yes?” Sundew said when the pause got awkward.
“I’m not sure,” he said excitedly. “But I think the Chrysalis has a committee working on this.”
“The what?” Sundew said sharply.
He bounced on his talons for a moment, looking torn. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone about them,” he said at last. “That was the most important rule. But then Io told Blue and he told you,” he said to Cricket. “So …”
“He didn’t tell me much,” she said, remembering the soft brush of her wings against Blue’s scales in the dark, the quiet vibration of his voice whispering Are you with the Chrysalis? The shiver that had gone down her spine as she wondered what the Chrysalis was, and how many other secrets this beautiful blue dragon knew, and whether he’d stay and tell her everything and be her friend. She’d felt as though she’d just found a new book, something she’d been desperate to read her whole life without even knowing it existed. “I’d really like to know more.”
Swordtail hesitated, glancing at Sundew. “I’m sure they’d want to know about the LeafWings … but they’d want to know before I told you about them. Arrrrgh. I wish I knew what Luna would do right now.”
“She’d tell us everything,” Sundew said promptly.
Cricket laughed, and Sundew gave her a sideways approving glance.
“All right,” Swordtail said, nodding at Sundew. “I said I was with you, after all. I think you can change everything for us.” He took a deep breath. “The Chrysalis is a secret organization of SilkWings who are fighting for our freedom.”
That was exactly the thrilling, stirring answer Cricket had imagined. Secret freedom fighters in the Hives, she thought. Dragons who risk their lives to help others.
But Sundew looked skeptical. “Fighting?” she said. “SilkWings? Doesn’t match.”
“Some of us can fight,” Swordtail said, bristling. “Some of us care about what’s happened to our tribe!”
“What do they do?” Cricket asked. “How do they keep it all secret? I mean, they must be amazing; I’ve never heard anything about SilkWings fighting back or any kind of underground rebellion.”
“Hm,” Sundew grunted. “Maybe because they don’t actually do anything.”
“They do! I’m sure they do. I don’t really know what, though.” Swordtail shifted on his feet. “My sister and I just joined them recently. We haven’t been given a mission or anything yet. They said to wait for further instructions after Luna got her wings. Luna was kind of the main contact person. She’s the one who found them.”
“But you could find them again?” Sundew demanded.
“I think so,” Swordtail said. “Luna could. If I find Luna —”
“Even if you don’t,” Sundew said, “when Blue comes out of that cocoon, we’re going looking for this Chrysalis of yours.” She turned to Cricket. “We’ll compare their notes and yours and see if we can find an answer to the mind-control thing.”
“Thank you,” Cricket said.
“Don’t get too excited,” Sundew warned. “Setting your whole tribe on fire is still my preferred option.”
But she listened to me. They both did. There’s still a chance I can stop them from starting a new war and save my tribe.
Or at least save Katydid, she thought anxiously.
“So we wait for Blue.” Cricket rested her talons on his cocoon, feeling the warmth spread through her scales.
“I’d better go talk to my parents,” Sundew said with a sigh. She started looping all the pouches around herself again, wrinkling her snout as the dampest ones squished against her scales. “They’re probably wondering where I’ve disappeared to with the Book. And why I’m letting you lot interfere with my great destiny.”
Cricket tilted her head at Sundew. “What great destiny?”
The LeafWing waved her wings expressively. “You know, saving the world, fiery vengeance, so on and so forth. Everything they raised me to do. They are not going to be excited about postponing their war so they can sit around for several days waiting for a SilkWing to wake up.”
“Weren’t they sitting around in that greenhouse before they met him?” Cricket pointed out. “I thought LeafWings were supposed to be good at acting like great patient trees.”
“I’ll tell them that,” Sundew said with a grin, settling the last pouch in place. “I’m sure it’ll help.” Cricket noticed with disappointment that Sundew was taking the Book of Clearsight with her. She could understand why, though; the LeafWings had gone to a lot of trouble to get it. They weren’t about to leave it in the talons of a HiveWing again, even a HiveWing who’d helped them.
“And I’ll go look for Luna again.” A piece of seaweed slid free from Swordtail’s horns as he glanced out at the stone passageways.
Cricket tried not to look too disappointed that they were both leaving her alone again, after keeping her company for such a short time. The boredom of the quiet cave loomed ahead of her once more.
“Will you be back soon?” she said to Sundew, hoping she didn’t sound completely pathetic.
“Yeah, don’t worry,” Sundew said. “What I do is up to me, not my parents.” She hesitated for the briefest moment, like she was about to say something else. “On this mission, anyway.”
Cricket wondered what the LeafWing wasn’t saying. Was there something in her life that her parents did control? Maybe Sundew’s not as free as she seems to be.
“Can one of you bring back food?” Cricket asked. “I mean, for Blue? He’ll be hungry when he comes out, won’t he? After five days in there?”
Swordtail nodded. “I’d never been so hungry,” he said. “I’ll find something for him.”
“What do SilkWings eat?” Sundew said, starting toward the tunnels. “Let me guess: rainbows and honey and starlight.”
“Yes to honey, I think,” Cricket said. She raised her voice as Sundew’s tail disappeared through the gap. “Oh, and while you’re out there, if you happen to see any books, I would love something to read!”
She wasn’t entirely sure, but something like the sound of Sundew laughing came echoing back from the walls.
“Is it now?” Cricket asked. “Is it happening? Is that a sign? What does that mean?”
“If you don’t turn off your beehive brain, I’m going to stick a sleepflower up your snout,” Sundew said crossly. “Nothing is happening! It’s looked exactly like that all day!” She scowled down at the pouch she’d been trying to mend with a strand of Swordtail’s silk.
“No, it hasn’t!” Cricket protested, circling Blue’s cocoon. “Look, this end is kind of bulging and crinkling. Like it’s about to split open! Right, Swordtail? Don’t you think so?”
“Sure,” he said sleepily, without lifting his head or opening his eyes. She knew he’d spent the last four days flying and searching and scouring every island in Dragonfly Bay, snatching sleep only in brief moments back in the cave. And she knew that not finding Luna was a huge disappointment and they should be very worried and making grave faces and muttering ominously.
But seriously! Blue was about to come out of his cocoon! This was an extremely momentous occasion, mostly because she’d get to see his wonderful face aga
in, but also a little bit because she’d finally get to leave this cave!
“Hey, Blue,” she said to the shimmering blue-purple shape beneath the silk. “Can you hear me? We’re here. We can’t wait to see your wings! I have so many questions. What is it like in there? Do you remember any of it? Is it like a really long sleep? How do your wings feel?”
“FOR THE LOVE OF TREES,” Sundew growled. “All right. I was afraid to share this, because I know you’re going to freak out, but if you promise to be quiet until Blue comes out, I’ll tell you about how I saw one of your reading monkeys this morning.”
“WHAT?” Cricket nearly flew through the ceiling. “You did? Sundew! Really truly? And you’re just telling me this now?!” She’d been so quiet and careful every time she crept around the caves, hoping to run into one of the tiny creatures. She couldn’t believe it was Sundew who’d seen one instead!
“Yes, because of that,” Sundew said, pointing at her. “That face you’re making, as if I found a staircase to the moons instead of just another weird animal. Calm down, or I won’t tell it.”
“I’m calm!” Cricket said. She realized she was bouncing on her front talons and forced herself to sit on her tail and stay still. “SO TOTALLY CALM.”
“I already regret this,” Sundew said. “All right. But NO QUESTIONS.”
Cricket clamped her talons over her snout and nodded. Sundew threw the torn leaf pouch across the cave and picked up a bundle of berries, which she started sorting as she talked.
“This morning I went down to the cavern where my parents and I first started digging to Wasp Hive,” Sundew started. “I’ve been checking it regularly to make sure the HiveWings didn’t follow our tunnel from the flamesilk cavern. I figured I’d blocked it up pretty well, but safer to be sure.”
“How did you bl — oops, sorry,” Cricket corrected herself quickly at Sundew’s glare.
“Our hole was still completely filled in, but as I scouted the perimeter of the cave, I found another, much smaller hole in the wall. I decided to spy on it for a while in case anything edible came out.”
The Hive Queen (Wings of Fire, Book 12) Page 4
