Coal went limp in Clearwing's talons, his loud snoring not fitting the situation at all.

"What was that about?" Blue asked, still standing next to Cricket. Polistes had paused midway through the process of making a silver bracelet studded with shimmering black stones. Maxilla's eyes were wide with horror — she was the only one who understood.

"It's leaking through."

Clearwing tipped her head at Max. Through her tears, she was confused. What did that mean?

"What does that mean?" Cricket pounced. Leave the questions to the dragon who asks them best, Clearwing supposed. What was strange was that Max wasn't even thinking about the Vines at all. At least not the vines that Clearwing had seen growing out of the LeafWing during her metamorphosis trance. These were black vines, really more like long, smooth ropes, and she had some weird shadow in the sky looming over a bizarre landscape of dead trees.

"Nevermind," Max hissed, lashing her tail. "They're just nightmares I have sometimes. Polistes says it's just dreams. That the Shadow Monster isn't real." She glared at her brother, with a burning anger in her eyes that Clearwing saw in Max's mind wasn't even directed at him, but at something else entirely. Bizarre. "But this is what he does, don't you see? He takes away the dragons you love just for his amusement. And because he wants to reclaim a world that was supposed to be his."

"Max," Polistes started, but she was marching out the door.

"I'm going to the library," she growled. "Don't follow me." And with that, the metallic-orange HiveWing was gone.

"This isn't a shadow monster," Clearwing said finally, breaking the silence. "This is a plant." But if there was one thing she knew about dreams, it was that you should never, ever ignore them.

"There has to be a cure," Cricket said. "If it's a plant, then it has poison, which can be cured. Right?" An image of an older HiveWing, speckled with small black dots, flickered through her mind. And a sentence. I hope we can save them.

I know we can, Clearwing thought fiercely, looking at the unconscious (and still loudly snoring) shape of Coal on the floor in front of her. We know the truth now. We're going to fix this. We have to.

She looked up at Cricket, Polistes, and Blue. "The LeafWings know a lot about plants, right?" she asked.

The five of them were flying over the savanna.

Blue, Clearwing, Cricket, Max and Polistes.

They had left Coal behind. It had been the hardest thing Clearwing had ever done, but it was necessary. He was lost to them right now.

"So," Cricket said, her wings gently brushing Blue's, "where are we going to find the LeafWings, exactly?"

"I know a dragon who can hopefully help us," Clearwing replied, looking up at Polistes and Max in the front. "She's with the Cicada Hive Chrysalis, I think."

"I'm from Cicada Hive," Blue said suddenly, his eyes lighting up. "It might be someone I know."

He'd seemed sort of sad when Clearwing had told him about the Chrysalis. Something about how the HiveWings weren't the best, but they didn't deserve to get overthrown completely. It was just Wasp that was the problem. Clearwing had told him that hopefully, with the help of these dragons, they would be able to take her down and convince them not to hurt any of the other HiveWings in the process.

"I was part of the Chrysalis back in Bloodworm Hive," Clearwing had explained. "Almost all of the SilkWings there are a part of it. You can tell who is and who's not by looking at their Cocoon weavings; we have a red leaf as our symbol."

"Oh," Blue had seemed surprised. "I saw a bunch of those right before Luna's metamorphosis." He had looked really sad after that, so Clearwing had left him to sit with Cricket.

"So, our job is to find these Chrysalis dragons, and get them on our side, yes?" Max asked. Polistes had gone after her and calmed her down; now the orange dragon was wearing an onyx bracelet around her wrist. Polistes had brought a sack that seemed to be designed specifically so that he could hang it from his vest and work on jewelry and fly at the same time.

Clearwing nodded.

"Pretty much, except that we're already on the same side — against Queen Wasp. We just have to get them to see the issue the same way we do."

"I, um, have something I probably should've mentioned before we left," Polistes said unexpectedly. "Queen Wasp can control me."

"WHAT." Clearwing nearly fell out of the sky. "Then how come you were hiding along with Max and Cricket?"

"I can resist the mind control, as long as she isn't controlling me, specifically," Polistes explained. "She only did it once before, I think, before Max hatched. I was in school then, and Queen Wasp had been doing her yearly inspection. She'd glared at me and then pulled me into the other room. I thought for sure I was going to die, but she just controlled me instead and then let me leave. I was so confused." He sighed. "It wasn't until she did her first full-Hive command that I realized I was somewhat immune. I can feel when she's trying to control the whole Hive, and then I can warn Max. Sometimes I let her take control, just for a little bit, so that she doesn't get suspicious."

"When I hatched and he realized I wasn't under her control at all," Max added, "we pretty much moved out of our parents' place as fast as possible. I know they wouldn't have told Wasp, but still..." The HiveWing's eyes dropped to the ground that was zooming past far below.

"Whoa," Cricket said. "Creepy."

"What's your story, Cricket?" Blue asked.

"The first time Wasp controlled everyone, I hid. Then I asked Katydid — my sister — why everyone was acting so scary and she seemed really confused. She told me that I needed to hide whenever the queen took control again, that way she would never know my secret and hurt me."

Blue brushed her wingtips again, looking sympathetic.

"Fun," Clearwing attempted not to roll her eyes. "Anyways, we're nearly there." She pointed at a shape on the edge of the horizon — it was Cicada Hive, she was pretty sure. It loomed out of the savanna like a ghost of the trees it was made of. The five landed on a platform, sneakily diving behind the shopping stalls and moving towards the core. They were looking for Blue's friend, who he called "Swordtail". This dragon was in construction, apparently.

The five dragons fluttered down from level to level, down to the very lowest floor of the Hive. There was a navy blue SilkWing there, treestuff tangled in his horns and sticking to his wings. His scales looked like someone had flung a cauldron of molten sunshine over them, and he had a pattern of white triangles marching down his spine.

"Swordtail," Blue whispered to his friend. The blue SilkWing looked over and his face lit up with joy.

"Blue!" He said, and looked around before dropping his work and running to the shadows. "What happened? Where's Luna? Why are there HiveWings with you?"

"Long story," Blue said, "But this is Clearwing, Max, Polistes, and Cricket. We need to get to the Chrysalis."

Swordtail looked at the HiveWings and Clearwing (probably mistaking her for a HiveWing, or at least judging her for her dark-colored wings) and narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Because we know where Luna is," Clearwing said, pressing her wings tightly against her back. "And we have reason to believe the Chrysalis knows, too."

"What?" Swordtail growled. "If they knew, they would've told me."

"It's complicated," Cricket piped up. "See, they don't know that they know."

"You know how Bloodworm Hive burned down a while ago?" Max rubbed her temples.

"That was Luna," Swordtail breathed, his eyes shining.

"Yes, and she's with the LeafWings. And the Chrysalis knows where they're hiding, right?"

"The general area," Swordtail replied. "In some caves near the coast of Dragonfly Bay. But Blue, you still haven't explained why there's HiveWings with you."

"We'll explain on the way," Clearwing said, exasperated. "Come on." The dragons — now a group of six — launched back into the sky, flying up to the uppermost level of the Hive. The Salvation Mosaic, Clearwing remembered. It was the pride and joy of Cicada Hive and by far one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. It was even more beautiful than the Gardens back at Bloodworm Hive. Which is gone now, Clearwing sighed.

"It might take a little while to get a response," Swordtail said, producing a piece of paper from somewhere and scribbling a note onto it. He carefully laid it in a flowerbed of roses that was growing near the Mosaic.

"We don't have a while," Clearwing said with urgency in her voice. Has Coal woken up yet? Is Wasp in his head? How long until she comes after us, surely she's realized I've escaped by now. Is me being here putting them all in danger? How come I'm the one with the power, the one who has to make the decisions? Why can't Swordtail do it instead — he looks like he'd love to be the leader of the group.

She crumpled to the ground, her wings over her head.

"I wish things could go back to normal," the SilkWing whispered, feeling very much like a dragonet again.

"Hey, it's okay," Blue said from somewhere above her. "We'll find Luna. We can wait. Wasp Hive is a whole continent away."

"You can stay with me and Io in the meantime," Swordtail offered. He glared over at the HiveWings. "You can go find somewhere else to stay." Cricket looked hurt; Polistes looked surprised. Max seemed like she barely cared whether she had to share a room with a smelly SilkWing or not. "Also, I never got why we're doing this exactly."

Clearwing took a deep breath and looked at them. "My friend is being mind controlled by Queen Wasp. He's part of a really powerful tribe. If we don't free him, Queen Wasp will use him as a weapon. She's going to destroy the LeafWings and take control of the whole continent. So we need to find the cure for his poison and free him from the mind control. Then we can get to Queen Wasp and save everyone else."

"Wow, okay," Swordtail said. "That was a lot of information in not a lot of words. Where do they come in?" He flicked his tail at Cricket, Maxilla and Polistes.

"Met her in a bookstore," Cricket smiled.

"So when do we get a message back from your Chrysalis?" Max asked, studying her bracelet. "You know. So we can save the world."

"Hopefully soon," a purple SilkWing came into view. Her large indigo wings shimmered with hidden tints of green and turquoise, and her long antennae curved gracefully over her head. "My name is Io, and I'm Swordtail's sister. I heard everything. While we're waiting for a message to get back, anyone want to know what we do for fun here?"