Clearwing woke up to the sound of a dragon screaming. Not panicked screaming, but angered screaming.

Very, VERY angered. Clearwing sat up in a hurry to see a discarded book sitting in a hammock, most likely Hazel's.

Hazel's room was bright and airy, studded with open windows and balconies so the breeze drifted through it, but sheltered from the rain by a large roof of waterproof, round leaves. Three desks took up half the room, even though they were shoved into a corner to make space for the leaf piles Sundew, Willow, and Clearwing had slept in. Each desk was covered in a mess of bookbinding supplies made from jungle ingredients: some kind of sap glue dripping over the rim of its pot, tree fiber threads draped everywhere, and bark for the covers scattered about, dyed in colors from deep cherry red to summery daisy yellow to a swirl of purple and pearl white.

Clearwing got up and stretched. Even with the desks shoved aside, there was still barely enough room for two leaf piles, with Willow and Sundew entangled on the same pile. Clearwing padded over to the balcony to observe and figure out what all of the commotion was.

Down below, dragons shied away from a very angry-looking green dragon, covered in pouches that hissed and rattled loud enough for Clearwing to hear them from her spot many levels up from the ground. Even the sharp mind of Snake wanted to keep away from her. "SUNDEW!" The dragon roared. When Clearwing looked in the dragon's mind, she realized it was Belladonna, with a group of LeafWings following up behind her.

Sundew, Willow, and Hazel had left, probably to investigate the situation with Belladonna. Clearwing sighed, closing her eyes and breathing in the leafy scents of the rainforest and trying to latch onto the thoughts of one of the LeafWings below.

Then she realized that the quiet fuzz of Coal's mind was with the group. She stood up hastily and rushed out into the hallway, using her memory to find her way back to the throne room. Cricket, Blue, Swordtail, and Max were with them as well.

Max is awake! Clearwing thought excitedly. I hope she's alright.

A thought hit her like a rampaging elephant.

What if they're mad at me for sneaking off? I've been gone all night and, she looked outside, at the sun which was bright and high in the sky, for at least half of the day. Wow. I do not get enough sleep.

As she entered, Clearwing saw quite a few things. Queen Sequoia was on the throne, and Sundew was staring at her, jaw dropped. One of the LeafWings with Belladonna had put Coal on the floor. He was blindfolded and had a gag in his mouth, but the unmistakable layer was added to his muffled cries. He was being mind-controlled (Clearwing had gotten unnaturally good at telling Wasp's mind-control sounds from just a normal dragon's panicked voice). One of the LeafWings took off the blindfold, and snakeskin eyes glared out at Sequoia. Clearwing was actually surprised the LeafWing queen didn't burst into flame under Wasp's full force of hatred.

"YMM," Wasp said. "MPH! HMM PHM HN HRRRM!"

Sequoia narrowed her eyes at Belladonna, even though Clearwing could feel the fear radiating off her in waves.

"We have a lot to talk about," Queen Sequoia hissed to Belladonna, her tail lashing dangerously behind her.

The LeafWing commander turned accusing eyes on Sundew.

"What are you doing here?" she roared. "You know you're not allowed to talk to SapWings! Let alone visit their village."

Sundew spread her wings and shrugged, even though Clearwing could sense her heart was pounding. "What could I do? They caught me."

"CAUGHT you?" Belladonna snarled.

"Belladonna," Sequoia interjected with a sigh. "I should arrest you for treason. You did everything I told you not to. You were seen by HiveWings. You kidnapped some of their dragons. You set one of their Hives on fire!"

Belladonna lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. "I see you really did tell them everything," she growled in Sundew's direction.

"Did you bring your captives?" the queen asked. "The... the GreyWing and the others? And your flamesilk."

"I brought the first two options," Belladonna flicked her tail at Max, who was leaning between Blue and Swordtail, with Cricket sanding next to Blue. And at Coal, who was still writhing on the ground. "But not Lun- the flamesilk. You cannot have my flamesilk."

Does she even know Blue's a flamesilk, too? Clearwing wondered.

"Even in exchange for your daughter?" Sequoia asked, as though she was just curious.

"My daughter could escape and kill all of you any time she wanted to," Belladonna replied. "The only reason she hasn't is because she's trying to infuriate me."

"That's right, Mother," Sundew said with a theatrical yawn. "It's all about you. You're the only reason I do anything. I think about you all day long."

"Stop it, you two," the queen ordered. "Birch, bring the captives something to eat. Hazel, please retrieve our strange guests."

Hazel nodded and hurried off.

Birch looked genuinely surprised that Sequoia knew her name, but eventually went to pick up Coal.

"Not the GreyWing," Sequoia jumped in. Birch shrugged and motioned with her tial for Blue, Cricket, Max and Swordtail to follow her. Wanting to get away from this conversation for a few moments, Clearwing hastily followed suit.

"Hey, Clearwing," Blue smiled at her, though his eyes were sad. "How have you been?"

"Fine," Clearwing replied. "I'm sorry for running off," she added honestly. After a few moments, she realized there was a dragon missing. "Where's Io?"

"She wanted to stay behind with Luna," Swordtail shivered. "She and Belladonna argued for a really long time. But finally she won and we left without her."

"Why didn't you stay with Luna?"

"Belladonna is terrifying," Swordtail replied. "Besides, we'll go back and see Luna right after this, right?"

"Right," Clearwing replied skeptically.

"Hey, Max, how are you?" Clearwing walked a little ways ahead, to where Max was, still leaning heavily between Blue and Cricket (since Swordtail had pulled away to talk to Clearwing). There was a bandage tied around her head, and it smelled faintly of mint and banana. The HiveWing didn't say anything, although she turned her head to look at Clearwing.

"Is she alright?" the SilkWing dragonet whispered to Cricket.

"We're not sure," Cricket replied. "She hasn't said a word since she woke up."

Poor Max.

Clearwing actually had some idea of what she was going through, losing her brother to the mind control. She wondered if Polistes was free yet, and whether he was worried about Max.

Oh, of course he's worried about Max, Clearwing mentally face-palmed again.

But Coal hadn't given her a major head injury. He'd been tied up before any real damage could occur. Max probably felt betrayed by her brother as well as hurt.

They eventually found themselves in a large roof which smelled of baked fruits and gazelle jerky. Birch grabbed a coconut and started to put some assorted nuts into it, as well as what looked like a boar leg. She took the bowl so instinctively that Clearwing wondered if she'd been here before. But hunger kept her from diverting energy to work out the LeafWing warrior's complex backstory, and instead she and the others each grabbed their own coconuts, putting whatever article of food they seemed to want into the hairy brown bowls.

Most of them had eaten at the feast yesterday, so most of the leftovers went to Max (who ate as though she hadn't tasted food in months).

Finally they headed back to the throne room, and all of them collectively gasped, even Clearwing, who had sort of known what was coming.

Awe and disbelief and confusion radiated off of the others, even Birch. Cricket's mind started filling up with so many questions Clearwing wished she could block out the HiveWing's thoughts.

There were two dragons, standing next to Willow, Sundew, and Hazel. The larger one was blue, like the depths of the ocean. The smaller one seemed to be greenish, a bit like a LeafWing, but both of their wings were shaped like Coal's. Some of their scales were also glowing faintly, barely visible in the daylight.

"Oh," Cricket said, her eyes gleaming. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! Do-do you see that? What is happening?? Who is that?! Why are they amazing and blue and are those webbed talons OH MY GOSH. Are those for swimming? Are they water dragons?? What are they and where did they come from and OH MY GOSH THEY'RE FROM THE DISTANT KINGDOMS, AREN'T THEY?!"

"Hmmph," Coal mumbled from his place on the floor. "Hmmph cmm shmm wshmph thmp exsmmph mmbt mmmph?"

"If you're going to faint, please have Swordtail come over here so that I don't fall over," Max said.

"I should totally visit new continents more often," the blue dragon said, smiling. "I wish everyone was that excited to see me." Clearwing saw a few flashes of dragons who would really, really like to kill her. And also a couple of annoying lumps that she still loved, but boy were they a pain in the tail sometimes.

"How does she speak our language?" Cricket breathed. "Is it magic that we can understand her? Is she a magic superpowered dragon like Clearsight? Oh my gosh, can you see the future?"

"Hey, I can see the future just fine," Clearwing complained. "Do you actually want to replace me already?"

"I can see a future," the blue dragon said. "One where it takes me the next three years to answer all of your questions."

"REALLY?" Cricket gasped.

"Calm down, Cricket," Sundew rolled her eyes. "If this dragon could see the future, she wouldn't have almost been eaten by an anaconda."

"True," the dragon agreed. "I also wouldn't have eaten that thing this morning that looked like a slug and turned out to be a slug." The green dragon next to her nodded, his expression solemn.

Tsunami and Turtle, Clearwing thought, a smile blossoming across her face. Our first visitors from the Distant Kingdoms since the time of Clearsight.

The queen clapped her talons together, and everyone fell silent, turning towards her.

"Listen," she said. "There's a lot to cover, and we don't have much time. So we must make the introductions, reunions, and questions quick and finish them after our urgent business.

"As I understand it, two days ago, Belladonna and the PoisonWings committed an act of war — twice — by burning two of the HiveWing's cities. During the course of those missions, LeafWings were seen, so there is no doubt in Wasp's mind that our tribe is still alive, and that we are the ones who started those fires."

"Can't we tell her it was them and not us?" Hazel asked, jabbing a claw at Belladonna.

"Yeah, give that a try," said a dragon next to her, Wolfsbane. "I hear she's quite reasonable."

Clearwing was suddenly struck with an idea. But before she could look into it, Sequoia was talking again.

"Sorry, Hazel," the queen said. "She hates all LeafWings equally, and she-"

There was an abrupt silence. The queen tensed, her claws splintering the wood beneath them.

Oh, no, Clearwing realized. Queen Wasp has already seen her.

Through Coal.

After about the amount of time it takes to count to fifteen, Sequoia continued.

"And she is probably more furious than before, now that she knows I'm not dead. There's no chance she'd just let half of us carry on living quietly in the jungle." She flared her wings and looked over at Belladonna and Wolfsbane. "And I would never let her kill the other half of the tribe, even if she did promise the rest of us our safety. Those are our dragons, too."

"We don't bow to you!" Belladonna snapped. "We don't have a queen!"

Sequoia narrowed her eyes and took a few more deep breaths. Finally she spat, "But you do have a problem. An incoming army problem, and you won't be able to fight them with only your half of the tribe. Even a full LeafWing army wasn't able to stand against them last time... and our numbers are much smaller now."

"How do you know we have an incoming army problem?" Belladonna scoffed. "Maybe we scared them! Maybe they're licking their wounds and wondering if we were vengeful ghosts."

The queen shook her head. "I know Wasp. She strikes back the moment she's struck." Flashes of a one-on-one battle appeared behind Sequoia's eyes. During the beginning of the war, when she first refused to bow to the HiveWings. "I estimate we have a day, maybe two, while they put out the fire, tend to their wounded, and relocate their eggs and dragonets. Then perhaps a day to gather her horde and travel here — more likely less. If they're not on the border of the Poison Jungle by tonight, they will be by tomorrow morning. And that's not even considering if she's got a deal with the GreyWings."

"Tonight!" Willow cried, and Max flinched.

"That's ridiculous," Belladonna growled. "She can't organize an army that fast. And who cares about these 'GreyWings'?"

"You should care about them," Sequoia replied. "The GreyWings are a tribe of warriors who make even your fearsome warriors look like helpless dragonets. And they will soon become our problem if Wasp has allied herself with them."

"Still," Belladonna argued. "She can't get war-ready that quickly."

"Yes, she can," Cricket said. "At least for her own tribe. She doesn't need to waste time sending messengers or waiting for dragons to say their good-byes or any of that. She'll just slither into their heads and make them come to her, whether they want to or not."

Maxilla leaned a little more heavily against Blue's side, looking sick to her stomach. Her mind was picturing Polistes, white eyes, in the middle of an army, perfectly straight lines and columns as far as the eye could see.

Coal looked at the LeafWing queen with part hopeful, part sad eyes. "Ymm... knmph mn trmmm?" he said through his muzzle. Hope spiraled out his mind, more than strong enough to pierce his mental barrier. Clearwing remembered something she had read in Coal's mind; a dream to find his own tribe. Now it was happening.

"I only know about GreyWings from stories," Sequoia said, glancing at Coal. "but they are very descriptive. GreyWings are a subterranean tribe, but they often emerge for resources that can't be harvested below ground... or more. That will be for later, however. First, you need to hear a story. Have you all heard of the 'Legend of the Hive'?"

"Great, storytime with Sequoia," Belladonna hissed. "Legend? I don't care about an old legend!"

"This is important," said Queen Sequoia, letting out a sigh. Hazel edged a little closer to her great-grandmother, gently taking her talon. "Do any of you know it?"

Sundew glanced around at the other dragons, but they were shaking their heads. Only Clearwing nodded, her eyes wide.

"You do?" Sequoia looked surprised. "I thought Wasp would never let her subjects hear this story."

"I wasn't taught it in school," Clearwing replied. "I found out for myself. Well, Coal found out about it and dragged me into it."

Memories flooded back to her — sneaking around the Hive at night, back when they were both very young. Coal had claimed he knew a HiveWing who could tell them about the old times, from before Clearsight, and of course Clearwing's interest peaked.

Clearwing was surprised bells hadn't started going off in her brain when she first saw the vine — but then again, the old HiveWing hadn't really described it, and the word 'Hive' probably reminded her of the story more than a creepy plant's appearance.

"So you know it was a story from long before Clearsight's time," Sequoia said as Hazel sat down in front of her, listening intently. "The legend begins with the earliest days of dragons arriving on the continent," she continued. "Back when the LeafWing and the BeetleWing tribes were new, and they came to these shores to escape trouble in the Distant Kingdoms."

If this was as long ago as Sequoia claims it was, Tsunami's mind thought, loud enough for Clearwing to hear, they were probably trying to get away from the Scorching. I wonder what would've happened if the SeaWings had left instead.

"BeetleWing?" Swordtail broke in, "What's that?"

"That's what the SilkWings and HiveWing used to be, before Clearsight came along and split them into two tribes. According to the stories, the BeetleWings were more like the SilkWings — but some of them had deadly weapons like the ones you now find among the HiveWings... shooting deadly venom from their fangs, in particular, if the old stories are true."

Tsunami gave a little jump.

Like RainWings. A beautiful, shimmering tribe popped into her head, with scales that changed colors and fangs that shot a deadly black acid. ...I miss them.

Clearwing had never before sympathized with a dragon from another continent, but that thought reminded her so deeply of her mother and father, and Polistes, and all of the students at Gossamer Academy, that she had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep herself from dissolving to the floor and start bawling.

Heroes don't cry until they've finished their missions, she thought fiercely.

"What trouble were they trying to escape from?" Cricket asked.

"Probably the same trouble there always is," Max said quietly. "Dragons being cruel to other dragons because they don't look or act exactly like themselves."

Sundew cast an arch look at Belladonna, however the LeafWing commander completely missed it.

"The legend doesn't say," the queen responded. "What it does say is that the first dragons who landed on Pantala encountered something... very strange." Her voice dropped so low Clearwing had to strain to hear it over the rain outside. "The night they arrived, as they all slept, the earth below them began to seethe with motion. Tiny legs crawled across their scales — and then more — and then more of them. The dragons awoke suddenly, from their dreams, into a true nightmare. They were covered in fire ants."

Clearwing could all too easily imagine the confusion and terror of the refugees as they looked at themselves and their friends. Ants swarmed over them, coating their arms and legs and wings and eyes, and she shivered as a leafcutter ant that had somehow found its way into the throne room ambled up onto one of her claws.

"Their shrieks rose up to the moons and they ran to the ocean. But even as they ran, more colonies of ants boiled up from the ground and attacked. They marched up the dragon's legs and burrowed between their scales and dug their mandibles into their skin. The ants didn't even let go as the dragons plunged into the sea; they didn't try to save themselves. They held on like grim death, until at last the ants drowned."

Clearwing flicked the ant off of her, and it landed on the far side of the room, almost immediately scurrying out the window, to a place where Clearwing couldn't see it anymore.

"Yeeeeeesh," Swordtail said with a shudder. Cricket moved closer to Blue's warmth. Max had a dull look in her eyes like she just wanted to go to bed and forget the world for a while, and Clearwing felt even Snake feel unnerved.

"But the ants were only the beginning," Sequoia continued. "The next morning, as the dragons were limping back to their campsite, they heard buzzing in the air, getting closer and closer. When they looked up, the sky was dark with bees. So many bees, they blotted out the sun. The bees descended and attacked, again and again, and the dragons were once again forced to flee into the bay and hide below the water.

"The legend says they were saved by their flamesilks, who burned the bees out of the sky."

"So the legend is about creepy ants and bees?" Swordtail asked.

The queen shook her head, pressing her wings closer to her sides. "It got worse... and stranger.

"The swarms of insects kept coming, and the next attacks came from insects that don't normally work in groups — imagine armies of venomous centipedes, battalions of tsetse flies, swarms of bombardier beetles."

Again, Clearwing could imagine all of this — far too easily. It was almost as though she had been there, although of course she hadn't.

"They killed dragon after dragon with their mindless, unwavering ferocity. Some dragons vanished in the night, never to be seen again. Others went down right in front of their friends, suddenly covered in assassin bugs.

"Of course, the dragons fought back. They'd come too far to run away, and according to the story, they were refugees who could never return to the Distant Kingdoms."

Outcasts from their own tribes.

"So they fought to stay, but it seemed whenever they struck down one group of attackers, another would instantly appear in its place. The insects were followed by coils of rattlesnakes, a vast pride of lions, murders of crows."

The queen once again lowered her voice, staring at the slightly crumpled-up picture. "There were no ordinary attacks. The animals moved in unison, like a single organism. If a crow was struck down on one end of the battlefield, the others somehow all knew instantly. The snakes attacked simultaneously, targeting their victims with targeted precision."

"But how?" Cricket asked.

"This sounds a bit like a myth that's been warped over time," Blue murmured.

"Are you saying that the plant works on anything? Reptiles, birds, insects, and mammals? How is that possible, scientifically?"

"Um, I have an important question," Sundew interjected. "Who was controlling them?" Her tail was entwined with Willow's.

Queen Sequoia stared directly into Sundew's eyes. "No one knows."

"WHAT," said Swordtail.

"Three moons," Tsunami muttered. "I think my chills have chills."

"How could nobody know?!" Cricket yelped. "They didn't find the dragon behind the attacks?"

"The tribes... never found anyone," said the queen. "They searched far and wide for years, but there were no other dragons on the continent."

"But..." Hazel started, then trailed off.

"I think that I know," Clearwing said unexpectedly. All the eyes in the room turned towards her — Belladonna, Hemlock, Max, Sundew, Cricket, Blue, Swordtail, Willow, Hazel, Birch, Coal, Snake (who was watching by the window), Queen Sequoia, and the other LeafWings Belladonna had brought with her to the SapWing village. "Um. I... don't think it was a dragon at all." At least, not anymore, she thought, remembering something the Vines had said to her, when they first talked.

"I've almost always been a plant," it had said. "Not much I can do to change that."

"I think it's the Vine itself."

This sent the entire room into uproar.

"Plant's can't think!" a dragon, probably one of the PoisonWings, roared. "They're plants!!"

"They, can, actually," Sundew tried, and failed miserably, to calm the dragon down. "Just not like we do... nevermind."

"How is that scientifically possible?" Cricket was asking. "And how do you know?"

"Mmm!?" Coal almost screamed, clearly panicked to have a talking plant in his head.

The throne room was once again awfully silent.

I haven't even told Coal this, Clearwing thought, her stomach twisting into knots. How can I tell a room full of dragons I've only just met? But in order to protect them from what was coming, she blurted, "I've talked to it. In a dream."

"What?" Sundew asked. "You don't have leafspeak."

"I don't," Clearwing replied. "But I am psychic, and apparently psychic enough for it to root me out. No pun intended," she added quickly. Coal nodded from his spot on the floor, still panicked.

"How do you know they weren't just normal dreams?" Belladonna hissed, stepping forward. Clearwing got a weird sense of deja-vu.

"Because they came true," she replied. "I mean. They always come true. Sometimes not in the ways I expect, but-"

"So the plant, or Vine, or entity, or othermind, or whatever we're calling it," Sundew said, "Found you and talked to you. In a dream."

"In my metamorphosis trance," Clearwing nodded. "When I got my wings, in case you don't know a whole lot about SilkWing biology. Actually, Queen Sequoia," she turned her eyes toward the queen. "It mentioned a dragon named Hawthorn. I think you knew him?"

Queen Sequoia tensed, which Clearwing noticed she did almost as much as sighing.

Without responding to the inquiry, Sequoia instead held out the sketch of the vine Clearwing had drawn. "They didn't find a dragon," she said, "but they did find this." Each little white flower concealed a dark red seed, which was almost black. "We call it the breath of evil."

"Seems a little dramatic," Belladonna muttered. "I almost like her name for it more." She flicked a wing in Clearwing's direction.

"Ymmph, Smm nm hirmmmmm m plnnmm im hmm hmmpd!" Coal said.

"This vine covered everything," said the queen. "The legend described it exactly — it is the part of the story that has survived the most intact. Almost as though the storytellers knew how important it would be for us to recognize it if it were to appear again. This plant was woven through every meadow, around every tree, it grew in every marsh and every environment. No matter the landscape, it thrived across all of Pantala.

"But the dragons from the Distant Kingdoms soon discovered that when they got rid of this plant, the attacks waned. When they cleared all the vine from an area, that area became safe to live in. No more attacks. The animals began to behave like normal animals, so long as they lived within the perimeter the dragons made, where there was no breath of evil."

"I don't like this name," Swordtail interrupted. "OR this plant. Just for the record: I don't like it at all."

"That certainly explains why Queen Wasp doesn't want us to know the story," Max said, speaking a bit louder than she had been before. "It would probably ring a few bells, even inside a skull as thick as my brother's."

Is she saying he's thick? Clearwing wondered, hiding a laugh under her wing.

"But... how does it end?" Hazel asked. "The Legend of the Hive."

"There isn't a whole lot more," Sequoia replied, spreading her wings in a shrugging gesture. "It's all garbled from millenia of being passed down. But this is how I understand it: something here — maybe the plant itself, as Clearwing has proposed — tried to kill us when our ancestors arrived, using mind control to turn the wildlife into weapons. But destroying the breath of evil took away its power. Once they realized that, the tribes organized expeditions to uproot the plant across the whole continent."

"But the plants weren't completely destroyed after all," Cricket said slowly.

"No. Some of it survived, hidden in the Poison Jungle and closely guarded by Hawthorn."

"Where Wasp must've found it," Cricket said. "She must know the legend, and gone looking for it, hoping she could use it herself. I wonder how she figured out what to do with it. ...And if it once worked on any animal, why does she only use it on HiveWings? Why bother with the Tree Wars at all if she could also mind-control the LeafWings and SilkWings?"

Queen Sequoia shuddered.

But she knows why, Clearwing thought, confused. Why isn't she telling them?

"I'm sure she tried," Belladonna spat. "Probably doesn't work on a superior species like the LeafWings."

Clearwing felt Snake's outrage with those words.

LeafWings? Her mind seethed. Pah. LeafWings are the most inferior tribe I have ever seen. No one is more powerful than the GreyWings.

"The point is, this is where she got it from, so this is where she'll come back to get more of it, if we really did burn up her entire supply," Sundew said.

"Not if we strike her first," Belladonna snarled. "We're going to burn all of their Hives. I'm planning our next attack now. We just need a little more flamesilk and Yellowjacket Hive will be a pile of ash before you can blink."

"Wasp isn't going to wait for you to do that," Cricket said. "Queen Sequoia is right — she's gathering an army right now and she'll be here before you can even fly all the way to Yellowjacket Hive."

She's right, Clearwing felt sick. There's no way we'll be able to win this battle. All I can see is this ending is a bloodbath.

We need to find the antidote.