"We must act quickly," Queen Sequoia rose from her throne with a commanding expression, and suddenly Clearwing understood why the LeafWings fought so fiercely during the Tree Wars, following her into battle over and over no matter how many times they lost.

"Belladonna, Wolfsbane, and the SilkWings," the queen said, pointing to Io and Swordtail. Wolfsbane hissed lightly. "You four will come with me. We will gather our strongest warriors — from both villages — and fly to the Snarling River to prepare for Wasp's attack. The Jungle's defenses need to be strengthened so that we can hold them off as long as possible."

"Uh," Swordtail said. "I mean, that sounds awesome. But... how are we going to help?"

"Blue and Luna are flamesilks," Clearwing replied. "You and Io need to convince Blue to help in the coming battle. Since Luna will already be all in for bashing HiveWings." She smiled a faint smile.

Belladonna looked appalled at the fact that Blue was a flamesilk as well, and Clearwing felt only slightly guilty about revealing that.

"Why?" Blue asked. "It's not the HiveWing's fault Wasp is controlling them."

"We still need to defend ourselves," Sequoia replied. "I understand your reluctance to hurt the dragons you've been trained to respect, but we still need you in battle.

"Also," she added, "one of you must contact the Chrysalis. If they want to rise up and overthrow Wasp, now is the time. They must bring their dragons to fight alongside us, or Wasp will win, and they will never have a chance to be free."

"What about me?" Hazel asked. "Shouldn't I go with you?"

The queen's face softened as she looked down at her great-granddaughter. "No," she said. "I won't be able to think with you there. I need to know that you're safe here, and that the rest of the tribe is safe too, because you'll be leading them. If Wasp gets past us, you'll need to decide what to do... fight her, or run."

"Run where?" Cricket asked.

"Deeper into the jungle," answered the queen. Her eyes fell on Tsunami and Turtle. "Or... perhaps further."

"YES," Cricket said. "That's what I've been saying! Right, Blue? I said we should escape to the Distant Kingdoms!"

"Hey, whoa," Tsunami said, spreading her wings with an alarmed expression. "It's not that easy. Can you swim?"

"Or breathe underwater?" Turtle added.

"We can swim," Willow said. "In the river. Maybe not like you swim, though. Alright, nothing like you. Not, like, swim-across-an-entire-ocean-for-days-and-days-and-days kind of swimming, nope."

"Could Clearsight?" Cricket asked. That was a good question, actually. Clearwing would have to look into that.

"Right," Tsunami said. "So, how would you all get there? Sorry, it just... seems unlikely that you'd be able to make it. And I'm still not sure my friends would be all 'Yes, sure, Tsunami! Bringing an entire tribe of dragons over here is totally fine, absolutely, yes, brilliant idea.'"

"Before you get lost in conversation," Sequoia interjected, "we don't have much time. So. Hazel, Tsunami and Turtle. You'll stay here and try to formulate a plan. Either to escape to the Distant Kingdoms, or a backup plan if Wasp breaks through our defense and gets into the village. Belladonna, you may send a few of your dragons to work with them. Byblis, perhaps; as I understand she's quite clever."

"Yes, I see how much information your spies have gathered, no need to rub it in," Belladonna growled.

Queen Sequoia closed her eyes, lifted her head, and sat like that for about the amount of time it takes to count to ten. She stared directly at Sundew, Willow, and Clearwing. "The rest of you. HiveWings, Sundew, Willow, Clearwing, GreyWing, go to the eye of the jungle and meet Hawthorn. He's been watching over the breath of evil for more than fifty years. It might be a long shot, but... "

"But he might have found a cure!" Cricket nearly did a flip.

"Yes," Sequoia said. "An antidote. I believe that was my dramatic line, however."

"Something that could break the mind control," Cricket said, her eyes going into their everything-is-sparkles glitter trance. "A way to free the rest of my tribe!" And to free Katydid! Her mind enthused.

"Wait, why the GreyWing?" Belladonna said. "He has Wasp in his head, she could see where she could get more of the plant if she wanted it."

"Hmm, m hmmph h nmm! Fmm Cphl!" Coal mumbled accusingly.

Neither of the LeafWings seemed to notice Coal's mumbles. "He has Wasp in head, so he needs it the most," Queen Sequoia said to Belladonna. "If Wasp has a GreyWing under her control, she could burn down the entire jungle." Clearwing agreed with that. "Wasp was using Coal as a weapon; she may even make him have eggs to create more if he isn't freed from the mind control."

Ew, all of the younger dragonets thought simultaneously.

"I... don't think I should go with them," Max said reluctantly. "I want to, I really, really do. I want to save my brother and my parents and Cricket's family and Coal, but I'll just slow you all down."

Clearwing sympathized with the HiveWing. Before she got her wings, she always felt like she was slowing Coal down on their fantastic little adventures (and the big one, freeing the flamesilks).

"You can be useful here," Blue offered, grinning. Max shot him a thankful look, and luckily Cricket was too busy mooning over the idea of an antidote to notice.

"Just a moment," Belladonna snarled. "I'm not letting my daughter stroll off on a suicide mission with these — these strangers alongside her." She cast a vicious glance at Cricket, Willow, and Clearwing. Coal made a few more accusing mumbly sounds.

"No," Sundew said, just a second too late.

"Either you don't go, or you take Mandrake and Nettle with you."

"Please," Sundew moaned. "I can handle myself. I don't need supervision. And these dragons aren't strangers, they're on the same quest as we are!"

Belladonna narrowed her eyes.

"Either you go with them, or you don't go at all," she repeated firmly.

With a hiss, Sundew stalked out of the room.

"That's an 'argh, fine,'" Willow translated wryly.