Hawthorn turned and cheerfully sauntered out into the sunlight. The dragonets followed, blinking and thinking curious thoughts. Willow stopped Sundew with her wing, her eyes serious.

"I feel like we should be really careful," she said.

"Me too," Sundew agreed.

"Same here," Nettle said unexpectedly.

"Don't drink his tea." Clearwing blinked at herself, realizing that came out sounding way weirder than it should've, like some mad dragonet talking about glassblowing.

"But this is the dragon we're looking for, right?" Cricket adjusted her glasses self-consciously. "The one with all the rest of the answers that Clearwing doesn't even know?" Her tail was twitching with nervous excitement.

"I have a weird feeling about this place," Clearwing said, "the breath of evil is everywhere. Clearsight knows why those snakes are protecting him. We need to be careful." She refrained from telling them about her metamorphosis dream — the one where Hawthorn turned into the breath of evil.

"Yes," Willow nodded. "I guess he seems nice enough. It's just... everything else."

"We'll go with him," Sundew turned to Cricket, "but we'll just do it a little more carefully than normal."

"Mm-hm," Coal said, nodding as well.

The dragonets edged out into the clearing, squinting in the much brighter light here.

All the low-hanging vines had been cut back, along with sections of the canopy overhead, which left space for grass to grow in the patches of sun. A small vegetable garden covered a quarter of the clearing, once again with the undergrowth cleared away all around it. And in the center of the clearing was a house shaped like a cell in a Hive, not a nest or hammock or platform in a tree. Someone, presumably Hawthorn, had taken the time to turn tree trunks into smooth, flat boards; someone had fitted them together; and someone had woven flax curtains for the door and windows, dyeing them a pale red.

Clearwing watched as Sundew walked in a little bit of a circle, looking for the breath of evil, but to her surprise there was none of it in the vicinity of the sunlight-bathed clearing.

"Come on in," Hawthorn called from the doorway of his hut.

They stepped onto a covered porch that ran along the front side of the house. One end of it looked to be a woodworking studio, where a few little half-carved dragons and trees sat on a stump. Honeysuckle vines weaved around the roof of the porch, adding a sweet smell to the air and calming Clearwing from the Vine's constant scheming in the back of her mind.

Inside, Hawthorn's house was breezy and open, full of warm, rose-colored light filtering in through the curtains. It was all one room, with a high ceiling and a lot of space. Various and masterfully-carved figurines covered the shelves on every wall, and Clearwing got some strange deja-vu of being handed a carved dragon that looked like Clearsight. With a shake of her head, the vision was gone. Sundew was peering at a carving that looked suspiciously like Queen Sequoia.

"Did you make all of these?" Cricket asked in awe.

"Ah, yes," Hawthorn answered, beaming with evident pride. "Lots of time on my talons, you know. No one else to talk to. So I thought I'd make some friends for myself. This one's my favorite." He delicately cradled a smooth, round carving made of honey-colored wood, with an intricate pattern of leaves carved around the top. He set it down on a stand on a table by itself, next to the window. "They're better company than you think," he said. "Thank goodness I have you, right?" He turned to smile at the...

At the seed.

The SilkWing's claws curled in unintentionally.

Clearwing caught a sympathetic look cross over Sundew's face. The LeafWing felt sorry for Hawthorn, living alone here, for fifty years. She hadn't noticed that the carving was the same shape as a breath of evil seed. Although, to be fair, the breath of evil seed looked like an egg, and the carving wasn't dyed in any color even close to the dark, menacing red of the actual plant.

"I can't help but notice that you're a HiveWing," Hawthorn wagged a claw at Cricket. "I hope you being here means that peace has finally been achieved between the tribes? So... maybe I can go home?"

"Ha! Peace. Not even close," Nettle snorted. "This one's a bit of an ex-HiveWing, at least according to the morons who believe her."

"Ah, hmmm." Hawthorn started digging through a cabinet. "Traitor to her tribe, eh?"

"No!" Cricket yelped. "The complete opposite! I want to save them!"

"Oh, right," Hawthorn said, finally emerging from the drawer. "I must say, if I'd known so many visitors were coming, I'd have carved more cups! But, ah, these are all I have."

"Oh, no, thank you," Willow said, her eyes widening as she looked over at Clearwing. "I'm afraid we don't have time for tea."

"We don't?" Mandrake said wistfully. Nettle stepped on his tail and he yelped in pain.

"It won't take long," Hawthorn said, "there's a hot spring out back where I can get the water. I even have honey!" He started toward the door.

"Really," Sundew said, "no. The tribe is in danger. We have to get back before Queen Wasp attacks, which might be as soon as tonight."

Was it just Clearwing's imagination, or did Hawthorn just glare at her?

"We need an antidote for the mind control," Clearwing said, shaking off the chills climbing up her spine.

"Oh," Hawthorn said, looking startled. "That does sound serious! Really worth mentioning sooner, don't you think? Yes. I'd call that relevant news." He reached over and patted his seed. "And you know about the breath of evil. That explains quite a bit."

"We know Wasp uses it to control dragons," Sundew said. "We were hoping-"

"Did Queen Sequoia send you?" he interrupted eagerly. "Does she want me back at last?" He hesitated. "That is... is she still queen?"

"She is," Willow said.

"She is!" Hawthorn clapped his talons together. "That's... that's wonderful news. After all this time. Still alive! I can hardly believe it. And did she send you? What did she have to say about me?"

"That you've been working on a cure for Wasp's mind control," Sundew said. "She said you know more about it than any other dragon alive."

Hawthorn's enthusiasm dimmed a little, his long green wings folding and dipping back. "Ha!" he said. "That's certainly true, isn't it? I mean, that was her intention, sending me here. Quite a long time it's been, for me to be here studying it, all alone. I really should be an expert by now." He laughed, but Clearwing saw in his mind that he thought Sequoia was going to say something else.

Something about who they used to be...

Before the SilkWing could piece this mystery together (as she often tried to do), Cricket started asking questions. Of course.

"Are you using it on the snakes?" she burst out. "Is that why they listen to you?"

"Well, of course," Hawthorn replied. "Rather hard to study something if you don't do a few little experiments first." Fear and shock pierced Coal's mental shield, as well as a memory of Wasp stabbing him and marking him while he was awake and paralyzed. Clearwing winced and edged closer to her friend. She had no idea the queen had done such horrible things to him.

"So they obey you?" Nettle asked curiously, her mind spiralling off into glorious fantasies of sending hordes of dragonbite vipers after Queen Wasp. "You can just... order them around?"

"Are you in their heads, like Wasp when she controls her subjects?" Cricket added. "Or do you just tell them to do things and they listen to you?"

"So many questions!" Hawthorn clasped his front talons together, the sliver of annoyance in his mind not leaking into his voice. "I really don't know if I can do this without tea!" The brown-green LeafWing grabbed a teapot, bustling out the back door. Willow and Sundew exchanged glances.

"Don't drink the tea," Clearwing said again. The eyes in the room all turned to her. "It's spiked."

Willow and Sundew nodded, although Mandrake still looked like he kind of wanted the tea.

They fell silent as Hawthorn scooted back inside, steam rising from the water in the teapot. He shook out a pile of tea leaves into each cup and poured the water in with them. If Clearwing looked closely, she could see a reddish-green tint to the water. But if she hadn't known better, the alluring scent of honey would've been more than enough for her to grab and guzzle down a cup.

"See?" the big LeafWing said innocently. "All ready. Please do have some; I'm quite proud of this tea." He set a jar of honey on the table as well, his expression pleased. "No visitors in decades. This is so splendid."

"Hawthorn," Willow said gently, "we really are short on time."

"Of course," His expression clouded over, "I'm surprised it took Sequoia so long to send you. I was beginning to think none of my messages got through."

"Messages?" Mandrake asked.

"Well," Hawthorn took a sip of his own tea, and Sundew stiffened. If it was spiked, why was he drinking it? "I was forbidden to return to the village myself, wasn't I?"

Mandrake gave him a puzzled look.

"You were?" Willow asked.

"So I sent messages however I could," he continued. "In coconuts down the river, tied to the legs of monkeys and birds. I even sent a few of my vipers, but they were killed before they could get to the village. Such a shame; they were smart little snakes, just doing what I asked."

"I don't think she got any of those messages," Willow confessed, her wing twitching lightly.

"What did they say?" Sundew asked, leaning forward. "Did you find an antidote?"

Clearwing felt her muscles tense. If Hawthorn was being controlled, how could they trust him? But on the other talon, he was their only hope. Not even Clearwing knew what the antidote was. The Vines had the same truth-blocking ability that Coal did. Maybe he'd found a way to convince it to give him the cure. Maybe this was it.

"I..." Hawthorn's eyes suddenly glistened with unshed tears. He looked at the floor. "I did. That is, I believe so."

"But," Cricket sat up. "But that's amazing! Why are you sad?"

Hawthorn blinked, rubbing his eyes. "Oh, it's only... you know, all the time I could've spent with Sequoia. All the years I've lost."

Cricket gently laid her talon on his. He flinched slightly, his instinct to pull away from a HiveWing, but he didn't move his talon away from her's.

"I'm sorry for what you've been through," Cricket said. "I can't imagine what it was like to be alone for so long. But what you're doing is so important. You're going to save so many dragons, Hawthorn.When all the HiveWings are freed, you're going to be a hero. The LeafWing who devoted his life to saving them! Your antidote will save my sister. It means everything to me. Not to mention it'll stop another war."

"That is something," Hawthorn agreed, gently pulling his talon away to wipe at his eyes again. "And if it works... I'm glad to know this wasn't all for nothing. And don't get me wrong — I know I deserved this. I told the queen I understood, and I meant it. This was the right punishment for me. The only punishment, really."

What?" Cricket glanced back at the other LeafWings as though they might have the answers.

Willow spread her wings, her expression equally puzzled. "What do you mean?" She looked at Hawthorn. "I thought you volunteered for this — how could you deserve it?"

Hawthorn blinked, surprise written in every crevice of his face. "She didn't tell you why I'm here?"

Sundew shook her head. Clearwing dug her talons into the floor, splintering the wood.

"Because I'm the one who found the breath of evil, after everyone thought it was destroyed centuries ago," he said.

"And because you're the one who gave it to Queen Wasp," Clearwing finished.