Chapter 33
Weave did not look concerned at all as he pulled Clearwing away from the bars. Calm down. He's a GreyWing, for Clearsight's sake. No one will care if he dies.
"I'll care!" she said, waking the dragon in the cell next to them, who then gave them a most puzzled look. "You don't know anything about him, or me for that matter! You only know yourself!"
"I know we're siblings," he retorted. "I know you love someone you shouldn't. I know you grew up privileged and free and without the looming threat of imprisonment or even death hanging over you. I know you've seen sunlight your entire life while I haven't seen even a painting of the sky. Get over it, find an actual SilkWing. Or a LeafWing, or a HiveWing, for moon's sake, any dragon other than a GreyWing. He's a lost cause."
Clearwing was really, really cross now. She gripped his neck, not choking him but still being tight. "Shut. Your. Mouth. Coal is strong, and he won't bend under the weight of his tribe until I'm dead."
Weave, startled, backed off. "Okay, but don't blame me when he turns and kills you."
Clearwing sighed and went back to the edge of the cage. She had to get Coal out soon. Or now. Probably now. Maybe I can pick this lock...
She tried sticking her claw in the keyhole and shifting it around, but to no avail. "Those locks are unpickable without a second dragon. Why do you think they have such weird keys?"
She turned to him. "Then for the love of Clearsight, come help me!" she said angrily.
"I can't, or they'll kill me."
"Do you want to be free?" Clearwing retorted. "To see the sky, the sun, a landscape that isn't gray and black and populated by dragons that only know war?"
Weave flinched back. There was longing in his mind; he hated this place and wanted something more. Something warm and alive, rather than cold and barren. He wanted real friends, not just the few pacifictic GreyWings scattered around Crystal's territory.
But most of all: he wanted to meet his own tribe.
"Alright, fine."
He stepped forward and stuck his talon into the other keyhole and tried to pick it with Clearwing. It made a little noise, but-
The two heard a grunt of some sort and froze. After a few moments, Clearwing pulled her talon out from the keyhole and looked in the direction of the sound. It was scary, to say the least.
Just in talon reach was a sleeping GreyWing, snoring peacefully on a ledge, with white scales outlining her bones and making her look like one of the skeletons hanging from the ceiling. On her wrist was a key; exactly the one needed for the cadges. If only Clearwing could get it without waking the guard... maybe if she had something to replace it, but there wasn't anything.
But then she noticed Weave's claw was barely an inch away from the GreyWing's neck. And there was lust in his mind; a lust for blood. White teeth glinted from his smile in the dark.
He was going to kill the GreyWing in her sleep.
Clearwing grabbed his arm. "Don't," she said. "She didn't do anything to you. We'll get her key without killing her."
Weave looked back at her with dangerous eyes. "They have done so, so many terrible things to me. They've whipped me. They've imprisoned me. They've put me in a leather suit and hung me from the ceiling by a ballista bolt." He turned back to the GreyWing. "I want one of them to feel my pain for once."
Clearwing pulled him back before he could actually kill the GreyWing — March, she got from her past — and looked him in the eye. "This one didn't do anything to you. Leave her alone. Focus on the others; Queen Crystal, her council, the one who stole your egg. Take out your rage on them." HiveWings flashed through her mind — the dragons she thought were her enemies, back when she first joined the Chrysalis. But now she knew it was Wasp. Wasp and Crystal and the Vines and plenty of other monsters, enough that she couldn't defeat them all and then hurt the entire HiveWing tribe, too.
Weave hesitated before reaching up and cutting the key loose. A small cut was left on the GreyWing, but she just shifted and muttered something in her sleep. The key slipped in the lock perfectly, and suddenly Weave was rushing through the open door.
But Clearwing wasn't focused on that. She was gliding towards Coal. She needed to see him. To make sure he was okay. To get him out, since Weave probably wasn't going to.
"Coal," she said to him when she got to his cage. "Coal, wake up, Come on." Coal shifted and mumbled something. "Coal, we're getting out of here."
Coal slowly woke up. "Clearwing? It's- Clearwing!" He jumped upright. "How are you out of your cell?"
"Don't worry about that," Clearwing replied to him. "We're getting you and Cricket out of these cells."
Weave interrupted them. "Actually, I-"
"And we both trust you," Clearwing growled at him.
"Okay, fine."
Weave unlocked his cell and let Coal out, but with a more cross look on his face. He still didn't trust Coal, who flapped out of his prison and hovered by Clearwing.
Clearwing flew over to Cricket and Bumblebee's cell, and used the key and her talon to unlock the cage. "We're getting out of here," she whispered to the HiveWing. Cricket nodded, hugging Bumblebee a little tighter and following them.
Coal grabbed her shoulder. "Wait," he said, "we still have an animus object to collect."
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