Dangerous Gift

by Tui T. Sutherland

  Luna jumped in to talk about the political system in Pantala: how the HiveWings kept the SilkWings under their control, and how the HiveWings themselves were all controlled by Queen Wasp, who could take over any HiveWing’s mind anytime she felt like it, from anywhere.

  “Except mine,” Cricket said quickly when Qibli turned to look at her. “And a few others — it’s a whole thing.”

  Hazel added the story of the LeafWings, who had fought a war with Queen Wasp and almost been wiped out, except for a small remnant of the tribe that fled to hide in the Poison Jungle.

  Snowfall drifted in and out for parts of the stories. She knew all this, from being Tau and Bryony and Blue and Io. She could still feel the weight of the history that rippled under their scales. She remembered knowing things they hadn’t even thought consciously about; she could probably draw an accurate map of Pantala herself.

  I am actually the most informed dragon here, she thought, glancing triumphantly around the circle. The one and only upside to the visions. Maybe that was why the ancient IceWing queen had agreed to (or asked for) this gift in the first place. But knowing a lot about Pantala didn’t seem like an even trade for Snowfall’s sanity.

  Finally, after a long explanation of the new war, Queen Wasp’s attack on the jungle, and the discovery of the plant that gave her the mind-control power, the Pantalan dragons wound down into silence.

  The queens exchanged glances. “So you need a new place to live?” Queen Moorhen asked. “I suppose you could stay here in Sanctuary, if it’s all right with Queen Ruby and Queen Thorn. I’m afraid we don’t have room in the Mud Kingdom.”

  Yeah, right, Snowfall thought. The Mud Kingdom wasn’t exactly packed wall-to-wall with MudWings. They could easily fit a whole other city of dragons in those endless swamps if they wanted to.

  “How many dragons are we talking about?” Ruby interjected. “Who will be in charge of them? You?” she asked Queen Hazel. “I mean, what if you keep having more dragonets and spreading out? Are we going to end up with a new kingdom in the middle of the continent — one that mostly takes over Sky Kingdom territory?” She shot Riptide a frown. “That’s not what I had in mind when I agreed to this settlement.”

  “I know, Your Majesty,” he said. “But we can’t possibly send them back to Pantala.” Beside him, Tsunami vigorously shook her head, and Moon looked horrified, as though someone had just suggested rounding up all the baby seals and setting them on fire.

  “Is there anywhere else we can put them?” Ruby asked. She turned to Glory. “It sounds like they might be happiest in the rainforest.”

  “So Glory can be queen of four tribes?” Snowfall heard herself snap.

  Glory made a face she couldn’t interpret — was she laughing at Snowfall? Was she thinking that she could handle four tribes easily when Snowfall could barely manage one?

  The part of her that had briefly been Blue the SilkWing thought, or maybe she’s thinking how impossible it would be to rule four tribes, and how much she’s still struggling to bring together the two she has.

  SHUT UP, YOU MUSHBALL, Snowfall demanded.

  “Wait, wait.” Hazel stood up and spread her wings to catch their attention. “That’s not — we’re not thinking about where we could live yet. Most of us — all of us, I think — want to go back to Pantala.”

  Not Cobra Lily, Snowfall thought. She wondered if Hazel had actually asked anybody what they wanted. The LeafWings might be happier here, among trees that weren’t constantly trying to eat them.

  “Oh,” Ruby said, taken aback. “Then … do that?”

  “We all left dragons we care about over there,” Hazel said. “They’re all in awful danger.”

  That’s true, Snowfall thought. Extremely true.

  “We want to go back to rescue them,” Hazel said, “but we can’t go back alone. Our numbers are no match for Queen Wasp, especially once she mind-controls everyone else in Pantala. We were hoping … maybe you could help us.”

  “Ohhhhh,” Ruby breathed out softly.

  “You mean with armies,” Thorn said.

  “You want us to send our soldiers all the way to the other side of the ocean,” Moorhen said. “To fight in a war that — I’m so sorry, but — it has nothing to do with us.”

  “Nothing to do with us!” Qibli burst out. “Didn’t you hear what’s happening to those dragons?”

  “Yes,” Moorhen said, shooting a “get your dragon under control” look at Thorn. “But our dragons are safe here. That thing over there doesn’t even know about us. If we go rile it up, it might come back to attack us and we could lose this whole continent, too. At least right now, this is a safe place —for us and for you.”

  “Plus, we just got out of a war,” Ruby said. “And a follow-up almost-war.”

  Was that a dig at Snowfall? Was Ruby saying Snowfall was the kind of queen who would drag her tribe into war for no reason? OR was she saying that Snowfall couldn’t even finish a war she tried to start?

  “Darkstalker didn’t do anything to your tribe,” Qibli pointed out.

  Oh. Was that the almost-war she meant — everyone against Darkstalker?

  Well, if she was worried about that, she could have ALMOST been a lot more helpful trying to fight him!

  “I have a lot of dragons who haven’t recovered from the War of SandWing Succession,” Ruby said. “Or, to be honest, from my mother’s reign as the Super-Murdery Queen of the Mountains. I don’t know if I can throw them back into another conflict.” Both Moorhen and her sister started nodding.

  “We have a similar problem,” Glory said, looking thoughtful, as though she were running calculations in her head. “Half my dragons are not cut out for war — they wouldn’t be any help to you even if I tried to send them. And the other half have been through a lot lately.”

  “Oh, have they?” Snowfall said icily. “Been through a lot? You mean such as raising an all-knowing magic evil dictator from the dead and then trying to help him murder a whole tribe and take over the continent? That does sound stressful. Poor things.”

  “What?” Hazel said, bewildered.

  “What?” Cricket said at the same time, her eyes shining with curiosity.

  “I think what we’re all saying,” Thorn interjected, “is that it would be tough to justify sending our soldiers into such a dangerous situation, when it sounds like they could have their minds taken over exactly like your dragons have. Isn’t that right?”

  “We don’t know,” Hazel said sadly. “I’d guess … probably.”

  “We can give you weapons, though,” Glory said. “My tribe makes these blowguns with darts that can put dragons to sleep. You’ll be able to stop your friends from hurting you without having to hurt them.”

  “Oh, wow,” Cricket said. “What’s in the darts? Is it something that grows in your rainforest? Have you — um, sorry, I’ll ask you later.” She subsided as Hazel put one talon over hers.

  “We would appreciate that so much,” Hazel said to Glory.

  “Make a note,” Glory said to her NightWing. “We can triple production starting tonight if we send a messenger back.”

  “We have some dragonflame cacti,” Ruby said, glancing awkwardly at Thorn. “You’re welcome to that. But I don’t think we can send any of our soldiers.”

  “Wait, wait,” Qibli said. “Before you all decide, you have to hear Moon’s prophecy.”

  Tsunami let out a small huff, and a few other dragons looked uneasy, but Thorn and Glory beckoned Moon forward.

  “A new prophecy?” Glory asked.

  Moon nodded. “It came with the vision that led me to Luna, on the western coast.” She cleared her throat and recited it again. Snowfall listened a bit more carefully this time.

  “Turn your eyes, your wings, your fire

  To the land across the sea

  Where dragons are poisoned and dragons are dying

  And no one can ever be free.

  A secret lurks inside their eggs.

  A secret
hides within their book.

  A secret buried far below

  May save those brave enough to look.

  Open your hearts, your minds, your wings

  To the dragons who flee from the Hive.

  Face a great evil with talons united

  Or none of the tribes will survive.”

  Moon glanced over at Tsunami when she finished. “Sorry,” she added. “They just happen, I swear.”

  “You all heard that, right?” Qibli said. “Turn your eyes to the land across the sea? Face a great evil with talons united? As cryptic prophecies go, I think this one is PRETTY clear.”

  “None of the tribes will survive,” Glory echoed. “Meaning all of us over here as well.”

  “But how is that possible?” Ruby said. “How would the danger even get to us? I thought someone said it was almost impossible to cross the ocean.”

  “It is,” Hazel agreed. “We only made it because we found a map that was made a long time ago by Clearsight. I think that’s what a secret hides within their book means. It showed a trail of islands where we could rest on our way across the ocean. Without it, we wouldn’t have survived.”

  “There you go,” Ruby said. “You had to use the map. The dragons over there, and whatever is controlling them, won’t be able to follow you. So we’re all safe here.”

  That was it. That was it! That was the thing Cinnabar had said!

  “Actually, we’re not,” Snowfall interjected. She turned to Hazel, who looked as though she’d accidentally pushed them all into a Venus dragon-trap. “Because you left a copy of the map there, didn’t you? With Io and Cinnabar.”

  “What?” Ruby cried.

  “And Io and Cinnabar have been captured by HiveWings,” Snowfall informed her. “So Queen Wasp getting her claws on that map? It’s only a matter of time.”

  Well. There was a LOT of shouting, and an UNREASONABLE AMOUNT of questions, far too many of them directed at Snowfall.

  “You had a vision about Io and Cinnabar?” Cricket kept asking. “Did you see them get captured? Are you sure the HiveWings got them?”

  “Unless my vision was of something that hasn’t happened yet,” Snowfall said. “That I don’t know. But if it has happened, I definitely saw them going into Cicada Hive, which is definitely full of mind-controlled dragons, like Blue, lying in wait for them.”

  “We could try to warn them,” Tsunami interjected. “We have a — thing — I’ll go try.”

  She flew out of the cave and down the mountain, but that didn’t help the noise levels because all the other queens were interrogating Hazel at once, and the poor LeafWing queen was trying to explain about the SilkWings they’d hoped to rescue.

  “Let’s go,” Snowfall said to Lynx. “No one’s going to make any great decisions today.”

  It was stressful enough knowing that map was floating around on the other continent; Snowfall did not want to add “explaining her visions (and by extension the cursed ring she’d blithely put on) to all the queens” to the list of things stressing her out today.

  She slipped out of the cave quietly and Lynx followed her. They flew down the mountain and Snowfall found her wings turning toward Winter’s corner of Sanctuary, where the scavenger enclosure was.

  Must be nice to be a scavenger, Snowfall thought. No problems in the world, no scary things coming from across the ocean to steal your brains.

  She couldn’t believe Hazel had left a copy of the map with Io! What kind of nitwit — but then she thought of Tau and Jewel and Grayling and Blue’s sad mothers, and then Io’s fervent desperate hope to save them all swept through her so strongly, it felt like her own emotion. As ridiculous as that was.

  Maybe Wasp won’t find the map. But how will anyone else get it, if Io and Cinnabar are captured now, and they’re the only ones who know where it’s hidden?

  What can we do? How can we save them?

  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh why do I care about this so much?

  She tried halfheartedly to pull off her ring again, with no success.

  They landed on the lake side of the enclosure, and Snowfall caught herself a fish while Lynx told Winter everything that had happened during the council.

  “I think your visions are more helpful than you realize,” Lynx said to Snowfall as she finished.

  “Rubbish. Hazel would have told them about the map without me,” Snowfall argued. “She’s all honest and tortured like that.”

  “But you know what’s happening over there,” Lynx said. “You’re the only one who can see what’s happened to all those dragons since Hazel’s group left.”

  “I think it would be much more useful if the ring actually answered some of my actual questions,” Snowfall hissed at the opal.

  “Have you tried lying down and closing your eyes and telling it to give you a vision?” Winter asked.

  “NO,” Snowfall barked. “I mean, sort of, when I went to sleep last night. But did it listen to me? NO, IT DID NOT.”

  “Maybe it’s showing you the most important moments happening in the whole world,” Lynx suggested. “That seems like something a queen might have asked for, right?”

  “Perhaps you could try summoning a vision now,” Winter said. “Maybe it would tell you what happened to Io and Cinnabar, or the map, or if they really got caught.”

  Snowfall sighed. “Fine. FINE. I hate this idea, but if I have to have a vision, I’d rather have it when it’s convenient for me anyway.” She looked around and spotted a tall flat boulder in the shade of the trees; in a moment she was on top of it, lying on the cool stone. From up there she could see the little scavenger scampering around its den.

  It was pretty cute. Cuter than your average squirrel, not as cute as a polar bear cub.

  “Stop staring at me!” she yelled at Lynx and Winter. “Mind your own business!”

  They turned away quickly and started walking around the outside of the enclosure. Grumbling to herself, Snowfall rested her chin on her talons, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

  What happened to Io and Cinnabar? she asked the ring. Is the map safe? Does Queen Wasp know about it?

  She waited to fall into someone else’s scales.

  Nothing happened.

  And then some more nothing happened.

  Snowfall frowned and buried her head under one wing. She was definitely still herself. She had many very strong Snowfall emotions barging around inside her, such as for instance FURY. What was WRONG with this RING? Why couldn’t it do what it was told?

  Would it work properly for a better queen?

  Is it trying to tell me it also thinks I’m terrible at this?

  Snowfall waited for several more heartbeats of torture and insecurity and boredom, but she seemed to be lodged firmly inside her own anxious brain.

  She sighed and opened her eyes.

  Lynx and Winter were perched on top of the scavenger fence, staring at her again.

  “Did it work?” Lynx called. “What did you see?”

  “That was very boring and frustrating!” Snowfall shouted. “And it did NOT work! Probably because you were STARING AT ME! Go away!”

  They exchanged a glance. “All right,” Winter said. “We’re going to find Tsunami and Qibli — will you be okay staying here?”

  She glared at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “We could send your guards over,” Lynx offered.

  “Oh,” Snowfall said, remembering she was supposed to be guarded at all times. “Yes, yes, sure, no rush.”

  “Can you keep an eye on Pumpkin for me?” Winter asked.

  Snowfall flicked her tail across the smooth coolness of the boulder. “Do not tell me,” she said, “that you named your scavenger. And moreover, that you chose the name Pumpkin.”

  “I think it’s adorable,” Lynx said, grinning at Winter, who looked gratifyingly embarrassed.

  “I thought you wanted us NOT to eat your critter,” Snowfall said. “So WHY would you name her after food?”

  “It�
�s supposed to be cute!” he said. “Because she’s cute!”

  “Come on, Winter, we’ll be here forever if you start talking scavengers.” Lynx batted his wing with hers and they lifted up into the air.

  “She’s been acting a little funny,” Winter said to Snowfall. “She might be planning to break out of her enclosure again. If you wouldn’t mind —”

  “Yes, yes,” Snowfall said, waving him away. “I’ll watch her.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty!” he called, and the two of them flew away, leaving Snowfall in blessed silence.

  She watched the scavenger scamper around, piling leaves and sticks by the fence. She tried to think about all the visions she’d had so far. Why had the ring chosen those dragons to show her? What was the meaning of any of this?

  Across the clearing, the bushes started rustling in a very odd way. In fact, they were more than rustling. They were thrashing about as though all the branches were wrestling furiously with one another, and then all of a sudden there was a very loud squeak, and at the same time, a dragon burst out of the leaves and careened into the open.

  He fell over and sat there, blinking, for a moment, then hopped up to his feet and shook his wings. He lifted his head, saw Snowfall watching him, and grinned a huge, ridiculous, sweet-as-baby-hedgehogs grin.

  “Good day!” he cried. “This day! So good! Right?”

  She squinted at him. He was kind of weird-looking. Maybe he was one of the many hybrids here in Sanctuary, although he looked older than the little dragonets she’d seen — older than her, actually, if she had to guess. His scales were not quite SkyWing, not quite SandWing, but somewhere in between — a sort of pale orange. He had no tail barb, though, and his eyes were a washed-out blue. He didn’t look at all dangerous, partly thanks to the crooked daisy chain wound around his horns.

  “Can I help you?” Snowfall asked.

  “I have come to here to bargain for this — uh, delicious scavenger!” the dragon declared. He waved one wing dramatically at the enclosure.

  “Uh-huh,” Snowfall said skeptically. “I don’t think she’s for sale.”