Dangerous Gift

by Tui T. Sutherland

  “No one’s going to eat you,” she said. “Obviously! We don’t eat things that talk back to us! That would be very unsettling!”

  “Guess what’s more unsettling,” Wren said. “Being eaten!”

  “Wren, maybe it would be fun to meet them?” Sky said sweetly. “Maybe they’re all nice dragons!”

  “Well, not me,” Snowfall said. “I’m definitely not nice. I’m probably the least nice dragon in Sanctuary right now, so if I’m not going to eat you, most likely nobody else will either.”

  “And don’t you want to talk to more dragons?” Sky asked. “Building human-dragon communication? Isn’t that our great quest or something?”

  “No, that’s Ivy’s great quest!” Wren protested. “My great quest is to be left alone!”

  Snowfall didn’t know if it was the vision making her soft or this particular scavenger’s personality, but she was starting to quite like Wren. Maybe I should get myself a scavenger pet, too, she thought.

  The corners of her vision went blurry and she glanced down at the ring in alarm. I mean, not a pet! Scavengers aren’t pets! They’re intelligent! I meant friend, a scavenger friend!

  To her enormous surprise, the blurriness vanished again, and she did not collapse or have a vision.

  Hmmm. Can I actually talk this ring out of giving me visions?

  If I convince it I’ve learned whatever lesson it’s teaching me, I guess, she sighed. But still, that was a small, interesting glimmer of hope.

  “Tell you what,” Snowfall said to Wren. “You don’t have to meet the entire city. Just come back and talk to Winter, so he’ll believe me. Also, by the way, it’s in your best interest to prove to him that scavengers are as smart as dragons, because then he’ll stop chasing you and locking you up and giving you silly names.”

  “I like the name Pumpkin,” Sky said. “Oooo, I want to know what he would call Wren.” His eyes lit up. “Does he have any cute little hats?”

  “Enough with the hats!” Wren hollered, whacking his neck, and then shaking out her hand with a grimace that suggested that had been a bad idea. “All right, fine. We will come back with you to meet one dragon.”

  “Excellent.” Snowfall swept her wings behind her and led the way to Sanctuary.

  Unfortunately, when they got there, Winter was pacing around the outside of the enclosure, lashing his tail, and there were three other dragons with him: Lynx, Cricket, and Qibli, who were all helpfully searching through the grass and bushes. No, wait, four: the small HiveWing was there as well, chasing a white butterfly.

  It gave Snowfall a weird shiver to see the baby HiveWing try pouncing on the butterfly, even though she missed. She poked that discomfort for a moment, puzzled, and realized that must have come from Tau or Io, who would see it as a sign of a young HiveWing learning to capture and control SilkWings. She’s just playing with a bug, don’t read into it! Snowfall ordered herself, and by extension all the tangled-up others inside her.

  “Snowfall!” Winter cried. “Pumpkin is missing!” He caught sight of Sky behind her. “Who — what —”

  “That’s not one dragon, that’s five dragons,” Wren hissed at Snowfall.

  Snowfall shrugged. “They’re all friendly turtles on the inside, though,” she said, which earned her a gigantic grin from Sky. “I’m very sure none of these will hurt you, so calm down.”

  “He keeps saying pumpkin,” Cricket said, pointing to Winter, “but what he’s describing sounds much more like a reading monkey than a pumpkin to me. I don’t know whether I’m looking for an orange gourd or a small furry thing with cute paws.”

  “I can’t believe he didn’t show you Pumpkin earlier,” Lynx said. “He would talk about scavengers all day if he could find someone to listen.”

  “Scavengers,” Cricket said, testing out the word.

  “Cousin,” Snowfall called to Winter, “Pumpkin is fine. Get ready for your entire world to be flipped upside down, though.”

  Winter tilted his head and took a step toward Snowfall, but Cricket spotted the two scavengers on Sky’s back first. She bounded over to them, her eyes as huge as the moons.

  “Reading monkeys!” she cried. “He did mean reading monkeys! You have them here, too!”

  “Is she talking about us?” Wren whispered to Snowfall. “And what the heck kind of dragon is that?”

  “I mean, can yours read?” Cricket charged on. “Or are they more like regular monkeys? The one I saw was holding something that looked just like a book, can you imagine? Monkeys who can read must also be able to write, don’t you think? Don’t you wonder what they’d write about? Monkey stories! Can you think of anything more fascinating?”

  “Yes, actually, if you’d shut up for a moment,” Snowfall interrupted. “Try monkeys who can speak Dragon. Although they’re not monkeys. We call them scavengers.”

  “And we call ourselves humans,” Wren added.

  Oh yes, here were the awestruck faces Snowfall was looking for. Cricket and Winter both seemed to be on the verge of floating right off the planet and hitting the moons.

  Qibli recovered his voice first. “Did she — did she just —”

  “My name is Wren,” she said. She pointed to the dragon. “Sky. And that’s Daffodil.”

  Daffodil squeaked something.

  “Not Pumpkin,” Wren added. “She would like me to say that a couple more times. Daffodil. Definitely not ‘Pumpkin.’ ”

  Winter put one talon to his face and rubbed it in a dazed way. “She kept making a noise that sounded like ‘daffodil,’ ” he said. “But of course I knew it couldn’t be ‘daffodil,’ because that’s impossible.”

  Wren chirped something at Daffodil and Daffodil chirped indignantly back, waving her arms.

  “Can all humans speak Dragon?” Cricket asked.

  “Bandit couldn’t,” Winter answered. “Could he? Do you know Bandit?” he asked Wren.

  She raised her eyebrows at him, and Qibli said, “I think we can safely assume that was not his real name.”

  “Wren speaks Dragon better than any other human in the world,” Sky said proudly. “She’s a natural. All that growling and roaring, you know, it matches her personality.”

  “Do you have books?” Cricket blurted. “I mean, the human I saw was back on the other continent and it looked like it was reading a book, so I just wondered if maybe you read books, too?”

  “How is that your first question?” Winter asked.

  “I do read books,” Wren said. She tipped her head to study Cricket’s delighted face and the octagonal spectacles that rested on her snout. “What kind of dragon are you?”

  “Did you say ‘other continent’?” Sky asked.

  “I’m a HiveWing, from Pantala, on the far side of the ocean,” Cricket said, waving vaguely westward.

  “That’s wild that you have scavengers over there, too,” Qibli said. “I wonder if they speak the same language as these ones.”

  “They do,” Snowfall said. She’d been replaying her vision in her mind. “They live in the cave systems underneath the savanna. And I think … I think they know something about the breath of evil.”

  Snowfall explained about her vision, about being inside a human on the other continent.

  “She said something about an abyss. She said it was acting strangely, whatever that means.” Snowfall looked around at the other dragons. “Perhaps it’s connected to the mind control and the plant.”

  “We should find out!” Qibli said excitedly. “That’s it! Your Majesty, you found the perfect solution!”

  “Did I?” she said. “I mean, of course I did, but you explain it.”

  “We shouldn’t send our armies to fight Queen Wasp,” Qibli said. Cricket flinched, and he spread his front talons quickly. “Wait, listen. Armies are for wars where you want to kill as many of their dragons as possible before they kill you. But we don’t want to kill their dragons. Most of them are friends and family who wouldn’t be fighting if they weren’t under Wasp’s contro
l. What we need is a way to free them, and not even all the armies in Pyrrhia would be able to do that.”

  “Sure, but if we send all the armies in Pyrrhia, they could at least kill Queen Wasp,” Snowfall said. “Maybe that’s all we have to do. I’m very into that plan.”

  “We don’t think killing Queen Wasp will be enough,” Cricket said with a little shiver. “There’s something or someone else controlling her, and that’s the thing we really have to fight.”

  “Still, our armies could help!” Snowfall said. “With those RainWing tranquilizer darts, we could knock out all the HiveWings and imprison them while we work on the freeing-them part and the killing-Queen-Wasp part.”

  Now Winter was giving her that look she kept getting, as though her horns had turned bright pink and were spouting lemonade.

  “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?” Snowfall demanded. “Why is your face DOING THAT AT ME?”

  “I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” he said, ducking his head. “I just … never expected you to be one of the queens who argued for helping the Pantalan dragons.”

  “I am FAMILIAR with the concept of EMPATHY, cousin,” Snowfall said frostily.

  “Would you two please shut your glamorous IceWing snouts?” Qibli said. “I’m not finished! Listen to my awesome plan! Instead of armies, we have to send a secret stealth team of dragons to Pantala. Their mission: to find out the truth about the breath of evil and how to destroy it.”

  “That sounds … much easier said than done,” Winter observed.

  “I want to go with the secret stealth team!” Cricket said.

  “ME!” the little HiveWing shouted from the top of the boulder. “MESTEALTH!” She leaped off the boulder, flapped her wings wildly for a moment, and then somersaulted into the grass. Daffodil crouched and held out one hand, and the tiny dragonet wobbled over to sniff it, warbling cheerfully.

  “Find out the truth?” Lynx asked. “How, exactly?”

  Qibli pointed at Snowfall. “By going into the abyss.”

  Everyone stared at him. He flapped his wings with dramatic exasperation. “Come on, everybody! Haven’t you been listening to Moon’s prophecy? A secret buried far below may save those brave enough to look. What’s farther below than an abyss? Seriously, this one is much clearer than the last one!”

  “Three moons,” Winter said. “I sincerely hate to say this, but I think Qibli might be right.”

  “Also, bonus, a stealth team mission is something we can do without requiring armies and soldiers from all the queens,” Qibli pointed out. “I think we could get everyone on board with this plan.”

  “And while the secret team is gone,” Snowfall said, “we could get our armies ready just in case we do need them to fight at some point.”

  “Far below,” Cricket echoed, staring off toward the setting sun. “It does make sense, if everything in that vision was true. But how are we going to find this abyss? Do we have to search all of Pantala?”

  Qibli scratched his head awkwardly. “Well,” he said, “it would be helpful if we had someone who could talk to the scavengers for us.” He glanced sideways at Sky and Wren.

  “Absolutely not,” Wren said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m very sure I don’t like the sound of it.”

  “What?” Sky tore his gaze away from a chipmunk that was adorably nibbling something near his talons. “Sorry? What?”

  “We’re offering to take you to the other continent,” Cricket said. “To meet humans from all the way across the sea! Can you imagine? Just think — what are they like? How different are their lives from yours, and how much is the same? Isn’t that just amazing to think about?”

  “I’m all right where I am, thank you,” Wren said. “I don’t need another continent full of people to worry about; this one is quite sufficient.”

  “But you could save so many dragons,” Qibli said. “If you help us find the Pantalan humans, and they can take us to the abyss, and we can stop the breath of evil — I mean, you’d be saving the entire world, basically.”

  Wren pointed at him. “That does sound fun. Except for the part where I probably get eaten and Sky probably gets evil breath, whatever that is.”

  Sky snort-chuckled. “Leaf’s the one with evil breath! At least first thing in the morning!”

  “Hush, you,” Wren said, nudging him.

  “We won’t let you get eaten,” Winter said in his most noble voice. “Every dragon on the quest would protect you with his or her life! I would gladly sacrifice myself to keep you safe!”

  “Too much,” Qibli said, patting Winter’s talon gently. “Very heroic and dashing, but you can take it down a notch.”

  “I can take care of myself. Sky’s the one I’m worried about,” Wren explained. “He is not a ‘super-stealth’ or a ‘fighting evil’ kind of dragon. He is a ‘but do the bad guys know about pandas because then I bet they wouldn’t be evil anymore’ kind of dragon.”

  “Well, but,” Sky protested, “I mean … pandas! Have you SEEN pandas?”

  “Is there any chance you’re actually a RainWing?” Winter asked.

  “You can’t take Sky into a war zone,” Wren said, wrapping her arms around his neck as far as they would go.

  “I’d be all right,” Sky said, nudging her head with his snout. “Everyone else could do the shouty stabby parts, and I could just talk to the humans. And maybe the other continent has something even cuter than pandas.”

  “We have lots of different kinds of monkeys,” Cricket said hopefully.

  Snowfall could tell that Wren was not buying any of this, and that she was the one who made the decisions for these two. Think like a scaven — human, she thought. Remember what it felt like to be Raven. What did they want? What did they worry about? What do I know that could change Wren’s mind?

  “Human,” she said. “I mean, Wren. Listen. What if the agreement went two ways? You and Sky help us save dragons, and we help you save humans.”

  Wren glanced over at Daffodil, who was tossing the baby HiveWing up in the air and then catching her again as the dragonet giggled. “Keep talking.”

  “All the queens of the dragon tribes are here in Sanctuary right now,” Snowfall said. “In exchange for your help, we could issue an edict that dragons are no longer allowed to hunt or eat humans in any of our kingdoms.”

  “Ooooooooooooooooo,” Sky said, nudging Wren again. “Ivy would loooooooooove that!”

  “Every human would love that,” Wren said. “But would it work? Do dragons listen to their queens? How would it be enforced? And what if the next queen reverses the edict?”

  “My tribe listens to their queen,” Snowfall said haughtily. “And there isn’t going to be a ‘next queen’ for a VERY long time.”

  “It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Qibli said to Wren. “It would probably save a lot of humans, even if some dragons disobeyed the orders.”

  “I love this plan,” Sky said happily. “Let’s do this plan!”

  “It is a great idea,” Qibli said to Snowfall.

  “See?” Lynx said, thwacking Qibli’s wing with her own. “I told you. Best queen ever.”

  Snowfall fluffed out her wings and gave Winter a “who’s the best cousin for the throne NOW?” face, which was a little unwarranted since he’d never shown any sign of preferring Crystal. But he was the nearest IceWing she could make a smug face at.

  Truthfully she thought the other queens would probably issue an edict like that with or without Wren’s agreement to come to Pantala. Once they realized that scavengers could think and read and talk like dragons, she assumed they wouldn’t be at all interested in eating them anymore.

  “No more pet scavengers either,” Wren said, wagging her finger at Winter again. She might have noticed the wistful glances he kept casting at Daffodil. “That should be in there, too.”

  “Unless they want to be dragon pets,” Sky said. “Or the hats are very cute.”

  “Do humans love hats?” Winter asked hopefully. “I could get P
— Daffodil a hat!”

  “No, we do NOT love hats.” Wren glared at Sky. “And Daffodil would be the worst pet, really. She might be willing to stay and practice her Dragon with you for a while, though, if you’d actually listen and not lock her up.”

  “And if you let her keep playing with Bumblebee,” Cricket observed. The HiveWing dragonet was now curled around Daffodil’s shoulders, winding the human’s hair between her claws.

  “I promise,” Winter said meekly. “No more pets. I’ll tell everyone else.” He gave Qibli a suddenly horrified look. “Smolder has a pet human! He’s had her for years! We must fly at once to convince him to free her!”

  “Oh, no, she’s fine,” Wren said. “We’ve met, and she’s happy, don’t worry about her.”

  “Hmph,” Winter said, subsiding.

  “Let’s go talk to the other queens,” Snowfall said. “You two can stay here and think about our offer, and we hope you’ll still be here to discuss it when we return.” She beckoned imperiously to Qibli and swept across the clearing with Lynx trotting along beside her.

  Will this work? Snowfall flicked her tail. Sending a small group of dragons over to Pantala, armed with a talonful of tranquilizer darts, a line from a prophecy, and a scavenger?

  She thought of the chillingly malevolent feel of Wasp’s brain, and the evil tendrils she’d felt wound all the way through it.

  Is there anything that can save Tau and Bryony and Blue and Io and everyone else?

  Or is the prophecy right … and none of the tribes will survive?

  The night before their return to the Ice Kingdom, Snowfall had no dreams at all. She slept peacefully until quite some time past dawn, and woke up slowly to rustling leaves, bars of sunlight, and several worried IceWing faces ducking away as she opened her eyes.

  Except for two. Lynx and Crystal stayed where they were, watching her. Lynx looked disgustingly cheerful, as usual, and Crystal wore a mask of boredom over something Snowfall now realized was nervousness. Her tail kept twitching, and she glanced at the trees occasionally as if she was thinking about flying away.