Wings of Fire #11: The Lost Continent

by Sutherland, Tui T.

  “Of course you did,” Luna said with a catch in her voice. “You have faith in other dragons. Whereas I thought she was a conniving manipulator who deliberately set up her descendants to be the most powerful tribe in Pantala.” She shook her head.

  “Yup, me too,” said Sundew.

  “Oh, no,” Blue said, shocked. “She wasn’t. She wouldn’t.”

  “I see that,” Luna said, waving her talon at the book. “But at some point that’s what her descendants decided to do. Why didn’t she see that coming and stop them?”

  “Because,” Cricket said softly, “it turns out she wasn’t all-knowing and all-seeing, after all.” She started turning pages, pointing to the dates up at the top.

  After about two hundred years, the flow of visions slowed dramatically. A hurricane here. A tsunami ninety years later. A few more tiny notes, full of question marks.

  And then, on a date marked about nine hundred years after the first, she’d written: Take care of the trees. I think they might be in danger, but I can’t see why. Help the LeafWings protect them.

  I love you. Good luck.

  Cricket turned the page. The next spread was blank. And so was the next. And the next.

  The last few pages of the book were empty.

  The last vision from Clearsight was dated over a thousand years ago.

  Blue looked up at Cricket and Luna, blinking in confusion.

  “Where’s the rest of it?” he asked. “What about the Tree Wars? And us trying to steal the book? And everything Queen Wasp knows?”

  “She doesn’t know anything,” Luna said furiously. “She was faking it the whole time. The power of the Book, everything that makes the HiveWings so superior — it’s all lies.”

  “In case you’re curious,” Sundew interjected, “this is my ‘not at all surprised’ face.”

  Cricket was nodding. “Clearsight never saw this far ahead. She had no idea her book would be used this way.”

  “But —” Blue still couldn’t wrap his head around it. “But Queen Wasp said Clearsight wanted the tribes to unite under her rule. That was the whole reason Queen Monarch gave up her throne. Because if it was in the Book of Clearsight, it had to be important.”

  “It was a lie, Blue!” Luna jumped up, and Swordtail came over to stand beside her. “Wasp lied and used the Book to seize power.”

  “And to drive out the LeafWings,” Sundew said. “Queen Sequoia wouldn’t agree to step down without seeing the Book first, which of course Wasp wouldn’t allow. Our queen said if she’d seen it in Clearsight’s own handwriting, she might have considered it. Which I think is insane in the first place. We don’t need anyone else to be our queen!”

  “How could she?” Blue said, closing the book and resting his claws on it. “I don’t understand. How could Queen Wasp read this and then decide to become the total opposite of what Clearsight says to be?”

  Cricket put her talon over his on the book. “Some dragons care infinitely more about themselves than anyone else,” she said. “Which I think is hard for a dragon like you to imagine.”

  “Well,” he said, “I’m VERY ANGRY about this.”

  “Angry enough to do something about it?” Sundew asked. She lifted her chin challengingly.

  “Like what?” Swordtail asked.

  “We’re going to take down the HiveWings,” Sundew said. “We could use some dragons on the inside.”

  Swordtail snorted. “You may not have noticed, but we’re not exactly on the inside anymore.”

  “We know dragons who are, though,” Luna said, giving him a significant look.

  “Wait, what does ‘take down’ the HiveWings mean?” Blue asked. “Are you going to hurt them?”

  Sundew scowled at him. “That is sort of the point of a revolution,” she snapped. She snatched the book away from him and stuffed it back in her pouch. “I thought you said you were mad!”

  “Yes! But no,” Blue said. “The HiveWings have also been lied to, and brainwashed and tricked. The queen is the problem. You have to fight her, not the whole tribe. I mean, we do. We have to stop her.”

  His wrists flared with pain, as though they were trying to remind him that he had slightly more urgent things to do first, such as for instance growing wings.

  “Let’s rest for a while,” Cricket said, watching him with concern. “Everyone thinks better after sleeping.” She hopped down to a dry patch of soft sand, in a sheltered corner of the cave, and dug a small hollow. “Blue?”

  He gratefully slid down and sank into the hollow next to her. His wingbuds were really starting to ache. And his head felt strangely fuzzy, too. He sort of wished he could spin his cocoon now and shut out the whole mess and all the decisions they might have to make. But the thought also terrified him. He didn’t want to be cut off from Cricket and Luna for five days, with no way to know what was going on.

  And what if something went wrong with his Metamorphosis?

  What could go more wrong than turning out to be a flamesilk? he thought.

  “Well, I don’t need to sleep,” Luna said. “I’m going to test out my new wings! Want to come?” she said, bumping Swordtail’s side.

  “Obviously yes!” he said.

  “Be careful,” Sundew warned. “The HiveWings will be out in force looking for us. It would be safer to stay inside until dark.”

  “Just a little flight,” Luna wheedled. “I finally have wings! And we’re so far from the Hives. I promise we’ll be careful.”

  Sundew shrugged. “You’re not my tribe,” she said. “But if you get caught, I’m not rescuing you again.”

  “Noted,” Luna said, bounding to the cave entrance. “Be back soon, Blue!”

  She soared up into the sky, scattering raindrops in all directions, with Swordtail in her wake. Blue sighed.

  “I wish I were that excited about getting wings,” he said. “I mean, I am. I’m just … nervous, too.”

  “That sounds normal to me,” Cricket said. “But you’ll be all right once it starts. How are you feeling? Do you have the same symptoms as Luna?”

  He lifted his wrists and she held them gently while she studied them.

  “Your silk glands look very bright,” she said.

  “So did Luna’s,” he said. “Kind of golden and fiery, just like this.”

  “Wow,” she said. “I might be best friends with a real flamesilk!”

  He couldn’t squash down his smile. “Best friends?”

  “Well, my circle of options is a little smaller than it used to be,” she said, flicking her tail at the cave, and at Sundew, who was sorting through her pouches and grumbling. “But the truth is, I’d want you to be my best friend even if I knew every dragon in Pantala.”

  “Same,” he said, resting his head on his talons. “That’s how I see you. Best friend, best brain, best heart.”

  “Awwww,” she said. She lay down and snuggled up next to him. “Are you totally asleep yet? Before you fall asleep, can you tell me about the flamesilk cavern? How does it work? How many dragons live there? What are they like?”

  Blue drowsily tried to answer her questions, but sleep pulled him down inexorably, chasing away the pain in his back and wrists. It was peaceful with Cricket by his side and the rain pattering on the rocks around them. He felt calm again for the first time in days.

  He didn’t know how long he slept, but he woke suddenly to the sound of screams from outside.

  Across the cave, Sundew dropped a handful of twigs and leaped to her feet.

  The three of them ran to the cave entrance and looked out.

  Up in the sky, a pair of HiveWings had Swordtail and Luna cornered. They circled like hawks, jabbing and feinting with claws and spears and stingers on their tails.

  “Luna!” Blue cried, starting forward and immediately stumbling over his talons. Sundew caught him, pulling him back into the cave.

  “No way,” she said. “You can’t fight in your condition. You can barely fight when you’re not half-loopy on silk.” Sh
e shoved him into Cricket’s arms. “Make him stay here.”

  The LeafWing took off into the sky. It was raining harder than before, with a strong wind whipping up the seas.

  Blue watched in a daze as Sundew smashed into the HiveWings, taking them by surprise. One wheeled around to grapple with her, and Swordtail broke away to tackle the other.

  They struggled for several rain-soaked moments, talons slipping on wet scales. Blue had always thought of Swordtail as the best fighter he knew, but next to Sundew and the soldiers, he seemed badly outmatched. The HiveWing twisted to slash a claw along his side, and Swordtail roared with pain.

  Alone in the sky, Luna flung out her front talons. Blue could see that she was trying to protect Swordtail — that she was trying to set his attacker on fire.

  But her silk whipped out faster and wilder than she’d expected. The wind seized the golden strands and flung them together, weaving knots over Luna’s head. In a sudden heartbeat, a sail of flamesilk billowed out above Luna — and then the storm roared in, snared the sail, and blew her out to sea.

  “Luna,” Blue cried desperately. His sister seemed to be struggling with the silk, but she couldn’t break free. Lightning flashed, and a moment later, the clouds had swallowed her up.

  Swordtail smashed his attacker in the face and flew after Luna, shouting her name. His wings beat frantically as he tried to catch up.

  Then he was gone, too. Sundew was left grimly battling the two HiveWings alone.

  “We have to — we have to go after them —” Blue said. His whole body was starting to shake, and his wrists felt like they were literally on fire. “Luna — Swordtail —”

  “You can’t go anywhere, Blue,” Cricket said. She put her wings around him and guided him back into the cave, way to the back, toward the tunnels and secret passages. “It’s starting. We need to hide you somewhere safe. Let’s think.”

  “But —”

  “They’ll come back,” she promised. “The storm will blow itself out and they’ll fly back here and want to find you safe and sound. OK? You’ll make things much worse if you go out there and get captured by HiveWings.” She guided him down one of the passages, steering him around jutting spires of stone.

  “Sundew … ” he mumbled.

  “Can take care of herself,” she said. “In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s pretty fierce. Come on, I think I saw a cave this way — it’s about as well hidden as we can get.”

  He couldn’t argue. He couldn’t think. Apparently his head was no longer connected to his body. The walls were shifting and rolling and kind of sparkling, too. He felt dizzy and sick and very hot.

  It felt like an endless march before Cricket maneuvered him between two pillars into a small, curving cave with smooth walls. These ones really were sparkling, he thought, but actually, his eyes weren’t to be trusted, so who knew.

  “I wish I were in the Cocoon,” he said, his teeth chattering. “I wish I were home.”

  “I know,” Cricket said sadly. “I know, Blue. I’m so sorry you can’t be.”

  He sank to his knees, and the silk started to pour from his wrists. It was bright and burning, flamesilk all the way through, and it wove swiftly around his tail and talons. Everywhere it touched him, his muscles relaxed, and a feeling of peace slowly swept over him, like a wave filling him up.

  “I’ll be right here, Blue,” Cricket said. He lay down, looking up into her wonderful face, lit by the glow of his flamesilk. “I’ll be here the whole time. I’ll be here when you wake up. You’ll be safe. I promise.”

  Blue was a dragon who didn’t like change.

  But in the last five days, he’d discovered that his whole world was very different than he’d imagined. His queen was a controller of minds, the Book of Clearsight was a lie, and his father was a prisoner in a flamesilk factory.

  And Blue was in love with a HiveWing.

  He’d made it through all of those discoveries. He was stronger now; he saw things more clearly. Like Clearsight had written, he had to keep going and decide for himself what kind of dragon he wanted to be.

  After everything he’d been through, he knew he could handle a little thing like growing wings.

  The gold fire wrapped around him.

  Blue closed his eyes and let the change begin.

  Luna opened her eyes.

  A seagull skittered away from her, cawing indignantly about dragons who pretended to be food and then weren’t.

  She was lying in wet sand. Wet sand was clumped between her talons and in her ears and in the cracks between her scales. Her face was half-buried in it. She was pretty much plastered with wet sand from horns to tail.

  A wave rushed up from behind her, swooshing under her back talons and tail, soaking her underbelly, and whisking away again.

  Luna pushed herself up to a sitting position with a groan of pain. She fanned out her wings to check them. One was badly bruised — she had a vague memory of being hit by a hailstone. And one of her back ankles twinged horribly when she tried to stand on it.

  She dragged herself up the beach, away from the bustling waves.

  Ow. Everything ached.

  She squinted up at the aggressively cheerful sun.

  How far had she been blown from Blue and Swordtail? This beach didn’t look like the one where she’d started out. Instead of tall cliffs, the sand here rolled up into low hills with patches of shrubs. Luna could see quite far up and down the coast and inland, but she couldn’t see any sign of caves or Hives.

  She rubbed her head, trying to remember the map of Pantala. She’d been in the air for days, tangled in her silk balloon as the storm swept her along. She remembered nothing but white-capped waves below her.

  Could she — she couldn’t be — surely —

  Talons landed on the sand slightly uphill from her. Luna started back, lifting one wrist to shoot fire if her wing was a HiveWing.

  But it wasn’t.

  This dragon was pale yellow with light brown triangle markings on her wings. Only two wings — just one pair, like a LeafWing, but with her coloring, she definitely wasn’t a LeafWing. And her wings weren’t leaf-shaped either; they looked closer to bat wings, but covered in scales instead of fur.

  The dragon took a step toward her, and Luna realized there was something odd at the end of her tail — a barb like she’d only ever seen before on scorpions.

  “What are you?” Luna said fiercely.

  “Oh, you speak Dragon,” said the stranger. “That’s lucky.”

  “What else would I speak?” Luna asked. “Who are you? Where am I?”

  “I guess I thought your continent might have a different language,” the yellow dragon said with a shrug. “I’m Jerboa.”

  “My … continent?” Luna echoed. She lowered her arm. “Do you mean … did I really cross the ocean?”

  “It looks that way,” Jerboa said wryly. “But not entirely unscathed, I think. Are you injured?”

  “Just a little.” Luna tried to take a step and winced. “Yargh. That’s — ow. My name’s Luna.”

  “My hut is just around that bend,” Jerboa said, coming over and levering her wing under Luna’s. “Hang on, we’ll be there in no time.” They started across the sand. Luna found it much more difficult to walk in than Jerboa did; her wing kept sagging unexpectedly under her claws or sucking around her talons.

  “I have to get back,” Luna said. “My friends are over there. They need me. Especially my little brother.” She tried to guess how long she’d been up in the storm. She was starving, but that wasn’t much of a clue. Blue must have started his Metamorphosis by now. Was he still in his cocoon? Was he all right?

  “Well, you’re not going far on these wings today,” Jerboa said. “But help is coming. I have a feeling it’ll be here soon.”

  Jerboa’s hut was tucked into a cove, cozy and well built with a recently thatched roof made of palm fronds. Luna touched the wood of the door on the way inside. It was real wood, and she was startled to see it use
d for a house as small as this. Maybe Jerboa was wealthier and more powerful than she appeared.

  Or maybe it’s different over here, she realized. Maybe there are still plenty of trees on this continent.

  Jerboa helped her over to a bed made of more palm leaves and Luna collapsed onto it, surprised by how exhausted she was. She was sure she’d slept on the beach for a while after crash-landing … but the walk to the hut had tired her out again.

  “Sleep for a bit,” Jerboa said. “I’ll make fish stew.”

  Luna wrinkled her snout. “Um,” she said, “that’s all right. Do you have any fruit? Or honey?” she added hopefully.

  Jerboa flicked her wings back with a thoughtful expression. “Not a fish eater?” she said. “What about crabs? Or rabbits? Or seagulls?”

  Luna shook her head. “No animals, thank you,” she said politely, and her stomach growled as if disagreeing with her.

  “I’ll see what I have.” Jerboa glided off to another corner of the hut, and Luna felt herself slipping into a doze.

  Sometime later, Jerboa shook her awake, talons gentle on her shoulder. “Luna. Our guests are here.”

  Luna blinked awake. The light had shifted outside, and there were quiet voices coming through the window.

  “I’ll go get them,” Jerboa said. “Don’t be alarmed. This is who you need to talk to.”

  She went out the door. Luna tried to think, although her brain felt overwhelmed and still muddled with sleep. Who was here? How could they help her?

  “To who?” said a new voice, which was attached to a dragon ducking through the doorway. He was smaller than Jerboa, closer to Luna’s size, but with the same kind of wings and tail as Jerboa. His scales were sand-colored like hers as well, and he wore a hoop earring in one ear.

  But following him through the doorway was another dragon entirely. She was black from nose to talons, except for a few silver scales scattered under her wings and two teardrop silver scales in the corners of her eyes.

  A startled jolt ran through Luna, waking her up like a bolt of lightning.

  This dragon looked like Clearsight.

  Or at least, the way Clearsight always looked in pictures.