The Smuggler: Chapter Eight: See it Rising

Chapter Eight

See it Rising

    "I'm leaving," announced Dragonfly at breakfast.

    Peacock, who had just taken a bite of bread, nearly choked on it. "What?"

    "I'm leaving. I decided last night that it was too dangerous for me to stay here. Beetle is most likely after me, the only one of his victims to escape. So if I leave then he will probably leave."

    "When will you be back?" Kinkajou asked. "And where are you going?"

    "I think I'll find another Pantalan dragon in need of help. Maybe they'll be able to help us."

    Peacock looked around. Moon and Julia seemed nervous, Turtle very nervous, Qibli and Winter thoughtful, and Kinkajou skeptical. Anemone looked like a mixture of them all. Her silver scales shone in the flickering flaming-sticks (or torch) light. Her gaze seemed conflicted, like she thought it was a good idea for Dragonfly to leave, but didn't want her to.

    Peacock realized he was staring at her like a maniac and quickly averted his eyes, looking to see what Moth was feeling. What he saw was surprising. He had thought that he would be worried or thoughtful or apprehensive or something, but instead he looked sad and confused. His gaze was directed at the table, but it seems slightly glazed, like he was remembering something. "Which Hive?" asked Peacock, trying to break the silence.

    Dragonfly bit her lip and leaned back. "I probably shouldn't go back to Cicada Hive, because three dragonets going missing, one a flamesilk and another who might be a flamesilk, will most likely have put other dragons on edge, and-" Dragonfly abruptly broke off and glanced worriedly out the window. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. "And I shouldn't go to Mantis or Hornet Hives, because they're the closet to Cicada and the word might have spread there already. I know Wasp Hive isn't the safest place, but-"

    "Wasp Hive?" cried Julia incredulously, jumping back and accidentally knocking a cup off the table with one of her wings.

    "Sh!" Winter shushed her. "We do not want the crazy killing HiveWing dragon thing to hear you."

    Julia sighed and dropped her voice again. "Dragonfly, you can NOT go to Wasp Hive! That's literally the queen's hive! If she catches you she will KILL you."

    "Yes, but think about it," argued Dragonfly. "If the dragons there have experienced her cruelty, they might be more inclined to come with me. Of course, I could always look for another lost SilkWing dragonet running through the savannah being chased by guards, but that seems like a once in a lifetime thing." She smiled at Moth, but he had apparently decided that the table was the most interesting thing in both of the continents and didn't look up.

    "I agree with Julia," Peacock said stubbornly. "Maybe you should go somewhere safer, like Jewel Hive. It's at least close to Wasp Hive, and I heard that Lady Jewel is really nice. She probably won't be as mean as Wasp if she catches you."

    Dragonfly pushed her chair back from the table, apparently fine with being heard now that they weren't discussing the location. "No. I'm sorry, guys, but I am going...there. There's nothing you can do to stop me." She turned away and whispered something that Peacock had to strain his ears to hear. It didn't actually seem directed to them, but he wanted to hear anyway. "And I have a debt to pay off."

    Moth's scales prickled. He was certain that Beetle was watching them, waiting for the right time to strike, but he hadn't yet. His flamesilk was pressed up against the scales on his wrist, ready to use at a moment's notice. He could tell that the rest of them were on edge too. "Good-bye," he said, and hugged Dragonfly. "Stay safe."

    Dragonfly smiled, but it seemed like there was something sad in it. And something else, like a spark of something. "Yes." There was a short pause, then she leaned forward abruptly. "Moth," she whispered. "If anything happens to me, open the drawer in the dining room. The one under the cabinet. But only do it if you're pretty sure something happened to me. Like me being captured or something. I have instructions written in it. Use that." She pulled away as if she hadn't said anything, and walked up the gangplank back to the boat. Moth stood, stunned for a moment, before blinking, and frowned.

    "Wait, what do you-" but he broke off as the unmistakeable form of a HiveWing crept along the plank behind her and vanished into it too. Beetle was on the boat.

    Pieridae groaned and rubbed her wrists. They always ached after one of her flamesilk shifts. She had been spinning it for so long, if she hadn't been forced to spin, she probably wouldn't have for her entire life.

    "Hey!" called another flamesilk in the cavern. "Where're you going?"

    "None of your business!" Pieridae called back. "If you weren't so nosy all the time you would know that I don't like answering questions!"

    "You're just still angry that I made that little remark about none of your children being flamesilks and one of mine being flamesilk!"

    "Yeah, well Peacock hasn't even gone through his Metamorphosis yet! You don't even know if he's going to be flamesilk!"

    The flamesilk huffed and turned his back on her. "You wouldn't have snapped at Ringlet that way!"

    Pieridae rolled her eyes. "Honestly! Ringlet died five years ago!" She sighed and headed into her cave. It was dark, lit only by the slight glow of the papers her children and she had exchanged through those few days. There she was talking about Moth's Metamorphosis, and there Julia was telling her he had been a flamesilk and asking if he had appeared in the cavern. There she had said no, and then she had sent another letter to them asking how Julia was. No answer. She had sent another to Peacock, asking about his sister. No answer.

    Pieridae felt a prickle of anxiety in her gut. This was unlike them. She abruptly froze as talons approached her cave. She had trained herself to recognize which talons belonged to who. This wasn't the tired, usually impatient talons of a flamesilk, or the proud, loud ones of a guard. This was someone else entirely. She spun around to see a young HiveWing wearing a black cloak slip silently into her cave.

    Pieridae jumped in surprise and instinctively raised her wrist, remembering with a surge of dread that her silk supply was exhausted for a while. Hopefully this visitor wouldn't notice. "Who are you? How did you get past the guards?"

    The HiveWing slowly raised her talons and removed her hood. Her scales were a red-orange which gleamed in the flamesilk light like a fire. She studied Pieridae's face for a while, then her gaze drifted down to her raised wrist and she gave an impatient sigh. "Pieridae. You know as well as I do that your silk supply is exhausted for the night. Honestly, that's part of the reason I picked this time, because I don't really want to get blasted with flamesilk."

    Pieridae's eyes widened in alarm. "How did you know that? And how do you know my name?"

    "I know more about flamesilks than you think. As for your name..." The HiveWing's eyes drifted to the stack of letters and she smiled. "That's how."

    "You read the letters I sent to my dragonets?" asked Pieridae, confused.

    "No, no, no. I know your children."

    Pieridae gasped. "Moth? Julia? Peacock? Are they safe? Why haven't they been answering my letters? How do you know them?"

    The HiveWing held up a talon to stop the flow of questions. "Yes. Them. Yes, they're safe. They haven't answered your letters because they haven't been receiving them. My guess is that they're piled up in front of their web, unopened, because they aren't there anymore. I brought them to a safer place, which is why you haven't seen Moth anywhere. My name is Dragonfly." Dragonfly nervously glanced outside. "And if we're going to escape, we had better move quickly."

    Pieridae's senses went numb. "Escape? From the cavern? How? What about the guards?"

    Dragonfly fingered her cloak. "Well, I was thinking that maybe since I'm a HiveWing, I could pretend I'm a messenger from Wasp who wants to inspect the prisoners individually at her palace to make sure you're not holding back silk or something stupid."

    "How do I know I can trust you?"

    Dragonfly blew out an exasperated sigh. "Your family has a reputation for not trusting me, don't you? Here, fine." She reached into her cloak and pulled out a lantern. "Look at the silk."

    Pieridae took it, confused, and peered at the flamesilk shining inside. It wasn't hers, or any of the other flamesilks in the cavern with her. It was a coppery color. She knew in her bones whose it was. "Moth."

    "Yes." Dragonfly extended her hand. "Come with me?"

    Escape. My dragonets. Pretend I'm being taken to Wasp. Escape. My dragonets. Pieridae met Dragonfly's questioning gaze. "Yes." She slipped her hand into hers and Dragonfly quietly led her out of the cave.

    The guards turned towards them as they approached. "Do you have a reason for communicating with the flamesilk?" one of them asked in a bored but suspicious tone. Pieridae hadn't even realized that there could be both tones in the same voice.

    "Yes." Dragonfly released her hand. "I am a messenger from Queen Wasp. She wants to inspect the prisoners in the cavern to make sure they are contributing all they can to the kingdom."

    The guards exchanged confused looks. "We were not informed of such matters. Identification, please," said the same guard.

    A wave of dread washed over Pieridae. Dragonfly had no identification. She wasn't working for Wasp. Although that didn't seem to stop her.

    Dragonfly drew herself up to her full height. "The queen has no need for identification," she said in a dangerously low tone. "Are you doubting her? Perhaps you should be reported. Maybe that will put your misconceptions of her to rest."

    The guard paled. "No. Of course not. I'm sorry. It will never happen again." He bowed and waved them through.

    Once they were out of earshot, Pieridae said, "That was good thinking."

    "Thanks. I figured that they didn't want to offend the queen, so I went with what I had." They walked for a while, Dragonfly regally dealing with any of the guards, before they came out of the prison and into the outside of Wasp Hive.

    Pieridae breathed a sigh of relief. "It's been so long since I've felt sunlight. The only time they allowed me to come out was with Gatekeeper and having my eggs. I tried to run, but they took me away soon after Peacock hatched."

    "If it was me, personally, I'd go crazy down there. It must be boring."

    Pieridae nodded in agreement. They walked through the twisted streets, and she had a small guess that Dragonfly made slight detours to go through the most colorful and bustling parts of the hive, to give her the experience of being outside. As they walked, Dragonfly told her the story of meeting Moth and bringing them all to the Distant Kingdoms. And how they didn't actually know that she was bringing their mother back. "Tell me about the boat again," Pieridae requested.

    "It's enchanted. All you have to do it summon it and steer with a long stick in the front of the Control Room. Turn it left to go right and right to go left. Slightly confusing, but you get the hang of it. That's all you have to do. The boat moves by itself. We'll probably be visited by a SeaWing, so don't freak out if a dragon you've never heard of before comes aboard. It take three to six days to cross the ocean, but-" Dragonfly abruptly broke off.

    "Dragonfly?" asked Pieridae worriedly. They had come to the edge of the Wasp Hive, and Dragonfly Bay glistened invitingly before them.

    "Pieridae." Dragonfly's voice was quick and tense. "Go to the boat. It's docked in Dragonfly Bay. That way." She waved her arm east. "Go. Run. Fly. Do something, Pieridae! Run! Go!" Dragonfly pushed her forward and Pieridae instinctively took off into the air.

    "Dragonfly!" she shouted and swung back around.

    Dragonfly had twisted around and was baring her teeth at a blood-red dragon who had materialized out of the shadows. "Go, Pieridae! Get to the boat! Leave me! Run!" She sprang forward and the two began grappling with each other, the blood-red one trying to bite her wings. Dragonfly looked up one last time at Pieridae. "Go!"

    Pieridae went.

    "It's been a long time." Hushed voices filled the corridor and made Moth freeze. Turtle and Anemone. He crept closer.

    "I mean, yeah. I haven't felt the summoning or the starting spell, have you?"

    "No. Do you think something happened to her, Turtle?"

    Something happened to Dragonfly? It had been about a week since Dragonfly had left, not noticing Beetle behind her. Could she really have been captured or killed or something? Moth swung open the door and Turtle and Anemone broke apart guiltily. "You haven't felt the spells?"

    "Moth, it's nothing," Turtle said instinctively.

    Moth went on, ignoring him. "Did you feel it the other times? You did, didn't you? You mentioned it on the boat. So it really hasn't happened. You think something happened?"

    "Calm down," Anemone said, trying to stop the flow of questions. "We're telling you, she probably hasn't found anyone."

    Moth rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. She said she had a debt to pay, remember? What was the debt? Wait. Something happened to her." Dragonfly's voice echoed in his head. If anything happens to me, open the drawer in the dining room. "That's it! She told me if anything happened to her to open the drawer in the dining room!" He turned and raced down the stairs, leaving Turtle and Anemone alone in the room.

    Moth burst into the dining room where Julia and Peacock were sitting, studying a map of Pyrria. They both jumped. "Moth! What's wrong?" asked Julia, seeing the look on his face.

    "Turtle and Anemone haven't felt spells from the boat," Moth explained in a rush. He ran over to the drawer and fumbled with the latch. "Something happened to Dragonfly. She told me to open this if something happened to her." Ignoring the gasps of surprise from his siblings, he yanked it open and found...two shells and a piece of paper. One of the shells was black and white striped, used for summoning the boat probably, and the other was a flaky brown. Moth picked up the paper and began to read it aloud.

    "Dear Moth, Julia, and Peacock, if you are reading this then something happened to me. It probably had something to do with Beetle and Wasp. I have a hunch that Beetle's working for her. You probably won't stop if I told you not to come, so I might as well tell you how to get here safely. SAFELY. I'll try to put the dragon I'm rescuing on the boat, so summon it with the shell. I'll also try to tell them how to operate the steering, but otherwise one of the SeaWings might have to go to operate it. Anyway, I realized when Moon told us the prophecy that it's for you three. The keeper of souls is actually a friend of mine. I think. I'm pretty sure that's her. Follow the prophecy. I'm not sure how else to get there. Stay safe. -Dragonfly PS Take the other shell with you to the crumbled like sand thing. You'll need it." Moth put down the letter and met the gazes of his brother and sister. "We have to go. Get the others. I'll summon the boat."