The Smuggler: Chapter Fourteen: Dragonfly at Last

Chapter Fourteen

Dragonfly at Last

    "Hey, you!"

    Julia froze. They were almost at the dungeon. Just a few more hallways. She slowly turned. A HiveWing guard was striding down the corridor towards them. "Moth," she whispered. "Peacock."

    Her brothers turned and they all saw him. He stopped and frowned at them. "What are you doing here?"

    "Keep calm," Makele said behind them. "Don't act guilty."

    Easy for you to say, thought Julia. "We're going to the jail."

    The guard snorted. "And why are three SilkWings going to the jail without a guard? What business do you have there anyway?"

    "We're replacements," Peacock replied. Julia could hear he was trying to keep the quiver out of his voice. "For, uh, a prisoner. There was a HiveWing who was supposed to be undercover in, um, Mantis Hive, but then there were rumors about some rogue SilkWings there. To try and keep his identity secret, Queen Wasp pretended to arrest him, then told us to go take his place in the dungeon to try and keep the suspicious level down."

    "Three SilkWings for one HiveWing?" asked the guard, seemingly confused.

    Moth shook his head. "Sorry. There were three undercover HiveWings. One for each of us, I guess."

    The guard frowned at them, trying to see if they were telling the truth or lying. "All right. But I'll confirm with the other guards."

    By then we'll be long gone, thought Julia. Dragonfly too. "Thank you, sir. But we really have to get moving. The undercover agents are supposed to be out of the prison by noon, and it's almost time." The three of them bowed and started down the passageway again, aware of the guard's gaze on their back.

    "That was a good idea," Gatekeeper said. "Slightly confusing, but still a good idea."

    "Thanks," whispered Peacock.

    "We're almost there," Sea said. "See that door just up ahead? It leads to a room with the prison door in it."

    Julia looked forward. They were so close. Just two doors and a dark hallway and a bunch of jail cells. She cautiously pushed the door open. Sure enough, a heavy barred, although curiously unguarded, door was just in front of them. "Um, does anyone here know how to pick locks? Or maybe knows where a giant ring of keys are?"

    Before anyone could answer the door behind them abruptly slammed shut, as did several open doors along the walls. There was a grating like metal on metal. They were locked in. They spun around in time to see the HiveWing guard slide through another door, locking it on the way. He turned and gave them an evil smile. "You really think that story would fool me? Queen Wasp doesn't need secrecy. She wouldn't put her agents in jail just for the sake of getting them out of the Hive. She is smarter than that. For example, she taught everyone how to recognize the runaway flamesilk!" He yelled those last words and grabbed a spear off the wall, leveling it at them, much unaware of the group of spirits behind them. That was a mistake.

    As he raised the spear to throw at them, a soft whoosh of air zoomed past Julia's ear and a dart hit him in the neck. He immediately collapsed. Julia turned, expecting to see Leaf, but although she had her tube shooter thingy in hand, she looked confused, as if she hadn't done it. They all turned to Rain who had her arm outstretched as if she had just thrown something. She blushed. "I forgot I had that. Sleeping dart. I try to keep up with my descendants' inventions and stuff."

    "Well it was timed perfectly," said Ice approvingly. "The paralyzing darts are affective, but it still allows the dragon to see everything that is happening."

    Leaf nodded and lowered her dart shooter. "You'll have to tell me how to make those."

    Makele stepped forward and pulled a ring of keys off his belt. "Here. This one probably opens the door." She slid it into the prison door and it opened with a satisfying click, revealing the dark passageway.

    Silk grabbed a lantern off the wall and they all started down. Julia could see many of the spirits were acting claustrophobic, glancing around nervously and sidling closer to each other for comfort. Trying to break the silence, she asked, "Have any of you figured out what the mystery dragon is?"

    "Mystery dragon?" asked Leaf. "What mystery dragon?"

    "There's some kind of dragon none of us have ever seen before in Wasp's dungeon," Makele explained. "I think I saw her once when I could sense some danger, but the view was dark."

    Leaf and Silk exchanged worried glances. "Describe her," Silk said.

    "Um, green, two wings, although they looked like SilkWing wings, antennae, yellow stripes," Night said. "Also she seemed scared. I don't know why. Arrgh. It's so frustrating when there are this many futures. I can barely see an hour ahead."

    "Oh, no," whispered Leaf.

    "Is it really her?" Silk asked her.

    "I don't know. Maybe," Leaf replied. She turned back to the rest of them. "It might be-" She broke off as light came in through the tunnel. "Here we are." They emerged in a brightly lit passageway with the cells lining the walls. "Um, Rain? Do you have any more sleeping darts?"

    "No. Sorry."

    Leaf shrugged and pulled out the paralyzing darts. "I guess these will have to do."

    Well, it's not like they'll be able to stop us, anyway, thought Julia. Although it might be bad to have our identities found out. Ah, well. We're wanted anyway. She jumped as footsteps echoed through the corridor. Heading in their direction.

    "Um, Leaf? I think now would be a good time for the dart thing," said Moth.

    "Yeah. One second. I know it's in here somewhere...Here!" Leaf pulled another dart from the pouch around her neck just as the guard rounded the corner. He never even got a chance to look at them.

    "Great. About twenty doors down and the cell on the left," Sea said. "Let's just hope there aren't any more guards."

    Turns out there were more, but they never even got the chance to look, startled, at the seemingly alone three SilkWings before they froze in their tracks, as silent as the statues in the cave where the giver of light was. Julia nervously looked in each of the cells as they passed. HiveWings and SilkWings alike stared out miserably at them as they passed, their eyes pleading. She even saw one dragon, asleep on the floor, who looked suspiciously like a LeafWing. And then-

    Julia stopped in her tracks, causing Peacock to bump into her. "What?" he asked. "Julia?"

    Julia put a talon to her lips, shushing him. They all turned to look. The mystery dragon they had seen in Makele's danger telling thing lay spread on the ground. She looked the same, although she also looked slightly asleep.

    Moth started silently spinning flamesilk out of his wrists, tying it around the bars as they smoked and started to melt. Something must have woken her up, because the dragon abruptly turned away from them.

    "Go away. Haven't you tortured me enough without turning me into a zoo?" Her voice was choked, like she had been crying. She buried her face in her talons, but still managed to seem ferocious by her tail that was lashing hard.

    "Oh, no," whispered Leaf.

    Silk sighed. "I thought they were safe."

    Ignoring them, Julia stepped closer to the bars, edging away from Moth's flamesilk which was glowing on the wall. "We didn't do anything to you. Who are you?"

    The dragon turned in surprise at the sound of her voice. Her eyes were a deep amber that seemed to glow in the light of the flamesilk. "Oh. I'm sorry. I thought you were Wasp. What are you three doing down here?" Her eyes flicked to the flamesilk that was slowly melting the metal and her eyes widened. "Are you..."

    "Melting the bars?" asked Moth, finishing the row. "Yes. We were here to try and free a friend, but maybe we could free two."

    "NO." The dragon narrowed her eyes at them. "I'm not leaving without my brother. My name's Atlas."

    "I'm Peacock, and this is my brother Moth and my sister Julia," Peacock replied. "Where's your brother? We haven't seen any...dragons that look like you."

    "You mean odd, rare, and hated dragons like me." Atlas sighed and got up, walking forward with a swish of her two wings. "Don't deny it. That's what you were thinking. And now you're wondering what kind of mutation I am, since you've never seen any dragons like me."

    "Well, not exactly the mutation part. If I've learned anything in the past few days, it's that there are a lot more dragon tribes than I could ever have thought of," Julia replied, casting a glance at Makele, who grinned at her.

    Atlas frowned. "Well you'll have to tell me that story later. But I suppose mine won't take very long."

    "Julia," said Makele. "Before she starts, give her this." She held out two more of the necklaces. "You'll probably need them if we're going to be rescuing two more dragons."

    "Which we shouldn't be," huffed Sky with an irritable twitch of her tail. "And I thought rescuing one dragon was annoying. Now there's three?"

    Julia held out one of the necklaces to Atlas who gave it a suspicious glare. "Where did you get that?"

    "Never mind where I got it. You'll need this if we're going to get out."

    Atlas gave her a skeptical glance, but relented as the first of the bars clattered to the floor. She took the necklace and hesitantly slipped it on. The seashell flashed once, lighting the dark cell. Atlas blinked in surprise. "Oh, spirit of Clearsight."

    Julia knew how she felt. A bunch of dragons had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, most of them she had never even seen before.

    "No. None of us are Clearsight," Makele said. "Although I do know her. A very sensible dragon. But no. Clearsight is not here right now."

    Moth looked up at her. "I don't really think that's what she meant." He turned back to Atlas. "These are some of the spirits from the Soul Chamber. Most of them are from the Distant Kingdoms, except for Leaf, Silk, and Gatekeeper. That's probably pretty obvious." He caught the last one of the bars before it hit the ground.

    Atlas stepped cautiously through the smoking parts of the bars. Her gaze swept over them both before settling on Silk and Leaf. "Wait a second. I've seen you before. I thought it was a dream."

    "It was," Silk told her. "We visited you and your brother in your dreams, to check in and see how you were doing. Apparently we stopped too early, or we probably would have gotten you out by now."

    Night shifted uncomfortably and rubbed her forehead. "Um, guys? I think we need to go now. Atlas? Do you know where your brother is?"

    Atlas glanced around, then pointed at a side corridor. "That way, but don't you have another friend? Shouldn't you get them first?"

    "We'll compromise," Ice said. "Half of us to get Dragonfly and the other half goes to get Atlas's brother."

    Julia grabbed a lantern off the wall and scooped Moth's flamesilk into it. "I'll take this and go with Atlas. Moth, Peacock, I know you two are dying to see Dragonfly. You go."

    "Without you?" Moth asked in surprise.

    Julia looked up at him. "Moth, you have to trust me." She held his gaze as she remembered when she had told Moth to run, ending up throwing him into the web. "Please."

    A flicker in his gaze told her he was thinking of the same time. Moth sighed. "All right. I trust you. But you are absolutely not going alone."

    "I wasn't planning to," Julia told him as she closed her talons around the other shell necklace.

    "I'll go with you," said Rain.

    Sand nodded. "Me too."

    Julia smiled gratefully at them and touched Peacock's talons. "I'll see you soon." She turned away from her brothers, feeling them watching her as they started along the corridor.

    Atlas was alert, hearing everything at once. She kept her gaze trained forward until a whisper came from one of the cells. "Atlas? Is that you?"

    Atlas jumped, startled, then quickly pressed her talons up against the bars. "Birch!"

    Birch was kind of the opposite of Atlas, with four leaf-shaped wings but no antennae. He was more of a cobalt blue color, scattered with patches of green. Although they looked different, they both chattered excitedly with each other, telling each other their stories.

    Julia looked at them both, and along with the fact that Wasp hated that they were alive, according to Atlas, put them together. "You're hybrids! SilkWing and LeafWing hybrids!"

    "You mean Atlas didn't tell you?" asked Birch. He gave a mock sigh of resignation. "Oh, sister. What am I going to do with you?"

    Rain giggled, and Julia remembered the necklace. She handed it to him and Atlas explained without prompting from her what it did, while Sand helped Julia tie the flamesilk around the bars without getting hurt. Soon Birch was out, and they walked along the corridor to the smoking bars where they had released Atlas.

    Sand, who was always on alert, but his talons up to silence them. "Something's wrong. Where are they? They should be back by now."

    Julia's heart stopped. Moth and Peacock. She had left them. Maybe something had happened to them. Or maybe- Yeesh, Julia. You're worrying almost as much as Moth sometimes does. "Where do you think they are?"

    Rain beckoned them forward and they all crept quietly around the bend, and saw them all up ahead. They were gathered around another corner, and were whispering fervently to each other.

    Mud saw them and waved them forward. Makele was shaking her head. "Why didn't I guess? Of course she's here."

    "Who's here?" asked Julia nervously. "Is Dragonfly all right?"

    "For now." Makele moved aside and Julia cautiously peeked around the corner. There was Dragonfly, glaring a glare enough to make the normal dragon curl up and cry, but not the two standing before her. The smaller one was undoubtedly Beetle, grinning maliciously at her. But the other... "Oh, spirit of Clearsight. Wasp!"