Part VIII: A Touchy Subject

Dating the queen's brother certainly had its perks. When Jambu asked to bring Hailstorm along on his inspection of the prison pits, none of the other guards thought twice. Jambu was one of the most respected RainWings, after all, and everyone seemed to assume that he acted in accord with Glory. Even the NightWings seemed to like Jambu, bowing to him as they never did to any other RainWing.

Interesting, Hailstorm thought, soaring past yet another troop of smiling and waving guards. The RainWings may not have official ranks, but they sure can play favorites. Nothing in this strange, colorful world was ever as simple as it seemed.

Another perk was getting access to the royal mango orchard, but Hailstorm doubted they would have time for that today.

They were on a mission, after all. An interview with an infamous mad scientist, war criminal, and esteemed botanist: Mastermind.

Hailstorm had been expecting a prison pit similar to the one he had been kept in. Shallow, ineffective, and actually rather pleasant.

But, as it turned out, the NightWing criminals were kept in a completely different area of the jungle. A dark, dense corner where no dragon would willingly fly, where snakes slithered and dart-armed guards shuffled through the shadows.

Hailstorm felt a prickle of unease. In his ignorance, he had assumed that the RainWings were simply too primitive and compassionate to make a proper dungeon. But this, too, was just a stereotype. They had treated him with decency, since he was innocent until proven guilty. But the NightWing convicts were a different story. These dragons had been found guilty of attacking the kingdom itself.

The convicts were kept in quicksand. A full set of guards always stood by, dragging the unfortunate prisoners up just enough times to keep them from dying. The rest of the prisoners' lives were spent in suffocating darkness.

A fate worse than death, Hailstorm thought with a shudder. Having had his own experience with a fate worse than death, he felt a prickle of sympathy. He tried to squash it down. Perhaps this punishment was what they deserved, if these dragons were all guilty of war crimes.

But didn't the queen mention something about their trials? he recalled. Some injustice? He was reminded uneasily of Icicle's trial, back in the Ice Kingdom.

Hailstorm politely looked aside as Mastermind was hauled up from the quicksand. It was a chilling sight, even for a hardened IceWing. There was coughing and thrashing and a terrible look of indifference from the RainWing guards. Dark gobs of quicksand landed at Hailstom's talons. He stepped back.

Meanwhile, Jambu seemed awfully undisturbed by everything. For such a gentle dragon, he seemed perfectly at ease in the prison pits. He was the head guard, after all. Hailstorm felt a bit unnerved.

"Good morning, Mastermind," said Jambu.

Mastermind blinked up at them blankly. He seemed to have left a bit of his mind in the quicksand. "I requested ink and paper," the gaunt NightWing said. "I must prepare for my upcoming trial."

Hailstorm looked to Jambu, curious, but the RainWing was busy digging out the sack of mushy banana.

"Good luck writing in quicksand," one of the guards snickered under her breath. "A real genius!"

Jambu tried to shoo the guards along. "Come on," he said, "we're investigating."

Mastermind went on blinking and staring. Then, when he seemed to finally see Hailstorm, he recoiled with a cautious glare. "Oh. An IceWing." The NightWing's eyes narrowed. He turned to Jambu. "They're incapable of feeling empathy," Mastermind said matter-of-factly. "It's been scientifically proven."

Apparently even the greatest scientists in Pyrrhia were not immune to bias. This did not bode well for Mastermind's credibility.

Hailstorm almost snapped back with an ignorant retort of his own. Then, recalling all the times his own IceWing teachers had insulted the "primitive physiognomy" of NightWings, he decided against it. No use continuing that cycle of hatred.

"Has Starflight replied to my letters yet?" Mastermind asked Jambu. "Fatespeaker promised she would send them." A glimmer of hope entered his big gray eyes, and almost made him appear sane.

"Starflight?" Now Hailstorm looked to Jambu, too. "The dragonet of destiny?"

"My son," Mastermind clarified sharply. "I... I was hoping he would come to my trial."

Jambu shook his head. "Sorry, I don't think he did. We're here on official business."

Hailstorm carefully opened the banana bag. "We need your help with this... this scientific inquiry."

Now Mastermind looked interested. "I do appreciate a good inquiry!" Then, becoming a bit more shrewd, he asked, "Will this restore my reputation?"

"Er..." Hailstorm nodded. "Perhaps. Yes."

"I'll put in a good word for you at your second trial," Jambu promised. "And, uh, I'll bring you a mango, next time they let you eat!"

That really sealed the deal.

Aside from the mango, Hailstorm found Jambu's offer rather surprising. Shouldn't the queen's brother be impartial in such a political trial? Then again, he thought, Jambu has good words for everyone. He could see the good in Darkstalker.

Meanwhile, Mastermind squinted down at the brown mush. "Pfft, easy," he clucked. "That's a banana." He frowned at Jambu. "I really thought a RainWing would know that."

"Not the peel," Hailstorm growled impatiently. "There's a trace of something else on it. A plant extract."

"Probably from the Sky Kingdom," Jambu pitched in, "and probably poisonous." He prodded the mush with a talon. "Can you help us out with that?"

Mastermind took a scientific whiff of the rotting banana. "Hmm. A Sky Kingdom plant, you say?" The NightWing's gaze wandered in thought. Then he straightened up, smiling smugly. "Oh, I've got it!"

Hailstorm and Jambu both leaned in attentively, nearly slipping in the mush.

"It's queensbane," Mastermind declared confidently. "A rare genus of the nightshade family. Quite lovely flowers, I must say. So long as one doesn't eat them."

"Queensbane?" Jambu repeated.

Queensbane. Hailstorm shivered. He had heard that name before.

Or rather, Pyrite had heard it.

The memories returned with a vengeance, piercing through his mind like long, sharp shards of glass.

Pyrite. Sparrow. Poison. Blood.

Queensbane. That's it. The same poison that Sparrow tried to use against Queen Scarlet, he recalled. Queen Scarlet, the greatest monarch in all of Pyrrhia, my perfect queen, my... Ice and snow, what am I thinking?!

Even now, years after the curse had been lifted, Hailstorm had to fight to keep himself from slipping back into Pyrite's loop of miserable thoughts. Dipping into those memories, no matter how briefly, always brought a terrible, twisting sensation to Hailstorm's skull. Then came the confusion and dread, as he struggled to remember his own name.

Jambu noticed Hailstorm's distress and hurried through the rest of their questions. "So," he went on, "Mastermind, what would you say this stuff tastes like...?"

Meanwhile, Hailstorm was frightened to find his vision blurring. Every sound, aside from Jambu's voice, seemed to fade into a distant roar. Three moons, thought Hailstorm, not again.

But even in that painful fog, he remembered his manners.

"Thank you," he told Mastermind, once the interview was done. "You've aided us greatly."

Mastermind accepted his thanks, no doubt ecstatic to prove that he was still smarter than an IceWing. For a moment, Hailstorm could imagine him as a proud intellectual. The famed Crown Scientist of the NightWing fortress.

Then a sad, desperate look entered the NightWing's wide gray eyes.

"Please..." he added plaintively, "please tell Starflight to write."

As they flew away from the quicksand pits, Hailstorm felt an odd heaviness on his wings. He tried to chalk it up to the humid air. Even after all these weeks in the Rainforest, it still made his scales crawl.

But glancing back at the dense, dark jungle behind him, he felt a deep chill run down his spine. The further away he could fly from that prison, the better.

Jambu, too, seemed terribly tired. His colors were faded now, perhaps because he had been skipping his usual suntime and naps.

The change was barely perceptible. Compared to the other RainWings, Jambu still sported the most colorful scales in the rainforest. But Hailstorm, who had studied Jambu's scales rather often, noted a definite dullness now.

Jambu was far too kind to complain, and Hailstorm was far too polite to mention such things. As they flew, he steered them both toward the quieter side of the Rainforest. Toward the Moon Tree sapling and Fruit Bat's gardens, where Hailstorm hoped they could both catch a break.

But even there, in the peaceful shade, the investigation went on. Jambu made sure of it.

"New clues," muttered the RainWing, his exhausted scales still swirling. "Just gotta put it all together..."

They reviewed the meager results of their interviews.

Sky Kingdom poison. NightWing feuds. RainWing gossip.

Hailstorm couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. Some key piece of the puzzle. Or perhaps it was many pieces. Hundreds of them. Because the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he knew nothing about the Rainforest.

"Those prisoners," he asked Jambu, "why is Glory retrying them?"

Jambu's scales shifted rather awkwardly. "Oh. Uhhh. Apparently their original trials were... not completely fair," he explained. "Something about the evidence not lining up, and the juries acting suspicious. Fatespeaker interviewed a bunch of the dragons involved. She was just trying to start a conversation in the tribe. I don't think she meant to cause trouble, but, uh..." Jambu glanced around. "She did."

So that's why Fatespeaker is on thin ice with the queen, thought Hailstorm. Is that why she went back to Sanctuary? Fatespeaker had claimed that she and Glory were "best friends", but Deathbringer's suspicious glares suggested otherwise.

"Anyway," Jambu went on, "a bunch of NightWings started a petition to retry the prisoners from the war. They said the verdicts were illegal, according to common law."

"Common law?" asked Hailstorm.

Jambu nodded. "For centuries, we've passed that wisdom down orally. Old cases and laws. Verdicts of past queens. When Glory took over, and united us with the Night Kingdom, she promised that the same law would apply to the NightWings. Justice for everyone." Jambu winced. "But after the war, when everything was a mess... That didn't always happen."

"I see," Hailstorm said grimly.

"It's a touchy subject right now," Jambu admitted. "Glory doesn't know what to believe."

"Nor do I," Hailstorm muttered, half to himself. His whole view of the investigation quickly shifted. "This certainly complicates things."

"Hey." Jambu frowned. "Glory did her best."

Hailstorm bit back an icy sigh. "I don't doubt that," he said.

He had seen plenty of injustice in his own kingdom. Dragons imprisoned without due process, leaving the tribe terrified of its own monarch. For centuries, the royal circles had successfuly suppressed their tribe's growing resentment. But the Ice Kingdom had no freedom of speech. Here, in the Rainforest, rumors and rage could run amuck.

"Those were different times," Jambu said. "We were just trying to bring back peace."

"Glory's partner is a former assassin," muttered Hailstorm. "Did he get a fair trial?"

Jambu's silence was telling.

"Can you really blame the NightWings for their anger?" Hailstorm pressed. "Or the RainWings, for that matter?"

"We couldn't just let dragons like Mastermind fly free," Jambu insisted. His colors cooled as his tone grew serious. "Trust me, the tribe would be far worse if those trials hadn't happened. Glory did what she had to do."

Hailstorm kept his snout shut. There was no use getting into that argument. Not with the queen's own brother.

How much of these rushed efforts to make peace have just made everything worse? he wondered cynically.

No wonder the Rainforest was so divided.

And yet, Hailstorm still felt sympathy for Glory and Jambu. Of all dragons, he knew how it felt to fear and loathe the NightWings. Even now, after working to unlearn all the IceWings' lies, his scales crawled when he thought of villains like Darkstalker and Morrowseer. And, most of all, that terrible animus who had cursed him...

But that hadn't been a NightWing, had it?

Painful though it was, Hailstorm forced himself to revisit those memories. He'd remembered Chameleon in the form of a NightWing, since that's what the mad dragon had disguised himself as while scheming with Scarlet. It had allowed Hailstorm to fit the whole ordeal into his old prejudices: another evil NightWing, just like all the ones he'd faced in battle. It made more sense that way, knowing he'd been captured and tortured by his own tribe's enemies.

But Chameleon was a RainWing, Hailstorm reminded himself. Not a NightWing at all. Not really. He looked out at the boisterous jungle again, shivering. Maybe our assassin isn't a NightWing, either.

Without even realizing it, Hailstorm had fallen back into one of the Ice Kingdom's cruelest traps. Judging dragons by their appearance, instead of looking at the real evidence. And when he reviewed those clues again...

"What if it was a RainWing?" Hailstorm asked himself aloud.

Jambu, who had been slowly dozing off, sprang back up and stared at him.

"The assassin," Hailstorm clarified. "What if the poisoner was a RainWing?"

He really could not have been more clear, but Jambu's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it," said Hailstorm. He spoke quietly now. His scales prickled as he wondered just how many camouflaged dragons could be watching them right now. "Deathbringer has only been investigating other NightWings. That's why has has no leads. If an angry RainWing heard about..." He glanced around. "Glory and Deathbringer's plans, and then heard that they were going to pardon those NightWings prisoners... well, they wouldn't have been too pleased, would they?"

Jambu grew uncharacteristically quiet.

"For all we know," Hailstorm added in a whisper, "it could have been one of the Queen's guards. Don't they eat breakfast with her?"

"That can't be," said Jambu.

Hailstorm wasn't surprised when Jambu rushed to defend his own tribe. The IceWings had practically made an art out of tribal loyalty. But, in classic IceWing fashion, Hailstorm was also certain that he was right.

"You said it yourself," Hailstorm insisted. "The assassin could have been targeting Deathbringer." He thought back to their investigation. All the scattered clues they had scrounged up so far. "We've heard about disgruntled RainWings, too."

"From Fierceteeth and Maggie!" countered Jambu. "They aren't reliable sources!"

"No," Hailstorm agreed, "definitely not reliable. But they're from two different sides of the Rainforest, and they both heard the same stories."

Jambu shook his head.

Now Hailstorm scowled. He could see the anger and confusion in Jambu's eyes. Swirls of dark colors danced through the RainWing's scales, too.

Hailstorm had a sneaking suspicion that, if Jambu weren't so worried about Hailstorm's own dreary state, this would be a real row.

Of course, Hailstorm thought, his tail lashing, now he treats me like I'm made of glass.

Frustrated, he pressed on, "I know you love this kingdom, Jambu, but it's not perfect." He thought back to his own tribe's violent conflict. To Snowfall's arrogant mistakes and the bloody results. "We're dealing with the consequences of Glory's mistakes now," he added darkly.

"I know there are angry RainWings out there," Jambu admitted, "but they would never..." His voice shifted to a stark whisper. "Her own guards would never." He shook his head again. "Those are my friends, Hailstorm! I know them!"

Hailstorm wasn't so sure. In the IceWing Palace, his own friends had backstabbed him many times. Maybe the RainWings weren't as blatant with their treachery, but, as Magnificence had warned him, the Rainforest had its own deadly secrets.

"I've seen this happen," Hailstorm said. "The worst treason comes from inside the palace." Then, remembering that the RainWings had no castles, he added, "Or inside the royal treehouse, I suppose."

"You don't know what you're talking about," snapped Jambu.

When Hailstorm tried to protest, Jambu just went on shaking his head.

"I need to go," Jambu said evasively. "I'll... I'll sort this out, okay?" Yellows and greens flashed across him now, upsetting his usual cheerful pink. He always wore his heart on his wing.

When Jambu flounced off, Hailstorm made no move to stop him. A touchy subject, indeed, he thought.

Something curiously dark had sparked up between them. Hailstorm had never seen Jambu so angry. He'd never seen Jambu become angry at all, really. Honestly, he'd just assumed that the RainWing was incapable of it. In the haze of their new love, he had seen Jambu as pure sunshine. All kindness and goodness and light.

Now he recalled that Jambu was a warrior, too, with deadly venom in his fangs. Not some perfect, fairy tale prince. And as a former prince himself, Hailstorm knew a thing or two about blind loyalty. He knew how dangerous it could be.

As the warm rain pattered down on his scales, Hailstorm felt an odd chill. He had come to respect the Rainforest kingdom. Now he was starting to fear it.