Chapter 17
"Where are we?"
The question hit Swallowtail like a Hive collapsing on her. It embedded itself in her mind, forcing her to wonder...
"I-I don't know," Swallowtail stammered, her eyes still watering from the smoke. "I thought we were in a hospital- i-in the Hives..." She trailed away as Acacia looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Stupid.
"I thought we were being held prisoner somewhere and the guards were being nice to let our guard down," Acacia said. "Did you seriously think that SilkWings would be this nice? To you, sure, but to me?" The LeafWing's face hardened and her voice softened.
"Their tribe has wanted my kind dead for half a century. What makes you think they'd change?"
The words stung Swallowtail like a hundred HiveWing soldier's claws stabbing into her heart. She'd thought her fellow tribe members would care for a LeafWing as much as they'd care for one of their own.
"What happened? Did they hurt you?" If she got hurt while I was out, I'll never forgive myself.
"No," Acacia admitted. "But what if they do? For all we know, they're going to poison our next meal. Or stab us in our sleep, or-"
"Set our tails on fire? Acacia, they won't do that. I won't let them, I promise." I can't guarantee it, but I'll try, she added silently. I'd do anything to keep her safe.
Doesn't she realise that?
"It's true," a voice said from behind them. Swallowtail spun around to see a dark red SilkWing standing next to the doorway, wings folded across his back. "We won't hurt you, either of you."
"How long have you been standing there?" Acacia asked suspiciously.
"A while. Man, you two are sappy."
Swallowtail glared at the cherry coloured dragon with a ferocity that made him lower his antennae defensively.
"Hey, I'm just speaking facts," the SilkWing said.
"That's hardly warranted, Cherry," Acacia retorted.
The name makes sense, at least.
"As for where you are," Cherry continued, clearly trying to act unfazed at the LeafWing's remark, "that is classified information."
"Oh, stop acting like you're so important," Acacia hissed.
"What are we gonna do with this information anyway?" Swallowtail added. "Tell the HiveWings?"
"No! No expeditions to the surface!"
"Please? We're feeling fine," Swallowtail begged.
"We are," Acacia admitted. "Wait. Did you work with Whitespeck?"
Cherry groaned. "Yes. He saved my life when I got caught out on the savanna a couple of months ago. Helped me here. Why?"
"Then you owe him. You owe me!" Swallowtail realised.
Cherry sighed. "Fine. I guess I can take you up. But you have to promise you won't run off the first chance you get, Acacia."
"I swear by Neverhome," Acacia replied.
"Good. Now come on. We gotta get out soon if you wanna get a chance to see the sun."
"The sun?" Both dragonets asked wistfully.
"Are we going..." Swallowtail trailed off. She knew deep down where they were going, a place she hadn't been for... How long was it since she'd been in a Hive? Four days? Five?
The doctor lead them through the doorway behind the gossamer curtains into a tunnel with lanterns hanging from the ceiling every five steps. The glass of each lamp was wrapped in silk, giving the normally golden light a silver sheen.
"Where do you get all this flamesilk?" Acacia asked. "Isn't it super expensive?"
"I guess you could say we have a few... suppliers," Cherry answered, clearly being careful with what words he used. "Let's just say we're eligible for a couple of discounts."
"Why are you being so secretive?" Swallowtail chimed in. She loathed secrets just as much as her friend did.
"You'll see," the older dragon replied slyly.
The trio passed a few doorways, catching glimpses of metal instruments and books and dragons sleeping on stretchers. Swallowtail searched the patients desperately, but there were no blue dragons with flecks of white. She sighed with disappointment and hung her head as they approached the end of the tunnel.
"Why are we stopping-" BANG BANG BANG
Cherry thumped his fist hard on the boulder in front of him four times fast, shaking a few thin stalactites hanging from the ceiling above
What did he do that for? Swallowtail thought indignantly.
There was a rumble from behind the boulder, and it rolled to the side, revealing an annoyed-looking SilkWing wearing a helmet.
"What is it now?" The dragon growled.
"Our patients have recovered and wish to go to the surface, against their doctor's judgement," he stated the last part with a glare at the pair standing behind him. "I owe a favour to the SilkWing, but this is the only one."
The guard noticed Swallowtail and Acacia for the first time and flared his wings in alarm. "What are they doing here?" His shock gave way to anger as he spat at Cherry. "I haven't finished putting on my disguise yet. Do you know how-"
"Hard it is to put them on? Yes, I'm aware. It's only the fiftieth time you've told me. Will you cut me some slack?"
"Move it along, you lot," the guard grumbled. He turned to Cherry. "Have you at least given them passes?"
"I was just about to ask if you had any," Cherry admitted.
"There's some in the registry tent," the guard said. He tucked his yellowy-green wings in and moved sideways to unobstruct the doorway. Something's off about his wings, but what? The guards wings didn't quite fit together in a way Swallowtail couldn't place. "Let's move it."
Swallowtail almost gave herself whiplash looking at all the things in the new room. It was stone like all the others, but had a distinctive earthy scent and felt much less stuffy. Several tables filled the space, covered with coffee pots and dozens of steaming, cracked mugs. A small tray of flower petals and almonds was placed in the centre of each desk, and the few bits of paper lying around mostly had schedules and orders and diagrams rather than the stacks of paperwork she'd seen on desks in the other offices.
"This is the hospital break room," Cherry explained.
They reached the other end of the cave and headed along a tunnel that slowly sloped upwards. The earthy scent grew stronger and the passage grew lighter until the stone turned to soft, spongey earth. Swallowtail dug her talons into the loosely packed dirt, sighing contently as her claws sunk in. She turned to see Acacia practically rolling around in the dirt, wings spreading as the passage widened.
The quartet turned round the bend and stepped out onto the open savanna. Tall grass spread as far as the eye could see in every direction, broken only by shrubs or patches of dry earth. Animals galloped about in the distance and fresh air streamed across the plain.
But most of all, the sun hung in the sky, just barely dipping below the horizon and streaking the blue sky with orange and pink.
Swallowtail opened her mouth and gulped up all the air she could fit in her lungs. The oxygen rushed to her brain, clearing away the lightheadedness she hadn't noticed until it was gone.
"Welcome to the camp," the guard announced in an incredibly bored voice. He seemed so comically unimpressed, Swallowtail had to stifle a giggle.
Wait, camp?
Swallowtail awkwardly scrambled to her feet, noticing the cluster of tents in front of her for the first time. SilkWings of every colour milled about between the two dozen or so tents scattered around the clearing marked out by a wide expanse of bare, hard earth. She saw that most of them seemed to be young adults, from about six to ten years old. They all had wings, but their bodies were young and strong, despite the scars that covered them.
"What was the disguise thing about before?" Acacia asked the guard.
"You didn't notice?" He replied simply.
Suddenly the pieces in Swallowtail's mind came together. The helmet, the off-looking wings...
"You're not a SilkWing, are you?" Swallowtail said.
"Took you long enough," he said. He spread his two big wings wide, causing his smaller ones to pop off and clatter on the ground.
"Wha- what happened-" Swallowtail couldn't get the words out.
"Those are the ones I stole in Jewel Hive!" Acacia said at the same time.
"Oh, the prosthetics? Yeah, I bought them off a HiveWing guard skulking around the Glitterbazaar while I was disguised," the guard said nonchalantly. "They were only twenty scales. Said he got 'em off a prisoner. Guess he just wanted to make a quick buck."
"I was that prisoner," Acacia growled.
"Oh well," the guard said. "Come on people, let's get moving! My shift ends as soon as the sun's down and I ain't sticking round!"
They strolled across the hard-packed earth that made up the narrow path in between two rows of tents. "If you aren't a SilkWing, then what are you?"
"The name's Thicket, and I'm a SavannahWing, not a what," Thicket said.
"What's a-"
"My tribe is an- unusual fusion of all the others. Some of us have silk glands or leafspeak, but we all have some sort of HiveWing weapon. The most common are nerve stingers, which are useful for bringing down prey."
"Wow," Swallowtail said. "How come we've never heard of you?"
"Did you think we were gonna parade ourselves around Pantala after what Wasp did to the LeafWings? No, we cut off contact with everyone else when the SilkWings became slaves. Then we splintered off into factions and haven't had a queen since."
The dragons walked silently into the largest tent. It was a vast thing that had a silver sheen to its walls. A flap had been cut out to allow dragons to pass through while keeping the breeze out. Two SilkWings stood guard on either side of the door, but sidled away when they saw Thicket.
The interior of the tent was cool and well-lit by the flamesilk lantern hanging from the support beam. A low wooden desk covered with strangely neat stacks of paper formed the centrepiece, with two reed baskets sitting off to the side. Apart from that, the room appeared to be empty.
"Hey! Pupa! Wake up, I got two new un's!" Thicket hollered.
There was a groan, then several thumps and a dragon crashing into something, and the back wall split open and a SilkWing came stumbling out.
"How old are they?" Pupa grumbled as she slumped down behind the desk.
"Dunno, ask them," Thicket replied with equal abrasiveness, as if this was a routine with which he was familiar.
The SilkWing settled herself on a pile of silk rugs that were very well used, judging by their faded colours, and pulled out two sheets of paper from a stack.
"Names?"
"Acacia."
"Swallowtail."
"Ages?"
"Four."
"Three."
"Gender?"
"Female."
"Any noteworthy abilities?"
"I know a bit of healing stuff."
"I can weave."
Upon hearing the last one, Pupa snorted. "So can half the dragons here, hon." She scribbled a few indecipherable words on the forms and slipped them into the other pile. "Come with me."
She sat up and strolled over to the baskets, selecting one with a grey strand of silk tied to the handle. Pupa lifted up the lid and puled out two silk bracelets. At first, Swallowtail thought they were bracelets, but the she realised there were words embroidered on them.
"Give me your left talons, please." Pupa slipped the bracelet onto Acacia's wrist with ease, but she frowned at Swallowtail's heavy wrist cuff, which she'd forgotten about until now. "Are you afraid of fire?"
"No," Swallowtail lied.
A sigh. "Ok then." The older dragon grabbed her wrist, and then a flaming thread spiralled out of Pupa's silk gland. She grabbed it in between two claws and straightened it like a wire, then pressed it down on the lock of the wrist cuff and sawed it back and forth. After about five seconds, it snapped open and fell to the ground, intact but still sizzling from the heat.
"Shit!" Swallowtail hissed. "That hurts!"
"Sorry about that," Pupa apologised. "We couldn't let you keep it on or the HiveWings could knock you out. See that needle?" She gestured to the needle visible on the inside of Swallowtail's wrist cuff. "That's filled with sedative."
"It was heavy," Swallowtail mumbled. Something clicked in her head. "Are you the flamesilk Cherry was talking about?"
"One of them, yes," Pupa said. "My friend Moth and I were rescued from the flamesilk cavern about a year ago now. We take turns doing registration and general silk production. It's boring, but you get to sleep twelve hours a day."
She slipped the remaining silk bracelet onto Swallowtail's wrist, then opened the other basket and flung the now cold wrist cuff in with dozens of others. "We give our members one of these whenever they need to go on a mission. We've got them for every Hive except I'm pretty sure Tseste."
She started ushering them out the door. "Come on, I've assigned you to a tent. Go to the area marked TRAINEES and head into the tent with D on it. Your welcome packs will be there. Training starts at dawn, so I advise you go to bed early. STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULES AND GOOD LUCK!"
I'm gonna be fine, Swallowtail thought as they approached their new home. I'm gonna be fine because I have Acacia.
Me: I wonder how long it's been since chapter 16?
Last updated: 2 months
Me: Hehe... *nervous sweating*
I'm SO SO SORRY! I know I had no excuse for not uploading but I had burn out and my great aunt died and I got a C in gym :_(
Enjoy!
A reminder that the Q&A is open until the day before I release the final chapter (date TBA). Please submit your questions via the reviews! Check what others have posted before posting.