The Silken Seer

Chapter 9

"Coal... what happened? Where are we?"

She realized with horror that Coal had gotten some sort of scar over his heart. "Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine," he replied. "For now, at least." He looked around the cell, which was just big enough for the two of them to fit without spreading their wings. "Wasp found us out in the savanna. Most of the flamesilks escaped, I think, but I got knocked out." He hissed at himself. "Me, knocked unconscious by some random HiveWing! I've beaten up dragons twice my size and suddenly when we're actually in danger I can barely fight at all. I don't even know where we are for sure, but I'm guessing somewhere in Wasp Hive. I wonder if she plans to have us executed." He hissed out a sigh.

Clearwing was surprised. She remembered something the voice had said... one of the most powerful tribes ever known... but pushed it out of her mind. "How did you get that scar?"

"I don't know. I woke up with it. I'm guessing my armor got dented somehow on the way here."

"I think it's an intentional scar, actually." The scar definitely wasn't a mistake; it looked more like a wasp stinger. Clearwing shuddered at the thought of what it meant.

Coal looked at it. "So it does," he said. "Well, I have a headache and already a lot on my mind so I can't think about that on top of everything else right now."

Clearwing wondered what he could be thinking about, then remembered the one time when he woke up and his mind was unguarded, surprising herself for remembering something such a long time ago. Or was it really only five days ago?

Well, she had quite a lot of thoughts to deal with as well right now, so she tucked away the strange scar into the back of her mind to deal with later.

I wonder if the voice — or plant, or whatever it is — can still talk to me. Can you? She thought that last bit as loud as she could, no response. If you're being creepy in the dark again, I will definitely find you and have Coal turn you into a pile of ash! Nothing. Hmm. Maybe it could only access her during her metamorphosis sleep. If it could do that in her normal sleep, she'd have known what it was already. Right? Or had it been waiting for the perfect moment to offer all the answers to all the questions she'd ever asked (or at least most of them)?

Wait. My metamorphosis. I have silk now! Not that it was flamesilk, but it was still pretty exciting. She realized what a childish thought that was, locked here in a cell, possibly awaiting execution. But still. She'd been waiting six whole years of her life for silk.

A long, dark silver strand spiraled out of her wrist, pooling into a pile on the floor of the cell. She tapped it, and noted that it wasn't the sticky variety she'd woven her cocoon out of, but a silky-soft, more yarn-like variety. She picked it up to study its color. Wasn't most silk a lighter shade of silver-grey, or was every dragons' silk slightly different?

"Coal, look!" she said, pushing those worrying thoughts aside, but then realized he was fast asleep. She wondered when he'd had the time to lay down and start snoring quietly and how long it had been since he last slept, but soon realized that his mind was exposed. She looked in, but soon regretted it.

He was still himself, strong and capable, but now there were strands of darkness woven across it and trying to take control. He was fighting it off, but only barely. Clearwing saw glimpses of his future, but it was muddled and had a lot of burning and screaming in it. She was suddenly reminded of her nightmares from before her metamorphosis. Screaming dragons, crying dragons, burning dragons, poisoned dragons, and dying dragons.

Lots of dying dragons.

She shook herself with a soft growl. Right now she had to wake up Coal before the darkness in his dreams took over-

Wait.

Bracing herself against the wall, she peered back into his mind again. The webs tangling around his mind, they weren't really shaped like webs.

They were shaped like vines.

Very clearly, with leaves and flowers and a weirdly smug aura. She was jolted out of his mind suddenly, and immediately ran to his side and shook him.

"COAL!" she yelled, loud enough that the prisoner in the cell across from them gave her a curious look, but not loud enough to alert the guards. "Coal, wake up right now!"

"Arghhh," he hissed in his sleep, batting at the air. His claws narrowly missed her snout.

She tried to dig her claws into his shoulders, but his armor repelled them like water on duck feathers. She shook him harder.

Get out of my friend's head! she thought as loudly as she could. Why do you need him?

To her surprise, the vines replied.

You didn't seem very likely to agree to my terms, it said. And you're the only one who might've been able to stop me from taking you over. Your little black friend, on the other leaf, is both useful and easily manageable.

Let him go, she snarled. And maybe I'll consider listening to these "terms" of yours.

Not here, the voice replied. The queen is coming. For you, actually. Not for the black one. Interesting.

"No," Clearwing was once again thrown out of the link, this time as powerful talons gripped her shoulders from behind. She looked around to see five HiveWing guards glaring at her. A red one with orange and black stripes was the one holding her shoulders. There was no escape.

"Come on," she said gruffly. "Queen Wasp wants to see you."