Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Double Wrongs

Holly's POV

You WHAT?!", Holly cried.
She jumped to hard, her knees buckled when she hit the ground.

"Why?" She gripped Mandrake.
"You didn't ACTUALLY give it to her, right? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't understand", Mandrake said, helping her.

"Me neither", Willow added.

"I understand someone's been lying to us!", Nettle growled.
Holly winced.

"I'm not quite sure why or what about, but I know I'm angry about it!"

Hawthorn held out his talons..
"I'm sorry! I though Sequoia would have told you! Wouldn't you think that she would have told the whole story before sending someone on such a dangerous mission?"

"I WOULD think that!", Nettle snapped.

"Maybe she thought it wasn't important to the mission", Mandrake said.
"Maybe she thought Hawthorn was dead, and if he was, the story wouldn't be important."

"That's not better!", Nettle said. "That's cowardly!"

"Wait, how exactly did this happen?", Holly asked, finally managing to stand up.

Hawthorn looked down and fiddled with his teacup.
"All right", he said, "but you'll all hate me at the end of this. That's fine. Just, please hold it back. Fifty years of carrying this guilt have been hard enough."

"More explaining, less self-pity", Nettle hissed.

"Queen Wasp was dangerous from the very moment she took the throne", he began.
"Her mother, Cochineal, wasn't much better, but, at least she respected the seprate tribe monarchies.
But Wasp . . . . she looked at the Leafwings and Silkwings, and only saw more dragons to rule. That was clear very early on.
But that wasn't the worst of it. She thought our power came from the trees, and she thought that if she cut them down, we'd become weak. She did it slowly at first. Small stretches of forest cleared away in far-off corners she thought we wouldn't miss. 'Accidental' wildfires that wiped out hundereds of trees."

He paused again, took a sip of tea again, then nudged a another cup towards Holly and Mandrake.

"No thanks", Mandrake said.

"Um, do you have Bobba, by any chance?", Holly asked hopefully.
Everyone stared at her.

"Never mind. Continue."

"By the time we realized what she was doing, it was too late for thousands if not millions of trees. We tried to stop her in all the diplomatic ways, but she lied to our faces, telling us she would stop, only to turn around and keep doing it. Or she's have us thrown out -the queen of the Leafwings, tossed out of Wasp Hive like a bug! Can you imagine?"

"I can imagine Rita Skeeter being thrown out", Holly said with a satisified grin.

"And then, she got even worse", Hawthorn hurried on.
"She announced that, accourding to the Book of Clearsight, the time had come for the tribes to be ruled by a single queen: her. She sent Queen Monarch and Queen Sequoia instructions for formally stepping down and handing their subjects to her."

"We know this part", Sundew said. "Monarch said yes, Sequoia demanded to see the Book, Wasp refused, and the Tree Wars began."

"Not immediately", said Hawthorn.
"First we tried to talk her down. And second, we turned to . . . . . something else."

He closed his eyes.
"I thought we could stop her. I thought we could save everyone."

"By giving Wasp the greatest weapon ever?", Holly asked.