The Silken Seer

Chapter 2

The morning was peaceful. The quiet breeze made Clearwing's hammock sway gently in the wind, calming her from her recurring nightmares and giving her a good feeling about today.

She slipped out of her hammock and tapped her father lightly on the shoulder. Oakleaf blinked at her and smiled, sitting up in his own hammock. Clearwing's father had dark blue wings with brown undersides, and he was covered in yellow stripes and white dots. Her mother, Jezebel, was already gone; she often got up early to work on her silk weavings.

Oakleaf got out of his hammock and washed himself off, shaking out his wings. He turned towards his daughter. "Have a good day, Clearwing."

"You, too," she replied. She knew that her father's job was hard; construction work was by far one of the worst jobs in the Hives, and she would never understand why he had to do it (even with her truth-seer abilities), but somehow the silver-grey-blue SilkWing always had a soft smile on his face.

Clearwing followed her father to the main Hive, then continued down the tunnels on her own as he flew down to one of the lower levels.

At night, she never walked past the first checkpoint, mainly because she had once before and the grumpy-looking HiveWing who operated it had nearly called the guards on her.

Today she was in line behind one of the other dragonets from her school, Nebula. They got their wristband checked and headed off in the direction of the school, Gossamer Academy. As Clearwing moved, she passed by Coal, who tagged along. From the look on his face, he had found something of interest.

"Alright, what?" Clearwing pulled him into a side tunnel, a scary picture of a LeafWing looming over them. "You've got your I-did-something-stupid-but-also-awesome face on, and I know you want to tell me about it."

"I found what the teachers were hiding. It's flamesilk orders, where they came from."

"Flamesilk?" Clearwing echoed. "What in the name of Clearsight is that?" But as she said it, it sounded familiar — she even felt some sort of explanation for it unraveling in her mind.

"It's the stuff in the lanterns. It's what's making the glow, they get it from Wasp Hive."

"SilkWings make it," Clearwing's eyes widened. "Fire, coming from SilkWings! Wow." She shook her head lightly. Coal could breathe fire, but this was a different matter completely. "Of course they didn't want us to know what it is."

"That's the thing, they aren't just random SilkWings. They're imprisoned, and we need to help them."

Clearwings became puzzled. "Imprisoned? Queen Wasp wouldn't do that. She knows we would rebel."

"Exactly, she keeps it secret so no one tries to look for them."

Clearwing's eyes widened again. "What do we do?"

"For now, keep it a secret, and we'll do something in a few days," Coal said.

School was normal for Clearwing; yes, for her it lingered with the idea of the flamesilk imprisonment, but she learned just the same. Going home was the same, too; through the checkpoint, across the webs, back to her home. The day in general was mostly uneventful, and during sunset she talked with Coal. They brainstormed ways to free the flamesilks, and while some of them were... okay, most of them failed at some point, and it was particularly annoying that Coal had very little details on the actual place the flamesilks were being held.

The night was also the same: dreams of LeafWings, fire, endless blaze, except this time it felt more real and vivid, sticking in Clearwing's head like sap even after she was wide awake.

"Clearwing!" Coal yelled. "Clearwing, who is that?"

Startled, the SilkWing dragonet whirled around, peeking over the edge of the Hive. Below, she could see at least fifteen LeafWings. But two of them were doing something strange...

"What is she doing?" Clearwing pointed to a gold-and-green LeafWing who was smiling wickedly as plants grew up the walls of Bloodworm Hive way faster than plants should ever grow.

"I don't know, didn't some of the scrolls say LeafWings could control plants?"

"And who is that?"

There was a dragon next to the gold-and-green tree dragon. On closer inspection, she wasn't even a LeafWing.

"That's a SilkWing!" Clearwing cried. "She's a flamesilk! She's burning the Hive for them!!"

Coal let out a murmur of surprise as he spotted the pale green-and-yellow dragon. She didn't look as pleased as the green and brown dragons around her — in fact, she seemed more ruthlessly determined than gleeful. The SilkWing watched the fire blossom out of her wrists with an expression that was both defiant and hopeful.

It was all very strange, Clearwing decided.

She blinked, and then suddenly everything was on fire. Dragons screamed and the flowers in the garden wilted. The roars of HiveWing guards sounded from below, and Clearwing felt the world tip sideways. Smoke filled her vision and she coughed, trying not to breath it in.

That was when Coal gently tugged on her arm.

"Get up," he said. "Come on, Clearwing. We need to get out of here."