Wings of Honor: Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 16: He Knows

He led me down this corridor. I was still trying to battle tears and mocos. Marvin kept trying to jump up and offer me his clean handkerchief. For Moon, aside from being worried about being exposed, she contemplated being more nervous because she was being led to a secluded spot with a NightWing she didn't know and an unreadable SeaWing with a not so positive vision about him. But... Turtle was... calm — cozy — in a way. He was quiet, like... refreshingly so. Marvin's mind was always on alert, keeping himself on his toes. Moon was always worried about being discovered. The school was chaotic, period. But Turtle?
I noticed he led me further and further away from the school. Between my eyes adjusting and Tutle's gentle SeaWing glow, I could barely see the path around me. Moon was relaxing, putting layers of rock between her and the Jade Mountain voices. Marvin was concerned as to what might happen is someone turned hostile in the cramped corridors. Well, they were cramped for us.
None of us spoke. Although Moon's mind was racing. Too quick to tell anything. I looked around to get my bearings and noticed there were glowing trails along some of the rocks. As if they were made by a snail or slug or something. Sure enough, a glowing snail half the length of Marvin appeared, carving yet another trail. I also noticed Marvin brought out his smaller scope, he couldn't see anything without it, it was so dark. In the closing distance, I could hear a dripping noise. Aside from the small pitter patter of the blood that fell from my wings. Suddenly, the tunnel opened up into a huge cavern. A huge lake appeared before us. Little glowy snails and other creatures made the walls look beautiful.
"Oh." Moon whispered. Wow.
At first she thought there were glowworms in the water too, but then we realized they were actually the reflections of stars. Above us, was a hole in the roof, big enough for a dragon to fly through with their wings outstretched. Big enough for the moons to shine through, casting broken silvery-green light across the still pool. I counted two of the moons were visible through the hole, half full but clouded in the rapidly growing twilight.
Moon looked around for Pike and Tamarin, and although a faint burnt smell still hung in the air, there was no sign of the injured RainWing or any of the other dragons. They must have immersed them and then taken them to the healing cave.
Turtle nodded at the lake. "You should wash your shoulder. I'd take you to the infirmary, but I imagine Clay is busy with everybody right now."
I noticed it had started to hurt in earnest while we were walking. Moon peered at her wound again, then slowly edged into the lake. The water was colder than she'd expected, sliding around and under her scales, and when it hit her wound, she yelped with shock.
"Let me take a look Grace." Marvin said, trying to feel me out.
There was a small splash as Turtle dove into the lake beside her. He surfaced and studied her shoulder as she gingerly dipped it under, washing off the dried blood. It probably started to bleed again with the scab removed, but after a moment it clotted and stopped, and could probably see the prickly thing stuck in it more clearly.
"Ahh!"
"Hold still." Marvin mumbled as he had a flashlight in his mouth, one hand with alcohol pads, and the other a roll of gauze.
"This might hurt" Turtle said to Moon, and without any more warning than that, he pincered his claws around the object and yanked it out of the wound.
"Ow!" Moon cried. Turtle pressed his talons to her shoulder as another spurt of blood fountained out. She felt a little faint, and caught herself wondering what he would do if she collapsed here in the lake. Would he leave her to drown?
"You good?" Marvin yelled over to the two in the shallows. He probably noticed everything through me. But Turtle lifted his claws. The bleeding promptly stopped.
Dang. You guys heal fast. Especially people like us. You already got some scar tissue here, I'm gonna have to cut it out.
"Mhh Hmm." I whimpered. I felt the small prick as Marvin introduced morphine.
Turtle dipped his talons in the lake to wash them off of blood. He was still holding the strange object, and now he rinsed it off and peered at it.
"What is that?" Moon asked, scooping water over her shoulder. I could see that it was a blackish-brown misshapen sphere, about the size of a frog, and covered in sharp thorns.
"I think I know." He said, "But I should look at it in better light, and maybe check the library."
"Herrre!" Marvin swung his head around, blinding the two dragons a fair bit away with his flashlight. The sudden introduction of light in this pitch black cave.
"Ahh! Stop!"
"Rohkay, sorrrry!"
Marvin looked back over and continued working on my back. After they readjusted, Turtle examined Moon again.
"How's your shoulder? Can you fly?"
"Probably." Moon said. She glanced up at the moons shining through the hole in the roof and caught herself wishing she could fly all the way to one of them and just stay there, surrounded by silver and silence.
"Go ahead and try." Turtle suggested. We knew he meant "try flying," but she looked into his unreadable eyes and wondered if he was offering her the chance to escape. She could be out that hole and on her way to the rainforest in no time. Or even farther; she could run to somewhere where Winter wouldn't be able to track her down and scrape out all her secrets.
But then he'd really believe I did it. And so would everyone — why else would I run away?
No Moon. Please don't. Please don't end up like Marvin.
Moon hesitated for a moment, looking at me. But then she took to the air, soaring over the lake. Banking around inside the cavern and circling in the silver beams of moonlight. She looked awesome. Her shoulder hurt a little bit, but she could still had use of her wings. I tried to splay mine, only to greet Marvin with a spurt of blood to his face.
"Plew! Grace! Don't move!"
"Oops. Sorry."
I looked back and tracked Moon. The silvery touch of the moons on her scales calmed her a little, but then she remembered Winter's furious expression and sick feeling sunk into us all over again. She swooped down, Turtle swam underneath her.
Will they tell everyone my secret? I guess there's nothing I can do to stop them, if they decide to do that.
Do I wish I didn't have this power?
If I couldn't read minds, everyone I met would be like Turtle — completely unreadable. Strange and blank. I'd have no way to know if they were kind or cruel. I'd never understand why they act the way they do. Everyone would be all surface. I'd think Winter was just mean; I wouldn't know about his dead brother and how he hates himself more than anyone else. I might think Qibli was just goofy and ordinary, if I didn't know about his layers and his amazing mind and his childhood. I'd have stayed away from Kinkajou, because I wouldn't have known or believed that she really liked me.
I guess that's how other dragons live ... never knowing how complicated everyone else is. That's what it would be like, to be normal. But if I could choose, would I want that? And since I can't choose ... should I run away from what I can do, or risk revealing it to dragons who won't understand?
I felt so bad I couldn't move. I could still faintly feel Marvin's blade cutting out chunks of whatever was embedded in me. His hands bloody, trying to stay on my slippery scales.
Moon tilted her wings and sailed down until she landed on a craggy boulder that jutted out of the lake, not that far from where we were. Close enough for a conversation at least. Spongy, bluish moss clung to its sides and made a squelching sound under her claws. Turtle swam over and clambered up beside her.
"How did you find this place?" Moon asked.
He shrugged. "I went exploring. There are a couple of underground lakes, but this is the biggest, and the only one with a view of the sky."
He leaned back to look up at the visible moons. Moon studied him for a minute. I don't know him at all.
And then Turtle walked up to me.
"So," He said slowly, without meeting my eyes. "I guess you must know my secret."
Me and Marvin held our breaths.
"N-no," I said, stopping him before he could get another word in. While I knew I could play along and get him to reveal his secret to Moon, I already knew, but... that was his decision. I just blended the truth and skated around, in a better way. "Turtle... I can't read your mind. With a few dragons, you just don't hear anything." That was true.
He gave me a startled expression. "Like there's nothing in there?" His snout crinkled, amused. "That's alarming. What are you saying about me?"
"I'm saying you're safe." I responded. "Your secrets are safe. At least from others. I can't hear your thoughts." Moon hesitated stepping up, wondering if she should mention the vision about Anemone. Something made her hold back.
"Oh." Turtle remarked. "Awesome? I think?" He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not very interesting anyway."
I'm sure that's not true. Moon thought. I shook my head.
"Thanks for letting me keep my secrets, then." He said, giving me an easy smile. He looked back to Moon. "So what are you going to do about Winter?"
Marvin yanked something out of me, sending a sheet of pain up my back.
Ah! Fuck! "Ahh! Hah!"
I nearly faltered. Turtle dropped to the floor, prepared to catch me.
Moon herself dug her talons into the rock. Her stomach hurt and she had this horrible, prickling, tense feeling everywhere, as if she might erupt out of her scales. She made herself lie down on the boulder and reached to drag one claw through the pool below her. "I guess I have to tell him the truth." she said finally.
"Not if you don't want to." Marvin suddenly said, taking his "loud" expected unexpected approach. Ignoring the startled and surprised look from the other dragons. "Why don't you figure out who actually caused the explosion, and tell him the truth instead?" I have a list of suspects.
Moon gave him a bemused look. "Oh, all right, I'll just go solve that mystery by midnight tomorrow. No problem."
Turtle had walked back, shoving her off the rock and she landed with a splash, coming back up startled and sputtering.
"What was that for?" she cried.
"You're not thinking this through." He turned back to me. "You're a mind reader." He reminded me. "All you have to do is walk around the school until you hear someone's mind going, 'Well done, me; tip- top explosion I caused today; aren't I a clever arsonist.' "
"It's not exactly that easy. Ahh ha!"
"Sorry." A wooden clank as a torn or something fell to the ground next to me.
"It's really noisy out there; you have no idea. And you're not the only dragon who can shield their thoughts from me. What if it was someone like that — someone like you?"
"Well, it wasn't me." He said, not in the least offended by my offhand remark. "So anyone else you can't hear, put them on your list of suspects and keep listening to everyone else in the meanwhile. Why wouldn't you? You could figure this out in an hour if you just hear the right dragon."
"And if they're thinking about it when you do hear them" Moon had climbed back onto the boulder and shook the water off her wings.
I turned back to Turtle. "But if it were that easy, I should have heard them planning it. I should have heard something from someone...." I stopped, realizing I had. Moon froze, realizing the same thing. We locked eyes.
The conversation with the dreamvisitor. Planning to kill someone — multiple someones. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about that, even in the chaos of the explosion. Was the fire in the history cave the plan she'd overheard?
And if so ... then perhaps the dragon with the dreamvisitor — maybe that Queen Scarlet? — would return tonight to find out if it worked. Maybe there'd be another conversation between killers in the dark, under the cover of dreams.
And if Moon was listening at the right time, maybe she'd have a chance to catch them!
Can you do it Moon?
I-I-I-I... I'll try.