Wings of Fire: The Empty Throne | ✔️

Chapter Eight | The Empty Throne

It felt like forever before a RainWing border patrol finally arrived.

"We need to talk to the queen," Flame said simply. "And her friends."

One of the RainWings led the way to the queen's treehouse while the others branched off to gather everyone. The five dragonets were all in the queen's treehouse by the time they arrived.

"What is this about?" Queen Glory asked. "And where is Hare? We've been searching for her all day and night."

"Call off the search parties," Squid told her. "There's no use anymore."

"What do you mean?" Tsunami demanded. "Where is she?"

Fatespeaker sat next to Starflight and leaned her head on the blind NightWing's shoulder. Flame took a deep breath.

"Hare wanted to end the war," he explained. "She gathered us and organized a plan. She didn't tell anyone because she didn't want to be stopped. She just wanted peace. We gathered the tribes and met at Burn's stronghold last night, but there was an incident."

"What happened?" Tsunami order, bristling. "Are they holding Hare hostage? I'll go rip all their eyes out and shove them down their throats."

"Tsunami," Glory warned.

"What? That's practically my little sister!" Tsunami protested. "I'll fight anyone who dares to lay a single claw on her."

"I'm sure Hare's okay," Sunny said softly. "Perhaps she just decided to stay with her mother or in the stronghold."

"Please," Flame interrupted. "Just listen."

The dragonets fell silent and looked at Flame expectantly. He almost couldn't go on, but he knew he needed to. Like Viper said, they deserved to know.

"Blister brought dragonbite vipers to the meeting last night in an attempt to kill Burn," he went on, earning a gasp from Sunny. "Burn killed them, but not before- Oh, stars."

Flame swallowed hard to prevent himself from crying. He took a few moments before he went on, his voice shaking. "The snakes attacked her. Hare's dead."

"She can't be!" Sunny cried. Glory turned shades of white, blue, and gray, as if she couldn't tell how to react. Clay pulled Sunny in and hugged her as the SandWing burst into tears. He was crying himself. Flame noticed Starflight shaking and hiccuping. Fatespeaker held his talon in hers and draped her wing around him.

"I'm so sorry," she breathed.

Tsunami stared at them in shock. "No," she gasped. "No, Hare can't be dead. She can't be! You're lying. What did you do to her?" The SeaWing lunged forward. Glory had to jump forward and hold her back. "Where is Hare?" Tsunami roared as tears began to pour down her face. "Where is she really? What did you do?"

Queen Glory pulled Tsunami away and allowed the SeaWing to crumple in her grasp. Both dragons were a mess of tears and sniffles. Tsunami was crying the hardest out of all of them, shaking so hard Flame couldn't believe she was still somewhat supporting herself.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "We would've done something if we could, but by the time we noticed she'd already been bitten."

"Somebody will need to tell Kestrel," Glory hiccuped. "Liana, please go find her."

A blue dragon faded into view at the entrance and nodded before flying away. A buff raspberry pink dragon stepped inside. He looked awfully serious, but nothing could hide his concern. He padded over to Glory and placed his talon on her shoulder. Glory acknowledged him by wrapping her tail around his, but she kept holding onto Tsunami.

After a little while, a voice came from the entrance of the treehouse. "What's going on? Why's everybody crying?"

Flame turned to see a red SkyWing standing there with Liana. He waved his wing to signal for her to come in. He opened his mouth to explain, but Sunny jumped in before he could.

"Oh, it's horrible Kestrel!" she cried. "Hare's dead!"

"What?" Kestrel demanded. "What do you mean dead?"

Flame explained what had happened to the older SkyWing, who just listened with a crestfallen face. Flame figured he'd throw in the part about Webs and Rose, since they were also Hare's guardians.

Kestrel soon joined the others in becoming a mess of tears.

"She loved you all," Flame told them. "I'm sure she's proudly watching you all from the stars above."

"Why can't she be watching us from here?" Tsunami spluttered.

Flame felt his heart break for her. Over their days of practicing and preparing for the meeting, Hare had often mentioned how dearly she loved her friends, especially Tsunami. The two seemed to have been really close, bonding even more in the Kingdom of the Sea. He felt so bad for her.

"We'll miss her, too," Viper said, flicking her tail. "She saved my life. If it hadn't been for her, I'd be missing more than just my tail barb."

"She was a really good friend," Fatespeaker sniffed. "She was so sweet."

"She went out of her way to organize a party to get me from the Talons and include me in something that could've easily been done without my help," Squid put in. "I really appreciated the gesture. Not many dragons have tried to involve me in important things." He shot a look at the others, which Ochre returned.

She tried saving me, knowing full well I was an enemy. I could've easily hurt her or killed her, but she still tried.

"She was always kind to me," Flame said instead. "Even when I acted like a complete stoneheart, she still treated me like a dragon."

"She was nice," Ochre said simply with a shrug. "I guess. I don't know. She seemed helpful."

"I guess I should ask the question, since no one else seems to want to," the pink RainWing said. "Who did you pick as queen?"

Flame winced. "Well, it was really a last minute decision. Blister was already dead, and I was trying to prevent more death. So I went with Burn and let Blaze leave peacefully."

"It's not entirely final yet," Viper said before anyone could speak. "We're going to have a discussion later on to decide whether or not we should change the choice he made."

"I don't really see how we'd ever get Burn to step down, though," Squid pointed out.

"Use Hare," Ochre suggested.

"You are so messed up," Squid snapped.

"Speaking of which," Viper went on, "I'm going to go back to the Kingdom of Sand. I want to see how Burn is settling in."

"I'll go, too," Flame offered.

"We all should go," Fatespeaker said. "It'll help us make any further decisions."

Flame nodded. "That's a good idea."

Fatespeaker turned to Starflight, who was still crying. "Will you be okay?" she asked gently.

The other NightWing nodded. "I'll be fine," he sniffled. "Or, I'll try to be."

"Send a message if you need me," Fatespeaker said. "I promise I'll come right back."

Starflight pressed closer to her. "Thank you."

"Thank you for doing what we couldn't," Clay said.

More like what you refused to do.

Flame simply dipped his head respectfully.

"Let's go," Viper said. "The sooner, the better. I'm sure Burn will need some help, especially considering that she just lost her daughter."

Flame made his way out of the treehouse without saying goodbye to anyone. He spread his wings and took off through the trees, flapping away toward the desert, back to the final resting place of Hare and away from the dragons who grieved her most.