Cricket hadn’t realized how nerve-racking it must have been for Swordtail and Sundew to creep out of the cave onto the beach every day. You couldn’t get a full view of the sky until you were already exposed on the sand. If HiveWings had been watching from the cliffs, they would have spotted her friends easily, even at night, with the moons lighting up the ocean.

Raindrops pattered against her scales and blurred her glasses as she stepped into the open air for the first time in days, keeping her body close to the towering cliff face. They were lucky tonight. Dark clouds covered most of the three moons, driving rain obscured the sky, and the fierce thunder-storm was probably keeping most HiveWing scouts at home.

Of course, it meant flying to Jewel Hive in that very thunderstorm, but Cricket for one would rather battle the rain than another dragon.

“Bleh. Pffft. Ugh,” Swordtail muttered, shaking wet sand off his talons and snout. “Sorry your first flying experience has to be in this weather, Blue.”

“It’s amazing,” Blue said. “I mean, from down here.” He lifted his face up to the rain and held out his faintly glowing wrists. Skittering rivulets ran like melted amethysts along his wings. She wasn’t imagining it; his wings were decidedly larger than Cricket’s. It was a little intimidating, until he turned and smiled at Cricket. His smile was still the same; it still took up just as much space in her heart.

I’m such a moon-moth. Didn’t I laugh at dragons who said things like that in my books? You don’t even know if he likes you back, because he seems to be just that sweet to everybody.

Seriously, Cricket, snap to it. You’re trying to save your tribe and avoid all-out war right now. And if Swordtail is right about the Chrysalis, you could be this close to solving your brain chemistry mystery.

“Lead the way,” Sundew said, nudging Cricket. “I’ll watch for HiveWings. Swordtail, you keep an eye on Blue and his new wings.”

“Will do,” Swordtail said solemnly.

It was a shaky flight, punctuated by earsplitting thunder and crackling bolts of lightning overhead. The rain battered Cricket’s wings and blurred her glasses and flew into her eyes so she could hardly keep track of the coastline below her. She was very, very glad that they didn’t have far to go.

She knew her job was to lead the way to Jewel Hive, but she couldn’t help twisting around to keep an eye on Blue every few heartbeats. It was hard enough flying for the first time, let alone doing it in a thunderstorm.

The first time she’d flown in the rain, it had been a training exercise at Terrarium Academy. And it had been very annoying, not because of the weather, but because of her classmate Bombardier. He was completely convinced that Cricket had a crush on him and was always trying to “let her down gently,” when in fact Cricket would have very much liked to throw him through a wall.

She remembered trying to figure out how to flick raindrops off her back wings. Bombardier kept hovering around her, offering unnecessary suggestions.

“I can figure it out myself,” she’d finally snapped at him.

“You don’t need to act self-confident with me,” he’d answered condescendingly. “It won’t make me like you more, Cricket. I keep telling you, I’m not interested in you that way.”

“Neither am I!” she’d tried to protest, like she always did.

“Of course, of course,” he’d soothed her insincerely, and then smug-faced away while she wished she had any cool HiveWing powers to poison him with.

Blue was the furthest opposite dragon from Bombardier that Cricket had ever met. He had no idea how wonderful he was, and he would never assume that somebody liked him. He always really wanted to know what other dragons were feeling, no matter who they were.

He seemed to have less trouble with the storm than she’d feared. His wings looked so new and shimmering that she kept thinking the wind would tear them right in half, but Blue beat them strongly and smoothly, as though he’d been flying forever. Every time she turned to look at him, he gave her his shy smile, as though she had something to do with the wind that lifted his wings.

Oh, Blue. I won’t let them use you to hurt any dragons. We’ll figure out the mind control and stop Queen Wasp, and then you can use your flamesilk to make the world a better place instead of worse.

Soon she could see the glowing lights of Jewel Hive up ahead. Flamesilk lanterns lit many of the windows, and as they flew closer, she caught glimpses of a bright party taking place on one of the upper levels. Dragons laughed and danced and whirled, orange-gold scales and green jewels flashing through a ballroom hung with vibrant scarlet and cobalt silk tapestries.

Cricket remembered hiding on the edges of that ballroom while her mother danced, at a party neither she nor Katydid had wanted to be dragged to. But her mother never missed one of Lady Jewel’s parties, her best chance to get closer to the ruler of her new Hive. Katydid had found a bubbly drink for them to share that tasted like limes and made Cricket sleepy. The wasps on the tapestries had been dyed a gold so bright it hurt her eyes.

She missed Katydid. When Cricket flew off with Blue, she hadn’t expected to be gone for so long. She hadn’t thought about the possibility that she’d never be able to go home again … that she might never see her sister again.

But I’d still have gone, even knowing all that. I think I had to.

They arced around Jewel Hive and landed a fair distance away, farther out on the peninsula, at the top of a cliff where they could hear the sound of waves roaring below even through the storm. Somehow, standing out in the rain felt even harder than flying, as though the raindrops were trying to beat Cricket into the earth.

“So there’s the Hive,” Sundew shouted to Swordtail. “Where do we go to find the Chrysalis?”

Cricket wasn’t great at reading dragons’ expressions, but she thought Swordtail looked decidedly nervous as he answered, “Well, we don’t exactly find them. We leave them a message and they find us.”

“Leave them a message how?” Cricket asked. “Where?”

“Um.” He shook his wings and tail. “So. I’m kind of … guessing? I mean, I sort of know, but I wasn’t going to be the one who … I mean, I’m just saying, this would be a lot easier if Luna were here.”

“But she’s not,” Sundew said. “Not yet,” she amended at the look on his face. “You have to figure this out, SilkWing. We can’t wait for her.”

“Wait, why not?” Blue asked. “Can’t we go hide somewhere new for a few days until we find her and then decide what to do?”

The grass was soggy and felt like dense wet carpet under Cricket’s claws. She blinked away raindrops and looked at Sundew.

“No!” Sundew said. “We’ve been waiting for you, you snoozy SilkWing.” She turned to Cricket. “My parents can’t put their plans on hold forever.”

Lightning flickered deep in the clouds, reflecting waves of green fire in the ocean. Cricket felt the tremor of thunder rumble through her bones.

“What does that mean?” Cricket asked. “What plans? How long do you think they’ll wait?”

Sundew huffed and ripped up a muddy tuft of grass, then carefully tucked it back into the divot she’d made and covered it with her claws. “All right,” she said. “Two days.”

“Two days?” Cricket cried. “That’s it? That’s all the time we have to solve the entire mystery of Queen Wasp’s mind control?”

“Or what?” Blue asked anxiously. “What happens in two days?”

“That’s all I could get!” Sundew shouted back at Cricket. “I tried, all right? It was almost impossible! It was like — like trying to push a tree back up when it’s already started falling. Belladonna and Hemlock don’t think you can do it. So I’m sorry, but if I don’t have some kind of results for them by sunset in two days, they’re going to the next phase of their plan.”

“What are they going to do?” Cricket asked. Blue looked paler and paler with each of her questions. “Are they going to attack a Hive? Will it restart the Tree Wars? What plan, Sundew?”

“The LeafWing plan that is not for HiveWings to know about,” Sundew said sternly. “But it involves violence and you’re not going to like it as much as this plan, so we should get moving on this plan in order to make sure that it’s the one that works. Understand?”

Swordtail nodded.

“Restart the Tree Wars?” Blue whispered, nearly drowned out by the storm.

Cricket’s heart was beating very fast. She wanted to know the LeafWing plan; she wanted to know how many LeafWings were out there and where they would attack and whether Katydid would be in danger.

But the only thing she did know was she wouldn’t get those answers out of Sundew by asking for them now.

And at least she had a chance. Two days. Two days to find the answers and stop the LeafWings.

“All right,” she said, trying to steady her breathing. “We can do this. Let’s think. Swordtail, where do you need to get to so you can leave a message for the Chrysalis?”

“A central feature,” he said. “In Cicada Hive, it was the Salvation mosaic in the Mosaic Garden. Does — does Jewel Hive have a Salvation mosaic?”

“No.” Cricket shook her head.

He looked worried. “Does it have anything like that?”

Cricket bowed her head and tried to think. Her visits to her mother hadn’t exactly involved fun tours of awesome Hive monuments. But maybe there was an answer in something she’d read … Her mind started ticking through books about other Hives, monuments to the Salvation, architecture and unifying features, the history of Hive-building, Wasp’s sisters and Lady Jewel …

“There’s the statue in the center of the Glitterbazaar,” she said slowly. “That’s a tribute to the Salvation. Or there’s a garden at the top of the Hive, like the Mosaic Garden. It doesn’t have mosaics or historical monuments, but it has a wading pool and a shrine to Clearsight.”

“The garden,” Swordtail said.

“The statue,” Sundew said at the same time.

“Really?” he said to her. “I’d think it would be in roughly the same place, like, geographically. Don’t you?”

“No, my revolution would be organized around the symbolism,” she said. “If it’s in a meaningful place in one Hive, I’d guess the Chrysalis in the next Hive would choose a place with the same meaning.”

“Hm.” Swordtail rubbed his face, trying unsuccessfully to dry it. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I wish —”

“Luna were here, yes, we know,” Sundew said. “OK, here’s what we do. Leave a message in both places. Hope the Chrysalis finds one of them.”

“And the HiveWings don’t,” Blue said.

“It’ll be easiest to go to the Glitterbazaar first,” Cricket suggested. She pointed down toward Jewel Hive, at the dark shapes that sprawled in a scattered tangle around the bottom of it. “We start on the outskirts, get our disguises, and work our way in.”

And pray to Clearsight that we can do this in two days.