Hawthorn turned and sauntered cheerfully off into the sunlight. Mandrake followed him, blinking in confusion. Willow stopped Sundew with her wing as she stepped forward.

“I feel like we should be really careful,” she said softly.

“Me too,” Sundew agreed.

“Same here,” Nettle said unexpectedly.

“But this is the dragon we’re looking for, right?” Cricket asked. She adjusted her glasses. “The one with all the answers? Who knows everything about this vine and the mind control?” Her tail was twitching with nervous excitement.

“Yes,” Willow said. “And he seems nice enough. It’s just … everything else.”

“We’ll go with him,” Sundew said to Cricket. “But carefully.”

Cricket nodded, and they edged out into the clearing, squinting in the much brighter light here.

All the low-hanging vines had been cut back along with sections of the canopy overhead, leaving space for grass to grow in the patches of sun. A small vegetable garden covered a quarter of the clearing, with the undergrowth cleared away all around it. And in the center of the clearing was a house shaped like a cell in a hive, not a nest or a hammock or a platform in a tree. Someone, presumably Hawthorn, had taken the time to turn tree trunks into smooth, flat boards; someone had fitted them together; and someone had woven flax curtains for the door and windows, then dyed them pale red.

Sundew pivoted to study the entire space, but she saw no sign of the breath of evil within the perimeter of the clearing. She could still hear it, though, and feel it curling around the edges of her mind.

“Come on in,” Hawthorn called from the doorway.

They stepped up onto a covered porch that ran along the front of the house. One end of it seemed to be a small woodworking studio, where a little half-carved dragon sat on a stump. Honeysuckle vines adorned the roof of the porch, adding a sweet smell to the air and a tranquil murmur to the chorus in Sundew’s head.

Inside, Hawthorn’s house was breezy, warm, and full of a rose-colored light from the sun filtering through the curtains. It was all one room, but with a high ceiling and lots of space. Carved wooden dragons, snakes, trees, and orangutans perched atop the shelves on every wall. Sundew looked closely at one of the dragon heads and thought it looked a lot like Queen Sequoia.

“Did you make all of these?” Cricket asked, gazing around the room.

“Ah, yes,” Hawthorn answered. “Lots of time on my talons, you know. No one else to talk to, so I thought I’d make some friends for myself. This one’s my favorite.” He patted a smooth egg shape made of honey-colored wood, with a delicate filigree of leaves carved around the top. It sat on a stand on a little table by itself, next to the window. “They’re better company than you’d think. Thank goodness I have you, right?” he said to the egg.

Poor lonely dragon, Sundew thought. But then, carving little figures to be your only friends is one thing — organizing a nest of snakes to be your bodyguards is quite another.

“I can’t help but notice that you’re a HiveWing,” Hawthorn said, wagging one claw at Cricket. “I hope you being here means peace has finally been achieved between the tribes? So … maybe I can go home?” he added hopefully.

Nettle snorted. “Peace! Not even close,” she said. “This one’s a bit of an ex-HiveWing, at least according to the morons who believe her.”

“Ah, hmmm,” Hawthorn said, crouching to dig in a cabinet. “Traitor to her tribe, eh?”

“No!” Cricket said. “The opposite! I want to save them!”

“Oh, right,” his muffled voice responded. “I know that feeling.” He emerged again, smiling. “I must say, if I’d known so many visitors were coming, I would have carved more cups! But these are all I have.” He produced three ebony cups and a stone jar full of tea leaves; Sundew could smell the chamomile from across the room. “We’ll just have to share, won’t we? Yes, we can manage that.”

“Oh, no, thank you,” Willow said politely. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for tea.”

“We don’t?” Mandrake said with a wistful look. Nettle stepped on his talon and he yelped.

“It won’t take long,” Hawthorn said. “There’s a hot spring out back where I can get the water. I even have honey!” He started toward the door.

“Really, no,” Sundew said, putting one talon over the tea jar. “The tribe is in danger. We must get back before Queen Wasp attacks, which might be as soon as tonight.”

“Oh,” Hawthorn said, looking startled. “That does sound serious! Really worth mentioning, I must say. Yes. I’d call that relevant news. How do you know that? Someone is quite clever, I see.” He put one talon on his wooden egg and frowned down at it thoughtfully. “Ah,” he said after a moment. He looked up at them, his brow clearing. “You know about the breath of evil.”

“We know it’s linked to Wasp’s mind control,” Sundew said. “We were hoping —”

“Did Queen Sequoia send you?” he interrupted eagerly. “Does she want me back at last?” He hesitated. “That is … Is Sequoia still queen?”

“She is,” Willow answered.

“She is!” he said, clasping his front talons together. “That’s … that’s wonderful news. After all this time. Still alive! I can hardly believe it. And she did send you? What did she say about me?”

“That you’ve been working on a cure for Wasp’s mind control,” Sundew said. “She said you know more about it than any other dragon alive.”

“Ha!” he said. His long green wings dipped and folded back. “That is certainly true, isn’t it? I mean, that was her intention, sending me here. Quite a long time it’s been, for me to be here studying it, all alone. I really should be an expert by now.” He laughed.

“Are you using it on the snakes?” Cricket burst out. “Is that why they listen to you?”

“Well, of course,” he said. “Rather hard to study something without doing a few experiments.”

“So they obey you?” Nettle said curiously. “You can just order them around?”

“Are you in their heads, like Wasp when she controls her subjects?” Cricket asked.

“So many questions! I really don’t know if I can do this without tea!” Hawthorn said, grabbing a teapot and bustling out the back door. Willow and Sundew exchanged glances while he was gone, but for once, Sundew couldn’t guess what she was thinking. Sundew wasn’t even sure what she thought of the eccentric old dragon.

Hawthorn scooted back inside, steam rising from the water in the teapot. He shook out a pile of tea leaves into each cup and poured the water over top of them.

“See? All ready,” he said. “Please do have some; I’m quite proud of this tea.” He set a jar of honey on the table as well, with a pleased expression. “No visitors in decades. This is so splendid.”

“Hawthorn,” Willow said gently. “We really are short on time.”

“Of course,” he said, his expression clouding. “I am surprised it took Sequoia so long to send you. I was beginning to think none of my messages got through.”

“Messages?” Mandrake asked.

“Well,” Hawthorn said. He took a sip of his tea. “I was forbidden to return to the village myself, wasn’t I?”

Sundew gave Willow a puzzled look. “You were?”

“So I sent messages however I could,” he said. “In coconuts down the river. Tied to the legs of monkeys and birds. I even sent a few of my vipers, but they were killed before they could reach the village. Such a shame; they were smart little snakes, just doing what I’d asked.”

“I … don’t think she got any of those messages,” Willow confessed.

“What did they say?” Sundew asked, leaning forward. “Did you find an antidote?”

“I did,” he said. His eyes suddenly glistened with unshed tears. “That is, I believe so.”

“But that’s amazing!” Cricket said. “Why are you sad?”

Hawthorn rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. “Oh, it’s only … you know, the time I’ve lost … all these years I could have spent with Sequoia.”

Cricket sat down beside him and put one talon over his where it rested on the table. He twitched slightly, as though his instinct was to pull away from a HiveWing, but he left his talon in hers.

“I’m sorry for what you’ve been through,” she said. “I can’t imagine what it was like to be alone for so long. But what you were doing is so important. You’re going to save so many dragons, Hawthorn. When all the HiveWings are freed, you’re going to be a hero. The LeafWing who devoted his life to freeing them! Your antidote will save my sis — my mother. It means everything to me. Not to mention it’ll stop another war.”

He sniffed and pulled his talon away to swipe at his eyes again. “That is something,” he said. “If it works … I’m glad to know this wasn’t all for nothing. And don’t get me wrong. I know I deserved this. I told the queen I understood, and I meant it. This was the right punishment for me, the only punishment.”

“What?” Cricket said, glancing at the other LeafWings as though they might have the answers.

Willow spread her wings, equally puzzled. “What do you mean?” she said to Hawthorn. “I thought you volunteered for this — how could you deserve it?”

“What were you being punished for?” Sundew asked.

He blinked at them, surprise written in every crease of his face. “Didn’t she tell you why I’m here?” he asked.

Sundew shook her head. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt so full of dread, as though the earth was about to collapse underneath her.

“Because I’m the one who found the breath of evil, after everyone thought it had been wiped out centuries ago,” he said. “And I’m the one who gave it to Queen Wasp.”