The Hive Queen
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The Hive Queen is the twelfth book in the Wings of Fire series, and the second book in the third arc. Amazon's current release date is December 26th, 2018. The front cover was revealed on September 17, 2018.
The first chapter can be found here: https://www.hypable.com/hive-queen-wings-of-fire-cover-chapter-1/
The Hive Queen follows The Lost Continent and precedes The Poison Jungle.
A considerable portion of the book, including the epilogue, was leaked via a Amazon preview, and sites such as the one above.
Summary
Growing up in the hives, Cricket has always had a million questions. Why are trees forbidden, even in art? Why do her parents seem to hate her? And the biggest, most dangerous and secret question of all: why is Cricket immune to Queen Wasp’s powers? Whenever the queen takes control of all the HiveWings, speaking through their mouths and seeing through their eyes, Cricket has to hide, terrified of being discovered.
Now she's hiding again, wanted for stealing the Book of Clearsight along with her new SilkWing friends, Blue and Swordtail, and the fierce LeafWing, Sundew. The fugitives need answers, and fast, in order to prevent a LeafWing attack. But Cricket has more questions than ever. How can she stay hidden and discover the queen's deadliest secret? And if she does succeed -- can a powerless dragonet really do anything to topple a regime and stop a war?
Dedication
“For Wendy and Fiona, a pair of kind hearted funny bookworms with dragon hearts — Cricket and the bears I think you are Kindred spirits!”
Quote on back of Hardcover
"You think Blue is going to be useful... for the Leafwings?" Swordtail said in a dangerous voice.
"How?" Cricket took an instinctive step closer to the cocoon, as though Blue might sense her protection through the silk. "What do you think he could do?"
Sundew flicked her wings back. "He's going to burn down the Hives for us."
Plot
Prologue
The book starts with Moon's POV as she gazes across the ocean with the thought that the sea was the end of the world. She then thinks about Luna and then about Darkstalker and how she thinks it was her fault for trusting him too much and not thinking about the negativity side of him. Moon thinks about Luna the SilkWing. Wanting to help using her visions, she continues to think about Luna and Pantala. Reading the SilkWing's mind about Moon telling her what might happen next and thaving grand ideas of the NightWing's powers, Moon sighs. Thinking that she's having a vision, Luna approaches the NightWing and asks why she's alone to which Moon responds saying that she likes gazing at the moons in which she says hee full name is Moonwatcher. Luna tells her that her name means 'moon' in the old language.
Part One: The Glittering Hive
Cricket is in the cave protecting Blue's cocoon. She has a few flashbacks. In one, she is hiding with a book called The Architecture of the Hives, Expanded Edition-- now with sections on Hydroponics and Silk Bridges that belonged to her mother and she didn't like Cricket touching it (that's why she was hiding in a cupboard), when the HiveWings around her all become controlled by Queen Wasp. At this time though, she does not know they are mind-controlled. This terrifies Cricket, so she peeks outside to see what is happening. The mind-controlled HiveWings are trying to capture a HiveWing who isn't mind-controlled. He is described to have dull scales and looked older as Cricket thinks he could be around the age hundred or sixty. A group of them take him to Wasp Hive. Later that day, Cricket asks Katydid what happened to her and the other HiveWings. Katydid is confused on how Cricket can't be mind-controlled, but tells Cricket that being mind-controlled just feels normal. Katydid promises Cricket that she will not tell anyone that Cricket can't be mind-controlled, (of at least what she tells her). Years after that incident, Katydid had noticed that Cricket's vision was bad and took her to the eye doctor to get her glasses. Her mom is too busy to notice Cricket's poor vision and didn't like her anyway. Another memory is about how Cricket reads forbidden books. Cricket doesn't really like her mom, Cadelle, since she is always grumpy and gets super angry at Cricket when she reads forbidden books or distracts her while she works in her office. She then wishes she had a book to read and wonders if the 'Reading Monkeys' would lend her a book. But realizes they'd have a different language and that her claws would be too big for one. Cricket sighs and stretches her wings. She thinks about the four more days she has to sit in the cave with nothing to read. Cricket thinks she is going to lose her mind. Cricket thinks about when Blue started his Metamorphosis. She had promised to be there when he came out of his cocoon. Cricket starts to hope his friends would will be back by then. She then hears footsteps and the slither of a tail on the floor and realizes someone else is in the caves.
The dragon turns out to be Sundew, and Cricket is delighted that she is there, though Sundew does not have the same feeling. Sundew drags an unconscious Swordtail in with her and when he wakes up, he admits that he could not find Luna. Swordtail is covered in seaweed at the moment and is trying to pull it off. Sundew explains she wants Blue to burn down the Hives with his flamesilk when he gets up, but Cricket doesn’t like the idea at all and they bicker for a while. Swordtail then takes Sundew’s side, which makes Cricket miserable. Then Sundew goes off to look for her parents, and Swordtail leaves to search for Luna, and Cricket is left alone.
Then the book time skips a little, and we are in the caves, watching Cricket get excited because she thinks Blue is about to come out. Soon after, Blue comes out of his cocoon and they catch him up. Cricket then shares a flashback of when her mother moved away. The group decides to go to Jewel Hive, where they can search for the Chrysalis and blend in easily, which involves some sparkly outfits (Not to Sundew’s pleasure). As they try to get in, Cricket pretends to be an arrogant, selfish HiveWing and sneaks past some guards by “gossiping” with another HiveWing. They find a note that leads them to the Library at midnight, a step closer to finding the Chrysalis. While waiting for midnight, Cricket takes the squad to one of her childish hiding spots, where she finds her sister, Katydid, sneaking into her mother’s house with Lady Scarab, and when Cricket speaks to her, she says that she has no time and the only thing she really says before she leaves is “Cadelle is not your mother. And Father is not your father, either.” Which sends Cricket’s decent world into a tizzy.
Part 2: A Trail of Silk
Cricket is trying to focus on what "5" meant on the note while she, Blue, Swordtail, and Sundew walked to the library. When they got there, the library doors were locked so they waited a bit to see if the Chrysalis would come. After waiting, for some time, Cricket and the others were thinking that the Chrysalis wouldn't come. Cricket began inspecting the Clearsight statue outside of the library. She then noticed that the Clearsight statue had 5 spikes on the back of her head, and on the 5th spike, there was a key. She tested to see if the key could open the library doors, and it worked. While Cricket, Blue, Swordtail, and Sundew walked into the library Sundew grumbled on how many trees were killed to make the library and the books. Cricket quickly replied that the book pages were mostly made of silk. Soon enough, they heard shouting coming from the second floor of the library. They quietly walked into a room with one large window and three Silkwings named Morpho, Tau, and Cinnabar arguing about someone named Argus. Swordtail introduced himself awkwardly after listening to them for a few minutes. Then, he talked about finding Luna and said he had other friends with them. When Blue stepped out of the shadows, all three Chrysalis Silkwings got excited and recognized him from the Wanted posters. Blue explained that a nice Hivewing named Cricket helped him escape, and motioned Cricket to come out. However, when the Chrysalis saw her, they screamed and covered hilariously covered their faces with pillows and blankets. Cricket tried to explain that she couldn't be mind controlled and she was a good Hivewing, but Morpho was still suspicious. Finally, Sundew came out, with the Chrysalis Silkwings bulge-eyed and wide-mouthed, said that she had an army prepared for them to help their cause. After the Silkwings came over their shock and Sundew explained a few things, Morpho immeadiately said that he would ally with Sundew and the Leafwings to destroy the Hivewings. This shocked Tau, Cinnabar, Cricket, and Blue who didn't want to burn the Hives. Throughout the conversation, Cricket saw silver flashes coming through the window, but thought it was nothing. She turned to see what it was, but to her suprise, it was coming from HiveWing soldiers trying at the rear door of the library. Then, there was a jingling of keys coming from the library door like someone was trying to find the right key to unlock the library doors.
Part 3: The Queen's Secret
Cricket, Blue, Swordtail and Sundew journey to the Jewel Hive. They manage to blend in even though they are wanted fugitives. Cricket learns that Katydid is actually her mother and not her sister. She also learns that the reason she can’t be mind controlled is because Queen Wasp injects venom from a stinger from her tail into all the unhatched HiveWings so that they are linked to her mind and so she can control them once they hatch. When Katydid put Cricket’s egg in the hatchery, not knowing that Queen Wasp traced marks to show that she injected each egg, she traced the marks herself making Queen Wasp think that Cricket was injected. Cricket saved an orphan egg before it was injected and named her Bumblebee. Then they burn down Queen Wasp's greenhouse when they find out that that a plant that grows in the greenhouse is the source of the injections. After that, the group decides to go to the Poison Jungle to meet the LeafWings.
Epilogue
Tsunami and Turtle go through a tiresome journey to reach Pantala. They land in the Poison Jungle and get saved from a large snake by a LeafWing. The LeafWing tells the SeaWings that her name is Willow, but afterward immediately tells Turtle and Tsunami to go back or they will get killed. Back on Pyrrhia, Luna asks Moon if she found a way to get to Pantala themselves. Moon says not to worry because the Pantalan dragons are coming to them.
Trivia
- This is the first book to have a HiveWing PoV.
- This book confirms the whereabouts of the LeafWIngs: The Poison Jungle.
- This book also reveals Lady Jewel is Queen Wasps's Cousin, and Lady Scarab is Queen Wasps's Aunt.
Gallery
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Final front cover -
Prefinal cover
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Audiobook cover
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Scholastic's placeholder cover
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Audiobook placeholder
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The back of the cover from Amazon's preview
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Temporary photoshopped full cover by Nathia Safira added by Blue the SilkWing
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The opened map given in the Barnes & Noble's special edition of The Hive Queen
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Hardcover for The Hive Queen taken by Blue the SilkWing
