Warren gasps and stumbles back from the hive, eyes flying open. Alarmed, the bees on his hands burst into flight, buzzing in frantic circles round his head. Warren falls on his rump in the grass, but he barely feels it. Orchid’s deep, despairing cry still echoes in his mind.
Help us!
That’s what she’d said before. A distress call in scent and vibration. He sniffs, but that only draws the bitter scent in deeper and he splutters on it. Yenn offers him a hand and heaves him to his feet.
“You ok?” she asks. “I was trying to listen but I couldn’t hear. It was all jumbled and I couldn’t—” her voice fades and Warren sees her lips trembling. She feels their pain like he felt the pain of his buff-tails. He remembers the moon badger attack on Blume’s hive nearly a year ago, how he’d felt those po
