The Bee Queen

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWOThe Labyrinth

A day’s walk saw me back at the labyrinth where I started. The effort of not running away like a feeble, shrieking princess cost me. A lack of caring replaced the overwhelming sense of dread. I stopped counting the cuts to my fingers from ill-natured bramble or the number of times I skinned my knees. I believe I turned off all thinking processes as the ground tilted downward, watching only the snow kicking up from Limah’s boots as he trudged ahead. I counted his steps in a dead, monotonous whisper and then when the numbers grew longer than the beat of his tread, I began again by counting my own.

When I planted my face into a drift and ripped another hole in my breeches, Limah stooped and offered me his hand. I faltered, flailing as damp soil mixed with the snow and formed a nasty paste around my mouth. “Take my hand,” he insisted. “Please, Este.”

I winced as I felt the cold contact of his fingers, waiting for the burn and the nauseating sinking sensation. When it didn’t come, I tightened my grip. He’d shortened my name again and I wanted him to keep saying it in that gentle voice lilting with affection. “I forget,” I puffed, standing upright and cleaning my face on my tattered sleeve. Frozen, shaking fingers brushed snow from my soaked jacket. “I expect the pain.”

Limah shook his head and his dark curls danced beneath a layer of white dust. He inspected his fingers. “I know, Estefania. I’ve spent your entire life avoiding contact unless essential for escape to the hive. Your reaction is normal.”

I sighed and viewed the increasing camber of the slope as it disappeared into the valley. “Must we go forward?” I heard the desperation in my voice and saw his brows knit into a line. “May we go back to the town where you bought your weapons?”

“No.” His brow furrowed as he touched first the knife at his belt and then the dented sword at his hip. “It’s the first place the Wasp Lord will look. And I didn’t buy them. The blacksmith owed me a favour and loaned them.”

“Can he not owe you another favour?” I paused, my numb feet sinking into the drift. “I would rather hide in a barn with Galveston at the gate than return to the caves.”

“It’s not the place of horror you believe,” Limah said, his voice gentle. He tugged my hand and urged me onward. “My people are yours also, my Queen.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. You didn’t see. They burned smoke to force me into a stupor and held me captive in a wash room.” I looked down at my fingers and frowned. “My life became a drudge of washing pieces of metal for your horrid machine, eating and sleeping.”

Limah’s gaze raked the landscape behind me and his expression softened. I sensed the nearness of the labyrinth of cave systems and darkened rooms. When I turned, I sensed I would see the stand of tall trees guarding the exit. It filled me with dread, though another emotion accompanied the foreboding. I touched a hand to my chest and sighed, keeping my bluing fingers over the space where the sensation of urgency radiated from. “I don’t understand.” Releasing the words brought relief and a flicker of a smile lit Limah’s face.

“You will, Estefania,” he reassured me. “I promise, you will.”

Twice more I lost my footing on the downward. Twice more I bruised bones and jarred fingers and toes already bitten by cold. My steps grew heavier with each small distance covered and it felt as though the landscape pitched me forward, knowing I didn’t wish to arrive. I halted often, frustrated by Limah’s eager march. “At least explain your machine!” I pleaded, picking myself up from the icy floor. “Speak to me and drown out the misgivings filling my head.” My voice croaked and I heard hysteria lurking behind the request. “Call me Este from now on. I’m weary of regal titles when I have nothing.”

Limah halted to wait for me and inclined his head in a shallow bow. “I’ll explain the machine,” he said. A curious light enhanced the dark of his irises and a rare smile lifted the undamaged corner of his lips. He turned and began walking again, slow enough so I could match my pace to his. “Experience taught me much about the hearing frequencies of bees and of their enemies. I set out to create a machine which possessed the ability to deter creatures hearing at the frequency of Swift or Wasp kin, without disrupting the function of a healthy colony.”

I remembered my outward journey and the birds falling from the trees. My lips parted in a question. “It worked, didn’t it? The night of my escape, something changed in the noise and vibration and my path became littered with feathers and bodies.” I peered at the ground, half expecting to see it strewn with decaying carcases. Limah glanced sideways and his slow nod confirmed it.

“Not dead.” He raised an index finger and wagged it at me. “Just stunned.”

“But I saw one.” I shuddered at the memory of the dead, black eyes. “It died.”

“Such defences will always incur freak casualties. I found one or two for whom the shock proved too much. But the rest awoke and abandoned their vantage points. They won’t spy for the Swift queen in our territory.” Limah pushed his shoulders back. “She will need to rethink her plans.”

“What about the wasps? Did it send them away?”

Limah pursed his lips. “One thing at a time, Este.”

He’d shortened my name and my heart warmed a fraction, thawing my lips. “And what about people? Do I hear at the level of a bee or human? People will have a more acute sense of hearing. And what of vibration?”

Limah stopped outside the clearing which surrounded the entrance to the cave systems. His movements looked jerky and I sensed offence in the set of his jaw. “I don’t know everything, Estefania Melitto. I am a mere man. My visits to your mother’s hive were at her bidding. I never belonged there. I possess no schooling and rely on experience and intuition alone to honour my promise to her.” He inhaled and I saw regret in the downward turn of his lips. “Though you retained human form, you fitted into her world in a way I never could.” When he spread his hands, pity vibrated through my soul. “I am only the Bee Keeper, Este. And that is weight enough for one man’s shoulders.”