“What? But she isn’t dead!” Brianna protested.
“No, but she will be,” Emissary replied, then paused, looking at them closely for a moment before asking, a touch hesitantly, “Or… do you not know?”
“Not know what? We know she gave up her chance to change into a queen, and that’s why we came here. We wanted to see if there was a way to purchase more of the pure royal jelly for her,” Cora said, an icy sensation starting to creep around her heart. Something about Emissary’s reaction was terrifying. “Even if you don’t value coins, we thought that there might be something else you might want that we could get for you.”
“Mm, I believe I understand,” Emissary said, then murmured, “It’s so hard to be cheerful when speaking of this, but… I suppose I must.”
“Speaking of what?” Brianna demanded, her annoyance growing stronger, which simply worried Cora more.
“Of death, of course,” Emissary said, her voice cheering up as she placed a smile on her face, shrugging at them. “As you don’t know, it’s only right to tell you. Our queens have a lifespan much like those of humans, though in a different manner. Unless slain or taken by disease, our queen will live for a full century and be able to perform her duties for all that time. That is not the case for attendants, drones, or workers, though.”
The icy sensation was growing stronger, as was fear within Cora, and she swallowed before she asked, softly, “How long do you live for?”
“Attendants and drones live for approximately three years. Workers live for two and a half,” Emissary replied, looking at Cora and Brianna calmly as she continued. “Our hive has approximately thirty thousand apis in it, and to keep up with those we lose daily, at least thirty apis hatch each day.”
Cora choked, suspicions rushing through her about what Emissary was getting at, but the apis hadn’t finished yet. “For workers, half their life is spent entirely in the hive. Only those who no longer produce royal jelly are sent out foraging, which is the second half of their lifetime. Joy has less than six months left, which was part of why she and a dozen other apis were exiled.”
“No…” Cora breathed, her thoughts flickering to Joy’s bright, happy face, and how the apis had delighted in her new dress the previous day.
“What about becoming a queen? Doesn’t that extend your lifespan, then?” Brianna demanded, leaning forward. “If we gave it to her—”
“Assuming she reached level twenty, yes. It would give her the full lifespan of a queen, another full century… at least in theory,” Emissary replied, meeting Brianna’s gaze with a shrug. “Unfortunately, our stock of pure royal jelly was all but depleted when we sent out the exiles. We don’t have enough of it to give any away safely, and making more takes time. For a hive of our size, we can create one vial of pure royal jelly every six months.”
The explanation was like a punch in the stomach for Cora, and she gasped, gulping down air for a moment, then she quickly asked, “You don’t have any?”
“I didn’t say that. I said that our reserve was almost depleted,” Emissary corrected, shaking her head unhappily. “We have enough for an emergency, but only just. If we were to lose the queen, we must have some on hand. Otherwise the hive will perish.”
Cora couldn’t say anything to that, utterly numb, now. The sheer weight of what Joy had given up for her was suffocating, and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.
“There’s no way we can get any in time, then?” Brianna asked, her voice shaking. “I mean, if she has less than six months, and it takes you that long just to make more…”
“Why would you say that? I just said, for a hive of our size, we can’t do it,” Emissary said, smiling at Brianna, and her expression caused a spark of hope to kindle for Cora. “But the bigger the hive, the more efficient it is. Hives get up to about twice our size, and they can make pure royal jelly twice as fast as us, just as we can make it twice as fast as a smaller hive. You could find one of them, and they might be willing to trade the jelly. I have no idea what they’d ask for it, probably materials of some kind, but they might. Or you could find one of the other workers who left and see if you could purchase it from them. There are options, but I’m afraid that we can’t help you.”
“I see. Well, thank you for the honesty, and your advice,” Cora said, her voice shaking slightly as she blinked back tears. “I wouldn’t even know she had that little time left if you hadn’t told us. She never said anything.”
“Of course she wouldn’t. For us, every day is a chance to live to our fullest, so why would she dwell on how much time she has left?” Emissary said, shrugging slightly, then added, “Besides, that she gave it to you is quite telling. It tells me that she regards you as a member of her hive, and that is high regard indeed. Any of us would give our lives for another member of the hive, or for the hive itself. What she did tells us much. You will be welcome here to speak with us if you ever have need, Cora.”
“Um, thank you,” Cora said, blinking several times as the apis rose from her seat, then headed toward the door.
Brianna didn’t move, and the shock on her face matched how Cora felt. For a minute they just sat next to each other wordlessly, a minute that felt like an eternity to Cora.
Finally, Brianna stood, and offered Cora a hand. Cora took it silently, letting her friend help her up, and they headed outside, as worry and just a hint of hope swirled around within Cora’s heart.
“Have you heard anything about these other exiles?” Brianna asked when they were halfway to the gate.
“No. The only apis seen traveling on her own that I’ve heard about is Joy. The rest were obviously members of this hive,” Cora replied automatically, her gaze playing across the apis she saw rushing about. She’d likely live as long as two hundred of them put together, or even more. She’d already lived as long as any ten of them would manage, even if they were attendants, and that was horrifying.
“Neither did I, but I hoped,” Brianna said, nodding to the guard as they left the palisade, her voice shaking. “I thought that what she did was incredibly selfless before, but now… what do we do?”
“I…” Cora paused before saying anything, her thoughts racing, then she took a deep breath and let it out, continuing more levelly. “I think we need to move on. Even if it’s a bit risky, we’re only a week from Irador. We can find out where a bigger hive is there, and that might give us a chance to save her. By all the gods, I’m not going to let her die if I can help it.”
“Fair,” Brianna said, nodding in agreement, then cracked a smile as she added, “First we need to chastise her for not telling us, though.”
Her comment prompted a laugh from Cora, and she looked at her friend incredulously.
“You think that’ll do any good?” Cora asked, skeptical that anything could darken Joy’s mood, or convince her to do something she didn’t want to.
“No, but it’ll make me feel better,” Brianna replied, shrugging.
* * *
“So, another of them has failed,” the queen said, letting out a faint sigh as she shook her head.
“Not necessarily, but most likely,” Emissary agreed, bowing her head as she stood in the queen’s chamber.
The room was far different than it’d been the previous week, much as most of the hive had been changed. There were furnishings to make the queen more comfortable, along with the attendants and drones that lived with her, and the numerous cells where she could lay her eggs. Rather than having her come to the cells, the hive had decided it made more sense to bring them to her, and replace them as needed.
Still, the situation wasn’t promising, in the queen’s opinion. Of over a dozen apis who’d been sent out in the hopes of founding new hives, they’d already found the bodies of half of them, their precious pure royal jelly either destroyed or vanished, which was a terrible thing. At least with Joy the loss had been for a good cause, but it was saddening. She couldn’t fault Emissary’s handling of the meeting, either, as nothing she’d sa
id was untrue.
“Perhaps they’ll manage to save her. If not, and if they return here near the end of her time when she’s high enough level…” The queen paused, then shrugged. “If they do, we can give them one of our last vials. It won’t be a great risk at that point, and we’ll almost have another. Do not tell them that, however. Our need is great as well.”
“As you say, My Queen,” Emissary agreed, raising her head, then departed from the chamber.
The queen watched her go, and internally she hoped that the adventurers would save Joy. Her feelings weren’t for the worker’s sake, she knew that much, but it was for the species.
The more hives there were, the greater the chances that the apis would survive.
Chapter 4
Joy looked up from her armor as Brianna and Cora opened the door, grinning broadly as she spoke. “Welcome back! You don’t look happy, so I guess I was right?”
Then Joy paused, sniffing, then wrinkled her nose as she asked, “What’s that smell?”
“Don’t ask,” Brianna said, glaring at Cora for a moment before she closed the door and leaned against it, folding her arms. Brianna didn’t look happy, which worried Joy a little, and the auburn-haired woman glowered at Joy for a moment before she asked, “Why didn’t you tell us that you had less than six months to live?”
“What?” Stella yelped in shock, the dark-skinned woman looking up from her book at Brianna, then at Cora and Joy in turn as she demanded, “What are you talking about?”
“The attendant that met us, who went by Emissary, explained that worker apis have a lifespan of about two and a half years, and part of the reason Joy was exiled was due to how little time she had left,” Cora said wearily, looking at Joy in a way that brought a hint of pain to Joy’s heart; she looked so worried. “Giving me the pure royal jelly… if she’d turned into a queen, it would give her a century of life. Why, Joy? Giving that up… I just don’t understand why you’d do it.”
“Why not?” Joy asked, smiling back at her and shrugging, setting aside the armor and the bits of silver she’d extracted from the ore. She could deal with that later, and the others seemed to need her attention right now. “I’m a worker. From the time I hatched, I knew that my life would be short, but it would be fulfilling despite that. If I reached level twenty, if I drank the jelly… what does that matter? Those are ifs. They could have happened. I knew I could save you, so I did. That’s all there is to it.”
No one else spoke, though Joy saw Brianna reach up to rub her eyes, while Cora and Stella were looking at her in shock, Stella’s more pronounced than the others. It took a moment, but Joy realized that was probably because Cora had had time to get used to what she’d learned. On the other hand, part of the reason Joy hadn’t talked about it was because of how upset she’d seen others get over someone dying permanently.
“You… you can’t be serious? Please?” Stella asked, her voice trembling as she looked at Joy for a moment, then looked back at Cora. “You found out a way to save her, right? The hive could make more of the jelly in time, couldn’t they?”
“It takes six months, Stella,” Brianna replied softly, shaking her head. “They won’t finish until it’s too late.”
“Which isn’t to say that we don’t have other leads. There are other apis who were exiled with their own pure royal jelly, and we could try to buy it from them,” Cora said firmly, looking around the room, then focusing on Joy as she spoke flatly, in the sort of tone Joy imagined the queen might have used. “We aren’t giving up on you, Joy. You saved my life, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give up on you. Emissary said that it’s possible for other hives to make pure royal jelly in as few as three months, so Brianna and I came up with a plan on our way back.”
“Oh?” Joy asked, perking up a little at the information, and her enthusiasm growing at the thought of seeing other hives. “You’re thinking of going to visit other apis? That would be neat!”
“To be accurate, we’re planning to go to Irador. That’s only a week away, and is the biggest city in the region,” Brianna corrected, exhaling slowly as she admitted, “It’s a touch early to leave the area, but there’re other places in the region we could level as well, and even if we can find out where another hive is, pure royal jelly won’t do any good if we don’t get you to twentieth level. We figure we can gather information in Irador while trying to pick up quests and level, and once we find out where a hive is, head there.”
“The only question is, do you want to join us, Stella?” Cora asked, then laughed, shaking her head as she added, “Well, I should ask Joy that, too, but I know you weren’t planning on something like this, Stella.”
“If you think I’m going to abandon you in a situation like this…” Stella began, sounding faintly outraged, then glowered at Joy as she paused, then continued. “Joy, I’ll have you know that I’m very upset you didn’t say anything about this! It’s one thing to offer to help, but sacrificing something like that without even speaking a word of it… that’s just cruel. How do you think we’d feel if you just… fell over dead, one day?”
Joy opened her mouth, then closed it, blinking a couple of times as she looked at Stella, then the others. A part of her simply couldn’t comprehend why they were so upset, it was just strange to her. Alien, perhaps. So, she tried to verbalize what she was thinking. “But… but I’m just a worker. I’m like any of my tens of thousands of sisters, and could be replaced by any of them.”
“Joy—” Stella began, her outrage obvious, but it was Cora’s cool, calm voice that cut her off.
“No they couldn’t, Joy,” Cora said, her voice oddly precise as she stared into Joy’s eyes, and there was something about her pheromones… it was hard for Joy to place, with how weak they were compared to other apis. “You are the one who’s been with us for all this time. You make our lives brighter just by being here, you saved our lives, and if one of your sisters tried to replace you, she couldn’t. Because she wouldn’t remember the things you did, and that would make her someone else. You’re you, not just anything. So I don’t want to hear a word about you being ‘just a worker’, do you hear me?”
Joy opened her mouth to reply, then paused and shrugged, instead smiling back at Cora as she spoke obediently. “Okay! So, when do we leave?”
“Not today. We still have that meeting at the guild tonight, so we can’t leave anyway,” Brianna said, and glanced down, considering for a moment, then asked, “What are you doing, anyway? Is that silver?”
“It is. She extracted it from some silver ore… I do wonder why she didn’t simply keep the metal we got out of the broken teleportation platform, but it’s her choice,” Stella said, her tone still troubled as she looked at Joy in concern.
“Because I didn’t know I needed it!” Joy replied, then held up her armor a bit proudly. “See, when I woke up I found out my armor had upgraded to level ten! So did my weapons. Problem is, they didn’t improve that much. My armor only has a defense of eight, my rapier an attack power of ten, and daggers an attack of eight.”
“That… isn’t very good,” Brianna said, frowning as she looked at the armor. “I thought that your innate armory would give you weapons and armor appropriate for your level, and that would let you avoid having to buy equipment, by and large.”
“It does! Well, sort of,” Joy said, smiling at the armor as she continued. “See, I can upgrade it! Their descriptions tell me I can use silver or iron at this level, and once upgraded, if they break I get the same upgrades when I make new ones. Or I can take another weapon and… fuse them, giving my stuff the weapon’s properties. Or armor, I mean.”
“I… see,” Cora said, then smiled slightly as she added, “I suppose that means that your innate armory is a slight boost, but not something to make everyone envious, in the end. It does help, though… so why silver, anyway?”
“It looks pretty,” Joy replied instantly, setting the armor down and picking up the bits of silver again. “I’m hoping it adds neat sw
irls or stripes to my armor!”
Her response prompted a ripple of laughter from the others, and Brianna nodded, then said, “Well, you’d better hurry, Joy. We’ve got that meeting soon enough, and I don’t want to be late.”
“Alright!” Joy agreed, and quickly focused on her task, humming as she worked. At the same time, though, she thought about the idea of traveling, which made her excited.
It also made her want to come up with some other lyrics to her song, though what was an entirely different question.
Chapter 5
The guild was packed with people, something which always made Cora want to leave, as she didn’t deal well with large crowds, especially when they were loud. It couldn’t be helped in this case, though, as no guild house she’d ever visited could comfortably fit all the members in the area. Usually a large portion of the guild was out on quests, so there simply wasn’t a need for that much space.
They’d at least arrived early enough to get seats at a table, which was better than most of the adventurers had managed. Rukar had taken the last chair at their table, which made Cora happier, since the green-skinned orc was a polite, reasonable conversationalist. Even better, Brianna had been the one explaining what had happened over the last few days. She could see James, Eda, and Helen at a nearby table, along with the other women they’d rescued, Jean and Marilyn. They’d nodded politely, but fortunately they hadn’t decided to come over to chat, though Cora suspected that was out of fear that their seats would be stolen the moment they left their chairs.
In all honesty, the only ones who seemed to be enjoying the number of adventurers packed into the room were the bartender and Joy. The bartender was making drinks as fast as he could with coins disappearing into his lockbox, while Joy was just looking around and humming to herself, her wings occasionally fluttering as she sipped at the water in her mug.
Webs & Wards (Beesong Chronicles Book 2) Page 4
