Brianna opened the door to enter the greenhouse, and a wave of moist, hot air greeted them, along with the potent scent of flowers and the tropics. It was enough to make Cora blink and cringe, since she suspected she was going to need a bath before too long, with how incredibly humid it was inside the greenhouse.
Brianna stepped inside, Joy right behind her, and as Cora followed them, she listened closely, expecting that there would be the sound of buzzing if there were bees inside, yet she didn’t hear much of anything. Just the clamor of the market behind them, which was muted as Stella closed the door, the murmur of other people in the greenhouse, and the faint sounds of birds outside.
The greenhouse itself was lush, almost like a miniature jungle with rows of plants running down the center, along with larger gardens around the edge with trees planted in them. There was even a second floor, though it wasn’t so much a floor as a balcony around the edges, and hanging vines provided an odd curtain for several feet. More importantly, though, the greenery throughout the room was festooned with color, with thousands of flowers and exotic smells around them.
“What… is that?” Joy asked, distracting Cora after a moment as the apis stared at a tree.
Cora blinked, then looked at the tree, frowning a little. The tree was a bit different from most of the ones she’d seen, with huge fronds at the top rather than having lots of branches with tiny leaves, like was normal for their region. Even more interesting were the clusters hanging from it, of dozens of green pods that curved down, then upward, forming a strange sort of cylinder.
“I’m not sure,” Cora said, looking at the tree thoughtfully. “I haven’t seen that type of tree before, and those pods…”
“They aren’t pods, Cora. They’re fruit. Have you never seen a banana tree before?” Stella asked, and Cora blinked.
“Banana tree? But bananas are yellow!” Cora protested, looking at the fruit tree incredulously, as she only remembered having a banana once in her life. The pods did look similar, but they weren’t nearly as big as what she remembered.
“They’re still growing, and obviously aren’t ripe, yet,” Stella said, shrugging. “There are some native to the region I grew up, at least of one type of banana.”
“That is an evil tree,” Joy announced, glaring at the tree with narrowed eyes, to Cora’s sudden shock. She’d never heard that much venom in the apis’s voice before.
“Er, why?” Brianna asked, looking at the tree in confusion, then at Joy. “It’s just a tree, right? Not one of the ones that eats people… it even has fruit!”
“The fruit smells like danger,” Joy said, obviously miffed as she crossed her arms. “It’s just like the smell that the hive defenders give off! Well, not just like it, but really, really close! And it’s even worse because of that tree!”
Joy pointed at another tree, and this one Cora recognized, since she’d seen lemons far more than bananas. It was closer to a traditional tree, though, and the fruit was actually somewhat yellow. Cora opened her mouth, then shut it as she considered.
“Um, are you saying that apis queens smell like lemons?” Cora asked hesitantly, a little incredulous at the idea, but given the commentary outside that was the only conclusion she could come to.
“Those are lemons?” Joy asked, looking at Cora and blinking.
“Yes… yes, they are,” Brianna said, hesitating for a moment, then asked, “Lemons, really?”
“Well, um, yes? That smells a lot like a queen does!” Joy said, gesturing at the tree and wrinkling her nose. “I wouldn’t have gotten so panicked if they weren’t in the same room as one another!”
Cora wasn’t sure who it was that started giggling first, but one of them did, and she couldn’t help herself, as the idea of an apis queen smelling like lemons had never occurred to her. The others all laughed, all but Joy, who just kept her arms crossed, looking at them unhappily. Stella was the first to recover, though she was grinning when she spoke.
“I’m sorry, Joy,” Stella said, a burble of amusement in her voice. “I shouldn’t laugh, I know I shouldn’t… but the idea of bees smelling like lemons, and their alarm smelling like bananas… it’s just a bit funny from our perspective. Bananas are something of a treat for a lot of people!”
“Not for me!” Joy said, shaking her head vigorously, then shivered. “Even the smell puts me on edge, like something’s about to fly out of the bushes and attack!”
“Well, I’ll just have to protect you from that, then,” Brianna said, grinning as she glanced at Cora, then continued. “How about we take a quick look around, since we’re here anyway, while Cora lets the merchant know what it is? If more apis come to the city, it’s probably best to give him warning.”
“That… is an excellent point. And not one I would’ve thought of,” Cora said, blinking as she considered the idea, then winced. If an apis panicked enough at the smell of a banana and lemon tree, it could cause a lot of chaos, and she resolved to let Viper know as well. “I’ll be right back, alright?”
“Okay,” Joy said, watching the banana tree distrustfully, her hand on the hilt of her rapier. They probably needed to get Joy out of the greenhouse soon, Cora reflected, but turned to leave for the moment, trusting the others to keep an eye on Joy.
Stepping outside, Cora took a moment to adjust to the different air, then nodded to the merchant, who was looking at her curiously, tugging on one end of his mustache gently.
“So, find any bees?” he asked, a touch of humor in his voice. “What was that about her being a bee, anyway?”
“Oh, you hadn’t heard? The gods created a new species a couple of weeks ago, the apis. They transformed numerous giant beehives into the apis across the world, and Joy is one of them,” Cora said, blinking at the man in surprise, then chided herself internally. It wasn’t like most people needed to know about changes like that, unlike adventurers.
“Really?” the man asked, his eyebrows rising abruptly. “That… well, that’s something, isn’t it? I hadn’t heard anything of the sort!”
“They did, and they’re an odd people. Joy is happy and enthusiastic most of the time, which was why this concerned us so much. I’ve never seen her react like that before,” Cora explained, glancing back at the greenhouse, considering for a moment, then added, “That said… you’d better be prepared for it if other apis visit the area. There weren’t any bees inside, but the problem is your banana and lemon trees.”
“What’s wrong with them? They’re perfectly healthy, I’ll have you know!” the merchant said, straightening suddenly. If anything, he looked outraged, and she quickly headed that off.
“No, no… there’s nothing wrong with them!” Cora explained, waving her hands as she tried to placate the man. “No, the problem is how they smell to apis! Your lemons have the same scent they associate with their queens, and the banana tree makes them think that a hive is under attack. We thought you’d want to know, for if more apis visit.”
“They what?” the man demanded, his hand dropping away from his face as he stared at her, drop-jawed. For a moment he didn’t say anything, then he asked suspiciously, “Are you serious, or just trying to play a prank?”
“I’m completely serious. Her hand hasn’t left the hilt of her sword since she entered your greenhouse, and Joy loves flowers. She normally has to force herself not to bound over a fence to smell them when we’re traveling,” Cora said, a smile creeping onto her face at the memory of one afternoon when Joy hadn’t resisted. “This is very, very strange for her.”
“Huh. Well, at least I found out now, rather than later. And I’ll have to let my gardeners know… not that it’ll make much difference. There’s no way I’m getting rid of one of them,” The merchant said, his tone turning musing as he tilted his head. “Still, I wonder how she’d react to lemonade?”
“That… is an excellent question,” Cora said, blinking a couple of times, then smiled as she glanced back into the greenhouse, where she could just barely see the others approaching a
set of large orange blossoms. “I’ll have to find out.”
Chapter 15
As it turned out, Joy loved lemonade. The apis had a happy, almost drunk expression on her face as she took a sip from her mug, humming blissfully under her breath. Oh, she’d added honey to the mug after claiming it ‘wasn’t sweet enough’, but that had been Joy’s only complaint, and it’d also been the first thing Joy had eaten or drank that wasn’t honey or water since Cora had met her.
“This is so good!” Joy said happily, cradling the mug in both hands as they sat at the table.
Cora resisted the urge to giggle, instead continuing to eat her sandwich, which definitely didn’t suit Joy’s tastes, as it had a slice of ham on it, along with her usual variety of vegetables. While Cora preferred to eat vegetables and fruit for the most part, she did like a bit of meat here and there.
“I’m glad you like it! And that the merchant suggested it,” Stella said, smiling broadly as well as she swirled her cup, taking a sip of her own lemonade, since all of them had chosen to order some. It was a touch expensive, Cora admitted, but fairly good. Stella continued after a moment. “Do you think you’re going to try other fruit drinks?”
“I don’t know! This one is good, but I don’t know about others. If they’re… what did you call it, Bri, fermented?” Joy asked, tilting her head slightly, and at the human’s nod, since her mouth was full, the apis grinned and continued. “If they’re fermented, no. It smells like its gone bad. This… with honey it tastes enough like nectar that I like it. I don’t know if it’s as good for me, though. I’ll have to sniff others, first!”
“Fair! If you like them, and apis start frequenting cities, I suspect there’ll be a few more places that start serving drinks that apis enjoy,” Cora said, taking another drink as she watched the apis in amusement. Hard lemonade definitely wouldn’t suit Joy, she was sure.
“The only question is, will they? From what I’ve heard, Joy’s the first apis to reach Irador, so I’m beginning to wonder if more than a handful will ever leave the hives,” Brianna said, now that her mouth wasn’t full. She hesitated, then shrugged. “I mean, it’s not unknown for a species to be rather insular and xenophobic.”
“No, they’ll have to travel, some!” Joy interjected, smiling broadly at Brianna. “If nothing else, they’re going to send delegations with drones to other hives, to trade them. A queen never mates with drones from her own hive, and since there isn’t another apis hive in the Flower Forest, the queen will probably send a group to one of the other two. Or they’ll send some to her, and find which drones want to leave or stay.”
“Ah, I… wait, didn’t you say something about that before?” Stella asked, frowning. “I could have sworn you did…”
“Probably! But it’s worth repeating, if Bri didn’t remember,” Joy said, shrugging and taking a deep draw off her mug, and letting out a happy sigh. “I think most workers are like me, so they’d be happy to meet people and try new things. As long as it’s for the good of the hive… and being a good neighbor probably would be good for the hive. Once the hive is properly built and defended, anyway.”
“Hm, well, that does make sense, then. I wasn’t sure if you were normal for an apis, though when we visited the hive…” Brianna paused, looking at Cora for a moment, then asked, “What did they call it, the Tulip Hive?”
“That’s right,” Cora agreed, stopping as well as she considered. “Really… what need would they have to name the hive if they weren’t planning on contacting other hives, anyway?”
“Exactly!” Joy said, grinning broadly. “Plus, it’s a good name! There are lots of tulips in that area.”
Brianna chuckled, shaking her head in amusement, but changed the subject after a moment. “Anyway, what I was saying was that when we went to your hive, I was startled at just how similar to you most of the apis were. They didn’t feel quite the same as you do, Joy, but at the same time, most of them looked like you and have the same sort of enthusiastic, pleasant presence. I was a bit surprised, since I honestly thought you had to be different.”
Joy paused, blinking at Brianna over the rim of her mug, then lowered it, licking her lips to clean them off, then put a spoon into the mug as she swirled it around. When the apis spoke, her voice was bright as she looked at Brianna in obvious amusement. “I don’t see why you’d think that, Bri! I’m just a worker, like all my sisters. Even if you like to think I’m special, I’m really not. I don’t know about other hives, they might be different, but…”
Joy’s voice trailed off as she looked at them, then shrugged and spoke gently. “At least with my hive, I can tell you that as long as you aren’t mean to the hive or something like that, if you were in danger and asked for help, or went to the hive, they’d protect you. It’s just our nature, to protect the hive. Now that we aren’t just bees, that’s going to change, too. I would never have considered the idea of you three as my hive when I was a bee, but now that’s changed.”
Cora stopped, looking at the apis and trying to understand what she’d just said. It wasn’t as though it had been anything too out of the ordinary, not for Joy. Another person might even think that it was casual conversation, for that matter, but there was something about Joy’s voice that made Cora pause, and made her throat tighten a bit.
It was because Joy didn’t say anything just for show, Cora realized. Many people wouldn’t truly mean something like that, or they wouldn’t be speaking what they considered the absolute truth. Joy… was who she was, and didn’t like deceiving others, so it made it hard to know what to say at times.
“I’m glad that you changed, Joy.” Stella was the first of them to find her voice, and the woman smiled warmly at Joy as she shrugged. “Sure, it’s caused a number of difficulties for us, like Cora dying, but at the same time… you’re a good friend, and I wouldn’t give you up for anything. That’s just another reason to head to Bearton soon, hm? We’re going to find your pure royal jelly, then we’re going to get you to level twenty as soon as possible.”
“Damned straight we are,” Brianna said, grinning broadly. “I’m not one to back down from a challenge, and while it’ll mean pushing our limits a bit, I’ll bet you we could manage ten levels in a month if we really tried.”
“I think that’s going a bit far, if you ask me,” Cora interjected, amusement bubbling up in her as she continued. “While it’s not impossible to level that quickly, it does tend to mean putting ourselves in a lot of danger. It wouldn’t do us any good to get ourselves killed instead.”
“Right! Safety comes first, especially since Cora hasn’t recovered from her last death fully, yet,” Joy said firmly, her wings buzzing behind her. “I have the better part of two seasons left, anyway! We can take a bit more time.”
“A definite point, though by the time we reach Bearton and get back, the chances of me dying permanently will be far lower,” Cora admitted, smiling at Joy in amusement. “In any case… shall we finish up and go to the cathedral? You wanted to see it up close, didn’t you?”
“Ooh, yes yes yes!” Joy exclaimed, and picked up her mug as she tried to down the remainder of its contents in one long pull, prompting a ripple of laughter to escape Cora and the others.
* * *
Joy stopped, staring upward in shock. The cathedral had been impressive enough from the outside, but the inside utterly shocked her. She’d expected it to have dozens of small rooms, the way that a hive might, or all the other buildings she’d seen did, but the cathedral was different. Oh, she was quickly identifying areas where the exterior was larger, so there were probably more rooms, but the majority of the building was given over to a single massive space that could have fit practically the entire hive inside it. Well, all of the rooms, anyway.
The room was as tall as a building with five or six floors, at her guess, and the reinforced buttresses were fascinating to Joy, since she hadn’t realized that a building could be made to hold such an open area. It was also a waste of space, in her opinion, b
ut it didn’t mean it was any less impressive. As were the statues around the room, for that matter, each of them depicting a different human-like figure, though some were different.
“Impressed, Joy?” Brianna asked, her amusement obvious, and Joy’s attention snapped away from the statue of a dragon on its hind legs, its forward arms crossed in front of it and its claws raised upward.
“Yes, of course! I don’t know why it’s so big, though! At least the glass gives plenty of light,” Joy said, looking at the windows, which were made of stained glass that depicted dozens of scenes which she couldn’t identify. She was sure they had some sort of significance to other people, but she just didn’t have the context to understand them.
“I’ve always heard that temples are something of monuments to the gods. We build them to be large and impressive, with rooms that are supposed to reflect their power, and give a sense of… of awe to the faithful,” Stella explained, her voice soft as she nodded ahead of them, where they could see dozens of people praying before different statues, as well as other people in robes that some common folk were speaking to. “The statues are common depictions of the deities, usually drawn from the rare divine visitation. The gods can change their appearances, and sometimes do in different regions of the world, but their visits are rare enough that many of the statues are the same everywhere.”
“To which I should add, almost all of the statues here are of the gods of light, as well as the ones that’re neutral in the conflict. Oh, there’s a couple of statues to the dark gods, but they aren’t really venerated here,” Brianna added, nodding toward the statues. “Not that we disrespect the dark gods. They’re simply not our gods… and it’s generally a really bad idea to upset them. Not worth the trouble, if you ask me.”
“Which is why there are statues of them in storage in some of the border cities,” Cora said, laughing softly as she glanced at Joy, and smiled as she explained. “Neither side is foolish enough to destroy a temple, that’s just a bad idea in general. They do often replace the statues with those of their own deities, however. Some of the border cities simply took to keeping them in storage, since there’s a need to swap them every so often.”
Webs & Wards (Beesong Chronicles Book 2) Page 11