by Unknown
“I’m glad to meet you! You’re a lot like the Shadebough queen, but different, too! Sparklier,” Joy replied, smiling broadly as she pulled a few jars out of her backpack. “These are something called lemonade, which the people in the cities make. It’s my blend, using a type of fruit called a lemon and honey to make a drink. They use sugar and water instead, but honey is better. I hope you like it!”
One of the attendants stepped forward to take the jars and gave one to the queen, who opened it, and her eyebrows rose as she took a sniff and smiled. “This smells good; thank you!”
“You’re welcome!” Joy said, looking at the pot before asking, “What’s the dirt for?”
“I’m trying to grow a tree. There’s a flower that produces the nicest nectar, and I wanted one of my own,” the queen said, looking at the pot as she shook her head. “No matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to grow.”
“Um, well, I’ve been reading about gardening, so I just started… but you’ve been watering it and letting it have sunlight, right?” Joy asked hopefully, and the queen blinked at her.
“Water, yes, but not sunlight. There’s light in here, which I thought was enough,” the queen said, looking a little confused. “Am I wrong?”
“Well, the book I read said that it depends on the plant, but almost all of them need sunlight to grow,” Joy explained. “You can’t give it too much water, either! You don’t want to drown the plant.”
“Oh,” the queen said, closing the jar of lemonade as she looked at her pot, then nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Joy.”
Cora hesitated, then decided that it was time to interject. While she hated to do so, the queen was rather approachable, so…
“If you don’t mind me asking, when do you think you’ll make your decision? About helping?” Cora asked nervously, hoping she wasn’t making their chances worse.
“In a day or two,” the queen said, looking up from the pot to meet Cora’s gaze. “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to help guard the thing in the forest, if what you said is right.”
It felt like an ice block had formed in Cora’s stomach, and she almost forgot to breathe. There was something about the woman’s eyes that made her worry grow rapidly, and Cora wasn’t sure what it was.
“Why do you say that?” Stella asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
The queen looked at one of the attendants, and the woman stepped forward, looking at Stella as she spoke.
“We noticed some intruders a few days ago in our territory, intruders that built a wood wall around a spot and stayed there. They must be the guards you mentioned, but yesterday they were attacked by another group, then were tied up and left in a cave that was opened,” the attendant explained, making the icy feeling grow still worse. “They may still be tied up.”
“Oh no,” Cora said, barely managing to speak with how the blood was draining from her face. “If they already have the last seal piece… that’s really bad.”
“We don’t know that they have it,” Brianna interrupted, reaching over to put a hand on Cora’s shoulder, prompting her to look into the human’s eyes. “We can check and find out, still. It could be bandits, even if I doubt it.”
“You’re right!” Joy added, straightening as she looked at the attendant and queen. “Thank you! We probably need to go, and thank you for the honey!”
The queen nodded in reply, watching them as Cora quickly scrambled to her feet and followed the others out of the room.
“I hope they’re wrong. That the fragment hasn’t been stolen,” Cora said numbly, fear rippling through her.
“So do I,” Joy agreed, taking Cora’s hand as she smiled warmly. “We’ll figure it out, though. Promise!”
Something about Joy’s smile pierced through the icy fear, warming Cora’s heart.
Chapter 30
The queen watched the four leave, then tapped her pot and looked at the attendants. “Please have this put somewhere it can get sunlight.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” one of them said, bowing as she took the pot in both arms and left. Another began cleaning up the chalices and honey, which the queen had noticed had barely been touched by the non-apis. They ate other things, if she remembered right… but it was still something which unsettled her.
After a minute, she asked, “Should we help them?”
The attendants looked at one another, none of them replying with words. She could smell them, though, as their pheromones told the tale. Their opinions were… conflicted, to say the least. A large number of them were uneasy about interfering in a battle outside the Shimmerwood, and they remembered how some of the adventurers had hunted them before. On the other end of things, the idea of any spider that had ‘apocalypse’ in the name terrified them, and some of them wanted to deal with it before it was freed. Even among the seven attendants in the room, there wasn’t a consensus, though.
Considering, the queen looked down at the jar of lemonade and turned it slowly, noting how the construction was subtly different from the wax jars she was used to. Joy’s sincerity had been obvious, and the apis had been genuinely fascinated by their hive and wanted to help. That, combined with the high regard the Shadebough attendant had for Joy, helped her come closer to a decision. Perhaps non-apis wouldn’t have noticed the way the drones had also respected Joy, but all of her apis had.
“Spread the explanation. Tell all of the attendants, drones, and workers, as well as those with newer jobs,” the queen said at last, straightening slightly. “I wish to smell all of their opinions where this is concerned. We stand alone in this forest, so if we are to go to war or not, the hive must make a decision.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” the attendants chorused, and they scattered just as abruptly, racing in every direction as she watched. The queen watched them go, then gave a wistful smile as she was alone at last.
“I don’t even know what I would do,” she whispered, then shrugged. “Good luck, Joy.”
“You want to go where?” Drake demanded, scowling. “That isn’t part of the deal!”
“No, it isn’t. But the apis said that the guards around the seal thingy were attacked yesterday and tied up. Shouldn’t we help them if they’re still trapped?” Joy asked earnestly, a hand holding the other tightly behind her back. She was nervous, but trying not to show it.
“Err…” the man began, looking a little torn as his scowl grew less pronounced. Joy just waited for him to reply, but after a minute he spoke unhappily. “Look, I understand the desire to help them, but I don’t even know where the guards are. The Shimmerwood is a big place, and it isn’t like I followed them when they left.”
“That would be a problem. I’m worried that Sir Wilbert doesn’t know, either,” Brianna said, looking around nervously as she continued. “That’s probably why they left them alive, assuming the apis are right. I’m sure they’re not lying, but maybe they’re mistaken? I hope so, anyway.”
“While it would be nice, I think getting our hopes up is not a good idea,” Stella cautioned. “The only issue is that, as Drake said, we don’t know how to find the people there.”
“No, but the apis here do. Maybe one of them would lead us to the location?” the Shadebough attendant offered, looking far happier than Joy felt, though Joy could understand why.
Three drones were in the middle of the Shadebough workers, and these were more like the local apis, with odd, brightly colored highlights to their hair and armor, though they were still very distinctly apis like her. The way that Brianna and Cora had ogled them also indicated to Joy that their physiques were attractive to non-apis, though Joy wasn’t entirely certain why. Oh, they had good proportions of shoulders to height, and had plenty of toned muscles which would be helpful, but she didn’t really understand it. That was part of being a worker, she suspected.
“I suppose. The question is if they’d be willing to show us there. I don’t like the idea of following someone else through the Shimmerwood, but at least they’d know where t
hey were going,” Drake conceded, somewhat to Joy’s surprise. He’d been obstinate and dour enough that she’d been worried he’d outright object. Looking at her, he scowled and said, “What? Just because I think a lot of you people coming in here are idiots doesn’t mean I want people to die.”
“I didn’t think you did! I just thought it was odd, since you’ve been grumpy. Did you sleep on a rock or something like that?” Joy asked, at which point his expression grew even darker. She also noticed the inquisitive pheromones the attendant emitted, asking one of the local hive members to come over.
“People like you are exactly the problem,” Drake replied crossly, folding his arms. “Your type irritate me, and I’d rather you left me alone.”
“Then… why did you let the apis hire you?” Cora asked curiously. “They’re almost all like her.”
“Their coin spends as well as anyone else’s,” Drake replied simply, looking at the attendant as he asked, “What about it? Can you ask them?”
“Sure! We’re just waiting for one of them to come over,” the attendant said cheerfully, looking toward the field expectantly.
Joy nodded, deciding to let the subject drop with Drake, since he didn’t like it. Instead she bounced in place, looking around at the fields as she wondered what the apis were going to do with them. She wanted to figure out how the gardening she’d started looking at would apply to a field like this, but she didn’t know enough yet. Besides, the apis seemed to be rather happy with it as it was.
A minute later an apis broke away from the others, cleaning her hands off as she flew toward them. The woman landed again only a few feet away in an elegant, practiced motion that Joy envied. She must have had a lot more practice than Joy had… but on the other hand, Joy also spent a lot of time walking alongside her friends.
“Hi! You needed something?” the worker asked, looking at the Shadebough attendant curiously.
“Yes! We wanted to check on the group of intruders that one of your attendants mentioned, who got tied up in a cave, but we don’t know where it is. Could someone guide us there?” the attendant asked, a bright smile on her face. The worker’s pheromones seemed amenable, causing Joy to relax.
“Sure! I don’t know the way, but I know a worker who does, and I heard there’s some good nectar and pollen near there. I’ll be right back!” the worker said, and darted off quickly.
“Ah… is nectar and pollen the only thing they care about?” Drake asked, frowning as he watched the apis leave.
“Pretty much!” Joy confirmed, shrugging as she added, “That might change, though. We need ore to improve our weapons and armor, and I don’t know if we’ll need other things, but right now all we need is food to get us through winters.”
“Hrrm. If it weren’t for how cheerful you lot were, I might actually like you,” Drake muttered under his breath, sending a ripple of laughter through all the apis.
Moments later the worker returned with five other apis accompanying her, two of them with bows, one with a staff, and the remaining all with the usual rapiers that Joy was used to. The worker smiled at them as she said, “We’re ready! Follow us, we’ll lead you to the other intruders. Oh, and we’ll take you places you can walk, even if walking is boring.”
“It’s very appreciated,” Cora replied, smiling wryly at them as she added, “Though I do wish I could fly myself. It would be more convenient!”
The apis giggled, then started heading to the southwest, Joy thought. It was hard to tell, with how the sun was radiating all around them rather than from a single glowing orb, but she thought she was getting used to it.
But mostly she quickly followed Drake, wanting to see if the seal piece really had been taken. That would be bad.
Chapter 31
The apis led them through the Shimmerwood quickly and easily, faster than even Drake had, which seemed to annoy the man inordinately, though Drake kept it to himself as much as possible. Cora couldn’t really blame him, since he was considered one of the leading experts on the Shimmerwood, but she also understood why the apis were able to do so much better. Drake visited the Shimmerwood, but the apis lived here. If they couldn’t navigate it, they’d have died out long before.
That didn’t mean the trip was completely safe, though. They’d run into another pack of ghost wolves along the way, and had only narrowly avoided an encounter with a hill troll, something which had put Cora’s hackles up a lot. If it weren’t for the apis warning them, they wouldn’t have had time to hide before the troll wandered past, a hulking mountain of muscle, claws, and fangs.
“Why were you so scared of the troll?” Joy asked quietly, her head swiveling back and forth regularly as she continued to lead from just behind Drake and the fluttering apis. “It looked mean, but you all hid.”
“Because fighting a hill troll when you aren’t the same level as it is a quick form of suicide,” Brianna replied tartly. “Maybe Drake could’ve hurt it, but we’d have had a terrible time of things.”
“Hurt it? Sure. Kill it? Hah! That’d be the day,” Drake said, snorting softly. “Damned things heal like you can’t believe, unless you use fire on them. Magical fire, I mean, and even that’s a short-lived effect.”
“What?” Joy asked, her confusion growing, and Cora gave the two a chiding look as she spoke.
“You’re just confusing her, so give me a moment,” Cora said reproachfully, and Brianna blushed.
“Sorry, Cora,” Brianna said, looking away.
“It’s fine. Now, trolls can heal from almost anything, Joy. The only thing that slows it down is magical fire, but I don’t have spells that do enough damage to stop it,” Cora explained. “We’d have to take it down, then blast it with fire over and over again until it actually died. The problem is, they’re incredibly strong, and if it got its claws into one of us, it could rip us clean in half. If it was a regular troll, I might be willing to take our chances, but hill trolls are stronger, and that one was level thirty. I don’t think risking our lives over a single wandering monster is worthwhile.”
“Oh! That explains it!” Joy replied, nodding in understanding. “Are those common here?”
“Nope. That one is Old Cragtooth, a nasty bugger that was chased into the Shimmerwood by the army ten years back,” Drake said grimly, shaking his head. “Then he slaughtered the troops chasing him, and he’s rarely left since. He’s not good at navigating the wood, but he’s strong enough to fight almost anything here and win. Except for the rainbow serpents, but they’ve taken to leaving him alone, and he’s not quite stupid enough to keep picking fights with them, damn it.”
“I wondered why something like that was here,” Brianna muttered, at which point Joy paused, spotting a building ahead of them… well, a building of sorts.
She recognized the type of wall that’d been around Bearton and the Tulip Hive, though this one didn’t look quite as nice. The fence was made of sharpened logs that would have been somewhat imposing normally, but a chunk of it had been ripped open and a dozen logs were on the ground or halfway there.
“That doesn’t look good,” Joy said, prompting another snort from Drake.
“Duh,” the man said, pulling out his odd knife again, and started forward. “Let’s find out just how bad this is, shall we?”
“Um, thank you for guiding us!” Joy said, looking up at the apis, and several of them grinned at her.
“You’re welcome!” one said, waving as she started off to the side. “I hope you stop the bad person from releasing that spider! I don’t know if we’ll help, but it sounds bad.”
“Agreed!” Joy called after them, then turned toward the palisade, drawing her rapier as she asked, “Can I fly now, Cora?”
“Sure. Just try not to make yourself into a target,” the elf said, passing her cautiously, her staff at the ready.
“Right!” Joy said, taking flight, and as she did, she noticed that the Shadebough apis were hanging back, guarding the drones. It made complete sense to her, since the entire point o
f why they’d left the hive was to bring back drones. They wouldn’t take nearly as many risks now, she suspected.
The distortion in the air was far more obvious when flying, Joy noticed almost immediately, as things below her twisted subtly, but it wasn’t enough that she lost track of where things were. It did give her an immediate vantage point to see past the wall, though, and she cringed at the sight. There were numerous tents that had been ripped and torn, sagging close to the ground, and a watchtower in the center of the encampment had collapsed as well. She couldn’t see anyone outside, but she did see a wooden barrier in front of a cave in the hillside, one that reminded her of the glowing doors she’d seen in the Blackstone Mines and Teeming Jungle.
“Um, it was definitely attacked,” Joy said, flying a little lower and looking at the others, with Drake leading the way. “I see a barricade over the cave, but no one is outside.”
“Which means they might still be inside,” Stella said quietly, looking around in worry. “We ought to check on them, but I don’t want to be ambushed by any monsters that are inside.”
“Exactly,” Drake agreed. “Can you look and see if there’s anything around? A lot of the creatures here can’t fly, so you’ve got a bit of an advantage when scouting.”
“Sure!” Joy chirped, and quickly began to fly around the perimeter, though she was careful to keep an eye out for any flying opponents as well. She didn’t want to be ambushed by a giant wasp, since the apis had mentioned destroying a nest. Just because they said they killed them all didn’t mean one hadn’t gotten away, or been away when they attacked.
Circling the area didn’t reveal any danger, though, to Joy’s relief. She did smell a little smoke from inside the cave, though, including some rather nauseating smells, like the food Brianna and Stella preferred. So, when she got back to the others, she spoke up.
“Nothing nasty around that I could see or smell! I did smell fire inside the cave, and they might’ve been cooking? I’m not sure,” Joy reported brightly.