The shock of Diryish’s death reverberated through the whole city. The new mander scholars froze where they
stood, or fell. Many zardukar fell, or
sank to their knees. Ky had gotten down
from his bird at the high gate and taken up the goad for his da, who had slid
down next to stepda. His boots had just
hit the stone and Ilax had reached to take his elbow, lovingly when the Hive
decended to cover Kyrus from head to foot where he stood, spreading from Kyrus
up over Ilax’s hand and forearm, thick enough that neither of them could move.
Hara froze in the act of reaching for her father as he said,
stiff-lipped. “Don’t. It’s all right. Don’t try to touch me.”
“Da!”
The Emir-al ran up the steps, followed by the Amir and the zon. “Close the Gate!” He shouted up at the
gatehead and the enormous doors slowly began their swing shut, grinding over
sand that had accumulated just this day, bringing scythes of shade up and over
the tableau just inside, but stopped before they were more than half closed.
“Don’t touch the bees, lass,” the Amir said quietly as Hara’s hand
hovered over the edge of her father’s sleeve.
Ilax turned his head, slowly and shook it very slightly. His eyes were glazed and he seemed to have
trouble seeing his daughter.
“Noooo. Leeeeeeeve iiiiiitttttt...”
he said slowly, his voice stuttering basso profundo as if the words were being
hauled up from a well bottom by rope.
“What’s happening? What’s going
on?” Kyrus jittered, frantic to do something but couldn’t do anything. People were gaining their feet, coming down
from the Emperor’s bedroom, from the balcony where the empty shell of the man lay,
as if drawn out of a kicked hive.
Kyrus’s face suddenly came clear out of the mass of bees on him. They flowed like water over his body, black
and gold, blue and green, metallic rose.
Bright orange bees with wings like blue chips of lamp flames. Tiny bees like red pinpricks and big,
bumbling bees the size of a man’s palm, with tear-thumb petals stuck on them
like purple druplets bursting from an orange.
Bee-spiders and Bee-dragons and Bee-fly combinations in a hundred or a
thousand different styles. The noise
they made as they streamed in from all over the city was overwhelming. People began covering their ears with their
hands.
He looked almost calm, but there were signs of tension and pain. Bees walked the outer edges of his lips and
the edges of his ears and nostrils, weighed his eyelids down. A line of
sting-marks traced the edge of one cheekbone, leaving glistening drops of blood
and venom on his skin.
**
The code flowed, even though the
main hub was disrupted. The Queen bee
was decommissioned. The Queen Bee was
dead. There were new Queen larvae... the
human baby, Homa. The declared
Kraganzh... Kyrus Talain: approved by the old Queen. Being taken up by the Hive. Status: PENDING. Kyrus Talain, siwion of Lainz, declared
siwion by the old Queen. Status:
PENDING. Queen Bee contender, Nadian Basserus. Current Status: Blood on the
throne; access granted. Status: PENDING.
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