Queen Apisalia's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Queen Apisalia pressed her hands to her ears and fled the throne room. The hive's buzz chased her down every corridor. She had ruled longer than most queens already, and she meant to outlast them all. But she could not outlast anyone if the noise broke her first. She slipped past the outer guards and into the meadow beyond. There, hidden behind a curtain of climbing vines, stood a small yellow cottage she had built in secret. Stone walls. Honeycomb windows. No courtiers. No petitioners. Only the wind. At the path's edge, a small wooden watchtower marked the boundary. Its louvered walls swallowed the hive's drone before it could reach her door. She passed beneath it and felt the weight slide from her shoulders. Mellifer Ironsting waited on the cottage step, a bundle of hollow wood and bone chimes in his hands. "I made these for you," he said. "Soft tones. Nothing sharp." He hung them from the eave, and they sang in gentle, honeycomb notes. Apisalia closed her eyes and breathed. The roar of duty faded to a hum she could bear. She had her retreat now. She would reign longer than any queen before her — but tomorrow, the hive would come looking, and they would learn she had vanished.