The next morning, the Second of the Sixth rested on a table to the side, her workers feeding her honey, while the dicinal karnuq checked on the wounded one. The dicinal one turned to her with wide eyes.
“I can’t believe it. Not only is he fully stabilized, he’s well on his way to recovery after a single night. Did you help, Second Queen of the First Dynasty of the Sixth Spawner?”
The Second of the Sixth had one of her workers dance for her as she kept eating.
“Did. Made mana work harder.”
The dicinal one smiled at her.
“Thank you for your efforts. I can take over now if you wish to rest?”
The Second of the Sixth imdiately began to beat her wings and rose into the air.
“Thanks, will. Tell communer if need.”
And with that, she zipped back to her hive. She was tired, exhausted, and fully drained of mana at this point, so desperately needed to rest. Though, she did complete one final task. As she flew, she sent word to her communers.
“Ask First of the Fifth’s First Daughter if can have new honey later. Don’t need until after battle.”
After she succeeded in making the dicinal mana work harder, her mana had started to pulse lightly. Her instincts whispered to her, but she knew nothing would co of it yet. Her mana was insufficient for any sort of growth, she would need the First of the Fifth’s new honey before she could consider it.
But that was a blessing in disguise. Now that the wounded karnuq would survive, the hive of hives would turn its attention to the new invaders. The Second of the Sixth hoped her abilities wouldn’t be necessary, but she intended to be ready if they were. No bee nor karnuq who belonged to the King would perish under her watch.
***
Belissar smiled and teared up as Niobee reported the Second of the Sixth’s efforts to him.
“Thank the gods…”
Thanks to the Second of the Sixth, they hadn’t lost anyone yet. Belissar took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, and then frowned. There was a very significant chance bees and karnuq both would be hurt fighting the spiderkin. Belissar would likely have to hold another morial before this was over…maybe several if it took more than one battle to defeat the spiderkin.
He stood up straight and took another deep breath. The spiderkin hadn’t given him any other option, though. How could he talk with soone who attacked without warning? Maybe he could just have the karnuq hole up inside the Tower, but would that be enough? What if the spiderkin found and invaded the Tower anyways?
No, the best way to defend his Tower was to stop this threat, not hide from it. Even if so of his bees and his people would be hurt along the way. What he needed to do now was not second guess his decision but do all that he could to ensure as few casualties as possible.
And after thinking about it over the night, he had an idea. Belissar made his way over to the Orchard. The Fourth of the Seventh ca to greet him.
“Hi King! King is best king! First Daughter and communer organizing hive and hive of hives, but can help! What need?”
Belissar wondered for a second why the Fourth of the Seventh’s communer was busy instead of the queen herself, but he had more urgent questions to ask so he brushed that thought aside.
“That’s fine, they should keep doing what they’re doing. I was actually looking for the trapper. If she’s not busy, I wanted to see if she could help train the bee army.”
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The Fourth of the Seventh flew a happy salute.
“Can! Will ask!”
Belissar smiled.
“Thanks…oh, she’s gone.”
He chuckled as the Fourth of the Seventh zipped back to her hive. Niobee began to dance on his head while they waited.
“King wants trapper to join army?”
Belissar shook his head.
“She seems to have a job in the Orchard hive. For this fight though…she can make sticky silk to trap enemies, right? I thought that’s like spider webs, so maybe she can help the soldier practice? Maybe they can learn how to escape from webs in case they get caught by the spiderkin.”
Niobee stood still for a mont before resuming a slow dance.
“King still saving bees. King is best king.”
Belissar just quietly brushed Niobee’s back again. He’d been thinking about her since yesterday. Unlike how he saved Niobee back when he was a kid, it wouldn’t be possible for him to free each and every bee from a spiderkin web should the army get caught. But with the trapper the bees could now make webs of their own. Perhaps if the bees could learn how to escape on their own, he wouldn’t need to free them all personally, though he wished that he could.
The Fourth of the Seventh quickly returned with the trapper, who imdiately agreed to do anything Belissar wanted. He brought them over to the battle adow and explained his idea to the battle adow queens. They enthusiastically agreed, and before long the trapper was doing her best to catch diving soldier bee squads. Belissar watched a soldier get wrapped up in the sticky silk and fall to the ground, only to be imdiately carried away by the rest of her squad. The squad surrounded her and began pulling at the silk with their legs and mandibles. Belissar blinked at that, then shook his head and chuckled. Leave it to the bees to already know what to do.
Niobee watched as well, and soon began to stir. She took off and began to zip around.
“King, have idea!”
Belissar smiled. That was the Niobee he knew.
“Great, go ahead!”
Niobee’s antennae glowed as her mana raced through the Tower. Only a few minutes later, the First Butcher arrived with a squad of butcher bee soldiers. Soldiers with sharp mandibles, hooks, and claws.
Niobee explained the situation and the butcher squad joined in. They didn’t participate in the practice dives, but instead waited just behind the frontline. Whenever a soldier got caught by the trapper, they moved to help the soldier’s squad remove the webs. Their sharp appendages ripped through the silk strands far more effectively than the monster bee soldiers could.
Belissar’s grin grew. Not only were the bees of the Tower coming together to help one another, Niobee was also returning to normal. His idea seed to be working well.
And just in ti, for he had guests.
***
Belissar left the soldier bee army to its training and t his guests at the Nexus door. Tarwantrad, Tamosd, and Princess Finnakynne were all waiting for him. Tarwantrad looked at him with concern as he approached.
“Belissar, I got your ssage. What happened?”
Belissar sighed.
“A group of karnuq hunting in the Underway were ambushed by a band of spiderkin. One of the karnuq was seriously injured, but we think he’ll recover now. We’re preparing to fight back.”
Tarwantrad frowned.
“I see. I’m glad to hear no one was killed, at the very least. Could you tell us more about your plans? The Circle certainly won’t stop you from defending yourself, we’ll help you do so ourselves. Nenavann will want to know the full story though, as the Compact is set to et on you soon…”
Tarwantrad was cut off as Princess Finnakynne flew in between them with her hand raised high.
“! ! Pick , Beely! I want to ss with the spiders! I can ss with the spiders, right?! They attacked a mber of the Circle so we can ignore the rules now, right?!”
Tarwantrad sighed.
“Princess Finnakynne, I want to help Belissar more than anyone, but you rushing out to the mortal realm to pick on mortals is NOT going to help the situation with the Compact, right when we finally might get them to help.”
Princess Finnakynne just stuck out her tongue.
“Bleh, who cares about those old farts?! Beely needs our help and I will not stand idly by! Besides, it’s not fair that you and Tammy both got to go commit treason without ! It’s my turn to break the rules and get away with it!”
Princess Finnakynne turned to Belissar, clasped her hands in front of her, and made her eyes go as wide and round as she could.
“You’ll let help protect the bees, won’t you, Beely? Pretty please?”
Belissar did want all the help he could get, though he rembered enough of the warning about Finnakynne to glance at Tarwantrad and Tamosd first. Tarwantrad sighed once more but then smiled at him.
“I should ntion again we should at least consider the Compact’s response if we intervene on our own and I must warn against trusting Princess Finnakynne to actually help…”
Tarwantrad ignored Princess Finnakynne’s shouts of protest.
“But…as much as I loathe saying this…I agree with Princess Finnakynne. Belissar, I’ll help you no matter what the Compact says.”
Tamosd crossed his arms and humd to himself.
“I was supposed to convince to send so honey to the pixies in exchange for their support, Belissar. Perhaps if you do that, Queen Vanieskon would be convinced to overlook the princess there acting on her own? As for , I’ve already sworn to you all of my knowledge and resources, Belissar. That applies to the battlefield as well.”
Belissar could not help but smile. It seed his Tower wouldn’t have to face this enemy alone.
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