Lady of The Bees (v1.0) by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

MELLONIA

I

“Niece, why are you twisting your hair? There are easier ways of making yarn.”

“I am going to weave a tapestry. Penelope, don’t you see. I need her patience.”

“He’ll come, believe me, my dear.”

“How do you know what a boy will do?”

“Look in your mirror. Even with twisted hair, you can hardly pass for a Gorgon. Calypso, Circe, Helen —not Medusa.”

“Boys break promises.”

“MelloniaShe only used my name before a severe reprimand. “I think I should call you Cassandra. Prophesying doom as most young women—yes, young—predict weddings. And Aeneas took one look at you and forgot Dido.”

“Aunt,” I cried. “I don’t want to tempt the gods. Juno, who hated Aeneas. Venus—I may have affronted her with my chastity. I love him too much, you see. He will be the death of me.”

“Or the life?” she chuckled. Purple grew amethystine; her sudden shimmering was a smile; I knew what she had in mind (in mist?).

Then, the knock at the foot of the tree. The kick of a hoof.

Sylvan.

“Come through the tunnel,” I called from the window above his head. “You know the way.” To Segeta: “Go now. At once. Fauns are afraid of Lemures.”

“Oh, very well. But I wanted to see his horns. You know, I have always fancied Fauns. My first six lovers-

“Please!”

“If Remus doesn’t come…now that you’ve broken your fast, I mean. He seems a presentable chap. Experienced too, I expect.”

“No more lentils and beans. Ever!”

“I have brought you news.” Hesitant, he stood at the top of the stairs. He had combed his hair and caught it behind his head with a tendril of wild grapevine; sleek, silken, brown as a chestnut. He had even girded his flanks in a loin cloth. He had dressed to call.

I drew him into the room. Remus’ friend. My friend too if I could learn to deserve him. I wanted to hold him, childlike, in my arms. The thought of his brown head, warm against my breast, warmed me like a brazier in the frost. To hold, to cradle, simply to touch, a mother with her child—lost sensations, remembered but not without pain. So much to relearn…Still, there was time. There must be time.

“He is going to follow you here?”

“He went to the palace to see his grandfather, Numitor. Amulius surprised him in the garden. Called his guards.”

I felt the familiar rat at my heart. “Is he hurt?”

“Not when I left.”

“And Romulus—what will he do?”

He explained the plans he had overheard in the hut.

“Romulus’ shepherds,” I muttered. ‘1 have seen them drill in the woods. Boys and cutthroats. They have no armor, weapons, catapults.”

“They are making shields out of animal hides.”

“Hides against archers?”

“I think they are making ladders to climb the walls.”

“What is a staff against a sword?”

“Green-O-the-Woods,” he said. I liked the name from his lips. Fauns have a lilt in their voices; he seemed to sing the name. “You have hurt a bee.”

“What? Oh, poor little worker. I must have shaken my hands and flung her onto the floor.” I lent my finger to her small hooked feet and set her among my asphodels.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.