Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind and Other Stories by Beka Gremikova

Author:Beka Gremikova [Beka Gremikova]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SnowRidge Press
Published: 2023-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Prince of Bees

Ivan never expected his future to rely on a honeybee.

Heart thundering, he crept down the cold, silent hallways of the Ukran palace, keeping his eyes on the small fleck of yellow buzzing before him. The very air seemed intent on gnawing at his skin; though he’d been here three days already, he still hadn’t acclimated to the atmosphere.

Or to the deathly, consuming quiet, broken only by the buzzing of the queen bee of Ukra’s royal hive. She flitted around his head before stopping to rest on his shoulder.

He lifted a hand to brush his finger gently across her body; she gave a tiny buzz and seemed to nestle closer. Perhaps she felt as disturbed by the dark magic in this place as he did.

“It’s all right,” he whispered. “It’ll be fine as long as we don’t run into my brothers.”

Before they left home, Maxim and Andrei had made it clear they wouldn’t tolerate his interference in their quest to free Princess Mischa and her palace from the spell that befell them a week ago. The princess had apparently clashed with a sorcerer, but no other word had been received and no one knew exactly what had happened to the princess and those under her care.

But Ivan had no intention of following the older princes’ orders; now that he was eighteen and finally of age to compete in a Challenge himself, he’d set out on his own to reach the Ukran palace.

Upon arrival, all he’d found was a seemingly empty palace and a Challenger’s Note from the sorcerer that outlined, albeit in the vaguest terms possible, the three challenges necessary to lift the spell. He could only thank Heaven that magic’s innate laws required magicians to provide ways to break their enchantments.

Not that such help would necessarily make Ivan’s quest any easier. Especially with his brothers intent on freeing the famous Honey Princess and adding her to their list of conquests.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Despite his thinner physique, he’d already overcome two Challenges with the queen bee’s aid. Surely he could accomplish one more.

He just had to round the corner, and he’d find the door that was his destination. If he could reach it before his brothers got here—

The queen bee zipped into the air, wings buzzing frenetically.

Ivan whirled around, his long golden hair whipping around his shoulders.

At the opposite end of the hall stood two large, broad-shouldered men, swords gripped in their hands. Golden bears had been stitched into their tunics, a sign of their warrior status back home in Kuvrak, a smaller territory in the Russakian empire.

When the men stepped forward, the wooden floor creaked beneath their boots, as though even the palace itself quivered beneath their might.

Ivan, as tall and thin as a stork, could only freeze and try not to show the cold fear that sluiced through his limbs. It didn’t even occur to him to draw the short dagger he carried from its sheath.

“We told you to stay at home, Little Pale Face,” Maxim, the larger of the two, growled, his amber beard bristling.

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