Sting & Song (Beesong Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Even so, she couldn’t help feeling hungry, and after a few moments the worker reluctantly pulled out some of the pollen she’d gathered to eat it. She’d prefer honey, since pollen was usually used to make food for young bees, but it was better than eating the nectar.

  Cora woke suddenly, sucking in a breath as she spasmed once, for an instant thinking she was still under attack, then she recognized where she was and let out the breath, struggling to relax.

  The ceiling above her was vaulted, and all around the chamber were graven images of dozens of deities, each of them extending a hand toward the center of the room where a glowing green crystal floated, shimmering with power. Cora groaned, closing her eyes as she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, hating what she was seeing. Waking up in the temple was never a good sign, even if the fact she’d woken up meant that she’d cheated death. Again.

  “Currency,” Cora muttered, and an instant later she knew exactly how much money she had left, and it made her heart ache. She had three thousand, six hundred and thirty-one coins, and it made her want to swear. She’d been so close to five thousand, when she’d be able to pay for access to the Tree of Life in Seldrim. Getting the funds had been the only reason she’d teamed up with Fedris and the others, and now… now she was even farther from her goal.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, Cora,” a man said, his voice soft and almost feminine.

  “Hello, Ryan,” Cora replied, feeling resigned and just a bit bitter as she opened her eyes, looking up to see the androgynous priest, his long brown hair combed back to fall down his back. He was wearing his usual white robes, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. After a moment she asked, “I don’t suppose any of the other members of my party avoided death, did they?”

  “Only in the usual manner of speaking,” Ryan said, gesturing around them, his expression darkening as he shook his head. “Alas, Death claimed Fedris anyway, showing that she pushed her luck a little too hard this time. My sympathies.”

  “Really? Well, crap. That makes me feel a little worse about worrying about how much my resurrection cost,” Cora replied, sighing heavily as she sat up, looking around as she did so.

  Around the edges of the resurrection chamber were twenty stone altars like the one she had been laying on, and on several Cora could see the sparkling green outlines of most of her companions. Or at least her temporary companions, since their party had consisted of those who’d been willing to take the risk of raiding a hive of giant bees. The reservoir of royal jelly hives contained was valuable, and she’d been looking forward to her share.

  “I can’t blame you. We never know when His Excellency will decide that someone’s time is up. However, as always, I must warn you that you are in grave risk of permanent death if you’re slain in the next month,” Ryan said gravely, offering a hand to help Cora to her feet. “I really would prefer you didn’t do that.”

  “You aren’t the only one,” Cora said, letting out a soft sigh as she shook her head, exclaiming in frustration, “The hell of the thing is how close we were! We’d almost taken down the queen when suddenly the bees all flashed white, then were replaced by strange, human-like people with antennae. I didn’t have time to Analyze her before they attacked, and we were too surprised to defend ourselves properly.”

  “They what?” Ryan asked, his eyebrows rising abruptly, and he winced sympathetically as he added, “That… is unfortunate timing for all of you.”

  “What do you mean?” Cora asked, looking at the priest suspiciously, her eyes narrowing as she asked, “Do you know something about it?”

  “Well… yes, of course. The gods sent a divine revelation earlier today,” Ryan said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “A new demi-human species was created by them today, as a small percentage of giant beehives were given the opportunity to evolve into the new apis. It appears that your target hive was one of them, and that it had the unfortunate timing to occur during your raid.”

  “They what?” Cora demanded, her eyes widening as shock rippled through her. “I haven’t heard of anything like that happening in millennia!”

  “Not since half the beastfolk tribes had the same thing happen to them,” Ryan agreed, rubbing his chin unhappily. “The other priests checked, and this hasn’t occurred in just over three thousand years. That’s why I said the timing was exceedingly unfortunate for you.”

  “That’s just… really? Was all the luck in the world against us? We were almost there!” Cora exclaimed in frustration, resisting her urge to wave her arms about, keeping in mind that they were in a temple.

  “I know it’s frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do about what’s already done,” Ryan replied helplessly, shrugging as he looked at her in concern. “It isn’t like we can control what the gods do.”

  “Of course not; it’s just… well, frustrating,” Cora said, her anger slowly turning to weary acceptance. While she’d love to rage about it more, it wouldn’t do anything to help at this point, and Ryan didn’t deserve her ire. She was sure that he’d be getting enough of that from the others, after all. In the end, she shook her head, letting out a sigh as she murmured, “Sorry, Ryan. I know you can’t do anything about it. I suppose I should just be glad I left my primary gear in town rather than taking it with me. I’d hate to have lost that too.”

  “It’s alright, Cora, I know you weren’t angry with me. Besides, we’re used to bearing the brunt of frustration here,” Ryan replied, smiling warmly in response, shaking his head as he added, “This is just going to be a particularly bad day, since not many people who challenge more powerful creatures frequent our temple.”

  “Fair, fair. Well, I’ll get out of your way before any of the others wake. You don’t need to be dealing with two or more of us at once,” Cora said, glancing back to see that Edwin’s body had mostly solidified. A tiny part of her was thankful she’d been the first to wake, since waking to him arguing with Ryan probably wouldn’t have been pleasant. “Thank you for tending to us while we were resurrected.”

  “You’re welcome, Cora. Go with the gods, and do be careful,” Ryan replied, giving a shallow bow, then asked, “Would you like me to escort you out?”

  “Thank you, but there’s no need for that. I know the way, unfortunately,” Cora said, letting out a soft, frustrated sigh.

  She headed for the door, leaving Ryan behind as she entered the chapel, which was barely larger than the resurrection chamber. It depressed her to think about, since that meant enough people died to monsters to make such a large room necessary, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Instead, she paused near the shrine to Fayliss, looking on the image of her goddess as she considered. She hated to lose even more money after her death, but her faith quickly won, and she willed a few coins into her hand and dropped them into the bowl in front of the goddess’s statue.

  “Thank you for shepherding my soul away from the gates of death once more, Eternity,” Cora murmured, bowing her head before the shrine deeply, and a sense of peace washed over her as she continued to pray. “I will keep your blessings in mind as much as I’m able and beg you to forgive my unthinking trespasses.”

  After a moment more, Cora opened her eyes and headed for the front doors, beyond which she could see an acolyte sweeping the temple steps. She needed to retrieve her things from the inn and find dinner, then figure out how to recover from the massive losses she’d incurred. It wasn’t going to be easy, and Cora could just feel a headache forming.

  Unknown to Cora, behind her, the ten coins she’d dropped in the bowl shimmered, then slowly evaporated.

  Chapter 3

  It was colder outside at night than the worker had expected, and she had been a little worried, at least until she’d wrapped herself in an inner petal of the rose as a sort of improvised blanket. The petal had worked rather well, and before too long the sun had dawned.

  There still weren’t any signs of any other bees, or apis, for that matter, but there wasn’t much she coul
d do about that. Instead, the first thing the worker did was begin making more wax to turn into jars. Once they were complete, she’d be able to store the remainder of her nectar to turn into honey. It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least she’d be able to get it refined within a day or so.

  She also had to eat, which sparked a little more guilt in the worker, but she didn’t see much else that she could do, aside from climbing up to where she could peer over the edge of the flower again. It was a really long fall, and she didn’t want to risk it. She doubted she’d survive, as a matter of fact, but the risk was oddly tempting.

  “I don’t like being up here,” the worker murmured forlornly, wondering what was going to happen to her. After a bit, she started humming softly to herself, trying to keep herself busy.

  “So, what do you want to do?” Brianna asked, sipping at her juice, then grinned as she added, “Aside from drink yourself into oblivion over everything you lost, that is.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Cora retorted, thankful she’d kept the potion for eliminating hangovers on hand. She ate her breakfast grimly, examining her friend and partner as she did so.

  Brianna was a human, and a rather skilled Swordswoman, one that Cora suspected would qualify to change to a Knight or Weaponmaster once she reached level fifteen. She had short auburn hair that hugged the nape of her neck while still being attractive, and which almost covered one of her blue eyes. She was wearing a tunic and leather trousers that fit her tanned, athletic figure, and her broadsword hung from the side of her chair. She was also a good enough friend that Cora would hate to lose her, even if she did want to strangle Brianna at the moment.

  “I told you that it was a bad idea to go into the hive with them, but no, you knew better. It was worth the risk,” Brianna continued, rolling her eyes as she ignored Cora to continue what she’d been saying the previous night. In all truth, that was what had driven Cora to drink so much, not her death and resurrection. Cora suppressed a sigh, waiting for Brianna to finish. “Instead you’re down over a thousand coins and are even farther from getting access to the Tree of Life than you were before.”

  “I’m well aware of that, and you were wrong, thank you. We would have done it and been fine if the gods hadn’t chosen that moment to introduce a new species,” Cora replied tartly, sitting back in her chair and glowering at her friend, hesitating a moment before she admitted, a little embarrassed, “True, it was a risk. I knew that going in, and if we hadn’t seemed to have good odds after the first couple of chambers, I’d have left. Unfortunately, the nature of how things went wrong meant that I couldn’t do that.”

  Brianna looked at her skeptically, crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair. Her friend’s response caused a flicker of honest anger, and after a moment Cora spoke coolly. “If you’re that insistent that I have to be wrong, maybe we shouldn’t be working together.”

  “Wait, what?” Brianna yelped, her eyebrows rising abruptly. “Isn’t that a little—”

  “Brianna, in the end what I did was a mistake, yes. However, you hounding me over it, insisting that my choice to take a calculated risk was wrong and otherwise trying to guilt me is beyond simply rude,” Cora interrupted, staring at her friend pointedly and noting the rising flush in the human’s cheeks. Cora paused, then continued bluntly. “It’s offensive, and not the sort of shit I need to be hearing when I damned well died yesterday. It’s horrible, especially for Fedris, and I’ve been admitting to the mistakes I’ve made. So would you let it rest already?”

  For a long moment Brianna was silent, and Cora sat back, feeling slightly guilty as she saw her friend look down at her plate. Cora was just glad no one else in the inn was close enough to hear them, though a maid was coming closer as she cleared a table that’d been vacated by a group of new adventurers.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you were taking it that badly,” Brianna said at last, letting out a soft sigh. “I just wanted to tease you, and I guess… well, I went a little overboard.”

  “Just a lot,” Cora agreed, taking a deep breath, then letting it out. She hesitated for a moment, then continued more gently. “In any case, as long as you leave it be, I’ll be fine.”

  “I can’t really leave you be, because the bees got you,” Brianna quipped, and Cora winced and groaned softly, shaking her head.

  “You… you’re just mean, you know that?” Cora retorted, glaring at her friend.

  “It was too good of an opening to pass up,” Brianna said unrepentantly, but she sat back as she asked, “Seriously, though, what’re you going to do? You’re nearly two thousand coins shy of your goal, now.”

  “Mostly I’m planning to look at the board and see what jobs are available,” Cora said, sighing as she sat back, abandoning the porridge at last. It wasn’t that good, anyway. She considered for a moment, then grimaced and added, “I’m thinking maybe I’ll go for some of the rarer ingredient retrieval quests. I only have Basic Salvaging, but they pay well, and killing creatures in the open areas of the Flower Forest is a lot easier than delves.”

  “Hm, well it’s certainly safer, and you really can’t risk death for a while,” Brianna said, sitting back as she thought, then grimaced. “I wish advanced forms of Salvaging and Harvesting were easier to learn and weren’t based on luck. It’d make our lives a lot easier.”

  “You’re telling me. Only a handful of jobs get automatically Harvesting, let alone Advanced Harvesting,” Cora said, feeling even more resigned. “I actually considered taking one when I was younger, then I found out that you lose them if you train out of the class.”

  “It definitely sucks,” Brianna said, sighing. After a moment she nodded, though. “That said, your strategy is probably the best. Even if it’ll take a long time, at least you’ll find plenty of minor drops to sell in the meantime, and you didn’t lose your best gear.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking,” Cora agreed, smiling. “Want to see what quests are in later? Heck, maybe we’ll even find someone with Advanced Salvaging who’s willing to help.”

  “Yeah, right. Like they’d be hanging out here, of all places,” Brianna replied with a laugh, grinning as she nodded. “But sure, we can do that. More coin is always good, after all… I need to upgrade my gear sometime.”

  “Very true,” Cora said, sighing as she thought about her own gear, as well as the cost of getting to the Tree of Life. It was going to take a few weeks for her to recover even slightly, likely as not, but that was how things went.

  “Hey, Cora. You trying to recover from the losses yesterday, too?” Negan asked, the man’s voice slightly nasal, and the brown-haired man looked a little disgruntled.

  “That’s right,” Cora agreed, then paused as she looked at the Rogue, blinking as she saw the gear he was wearing. The leather didn’t fit very well and had coarser seams, while the daggers on his belt looked rather mundane. The sight was a far cry from the sleek black leather he’d worn the previous day, along with wickedly curved daggers in his belt. She hesitated, afraid to even ask, but after a moment couldn’t help herself. “You… you weren’t wearing your primary gear yesterday, were you?”

  “You weren’t?” Negan asked, blinking, then scowled as he muttered, obviously dismayed. “Shit, you probably had the right idea. I lost more than I care to think about with that death… I guess I got blinded by the reward.”

  “I was willing to take the risk, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want to risk the rest of my gear if we failed, so I pulled out the gear I replaced when I hit tenth level,” Cora explained, wincing at the thought of losing eleven hundred coins and her high level gear. She cleared her throat, shifting as she glanced at Brianna and added, “I had intended to take the old gear back home for someone else who wanted to become a mage to use, but… well, that isn’t going to happen, obviously. Not with the bees becoming demi-humans.”

  “Damned apis,” Negan muttered balefully, his gaze hardening suddenly. “They just had to evolve at that moment, didn’t they?”

&nb
sp; “We can’t change what the gods will,” Cora said simply, shaking her head as she glanced at the quest board, with various quests pinned to it. “What’re you planning for rebuilding your funds?”

  “I’ll probably be going back to Maple Ridge,” Negan said, grimacing as he let out a sigh. “There’s a caravan headed that way the day after tomorrow, and my gear is bad enough that I don’t dare take on most of the quests around here. Once I’ve gotten my gear up to par, I might come back. At least I’ll be high enough level to take on the quests there pretty easily.”

  “Fair, though you have my sympathies. For me… I’m planning on taking a bunch of gathering quests,” Cora said, wincing as she looked at the nearest one, which was asking for ten silvertulip buds. That wouldn’t be an easy quest, but the rewards were decent. She hesitated before admitting, “It’ll be time-consuming but is a damned sight safer than most of the other quests.”

  “Ugh, yeah… I’d rather go back to Maple Ridge, personally. I hate how mind-numbing those quests can be, and you can find a hundred plants or animals without getting even one of the requested items,” Negan replied, shuddering slightly. “I’ll take a guaranteed reward, thanks.”

  “Fair enough. I need to look at the board, though, so… good luck,” Cora told him and stepped away to look at the quest board more closely.

  “There’re quite a few gathering quests, and they tend to have pretty good rewards, at least on the rare ones,” Brianna commented, now that Cora was done, and she tapped one, continuing. “This one, for instance… ten intact wasp poison glands are worth three hundred coins.”

  “That’s because wasps can fight back. Most of the ones for plants are between a hundred and a hundred and fifty,” Cora replied, glancing at the silvertulip one again, confirming that it was worth a hundred coins with a wince, not liking the work that’d be involved, but it was better than the average of fifteen to twenty coins for common ingredients. “I’m not seeing many common ingredient quests, either.”