Hive Magic (Empire of War & Wings Book 2) Read online

  Hive Magic

  Empire of War & Wings: Book Two

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2020.

  While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

  HIVE MAGIC

  First edition. August 14, 2020.

  Copyright © 2020 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Note to the Reader:

  Previously in the Winged Empire ...

  BOOK ONE: OUT OF THE HIVE

  Elsewhere in the Winged Empire...

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  BOOK TWO: INTO THE NEST

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Behind the Scenes:

  For Barbara and Melissa who are crafting me into a better storyteller.

  Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Tangled Fae Series (2020)

  Bridge of Legends Series (2019)

  Dragon Tide Series (2019)

  Dragon Chameleon Series (2018)

  Dragon School Series (2018)

  The Unweaving Chronicles (2017)

  Note to the Reader:

  YOU ARE RECEIVING A complimentary early copy of this book. I certainly hope that you enjoy it and leave a review on Amazon. If you manage to read the book before September 30rd AND you review it, you can get the next book in the series early for review as well! Simply review the book and fill out this new form. This will be the last time that I ask you to fill out a form for this series. After this, I will offer the rest of the series on the honor system to the people who filled out this form. I will be sending out review copies of the third book on September 30th (I hope! I just finished writing it yesterday and it’s in editing) so don’t miss the mailing! There will be no late copies or exceptions.

  Previously in the Winged Empire ...

  THE CROWN PRINCE TOOK all the weapons from the people of Far Stones and they had no way to defend themselves from the dark magic that lurks there.

  Aella was meant to Hatch into someone who manifests a magic bird but she Hatched bees instead.

  The crown prince says he owns her now, and she’s afraid to defy him in case he takes it out on her family like the way he killed her father.

  Her allies are Zayana, Osprey, and Ivo.

  But Osprey is linked to the crown prince through magic and he’s bound to stop any moves made against the throne.

  Ivo wants her to be part of a secret revolution – a revolution that he and Osprey have already committed to.

  But everything changed when the prince manifested snakes in an underground cathedral.

  And that’s what you need to know.

  Map

  BOOK ONE: OUT OF THE HIVE

  On the cusp of the zephyr,

  The edge of the breeze,

  On the peak of the hurricane,

  We find our ease.

  Dance with the torrent,

  Drift over the tide,

  Embrace the tornado,

  But live for the ride.

  Songs of the Winged Ones

  Elsewhere in the Winged Empire...

  HE WAS SEEING THINGS. That was the only reasonable explanation.

  Trassel Isle was the most boring post in the Winged Empire and any Claw sent here was either close to retirement – like he was – or too thick in the head to manage harder duties. He didn’t mind the quiet most of the time, but tonight, something had felt strange about it and he’d barely taken a sip from his tin mug of tea as he stared into the darkness hour after hour.

  Dawn would be soon.

  He hoped that when the sun rose all he saw was barren rocky shores, the beating sea, and a handful of seagulls – just like usual.

  If the morning light showed that, well, he’d drink down his tea and change the watch a happy man.

  He made the sign of the bird over his chest at the thought, and gently stroked his necklace sewn of gull feathers. Seagulls were alert. They shrieked at danger. He’d always thought they were a good house for him. Even now in the Claws, where he wore signs of the Winged Empire, he still felt like his spirit connected to theirs.

  They were quiet now but when dawn came, they’d be shrieking and diving over the sea.

  A bee buzzed around his mug and he tried to swipe it away. What was a honeybee doing here, miles from any flowers? He shook his head. Sometimes nature made no sense.

  He smiled as the first blush of light peeked over the horizon, straining his eyes as he tried to see what couldn’t be seen yet. The minutes ticked by and he let out his breath, waiting, waiting.

  The sea still seemed darker than usual as if even the morning light couldn’t banish the shadows this day. But that was likely only an old man’s imagination after a long night.

  The light bloomed a little brighter, picking out white shapes floating on the surface of the sea.

  What in the ...

  The tin mug hit the tower floor, splashing cold tea over his polished boots. He didn’t care.

  The surface of the water was speckled with dead gulls. At the base of the tower and filling every bit of land he could see, was something dark and tangled. It clawed toward him like a bed of writhing snakes, creeping right up the sides of his watchtower.

  Something shrieked with the dawn, but it was not a gull.

  Chapter One

  I FLINCHED AS ZAYANA dabbed a cloth over my injuries. Her posture was haughty, but her actions told a different story as she tended me.

  “I managed to stitch the shoulder while you were unconscious, but I felt bad doing it without your permission.”

  I managed a faint laugh. “Better to stitch without permission than to let me bleed to death.”

  “You wouldn’t have bled to death, but it wouldn’t have healed well either,” she said, worry in her eyes. “I wish you could spare some of your bees for this wound. I don’t like the way it is so red and angry.”

  We were huddled in the bow of the boat as she nursed me. It was an old fishing boat, in good enough repair that I guessed people from the village had been using it frequently on the river. Ivo said he found it on the bank, stuck against a fallen tree in the water. It probably drifted downstream from where the town of Vlaren used to be before the Forbidding claimed it.

  “Do you think the bees are actually healing his wound, or just keeping it stopped up?” I asked, shooting a glance down toward the rear of the boat and then quickly looking away.

  “I see a spirit honeycomb inside his wound. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. But there’s no infection as far as I can tell. He’s feverish – but that’s to be expected.”

  Zayana looked flustered, her court dress was rump
led, and soot-stained and little streaks of soot marked her face. I knew that I must look worse. She’d had to tear my shirt and jacket at the collar to get to my wound.

  “I’ll stitch the jacket when you can take your clothing on and off without pain,” she said guiltily. “I really am sorry about them. I’m not much of a seamstress.”

  Her little bird cooed sadly from where she had it tucked into the neck of her dress. Its spirit feathers were torn and ragged.

  “Is Flame getting any better?” I whispered. He’d been damaged in their desperate fight with the Forbidding.

  She looked down, her eyes glassy. “I hope so – Wing Ivo says these things happen sometimes. That I need to work hard on invoking good into him to heal him, but he feels so real and so vulnerable. I just ... I just don’t know.”

  “He’s like you,” I said, offering a smile. “He looks small but he’s resilient. He will heal.”

  She smiled ruefully. “I need to go see to my other patient.”

  I nodded and she made her way carefully to the center of the boat where Le Majest, the crown prince of the Winged Empire, the terror of Far Stones and apparently, my owner, lay with a sword wound to the belly. A sword wound that I put there. A sword wound that my bees filled now, holding it together and holding him together. A sword wound with a spirit honeycomb being manifested inside him. What might that mean?

  I swallowed. If I had what my heart wanted, I’d pull my bees away and let him die. I’d get revenge for the death of my father and the threat to my family. But that wouldn’t stop the Winged Empire. And it wouldn’t bring back my father. It would just doom my family, Zayana’s sister, and all of our lives in a single stupid choice.

  I looked past the crown prince and met the light blue eyes of Osprey as he stared at me from the tiller. He clenched his jaw and looked away.

  “If it had been anyone else,” he muttered. “Anyone else.”

  Like he was the one who should be angry! He attacked me! He fought me! And he ultimately sliced my shoulder, which was the only reason that it hurt like a Forbidding-taken bear right now! I should be angry at him. And I was. Sort of.

  I was also very confused. Because even when he’d been attacking me it had looked like he was trying to save me in some way. What did you make of someone who both wanted you dead and watched you with eyes of hope at the same time?

  Beside him, Ivo leaned in, speaking in a low voice.

  “We won’t reach Karkatua for days. We should find a place to spend the night. A place not filled with the Forbidding.”

  “Mmm.” Osprey’s reply made me want to look at him to see what had him so distracted, but I kept my eyes to the river on either side of us, flashing in the noon sun. A small tree grew in the crevice of the tall rock banks surrounding the water. It had almost no soil or land, and yet it grew. Relentless. That was what I had to be.

  Creeping to almost the edges of the river, tangles of the Forbidding reached out, the edges of them waving in the warm breeze. For some reason, the Forbidding always avoided the water. It could creep down to the very edge, but not touch it. You couldn’t push it back with water like you could with fire – we’d tried that before – but water was a place where settlers were always safe.

  Which made me wonder why the people of Vlaren hadn’t taken to the river. What had happened to that town? My feet itched to go back and find out. We never left homes or farms or towns taken by the Forbidding alone. If we couldn’t reclaim them then all the able-bodied people nearby would organize a posse, fight back the Forbidding, investigate, and set the place ablaze if it could not be resettled. We never found survivors or remains of people – only buildings and sometimes evidence of how it had happened. Sometimes there would be food still fresh on the table, or a sword sticking out from a tree showing that settlers had battled the Forbidding here. Or sometimes there would be a tangle of Forbidding thrust through the floor of a boat where it was beached on the land, showing how the escape route had been cut off. Vlaren would have those signs if we went back to look. But we couldn’t afford to do that right now and I doubted my companions would want to try.

  “We need a place on a high spot, close to the water,” Ivo was saying. “A place where the Forbidding is already back a bit from the shore.”

  “One with lots of fallen wood or driftwood,” I chimed in. “So you can build a ring of fires around the site.”

  Ivo nodded, smiling slightly at me. “Any other tips?”

  Osprey only pulled another pick out of his sleeve and jammed it between his teeth as if I didn’t exist. One of his hands clutched his belly as it had been clutching it since I regained consciousness. He was hunched over it protectively. Maybe this whole situation made him feel as sick as it made me feel.

  “We’ll want to make a hammock for Le Majest if we can. He shouldn’t be on the ground.”

  That got Osprey’s attention. His angry gaze swiveled to me and stayed there as something close to fury simmered in his eyes. Snap. The severed end of his toothpick tumbled to the floor of the boat.

  “I’d say that anywhere away from you is the best place for him,” Ivo said. “It will at least keep our Osprey from shaking apart at the rivets, hmm?”

  I snorted. “Because you still don’t believe me that he manifested snakes. That he tried to kill us with them.”

  “I believe he tried to kill you,” he said.

  “Just like I believe that trying to stop him has doomed us all.” Osprey leaned over the tiller like a large cat standing over its kill.

  “I wasn’t going to die like that. And I wasn’t going to let him kill you,” I said defiantly. “All this honor of yours about avenging him is ridiculous.”

  “You don’t listen,” he said spitting the pick and leaning forward. “You’re irresponsible and headstrong. I tried to tell you that our lives are not all that hangs in the balance.”

  “Oh, you’ve told me. And told me and told me. If I kill him, then you’ll kill my whole family. And you’ll kill me. You act like you’re some kind of mindless tangle of the Forbidding who has no choice but to attack and kill. But you could just as easily say no and turn your back on your orders and spare my life. Killing me will be your choice.”

  He shook with emotion. “I keep telling you that I’m bound and you don’t believe me. I was forced to drive you back, to nearly kill you – and if Le Majest dies I will be bound to slit your throat right here and yet, you foolish, frustratingly violent girl, you keep insisting on making the wrong choices and forcing us deeper and deeper into this mess!”

  “They’re not the wrong choices!” I said, hands on my hips. “Zayana told me how Wings given bird names are bound. She told me how your family will die if you don’t obey him.” Osprey paled but I pressed on. “And that’s awful and horrible, but don’t you realize that you’re the one threatening my family with the same thing? However you feel about the Winged Empire, that’s how I’m starting to feel about you. You keep saying that you don’t want me dead but your actions back there spoke louder than any words.” I paused. “I thought we were friends.”

  He started to stand and Ivo’s hand whipped up, grabbing his arm and pulling him down. Osprey turned, beginning to snarl, but Ivo’s tense posture stopped him. Ivo pointed with his other hand and all of our eyes drifted to the center of the boat where Zayana was carefully backing up from her patient.

  A specter, glowing a faint emerald green – rose from Le Majest’s mouth, rising up, up, up as its hood flared out. A snake.

  “See?” I said, raising an eyebrow as I looked at Ivo and crossing my arms painfully over my chest. “Snakes.”

  It crept forward and as the last remains of its tail left the mouth of the crown prince, his big blue eyes flickered open. Everyone who wanted me dead had blue eyes.

  He groaned and the snake snapped out at my bees. I felt a jolt of pain as it caught one, gulping it down.

  I hissed and my bees shot up into the air, buzzing frantically.

  “Control your snak
e!” I said, desperately, fighting against the pain in my chest and the buzzing so loud that it clogged everything else in my mind.

  He let out a cry and wrapped himself protectively around his belly wound.

  “Easy!” Wing Ivo cried. “Easy now!”

  “Aella, bring your bees back.” Zayana sounded frantic as she took a step toward the crown prince. His snake struck out at her and she barely dodged the attack.

  “Control your manifestation!” I said again, nausea swirling through me as my bees spiraled over top of the boat, avoiding the snake but agitated by the attack and the loss of one of the swarm.

  Juste moaned, his snake swaying wildly, and then collapsed, his body going limp and the snake fading out of existence.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Plug his wound,” I told my bees.

  They coalesced and filled his wound again as Zayana rushed over to help him.

  “And that,” Ivo said calmly, “is why this situation is so complicated, and why our next move must be the right one regardless of who is holding a grudge against whom.”

  Chapter Two

  WE FOUND A CLEARING in a patch of tall broadleaf trees. The trees surrounding it were so thick that we couldn’t see the Forbidding, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

  “Where is my sword?” I asked as the bow bumped the rocks and hurried to scramble out of the bow and hold us steady. My shoulder screamed at the movement, but I gritted my teeth against the pain and fought the waves of nausea crashing over me.

  “I have it,” Osprey said, tapping his belt where he’d put my scabbard alongside his own. “And I’ll be keeping it. You are too violent and liable to get us all killed.”

  He winced as he stepped out of the boat, still hunched slightly. Had I wounded him?

  “I need it to fight the Forbidding,” I said in what I hoped he would consider a polite tone. It was hard to be polite when I was so frustrated. My bees began to hum louder in tune with my flaring emotions.