Honeycomb by Joanne Harris (book series for 12 year olds .txt) 📕

“Long ago, and far away,

Far away and long ago—”

The nurse grew increasingly worried. “What are you trying to do?” she said.

“I have to see him again,” said the girl.

“Silly, stubborn child,” said the nurse. “You don’t even know who he is. He never told you his name, did he? Why do you think that was, eh?”

The girl looked at her wearily, with eyes that were red from not blinking. “Why?”

“The Silken People have no names, just as they have no eyelids. Just as they have no shadows, and, some might say, they have no souls. That young man you met in the woods? That was the Lacewing King, for sure, the cruellest and most terrible of all the Silken People. Didn’t I warn you when you were small to beware them and their sweet talk? They feed you honey, but they sting. Never forget that, child. They sting.”

Well, the girl had been stung, all right. Now the poison ran deep in her veins. Nothing the nurse could say or do made any difference to that, or changed the way she went every day to the little glade in the wood, and sat there, tearless, unblinking, waiting for her lover’s return.

And then one day she did not come home. She went to the glade as usual, but when night fell, and she still had not returned, the old nurse went to look for her. By the time the old woman reached the glade, the moon had risen above the trees, and its light filtered down through the branches onto the figure of a girl, sitting on a fallen tree. The tears were running down her face, and as the old woman came closer, she saw that they were tears of blood.

The girl had cut off her eyelids.

The nurse fell to her knees in shock, as her heart gave way at that instant. No one saw her alive again, and no one watched, as, shadowless, the girl stood in the moonlight, looking down at the old nurse with her huge, unblinking eyes.

“I will see him now,” she said, and walked away into the night.

No one ever saw her again. No one human, anyway.

13

T

HE

L

ACEWING

K

ING AND THE

S

ILKWORM

P

RINCESS

After that, the Lacewing King went back to his court in World Below. It wasn’t that he was sorry for the unhappiness he’d caused—in fact, he didn’t even know what had become of the girl who had loved him, or the nurse with the porcelain eye. But a kingdom needs a ruler; and in his absence things were becoming dangerously unstable.

The Glow-Worm Chancellor had managed things as well as he could while the King was away. But a Chancellor is not a King, and there were those among the Silken Folk who were eager to hazard a chance at the throne.

But the Termite Prince was penniless, barely able to afford a bannerman, let alone an army. The Spider Queen had gone mad, so they said, refusing to stir from her silken bed or leave her beloved embroidery. The Dragonfly Queen was engaged in a war with the Red Ants, while the Queen of the Black Ants was occupied in waging war with the Centipedes. The Cockroach Queen was at war with them both, as well as with the Hornets. That left only the Honeycomb Queen, who would never harm her son; the Harlequin, who was still missing; and a handful of minor Princes and Queens who offered little threat to the King. However, the Glow-Worm Chancellor feared that these minor warlords might raise an army together. The King had been absent for much too long, and there was unrest in his kingdom.

The Lacewing King saw the wisdom in this. With his coat of a thousand eyes, he could watch his enemies without ever leaving his throne room, and he had an army of Cockroaches, sworn to his service, with a whole armoury of weapons and war machines of all kinds at their disposal. And so he watched from his termite throne, and sent his spies into the kingdom to find the source of the unrest, and to put an end to rebellion.

“If only you had a son, my lord,” said the Glow-Worm Chancellor, “then these rumours could be dismissed. But a King without an heir—and especially a young and reckless King who likes to travel abroad without an escort—is always a liability. Perhaps, if you were to seek a Queen and settle down to family life, then you could put an end to this unrest.”

The Glow-Worm Chancellor went on to inform His Majesty that he had already made a list of prospective consorts, and proposed to invite to the court whichever of the suitable candidates the King was inclined to favour.

The Lacewing King sat on his throne and thought about this for a long time. He was not a stranger to dalliance, but marriage had never occurred to him. To give up his travels among the Folk, his lovers and his concubines, seemed to him not only unfair but also unnecessary. His travels among the Sightless Folk had taught him this much about love: it was a weakness. If he married, he told himself, his marriage must be one of convenience, in which neither partner would complain if the other were not attentive, and which would provide the kingdom with the heir it so badly needed.

And so the Lacewing King took the list that the Glow-Worm Chancellor had made for him, and from his termite throne he observed the suitable ladies from afar, a goblet of honey wine in one hand and a dish of candied earwigs in the other. With his coat of a thousand eyes, he watched them in secret as they bathed; watched them in their gardens; observed their personal habits and their interactions with others.

Thus, he found out that the Grasshopper Queen had