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

grew all the way down the rockface. His First Mate stayed to explore the caves, taking a dozen men with him. And the Lacewing King sat on the beach and watched a cloud of dragonflies circle around the moored ship, and knew that this was not a good sign.

For the dragonflies were the warriors of the Dragonfly Queen, an ancient and pitiless ruler. The King had encountered her before—but with his royal entourage, and never alone or unguarded. He knew her to be bloodthirsty, cruel, and vindictive—and deeply suspicious of anyone who dared to enter her domain.

Soon enough, the dragonflies saw that the King was watching them. Even without his coat of bees and his centipede crown, they knew him. They descended upon him, a thousand strong, and lifted him into the air, and flew with him to the top of the cliffs, where the Dragonfly Queen and her folk had ruled, unchallenged, for centuries.

The Dragonfly Queen was a warrior, savage from the tip of her dragon-glass sword to her silvery, razor-edged wings. Aware of the King’s reputation, she assumed that he must be allied with her mortal enemy, the Queen Below the Water, whose realm in the shadow of the cliff was the mirror of her own. In fact, the only reason she had not ordered her people to kill him on sight was her own curiosity. The Queen Below the Water was as much of a mystery to her as she herself was to the Queen Below—neither could enter the other’s realm, and both were equally hostile. If the Queen Below had sent the Lacewing King as one of her spies, then maybe this could be her chance to find out more about the enemy.

But she also knew that the Lacewing King was far too clever to come alone, unarmed, into her island realm. If he was a spy, then he must have some kind of protection. And so she welcomed him into her court, hoping to discover his plans. She greeted him politely, brought him wine and honeycomb, and led him to a flower throne decked with cushions of silk-moth damask. For a pleasant time, they talked; but whenever the conversation turned to matters of war or strategy, the Lacewing King always managed to somehow change the subject.

Meanwhile, the Captain and his men had run into the Queen’s guard, a squadron of wingless warriors with no eyes and massive jaws. The guards were always hungry; and their favourite food was still-moving flesh. While the Lacewing King fed on honeycomb, the guards made short work of the sailors. And then the Dragonfly Queen brought out a flagon of her favourite wine and suggested a drinking game.

“Truth or dare?” she asked the King. “Winner eats the loser.”

The King, who knew what was happening, knew that if he refused the game, the Dragonfly Queen would kill him. If he won, however, the Queen’s code of honour forbade her to go back on a promise. And so he nodded politely and gave her his most insectivorous smile. “Why not?” he said. “Let the game begin.”

And, pouring himself another cup of flame-green grasshopper nectar, he settled down to play for his life—which currently, was all he had.

48

T

RUTH OR

D

ARE

?

While the Lacewing King and the Dragonfly Queen were playing Truth or Dare, the ship of silk and starlight was reaching the shores of the island. Its crew of tiny spiders began to gather in the sails, and the Barefoot Princess, almost speechless with excitement, climbed up to the crow’s nest to watch the shore through her spy-glass.

“Do you really think he’s here?” she said again to the Spider Queen.

The Spider Queen gave a narrow smile. The thousand eyes in her coronet blinked and glittered balefully.

“Oh, yes. He’s here,” she said. “I can already see him.”

But there was a trace of doubt in her voice. Yes, she could see the Lacewing King through her coronet of eyes, but he was in danger. Weaponless, surrounded by Dragonfly Guards, without even his coat of bees, he was at the mercy of his hostess. The Dragonfly Queen’s reputation was known everywhere in the Nine Worlds. She was cruel; she was clever; she liked to play games with her prey, and she was always hungry. Not that the Spider Queen didn’t welcome the prospect of seeing her enemy eaten alive—but she meant to do it herself, and not before taking her revenge.

She stood high up in the bows of the ship and ordered her spiders to unfurl the sails. Sailing in at maximum speed, it would still take them hours to reach the shore. Surely, by that time, she told herself, her enemy might already be dead. Anxiously, she resumed her watch from the bows of the spider ship, while the Barefoot Princess watched from above, eagerly and with fast-beating heart, for the first sight of her protector.

Meanwhile, at the top of the cliffs, the Lacewing King and his hostess were engaged in a dangerous game, for which the stakes were higher than the Lacewing King could afford.

“Truth or dare?” said the Dragonfly Queen. “My turn to start.” And she poured herself a goblet of the flame-green grasshopper nectar and smiled.

“First question: Who sent you here, and why?”

It was not an idle question. The grasshopper nectar was spiked with a drug, a very potent truth serum. If, as the Queen suspected, the Lacewing King was working for her enemies, then he would have to admit his guilt, or run the risk of a forfeit that would almost certainly claim his life.

He looked into her eyes and took another draught of the flame-green wine. “No one sent me here,” he said. “I came here on a passing whim, unarmed and unprotected.”

The Dragonfly Queen’s eyes opened wide under her warrior’s helmet. Her truth drug was infallible; and yet she could not believe that the King could have done such a reckless thing. Certainly, he was unarmed: she could see for herself