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‘Accept, Obey and Serve.’ The words blurted from Flora’s mouth unbidden.
Sister Teasel shuddered. ‘Let us hope she will. Such ugliness!’
Ashamed, Flora turned back to Sister Sage as her shield, but the priestess had vanished.
‘They do that.’ Sister Teasel watched her. ‘Never know where you are with them, always surprising you. Come along then.’ She opened a door and Flora smelled the sweet pure fragrance beyond it. ‘If Sister Sage hadn’t told me to do this herself, I’d call it sacrilege.’ She pushed Flora through the door with her foot. ‘Let’s get this over with.’
Four (#u3261d611-1179-5c8e-8b2c-4c2ff06b0395)
The enormous nursery was filled with row after row of glowing cribs, some with little rippling streams of light above them. Flora followed Sister Teasel deeper into the chamber. To her wonder, the light was in fact a luminous liquid, pouring in droplets from the mouths of the young nurses who leaned over the cribs. Many more of them moved silently about the ward, young and pretty with glowing chins.
‘It is so beautiful!
Despite her resentment, Sister Teasel smoothed her chest fur and nodded. She pointed to an unattended crib.
‘What gender?’
Flora looked in. The larva was newly hatched, soft pearly tendrils of shell still clinging to the translucent white skin. Its tiny face was closed in sleep and a sweet milky smell drifted above it.
‘A female. She is so perfect!’
‘Just another worker. Now find a male.’ Sister Teasel indicated the whole vast nursery.
‘Yes, Sister.’ Flora raised her antennae. On each row she drew in the smell of female babies, strong and constant.
‘You can’t do it from here, you silly girl.’
Flora did not answer. She smelled the different kin of the young nurses, and all the thousand female children. There was no scent of male.
‘I have searched and there are none. Why is that?’
Sister Teasel stared at her.
‘Late in the season Holy Mother stops making them.’ She shook herself. ‘A good sense of smell is not enough to keep you out of Sanitation. Now hold your bold tongue and let us conclude this foolish experiment.’
Sister Teasel pushed Flora to the first worker crib she had shown her, and tapped on its side so that the little creature woke. When it opened its mouth and began to cry, she folded her arms in satisfaction and looked at Flora. ‘And now?’
Flora leaned in to look, and the larva baby flexed and stretched towards her. Its warm scent rose more strongly, threaded with the delicate fragrance of the Queen’s Love. Immediately, two pulses began flickering in Flora’s cheeks, and her mouth began to fill with sweet liquid. She looked to Sister Teasel in alarm.
‘Flow!’ cried Sister Teasel. ‘Don’t swallow, let it come!’
She guided Flora into the right position as the luminous drops spilled from her mouth. As they fell onto the larva baby it stopped crying and wriggled to lap them up. The drops thickened into a thin stream which pooled around the baby’s body until it could drink no more.
The liquid ebbed and Flora’s cheeks stopped flickering. Completely exhausted, she held the side of the crib for support. The baby grew as she watched, and the base of the crib glowed. Other nurses looked across.
‘Well!’ said Sister Teasel. ‘If I had not seen it for myself. A flora from Sanitation, able to make royal jelly – Flow.’ She corrected herself. ‘You must only ever call it Flow.’
‘Why, Sister?’ Flora felt warm and sleepy.
Sister Teasel tutted.
‘No more questions. All you need to remember is to feed as your supervisor instructs you. Not a drop more, no matter how the babies beg. And they will. Now I must find you a place to sleep – though I don’t know what the other girls will say about it. You mustn’t expect them to touch or groom you.’
Sister Teasel led Flora to a rest area where young nurse bees lay talking quietly or sleeping, luminous traces fading round their mouths. She lay down at once.
‘Flora 717 is here by Sister Sage’s express wish.’ Sister Teasel’s tone dared anyone to remonstrate. ‘Yes she makes Flow and yes it is most irregular for her kin, but we are in the season of irregularity, with the rain and the cold and the lack of food – so we will all be helpful. Is that clear?’
The nurses murmured assent and placed food and drink within Flora’s reach, but she was too tired to move. Sister Teasel’s voice continued above her and she knew that when the comb shivered, the divine fragrance that rose up from it was the Queen’s Love, and that this was the sacrament of Devotion. She wanted to join the sweet harmony of nurses in prayer, but the room was warm and dark, and the bed was soft.
* * *
Like the other nurses, Flora’s job was simple. She must give Flow to the babies as directed, rest when it stopped, then repeat. As Sister Teasel had stressed to Sister Sage, the feed timing was very strictly observed and marked with different bells that signalled one or other area of the nursery was due more, or must now stop feeding. These constantly chiming bells, and the shimmering energy of the fed larva, created an intense and dreamlike aura in the nursery, but one sound always alerted Flora’s attention. It was the bright resonant tone of the sun bell, and its particular frequency told all the bees that beyond the safety of the hive walls, day had risen again.
Flora particularly enjoyed its vibration and listened out for its rare pleasure. Every three chimes, the supervising sisters came round and collected all the nurses whose fur had risen and whose Flow was dwindling, and replaced them with new ones, fresh from the Arrivals Hall, their fur still soft and damp.
Flora’s fur had not changed, so she was kept on. By the sixth sun bell, every nurse around her had changed, but her own Flow continued as strongly as ever. Supervising sisters also changed, but there were always several Teasel in their number. As she watched them go about their business, Flora began to understand the workings of the Nursery.
The cribs were always being rotated. Each day the nurses who were soon to leave would clean out a thousand of them, then a small army of sanitation workers would arrive to remove the waste and scrub the floors. Surreptitiously, Flora watched them. Though they never made eye contact or said a word, their vigorous energy was tangible and all the nurses were relieved when they left, none more so than Flora, ashamed of her own kin. Then the nurses would prepare the empty cribs in the newly cleaned area and the supervising sisters would say prayers of purification, before veiling the whole section with the shimmering scent of discretion, ready for the Royal Progress when the Queen laid her eggs.
When the next sun bell sounded, the glorious fragrance of new life rose in the Nursery and a thousand new eggs lay pure and perfect in their cribs. Every bee in the Nursery joined in songs of praise for Immortal Mother’s fertility. It took three more sun bells for the eggs to hatch into larva babies, and then it was time to feed them Flow.
Under strictly timed supervision from a senior sister, for the next three days Flora and other feeding nurses watched in amazement as the babies grew before their eyes. Their sweet scent rippled with changes in their bodies, and then came the stark moment when the supervising sisters piped a quick whistle to stop the feeding. No matter how hungry a baby might be, not a single drop more might be given, for it was time to wean them in the Category Two ward.
To Flora, this was a highly desirable place to work. Through the big double doors that separated the two nursery wards, she had often glimpsed older nurses playing and singing with the bigger children, even cuddling them in their arms.
Everything about the Ceremony of Transition was exciting to Flora, from the way the babies started wriggling and laughing in excitement at the delicious food smells coming from the double doors dividing the wards, to the first strains of the cheerful hymns sung by the nurses who came for them. With graceful curtsies to all in the Category One ward, even Flora, they scooped up the laughing babies and the doors closed soft behind them.
With their fully risen fur, elegant limbs and narrow curtsies, these sophisticated Category Two kins of Violet, Primrose and Vetch won Flora’s particular admiration. Discreetly in the dim holy atmosphere of Category One, she practised her own curtsy to overcome her shameful splay – just in case Sister Sage should reappear and move her to Category Two.
This was such a wonderful thought that Flora began including it in her prayers at Devotion. She forgot it each time the enchanting fragrance of the Queen’s Love rose up through the comb, but when the nurses changed again and her fur had still not risen, she gathered up her courage and sought out Sister Teasel.
‘You want to move?’ Sister Teasel stared at her in amazement. ‘From Category One, the holiest place in the hive and the closest you will ever come to Her Majesty? Why, She passes by us every day!’
‘But I have never seen—’
Sister Teasel swiped Flora’s antennae with a sharp claw.
‘Impudent, ignorant girl! Do you think a flora, a sanitation worker, is ever likely to be in the true presence of Her Majesty? I knew it would come to this! I was against it from the start – why, pray, are you now so eager to move to Category Two?’
‘It looks so bright and happy there. And the nurses play with the children.’
‘Yes, and as a result they are riddled with frivolity and attachment. I cannot believe it – move away from the Queen? Please, tell me: do you fantasise you are a forager, able to survive beyond Holy Mother’s divine scent? For clearly it is not enough to be a nurse!’
‘It is, Sister – forgive me for asking—’
But it was too late, for Sister Teasel’s agitation spread through the whole ward. The babies grew fractious, distracted nurses looked up from their feeding and Flow splashed against the cribs. Sister Teasel waved her arms at them.
‘Focus!’ She turned back to Flora. ‘Now you listen to me. We deliver one outcome here: identical care for identical brood. There is no improvising, no requesting a transfer, and, until you were forced upon us, no exception to the immaculate kin of our nurses.’
‘I know, Sister, I’m very grateful, it’s just that so many nurses have changed—’
‘What business is that of yours? Have you been trying to count?’ Sister Teasel came close to her. ‘717, have you been studying the rotas? Confess at once if you have, for it is a matter of hive security – what do you know about them?’ Her scent became fragmented with anxiety, and the babies began crying again.
‘Nothing, Sister! I just wanted to ask—’
‘There, that is the seed of it: you wanted!’ Sister Teasel groomed her antennae back from their trembling state, then glared at Flora again. ‘Desire is sin, Vanity is sin – it is all very well praying and splaying, 717 – and don’t think I haven’t seen you practising your ridiculous curtsy—’
‘Idleness is sin.’ Humiliated at her exposure, Flora continued the catechism. ‘Discord is sin, Greed is sin—’
‘And as for your appetite – as bad as a drone’s. No matter what the sainted Sage may think’ – and here Sister Teasel threw a quick glance around the ward – ‘you are typical of your kin. Greedy, ugly, obstinate things! Girls, what is our first commandment?’
‘Accept, Obey and Serve,’ chanted the eavesdropping nurses, staring at Flora.
‘Accept, Obey and Serve.’ Flora knelt before Sister Teasel. ‘A flora may not make Wax for she is impure, nor work with Propolis for she is clumsy, nor may she ever forage for she has no taste, but only may she clean, and all may command her labour.’
‘Exactly.’ Sister Teasel’s antennae twitched. ‘Yet here you are, feeding the Queen’s newborns. Summer is cold, floras speak: the world is upside down! Just be grateful for the honour, for it will soon be over. But I wish I knew when, for I have never seen the like of your Flow.’
‘What does it mean, for my knowledge to be wiped?’
Sister Teasel’s expression softened. She sighed.
‘You will find out soon enough. Now, spare us both – ask no more questions.’
* * *
Flora returned to the main floor, her hope replaced with dread. She joined a group of nurses who stood waiting to hear which section next needed Flow, their mouths already brimming with the bright liquid. The chime sounded, and ahead of them a dark little sanitation worker ran to get out of their way. Walking at the back of the group, Flora saw her clearly, cowering with her pan and brush and holding her wings so that she would not touch a higher kin by accident. Their eyes met for a moment. The little worker grimaced in a smile. Flora looked away and hurried on.
The next baby was big and hungry. She gazed down at its open mouth, always the trigger for the pulses in her cheeks to begin the feeding trance. Nothing came. The twisted friendly grimace of the sanitation worker stuck in her mind and Flora shook herself. She adjusted her position and concentrated.
The baby yearned up towards her, open-mouthed. The pulses in her cheeks flickered, and a few drops of Flow seeped out. Flora shook her head so they fell onto the baby and it lapped them hungrily. It looked up and opened its mouth for more. She concentrated until the sides of her mouth were throbbing with the strain, but nothing came. The baby began to cry.
A new nurse appeared at Flora’s side, her mouth and face glowing with fresh Flow. She was very young and deep in the feeding trance. She stood by Flora’s side and leaned over. Immediately the luminous stream began to fall and the baby quieted as it fed. Confused, Flora stepped back.
‘The miracle,’ said a kind, familiar voice, ‘was that you could feed at all.’
Sister Sage stood by her, beautiful and frightening. She smiled.
‘If your job bores you, 717, I will give you something more exciting to do. Consider it another test.’
Five (#u3261d611-1179-5c8e-8b2c-4c2ff06b0395)
At the sight of Sister Sage all the Category Two nurses and nannies curtsied, though they looked warily at Flora walking with her. The priestess was not angry that her Flow had stopped, and seemed only to want to talk.
‘I would have said the experiment was a success,’ she said to Flora. ‘And I am sure Sister Teasel impressed on you the privilege of such sacred service.’
‘Yes, Sister. I am very grateful.’
‘But you are very curious about Category Two – a rather prosaic place, to my mind. Why is that?’
The more she breathed of Sister Sage’s strong scent, the more Flora grew calm, and felt an overpowering desire to tell the truth.
‘In Category One everything is always the same.’
Sister Sage laughed.
‘The very point of identical care. Yet it bored you.’
‘Yes, Sister. Forgive me.’ Flora lowered her head, but Sister Sage raised it and held her long antennae over hers.
‘We will forget the folly of the curtsies and your boldness in hoping to see Holy Mother, for I hear you are also very devout and hard-working.’
‘I hope so, Sister.’
‘And you love the Queen?’
‘With my body and my soul.’ Flora’s antennae trembled as she felt Sister Sage reaching deep into her mind.
Would you serve Her any way you can?
‘With my whole life.’
‘Good.’ Sister Sage walked on. ‘In this time of scarce forage, you have been surprisingly useful in the Nursery. Sometimes it works to spare the deviants, and experiment a little.’ She smiled. ‘Is this place as you imagined?’
‘Better, Sister! It is so lively, so full of wonderful things—’
‘Then look your fill. I wish you to know it.’
* * *
Flora could not take Category Two in at once, with its decorations and beautifully tiled play areas. Pretty nurses and nannies sat with their vigorous little charges, singing and playing games, or feeding them from shining platters. Healthy beautiful child-grubs were everywhere, their cheerful snubby little faces speckled with golden pollen dust. Gone was the heavy scent of Flow and the mumble of prayer, and in its place nursery rhymes, laughter and the bright aroma of fresh bread.
Sister Sage watched her. ‘What do you know of feeding patterns?’
‘Nothing, Sister.’ Flora admired two fat child-grubs, chuckling as their nurses tickled them. ‘Sister Teasel asked me that. All I know is that timing is very important and there are a lot of bells.’ Her own arms tingled to hold one herself and she turned away lest the sin of Desire take hold. ‘And we must always stop at the right moment and never give a drop more.’
‘Because …?’
‘I’m not sure, Sister.’
Sister Sage touched one of Flora’s antennae with her own, and Flora felt a piercing resonance in her mind. The sensation grew almost unbearable, then abruptly stopped as Sister Sage released her.
‘Good. You are truthful.’ Her long antennae flexed. ‘Tell me, though, about my sisters Teasel: do they hold any meetings or gatherings in the Nursery?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Flora felt a strong urge to please the priestess with the right answer. ‘But I know only the one, my supervising sister.’
‘Ah yes. To you they are all the same. And so they very nearly are, though they must still use speech to know each other’s thoughts. It is most quaint. But you will tell me if they hold private meetings, do you understand?’
‘Yes, Sister.’
