Page 24 of The Royal's Bumblebee
“What’s going on here?” I didn’t move. I didn’t take the intensity of my stare off Szelor, much to his discomfort, even as Vrujac approached us.Great. Golden boy has arrived.He waved his hand for Uczaz to back off, and he did so obediently. “Izule? What’s going on?”
“Oh this?” Szelor chuckled and rolled the wrist of the hand not holding his book like a precious shield to his chest, to indicate the two of us. “Izule is asking me to be nice to his charge. Did you hear? He’s bringing his new pet with him to—”
My fangs extended and I knew they were the biggest in this damn palace. Perhaps it was the mating drive making me overly protective, but I have never shown my fangs to a member of my family. That’s how serious I was.“…not a pet. I shall probably…nottalk to your human. How about that?” I held everyone on the edge of anxiety, before I shrugged and withdrew my fangs.
“Smartest thing I’ve heard you say brother.” I gave Szelor’s left shoulder a rather hard brotherly clap, making him slide along the wall and brace himself there warily.
I’ve seen Szelor reduce Ucfeni and humans to tears with a single well-chosen phrase. He wasnotdoing that to Billie. It was a rude way to remind my brothers that I am not to be underestimated, but now I knew they would think twice before mistreating my charge. To do so is by extension an insult to me, and I would act on it. Clearly. Szelor slithered off quickly and I realised I wasn’t going to just escape without a lecture from the crown prince himself.
Chapter 18
It’s all in the trifecta
Izule
“What do you think you’re playing at?” I keep my mouth shut and try to go around him. “Izule, you just showed your fangs to your own kin.”
“Szelor isnotgoing to be mean to your human afterthat.”Halas swung his head out from a side corridor, the sneaky little rat, and his grin was as wide as it was cheeky. “That wasawesome.”I quirked a smile briefly. “When I bring a human back to the palace tonight, do you think—”
“No.” Vrujac and I chorus at the same time.
“But.”
“No.” Uczaz joins our chorus.
“Killjoys. The lot of you.” Uczaz wrapped his arm around Halas’s hood, flattening it and putting the pretty royal into a headlock. Like Vrujac, his scales were golden like sand, glossy, and he had vibrant yellow framed black bands alternating from the top of their heads to the tips of their tails. Their fronts, face, neck, underbelly, and arms were sandy gold. Vrujac was larger than Halas, wider too, but nowhere near my league. “Well, where is she? Billie, right?”
“She is in my nest and waiting for me to collect appropriate adornments worthy of her.” I puff my chest out with pride.
“Worthy of her, no less?” Vrujac snorted and made a real effort to keep up with me as I wound down the yellow stone corridor to the Royal tailors. “Just how special is this human to you brother?”
“Are you kidding me?” Halas twisted his head and hood free to zip between me and Vrujac. Fast little rat. “The big guy just bore hisfangsat Szelor.” Vrujac subconsciously tried to widen his shoulders. He didn’t like not being the big guy, when I’m around. I swear Halas points out my stature just to shuck off our eldest brother. “I’m thinking it’s more than platonic.” He sang and turned to wind backward on his tail with his upper body facing us. “How is she?”
“Halas?” I warn him. I know exactly where this slit chaser’s mind is. He practically lives for getting inside the next female. Ucfeni or Human; Halas didn’t care.
“Tasted her yet?”
“Halas?” I growl.
“Not every female is a conquest waiting to happen!” Uczaz lunches forward playfully to wrestle Halas off to one side, and they end up pulling down large rolls of red fabric down onto them. I scoff, amused, but leave them to it to approach the central island in the tailoring chamber. I fold my arms over my chest and Vrujac coils around the other side of the platform to offer a hand to our sister. Coiled elegantly on smooth yellow stone, Jajana looks like a real Queen. When I think about how my Mother would have looked, I imagine it would be exactly as Jajana did right now.
She had lovely sandy scales, a black and white banded underbelly, and black and white ‘eyes’ on her hood. Hers wasn’t as wide, and it didn’t have spikes on the edges as a male Royal’s did, but she still looked striking. She wore a silver headdress with an explosive mane of blue feathers. Her com-gem sat in the middle of a silver setting that hung as the centrepiece of a web of silver chains that made a decorative shrug. She wore blue fingerless gloves, and silver bangles that clinked as she offered her wrists gracefully to Vrujac. Around her hips a matching set of delicate silver chains held long pieces of chiffon close to her pelvis. The rest fluttered and swayed as she wound forward on her tail to lower herself from the pedestal. Aided, by Vrujac like the graceful princess she is. Neatly clustered blue fathers were attached to either side of her skirt to fan and flutter if she was to dance. Her brown eyes were warm as they looked upon me, as they always did. My sister was the only motherly figure in my life, and she seemed to yoyo from the role of matriarch and future Queen, to my pouty sister that wanted to get her own way. I could already tell which version I was about to be met with, when she released Vrujac to cup my cheeks and giggle with excitement.
“What’s this I hear of human conquests?”
“Jajana, please?” I beg her.
“Yes, don’t indulge this.” Golden boy chips in and I take a deep breath. “Izule, you know father enjoys watching his younger sons take part in festivities. That should be your priority.” He shook his head and his hood like he was disappointed in me. I honestly didn’t give a damn what a smaller Royal, that hadn’t been outside the palace in years to hunt his own food, had to say. “You’ve pined long enough to get a compatible human to choose you as a sponsor. Father has been worried about you, holding up in your nest all this time. At least having this human seen by everyone at the festival will alleviate any concerns for her wellbeing…yes. Youshouldbring her.”
“I wasn’t asking.” I laughed at his gall to think I needed his permission? For anything? Jajana saw the way we were looking at each other and decided to intervene. She even flashed our younger brothers the silent command to come to her aid.
“I am looking forward to meeting your charge. What’s her name?” She hugged my left arm and nudged her right shoulder to my left to steer me to the other side of the tailoring room.
“Billie.” I turn to look between our hoods to see Uczaz and Halas are herding the crown prince to the other side of the chamber. We have just been ‘handled’. “And she’s…special.”
“Because she’s shy of loud noises and colours?” My sister tried to recall when we last spoke of Billie. “Because she is an Aspergers?”
“ShehasAspergers. It’s what she has, not who or what she is.” I allow my sister to lead me over to my true target. A set of shelves filled with the finest adornments for Royal ladies. My hands reached immediately for the green rolls of fabric and remembered that she wanted something that would be soft on her skin. The first material I ran through my fingers was stiff, for shaping ruffles, and not something Billie would enjoy at all. I discarded it right away, and looked to my left when I saw Jajana also examining some of the green rolls for me. “It’s complicated, but Billie’s mind and body can be very sensitive to stimulus. Particularly too much of it. She takes longer to process how shefeelsabout things, but she thinks really quickly. Like, she’s a literal genius.” Unbeknownst to me, my brothers are listening just as intently as Jajana is as I talk of my Billie. “I listen to her when she’s working and it’s another language she’s speaking. Computer code. The language of their technology, and ours. She can use her computer and control machines anywhere the satellites can reach.” I hummed with approval as I lifted a long piece of sheer green material that was so soft, it felt like it was barely there at all. “When there was some sort of life support failure on one of their cryo-ships last week, she didn’t even panic. She sat at her computer, her fingers clicked across her keyboard, and she took control of the ship. She saved 2000 human lives without any difficulty whatsoever.”
