Ben’s attention wandered once again, away from the drawings in the dirt and Greyan’s hands, straight back to the amazing suit of armor. Once he began to gush over the shiny metal, his excitement grew again.

“Bub, I’m telling you, this armor’s incredible – like nothing I’ve ever looked at You should get closer to see what I mean! Like, the detail on the joints is so freaking cool!”

Beelzebub’s groans and frustrated grunts came to a halt.

“Hold on. Ben, I think you’re a genius.”

“Yup. Wait, what? “

With all the stealth she could muster, Beelzebub zipped from her hiding spot in the branches of a lemon tree to another one nearby. Making sure Greyan didn’t notice her, she zipped from tree to tree, slowly making her way along the orchard around Lemonholm’s wall.

“There’s no guarantee this will work, but I guess it’s a chance. If you actually paid attention to the drawings, the Knight made the barrier bigger than the walls. If I just get closer and wait, the barrier will be made around me! I won’t even need to break in, which is a bit disappointing. I’ll just wait on the other side of the town, where none of the Knights will be able to tell if I’m close by.”

“That’s great!” Ben cheered. “Wait. Why isn’t it a guarantee?”

“Mostly cause of the old barrier. I have no clue where it is. If it’s not along the wall and is further out, like this new one is gonna be, I could trip the alarm. Or maybe it is close to the wall and I can wait for the new barrier to be made. What if he never removes the old barrier at all? I wouldn’t need to break in, but they’d still know if I try to come in.”

“Wow, you thought about this a lot.”

Beelzebub didn’t respond. She had thought about the tactics and strategies and whatnot - in fact, she had wracked her brains. In the end, though, most of the ideas came from Belphegora. Not all of them, obviously. Beelzebub sped up as she left Greyan’s line of sight. Her Mind twisted into ugly thoughts.

All she wanted to do was violence. She wanted to resolve this whole annoying situation by buzzing into town and beating every human to an unrecognizable pulp. Of course, she couldn’t do that. But if she didn’t, then what was the point of her power? How many times had she sparred with her fellow Valkybees? Bedivere? As she passed through a tree, her red-hot stinger sliced through the entire trunk. What the hive needed wasn’t violence. It was brains.

For days now, Beelzebub and Bedivere had sparred together several times. But it was only Beelzebub and Bedivere. Belial was busy testing new technology with his best bud, Beau. Behemoth had been enlisted to help with construction of the hive. But the most successful Valkybee had obviously been Gora, judging by how often Trice talked with her. It wasn’t fair. Beelzebub had only tried using her brain a few times, but it was too hard. She preferred to do what came to her naturally. Which was violence.

She screeched to a halt next to a tree that towered over the others. She couldn’t see them, but she knew the humans Grehn and Vlugh were nearby on the other side of the wall, which meant this should be the other side of town. Without much care, she plopped down onto a branch and waited. Again.

Herwen and the unnamed official screamed at each other, loud enough for Grehn to stick his fingers in his ears. Their argument went in circles, one party throwing blame and the other deflecting it, and it had been going on since the moment the two groups had met on the other side of town. As they walked through the empty streets, Grehn glanced at Vlugh, who was talking strategy with Beelzebub. Dusk was already overtaking the town, making the otherwise quaint place take on a sinister feeling.

They were outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched. Their group needed every advantage they could get, and there weren’t many of those to speak of. But making sure Beelzebub could enter the fray at a moment’s notice was high on the priority list. Grehn, Vlugh, Elofan. None of them would be able to handle Greyan in a straight-up fight, but Grehn hoped it wouldn’t come to that in the first place. If it did, though, he knew he wanted Beelzebub in between himself and Greyan’s rifle.

Fingers still in his ears, Grehn turned his attention to Vlugh’s thoughts.

“I think we should fake some evidence to pin the murder on this annoying lady.”

Grehn nearly laughed. “Vlugh, I thought you guys were talking serious strategy in here, not messing around.”

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“I’m serious!” Vlugh said with his thoughts, his neutral expression unchanged. “Look, there’s not a single good outcome any way we slice this. Finding the real killer is gonna be impossible. If the Knights killed the Lord, it’ll be even more impossible. If we confront them, they can just fight and destroy us to sweep away the whole thing. And if we end up getting blamed, we’ll just get screwed over and thrown in prison by the Knights. The only option that lets us leave as soon as possible is framing someone else. They get punished by the Knights, we get to leave without the bees getting discovered or us just getting killed. Everyone wins.”

“Except the Lemonholmian official,” Grehn said.

“I think everyone would agree that’s still a win.”

Ben didn’t comment on the plan - Grehn expected that he didn’t care about much of anything that was happening as long as it meant he got to see something cool. Beelzebub only buzzed, in a way Grehn somehow understood meant disappointment.

“Condemning an innocent person, even if they’re annoying, is probably a bad idea Vlugh, I’m going to be honest.” Grehn took a deep breath. “The cleanest option might actually be to give ourselves up, peacefully go along with their demands, and try to avoid imprisonment. At least in that case, if the Knights really were behind the murder, we wouldn’t be in danger of exposing them and getting into a fight.”

Deep down, Grehn didn’t believe that was the best option. He tried not to think of a better plan, though. Giving themselves up was, to be fair, the cleanest option, but it was the cleanest way to expose the bees without too much of a struggle. If the Knights or some jailers inspected them and found the Linkers, the bees would have few options in that situation. Fighting the Knights in Lemonholm was just asking for Beelzebub to come in and wreak havoc. No, if Grehn wanted a clean solution, getting arrested was the best.

“No.” Belphegora’s commanding voice echoed in Grehn’s head. “We can’t decide on a definitive course of action just yet. Turning yourselves in would only be a good decision if the Knights are the murderers. Otherwise, there are better choices. You must discover the true identity of the killer before we decide what to do.”

Despite himself, Grehn clicked his tongue. Of course it wouldn’t be so easy. However, there was never a better chance for the bees to be exposed to the rest of the kingdom. They had even less control over the situation than they did in Yiwi.

“Fine. Before we can figure anything out, though, we’ll need to make sure Beelzebub can get inside the new barrier,” Grehn said. Considering how Herwen was still arguing with the official, he’d only be getting information out of the other two Knights. Vlugh was still mumbling about framing the annoying woman in front of them, so he shuffled his way over to Knight Meyara.

“Hey. Meyara, right?”

The Knight ignored him. Determined, Grehn cleared his throat and was about to speak again before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You’ll have to speak up, buddy. Her hearing’s not so great.” Jey tried shaking Grehn’s shoulder, but he outweighed her several times over, so she could barely make him budge.

“Well, I’ve got your attention, so I might as well ask you instead. When we first arrived here, you Knights had no idea we were coming, right? But thanks to your detection barrier, you noticed we arrived, which must have tipped off the Lord. If that’s the case, it still doesn’t explain how you - or rather, the Lord - were able to find us so quickly. Is the barrier not actually a simple thing?”

“Geez, and here I thought you were trying to make a move on Meyara,” Jey said with a huff.

“Uh, no? Aren’t we in a high-stress situation? Why would I do that? Actually, why would you try to help me do that?”

“Because it would be adorable?” Jey said, shrugging. “You’re quiet, she’s quiet. Isn’t it a perfect match?”

Grehn didn’t respond, so Jey continued gushing. “You guys don’t seem all that bad, so I’d be willing to accept if you and Meyara became a thing. But maybe you’re right, all this crap going on is a bit annoying, so maybe you can meet up when we’re done with the whole thing.”

“Weren’t you suspicious of us?” Grehn asked.

“Me personally? Nah. My idiot Commander is also way too trusting, so he definitely believes you guys weren’t responsible. Meyara might be on the fence, I’m not really sure. And I think Herwen just doesn’t like you, so he’ll blame you either way.”

Grehn wasn’t sure what to make of Jey’s blabbering. She was speaking in such a causal tone, as if gossiping with a close friend. He was inclined to believe her. A cacophony of tiny voices in the back of his head screamed not to trust the Knight’s words, some of them his own and some not. Of course, they should err on the side of caution.

Jey smacked her fist into her palm. “Ah, right. You were asking about the barrier. If I remember correctly, all it does is leave a small trace of Mind on anything that passes through, so the one who maintains the barrier would be able to keep track of the trespassers for a little while. That simple.”

“So from the moment we entered the gates, you knew exactly where we were for a while?”

“Yup. Standard procedure, nothing crazy.”

That was all Grehn needed to hear. According to the drawing Ben had seen, there was a good chunk of space between the wall and Greyan’s new barrier. As long as Beelzebub stayed just within that space, there was no risk of her being detected, so that was one problem out of the way. And since Jey seemed so inclined to spill her guts, Grehn kept prying.

“I see. I guess Greyan has a tougher job than I originally thought. Having to design, create, and maintain a barrier, all while being alert to his surroundings at all times. Not to mention keeping track of and managing a bunch of other Knights.”

For the barest of moments, Jey’s face hardened, but she hid it well. Not well enough to fool Grehn. “Hey. That’s Knight Commander Greyan to you. Only we can call him by his name. And by the way, that idiot absolutely does not do everything himself. We all contribute some Mind to the barrier. You’ll see when we make the new one.”

“Jey, I think that’s enough.” Meyara said, startling the two.

Jey’s mouth curled into a smirk. “Were you listening the whole time, Meyara? You could’ve said something. Oh, does that mean you also heard about how Grehn wants to get to know you better?”