Ivory and Bone(37)

“Are you experienced in hunting for honey?” I ask to no one in particular.

At first, neither girl replies, but I see Shava throw a glance at Lo that seems to be begging for permission to answer. Something about this strikes me as pitiable. It’s touching, actually, the lengths Shava will go to try to attract my brother. It may annoy him, but he really shouldn’t complain when two girls are showing such strong interest in him. Ten days ago, we didn’t know where or when any of us would find potential wives. He may not want Shava and he may have a difficult battle ahead to win Seeri, but he has girls interested in him, and for that he should be grateful.

I know I would be.

I glance over at Lo, trying to move only my eyes instead of my whole head, in hopes she won’t catch me looking at her. I think she may be interested in me, but she isn’t very forward about it. I just wish I had a better understanding of her feelings. With Shava and Seeri, there’s no doubt they adore Pek. With you, there’s no doubt you consider me unworthy of you.

Finally, the silence is broken. “I used to search for hives a lot when I was younger,” says Lo. “My father would take me.”

“I’ve never had the chance,” says Shava, the words flying out in a rush. “When I was growing up in this clan, I spent a lot of time helping in the kitchen, but it was always Kol or Urar who brought in the honey. But I’ve always wanted to try it.” She waits a moment, perhaps to see if anyone else has anything to add. This must be a piece of advice Lo gave her. As the “new” Shava shows herself more and more, I begin to wonder if Lo came along only to enable Shava to be close to Pek. “What about you, Pek? Do you enjoy searching for beehives?”

At first Pek doesn’t answer at all, and I think he’s being intolerably rude. He doesn’t have to flirt with Shava, but he can’t be rude. I’m about to say something to him when he finally turns and looks back at us from his place ten paces farther up the trail. “If the right person were here, I would be happy no matter what we did.”

Lo pauses on the path for a moment, tracing the toe of her left boot in the dirt. Shava stops behind her, but she isn’t as subtle as Lo—her face is like a shattered shell, as broken as the one Pek held up on the beach.

“Is there a girl—” Shava starts.

“Yes. There is.” Pek hesitates just a moment longer before turning and plodding on. There’s nothing for us to do except follow him until we reach the southern edge of the meadow.

The last time I was here was the morning I met you.

Not much time has passed since that morning. We have seen only one full moon since that day. Still, the abundance of life in the grass is startling. As we walk, insects spring out in front of our feet—grasshoppers are everywhere. I head for a spot in the center of a cluster of blue flowers that spread out like frost covering the ground. When we get there, no bees are visible, but I know that doesn’t mean they’re not here.

“This is the best part,” I say. “Or at least, the most challenging.”

My gaze moves over first Pek’s face, then Lo’s, then Shava’s. This is the first I see the tears in Shava’s eyes in response to Pek’s blunt confession of his feelings for Seeri. It’s hard for me to understand her endless optimism, considering he rejected her so thoroughly a few years ago. Maybe my mother has given her the idea that there is hope.

Or maybe, she thinks she’s really in love.

My attention moves from Shava’s red-rimmed eyes to Lo’s ambiguous expression. I try to decipher the tension in her lips, but I understand so little about girls. I look away. Pek stands brooding at the edge of our group, so far away from the rest of us he’s beyond the patch of wildflowers. I can only study the back of his head; he stands with his hands on his hips, facing into the wind coming cold over the Great Ice.

I glance back at Shava. The hurt I see in her reminds me of the hurt I’ve seen too often in Pek. I can’t stand it anymore.

“Let me show you the best way to track bees,” I say. I lie down in the grass and gesture to the place next to me. “You need to lie down, close your eyes, and listen.” Shava lies down on the grass and as she does, her hand brushes mine. I glance at her but she is just closing her eyes.

“Now what?”

I wait for Lo to lie down on the grass on my other side, but she shuffles out of sight, heading over to try to talk to my moody brother.

“Now we listen. You’ll know it when you hear it—the whir of their wings. It comes and goes as they fly and land, fly and land.”

I close my own eyes and tune my ears, but I can’t distract myself from the murmured conversation between Lo and my brother. I try to make out their words, but they are too far away, their voices nothing but an intermittent buzz.

Hiking back to camp, I feel that the outing was at least partially successful—we tracked two bees that Shava spotted until they joined up with a larger group. Those bees led us to the shade in the foothills of the mountains. We discovered their hive in the middle of a stunted poplar, growing in a secluded grove protected by sharply rising cliffs at the edge of the meadow.

“We’ll watch it, now that we’ve found it,” I say. “Then later in the season, we’ll smoke the bees to calm them and cut a piece of the hive away.”

“This has been one of the best days of my life,” Shava says. Every head turns toward her; this statement is so strong. Shava meets my eyes and her smile is somehow odd. “I’ve seen so many bees but never really seen them—never seen how they live. Thank you so much for teaching me.”