Queen

XIV

“Jean, I really think I should show you-”

“Go away.” Jean fixed her with a look.

Phoebe bit her lip and looked to the door. Wasp was waiting for her. But he didn't necessarily need to take her along anymore. She could stay here and handle the lists herself.

But the look Jean was giving her said that her little sister wouldn't let her.

They're just lists, Phoebe told herself. If Jean messed them up she could always redo them herself. She would just have to trust Jean.

Still, it was rather hard to turn and leave her office behind. As she was shutting the door, she saw Jean throw herself into Phoebe's chair and toss the lists unceremoniously onto the desk along with her feet and she flinched. She did not at all want to do this.

But she had to. She walked quickly away from her office before she could change her mind. She had to meet with Wasp at the African Gate. He was reshaping and reinforcing the barrier there in ways that could not be done through the Mind. Phoebe was going to meet the leader of the gate as well as familiarize herself with the people. She wasn't going to be a distant queen, she was going to know her people.

And a leader knew when to delegate. Wasp had others do simple tasks for him like this all the time. It saved him time and made his people happy that they were helping. Phoebe would just have to trust her sister to do it correctly.

It was a great deal more difficult than she anticipated.

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Wasp had done exactly the opposite with the African post as he had with the Australian post. While the Australian post was built in the earth, the African post was built in the air.

Not literally, of course. It was closer to say that it was a city in the trees. Built on a river that few people knew existed, populated with people who didn't know of the modern world before Wasp's arrival, the place was nothing like what Phoebe imagined an African village in an African forest to be.

It was clean. It was lively. The people were happy and so very normal. Phoebe saw electronics everywhere, new clothing, and pieces of the modern world she hadn't expected to see.

“These people saved my life once.” Wasp told her, smiling at the look on her face after they stepped through the gate. “I've done everything I can to repay that debt.”

The alter room of the African post was built around the trunk of a massive tree. The gate itself was placed into the tree trunk, the rest of the room circling around it.

A man stepped forward as the gate closed, smiling brightly.

“Wasp! My friend, so good to see you again.”

Wasp hugged the man, a embrace between close friends, then stepped back and beckoned Phoebe forward. “I would like you to meet my queen. This is Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Bekele, leader of the outpost and a good friend of mine.”

“Ah, yes. Dorone has told me much about our Queen Bee.” Bekele grabbed her hand between both of his and beamed at her. His smile was infectious and Phoebe couldn't stop herself from smiling back just as widely. “There was an enormous celebration here when we heard of the crowning. I was at the ceremony myself. You might not remember, we didn't get a chance to talk.”

“Well, I'm glad to meet you now.” Phoebe said honestly.

He nodded, pleased with her answer before looking to Wasp. “We've kept an eye out for Ratel, as you requested. But the jungle remains as quiet as it always is. Which is to say, not quiet at all. If an army of shades were coming through, we would know it because the animals would be silenced.”