As they walked, Charlie was up front, leading the way, with Rube a few paces behind him.  At the back was Lor, carrying the can of poison, and between them walked Dol and Bo Iridescence.  Rube and Lor had found some long grass and used it to tie their hands.  It would never have worked if they’d been planning to leave them behind- too many opportunities to work away at it, fray the fibres and get the knots loose- but it would do until they found something better.

“There used to be more of us,” said Siobhan, the other bee.  She’d been hovering just by Rube for a few minutes, and Rube had been waiting for her to say something.

“In the terrarium?”

“Yeah.”  Siobhan’s voice was a bit lower than the other female insects’- one of those voices that always sounded like you were being strangled- but Rube thought she sounded quite young.  They were probably around the same age.  If things had been different, they might have been in the same class at school.  “I mean, in case you were wondering if the seven of us raised Kai by ourselves.  He wasn’t that deprived.”

There was an obvious question that came next, but Rube didn’t know if it was a good idea to ask it.  “What happened to them?”

Behind her, Dol Iridescence gave a long-suffering sigh.  It seemed to turn into a kind of exasperated laugh towards the end.  “Are you really going to do this?”

“Do what?” asked Rube.

“Spend the entire journey letting her drip poison in your ear.”  A couple of strands of hair were sticking to her forehead with sweat.  Rube probably wouldn’t have noticed that if she hadn’t looked so well-put-together before.  “There’s more than one side to this story, you know.”

That sounded so ridiculous that Rube couldn’t help but want to know what was behind it.  “OK.  Why don’t you tell me what happened to them?”

Dol leaned forward, as if taking Rube into her confidence.  The effect was spoiled a bit by the fact that they were moving through plantlife that seemed like it was about seventy per cent moss, and Dol had to raise her voice to be heard over the squishing sound of their footsteps.  “We were the only ones who wanted them, you know.  We paid for them.  An if we hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.  Maybe somebody much worse.”

Rube had to hold back a weird shudder.  “That doesn’t really answer…”

“If Kai’s told you a sob story about how he was ripped away from his loving parents, it’s a lie.”  Dol’s face stretched out into a horrible grin.  “They sold him to us.  Fair and square.”

Rube had half-assumed that Siobhan had flown away as soon as Dol started talking (she wouldn’t have blamed her), but then she heard her voice in her ear again.  “With me it was my mum’s boyfriend.  He talked her into…”  Siobhan broke off and laughed.  “Well, he probably didn’t have to try too hard, knowing her,”

Rube swallowed.  All of a sudden, her throat felt strange.

“No-one missed them,” said Dol, as if what Siobhan had just said proved her point, “No-one else would have given them a roof over their heads.”

“So what did happen to those other insects?” snapped Rube.

Dol sigh-laughed again.  “Have you even been listening to me?  Nothing happened to them that wouldn’t have happened anyway.  Believe me, they were never destined for long and happy lives.”

Rube would have asked again- would have kept on asking, even though she knew she wouldn’t get an answer- but at that moment, Charlie flew up and told her, “We’re here.”

At first, Rube didn’t know what he meant- it just looked like more trees up ahead- but then she saw the broken panel just between the branches, about level with her ankles.  Rube waved to Lor and the others to tell them to stop, then crouched down to look through it.  Mouldy and neglected, Charlie had said, but Rube couldn’t see enough to tell. To her, it just looked dark.

“Keep an eye on these two,” Lor told her, and ran up to get a closer look.  She lay on the ground and put her eye to the crack.  After a moment, she straightened up and nodded.  “I managed to put my foot through one of the panels upstairs,” she told Charlie, “I should be able to do the same thing here.  Unless you’ve got any objections?”

Charlie shook his head. 

“Kick the whole thing apart, if you need to,” growled Annie.

(To be continued)