Enrique jumped in, “The man who accosted us at the Forging exhibition also wore a honeybee pendant on a chain.”
The chain in question currently dangled from Laila’s hands. Zofia had brought it to her earlier while they were waiting for Hypnos to arrive. The chain itself was not Forged, exactly. Something about it called to Laila’s senses. But images that should have been sharp in her mind now felt blurred, as if swiped with oil. Someone had tampered with the item. The only thing she knew for certain was that wherever Roux-Joubert was… it was underground. She could feel it. The lightless cold of it. Damp on the walls. Nails with crescents of dirt. And a symbol scrawled in light… pointed. Like a star.
“Roux-Joubert also has a strong Forging affinity,” added Zofia begrudgingly. “He managed to tamper with a Streak of Sia formulation. Usually, the formula copies handprints, but theoretically, there are ways for the Sia formulation to act like a homing mechanism. He must have figured out the way, and that’s what led him directly to us.”
“Who said it washisaffinity, though?” asked Laila. “He could have someone working for him.”
Enrique shuddered. “Don’t forget the gentleman with the blade-brimmed hat who accosted us in the exhibit. It could be him. What else do we know?”
“He’s underground,” said Laila.
The four of them turned to face her. Hypnos rested his chin on his hand, eyeing her suspiciously. “And how doweknow that?” he asked.
“I don’t owe you all my sources,” said Séverin protectively. “Does Roux-Joubert remind you of anyone?”
Hypnos shook his head. “I’m sorry,mon cher, but I haven’t heard that name at all. I can always return to Erebus and check, of course. My house holds many secrets.”
Enrique cleared his throat. “There’s something, though, about the honeybees… I’m starting to think it’s not a coincidence that both he and the man from the exhibition wore one.”
“Not again,” groaned Hypnos. “It’s nothing but a symbol—”
Laila hissed in her breath. She could practically see Enrique brandishing a sword.
“Nothing but a symbol?” repeated Enrique quietly. “People die for symbols. People havehopebecause of symbols. They’re not just lines. They’re histories, cultures, traditions, given shape.”
Hypnos blushed and plucked at his vest.
Enrique turned to Séverin. “Can you get the lights?”
Séverin snapped his fingers and drapes swooshed down to cover the bay windows. He snapped again, and a large black screen crept over the domed glass of the stargazing room.
Hypnos snorted. “And you callmedramatic.”
Ignoring him, Enrique straightened the cuffs of his sleeves. “I’ve been doing research on honeybee symbology for some time now,” he said. “But I only recently connected what Roux-Joubert said to the man who accosted us in the exhibition hall. Both spoke of revolution. Both wore that honeybee chain. Now, historically,honeybees have some mythological resonance, and I think I found a clue…”
“Normally you’d be gloating by now,” pointed out Laila.
Enrique sighed. “Let’s just hope I’m wrong about this clue.”
He placed a small projection sphere on the coffee table. When he touched it, two images appeared side by side. They appeared to be mnemo scans of pages in textbooks or from museum displays.
The first image showed a square, golden plaque. On it was a winged woman. From the waist up, she was human, but waist-down, she was a bee. The next image showed a faded painting of a Hindu goddess, bees radiating from the halo of her heavy crown.
“Bee deities are not uncommon throughout mythology,” said Enrique. “The image you see here is a representation of the Thriae, a triplicate bee goddess—a recurring motif of trinity goddesses—who had the gift of prophecy. The other is a representation of Bhramari, a Hindu goddess of bees. Am I pronouncing that correctly, Laila?”
“It’s Bruh-mah-ree,” she corrected gently.
Enrique made a note and continued, “Where the honeybee motif gets interesting and potentially connects us to France is that honeybees were emblematic of Napoleon’s rule, though the reasons for why he chose his reign to be represented by a honeybee are contentious.”
The image on the wall changed to show a bee embroidered on a rich, velvet robe.
“Some say that when he moved into the Royal Palace at Tuileries, he didn’t want to allocate any resources to redecorating, but also didn’t want the French Royal emblem of the embroidered fleur-de-lis everywhere, so he turned it upside down. When he did that, it looked like a honeybee, and there you have it.”
Séverin sat up straighter. “Do you think Roux-Joubert has some connection to Napoleon?”
“It’s possible,” he said. “Napoleondidlead multiple campaigns throughout North Africa and the Middle East to explore the area. He had a corps of at least two hundred experts, including multiple linguists, historians, engineers, and delegates from the Order of Babel who provided a range of Forging services. Their discoveries”—he paused to press the mnemo bug and change the image—“were fascinating.”
The next image showed a slab of dark rock, covered in what looked like rows of text.
