Excerpt from The Bees by Laline Paull, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Sister Sage came back to her.

"Well! You appear to have accessed every floor code at once. Stay very still." She lightly touched both Flora's antennae with her own.

A new fragrance rose up around them like a cocoon. Flora breathed it deep inside, and the rushing confusion in her brain subsided. Her body calmed and her heart filled with joy, for the fragrance told her with utter certainty that she, Flora 717, was loved.

"Mother!" she cried out as she sank to her knees. "Holy Mother."

"Not quite." The priestess looked gratified. "Though I am of the same noble kin as Her Majesty, all praise to her eggs. And as the Queen most graciously permitted me to attend her today, I am richly blessed with her scent. That which you feel is but a tiny fraction of the Queen's Love, 717."

Sister Sage's voice came from a great distance and Flora nodded. As the Queen's Love flowed through her body and brain, all the different frequencies and codes in the tiles slowed and clarified into a map of the hive, constantly running with information. Everything was fascinating and beautiful, and she turned her gaze to the priestess.

"Yes. Very receptive." Sister Sage looked at her, then pointed to a new area of the mosaic. "Now stand over there."

Obediently Flora moved, and felt how the comb transmitted subtly different vibrations and frequencies. She adjusted her feet to receive the strongest signal, and the priestess watched with keen attention.

"You feel something— but do you comprehend it?"

Flora wanted to answer that she did, but her physical bliss prevented her speaking and she could only stare. At her silence, Sister Sage relaxed.

"Good. Knowledge only causes pain to your kin."

As they walked on, Flora's euphoria stabilized into a feeling of deep physical relaxation and heightened perceptions. Only now did she fully appreciate the beauty of Sister Sage's elegant form, how her pale gold fur lay in silky stripes against the thin brown gloss of her bands, themselves exactly matched by the shade of her six legs. Long, translucent wings folded down her back, and her antennae tapered to fine points.

They continued deeper into the hive, Flora entranced by its carved and frescoed walls of ancient scent and the beautiful blend of her living sisters. She did not feel how the golden tiles changed underfoot and the bare, pale wax began, or how the priestess spread her cloak of scent over them both as they entered a small empty corridor that held no vibration at all.

Only when they stopped before a plain doorway did she feel how far they had traveled, and that she was still very hungry

"Soon." Sister Sage answered as if Flora had spoken. She touched a panel in the wall, and the door opened.

From The Bees by Laline Paull. Copyright 2014 Laline Paull. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.