“What can I go by?” she thought. “No one thing stands out. I shan’t be able to reach my people and help them. Oh, oh! And here I had a chance to atone for my desertion. What shall I do? What shall I do?”—Suddenly some secret force steered her in a certain direction. “What is pushing and pulling me? It must be homesickness guiding me back to my country.” She gave herself up to the instinct and flew swiftly on. Soon, in the distance, looking like grey domes in the dim light of the dawn, showed the mighty lindens of the castle park. She exclaimed with delight. She knew where she was. She dropped closer to the earth. In the meadows on one side hung the luminous wisps of fog, thicker here than in the woods. She thought of the flower-sprites who cheerfully died their early death inside the floating veils. That inspired her anew with confidence. Her anxiety disappeared. Let her people spurn her from the kingdom, let the queen punish her for desertion, if only the bees were spared this dreadful calamity of the hornets’ invasion.
Close to the long stone wall shone the silver-fir that shielded the bee-city against the west wind. And there—she could see them distinctly now—were the red, blue, and green portals of her homeland. The stormy pounding of her heart nearly robbed her of her breath. But on she flew toward the red entrance which led to her people and her queen.
On the flying-board, two sentinels blocked the entrance and laid hands upon her. Maya was too breathless to utter a syllable, and the sentinels threatened to kill her. For a bee to force its way into a strange city without the queen’s consent is a capital offense.
“Stand back!” cried one sentinel, thrusting her roughly away. “What’s the matter with you! If you don’t leave this instant, you’ll die.—Did you ever!” He turned to the other sentinel. “Have you ever seen the like, and before daytime too?”
Now Maya pronounced the password by which all the bees knew one another. The sentinels instantly released her.
“What!” they cried. “You are one of us, and we don’t know you?”
“Let me get to the queen,” groaned the little bee. “Right away, quick! We are in terrible danger.”
The sentinels still hesitated. They couldn’t grasp the situation.
“The queen may not be awakened before sunrise,” said the one.
“Then,” Maya screamed, her voice rising to a passionate yell such as the sentinels had probably never heard from a bee before, “then the queen will never wake up alive. Death is following at my heels. Take me to the queen! Take me to the queen, I say!” Her voice was so wild and wrathful that the sentinels were frightened, and obeyed.