“But this is a different thing from the kind of punishment you have in mind for the killers of the bees,” Egdod said. “In time I came to understand that you were bettering the place in ways that had not occurred to me yet. The Land is now much better because you were not punished.”

“I fail to understand how the wanton destruction of bees betters the place.”

“It troubles me too,” Egdod admitted, “though I cannot yet make out why.”

“Perhaps it is for the reason mentioned when we first spoke of food, and eating apples,” said Ward. “That discourse put me strongly in mind of eating, and I knew hunger for the first time. But through the wisdom of others at this table I soon understood that for souls such as we to eat food is without purpose. Bees require food in order to be bees. Souls such as we do not, and so if we eat, it is only to pleasure ourselves.”

Greyhame was nodding. “The souls who killed the bees,” he said, “took food from creatures that needed it, for no purpose other than to satisfy their cravings.”

“Now that you have put it in those terms,” said Egdod, “I judge their actions to have been wrongful and I see that once again Freewander has exceeded me in the quickness of her thinking. But to mete out punishment is a different matter altogether. I shall think on it. First though I would appeal to the wisdom of Spring concerning a matter that is closer to hand.”

Spring had been quiet to this point, though the behavior of her aura suggested that she had listened closely and was pondering these matters with much care. She turned her gaze upon Egdod. Being so looked at gave Egdod pleasure, for he saw great beauty in Spring, and in respect of her had begun to feel cravings of a different kind from hunger. Putting such matters out of his mind for the time being, though, he asked her, “Do trees need apples in the same way that bees need honey? Is it the case that to pick an apple is to steal food from a tree?”

Spring did not ponder it for long before shaking her head. “Trees get their food from the ground and from the sun. The apples are akin to leaves. They will fall to the ground and wither and the trees will not miss them.”

“In that case,” Egdod said, “before rendering any judgment or punishment in the matter of the killing of the bees and the stealing of the honey, I propose that we have our feast so that we too may know what it is to eat food and to satisfy our cravings.”