A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [124]
She flashed them a stern expression, one she had learned from Basil. “Should the hydrogues come here, Theroc is just as vulnerable as any other colony. You know the EDF would still come to defend the worldforest, even though you’ve refused to help them.”
The green priests muttered among themselves, uneasy now.
“Listen to me. Telink communication would let the EDF keep watch on scattered settlements. Battleships could maintain surveillance on hydrogue movements. With more timely distress calls, rescue operations could arrive days or weeks sooner, maybe in time to save lives.” She looked at them all. “Wake up and become part of the human race again. We are all in the war against the hydrogues. All of us.”
Yarrod looked around at his fellows, but they remained quiet, content to let him be their spokesman. “We know you are trying your best to do your duty, Sarein—as are we.” His proud expression made him look impenetrable. “However, only green priests can understand the esoteric desires of the worldforest. We are not free to do whatever we wish.”
Sarein challenged him. “And have you asked the worldtrees what you should do, Uncle? Have any of you bothered to inquire?”
The eccentric priest Rossia sat by himself in a cluster of ferns at the wide base of a worldtree. “Of course the trees want us to assist in the fight against the hydrogues. The survival of the worldforest and the green priesthood is at stake.” His smile widened, exposing dark green gums. “Sarein’s brother Beneto recently asked an important question on Corvus Landing. Were any of you paying attention? Perhaps you should all use telink to hear the answer for yourselves.” He shifted, trying to get comfortable with his scarred leg. “It may give you a different perspective.”
Trusting her instincts, Sarein prodded them. “Yes, go ahead! The trees are all around you—ask them. I will abide by their answer.”
Yarrod and the reluctant green priests spread out among the interlinked trees. They touched fingers against the scaled bark and closed their eyes.
Although Sarein had learned the value of patience and calm, her mind burned with anxiety. Reynald looked at her strangely. None of them had expected this to happen, but apparently the worldforest had knowledge of its own.
Finally, Yarrod disengaged his telink and turned to face her. Tears streamed from his eyes and down the creases of his tattooed face. Green priests chattered with each other in astonishment and shock, looking as if they had been chastised.
“Rossia is correct,” Yarrod said. “There is much new information, which the trees tried to keep from us, in order to protect us. This conflict is much greater, and much older, than simple retaliation for the Klikiss Torch at Oncier. The hydrogues want to destroy the human race, the worldforest…everything.”
Around Sarein, the green priests looked appalled, stunned, frightened. Yarrod lifted his head and spoke directly to her. “Yes, we will join the war effort.”
63
NIRA
Nira and her fellow human laborers marched from the fenced breeder compound into the rough-edged hills. Sunlight bathed her emerald skin, nourishing her, keeping her alive.
In the work crew, she talked with the people beside her, describing for them how she had once run through the majestic trees of Theroc, how she had felt the soothing presence of the titanic forest, the dozing intelligence of an ancient entity. None of the Burton descendants had ever seen a tree taller than the gnarled scrub on the hills; most of them couldn’t even imagine such things, and many assumed the strange green priest was just making up stories again.
When she’d entered into a symbiosis with the forest, Nira had become part of a living network. She could communicate with all other green priests and tap into the incomprehensibly vast and complex database the worldforest had collected over the millennia.
But here on Dobro, she was cut off from the worldforest.
To the east, the foothills were covered with