Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [114]
"Well, I've gotten married enough times myself." The merchant scooped up a bite of the dessert and gestured for the two to taste it. "I outlived two of my husbands, and the bitterest split was with my most recent one. He left me to marry a young beauty—then, a year later, she murdered him in a fit of passion."
Nira gasped. Rlinda shook her head with a knowing smile. "I always said the man was impossible to get along with, and his new wife must have figured it out, too. So far, my best ex-husband was the second one, a man named Branson Roberts. I call him BeBob, though no one else does. We're still good friends, and he's my best pilot—we just couldn't get along well enough to stay married." She ate her dessert in three bites and dabbed her lips with a napkin.
"I've given up on marriage now and decided to become a gourmand. Forget sex...well, for the most part. What could be better than sampling all the culinary pleasures I find on other worlds?"
Rlinda studied the chronometer and then powered up a viewscreen on her cabin wall, showing brilliant clustered stars as they approached. "Won't be long now. Those are the seven suns of the Ildiran system." She began to clean up the cooking implements.
52 REMEMBERER DIO'SH
The deepest archives in the Prism Palace were silent and empty. As with every structure in Mijistra, even far underground, the chambers remained well-lit at all hours, with blazers at every intersection and dazzling panels in the ceiling. But though the chemical fires simulated bright daylight, Rememberer Dio'sh could sense oppressive shadows hiding in enclosed spaces. Mysteries and fears and tragic memories of Crenna...
The transparent walls of the archives led to myriad chambers, transforming the underground Palace levels into a honeycomb of glass. Dio'sh would have preferred to remain in the high towers and open balconies, where he could listen to the streams of water leaping from platform to platform, but only here in these quiet catacombs could he find the resources he required. Down here, the rememberer had access to all the ancient records of Ildiran history.
His hands still trembled, and he'd had little appetite since being rescued from the dying colony on Crenna. He felt weak and sick at heart. Rememberer Vao'sh had tried to convince him that his symptoms were a mental reaction to the ordeal he had endured, not due to any echo of the plague itself. Dio'sh and the refugees had remained in difficult quarantine until they were all deemed healthy. Even so, any muscle pain, headache, or twinge made him nervous.
However, nothing would divert him from his obsessive curiosity now. Dio'sh had too much information to find, too many stories to read, too much history to learn. He had to discover the truth.
All rememberers spent their lives learning and rehearsing the Saga of Seven Suns. The members of their kith were blessed with well-organized eidetic memories so they could retain and repeat the massive epic, word for word. Once accepted into canon, no phrase was ever changed.
Because that story was so incredibly vast, with so many plotlines and legends and adventures, no one historian could possibly perform it all. Rememberer Vao'sh preferred to spend his days telling favorite tales to avid listeners, glorifying Ildiran heroes and accomplishments. As the Mage-Imperator's court rememberer, he loved to perform.
Even before the plague, though, Dio'sh had preferred a more solitary life. Oh, he had often entertained the Crenna Designate and the settlers, but the colonists had much work to do and little free time. No one had ever expected him to spend his entire day reciting stanzas from the Saga. During the good times on Crenna, Dio'sh had had many free hours to read and analyze obscure portions of the epic poem.
Now that he was back in the Prism Palace, recovering, Dio'sh decided to devote even more time to studying, digging through ancient