Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [16]
10 PRIME DESIGNATE JORA'H
At the fringe of the sparkling Horizon Cluster, Ildira basked under the varying light of seven suns. The Empire's home planet circled a warm orange K1 star that was situated near a close binary pair—the Qronha system—composed of a red giant and a smaller yellow companion. More distant, but still dazzling in the Ildiran sky, hung the amazing trinary of Durris, a closely tied white star and yellow star with a red dwarf orbiting the common center of mass. Finally, also distant, the blue-supergiant Daym shone like an intense diamond.
Night never fell on Ildira.
Mijistra, capital city and jewel of the ancient empire, glittered under brassy skies. Its spires and domes were made of crystal and colored glass, freeform architecture fashioned out of ultrastrong transparent polymers.
Prime Designate Jora'h, eldest son and heir to the Mage-Imperator, drew a deep breath of air perfumed with mists from the upward-tumbling waterfalls that climbed to the PrismPalace.
As was his duty, the Prime Designate waited to meet the human representative from Theroc. The young man, Reynald, was Jora'h's ostensible counterpart, but in a much-diminished capacity. The human prince would become the ruling Father of a single wilderness planet, whereas the Prime Designate would eventually control the vast Ildiran Empire.
Jora'h raised both hands to greet the smiling man. "Prince Reynald, I bid you heartfelt welcome to Mijistra."
The broad-shouldered prince climbed the wide steps toward the receiving platform, flanked by burly members of the Ildiran soldier kith. A minimal escort of humans accompanied Reynald, including one of his personal green priests.
The Theron man had black hair, divided into braids that were gathered at the back of his neck. He left his well-muscled arms bare under a padded tunic made from an interesting pearly fabric that glistened in the light of multiple suns. He had a squarish face, flat cheeks beneath wide-set dark eyes. He wore a set of filter lenses to block Ildira's excess sunlight; the receiving committee had also given the visitors creams and screening lotions.
"Prime Designate, I've been looking forward to seeing Ildira for many years." Reynald boldly reached out to clasp Jora'h's hand, as if they were equals. He had a warm and open manner about him, an attitude that melted the icy walls of formal ceremony.
Jora'h broke into a smile. He liked this young man almost instantly. "Both of our cultures have much to learn from each other."
Reynald looked at the shimmering curtains of water that leaped from the foamy pools at the canal edges and climbed invisible suspensor ladders into the domes and connected tubes. He laughed with childish delight. "You have already impressed me, Prime Designate—though I could find a few impressive jungle oddities on Theroc, if you ever visited us."
The PrismPalace stood atop an ellipsoidal hill that raised the Mage-Imperator's residence above the shining parapets, museum domes, and greenhouses of Mijistra. Seven rivers—long ago tamed by Ildiran engineers—flowed in perfectly straight lines toward the nexus of the Empire. Magnetic levitation fields and gravity-assist platforms nudged the current along, lifting the sparkling water uphill against gravity.
Reynald followed Jora'h into the entry gallery where blazers augmented the sunlight to banish every possible shadow. "This is one of the last stops on my peregrination. I decided that I must understand other cultures and worlds in order to serve my people. Much like Tsar Peter the Great, one of our ancient leaders from a large country known as Russia. Peter traveled and learned from other cultures and took the best parts back home with him. I intend to do the same."
The human's exuberance was infectious. "An admirable goal, Reynald. Perhaps I should leave Mijistra more often myself." It wasn't necessary for a Prime Designate