Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [228]
"What will you be like? A son or a daughter?" she whispered aloud, thinking of the mixed genetics of a telepathic green priest and the Mage-Imperator's son. The possibilities seemed limitless, and she smiled, impressed at the potential this child held.
When he became Mage-Imperator, Jora'h would have full access to thism, a telepathy completely different from Nira's own connection with the worldforest. Through the thism, a Mage-Imperator sat at the top of a diffuse mind, sensing all of the subjects in his empire. When that happened, Nira would lose her lover entirely. Jora'h would become something else, something that was both more and less than what he was now.
"Are you eager for that day?" Nira had asked him.
"That day will come regardless of my enthusiasm or trepidation. I am the Prime Designate. My destiny is to be the next Mage-Imperator. The thism will be my canvas, on which I can continue the masterpiece of the Ildiran Empire. I will know everything, and the people will treat me like a god." He kissed her. "I don't have a choice in the matter."
Nira had felt afraid as she held the Prime Designate naked against her, feeling his warm skin, the topography of his muscles, the pleasantly hot stirring of his breath against her face. His tiny golden chains of hair crackled like living static. "But before that can happen, Jora'h, you must...they will have to—"
He brushed his fingertips over her lips. "No man would ever look forward to ritual castration, but I have been prepared for that since I was a child. For now, my duty is to spread my bloodline among the various Ildiran kiths. Later, my duty will be to manage the web of thism so that I can be the heart and mind of the Ildiran race." He stroked her smooth shoulders. "But that will not occur for half a century or more. Don't worry about it, Nira. Does not the transience itself make our love sweeter?"
How could she disagree?
Astonished but incredibly happy to learn that she carried his child, Nira longed to see Jora'h, needed to talk with him, but he had been exceptionally busy. Since the hydrogue attack on Qronha 3 and the alien emissary's ultimatum against ekti production, the Mage-Imperator had been keeping his son close beside him. Such dire circumstances had forced the Prime Designate—indeed all the Designates, as well as Adar Kori'nh and the other commanders of the Solar Navy—to address the emergency.
Nira knew this was not a time for lovemaking, and comforted herself with the knowledge of her precious secret, looking forward to the time when she would be able to reveal it to Jora'h. One day, when his duties and obligations as heir to the great empire weighed too heavily upon him, she would tell him, offer him a bright spot in an otherwise troubled day. She felt sure he would consider it a miracle.
Reluctant to confide in stern Otema, though, Nira kept the information to herself and concentrated on reading the Saga to the treelings. Nira wondered whether she might have earned a place in the epic herself, by carrying the first child of an Ildiran and a human. Her baby, a hybrid with such monumental potential, might someday perform great deeds.
Soon she would have to tell Otema about the baby, if the old woman didn't already know through the worldforest. For now, Nira justified her love for the Prime Designate, sorting out her feelings for him and speaking them aloud. Having no one else to talk to, she shared her thoughts with the non-judgmental treelings, telling them everything.
And the always-curious worldforest absorbed the information with benevolent fascination.
105 MAGE-IMPERATOR
After a noticeably agitated Chairman Wenceslas raced back to mitigate the disaster on Earth, the Mage-Imperator knew it was time to launch his own plans. In the end, it did not matter how many people were hurt, because