Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [176]
Water is water—steam, liquid, or ice. The material state does not matter to us.
Even though the exotic wental ship responded to his thoughts and gestures, Jess needed all of his piloting skill to bring the coral-and-pearl bubble through the pelting sleet of the comet’s coma to land on the frozen surface. He walked through the gelatinous wall of his vessel and stepped out, unprotected except for a film of sparkling moisture and his pearlescent gossamer garment, onto black ice and grayish-white snow. The wental presence kept his body intact even in the vacuum of open space.
As he set his bare foot on the rugged, sterile ground, just a few droplets of the possessed water seeped out of his energized skin and permeated the crystal lattice of cometary ice. Jess stared in amazement as the tumbling, evaporating iceberg came to eerie life.
The sparkle and power of the wentals began to grow like phosphorescent dye spreading into a pool. The expanding wentals swiftly penetrated fissures and swept through the solid blocks of ice that bound the comet together.
The hydrogues will never think to look for us here,the wentals said in his mind.
Jess remained for a long moment in the cold, still silence. Finally, he returned to his water-bubble vessel, detached it from the comet, and flew away.
Jess felt immense satisfaction to see the comet crackle and glow. It lit up like a spotlight now, a new cluster of wentals in a cannonball of watery energy. Counting it another victory, Jess flew off in search of more places where he could seed humanity’s unexpected allies.
Chapter 89 — MAGE-IMPERATOR JORA’H
Now that he had returned from Dobro and settled back into his chrysalis chair, the Mage-Imperator had important changes to make. Jora’h sent a message runner to summon his daughter Yazra’h; he wanted to speak with her about something that intrigued him far more than an endless succession of obsessively dedicated Ildiran pilgrims who wished to gaze upon him. Lately, it seemed a great many of them were coming from Hyrillka, possibly representatives to begin shipping shiing from the battered world.
The first of the day’s sycophants already waited outside the skysphere reception hall, and Yazra’h passed them as she bounded into her father’s presence. Her every movement seemed supple, as if her bones were made of solidified grace. The three tawny and powerful Isix cats accompanied her with their usual perfectly synchronized movement. The Ildiran nobles in the hall backed away, intimidated by the feline predators.
The Mage-Imperator sat up in his chair, smiling. “Must you always bring those pets with you? You are frightening my functionaries.”
Ascending the dais, Yazra’h smirked at the cowering courtiers with disdain. “Am I responsible for their silly fears, Liege? I keep my cats under control.” When she stopped at the top step, the Isix cats sat, one to either side of Yazra’h, the other behind and facing away from her. The pantherlike creatures were narrow, their faces pointed like greyhounds. They could run fast, attack swiftly, and kill in the blink of an eye.
Jora’h smiled indulgently. “Despite all the crises around me, Yazra’h, one look at you shows that our race has the strength to face any adversary. In fact, I pity anyone who would dare to go against you.”
She accepted the praise, but did not bask in it. Most noble females were beautiful, pampered courtesans, whose impeccably smooth skin glistened from lotions and photoactive paints. They adorned their shaved scalps, necks, and shoulders with swirls of shifting pigments, like chameleon stripes. Liloa’h, Jora’h‘s first lover, had been one of them.
Yazra’h was not. She let her bronze hair grow into a loose wild mane. Her smoky topaz eyes glittered with a feral light. Though she’d always had the opportunity to be among noblewomen, Yazra’h preferred to train with soldier kithmen, developing her reflexes, honing her skills, keeping her body lean and powerful. Her activities would have made any other noblewoman an outcast, but the daughter of the Mage-Imperator