Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [208]
A shriek reverberated along the thism lines.
Pery’h.
Jora’h had recently detected fear and confusion from the Designate-in-waiting but had been unable to make out the details. As with the small group on Maratha, turmoil was occurring all across the Empire.
But now the worst had happened. It was inconceivable! The soul-thread that bound Pery’h to his father had been chopped away like a limb being amputated.
Vaguely, as if from a great distance, Jora’h heard the Isix cats snarling and pacing, looking for a new enemy to attack. Yazra’h herself, though reeling with disorientation from the severed connection with her brother Pery’h, knelt beside her father. Guards and courtiers raced up the steps to the dais, shouting their leader’s name, begging to know what was wrong. But he could not respond.
Jora’h‘s mind pounded with grief and loss. A part of his core was being ripped away.
“Pery’h is dead!” He squeezed his eyes shut and was instantly assailed by even more terrible revelations. His son was not only dead—he had been murdered! Betrayed. “They have slaughtered him on Hyrillka.”
Images of treachery and treason inflicted deeper wounds on his already agonized mind. When the horror finally faded to a persistent throbbing ache inside his skull, Jora’h blinked his eyes open to find aghast expressions on the people around him in the reception hall.
Yazra’h helped her father back up from the floor. He swayed for a moment, then planted his feet firmly and spoke in a voice loud enough for all to hear.
“Pery’h has been assassinated. My own brother Rusa’h has declared war on the Ildiran Empire.”
Chapter 106 — ADAR ZAN’NH
On routine patrol with his maniple of warliners, Zan’nh demonstrated his resolve to the Ildiran people. He needed to be seen, to appear strong, though he was not at all sure the Solar Navy could protect the splinter colonies against the formidable enemies they now faced. But the people themselves must believe it, and so he would live up to their expectations.
He remembered when Adar Kori’nh had sat in his command quarters, earnestly focused on Zan’nh’s education. “Your doubt is an enemy’s greatest weapon. As Adar, you are a microcosm of the entire Solar Navy. If the leader himself is strong and confident, then so is the fleet.”
Zan’nh felt overshadowed by his great predecessor. The former Adar had been superior to him in tactical abilities and sheer courage, and it still hadn’t been enough to ensure victory. Kori’nh’s suicidal bravery had struck a great blow against the hydrogues, but he had not won the war by any means. The hydrogues continued to strike back.
Standing in the command nucleus prepared to give his next order, Zan’nh suddenly gripped the support rails, staggering with internal shock as he felt the powerful ripples of…Pery’h? His brother was dead!
When Mage-Imperator Cyroc’h had unexpectedly died, every living person in the Empire had reeled in utter disbelief, because the thism linked them directly to their leader. But the execution of the Designate-in-waiting sent only a shiver of unease through Zan’nh’s crew. He alone knew what the jolt signified.
“Prepare to change course.” His voice sounded strange and raw, but not broken. Decisive. “We must return to Ildira immediately! I have felt something through the thism.”
“Yes, Adar.”
The warliner’s bridge crew began plotting the course while they relayed Zan’nh’s command to the other forty-eight ships accompanying them. The well-organized maniple turned on its new course in perfect formation.
A clamor of alarms swept across the communications console. The surprised operator quickly responded. “You are correct, Adar. I’ve just received an emergency signal from”—he checked the details on his screen—“from the splinter world of Hrel-oro.”
“Hrel-oro?” That wasn’t what he had sensed at all.
Zan’nh turned to the projected message on the main display screen. The narrow reptilian face of a scaly kithman appeared, smoke-blackened