Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [10]
Mere contact with wental water will not transform her as we transformed you. It must be a conscious act on our part.
"Then do it. You don't know how much she means to me."
We know how much she means to you. We understand.
"Then how can you refuse to help? You saved me, why not save her?" He owed everything to the wentals, but right now he wanted to hate them.
Saving you was necessary. Without you, the wentals would have remained extinct. This woman, however, is not a point of failure for us.
"So the wentals are utterly selfish? She's a point of failure for me. If you refuse to save Cesca, how can I know that you're as benevolent as you claim? Maybe wentals are as evil as the hydrogues, but just trickier." He had never allowed himself even to consider those suspicions before.
You know that is not true, Jess Tamblyn.
Desperation drove him. "I know that Cesca's going to die--and that my own allies refuse to save her."
Helpless and miserable, Nikko propped cushions around Cesca, adjusted her blanket. "Why is this any different from how green priests join with the worldforest? The trees don't have a problem doing that whenever they want to. Aren't the wentals similar?"
We do not bond in the same way that verdani join with green priests. Worldtrees are passive, the joining symbiotic. Wentals are fluid, uncontrollable, more easily tainted. Selfish actions inspire corruption. When we change you, we change ourselves. Sometimes the reflection splinters, distorts. You cannot comprehend the destructive power of a tainted wental. There is great risk.
"What kind of risk?" Jess demanded. All he could see was Cesca.
See how you yourself are changed. You know how much you lost.
"None of that matters if I lose her." The sudden realization sparked within him. "But if you save her in the same way, then she'll be like me--and I won't be alone anymore. Make us two of a kind."
After a resounding silence, the wentals said, We cannot simply transform her. It must be her choice, and ours, before she changes.
In his mind, Jess received an image of the storm-swept but sterile ocean planet where he'd first delivered the wentals. That is our nearest world. Go to our primary sea. There, we will decide her fate.
5
RLINDA KETT
In the water-mining grotto beneath the crust of Plumas, the reanimated woman stood with ice-white skin. Her inhuman eyes were ablaze with a strange inner energy. Karla Tamblyn's hair crackled and waved about, thawed from the ice that had imprisoned her.
"That's something you don't see every day," Rlinda Kett said with automatic, but forced, humor. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream, but she definitely wanted to run. The Roamer workers didn't know what to do.
The reanimated woman had already left Andrew Tamblyn dead in her wake. Karla took another gliding step, sizzling a clear, hot footprint in the Plumas ice pack. Her body was supercharged like a pressure vessel without a release valve, building up power and ready to explode.
While BeBob continued to gawp in childish astonishment, Rlinda pulled him out of the way. "I suggest we give her all the room she wants."
He let out a moan. "Coming here wasn't such a good idea after all."
"Does a court-martial and death sentence back on Earth sound better?"
"This isn't really my idea of a viable alternative. Ever since we escaped, nothing's gone right. The Blind Faith was destroyed, Davlin was killed, and we were kidnapped by these crazy Roamers. You'd think that would be enough penance." He pressed both palms against his forehead. "Now this monster lady is going to kill all of us."
"Normally, I'd swat your cute behind for being such a pessimist, but right now I can't argue with you."
Moving with deliberate steps, Karla did not give a second thought to the dead man sprawled behind her on the ice. Andrew had