Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [121]
It was not his place to second-guess the honor or the wisdom of what his father was forced to concede to the hydrogues. Betray and destroy the Earth Defense Forces? Zan'nh had always felt an uneasy dislike for humans and their impatient eagerness to swarm across planet after planet. Adar Kori'nh had told him how humans had taken advantage of plague-stricken Crenna, claiming the world even as the Solar Navy evacuated the last Ildiran survivors. Zan'nh had watched impertinent human cloud harvesters set up operations on Qronha 3--an Ildiran planet--without requesting permission.
And yet humans had also shown surprising altruism. Sullivan Gold had risked, and lost, many lives to save Ildirans when hydrogues attacked the Qronha 3 cloud harvesters. Such a selfless feat warranted inclusion in the Saga of Seven Suns, but instead those heroic skyminers had been prevented from going home. He hoped they could achieve a breakthrough that no Ildiran could imagine.
As soon as he stepped out of his chambers, a courier found him. "Adar . . . Prime Designate! The Mage-Imperator requests your immediate presence!" Zan'nh marched after the breathless man.
Inside the skysphere audience chamber, courtiers and bureaucrats were in a flurry of activity. Jora'h was already coming down the steps of the dais to meet him. Zan'nh bowed and gave a formal salute.
"Adar, the hydrogues have delivered their instructions, and I have sent couriers out to distribute my orders. I have already dispatched a message to Dobro so that Osira'h can hear, in case the hydrogues are listening through her."
Zan'nh didn't lift his gaze from the polished steps below the chrysalis chair. "How may I be of assistance, Liege?"
"Go to Earth immediately--and here is what you must tell the King."
70
CHAIRMAN BASIL WENCESLAS
In the Whisper Palace's hushed infirmary levels, Basil waited with Deputy Cain and OX. Not knowing where he was going, Sarein had tried to accompany them, but Basil had expressly forbidden it. He did not want her to see this. And now even Captain McCammon seemed to show a tinge of sympathy toward the showboating King; did everyone give up so easily? Basil had to put a stop to this, and right away.
A slack-faced Prince Daniel lay insensate, but that was about to change--not by choice, but out of desperation. Medical specialists set to work reviving the formerly unacceptable Prince: the Chairman's next best chance. The other alternative Basil had in mind would take far too much time, time that he didn't have right now.
Daniel is still unacceptable, even if his brain has been punished with nightmares for months, Basil thought. He clasped his hands behind his back and scowled at the pallid young man. But he is the lesser of two evils.
Daniel had proved to be a terrible disappointment, but he had never actively opposed Basil's policies. He wasn't smart enough, didn't have a broad mind. His role was not to think, just to listen and to repeat what he was told to say. With Peter--or Raymond Aguerra, as he'd once been called--they had chosen someone with too much intelligence, too much initiative. Not a mistake we are ever likely to make again.
Like window dressing, the Teacher compy waited silently beside his once-plump former student. As soon as Daniel underwent a brief but necessary recovery, OX would try to instruct the Prince again.
After the stimulants and counteractants had been administered, but before the young man awoke, Basil let out a long, disappointed sigh. "I'm convinced King Peter will never learn his lesson, despite many chances and clear warnings." He began to pace, watching the young patient's twitchings and moanings as he swam up from the depths of unconsciousness. "Worse, Peter has begun to garner a disturbing amount of popular support. Even when he blatantly goes against our instructions, the people applaud everything he does."
Cain frowned at him. "Sir, the people are supposed to adore him. That is what he's there for. Doesn't that mean he's doing his job properly?"
"Not unless it's the way I tell him to do his job. We've