Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [127]
And so Tery'l began to explain.
74
NIRA
After Osira'h had gone to the former Designate's residence to join him for a meal before his departure, Nira and the other captives finalized their plans. Udru'h pretended that he would miss the half-breed girl and thought Osira'h would be sad that he was going away. The vile man intended to leave Dobro behind, sweeping all of his crimes under the rug as if they had never happened. Nira couldn't let him get away with it.
She loathed him for what he had done to her, both physically and mentally. When she'd first discovered she was pregnant, she had been so happy. Osira'h was Jora'h's child, a baby conceived out of love--a new experience for the Prime Designate, whose assignment had been to spread his bloodline among all Ildiran kiths. She and Jora'h would have raised their baby in the Prism Palace, showering the child with affection. Instead this had been forced upon them all.
And after hearing what Jora'h was planning with the hydrogues against the human race, Nira questioned what he would really have done. During her years of captivity and abuse, she had clung to what she believed. She had loved Jora'h, but now she allowed herself to think of him only as the "Mage-Imperator," someone whose heart had died when he ascended to the chrysalis chair.
Tonight, the restless, angry people had crowded into a single dwelling house, and it was up to Nira to guide them. They would demonstrate to the Ildirans the extent of their anger.
She spoke firmly. "In turning you loose, your captors gave you a power they never guessed. For so many generations, the Ildirans thought of you as meek and helpless. Tonight you will show them that you are no longer their pawns. Tonight we burn down the old, eradicate the scars, and pave the way for a fresh beginning. We'll see just how true to his word Designate Daro'h is."
She looked at her half-breed children waiting by the bunks. Nira had easily taken them from their quarters in the Ildiran settlement. Not even the mentalists and lens kithmen watched them closely anymore, now that Daro'h had declared the camp open. The children were simply leftovers of a defunct program.
Stoner saw her gaze. "Will they be safe out there? What if guards come?"
"It is important that they see this. It is more than a symbol." Osira'h had told her younger brothers and sisters everything about how they had been deceived, that their unnatural skills might have helped an Empire that would in turn kill their mother's people. Even Rod'h had heard the truth in Osira'h's words. Those children stayed with Nira now.
Like a work detail sent out to excavate opalbone fossils in the arroyos, the former captives filed out of the dwelling structure. They carried igniters and makeshift torches. Ildirans thrived on light, hated the darkness. Tonight, Nira and the others would give them a blaze they would never forget.
They gathered outside the empty breeding barracks. Even those who had been raised to this fate despised those buildings. Nira took the first torch and applied it to the nearest wooden wall. "Burn them down."
There were currently seven of the large barracks, each with many rooms, poisoned with centuries of memories and pain. Flames licked up the boards and swiftly spread along the plank shutters. Her own children took igniters and lit other walls, then all the captives came forward to help. A night wind sprang up, as if hungry to fan the blaze. Nira watched their bonfire become ravenous. The breeding barracks crackled and popped. Sparks flew into the air.
The bright hot glow began to draw attention from the well-lit Ildiran town. Blazers shone among the buildings where the guards and doctors, mentalists and lens kithmen, resided.
Benn Stoner yelled, "This isn't enough! Let's torch the Ildiran settlement, too. It was built by the labor of our forefathers to house our captors. If we have to make a clean start, then they should