Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [128]
The angry people liked the suggestion and took up the cry. "Smash their windows, burn their buildings!" With their igniters they ran toward the town.
Alarmed, Nira saw her followers rapidly slip out of her grasp. "No! We have already burned the barracks--that is what we needed to accomplish."
The fire was spreading through their hearts as well as the blackening structures. "We can show them how it feels!"
The barracks were completely engulfed now, a bonfire in the night. Nira realized with deep dismay that she could never control this mob. She felt sick.
Beside her, Rod'h tugged on her arm. He saw her staring toward the settlement. "Are we going to see my father now?"
In her shock, Nira had forgotten to consider who Udru'h was to the boy. "Yes, Rod'h," she answered. "Now we'll go see your father."
75
FORMER DESIGNATE UDRU'H
A fresh dose of shiing circulated through Thor'h's veins like a constantly blowing sandstorm obscuring the light. The drug locked the traitor away from his mind and thoughts, from any comfort of thism. His waxen face had not shown any emotion, any flicker of wakefulness, since the catastrophic end of Rusa'h's rebellion.
"You sleep too easily, Thor'h," Udru'h muttered. "The rest of us are forced to face the consequences of our choices." He turned away from this messy loose end and left the comatose former Prime Designate in his cheerless room. Soon, he would have to move Thor'h to Daro'h's residence. But not tonight. Udru'h intended to have a far more pleasant evening. He had invited Osira'h to join him for his last dinner on Dobro, before he went back to Ildira.
The girl was already waiting for him. She sat primly at a table, dressed in serviceable garments. Seeing her, Udru'h paused only a moment. He had raised this dear half-breed girl almost as his own, had taught her everything she needed to know to save the Empire--and she had succeeded. Udru'h could always cling to that knowledge even if he never received a single accolade or word of recognition for his work on Dobro, even if the Mage-Imperator punished him for his lies and for what he had done to Nira. The program had been crucial.
As he took his seat, servant kithmen rushed in with a clatter of beverage bottles, appetizers, fruits, and plates of steaming food. Udru'h increased the lighting, though the girl had not seemed to mind the dimness. She had been spending a great deal of time with her mother among the human breeding subjects. It was good for her to join him, where she belonged.
Osira'h looked up. "Shall I still call you Designate, or former Designate?"
"You may call me Uncle." His smile did not fit comfortably on his face.
She accepted the answer without comment.
When the plates were set in front of them, they ate slowly. Neither showed any relish for the food. Udru'h didn't understand why he should feel so awkward. The two had spent many meals together.
"This reminds me of all those times we sat together during your instruction sessions." With a bittersweet pang, he could not fight the sensation of loss. "When you were younger, all you wanted to do was please me. That was not so long ago."
From across the table, Osira'h watched him with her large eyes. She seemed distant, uncommunicative. "In my mind it feels like a thousand years."
He could not imagine what she had gone through, what she had felt being dropped into the clouds to find the hydrogues, to communicate with them or die. What had happened to her mind when she had opened her thoughts to those alien creatures? "I am sorry for the difficulties you faced."
"It was necessary," Osira'h answered distantly, then added in a hard voice, "Are you sorry for what you did to my mother?"
He frowned. The green priest woman was irrelevant, but clearly she was talking with her daughter about terrible things. "That, too, was necessary."
Udru'h heard a disturbance outside--shouts and clashes, voices that sounded distinctly human. He hurried to the broad, angled windows. Standing close to the pane, he looked past the Ildiran settlement to the former human compound.