Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [129]
A crowd charged through the streets, making no attempt to move quietly. Alarmed Ildiran kithmen ran back to their homes, but human figures pursued them. They used sharp farm implements to knock down streetlights and shed darkness.
This was madness! Udru'h ran to barricade the door of his residence. "Stay here, Osira'h! It is an uprising of some sort." In trying to do the right thing, Daro'h had given the humans too much freedom too quickly. He should have warned the young Designate. For all their clamor and dissatisfaction, the breeding subjects did not understand how to be free.
Calm but curious, the girl walked to the window. Carrying portable blazers, three Ildiran guards attempted to mount a defense, but the humans seemed out of control. The breeding captives fell upon them like animals.
Udru'h raced to the room where Thor'h lay insensate. Though he despised what the Prime Designate had done, he was obligated to protect the unconscious young man. Given his choice, he would have thrown the treacherous young man to those wolves, let them rip the Prime Designate's body to shreds. But the Mage-Imperator had given him clear instructions, and Udru'h had already disappointed his brother too often.
He lifted the scarecrowish body and easily carried the young man down a set of stairs into the underground storage level. The chamber beneath his private residence, a bolt-hole Udru'h had designed for emergencies, would be a perfect hiding place.
He dropped the limp body onto a narrow cot there. "The door is hidden. The chamber is well lit, and once I seal it, you will be secure." He said, though he did not imagine Thor'h could actually hear or understand him, "You will be safe until I deal with this situation." Outside, a few minor reshufflings of boxes and crates concealed the bolt-hole.
When he finished, Udru'h rushed up the stairs to the main level of his residence and called for his guards, mentally aligning a defense against the rebellious humans. Even if Daro'h was technically the new Designate, Udru'h could better command in a crisis. He wondered what Daro'h was doing in his own residence.
On the main level, he found Osira'h standing before the front entrance. She looked directly at him, smiled--then unbolted the door and opened it wide.
Udru'h shouted, but could not stop her in time. Outside, he saw a mob waiting for him. The angry humans let out a roar.
76
ANTON COLICOS
Anton was not surprised when young Ridek'h took up residence in the damaged citadel palace. Yazra'h herself had encouraged it. It was the place where a Designate should live. Ridek'h chose his own quarters--specifically not the master chambers where Rusa'h and his pleasure-mates had lived, and not the rooms where his father Pery'h had been held prisoner.
For days, reconstruction teams swarmed across the wreckage, tearing down ruined buildings, clearing roads, replanting crops, erecting temporary homes.
Meanwhile, in underground chambers well lit with artificial spotlights, the two historians found the ancient vaults still intact. "It's like a tomb of records," Anton said with a smile of anticipation. "What do you think is in there?"
"Many mysteries. Information not considered worthy of inclusion in the Saga."
A cadre of broad-shouldered diggers and heavy laborers stood placidly in front of the bricked-up walls of the archives, ready to smash open the seals. They were not the least bit interested in what they might find inside.
Yazra'h watched her cats pace restlessly up and down the dusty tunnels. "Can I trust you to remain here? Do I need to guard you?"
Anton chuckled. "I think there will be plenty to occupy us."
She shrugged, obviously perplexed to see two men so excited to spend hours with musty old documents. Nevertheless, she smiled at Anton. "Find new stories to tell me."
He flippantly said, "I could always make some up."
She scowled. "I want only