Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [138]
Though Cain remained disturbed, for Basil the meeting was ended. "Go and write your draft of the letter. Maybe we'll never need to use it, but I intend to keep my options open."
81
ANTON COLICOS
Eager to share one of the new stories they had found in the Hyrillka vaults, Anton and Vao'sh met with a weary Designate Ridek'h in his citadel palace quarters. They had already sifted out the best, most provocative new stories, but they had not yet found a miracle cure for the Mage-Imperator's problems.
The boy was red-eyed and obviously exhausted, but Anton thought he looked a great deal more determined and confident than he had been aboard the warliner. With Yazra'h and Tal O'nh assisting him, the young Designate was overseeing so many rebuilding operations, boosting the morale of his people, that he was too preoccupied for doubts anymore.
Interested in what the historians had found, Yazra'h joined them in the Designate's private room. The beautiful but intimidating woman took a seat very close beside Anton, though he hadn't left her much room. She smelled clean, freshly scrubbed, but not perfumed. The tawny Isix cats circled the room twice, then melted onto the floor at Anton's feet.
Ridek'h looked eagerly at the old rememberer. "Is it a brave story? About Hyrillka?" He sat in a chair that looked much too large for him.
"This is the tale of the Shadow Fleet, the voyagers in darkness, trapped forever just a thin boundary away from the light." Anton had read the accounts, too, but decided to let Vao'sh share it. His friend was a master storyteller.
"Orryx . . . a name not much remembered, a place no longer visited. It was the first of our splinter colonies to succumb to the black shadow of the Shana Rei." The old historian's voice grew stronger with each stanza he had memorized, and the lobes on his face flushed a variety of colors. "Shana Rei. The creatures of darkness had emerged from their black nebulae and swallowed our survey fleet, leaving their victims nothing more than pale ghosts killed by the utter absence of light!" He drew in a quick breath, startling them.
"But Ildirans did not yet know the nature of their terrible new enemy. The Shana Rei were a hungry wave spreading out from the dark nebulae, living shadows that devoured light and life. Orryx was the first in their path, a place of flowers and fields, families and songs. They suspected nothing until the Shana Rei flung blackness across the landscape like a shroud that absorbed all light, blindfolding the eyes and hearts of those poor people. A permanent eclipse."
Outside, Hyrillka's bright primary sun had set, and the orange secondary left a coppery burning undertone in the air. As the rememberer told his story, the room seemed to grow dimmer.
Vao'sh extended a finger. "When the Mage-Imperator sensed his subjects being engulfed on Orryx, he rushed a septa of warliners to fight for them. Seven warliners armed with our best weapons and crewed by the bravest soldier kithmen. All seven battleships vanished into the blackness.
"Feeling echoes of horror through the thism, the Mage-Imperator commanded his engineers and scientists to develop new weapons from the Lightsource. Before long, brave Tal Bria'nh rushed to the dying splinter colony with a cohort of warliners. He carried a hundred new sun bombs--satellites that could produce as much purifying brightness as a star. They were confident, angry, and ready to take revenge for the unprovoked attack.
"When the sun bombs ignited, the light burned the Shana Rei like acid. A flash and a rainbow, searing light to bring joy to any Ildiran, and death to a creature of darkness. Although the ebony blanket of the Shana Rei began to dissolve, the hundred sun bombs eventually dwindled. Then the Shana Rei returned for a second onslaught, without tactics or compassion. Faced with the new wall of darkness, Tal Bria'nh knew he could