Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [156]
Jora'h lowered his gaze. "Imagine an unreasonable beast looming over you, over your entire city--promising immediate eradication if you do not comply. The emissary came to me with his whole armada of warglobes in the sky." The star-sapphire reflections flashed in his eyes. "The hydrogues would have slaughtered all my people--people I am responsible for! I am the Mage-Imperator. I hold all of them together through my thism. I had no choice."
"There is always a choice," Osira'h cut in. "And you chose damnation over failure."
He turned to his beloved green priest, using all of his effort simply to remain upright. "Nira, you must believe me. There is more. Osira'h is a bridge to the hydrogues. They can see and hear through her."
The girl frowned. "Only if I let them. When I choose to, I can shut them out and reestablish the connection at any time--on my terms."
"You cannot be sure of that."
"Yes. I can." Suddenly through the thism he felt a current of chaotic thought flow toward him in a wave of burning cold and alien fury. Augmented by Osira'h? Rushing toward him, growing louder and louder and--just as suddenly it was gone. "The hydrogues don't hear me unless I want them to."
Jora'h believed her.
Nira stood closer to her daughter, and slightly away from him. "The question is, what will you do now?"
"I agreed to their demands in order to buy time. I could not let Osira'h see what I was really doing because I could not let the hydrogues know. That is why I sent her away. Immediately after she left Ildira, I called together my experts and commanded them to find me a solution, a way for us to fight the enemy."
Osira'h sounded skeptical. "And did they succeed?"
Jora'h frowned. "Not completely . . . not yet. But I did not want the hydrogues to sense my intentions. I had to make you believe, Osira'h."
The girl scowled, but said grudgingly, "It was a wise precaution, but unnecessary."
More Ildiran workers and freed human captives came from the camp ruins, as if they expected the Mage-Imperator to pronounce judgment. Then an uneasy ripple went through them like a cloud passing over the sun. Jora'h turned to see the former Dobro Designate moving painfully toward him. Medical kithmen had bandaged him, and his face was mottled from severe bruisings and half-healed wounds. Udru'h looked as if he had been buried in an avalanche and clawed his way out. His eyes had a haunted look, especially when he looked at Nira; he would not even meet Osira'h's gaze.
Two guards escorted him, but he did not lean on them, coming forward in a slow, laborious gait. The former Designate did not want help, did not want to show his weakness. Nor did he want to avoid facing the Mage-Imperator. He struggled to make the formal salute. "Liege, I accept whatever consequences you choose to impose upon me." He looked around as if he still could not believe that the camp he had so lovingly tended was now burned wreckage. "The seeds of this turmoil were planted long before Daro'h became Designate. It is not his fault."
Nira stiffened like a statue, and Jora'h could feel her cold anger toward Udru'h, as if she found his very presence repulsive. Osira'h, oddly, just smiled at him. The Mage-Imperator knew what his brother had done to Nira as part of the breeding experiments. He could not fault her reaction.
And yet . . . hadn't the Dobro Designate been trapped by the schemes of his predecessors--just as Jora'h had been? When he'd first learned of the old Mage-Imperator's plans and how Udru'h willingly went along with them, Jora'h had despised both men. He had wanted to halt the experiments immediately, but when he became Mage-Imperator himself, that proved impossible. Udru'h would have found it impossible as well.
"The crimes on Dobro were set in motion centuries ago," Jora'h said, loudly enough for all to hear.