Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [195]
Peter looked at her. "So, what are you saying?"
She took his hand. "Sarein made the suggestion in the greenhouse yesterday. You are the King, and I am the Queen. If it's not safe for us to rule on Earth, then we have to go somewhere else. Theroc would take us in. It's perfect. And . . ." She lowered her voice. "I would very much like to go home."
"We can't do anything for humanity unless we're alive," he agreed, holding the datapacks Cain had given them. "But getting away from the Whisper Palace isn't good enough to accomplish what we need. If the King and Queen disappear, Basil will cover it up and simply install Daniel as King."
"And humanity will keep sliding over the brink."
Peter's gaze hardened. "We don't dare leave Basil with any options. When we go, we have to take Daniel out of the picture, too."
113
MAGE-IMPERATOR JORA'H
Although Jora'h had done exactly as the hydrogues commanded--sending Adar Zan'nh with all his Solar Navy ships to Earth--sixty diamond warglobes returned to Ildira. Obviously the deep-core aliens doubted his resolve.
They intend to destroy us, no matter what. Jora'h could see that now.
More than a thousand Ildiran warliners gathered in orbit, ready to protect the Mage-Imperator. Though far outgunned by the anxious Solar Navy defenders, the hydrogue ships hurtled down through the sky, demonstrating the arrogance of the enemy: They considered a mere sixty warglobes to be a sufficient deterrent.
Even so, those diamond spheres were more than enough to destroy the Prism Palace, kill the Mage-Imperator, and obliterate Mijistra--if they chose to. If even a hundred Solar Navy ships careened down to smash into them, the explosions and the wreckage would cause a breathtaking amount of damage to the city. And the hydrogues could always call for more of their diamond ships.
Tal O'nh's current desperate evacuation of Hyrillka had drawn away many of the largest ships in the Solar Navy, recruiting Tal Ala'nh's entire cohort. Now refugee-laden ships were streaming back to Ildira, bearing hundreds of thousands of displaced Hyrillkans. But this was no longer a safe place, not for any of them.
As soon as the threatening warglobes appeared, Jora'h ordered Nira and Kolker into hiding. Knowing how the hydrogues hated the verdani, he could never let them become aware that green priests were inside the Prism Palace.
Osira'h stayed by his side, smiling mysteriously up at her father. "My mind is open. I feel the warglobes overhead. The hydrogues are angry . . . but they are always angry. They are suspicious. They do not understand Ildirans."
"They have not tried to understand us. That is their mistake, and their weakness." Looking at her, he tried to reinforce his confidence. "You will not let them learn our secret?"
"I will not." Her voice carried not even the hint of a doubt.
Fresh from the gathered defensive cohorts above, Tal Lorie'nh waited in the skysphere reception hall as an adviser. "I hope you are right, Liege." An older officer with an adequate if undistinguished career, Lorie'nh was a tall, thin man who rarely took chances, never surpassed expectations. Jora'h knew, however, that he would serve in any capacity the Mage-Imperator requested.
Jora'h had already made up his mind, though he believed it would cost his race dearly. Through the rush of evacuees from Hyrillka, as well as reports from other Solar Navy ships, he knew that the hydrogues were engaged against the faeros on numerous fronts. Now that Nira had regained her telink connection to the worldforest, she shared with Jora'h what she had learned about the widespread efforts being planned simultaneously across the Spiral Arm. How much more could the deep-core aliens endure? The wentals and the verdani battleships might be enough to turn the tide. Did they really want to fight the Solar Navy at the same time?
Perhaps we will survive this after all.