Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [35]
At the time, the wentals had just begun their war with the hydrogues and the faeros. The Klikiss race was a strange civilization new to the elemental beings, and the wentals considered recruiting the insectoid creatures into the struggle. The breedex had communicated its need to them, and the wentals did not understand the consequences of acquiescence. Linked with wental power, the swelling breedex had devoured all ten of its domates without even listening to their songs, then burst its carapace and sprouted new segmented limbs without fissioning to create a new swarm. Infused with the tainted wental, it smashed the rival breedex and turned all the new Klikiss towers to dust. As the storm built inside her, unstoppable, the breedex tore the continent itself apart.
The rest of the wentals fought back, unable to believe the monstrosity they had created. The rampant release of so much power cracked the planet to its core. Though the tainted wental was finally extinguished, the battle mortally wounded the world. Gravity shifted, the landmasses were turned inside out, and all life there died.
That is a tainted wental, Jess Tamblyn. That is what could happen here.
He still didn't understand. "Why? Just because I want it so badly? Cesca is a good person, the leader of the clans. How could she create such a horror?"
We only know the danger.
Jess had made up his mind, though. "Enough! You distract me with esoteric and meaningless philosophy while she's dying. I accept the risk. I know her heart. Bring her out here, Nikko. Carry her if you must."
"It'll hurt her even more, Jess--"
He had hurt her so much. "She is already dying."
At the young man's urging, Cesca began to stir. Nikko draped her arm over his shoulder and helped her out of the Aquarius. Somehow, she saw Jess, focused on the sunlight and sea, and clung to a faint thread of life. She swayed, and Nikko let her gently down onto the dark, exposed rock of Charybdis.
She must come to the water herself. You cannot help her.
Jess knelt beside her and felt his heart ripping in half. Without Cesca, how could he live? He stood at the edge of the reef between the slick stones and the crackling ocean, cursing the wentals and their ridiculous rules and restrictions. "You're killing her!"
It must be entirely her decision, entirely her action.
"Cesca, if you love me, do one last thing for me. Drink the water and live. Let the wentals join you, and you'll be like me." Only a few feet away, the ocean stilled itself. Wentals manifested in the waves, stretching the water in narrow fingerlike protrusions reaching up to assess Cesca. "Or you'll die."
"But if I . . . I'll be . . . like you?"
The wind around them seemed alive with whispering voices.
"Your body will be charged with wental energy, like mine." He would not lie to her. "That means you'll never be able to touch another human being without harming them. You'll be isolated like me. It's a terrible thing, Cesca, but I don't know how else to save you."
She wrestled out one word of a question, then another. "Touch . . . you?"
He had not wanted to coerce her with that tantalizing thought. "We will be two of a kind, Cesca. Separate from the rest of our race."
"But together." Now she didn't hesitate. Jess moved aside to let Cesca crawl painstakingly forward to the edge of the surf. "Guiding Star . . . clear."
He tried to encourage her. Just a few seconds more. Another meter or two. He sensed that the wentals were afraid. Jess closed his eyes, remembering Cesca the way he had loved her, how they had secretly tried to be together for so long. How could she possibly become a danger? The memory images of tainted wentals seemed foreign to him, unreal. That will not happen to her.
Cesca scooped a handful of the shimmering water. Quicksilver droplets trickled between her fingers. She brought the water to her face