Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [50]
Jess looked at her soberly. "Whether we want it or not, we're in the same war, and the battles can be large or small. You and I have an unshakable purpose."
"I am still the Speaker for the Roamer clans. I have to bring them all together. But I'll also stand with you, and the wentals, against the hydrogues."
Nikko stepped closer to the transformed couple. "Me too. Your water bearers and I were quietly spreading the wentals so they could grow strong before facing the drogues. But now, thanks to the comet at Theroc, the secret's blown. The drogues know the wentals are back and ready to fight." He fidgeted. "So, no more point in hiding, is there? Shouldn't we get on with it?"
Beyond the rocks, the phosphorescent ocean churned, and serpentine heads formed out of the liquid. Jess heard the eagerness of the water elementals in his head and knew what they had to do next. Yes, the battle must be engaged now.
Jess slipped a strong arm around Cesca's waist. "We need to bring the wentals together from all across the Spiral Arm and hurl them against the hydrogues. And the verdani are ready to help us, too. I will have to go to Theroc soon."
We are great races with vast differences. Verdani are passive and grounded in their worldtrees. They do not fight until they have no other choice. Wentals are fluid and spread widely, mist to mist and water to water, but we cannot easily form a solid resistance. Faeros are focused and destructive, but capricious. At one time, they fought beside the hydrogues, and now they fight against them.
Hydrogues, though, are single-minded, dwelling in their gas planets, never forgetting their loss in the last war. They have spent ten thousand years preparing. They will not be easy to defeat.
"So how do we do it, then?" Cesca asked.
In their minds, Jess and Cesca both saw how the wentals intended to bring the battles to the clouds of every gas-giant planet in the hidden hydrogue empire. We use our strengths, we join with allies, and we fight. Deliver us to hydrogue worlds and we will contain or destroy them.
"We have to carry the wentals to war?" Nikko looked skeptically at the small size of his Aquarius after Jess and Cesca had explained. "Like buckets of water for dousing the drogues?"
"Like what I did in the clouds of Golgen to make that planet safe for skymining again--but this will be on a much larger scale."
Cesca added, "We need as many Roamer tankers as we can find to carry the energized water to gas giants."
Nikko ducked back into the Aquarius. "I've got maps of the planets infused with wentals, Jess. All of us volunteer water bearers exchange that information. We can use those worlds as reservoirs for anybody who'll join us."
Cesca turned to Jess, her eyes bright. "No matter how I've changed, I can still meet with the clans as their Speaker. I can rally Roamers to use whatever ships they have and disseminate wentals to hydrogue gas giants."
"Together we'll create a storm the hydrogues can't resist." Jess's hair rose with static electricity, and damp wind rushed against his skin. "We fly to Plumas first. Clan Tamblyn has large water tankers. Exactly what we need."
Nikko soon flew away with enhanced speed. Jess took Cesca's hand, and they stepped up to the shimmering membrane. He couldn't remember when last they'd had time alone with each other. "Join me," he said.
"Forever."
Together they entered the water-and-pearl ship.
27
RLINDA KETT
Riding a crest of self-forming ice, the resurrected woman came toward shore in a storm of steam, flying ice chips, and water. Karla clenched her ivory-skinned fists and launched repeated barrages of power into the ceiling, shattering off chunks. Great gouges had already been slashed into the roof.
"She's going to blow a hole right through and crack us open to space!" Caleb shouted. "We'll be sucked out like snowflakes."
"Well, we were looking for a quick way out of here," Rlinda said to BeBob as the two of them backed away, searching