Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [62]
Osira'h was careful not to agree with him. "You explained my duty and my obligations, Designate."
Udru'h gave her an uncertain smile. "Surely your quarters in Mijistra were far more elegant than these humble buildings?"
Osira'h looked away. "The Mage-Imperator sent me back. He wanted me safely away from the Prism Palace--with my mother. When can I see her?"
"Your mother . . . is not here." Udru'h scowled, surprised by the unexpected comment. "Not at the moment."
Osira'h wanted to scream. Another lie! Either her father or the Dobro Designate was lying to her! Anxious, the girl glanced around, but did not see young Daro'h in the press of Ildirans. Her half brother seemed like a good man, not corrupted by excuses and justifications, as Udru'h had been. "Where is the Designate-in-waiting? Has he taken over his duties yet?" Perhaps Daro'h could bring about the necessary changes in this splinter colony.
"Daro'h is off on another mission." Udru'h would say no more--evasive, curt . . . as he had always been.
In the Ildiran part of the settlement, Osira'h stood in the doorway of the humble dwelling she had shared with her siblings, all of Nira's children. The Designate had not accompanied her, claiming other duties. Her younger siblings gathered around her in awe. What did Designate Udru'h think about her half-breed brothers and sisters now that they were superfluous to his plans?
"What were the hydrogues like?" Rod'h asked. He was her nearest brother, less than a year younger than she was, the son of Udru'h. Because she had her mother's memories, whenever Osira'h looked on Rod'h, she remembered the repeated rapes Nira had endured until the Designate succeeded in impregnating her. Shortly after he was delivered, the infant had been taken away from her and raised elsewhere. The boy had never felt even a glimmer of love for his mother. He had never known Nira at all. But he was not to blame for that. Udru'h was.
"The hydrogues are as strange as we expected." Osira'h sat at a small table and they began to share food, simple Dobro fare. Barely managing to maintain a calm façade in front of them all, Osira'h told how her protective sphere had plunged into the clouds of Qronha 3, how she had used all her powers to touch the incredibly alien minds.
"Were you frightened?" asked Gale'nh, her next oldest brother.
"Of course I was frightened. The hydrogues have destroyed everyone else who tried to communicate with them. I had to be better than anyone in history."
When Gale'nh nodded somberly, Osira'h saw a flicker of his father, stoic Adar Kori'nh, whom she had seen in countless historical records. She knew from darker documents that the commander of the Solar Navy had been ordered to father a child upon Nira. The Adar had done his duty, as always, but was ashamed at what he'd been forced to do.
Tamo'l, Nira's second daughter--this one sired by a lens kithman--listened intently. Both she and her sister Muree'n were too young to grasp the magnitude of what Osira'h had been asked to do. Muree'n, fathered by a guard kithman, was strong and heavily built for her age, more interested in play and physical activity, barely able to concentrate on meticulous mental exercises. Osira'h could not imagine what the experimenters had hoped to achieve with that pairing. By then Designate Udru'h might simply have been toying with Nira, or punishing her. . . .
And her mother wasn't even here, as the Mage-Imperator had promised.
Looking at her brothers and sisters, Osira'h recalled how uncomfortable she'd felt on Ildira. Now she was adrift, no longer belonging on Dobro either. What purpose did the breeding colony have anymore? What would become of the camp and the human prisoners? Even her siblings, who carried Nira's genes, were no longer relevant. Would Mage-Imperator Jora'h confess Dobro's secrets to the Hansa, or would Designate Udru'h simply exterminate his subjects and bury the evidence as if nothing had ever happened?