Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [66]
"Hold," Jora'h said.
He stared at Kolker, who squatted on the floor holding his knees, weeping. His head was lowered, chin tucked against his chest, but the green priest could not keep his eyes from the treeling. Like a shiing addict, he kept glancing toward it, then at Jora'h, desperate and pleading.
"The green priest knows you have a treeling, Liege," Yazra'h said. "If there are . . . things you wish to keep from the humans, then you cannot let him live."
Jora'h met her gaze. "I will not have you kill him."
Kolker had seemed broken and lost since arriving here from Qronha 3. Remembering how vitally connected Nira had been to her treeling, he thought he understood the withdrawal this green priest was experiencing. Perhaps it was like an Ildiran suffering in complete isolation, without the reassuring touch of thism. How could he not sympathize?
Kolker climbed to his feet, red-eyed. "Please. I have to touch the forest mind. I am blind and starving without telink." He glared at Yazra'h. "She thinks I was trying to betray you. I just needed to contact the trees. That's all."
The Mage-Imperator regarded the green priest. Was he lying, or just naïve? "Contact with your worldtrees would send a signal to all your counterparts. Every green priest would know what you know."
"No. It doesn't work like that. Besides, I don't know anything!"
"You know you are alive, along with all the other Hansa skyminers, who are presumed dead. You know that we have not let you go home. And you have seen the hydrogues here. I cannot let that knowledge reach the humans. The Ildiran Empire cannot risk it." Jora'h felt a knot in his chest and heard an echo of his father's twisted plans in his head. "I am sorry for what I am forced to do, but I have no choice. I never wanted to hold you here."
"Then let us go free! We're no threat to you." The green priest truly did not understand.
Jora'h gestured. "Hold him."
Two guards folded in beside Kolker to take his arms, but he was meek and submissive. Yazra'h tossed her long coppery hair and looked at her father. "I will increase our security. This cannot happen again."
"That will not be necessary." Jora'h closed his eyes, holding the thoughts inside his hammering head. "I have a better solution."
He picked up the potted treeling. Looking at the delicate fronds and slender trunk, he was amazed that such a small plant could have so many tremendous repercussions. There was a power here that neither he nor any other Ildiran understood. He fondly recalled Queen Estarra's recent visit along with King Peter and Chairman Wenceslas. Jora'h had been honored to receive the treeling as a gift. Now he recognized the danger it posed.
As black jaws of regret clamped down on his heart, Jora'h carried the pot to the high balcony. He stood outside where the light was clear and the clean winds were brisk against his face. His long braid twitched.
Behind him, his arms held by guards, Kolker struggled in growing horror. "What are you going to do?"
From the high balcony, the view was spectacular, showing the faceted skyline of great buildings and towers. Here, Jora'h had stood with Nira. The beautiful green priest had laughed at how the balcony's slight curvature and the transparent floor segments made her feel as if the two of them were floating on air. How he missed her. He hoped she and Osira'h were together now, and that both of them could one day forgive him.
When Jora'h gazed out over his city, foremost in his mind was how the hydrogues had threatened to destroy the whole Ildiran Empire. Until he found a way to defeat the deep-core aliens, he knew only one way to escape that, even if he cursed himself for it. The humans could not know.
He held the potted treeling out over the open air. Kolker screamed, "No! Please, don't! You can't!"
Jora'h could not allow himself to be swayed. As a wave of self-disappointment rippled through his chest, he opened his fingers, and the pot fell. Buffeted by the breezes, it tumbled twice, dwindling