Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [190]
Guard kithmen did not question the instructions of a Designate. The two simultaneously clenched their fists and pressed them against their chestplates in salute. Udru’h did not hesitate.
He sprang forward, raising the curved knife hidden in his left fist. He slashed viciously sideways, slicing the throat of the guard on the left, then continuing with a sweep of momentum, until he brought the point of the knife between the second guard’s shoulder plate and collar. He hammered his palm against the pommel, driving the blade home.
The guard with the slashed throat bled profusely. He gasped and coughed and slid to the floor, dying. Even with the knife sticking in his neck, the other guard remained a threat for a few more seconds. The Dobro Designate danced backward, retreating as fast as he could down the hall. Roaring and choking, the second guard staggered after him, grabbing at the knife hilt in his neck.
Udru’h was not a warrior and did not need to be. The poison on the blade was sufficiently fast-acting. It was the same deeply toxic substance that was rumored to have caused the death of Mage-Imperator Cyroc’h. Ironic.
As the guard plodded forward, his pace became an uneven stagger. From the expression on his bestial face, Udru’h could sense the poison fires burning through his systems. Maintaining a safe distance, Udru’h slowed. The guard reeled, taking longer than expected to die.
The Designate looked around, anxious lest any other Solar Navy crewmen stumble upon them. He hadn’t expected to cause so much commotion or such a mess. He wondered if the mad Designate Rusa’h, far off on Hyrillka, would sense the violent deaths of his two followers...
Finally, with a last grunt and a heavy clatter, the guard collapsed face-first in the hall, his crystal katana extended forward.
Udru’h had accomplished the first step. He looked at the blood on his hands, the spray pattern on his garments where the crimson had splashed. Though his head rang with lonely emptiness from being so far from his accustomed thism network, he kept his thoughts in order. His pulse raced, and he tried to calm himself.
Ildirans have killed Ildirans. For all his talk about rigidly adhering to the old ways, Imperator Rusa’h had apparently started a new tradition.
Udru’h lifted his stained crystal knife and headed for the chamber where Adar Zan’nh was held.
Chapter 95—ADAR ZAN’NH
The chamber walls were closing in on him. Zan’nh heard footsteps moving down the warliner’s corridors, but he could not sense the crewmen out there. In normal, sane times any Ildiran lived in a current of other lives, bathed in thism, buoyed by the existence and support of so many fellows. The passage of a Solar Navy soldier should have caused a ripple discernible even through the sealed door of the cell.
But he felt nothing. Far, far away the dim soul-threads from Mage-Imperator Jora’h faded more and more as the hours dragged on. Zan’nh had battered his knuckles bloody against the walls, but it did no good. He sank into a corner, wiping his hands and staining his Solar Navy uniform. Adar Kori’nh would certainly have chided him for his sloppy appearance. He rested his face in his palms, ground his teeth together, and held on.
When he heard the commotion in the corridor, Zan’nh lurched to his feet. He crouched in front of the armored door, listening, then backed away. He paused and approached again, ready to spring on anyone who came inside. Now he did sense an echo, a thread of recognizable thism coming closer. He didn’t understand.
The locking mechanism clicked, the door slid aside.
Though shaking and weak, Zan’nh lunged. The Dobro Designate stood there, his own garments stained. He held a crystal dagger in one hand, hanging casually at his side. In the moment of surprise, Zan’nh drove him backward, striking a hard blow on the Designate’s wrist. The crystal dagger clattered to the deck plates.
Though startled, Udru’h recovered swiftly and swept his right foot in an