Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [95]
The guards in the command nucleus looked disappointed, but Thor’h ordered them to escort Udru’h back to the shuttle. “I will hold you to your promise, Uncle. If you betray us, we will return with our warliners—and we will not negotiate.”
“I will come to Hyrillka exactly as I said I would.” Udru’h kept his face placid, while his mind raced ahead, trying to see a way out of the trap he had just set for himself.
Chapter 43—OSIRA’H
For several days, the Mage-Imperator’s eldest daughter took the troubled but excited Osira’h under her wing at the Prism Palace. Yazra’h’s three Isix cats prowled alongside as the two half sisters walked through the city.
Everything amazed the young girl, who had previously seen nothing beyond the dry hills and arroyos of Dobro, except in secondhand memories from her mother. The sensory whirlpool of Mijistra’s sounds and colors and tastes and smells swirled around Osira’h. Soaring and majestic buildings gave her a new appreciation for the grandeur of the Ildiran Empire and showed her what she was supposed to be fighting for, why she must fulfill her destiny, even though she knew there were many dark and sinister corners under the seven suns.
Four days earlier, the Hansa’s King Peter and Queen Estarra had departed without learning of the hydrogue-faeros battle inside Durris-B. Yazra’h seemed quite proud that the Mage-Imperator had prevented the humans from discovering any of the brewing troubles in the Ildiran Empire.
Osira’h was immediately reminded of her long-captive mother and all the breeding slaves on Dobro. “Yes, we are very good at keeping secrets from the humans, aren’t we?”
Her muscular half sister smiled, accepting the comment as a compliment. “We have a few days until everything is ready for your mission, and then we must locate a group of hydrogues for you to communicate with.”
“I saw thousands of them fighting at the Durris star.”
Yazra’h tossed her mane of long coppery hair. “Your protective vessel cannot withstand an environment such as that. Follow me, and I will show you the sphere that will take you deep into a gas giant’s clouds.”
She guided Osira’h to a hangar where engineer kithmen and laborers were finishing construction on a strange new vessel. Its hull was fabricated from heavy transparent armorplate. The interior wasn’t large, but neither was she.
“This vessel will protect you from the pressure, but not necessarily from the hydrogues themselves. The rest will be up to you.” Yazra’h gave her an encouraging slap on the back. “But you will make all the difference, little sister. You can do things that no one else can.”
Osira’h did not argue. She moved forward to study the crystalline chamber, touching it with her fingertips. “Yes. Yes, I can.”
Drinking in details with her eyes, storing information in her carefully organized mind, Osira’h learned everything she could about the Prism Palace and the Ildirans, whom she was destined to protect. Some of the courtiers, and even Yazra’h, remarked on her unusual and intense silence. Osira’h just watched them, always calculating and storing information.
Unlike other Ildirans, she had been born with a great weight on her shoulders. Designate Udru’h had never let the girl’s thoughts stray from the expectations placed upon her, had never let her forget that he believed she had the innate skill to accomplish what was necessary. And yet, immediately after delivering Osira’h to the Prism Palace, Udru’h had turned his back on her and returned to Dobro in case she failed.
Osira’h walled off her disappointment, shoring up the barrier with bricks made of memories from her mother: how Nira had been locked in a dark cell so her green skin could drink in no sunlight; how, after the birth of her daughter, Udru’h had kept her in the breeding barracks until she conceived his son, Rod’h; how afterward, he’d subjected Nira to a series of coldly clinical impregnations by other Ildiran kiths.
Her mother had recalled each one of those rapes like burning coals on her skin. Through the too-clear