Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [98]
Her emerald hand clenched around the gnarled stem of a woody weed as thick as her forearm. She squeezed, but heard nothing from the plant, no echo of the immense worldforest mind.
Were these plants truly silent, or had her brain been damaged in the assault that nearly killed her?
She released the thick stem with a jerk, as if it had caught fire. She didn’t want to consider that she might now be deaf to telink. Was it the injury, or had the awful camps beaten it out of her? Surely there must be a single treeling on this entire planet! Somewhere...
Before the Ildiran guards had driven her away, she had managed to impart her knowledge and memories to Osira’h. At least the little girl now understood what Designate Udru’h planned for her and how he had cruelly distorted the truth about Nira and the other breeding slaves. Osira’h knew everything, and her mother could only hope that the knowledge would help her in some way.
In the shade of a tall, reddish rock, Nira squatted to rest, leaning her bare back against the warm stone. In this terrain she saw only scrubby desert weeds and hardy shrubs. No trees. A tall green forest—any forest—would be so soothing right now. Even if she couldn’t communicate with it.
Nira closed her eyes and let her thoughts flow, drifting into the open skies of Dobro. With all her psychic strength, she drew upon her memories of the welcoming presence of the vast worldforest, and sent her silent cry like a shout into the void. She directed the message toward her daughter. Osira’h must be out there, and she had heard her mother before. Her princess should still be near the breeding camps, even if they were half a planet away. Only once, on that single fateful night, had Nira been able to connect with her daughter, yet that briefest of sharings had been enough to express a lifetime of memories and desires.
But the brutal guards had given her a concussion so severe that it had almost killed her. Although she had recovered, Nira still suffered from powerful headaches, pounding pains inside her head...and now she found she was unable to establish even a tenuous connection with the little girl. Either Osira’h was too far away, or Nira no longer had that special ability.
By now her daughter must certainly believe her to be dead, making the task of communication more impossible than before.
The breeze picked up, and the thick, dry weeds whispered again with a sound like laughter.
Years ago, when Nira and other breeding prisoners had been sent out to fight a raging brush fire, she had tried to escape. Chased by her captors, Nira had thrown herself into a thorny thicket, trying to force a telink contact to any tree or bush. Though she’d called out in every way she knew, she had heard no response...and the guards had taken her again.
Now it was the same: no response from the trees, nothing from her daughter. Would the silence ever end?
Nira continued sending her mental beacon until her head split with the pain. Darkness fell, and stars sparkled across an ebony backdrop. And still she heard no answer to her call.
Osira’h simply wasn’t there anymore.
Chapter 45—BENETO
The night on Theroc was silent, but filled with the voices of the forest. Because of his dual nature, Beneto’s mind could mingle and become one with the worldtrees, or he could withdraw and be himself. In truth, he was neither, trapped somewhere between the two.
The wooden golem sat alone in the ring of five burned stumps that stood like a temple to the wounded forest. Glowing lamps shone like bright eyes from the restored