The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [161]
Wisps of pinkish clouds drifted like gauze over the room’s wide rectangular skylights, sending faint shadows across the boardroom table. Jess’s eyes were bright as he listened to the Mage-Imperator talk about the faeros incarnate and how the predatory fireballs had destroyed Earth’s Moon.
Listening carefully, Jess assessed the audience. He knew the determination of the Mage-Imperator and the Solar Navy, knew that the Roamers and green priests were ready, and knew that King Peter and the Confederation would offer any resources they could. The verdani had already fought the faeros in their worldforest, but as the water bearers returned to Theroc, the trees and the warrior wentals had suggested a new concept to combine their strengths, now that the giant tree battleships had proved too vulnerable to the faeros fires.
Yes, the allies now possessed many ways to fight that they had not previously used against the flaming elementals.
“Rusa’h is still searching for me,” the Mage-Imperator said. “No doubt he will go back to Ildira. That is where he expects me to go.”
“Then Ildira is where we will confront the faeros,” Cesca said. “We can bring all of our allies together and fight with everything we have.”
Adar Zan’nh seemed hungry. “I have more than a thousand warliners ready to engage in the battle.”
Kotto, who had been scribbling on a touchpad throughout the discussion, spoke up from where he sat at the far end of the table. “Sure, but you can’t just keep crashing your ships into things — that’s not the way to win.” He shook his head. “I’ve designed some exciting new wental weapons, though I haven’t had the opportunity to test them yet.”
“Thank the Guiding Star for that,” muttered Boris Goff.
“I would like to consider these weapons,” the Adar said. “Can they be adapted to our warliners?”
Kotto shrugged. “The wentals were perfectly happy to shape their water however we like. If you provide me with specs for your warliners’ projectile launchers, I’ll see what I can do.” He glanced down at his touchpad, made a note, then looked up at Jess. “But the wental water you gave me was only enough for about a hundred frozen artillery shells, which I already delivered to the Roamer ships in the vicinity. If we’re going to attack the faeros on a large scale, we’ll need thousands more. Tens of thousands!”
“We’ve got to be smart about this,” Tasia interrupted. “No half-assed measures. If we go to Ildira, it’ll likely be our last, best chance against the faeros. We need to make it count.”
“The clouds of Golgen are laden with moisture, all of which is infused with wental energy,” Cesca said. “We can draw on some of that water to make new frozen shells, and we can bring water from other wental planets to build up a large stockpile. Yes, we’ll be ready for the faeros at Ildira.”
“The wental water here is holding the hydrogues in check,” Jess pointed out. “We don’t dare deplete too much of it.”
The young girl Osira’h had remained quiet beside Nira, but now she spoke with a strange, obsessive look in her large eyes. “And what about the hydrogues? They hate the faeros more than anything.”
Del Kellum gave a loud, angry retort. “Even more than they hate humans? After all the destruction they caused, all those skymines wrecked, thousands and thousands of Roamers dead?”
“Including my brother,” Jess said.
Mage-Imperator Jora’h looked at his daughter. “The hydrogues cannot be trusted. They destroy. They betray. I made that mistake once, and we are not that desperate.”
“But if the faeros are so powerful, we need equally powerful allies to defeat them,” Osira’h insisted.
“We have the wentals,” Cesca pointed out, and that ended the discussion.
* * *
111
Nikko Chan Tylar
Even though he had been stranded and miserable for weeks, Caleb Tamblyn didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave Jonah 12. He fussed and dithered inside his makeshift shelter, gathering his few possessions, although Nikko couldn’t see anything worth keeping among the bits of wreckage.
Even the