The Devil's Heart - Carmen Carter [85]
Without our labor, your fine libraries will rot and your stomachs will go empty.”
The hall erupted into chaos. Chandat’s calls for order were drowned out as the cries of outrage from those who feared the natives mixed with the cries of indignation from those who championed their cause.
What warden in the history of the Dynasians could forge a consensus from such divergent convictions? He fell silent rather than add his own voice to the tumult.
As the uproar continued unabated, a hand fell on his shoulder, and Chandat looked up to find his secretary bending down to whisper in his ear.
“Warden,” said the man as he pushed a document into Chandat’s hand. “I bring an urgent memo from Professor Manja.”
“Manja? By the Three Gates, not now!” scolded Chandat. Under the circumstances, the doddering scholar’s plaintive requests for increased funding were especially ill-timed; Iconian Literature was not a priority for this Faculty at the best of times.
“Read it, Warden!” said Ganin with an urgency that startled Chandat into compliance.
He read the message. Then he read it again.
As a man of science, the warden had never believed in miracles, but the words before him were like the answers to a prayer. There was no time to confirm the veracity of such an outrageous claim, but true or not, it would serve his immediate purpose.
Rising from his seat, the warden waved for silence.
When he finally had gained the unruly Faculty’s attention, he read them a judiciously edited version of Manja’s report.
It was met with stunned silence. For once, the assembly of professors had nothing to say.
Chandat took shameless advantage of their confusion.
“This Ko N’ya is the very Gem which Kanda Jiak used to operate the Gateway from Iconia to our world—we must act now to seize it from those who do not suspect its powers. With the Gem in our possession once again, we can regain the heights scaled by our Iconian forebearers; the planets of the Federation will come begging to us for a superior technology beyond their understanding; and all the people of Dynasia will share in wealth beyond imagining.”
Every face in the hall was turned toward him with eyes that burned with patriotic fervor.
Warden Chandat rejoiced. He had restored unity to his world after all.
END OF VOLUME II
THE DEVIL’S HEART
by Carmen Carter
Volume III of Three Volumes Pages i-ii and 345-515
For special distribution as authorized by Act of Congress under Public Law 89-522, andwiththe permission of the copyright holder.
Produced in braille for the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, by Braille International, Inc., 1996.
Copyright 1993 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
THE DEVIL’S HEART
CHAPTER 23
“T’Sara.”
No … do not wake me anymore … I am so tired.
“T’Sara.”
She opened her eyes, but the man who had called her out of the healing trance was not Sorren. Of course he was not Sorren; Sorren was dead.
And I am dying even now.
The cool air of the Collector’s chamber made her shiver for the first time. She rubbed her hands together for warmth, then stopped suddenly and looked down at her palms.
Her hands were empty.
“I have it now,” said the stranger kneeling before her, and she saw that the stone was sheltered in his large, muscular hands.
“If I no longer hold the Ko N’ya,” said T’Sara, “then this must be your dream, young man.”
He had the lean, sharp look of a Vulcan until he smiled at her words. “It has been many years since I’ve been called a young man.”
“Your hair may have turned white, but you will never grow so old as I am now,” she said simply, and he met her statement with a gentle nod of acceptance. Humans were short-lived compared to her own people, but this one seemed to have made more of his brief moment than others of his race. “Why do you call me?”
“I am trying to unravel the path of the Ko N’ya, T’Sara. It began at the Guardian of Forever, but I don’t know how it left there or where it is going. Or even why it travels.”
“Greedy Human,” she sighed. “Not even I could