Blood of the Cosmos (35 page)

Fennis chimed in, “But we didn't stop there. You asked us to look into Prince Reynald's illness as well. We do have all of his records here.”

Tamo'l caught a breath. “Yes, of course! Osira'h very much wanted us to help him, but I didn't think—”

Fennis blurted out, “One of the kelp extracts seems to have a strong effect on the microfungus that afflicts the Prince. It could be the basis for an effective treatment—not a cure, but sufficient to dampen symptoms, perhaps repair some of the neural damage.”

Chiar'h's well-sculpted features made her look out of place among the scrambled misbreeds. “We cannot know unless we test him directly, of course.”

“My priority is to tend to these misbreeds, but if we can help anyone—especially the son of the Confederation's leaders,” then she added more quietly, “especially a close friend of my sister's, then we will do so.”

Smiling to herself, Tamo'l took another bite of her savory fish. The misbreeds in the dining chamber seemed genuinely happy to hear of a promising treatment, even one for Reynald of Theroc, glad to know that something might help another person who was suffering, whether it be the Confederation's Prince, or a misshapen lump of limbs and poorly connected organs.

Tamo'l had attempted to contact Tom Rom, telling him she had more records to share, but so far he had not responded to her communication. Now, even more important, she would send a message to Ildira. Osira'h would certainly want to know about the possible treatment for her friend.

 

CHAPTER

54

OSIRA'H

The Ildiran astronomers at Wulfton were fascinated by the turbulent star, but they were afraid of what Osira'h and Rod'h intended to do. She could sense their uneasiness through the
thism
at the stellar research station as the two of them announced that they were going to hunt for the faeros.

A warliner escort had dropped them off near the active star, a place they knew would attract the fiery elementals. The research station was crowded with hundreds of Ildiran scientists, engineers, and support personnel, but Osira'h and Rod'h could tolerate solitude in ways that no purebred Ildiran could. They drew on each other's strength.

The goal of the original Dobro breeding program that had produced her siblings was to create a telepathic prodigy. Rod'h, the oldest and most powerful after her, strove to serve as the chosen one, but Osira'h was the one who had wrestled the hydrogues and the faeros into submission.

The Elemental War had been over for two decades, though. The hydrogues had retreated to their gas-giant fortresses, the wentals were dispersed and quiescent on water worlds, and the verdani worldforest thrived on Theroc. Some of the faeros roamed at large, still capricious although no longer intent on destruction.

Even though the faeros might be the key to fighting the Shana Rei, as they had done at Theroc, Osira'h was concerned that they no longer listened to her. Nevertheless, together with Rod'h, she would demand their attention. They would even beg if necessary. The faeros had hurt the shadows, but they had also suffered tremendous losses.

“Let us go, Osira'h,” Rod'h said, anxious to climb aboard the scout pod. “We will find them. We
will
.” She knew he had something to prove, so she would give him the opportunity if it presented itself.

Wulfton was a knotted turmoil of magnetic loops, coronal streamers, and solar storms. Viewed through heavy filters, sunspots looked like a spreading blight. The turbulence also seemed to attract the fiery elementals. Osira'h had seen the faeros here before, and so she decided this was their best chance to reestablish contact. She and Rod'h would flush them out. Somehow.

As they climbed into a shielded scout pod, ready to venture into the stellar firestorm, the lead astronomer faced them with his large eyes and pale face. “You both are powerful beyond our understanding, but please do not provoke the faeros.” The other astronomers nervously muttered their agreement.

“Do not underestimate us,” Rod'h said.

“We have to find them first,” Osira'h called back as she settled herself in the vessel. “And we have to make them listen.”

The scout pod launched from the astronomy station, flying alone. With protective shields at full strength, they drifted into the buffeting coronal flares. Through heavily filtered windowports, Osira'h gazed into the blazing maelstrom, saw sunspots that were like festering holes on the stellar surface.

Rod'h stared, intent, and suddenly pointed. “There!” Osira'h saw
sparks
, ellipsoidal fireballs flitting about, as if Wulfton were a playground … or a sanctuary. “We have to call them.” He closed his eyes and concentrated, sending out his mental demand through his telepathy.

Osira'h guided the craft deeper into the coronal storm, intent on the controls and keeping them safe while also using her mind like a radio, opening her thoughts and her emotions to attract their attention. “Just like when we were trained on Dobro,” she said to her brother.

Rod'h opened his eyes. “Yes—it has been a long time since the Empire needed us as much as they do now.”

As children, all of Nira's halfbreed offspring had channeled their special abilities, pushed and guided by the harsh Dobro Designate—Rod'h's father. They had been bred for a special purpose, a gamble that their unique genetic mixtures would create a savior who could dominate the elemental creatures devastating the Spiral Arm. It was time to remember that now.

As before, working together with their minds, Osira'h and Rod'h beseeched the faeros to respond.

Down in the stellar cauldron, she spotted at least thirty faeros like shooting stars. She accelerated the pod toward them—and the faeros withdrew, streaking away. The fiery elementals blocked the attempts at communication, and they skittered off … but they seemed more afraid than aloof.

“Wait!” she said aloud while sending out an intense thought. “We share an enemy. You know the pain and the danger posed by the Shana Rei. We need you to join the fight.”

Rod'h gritted his teeth and demanded, “You must listen to us! The shadows have attacked our people, and they attacked you. We know they have also destroyed hydrogues. Fight with us! We will show you how to defeat them. And we have new weapons of our own.”

The fireballs brightened, as if their internal flames had been stoked. At the piloting controls, Osira'h drove the craft forward, but the faeros scattered in different directions. “Wait!” Four fireballs plunged deep into the incandescent convection cells, where she could never follow.

Rod'h flashed a hard glance at her. “Closer! We have to
make
them respond to us.” He was clearly angry at the faeros as he lashed out with his mind. “Why do you flee? Let us tell you how we can fight. Listen to us—it could save all of you!”

Unable to follow them into the depths of the star, Osira'h shot upward, flying on the stellar wind after the outbound faeros. She knew that their thoughts were touching the faeros—she could sense it—but the fiery elementals were shrugging off their contact with an edge of frantic alarm. She pushed harder. “You
know me!
You have responded before, and we need you again.”

Rod'h said, “Do you wish to become extinct? Your very survival is at stake if you don't join the battle with us.”

As the scout pod's engines strained to catch up to the faeros, Osira'h grasped her brother's hand to strengthen the bond. The siblings shared a special telepathic synergy. Now she solidified that link, and Rod'h knew what she was doing. This was the way they could
make
the faeros listen. Her brother added his own thoughts and energy, concentrated harder. Together, they formed a battering ram of telepathy directed toward the elementals.

“You
will
hear us!” Rod'h hissed through his teeth.

It was an irresistible command, and the flaming ellipsoids ahead of them faltered, reeled, hesitating just long enough for the scout pod to catch up.

In a more reasonable tone, Osira'h said, “You know how powerful the Shana Rei are. We cannot fight them alone.”

Rod'h said, “The Shana Rei will destroy you, and us, and the cosmos unless you help us extinguish them. We have to fight together, no matter what happened in the past.”

Using the last reserves in her engines, Osira'h closed the distance to one of the fireballs. And finally, clearly against their will, the faeros opened their consciousness and responded to the demands.

Osira'h and Rod'h both cried out as they were flooded with a crashing wave of terror and despair—the devastation the Shana Rei would cause to the faeros, the pain they had already inflicted, how the darkness had engulfed so many already and
smothered
them out of existence.

Too few of the faeros remained. They had been defeated, and their numbers had already dwindled to near extinction. They had suffered far too many losses, and more of them had died at Theroc. The hydrogues were no longer just hiding inside their gas giants—they were nearly
obliterated
, also by the Shana Rei.

The faeros were afraid. Terrified! They were not ready to make the sacrifice that a war against the shadows would entail. The elementals wavered, like a flame flickering in the wind, but they were too capricious, could not think far enough ahead. They simply reacted and fled.

The roar of burning thoughts nearly knocked Osira'h unconscious, and the scout pod reeled out of control. She struggled with the piloting systems; Rod'h was thrown against the bulkhead, hitting his temple. He sat stunned.

With the forceful telepathic contact broken, the faeros were free, unleashed. They streaked away, vanishing into empty, dark space.

Shuddering, Osira'h slumped behind the controls and hung there in the now cold silence. From a distance, she scanned Wulfton, but all of the other sparks had disappeared, too. The faeros had immersed themselves in the layers of the churning star. They wanted nothing to do with her … or with the Shana Rei, or with the war.

Rod'h sounded bitter. “They are gone. They are cowards.” He blinked in wonder, looking over at her. “I have never felt that contact before … now I know what you experienced in the Elemental War. I know how hard it was for you.” He seemed humbled; his voice trembled. “The faeros did listen to me. They saw me and heard me. But I was not convincing enough.”

Osira'h struggled to recover, and her voice was shaky. “If the shadows are so fearsome that even the
faeros
flee in terror, what chance do any of us have? You and I are not strong enough to make them fight for us.”

“Not yet,” Rod'h said. “Perhaps we need to give them a stronger incentive.”

Tense and sick, Osira'h turned the craft about and headed back to the astronomy station, where they would call a warliner to escort them home.

 

CHAPTER

55

TAL GALE'NH

The light was searing, blinding—intentionally so. Gale'nh had to shield his eyes from the glare that erupted out of the solar crucible. Next to him, the fallen Designate Rusa'h stood unperturbed, closer to the light and heat than Gale'nh could endure. The mad Designate seemed to revel in it.

Giant curved lenses scooped up the light of the multiple suns, focused it, and directed it into a furnace. Conveyors loaded with the mixed debris of broken construction materials, scrap metal, and stone rolled inexorably to where it was dumped into the heart of that inferno, where the structure broke down to the atomic level. The molten materials were mixed with catalysts, seed-crystal matrices were added, and then the substance was extruded into ceramic molds, where it cooled into pearlescent ultrasturdy construction blocks.

Gale'nh did not watch the process. Rather, he focused on Rusa'h, who had summoned him to the crucible. The former Designate didn't even blink as he stared at the incandescent fury as if it were nothing more than the placid surface of a pond.

Rusa'h spoke in a quiet, distant voice, as if talking to himself. “I was able to live inside a sun when the faeros lived inside me.”

Finally he turned to Gale'nh. His gaunt face was reddened, burned by the exposure to so much brightness. “And you once lived inside the shadows—do they still live within you?”

Shielding his face from the glare, Gale'nh answered honestly. “I don't know, but I will fight them in every way possible.”

“You should ponder the shadows. Try to understand them,” Rusa'h said. “The Shana Rei must have used you, but you can use them back … just as the faeros used me. When I had the fire in my blood, in my cells, I was part of them. I learned things about the faeros. You must have learned things about the shadows.”

“Those memories are blank,” Gale'nh said. “They vanquished everyone else, but left me alive aboard the
Kolpraxa
.”

“Then there must be something special about you,” Rusa'h said. “What is different? Understand that, and you can understand them.”

“They left me with doubts and weakness. There is nothing I can learn from that.”

“Not true! I learned from the faeros. I drew great insight and used that insight to battle the Ildiran Empire. That was wrong and dangerous, but it was insight nevertheless.”

“I wouldn't trust what you learned from the faeros,” Gale'nh said, “any more than I trust what the shadows might allow me to know.”

As the solar crucible continued to blaze, Rusa'h turned his back on the light so that he looked like an eclipse in the form of a man. “I have had revelations,” he insisted. “Don't be so quick to dismiss them.”

“Revelations? Some would call them delusions,” Gale'nh said. “And how would that help us in our fight against the Shana Rei?”