Blood of the Cosmos (68 page)

“Then Iswander's people tried to blow us out of space when we stumbled upon their extraction site,” Tasia said. “Damaged our ship and we barely got away.”

“We have records of that, too,” said Orli Covitz.

Iswander just stared at her. What in the world did
Orli
have against him? He had saved her life. “That's … ridiculous. You're just trying to disrupt—”

Her compy DD stepped up. “Would you like us to display the video files?”

Tasia added in a loud, cold voice as she looked around at the gathered Roamers, “We also know exactly where ekti-X comes from.”

 

CHAPTER

116

PRINCE REYN

Most of the test treatments had made Prince Reyn feel very ill, which greatly concerned Tamo'l. After studying the medical data that Tom Rom had brought, she altered her approach, and the next kelp extract did help Reyn feel better—in fact, markedly so. That result gave Tamo'l the impetus she needed to refine the formula, add plankton concentrates to cut the side effects, and then try again.

“The disease is still there, Prince Reynald,” she cautioned when he remarked on the improvement he felt. “But if this extract can mitigate symptoms, it may let your body recover some of its strength, repair some of the damage. You may also find you can function more normally. The intensive records that Pergamus provided have opened new avenues for me to study.”

He was pleased to send the news back home to Theroc via the green priest Beltrias, and his parents were excited to hear it. He was careful, though, not to let them get too excited.

“So, the symptoms will come back?” he asked Tamo'l. “The way I feel now is only temporary?”

Osira'h scolded him. “It is progress, Reyn. It gives you some relief and buys us time so we can find a real cure.”

He smiled at her. “If I can spend the time with you, then I'll consider it a success. Whenever you're ready with the next test, Tamo'l, then I'm ready as well.” Yes, he let himself feel a hint of hope, and Osira'h sensed it. The reward of seeing her smile was as valuable to him as any palliative the sanctuary domes could offer.

*   *   *

When the shadow cloud appeared above Kuivahr, Tamo'l and Osira'h were the ones who sensed it first. With a green priest mother and Ildiran fathers, they had a different set of filters, a sensitivity to changes in the universe.

Tamo'l sucked in a deep breath, and her whole body shuddered. Throughout the sanctuary domes, the misbreeds shouted in terror. “The Shana Rei!”

Osira'h gripped the edge of a table, keeping her balance. “Our brother is with them.”

Alarmed, Beltrias stood nearby in the lab room, holding his treeling. “I am sending a message now. The verdani will spread the alarm—there must be someone close by who can help.”

Tom Rom marched into the testing lab, looking from side to side. “What's happening?” Reyn and Osira'h explained what they knew. After delivering the Pergamus medical records, as instructed, he had remained to collate Tamo'l's records on the misbreeds. Though the man had come at the request of the King and Queen, Reyn found him to be odd and intense, without the slightest hint of warmth.

Beltrias looked up from his treeling. “I sent the warning far and wide, but the CDF cannot get to us in time. We are deep inside the Ildiran Empire. Nira is in the Prism Palace, though, and just received the message. She will tell the Mage-Imperator.”

“My father will dispatch all the Solar Navy warliners he can spare,” Osira'h said.

Tamo'l flinched again, touching her temple as if a spike of pain had just plunged into her skull. “The Ildirans will know, regardless. They will feel it through the
thism
.”

“Gale'nh will come for us,” Osira'h said.

Shawn Fennis used the sanctuary dome's comm to receive images from trading ships in orbit. Only a few Confederation or Ildiran craft remained over Kuivahr, and those ships scattered quickly, struggling to escape the shadow cloud. Enormous black battleships swooped out to harass them. The black robot vessels destroyed one automated cargo shuttle and a holding station, but the rest of the trading ships got away.

The planet itself was their target.

Reyn watched in dread as the black cylinders began to feed opaque hex plates into space by the thousands, creating some kind of barrier. Like the nightshade on Theroc, but more extravagant. The hex plates continued to assemble in the sky, spreading with astonishing speed, and the blackness built up like a curtain to enshroud Kuivahr.

“I think they mean to encase the entire planet,” Reyn said.

Osira'h paled. “Just as they did at the Onthos home system.”

Tamo'l was confused, distraught. “But why is Kuivahr so important to them? We have our sanctuary domes and a distillery. What else?”

Osira'h suddenly hunched over, her face twisted with pain. Reyn rushed to hold her, as she had done for him so many times. “
We
are here, Tamo'l,” she pointed out. “You and I. That is what the Shana Rei want. Two halfbreeds—like Gale'nh and like Rod'h. They have found us.”

Tamo'l said, her voice cracking, “I can feel Rod'h with them, drowning in shadows, calling for us … unwittingly leading the shadows here.” She suddenly looked up. “We have the misbreeds, too! The shadows must sense their potential, feel intimidated by them.”

From the Kellum distillery, Patrick Fitzpatrick sent an urgent message to the sanctuary domes. “Will you need assistance to evacuate? We know you've got Prince Reynald there, and the Mage-Imperator's daughter. If you send them over right away, we'll take them to safety first. We have a handful of ships to get off this planet, but there's no guarantee the shadows won't blast us out of orbit. Could be worse if we stay here.”

Zhett Kellum came on the screen next to him. “We've got no choice but to try. Prince Reynald, the King and Queen would be very upset if we left you behind, and I'm not going to do that. We're evacuating all distillery personnel—get over to the platform in the next half hour or you'll be left behind. Make sure your green priest lets everyone know what's happening here.”

“He already did,” Reyn said. “But I can't just leave—”

Osira'h nudged him aside and shouted at the screen. “Yes, we are coming!” She turned to Reyn, determined. “You
have
to go. You're the son of the King and Queen.”

“And you're a daughter of the Mage-Imperator,” Reyn said. “I won't leave without you. Beltrias, you'll come with us. But who will help the misbreeds?”

Holding his potted treeling, the green priest looked up at the domed ceiling, as if he could see all the way to the giant shadow ships in orbit.

“The Kellum distillery does not have enough ships to carry everyone in these domes,” Tom Rom said. “We have to evacuate the important personnel. Now. And that includes Tamo'l.”

“Not good enough,” Tamo'l said. “We
all
have to go.” She stepped backward, looking dismayed. “We cannot possibly take all the misbreeds over to the distillery. And even if they made it there, many would not survive another space passage.”

Osira'h said, “I gave my word I would keep Reyn safe if I brought him here. He and I must be on one of those first ships.”

Tom Rom said, “Agreed. You and the Prince take a waveskimmer and get out of here.” He gave them an odd smile. “It benefits me and my employer to make sure you do not come to harm.”

Tamo'l gave Osira'h a hard look. “Yes, go. And take the green priest. But I stay with the misbreeds. I have to help them. We will find another way.”

“We can't leave the rest of you!” Reyn said in alarm.

“There is no point in protesting, and I will force you there if necessary,” Tom Rom said in an absolutely convincing tone. “I'll see to it that the others escape. I have an alternate.” He looked over at Tamo'l. “The rest of us will make our way to the Klikiss transportal. It will be a rough passage, but likely less stressful than space travel. Your misbreeds would survive.”

Tamo'l agreed. “That is a chance. Osira'h, go!”

Shawn Fennis rushed in from a supply locker. “Wait, this is all that remained of the kelp distillate that proved most effective for you, Prince Reynald. If the Kuivahr oceans are swallowed up, we'll never be able to produce more of this.” He extended a sealed case. “Some of them worked, and some didn't. Take them all. Maybe other researchers can study these.”

Reyn felt a lump in his throat. “Thank you.”

Osira'h grabbed the case with one hand and Reyn's arm in her other. Beltrias was already heading to the landing deck. “Quickly, we have to get to the distillery while the Kellum ships are still launching.”

*   *   *

Out on the ocean, under the mockingly bright sky, Osira'h and Reyn drove the waveskimmer away from the sanctuary domes while Tamo'l and her staff prepared the rest of the evacuation. As the craft roared toward the distillery towers, Beltrias ducked down against the spray. Ahead, they could see the bright contrails as escaping ships rose up to orbit.

Most terrifying, though, Reyn saw the ever-expanding black swatch in the sky, an opaque barricade being assembled, plate by plate, that rose from the horizon like a slow black tidal wave.

They had to get away.

 

CHAPTER

117

NIRA

Though she was outwardly silent and calm, Nira felt frozen inside, grappling with her feelings of guilt, grief, and loss. Her son Rod'h was gone, swallowed by the horrific Shana Rei in much the same way that Gale'nh had been—but she felt a dreadful certainty that Rod'h would not be released so easily.

Overhead, the Ildiran sunshine was deceptively bright. The former human enclave in Mijistra had been razed, converted to a park with fertile soil, exotic flowers, spiky shrubs, and a bare place for a new grove of worldtrees. It was a fitting memorial for the massacre that had occurred here.

Though worker kithmen offered to help, Nira wanted to be by herself. She knelt in the soft raked dirt, surrounded by the potted treelings she had brought back from Theroc. The treelings were a gift from her fellow green priests and from the worldforest itself. There were already trees in the greenhouse dome atop the Prism Palace, but this would be another verdani grove, and a way for her to keep in touch with her former home.

Though she was an adept green priest, Nira could not use telink to form a closer bond with any of her children. Right now, Rod'h was lost and alone, held hostage by the creatures of darkness. Her oldest son … born out of Nira's torment and a product of the darkest time in her life. As a young visiting green priest she had been stolen from Jora'h's loving arms, imprisoned on Dobro, raped repeatedly, and forced to bear children she did not want.

Rod'h was the son of the Dobro Designate himself. She had never been allowed to be a
mother
to him. At birth, handlers had confirmed that the child was viable, then whisked him away to be raised and trained by the Designate. Nira had not seen the baby again for a long time, had little interaction with him as he grew up.

Meanwhile, she had been raped again, forced to bear more children. Gale'nh, then Tamo'l, then Muree'n … and other misbreeds that had not survived. She had tried to love them all as she loved Osira'h, who had been a child of love instead of fear. She told herself again and again that her innocent children were not responsible for the circumstances of their own births. Nira didn't even blame the other fathers, who had simply been following orders.

But the Dobro Designate, Rod'h's father, had
enjoyed
her suffering. He had done it to break her, and Nira could not forget that. Because of that pain she had never been able to treat Rod'h just as a young man with great potential, as he deserved to be treated.

Now it was too late.

She scooped out a hole in the fresh soil in the park, removed one of the treelings from its ceramic pot, then gently planted it in its new home. She stared down at her green hands, stricken, then absently stroked the fine golden bark of the tree.

Rod'h had resented her because of how she treated him, and Nira realized she had brought that resentment upon herself. She had pushed Rod'h away from her because he wanted to believe that his father was a hero of the Ildiran race, no matter what he had done. Rod'h's insistence that the breeding camps had been necessary angered Nira. Now she realized that he had been trying to find meaning in his own origin, trying to push back against his mother's coldness.…

Nira planted a second treeling, far enough from the first so they could grow and one day become immense titans under the seven suns. She had eight treelings, enough to make a fine grove one day.

But Rod'h would probably never see it now.

She heard the entourage long before she saw them coming, and she glanced up. The Mage-Imperator, dressed in fine prismatic robes, came forward and ignored the flurry of attenders preparing the way.

Jora'h had eyes only for her. To the horror of his entourage, he knelt in the dirt and helped her plant another worldtree. His hands touched hers. “The Solar Navy is prepared. Adar Zan'nh has gathered the warliners, armed them with our best weapons, including the new Confederation sun bombs. We are ready to defend against the Shana Rei … and rescue Rod'h, if that becomes possible.”

“I know you will try, my love,” she said to him.

The attenders muttered. The bureaucrat kith kept their distance. The guards remained stony and silent.

Yazra'h and Muree'n were with Tal Gale'nh in the simulations chamber, discussing ways to fight the Shana Rei, but that was all theoretical so far.

Nira hung her head. “If I don't see him again, Jora'h, I will always regret that I let him think he was somehow tainted. I blamed him for things that weren't his fault.”