ROD’H
In the Prime Designate’s rainbow-hued rooms, Daro’h dealt with matters beyond Rod’h’s understanding. The Prime Designate made appropriate admiring sounds as tailors held up shimmering filmfabric and draped folds of cloth over measuring guides.
One of Daro’h’s former assigned mates, Illi’v, a stern-tempered female of the bureaucrat kith, fancied herself a clothes designer. As numerous mixed-breed children ran about in the rooms, his lover directed fabric designs and commanded a whole new wardrobe for the Prime Designate, who indulged her.
The new garments were lightweight, comfortable, and eye-catching. Nimble-fingered stitchers assembled the pieces while Illi’v watched, inspected, and at last approved.
Rod’h did not understand why Daro’h maintained contact with so many of these women. After all, the mating index required them to breed only once, for the Prime Designate was expected to spread his genetics widely and not take only one long-term lover—as Jora’h had done with Nira. Rod’h couldn’t stop a flash of resentment when he thought of the upheavals his mother had created in Ildiran civilization. The Saga of Seven Suns chronicled unbroken millennia of history, cultural nuances that had crystalized to perfection—but one green priest woman had changed much of that.
Rod’h had been born for a purpose and raised to meet a destiny, and he had been prepared to do just that. His mother had also had a vital duty to the Dobro breeding program, willingly or not, and she had fought against every aspect of it. Rod’h was disappointed in her.…
After the fabric was draped over his shoulders, Daro’h modeled the new garment. Illi’v tugged at several folds, stepped back to inspect again, then nodded her approval.
Daro’h was more enthusiastic. “It looks marvelous. I will wear it when I attend the lens-alignment ceremony at primary noon.” Smiling, he turned to Rod’h. “And my new friend will accompany me. Rod’h, I want you at my side.”
Rod’h was pleased Daro’h wanted him as a companion. “Of course I will, Prime Designate.”
Daro’h issued brisk orders to the attenders, to the stitchers, and to his former mate. “I know how swiftly you can create such wondrous clothes. Prepare a set for my friend as well.”
Illi’v raised her eyebrows. “The same design, Prime Designate?”
“Exactly the same design,” Daro’h said, then laughed as three of the children got into a wrestling match on the floor. “In fact, let us make similar new clothes for all the children too.”
Now Illi’v reacted with even more alarm. “But … but they are different kiths.”
“Then take different measurements. They are all my sons and daughters.”
Rod’h was impressed with the Prime Designate’s warmth and openness, but he feared that Daro’h did not consider wide-reaching consequences. A naïve and gentle man was not necessarily a good leader. Nevertheless, Rod’h intended to be there to help the Prime Designate make hard decisions, should that become necessary. After all, he had been born to a great purpose.
* * *
In a city square with the spires of the Prism Palace in the distance, the lens priestess Arune’l gathered a group of observers along with five lens-kith acolytes. With each multisolar noon, she aligned a central crystal array to focus the light from different directions and different solar systems. The lens array focused all of the bright suns onto a symbolic black cube that absorbed all light. It was a constant show of defiance against the darkness.
Along with his group of attenders and noble kithmen, Prime Designate Daro’h went to witness the daily ceremony garbed in sparkling new robes that shone almost as brightly as the prismatic arrangement.
Rod’h was pleased to be invited along. Daro’h seemed glad to have a person who listened to him rather than regarding him with excessive awe and deference. They walked toward the crystalline lens arrangement, listening to the hush of gathered Ildirans who had come to witness the ceremony.
When the crowd turned to look at the Prime Designate rather than Arune’l, Daro’h gestured for them to turn their attention back to the lens arrangement. “I am just an observer like the rest of you. Proceed, Arune’l.”
The lens priestess raised her hands. “Drawing on the light of seven suns through these lenses, each day we mark a bright passageway to the Lightsource. We draw upon our thoughts, use our thism to show the way.”
Workers shifted the lenses so that sunlight from seven different suns poured down upon the central black cube, which swallowed the light. The dazzling rays poured onto the opaque flat surface, having no effect. Rod’h shielded his eyes from the intensity.
Lens kith acolytes checked the calibrations, swinging more lenses into place to intensify the light. Observers in the crowd fell to their knees in supplication.
Rod’h felt a sudden chill go down his back, and a knot formed in his stomach. He did not understand what caused it. Something was happening.
Standing on her raised dais, Arune’l also winced, and a visible shudder rippled through her. Astonishingly, the audience fell to their knees and began clawing at the street. Using hooked fingers, they pulled up the interlocked geometric paving stones, not caring that they bloodied their hands.
“What are they doing?” Daro’h asked. Suddenly, he hunched over, squeezing his eyes shut. He staggered two steps. “Stop! It’s too dark, it’s—” He collapsed to his knees and vomited violently.
The lens priestess shrieked in horror and clasped her hands against the side of her head as if the pain came from inside her as well.
Gathered Ildirans grabbed the uprooted paving stones with bloody fingers and lunged toward the lens arrangement. The lens-focused sunlight was deadly, and two adherents caught on fire as they stumbled into the concentrated beam. Others rushed the lenses themselves, using the paving stones to smash the crystalline framework. The central lens toppled to the ground.
“The shadows!” Rod’h cried out, realizing that this was another possessed mob like the one that had attacked the Mage-Imperator and Nira, like the one that had massacred the human enclave. He seized the dazed Prime Designate and pulled him away. “I have to get you to safety.”
He felt none of the effects himself, apparently immune as a halfbreed, but somehow, the Shana Rei had tainted this group of Ildirans, infiltrated their collective consciousness, and forced them to act against their will.
After they smashed the lenses, the crazed crowd grabbed the bladelike fragments of crystal, slicing their own hands, and lifted up the broken shards as weapons.
Prime Designate Daro’h was still retching, fighting against what he couldn’t understand, but Rod’h saw the bloodied Ildirans coming for them with murder in their eyes. He hauled the Prime Designate by his new robes toward the edge of the square. “We have to leave, Daro’h! We must get away from here.” The filmfabric sleeve tore as the Prime Designate staggered, but Rod’h kept wrestling him away.
The mob did not target them specifically. Instead, the Ildirans lunged forward with one mind and fell upon Arune’l, stabbing and slashing the lens priestess. She didn’t even fight back. They tore her apart and then turned their sharp blades on the other whimpering acolytes who huddled in the middle of the bright sunlight as if to hide.
The rest of the Prime Designate’s entourage was reeling and disoriented. Even the attender kith scurried about in aimless circles like drugged insects.
Acting alone, Rod’h rushed the Prime Designate down another street. He didn’t dare call out for help, afraid to draw attention to the two of them. Daro’h moaned in despair, and Rod’h saw that he had blood splashed across his new garments—blood from the other victims. He was apparently uninjured. For now.
The mob members, drenched in the blood of the lens kithmen, stood among the broken stumps of the crystalline framework they had smashed. Once Arune’l and the lens kithmen were dead, they stopped and simply stared at what they had done. Together, they let out a horrified wail of realization as the Shana Rei possessors made them understand what they had done. Then, like rag dolls controlled by invisible strings, the unwilling attackers threw themselves onto the upright stumps of broken crystal, impaling themselves.
As they ran away, the Prime Designate staggered, moaning. Rod’h’s rush of adrenaline resolved into anger and purpose. Thanks to his mixture of genetics—like Gale’nh, Osira’h, and his other siblings—Rod’h could resist the Shana Rei in ways that other Ildirans could not. Rod’h knew that he could be strong enough, too.
He couldn’t trust the other Ildirans in the street, though, any of whom might turn on the two of them in an instant. Rod’h needed to get the Prime Designate back to the safety of the Prism Palace, and from then on, he would have to watch over Daro’h very closely—by himself.