Jess brought the water-globule ship down fast, like the first heavy drop before a drenching downpour. As the liquid bubble touched the ground near the embattled Ildirans, the surface tension dissolved, like a burst water balloon, and its wental contents flooded out. He and Cesca stepped away from the soupy mud at their feet.
The Mage-Imperator and his companions had begun to succumb to the battering heat. You are cut off from thethism, Rusah, shouted the Mage-Imperator. I will not allow your faeros to prey upon my people again.
In the sky, most of the fiery shapes had flown away, leaving Rusah alone. But he was not weak.
Jess and Cesca approached the faeros incarnate, their bodies covered with a glistening film of water, and Rusah sensed their power. When he turned, his body seemed to swell, and his face showed an incredible struggle taking place within him.
This is my Empire! Like a wildfire let loose, Rusah hurled gouts of flame from his hands.
Jess intercepted the inferno, deflecting it from the weary Ildirans. Cesca joined her power to his; they had to extinguish this spark that spread destructive fire, consuming ships and cities and planets and people. They had to control the flames and stop the faeros from burning all the worlds in the Spiral Arm.
Showing no restraint, Rusah unleashed his furious strength, making Jess and Cesca stagger backward. The hard ground around them began to melt.
Mist sprang from Jesss pores like sweat, creating a powerful living fog. Cesca raised her hands, and steam flashed against the barrage of fire. They both drew deeply from the wentals within them, struggling against the fierce onslaught, staggering a step backward. Seeing them falter, Rusah hurled even more fire at them.
The two pushed back, wrapping cool wental vapors like thick ropes around the faeros incarnate. Jess surrendered more and more of his inner reservoir of wental strength. The air burned around him, and he fought back until he was at the point of collapse, but he did not relent.
The Mage-Imperator and the linked Ildirans behind their shield drained away some power from the faeros incarnate, contributing to the fight.
Jorah lashed out at his brother. Come back to me, Rusah! No matter what you have done, I know an Ildiran heart still beats within you. If you truly want to save our people, save themnow. Drive away the faeros before they consume you entirely.
No! When Rusah screamed, a gout of fire jetted from his mouth.
The sparkling fog grew so thick that Jess could barely see what he was fighting. Flashes of blinding orange and yellow battered the wentals, but he and Cesca kept pushing closer to the faeros incarnate. Their inner water elementals were exhausting themselves, depleting their energy to protect Jess and Cesca. He hoped they could last longer than the fires.
Unable to resist the added pressure, Rusah stumbled backward.
Jess refused to back off, even though he could feel the wentals using up all of their energy inside him. He began to feel light-headed, empty, as if every molecule of moisture were being wrung from his pores. To summon any last vestiges of strength, he made himself remember the faeros attack on Charybdis and its pristine seas full of reborn wentals. That holocaust would always be burned into his mind the blasted oceans, the blackened reefs and undersea rocks. Nor could he forget how the faeros had attacked Golgen, had tried to destroy the Roamer skymines. had burned Theroc to consume the worldtrees. had killed Cescas father and stranded his uncle on Jonah 12.
The wentals within his cells pulled together and threw themselves upon the burning man.
Unable to resist the extra push, Rusah staggered backward into the muddy pool from their wental ship and the trap was sprung. Living water surged up from the ground and seized his legs. Rusah thrashed, hurling fire everywhere.
Before he could regain his balance, Jess and Cesca threw themselves upon the faeros incarnate, entwining him in smothering blankets of mist. Jess drained his inner reservoirs dry, spending the last of the wental power that had saved him from the hydrogues so long ago in one final surge. Beside him and connected to him, Cesca did the same.
The flames inside Rusah were finally quenched. Extinguished from within, the faeros incarnate collapsed.
Coughing and choking, barely able to breathe through the boiling clouds of steam, Jess and Cesca staggered away to drop to their knees near the Ildirans.
Nira set down her treeling and rushed to them. Before Jess could think to warn her away, the green priest touched him, held him. Jess automatically cringed as she helped him to his feet. He looked at the unharmed green priest in amazement. I dont understand. My touch should have killed you.
Cesca stared at her hands in wonder and drew a breath. Feel it, Jess. Theyre gone. The wentals are no longer inside!
Jess realized that his own skin seemed exactly as it once had been. He had almost forgotten the sensation of beingnormal. We must have burned them out used them up. Jess turned around in amazement. Were human again. And we survived! Joy welled up within him, mingling with sadness and admiration for the water elementals that had sacrificed themselves.
We defeated the faeros, Cesca said quietly. Thats what matters. Thats what the wentals wanted. They looked up and saw the remaining fireballs flitting away aimlessly, to be scooped up and whisked away by several tree-bubbles that dragged them to the nearby suns.
Jess smiled, feeling immensely relieved.
They heard a sound nearby. Steam still rose, scattered by churning thermal currents in the air. When the hot mist finally cleared, they saw the former faeros incarnate on his knees, wholly defeated. The fiery elementals had been purged from his system, and now he huddled there naked and weak, a mere shadow of himself.
Sobbing, Rusah turned his face up to the Mage-Imperator.
158
Deputy Chairman Eldred Cain
By the sharklike expression on the Chairmans face, Cain could tell that all humanity had died within him. Basil Wenceslas, who had once been a smooth and talented leader, hard negotiator, and competent administrator, had tumbled headlong down a slippery slope.
OX stood beside the throne, his optical sensors flashing. Chairman Wenceslas, I must point out that you have no legal basis whatsoever for this order. There is no precedent for your command.
Cain positioned himself at the stairs leading up to the throne dais, between the Chairman and the King. Sir, I urge you to reconsider.
Basil ignored the compy and showed only contempt for his deputy. You think I dont know how you and Sarein plotted against me, Cain, subverting my authority at every turn? Im the only one with vision, the only one who can lead the human race where it needs to go. You are such a disappointment. He swept his gaze around the sealed room. All of you complete failures! Peter, Fitzpatrick even you, Colonel Andez!