Saga of the Skolian Empire 04 - The Radiant Seas by Asaro Catherine

Author:Asaro, Catherine [Asaro, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Speculative Fiction, Space, Opera, Science, Space Opera, Fiction
ISBN: 9780812580365
Google: 19mQ-VOfEisC
Goodreads: 637578
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1998-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

20

William Seth Rockworth III was the oldest man alive. Good health, good genes, and a careful lifestyle had extended his life span enough to reach the fledgling era of nanotech and life prolongation. At 173, hale and fit, with a few extra pounds on his frame and gray streaks in his black hair, the retired admiral had outlived all his peers.

One other person came near his age: the Ruby Pharaoh, 155 years old, a woman Seth had once called wife. Time softened the edges of his memories. He recalled Dehya as a lithe young woman with a gentle smile. He had never regretted leaving behind the Imperial court, but even so, he valued the Rhon bonds he had formed during that time of his life. Before then he hadn’t known he had a Kyle rating of ten, a psionic strength claimed by no more than one in every ten billion humans. Although he left Dehya, he had sworn her an oath on that day he departed the Orbiter to return to Earth. A Rhon oath. If ever she needed help, she could ask it of him. In the seven decades since, she had never invoked it.

Until now.

Her message was simple. Meet my ship, Tailors Needle, at Logan Starport. Rhon Oath. He stood in his study reading the words on his console, wondering what had spurred her to contact him after so long.

* * *

It was three in the morning when Seth drove his hovercar into the parking lot at Logan. Tailors Needle was arriving at a domestic terminal, which meant it came from Allied space, another conundrum. Why would Dehya’s ship have an Allied ID?

He found the gate in an out-of-the-way concourse emptied by the late hour. Only vessels that couldn’t afford better berths used these areas. He had to walk out onto the tarmac to meet the pitted two-person scout ship that sat in an old docking bay.

The hatch opened and Dehya jumped down to the tarmac. Seth couldn’t see her well in the shadows by the ship, but he recognized the heart shape of her face, the length of her hair, and her innate grace. Except she was too tall.

In the instant before she left the shadows, he realized it wasn’t Dehya. Like a ghost come to haunt, the woman stalked into the light.

“Soz?” Seth asked. This couldn’t be Dehya’s niece. Soz had died fifteen years ago.

“You gave Dyhianna Selei an oath when you were her husband,” she said. “Rhon Oath. Do you still honor it?”

That sounded like Soz: to the point, wasting no words. “Yes,” he said, wondering what he had gotten himself into. Soz? he asked. Is it you?

She kept her mind closed. She was holding a laser carbine she must have smuggled past the port’s at-a-distance sensors, not a difficult task for someone who knew how. “Do you honor the oath?” she repeated.

“Yes.” He paused. “I made it to Dehya, though.”

“Rhon Oath.”

He understood her meaning. Given the Rhon’s interwoven relationships and merged minds, it was impossible to give an oath to one without impacting the others.

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