Scott, Melissa - Heaven 03 - The Empress Of Earth

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

"alternate scientific paradigm" kinds of trilogies. Set in the far

future,

Melissa Scott makes up LOTS of words, and abuses the hell out of

compounded words and conjunctions, as part of developing a subtle

dialect

to reflect changes in usage and language. While I think she does a

good

job of making them sound normal, without requiring a lot of

explanation in

the text, they give spellcheckers fits. Except for a couple of

blatant

spelling errors in the original text, I have kept these strange

conjunctions and compound words as printed in this edition.

The Roads of Heaven:

Five-Twelfths of Heaven

Silence in Solitude

The Empress of Earth

THE EMPRESS OF EARTH

The Third Book of "The Roads of Heaven"

by Melissa Scott

Copyrights 1987 by Melissa Scott

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

Chapter I

THE GRASSLAND SLOPED GENTLY DOWN TOWARD THE LOW cliff and the

scrub-covered mountainside below it, the red-tipped leaves of the

clinging

pines barely rising above the edge of the cliff. Beyond the dark

line

stretched the Silvermarsh, its vast expanse veined with blue-

gleaming

channels, the grey-white reeds rising and falling in a breeze that

did not

reach the clifftop. On the horizon, where the solid ground of the

Shiled

Islet lifted at last out of the marshes, the towers of Anshar

Asteriona

were faintly visible.

Silence Leigh, lying halfway up the grassy slope, shook her head

slowly,

moved in spite of herself by the subtle beauty. She was a star-

traveller,

a pilot, inured to the scenery of a hundred different worlds,

familiar

with the significant beauties of purgatory, the voidmarks spread

across a

gaudy sky; a simple marshland shouldn't seem so exquisite. But

then, this

was Asterion, central world of the Hegemony, the greatest power in

human-settled space, and this view, this hillside above a cliff,

was part

of the Hegemon's personal estates, all of which had been chosen to

take

advantage of naturally occurring beauty. Of course the Silvermarsh

would

be magnificent.

Sighing, she leaned back into the curve of one husband's arm.

Julian Chase

Mago shifted drowsily, adjusting himself to her weight. The other

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

husband,

Denis Balthasar, was soundly asleep, his head resting against her

hip, one

arm thrown across her thighs. Overhead, the sky was very bright,

the hot,

hazed blue of Asterion's late summer. They said, in the magi's

hostel,

that Asterion had been chosen as the capital because it bore a

resemblance to lost Earth; sleepily, Silence wondered if it were

true. All

human-settled worlds resembled Earth to a degree: systemic and

planetary

harmonies related to the original notes of Earth and Earth's star

system

in varying degrees, allowing the star-ships to travel easily

between them,

but a close resemblance seemed unlikely. There would be ways to

calculate

the probability, of course -- her teacher Isambard would know

them....

She shook herself lightly, stretching a shoulder that had

stiffened. Chase

Mago, disturbed by the movement, murmured an incoherent question,

and

promptly fell asleep again. Silence smiled. This had been the

first day in

months she had not spent studying, or, with her husbands,

supervising the

refitting of the starship, Recusante, for the long voyage to

Earth. In

fact, Chase Mago should have been installing new dolor-crystal

pipes in

the harmonium that morning, a delicate, boring operation that

would have

kept all three of them fully occupied for seven or eight hours, if

the

dockyard hadn't failed to make its delivery. Isambard had left for

the

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

magi's hostel in Savaid, Anshar' Asteriona's western suburb, a

little

after sunrise, to be out of their way. If he hadn't left so early,

Silence

thought, still smiling, she would have had to spend at least a

part of the

day with him. Isambard had acknowledged eight standard months ago

that she

was a magus -- a theoretical impossibility that still made her

laugh, so

thoroughly had she upset the magi's understanding of the worlds --

but

they both knew she was still relatively inexperienced. Her skills

would

have to be honed and polished before they made the attempt on the

Earth-road. Even so, she thought, I need some time apart.

She sighed, her smile fading. The thought of Earth, of the

complicated web

of obligation and unwritten contract that kept her searching for a

way to

reach the lost planet, drove away her lingering pleasure in the

view.

She shifted against Chase Mago's encircling arm, suddenly faintly

impatient with the day's enforced leisure. It was not that she

regretted

the laziness, but that she was ready to complete the adventure

she'd begun

nearly two years before. The engineer opened his eyes and yawned

hugely,

teeth very white behind his dark beard. Before he could speak,

however, a

flat voice said respectfully, "Sieuri."

Silence sat up, finally disturbing Balthasar, who muttered

querulously and

rolled over, rubbing at his eyes. She ignored him, and turned to

glare up

at the figure that stood patiently at the top of the slope.

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

"I left orders we weren't to be disturbed," she said.

The homunculus looked back at her. It was an expensive toy, finely

detailed, its face an immobile, inhumanly beautiful mask sculpted

by one

of the Hegemony's greatest artists. "A priority call," it said.

The voice

issued without inflection from a pinhole in the slightly pouting

lips.

Silence eyed the homunculus warily. "Who is it?"

"The vizier n'Halian." The homunculus's voice did not change, but

lifted one grey-fleshed hand to its gilded forehead in imprinted

response

to the title.

"N'Halian?" Balthasar sat up, frowning. "I wonder what he wants."

Silence shrugged, and pushed herself to her feet. Halian n'Halian

was the

Hegemon's chief minister and his most trusted servant -- not a man

to be

kept waiting.

Chase Mago stood, stretching, then turned to pull Balthasar to his

feet.

"Who knows?" the big engineer said, calmly enough, but his eyes

were wary.

"I bet it isn't good news," Balthasar muttered.

"Don't be such a goddamn pessimist," Silence said, more sharply

than she'd

intended. Balthasar grinned, and she knew he'd recognized her own

fear.

She gestured quickly to the homunculus, cutting off the Delian's

response.

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

"Please inform the vizier we're on our way. We can call him back,

if he

doesn't want to wait."

"I beg your pardon, sieura," the homunculus answered. "The vizier

waiting in the garden room."

The three humans exchanged glances, and then Silence said again,

"Tell the

vizier we're on our way."

"Yes, sieura." The homunculus bowed over folded, grey-fingered

hands and

turned away, striding over the uneven ground with inhuman

precision.

As soon as it was out of earshot, Chase Mago said, "That's very

odd."

Silence reached for the thin, gold-flecked shawl she carried

instead of

the veil required by Hegemonic law, and wound it expertly around

her head,

covering her boy-short black hair, and tossed the trailing end

over her

left shoulder, just concealing nose and mouth. It would -- just --

preserve the amenities, but there was no time to change into full

court

regalia. "Very," she agreed.

"Come on." Balthasar was already hurrying up the hill after the

homunculus; Chase Mago shrugged and followed. Silence clambered

after

them, frowning. There was no reason that she knew of for the

vizier to

come to the villa in person; all the obvious things could just as

easily

have been dealt with over the view-globe network. But there

shouldn't be

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

anything wrong, either, she thought, and ducked under a trailing

branch

from one of the allreds that formed a windbreak at the top of the

slope.

At the Hegemon's request, she had stayed out of sight for the past

months,

letting the Thousand, the members of the great families that

governed the

Hegemony, forget that Adeben Kibbe owed his throne at least in

part to a

woman magus. She hadn't been outside the villa, except to visit

the magi's

hostel or the star-travellers' Pale surrounding Anshar'

Asteriona's

starport, in over a month.

Inside the line of allreds, the landscape flattened suddenly,

manicured

lawn stretching as though cut with a level from the tidy edge of

the

carpet of fallen leaves to the fretted door. Above the bluestone

lintel,

carved with an abstract pattern of leaves and twining flowers, the

garden

room's glass wall had gone green in the afternoon sunlight. Behind

it,

Silence could just make out the moving shadow that was the vizier.

Pacing?

she thought, with a sudden feeling of dread, but Chase Mago pushed

open

the fretted door before she was certain.

Another of the villa's homunculi was waiting at the foot of the

back

stairway, formal clothes -- knee-length coats for the men, and a

floor-length veil for her -- draped across its stiff arms. Chase

Mago

absently accepted the larger of the coats, fastening its buttons

all the

way up to the high collar, but Balthasar waved his away,

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

grimacing.

Silence hesitated for a moment, then started up the stairs without

taking

the longer veil.

Halian n'Halian was standing in the middle of the garden room,

staring at

the central fountain without really seeing the fine haze of water.

turned at the sound of the door opening, and the sunlight

streaming

through the windows glittered from the tips of his forked beard.

"Sieuri."

"Vizier," Silence answered, watching his eyes. N'Halian wore his

most

opaque expression, but she was usually able to read some

indication of his

mood. She did not think he was afraid, or angry, but there was a

new

hesitation in his manner that troubled her.

"I am sorry to trouble you, when your servants said you were

engaged, "

n'Halian continued smoothly, "but his Majesty wishes to speak to

you."

"What about?" That was Balthasar, coming up on Silence's left. The

pilot

glanced sideways, and saw that the Delian's thin face was set in a

truculent scowl. Before she could say anything, however, Chase

Mago made

his chilly, oligarch's bow.

"Vizier," the engineer said. "I hope nothing's wrong?"

N'Halian shook his head, and in spite of herself, Silence gave a

sigh of

relief. Balthasar's mouth twisted, but for once he said nothing.

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

"I'm instructed to say that his Majesty has acquired something he

believes

will be of use to you," n'Halian went on, with a smile that showed

his

gold-set teeth. "He would like to discuss it with you in person."

That's better news than I expected, Silence thought, and said

aloud, "Of

course, vizier. Can you give us any more details?"

N'Halian shook his head. "I'm sorry, sieura, but his Majesty

hasn't told

me anything more."

"I see," Silence said. She didn't quite believe him, but knew

better than

to press the issue. "Do we have time to change?"

"That won't be necessary," n'Halian answered. "If you'll come with

me,

sieuri, I have a flyer waiting."

Silence hesitated for a moment, seeing her reflection in the wall

of glass

behind n'Halian. She was still wearing the boys' clothes she had

adopted

on Solitude Hermae, loose tunic belted over shapeless trousers,

tool kit

dangling from her belt -- hardly the sort of thing she should wear

to face

the ruler of two-thirds of human-settled space, especially when it

was

topped oft" by the fraying, almost transparent shawl instead of a

veil.

But that was vanity, and she knew it. It wasn't the elegance of

court

costume -- an elegance that weighed over twelve kilograms -- that

she

missed, but the familiarity of Rusadir tunic and tights. "As his

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Scanner's Note: The Roads of Heaven trilogy is one of my favorite

Majesty

wishes," she said aloud, and wound the shawl more securely across

her

face.

N'Halian's flyer sat on the disused playing field beside the villa

that

doubled as a landing area. Its crew, a pilot, co-pilot, and a trio

soldiers in Inariman livery, lounged in the shade of its fully

extended

wings. Clearly, Silence thought, they'd been waiting for n'Halian

for some

time. At the vizier's approach, the soldiers sprang to attention,

one

moving to trigger the ramp, the others sliding off the wing to

stiffen

into a hasty salute. The two pilots stood as well, though less

smartly.

Silence guessed they were civilians -- n'Halian's employees rather

than

members of the Hegemon's official household -- and her wariness

increased.

The Hegemon usually sent his household, unless there were good

reasons for

secrecy.... Then the co-pilot dropped from the wing and began

pulling off

the baffle that hid the flyer's keel, and Silence suppressed a

gasp of

surprise. At her elbow, Balthasar whispered a curse. The ship was

ordinary flyer, but a long-range craft, its shiny keel capable of

reaching

the boundary between the atmospheric and celestial harmonies. She

opened

her mouth to ask where they were going, but Chase Mago forestalled

her.

"I take it we're not going to Anshar' Asteriona?" the engineer

asked, as

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Scanner'sNote:TheRoadsofHeaventrilogyisoneofmyfavoriteScanner'sNote:TheRoadsofHeaventrilogyisoneofmyfavorite"alternatescientificparadigm"kindsoftrilogies.Setinthefarfuture,MelissaScottmakesupLOTSofwords,andabusesthehelloutofcompoundedwordsandconjunctions,aspartofdevelopingasubtledialecttoreflectchan...

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Scott, Melissa - Heaven 03 - The Empress Of Earth

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