Melissa Scott - Heaven 03 - The Empress Of Earth.pdf - Melissa Scott - margozap

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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Melissa Scott - Heaven 03 - The Empress Of Earth.pdf

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