Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon Read Free Book Online

was strong. Then he pushed her away, to keep his mind on business. “If we’re done with
amity…”
    “Of course.” One corner of her mouth turned up. Perhaps she was satisfied that she’d made him obedient for a moment.
    Then there was strategy to discuss. For taking on the ship. For taking over the ship. She warmed to the topic quickly.
—2—
    Solange knelt in the sanctuary, knees cold, mind heated. It was supposed to be brisk in the chapel, to aid in mental clarity while the nuns and postulants sat their meditations. Yet despite the bracing cold,
clarity
eluded Mother Superior tonight. Her thoughts were all of Swan, Swan… the man with the name of a bird, the man with the control of Ice.
    The image of Mother Superior Carmen smiled down on her from the chancel surrounding the altar, her holographic presence selected at random from the hundred revered laureates. Mother Superior Carmen’s only claim to laurels was a minor improvement that the society overvalued. She had died young and still beautiful, another thing Solange held against her. Easy to be deemed a laureate when you hadn’t had time to stumble.
    At the rear of the chapel her attendants had been standing for the better part of two hours, with no cough or fidget. From early childhood her nuns had trained in standing meditation. For the purpose of mental clarity, as was everything.
    Solange shifted her position and continued her meditation on the one called Swan, and her conversation with him. She had stayed kneeling until she was able to recall each word.
    She recalled the man’s violet fingers, shot through with the thoughts of Ice. She hadn’t let him see her stunned reaction, hoping to hide her own inadequacies. Swan wasn’t fooled.
    He had access to Ice, she did not. Simply stated, this was the power equation.
    Who this man was, where he had come from—thesequestions preoccupied her. Had the preserves produced the genius the Sisters of Clarity had failed to find within their own ranks? His clothes and sickly condition argued that he was from the preserves, yet his accent and manner of speaking was cultivated. By his eyes, he was tainted with madness, or perhaps it was only a terrible pain. If the man was dying, she must learn his secrets quickly
    But he’d told her nothing. Nothing beyond the litany of the Mothers Superior and the other tests of knowledge that she’d put to him before their interview concluded. Whatever he knew of Ice, it was far beyond her own knowledge. And, therefore, it was a good alliance. Together they would bring the great ship to heel, take command of its technology and the loyalties of its crew. That would take care of the threat from space.
    Then there was the threat from Swan.
    She didn’t intend to ally with such an individual past this temporary crisis. He was unsavory in the extreme—reeking, arrogant, and unstable. No, he wouldn’t do as an associate. He could never be a
sister
, nor could he be a brother, unless he bowed to her. Gender was unfortunately against him. That and his madness.
    But none of this could dampen her exultation.
    Behind the stronghold of the Keep an uplifted slab of Ice sheltered her order, but until today it had kept a silent watch. Now she felt herself on the precipice of a world change, an Ice change. Every Mother Superior hoped that in her lifetime the Enunciation would occur. Since the Advent of Ice, the lineage of mothers superior had been waiting, the order had been waiting. Now it truly seemed that Ice had spoken. It was just a matter of getting Ice to speak to
her.
    A flicker of light in the nave caught her attention. A different laureate stood there, Mother Superior Betheny Marta. The old sow stood dour and pious, but she was better than Mother
    Carmen. So far the sisters saw fit to ignore Solange’s accomplishments, denying her elevation. But to preside over the
Enunciation.
There could be no greater accomplishment, no surer path to the laureate. Of course, such an honor was a