Prayers on the Wind — Walter Jon Williams

All humanity is at peace. The Diamond Library contains all wisdom, and has incarnated itself as the Treasured King. But now the peace is threatened by the alien Sang, a species bent on conquest, and humanity's response is fatally divided.

At the height of the crisis, the Treasured King is found dead, and a dangerous new incarnation is born -- beautiful, seductive, erratic, and very possibly mad.

Walter Jon Williams combines cutting-edge science, Tibetan Buddhism, and hard-nosed political reality in this novelette, which was nominated for a Nebula Award on its first release.