Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 162
from homing in on his position. It was still possible to trace
the signal back from one of the remotes, but that would require
an understanding of human physiology and psychology that he
knew the Winds didn’t possess. Superluminal links were
always two way--what affected one station affected the other.
Armiger knew of no Wind capable of exploiting the fact to turn
one of his remotes into a receiver, so he had felt safe in making
them.
Shutting his eyes, he called up their perspectives. The
system was weak from damage and disuse, but after a few
seconds the remotes began to respond.
There should have been twelve. By the time the system
was fully up, Armiger could see through only six pairs of eyes.
Even that was nearly overwhelming. Somewhere in the
catastrophe he had lost the ability to process multiple sensory
inputs. What came to him now was a chaos of sensations: blue
cloth waving near a fire, water down a horse’s flank, the feel of
stone on his bare back, a warm hand on his belly--
--Pounding heart and ragged breaths gulped into a tight
and painful chest.
He recoiled in pain. It was too much to take all at once.
After opening his eyes and breathing quietly for a minute, he
resumed, this time singling out one remote’s perspective.
This other’s hands smoothed the chestnut flank of his
horse one last time, then turned away. Armiger saw he stood in
a small stable, the sort attached to country inns all across
Ravenon. This perspective belonged to an engineer who
travelled the country repairing and updating the heliographs in
royal signal towers. He saw a lot of the country in his travels,
and more than once Armiger had used his perspective to gather
intelligence.
Tonight he was idle, walking slowly out of the stable,