Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 335
loved me. They knew I was not mad, but daring in a way even
kings were not. The poor have no love of roles, and so they
appear callous even with their own; they can love better than
we, though, for they are honest in what they do feel. They saw
I had in an instant rejected the whole world in which I was
brought up, if it led to senseless death and thence to fixed
orbits for all involved forever. Too, I championed their causes
to the king, and was often indulged by him when no other
suitor would succeed.
At length he, noticing my unwomanly interest in sciences
and historical studies, hit upon a means of disposing of me. If I
would be a scholar, he would give me full reign to be one. In
fact, he would allow me to command an expedition then being
mounted by the University of Rhiene to measure seismic
changes caused by the deep movement of the desals.
The desals occasionally set off thermonuclear charges
deep in the mountains, or in ocean trenches. For as long as
records are extant, the Winds had been conducting such
explosions, one or two a century at different places.
Traditionally, we have forbidden any mining in the region
affected for ten years after the blast, after which we let people
dig as they wish. When they do, rich mineral or metal finds are
always the result. I knew from my studies that the explosions
were not solitary, but vast coordinated chains set off to drive
precious materials closer to the surface of the earth, for our
benefit. It is but one of the services that the Winds perform for
us.
--Yes, Maut, they do serve us. They simply do not
realize it. If you let me continue, you will understand what I
mean.
I well knew my father's intent. He wished me far away
from him, politically powerless, and demonstrably