Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 421
disappeared from sight. She had tuned her holographic unitard
to black, and before he had time to figure out what she was
doing, she ran into the clearing.
The men were both burly, but short. They looked rough.
Behind them another figure had appeared in the cottage
doorway, hands bundled in its skirts.
"What you doin?" the first barked at Calandria. Pure
Memnonian, she marveled. A rich strain of it, from the accent.
She could almost trace this man’s ancestry by the way he
sounded his vowels.
Marya stepped between the men and Calandria, and said
"Morph," in a loud and clear voice. As she did, she tuned her
holographic clothing to another suit.
The men’s eyes widened and they fell several steps back.
Marya had gone from peasant clothing to a festival costume
that was all feathers and rainbows. Marya knew her face
glowed out of it like an angel’s. That was the design.
"Uh, hello," she said carefully. The words sounded
clumsy in her own ears. "I mean you harm--no, no harm, I
mean you."
They both stopped short, a couple of meters away, and
looked her up and down. Behind her, Marya heard Calandria
muttering something. She chose not to listen.
The men were intimidated, but stood their ground. "Wwhat
do you want?" asked the first, who looked older. "We
have nothing. We’ve not harmed a single creature in this
wood. Look, all we’ve got is horses--"
"Horses," she said, nodding. "We need three. One for
me, and two for my human servants."
They looked so tragic that Marya wanted to turn and just
walk away. The horses were all they had, after all. They were
abjectly poor, and she was robbing them. Maybe there was