Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 468
almost didn’t hear her.
He looked over quickly. "In this town?"
"No. Another, nearby. I lived there my whole life. And
then Parliament burnt it to the ground. They burned them all, I
guess."
"But why?"
"The queen," she said, her mouth twisting bitterly.
"Queen Galas is a sorceress; she commanded the desals, and
the desals made water sprout in the dunes. In those places, she
made towns. She offered people land and seed if they settled
there. My parents went. A lot of people did--but once you
went you couldn’t leave. And every town was different.
Different rules, and nobody was allowed to travel between
them or even know what the other towns’ rules were. She used
soldiers to move stuff between the towns, like wood and grain
and livestock. And the soldiers wouldn’t talk to you.
"Uncle used to visit, when I was small. He used to bring
me presents. I remember fruit, and little pieces of jewelry
mother disapproved of. He was the only person who visited
anyone in Callen. Father said it was because he was important
to the queen that they let him do it.
"I liked Callen, my town. I didn’t think there was
anything horrible about it. We worked, we had festivals. Boys
and girls went to school. But then one day all these strangers
came--people from the other towns. They were fleeing the
army. We put some of them up in our house. They were
strange... married, but men to men and women to women.
Though they had children too. They said the soldiers had
burned their town and killed everyone else. We didn’t know
why.
"I asked my father about it," continued Tamsin. "What
had we done that was so wrong? He said it was all the history