Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 642
this very moment that all her life, she had longed for such a
blessing.
Tamsin wept again the next day, but this time it was
because she finally understood the reason for Jordan’s
unhappiness.
They had woken to find themselves at the center of
battalion of animals, hundreds of them, who lay head-to-tail in
a sweeping circle around them. When Jordan stood up and
walked to the edge of the camp to piss, they all stood as one
and did likewise.
That woke Tamsin, who was appalled, then laughed until
her sides were sore.
It was later in the day, when they were riding elk-back
into the desert, that the escort ceased to be magical for her, and
became something sinister--an abomination. She had not
considered how the animals would feed.
Without warning, a bear that she had been admiring
turned on the gazelle trotting next to it and ripped its throat out.
Tamsin screamed. The gazelle fell, thrashing, spouting blood
everywhere. As the bear stopped to feed, a few other
carnivores moved in to share the meal, and the rest of the
batallion--hunters and prey alike--simply split politely around
them and moved on.
"How could it do that!"
Jordan had turned in his saddle to watch. "I guess it
makes sense," he said reluctantly. "Mediation controls these
animals. They’re not acting out of their own volition."
She cried then, as she realized that the harmony of nature
she had fallen asleep to was a sham, merely evidence of
overwhelming power; these animals would die because of
herself and Jordan, pawns in a game about which they neither