Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 648
provide daylight for as long as necessary. You will begin your
march immediately. In addition, this one will take a force of
cavalry to range ahead. We must locate the pathology. It is a
threat."
"Yes, your..." Lavin had no idea how to address this
thing. "Your Honour." That sounded wrong, but he was
damned if he would call it your highness.
Something about what the thing had just said--"Are you
proposing that we march nonstop? Day and night?"
"Yes. That is why we have provided you sunlight for the
journey."
"We can’t do that! We’re not prepared for a forced
march. The men will suffer--"
"That is not our concern. We need your army in place in
case the pathology compromises the local mecha. Also
because of where it is headed."
"Where?" His own scouts had reported that a small party
had vanished in the desert to the southwest. There were
caravan routes that Galas might know of that led across the
sands to the mountains of the coast.
"Provide a map," ordered the thing. Lavin snapped his
fingers, and one was brought.
The white Wind glanced over the vellum appraisingly,
then darted a clawed finger at a familiar landmark. "We are
here. The pathology departed in this direction... It may be
headed here. We cannot permit it to arrive, and compromise
the mecha or desals there."
Lavin looked at the name under the Wind’s pointing
claw. The Titan’s Gates.
"That’s a thousand kilometers from here! We don’t have
the resources for a march like that! If we march into the desert
now, we won’t reach the Gates. Marching without break,