Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 653
She allowed herself a laugh as she reached the bottom of the
hill. Her sinuous body wove between boulders and thorn
bushes as she made for some trees that had made a brave stand
several kilometers from where Armiger had camped. She was
following the exact route she had taken to get here, and made a
game out of stepping in her own pawprints as she went. Oneto-four,
one-to-four, whoops missed, one-to-four...
These last few days had been a blessing. When she was
released to run down a long ramp onto the cold desert sands,
the white Wind had rolled over four times in the dirt and
howled her joy at the sky. She had wanted to run to the
horizon and back just so she could say she'd looked over it, but
the swans had other plans. Someone to find. When they told
her who, she had rolled over again, laughing.
This was fun; still, she longed to be finished, so she could
take off on her own and explore this beautiful world. She felt
exactly like Ariel in that old play, so as she raced into the camp
her servants had made, she sang,
Where the bee sucks there suck I,
In a cowslip's bell I lie.
On a bat's back I do fly
...forgetting that none of these people knew that old
language.
One of the human soldiers stepped forward and bowed
gravely to her. "Are they there, Lady May?" he asked. She
could hear the well-disguised fear in his voice.
She ran a circle around him. Merrily merrily shall I live
now, under the blossom that hangs from the bow, she thought,
but she only said, "Yes."
Her chief servant approached, distaste and fear written on
his face as he watched her sit up on her hindquarters and pant.
"Then shall we fetch them now?" asked the sergeant.