Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 766
frenzy to destroy Armiger. Jordan had no desire to listen to
them; he spent the hours drinking in the silence and the beauty
of the innocent snow. His companions too were silent.
As they crossed the border into Castor’s lands, Jordan
found his serene mood waning. Here were the same signs of
human upheaval that they had seen elsewhere on their journey.
Violence seemed rare, but they passed an entire village that
was empty, another where the inhabitants peeked out from
behind boarded up doors and windows. Once, they came upon
the abandoned clothing of a man and a woman, lying by the
road. Even the shoes were there. Bare footprints led away into
the maze of the forest.
Much of the country was paralyzed. The more orthodox
folk could not cope with the sudden presence of the Winds in
their daily lives. They were cracking under the change, some
slowly, others immediately.
Jordan was afraid of how his parents, so delicate in their
fears, had reacted to the change. Would he arrive home to find
an empty house―or a burnt one? And would Emmy be
waiting? Or, free spirit that she was, had she run into the
woods like so many others?
About mid-afternoon he suddenly recognized a stand of
trees in the distance, and then he knew exactly where he was,
and everything in sight became at once familiar and strange.
He stood in the stirrups and said, "There. Beyond those
trees."
The town had gone to winter’s rest under a blanket of
white. Smoke rose lazily from the chimneys, and tentative
sounds began to emerge as they reached the outskirts: the
barking of a dog, lowing of cattle, the limpid clarity of a distant
clanging bell. A few human figures moved down the street,
their footfalls inaudible in the snow. There were no signs of