A Gathering of Wings by Kate Klimo

to Malora, “Pet, I must say, we all know you are as brave as our Apex here is wise, and I know that this horse holds a special place in your heart, but you’ve had better ideas. Kahiro is really no place for the likes of you.”
    Malora feels her face heating up. The Dream Wound throbs. “Why do you all keep saying that?” she says. “I am more than capable of taking care of myself.”
    “In the bush, I’ll grant you,” Neal says. “But in the Kingdom of the Ka there are dangers you have never dreamed of.”
    Something about the way Neal says this—the unusual note of gravity perhaps—makes Malora swallow her retort. The Hall of Mirrors falls into an uncomfortable silence that is finally broken by Honus.
    “I think I might have a solution,” he says, “that will permit Malora to enter Kahiro and yet keep her safe.”

C HAPTER 5

Malora’s Horns
    Malora and the four centaurs listen as Honus explains his solution. The others are struck by its cleverness, while Malora finds it bizarre and utterly incomprehensible.
    “All will become clear,” Honus says to her when he sees the baffled expression on her face.
    Malora nods uncertainly. So long as she can go in search of Sky, she will put up with any amount of foolishness.
    Orion and Neal depart immediately to make arrangements. Honus and Malora have their own errand to run.
    “My dear, I owe you an apology,” Honus says as they set out for Longshanks’s shop, Malora striding, Honus tripping along on his cloven hooves.
    “For making me wear some foolish disguise?” Malora says. “I will trust you when you all say it is for my own good. Kahiro is a dangerous place, as Neal says. It’s best that I blend in and not call attention to myself.”
    “Clearly I have done an incomplete job of explaining to you how things are in the greater world outside Mount Kheiron,” Honus says as they walk. “I never imagined you would ever be leaving Mount Kheiron and, even if you did, that you would be doing so this soon. I thought there would be ample time to explain, to educate and prepare you.”
    “I understand that the other hibes hate and fear the People as much as the centaurs once did,” Malora says.
    “It’s not as simple as that,” Honus says. “The Massacre of Kamaria represented the People’s last-known stand. But before that, there were hundreds, even thousands of years of war waged between the hibes and the People.”
    Malora knew this, too, but it always surprises her to hear of it. “Why did the hibes hate the People so? What did we ever do to them to deserve such hatred?” she asks.
    “You created them,” Honus says.
    Malora stops walking and turns to stare at him. “I don’t understand,” she says softly. “I didn’t do any such thing.”
    “
You
didn’t, specifically, but thousands of years ago, the Scienticians did, and the Scienticians were People,” Honus says, “at the very height of their scientific powers.”
    “I still don’t understand,” Malora says. “How did they do this?”
    Honus heaves his shoulders. “With science … and perhaps some amount of magic. No one knows. For the longest time, the hibes believed they were creatures of nature, like the beasts of the bush, the birds of the air, and the fish in the streams and the sea. But when the information leaked into the world that we were unnatural species,
scientific
creations—bizarresynthetic combinations of human and animal—they turned upon the People, their creators, and set out to destroy them. They did an excellent job of it, too, I might add. The People were herded together into camps, where many of them died of starvation and disease. At least your tribe, the Kamarians, died free. Just as you and your parents lived free in the Settlement.”
    Malora feels torn asunder. “Why did my parents never tell me …?”
    “Parents want to protect their children, much as we here in Mount Kheiron want to protect you,” Honus says.
    Part of Malora wants to forge