Galaxy's Edge Magazine by Michael Swanwick

Author:Michael Swanwick [Robyn, Lezli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction And Fantasy, science fiction magazine
ISBN: 9781649730794
Publisher: Phoenix Pick
Published: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Copyright © 2007 by Nancy Kress.

When Dantzel Cherry is not teaching Pilates or dance, she is writing. Dantzel’s short fiction has appeared in Cast of Wonders, Escape Pod, Future SF, and other magazines and anthologies. She lives in Utah with her husband, daughter, and two black cats.

PRECEDENT AND PREJUDICE

by Dantzel Cherry

Barry had fallen asleep for the winter when someone scratched at the entrance of his cave. He huffed and rolled over. Let a sleeping bear lie.

“It’s important, Barry.”

Not as important as his hibernation.

“It’s a missing wolf case, Barry.”

Barry yawned, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and sat up. He fumbled about for his rattlesnake, which had slipped off his shoulders. With the lesser now settled properly on his shoulders, he met his visitor at the mouth of his cave.

It was Elise, a sweet-looking silverback grizzly dame from Sector Three, and a Steward like himself. She wore her fox over her broad shoulders. The fellow was well-trained—he hung ears flattened, tail limp.

“You remember Gray, of course,” Elise said.

Gray, the elderly alpha from Sector Two’s pack, sat on the frost-tipped mossy roots of the great oak, sporting a docile greater horned owl as his lesser. Barry couldn’t understand why so many Stewards sought out the owls and foxes to acquire their enhanced senses, other than to keep the rest of the small predators in their place. Barry’s own preference for snakes had served him quite well over the years.

“A little birdy told me you weren’t quite hibernating yet,” Elise said in a too-sweet voice. “And I knew once a big bear like yourself heard the story you’d want to help—”

“Barry Brown at your service. What’s the emergency?” He made no effort to hide his gruffness. Barry hated when Elise showed up at his den like this, but the forest council was not to be brushed off.

Elise dropped to her normal pitch. “Sector Twelve’s alpha wolf—Hugo’s his name—crept into the initiation circle last night.”

“I didn’t think he was a Steward yet,” Barry said.

“He’s not,” Gray cut in. “But he attempted to acquire a lesser without the blessing of the council anyway.”

Barry’s snake-enhanced senses smelled his irritation.

“Was he successful?”

“I should hope not,” Elise sniffed. “Though he always was distractible. Maybe he forgot to drip the lesser’s blood over the queen’s cup flowers before his own. We can hope. Idiots like him don’t deserve to become Stewards.”

“Yes, yes. But was he successful?” Barry declined to mention that he himself had gone through three snake lessers over the last fifteen years but only had one council-approved ritual.

Elise paused. “We’re not sure,” she said. She brushed through the decaying layers of brilliant yellow-red oak leaves with a restless paw. “Whether he was successful or not, the lesser he dragged into the circle with him has also gone missing.”

“What’d he pick?”

“A doe.”

“A doe?”

“I know. The mob won’t be pleased.”

Barry admired Hugo’s pluck for choosing a doe—the traits a Steward would pick up would be incredible. The increased stealth alone would almost be worth it.

Too bad the idea was also a stupid one.

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