“You know, Pericles, it really wasn’t necessary. All this, I mean.”
The stallion pawed at the thick loam underfoot.
“What percentage of dreams are necessary, Cas-
137
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ..
perdan? You know, for many mal intelligence was not a gift but a curse. It was always that way for man, too, but he had more time to grow into it. For the mal it came like lightning, as a shock. The mal are still tied to their past—to this world. As I am still tied. Have you ever seen mal as happy as they are here?
“Certainly sentience came too quickly for the horse. According to the ancient texts we once had a special relationship with man that rivaled the dog’s. That vanished millennia ago. The dog kept it, though, and so did the cat, and certain others. Other mal never missed it because they never had it. But the horse did, and couldn’t cope with the knowledge of that loss that intelligence brought. There weren’t many of us left, Casperdan.
“But we’ll do well here. This is home. Man would feel it too, if he came here now. Feel it … and ruin this world all over again. That’s why I wrote the Articles.”
She was clad only in shorts now and to her great surprise found she was trembling slightly. She hadn’t done that since she was fifteen. How long ago was that? Good God, had she ever been fifteen? But her face and figure were those of a girl of twenty. Rejuvenation.
“Pericles, I want back what you promised. I want back what I had in the Meadows of Blood in the Ravaged Mountains.”
“Of course,” he replied, as though it had happened yesterday. A mal’s sense of time is different from man’s, and Pericles’ was different from that of most mal.