Chapter 13
13
Kaylie leads me to the stables carrying a basket of apples and carrots. We’re going to meet Peggy, the wind horse, and Georgie and Hypatia have promised me it will be the highlight of my week.
When I told Michael I was interested in the Bioscience guild, he recommended that I reach out to Kaylie for some additional mentorship since she’s a master of the guild.
She’s been really helpful. She gave me some suggestions for projects for my gallerie, and today she wants to give me some background on the origin of the guild, which is the newest guild in Maker society.
The stable is large and well kept. Horses stick out their heads curiously as we pass each stall. They stamp their feet and shake out their manes. We approach the last stall, the air pungent with the spicy scent of animal and earth. On the wall outside the door hangs an ornate saddle made of purpled-brown leather. It has no stirrups, and there is a glass compass set into the bronze horn grip.
I hear melodic humming coming from the stall.
“Peggy has an admirer,” Kaylie jokes. “He comes here often. He’s probably already groomed her, but she needs to be taken out to stretch.”
The “he” turns out to be Rafe, who is rubbing Peggy’s neck and feeding her an apple. I almost don’t recognize him because the soft look on his face transforms him into a completely different person.
Yet even this soft version of him can’t keep my attention once I lay my eyes on Peggy.
She is stunning.
She has a silvery blond coat and a lustrous champagne mane, and at her sides lie large, iridescent wings.
I have to remind myself to breathe.
“We’re taking her out to fly,” Kaylie says to Rafe, who upon seeing us has reverted back to the familiar version I know, all hard edges and contempt.
“I was just leaving,” he responds. Ever since our Sire lab confrontation, Rafe has mostly just been ignoring me, though I continue to work with Mbali at his table.
He whispers something in Peggy’s ear—of course he’s more civil to an animal than to me—and then, with a tight smile at Kaylie, he pushes past us and exits, not even acknowledging me.
I reach over and tentatively stroke Peggy’s neck. “How is she even possible?”
“The wind horses are one of many incredible creatures born of Maker experimentation at the original academy before the Exodus.”
My lungs feel tight as my world is turned over for another time. Almost a daily occurrence here.
“I just can’t believe I lived my life for so long without knowing about…”
Kaylie nods in understanding. But there’s no way she can possibly understand. To me, she and Peggy are impossible miracles. “How can the rest of the world just… not know?” I want to feel angry, but my awe for Peggy doesn’t leave much room for negative feelings.
“At the time of the Exodus, the wind horses and other creatures that were the result of Maker innovations were brought into hiding to prevent their destruction, and their existence was denied by the Church until it was forgotten that they were ever anything other than legends.”
This is a pattern of what I’ve been learning at Genesis, that so many stories I’d assumed were myths are actually just the vestiges of the memory of Maker science that was once part of our world.
“Come along, girl,” Kaylie says to Peggy, and I follow them out of the stable. Peggy doesn’t need a bridle or reins; she listens to Kaylie’s soft instructions.
“She’s one of the last of her kind. Most have been sent to Eden, and there are three at the Academy of Avant. The Blood Science guild is trying to breed them, but wind horses tend to have very difficult pregnancies and often die in childbirth.” She pauses and then adds, “It’s much the same for Valkyries.”
“And they can’t… make new ones the way they made the first ones?”
“The knowledge of how to create species like the wind horses is passed down through the Blood Science testament, but it’s a practice that ended long ago. These kinds of forced evolutionary practices were risky and occasionally harmed animals and humans alike.”
“How so?”
“Well, procedures often required live organ donations. There were many failed experiments that ended in deaths, and there were many side effects that weren’t anticipated.” She looks away as she says this, and I think about what she just said about Valkyrie births.
She continues. “As the Makers evolved as a society, we had to confront these controversies. Genesis dismantled their Blood Science guild entirely, replacing it with Bioscience. At Avant, they still practice Blood Science, and they definitely involve themselves in some morally questionable behaviors, but even they have limits. When the Council was established and they enacted laws to restrict experimentation on living beings, it was understood that it could mean an end for some of these magnificent creatures. Steps were taken to preserve them, but we had more success with some than with others. Many have already been lost.”
“Like the unicorns?”
“Yes.” Her voice is wistful as she pets Peggy. “Nowadays, the evolutional experimentation that continues is purely aimed at enhancing and improving the world within a more confined set of limitations while maintaining a strict code of conduct that does not harm any living beings.”
I watch in a daze as Kaylie encourages Peggy to gallop for a bit… and then to fly. The wind horse flaps her wings—not dissimilar to Valkyrie wings—and rises into the air, huffing her snout and shaking her mane in glee.
How beautiful she looks in flight. Her coat is like liquid gold turning to a platinum sheen as it catches the sunlight. Kaylie extends her own wings and joins Peggy in the air. They frolic together, two impossibly beautiful beings, and my heart aches at the possibilities of creation.
Humans came up with the science to make humans and horses fly . Because human limitations—my limitations— are nothing like what I have been previously led to believe. Who knows what I will one day be capable of if I learn from these people?
But first I need to join a guild.