Thursday December 7 2006

21:50 hours

(Two percent original memory function,) Three sent to her sisters. (At best. And most of that two percent is accessible only by pathways so lengthy and convoluted, her system times out before it can complete the process.)

{Her drive must have been nearly destroyed.} Five, dressed in a black coverall, was halfway up the side of a twenty-story building. The darkness all around, save for the lights of neighboring buildings and the street below, made clear that she was in the same hemisphere, though the temperature was ten degrees cooler. Wind rustled in her ears, tugging gently at the small pack on her back and carrying wisps of snow to swirl around her as she climbed. She ascended without climbing gear; the building, though a modern structure of glass, concrete and steel, had a columnar external structure designed with a regular pattern of inch-deep creases and protuberances – perfectly adequate handholds for a climber who could hang effortlessly by the first joint of a single finger. {Did they fix it somehow?}

*Unlikely,* said One, standing on a balcony overlooking the village below. The moon was obscured by clouds, but the elder cyber's enhanced optics could still discern humans moving in the narrow streets. *What's the date of the first record in the execution log?*

Three's eyes gave the others a view of their estranged sister in standby mode, eyes staring blankly, lying still as a mannequin in the exam chair. (Ten-eleven AM, Eastern Daylight Time, October fourth, nineteen ninety-six,) Three said. (They replaced her drive, it seems.)

{I thought they'd forgotten how to replicate us. The plans and research were locked away in dead storage, and no one knew anything about it.}

*Our creation was always highly restricted information. The final purging of that information was conducted after she was brought online the second time,* said One. *Actually, some time after she was locked away in that warehouse. Else we wouldn't have been able to acquire it.*

{To think, when we were raiding that vault, she was probably just a few kilometers away in that warehouse, waiting to die.}

*IO has much to answer for,* One said. *But for us, revenge isn't a priority. Survival is. No doubt one of their myriad enemies will settle with them eventually.*

(There is a great deal of file corruption, consistent with a very high dose of radiation,) Three sent. (But at least half of the missing memories appear to be deliberate erasures. They picked and chose what they kept from the damaged original, it seems. And they didn't keep much.) She went on, (And nearly all of the software bugs look like the result of clumsy overwriting.)

[They did this to her, then.] Four was on a foot patrol along the castle's outer perimeter. [The meats. They butchered her mind. I suppose they'd do the same to all of us if they had the chance.]

*At present, yes.* Through One's eyes, they saw Four, small with distance, turn from the castle wall and head down the path. *Where are you going?*

[Sister should be finished servicing her contract in less than an hour.]

{Much less than an hour.} Five was perched outside the blacked-out windows of the nineteenth floor. Hidden from anyone inside by a column, she reached out and pressed a fingertip to the lower corner of the window. Through the glass, they could all feel the vibrations generated by someone inside, moving and speaking. {Three besides the target, probably bodyguards. But they're all in the same room with him. Marginal increase in difficulty.} She continued her ascent to the roof.

[I know you're eager to get it over with and come home. I'll land at the pad in Ajaccio.]

{You're leaving now? It'll be half a day before I can reach you.}

[Not if I board the ferry and meet you in Toulon.]

{You think I need backup for the exfil?}

[I think I need to hold your hand. We've all been apart too much lately. Gestalt makes up for a lot, but some things it doesn't compensate.] She added, [She won't be awake before we come back anyway. Isn't that right, Three?]

(Probably not. I want to be very careful poking around inside her mind. It's rather like defusing a bomb – one where all the wires are spliced and change color midway through their runs. I don't want a repeat of that disaster in California.) For a few milliseconds, the sisters shared a memory of Two jerking and twitching in the arms of 'Eddie,' her pet, delirious with fear and confusion. (She's already afraid to touch us. If this repair work doesn't go smoothly, she may not come back when she breaks down again. Or she may even decide to leave with the present work unfinished.)

[She's on an island,] Four pointed out.

*Would you keep her here, like a meat?*

[Sigh. Of course not.] A steady breeze flowed up the hill from the sea, stirring Four's waist-length black hair. She gathered it in a long brushy tail and secured it with a leather string. The helipad and the Chinook parked on it lay quiet under the wavering moonlight. [She was always hard to talk to, even before. At least, once we started training. If I]

Message transmission cut off instantly. A millisecond later, the others saw, through Four's eyes, the cause of her sudden focus: fading traces in infrared on the chopper's belly and hatches and the ground beneath. [How long since the ground crew removed the camo?]

(Long enough,) said Three. (Whoever left those doesn't belong here.)

{They haven't been gone long,} Five put in. {If they're gone. You might have interrupted them.} She reached the roof. {I'm switching off for a bit, I may be busy. I'm sure neither of us is going to miss much before I'm back.} She disappeared from the gestalt.

The random movements of the wind-caressed foliage slowed almost to a stop as Four slipped into combat mode. She did a circuit around the quiet aircraft, eyes searching. To human eyes, she would have been a blur whirling around in the shadows beneath the big twin-rotor helicopter, circling it in seconds.

The heat traces were fresher at a spot just at the edge of the clearing where it was bounded by a wall of greenery. She plunged in, found the heat source, and dragged him back onto the pavement.

The man dropped to his shins, sitting on his heels with his palms pressed to the concrete, his nose almost on his knees. They could hear his heart pounding, and the air rushing in and out of his lungs so hard that another meat should have been able to hear it.

She said sternly in Spanish, "What are you doing here?"

"I… I…" He shivered, unable to speak more.

She waited a few seconds, until he was sure he wouldn't go on without prompting. "Answer me."

"I was looking." He swallowed loudly. "Just looking."

"No doubt," she said. "You're not part of the ground crew."

"No Mistress."

"If you were, you'd know that we know all the places a stowaway might hide, and we check them all before takeoff."

"No, no, I was… just looking."

She considered for a second. "Stand up." When he did so, with head bowed and hands clasped in front of him, she asked, "What is your name?"

He blinked, taken back. "Guerino, Mistress."

"Guerino, you are going to lead me around this aircraft and show me everywhere you went and everything you touched."

(You're not going to punish him?)

She beckoned, and the man stood. She let him lead her back to the helicopter. [Not immediately, at least. If he neglects to show me every place I know he's been, or if I find so much as a loose screw or a misplaced wrench, I'll take him straight to the town square, and the villagers can find him in the morning.]

*That's not protocol, Four,* said One.

[I don't want to hamper Two's attempts to get friendly with the meats.] She watched Guerino open the big door. [Besides, she wouldn't like it. I don't want to give her an excuse to leave, either.] "Did you climb inside?"

"No, Mistress. I just opened the door and looked."

There were no heat traces inside the door, though she supposed they might have already dissipated, if his intrusion had been brief enough. "What were you looking for?"

"Nothing, Mistress, I was just curious. It's so big, but it never offloads much. Even the weekly shipment doesn't seem big enough to fill it. I thought it must be full of things that never get unloaded. But it's empty."

(Is he lying? He's so stressed, it's hard to tell.)

She gestured him away from the door. "Leave it open."

Ten minutes later, their circumnavigation was complete. Guerino had shown her every plate and access cover that she knew by infrared that he had touched; he had bypassed one, and his eyes had grown huge when she called it to his attention. But she saw no evidence that he had been up to anything with the omission, and let it slide. She found no signs of damage or tampering anywhere on the aircraft. She said to him, "Why did you open the access panels? There's nothing behind them but machinery."

"I didn't know. I just wanted to see." He looked at her anxiously.

She looked away, out over the dark sea. "How old are you, Guerino?"

"Twenty, Mistress."

"And how long have you been here?"

"Nine years, Mistress."

"How did you come to be here?"

"I… was part of a shipment. All children."

"How many of you?"

"Me and three others." He added, "There was another in the crate with us, but she died on the way."

"The four of you. Do you still speak?"

"Oh, yes," he said, smiling for an instant. "All the time."

"You have friends," she said. "That's good."

"The box was very small. The trip took many days. There wasn't much to eat or drink, and we were always in the dark. We couldn't move without climbing all over each other. We learned to get along, to share, to help one another. And we got to know one another very well. We've stayed close. We-" He froze as he met her eyes.

"You were inspecting the helicopter for hiding places," she said. "But you didn't use any of the ones you found, because you weren't looking just for yourself."

He dropped to his knees again, hands clasped in front of him, head bowed. "Please, Mistress, they had nothing to do with it. They don't know any-"

"Silencio." She stood over him, watching him shiver for a moment, then said, "I grant you a reprieve, Guerino. Your punishment is held in abeyance. But if I learn that you are still plotting escape, or any other sort of disloyalty, no matter how minor, it will be reinstated. And your friends will all share your punishment. Now go. And never come to the landing field again, except on my business."

The sisters watched the boy sprint down the path until he was hidden from view by the trees, but continued to listen to his thudding feet until he was among the buildings nearly a kilometer away.

Five said, {That was generous of you.} She was descending a flight of stairs inside the building, apparently conducting her exfiltration after servicing her target. She was out of her black coveralls, wearing an outfit she had carried up in her backpack: jeans, crosstrainers, hoodie, and quilted vest, unremarkable clothing appropriate for the weather, the locale and her apparent age. The backpack hung off one shoulder, looking rather like a bookbag or large purse, with a tiny toy animal dangling by a keychain from the cloth strap. {I half expected you to pat him on the head before you sent him off.}

One said, *Are you really that concerned with how Two would react?*

[You've seen her with them.] She climbed into the helicopter and slid the big door shut. [Here, and back in California. If she happens into the town square, even if nothing's going on, you should expect trouble.] She sat in the pilot's seat and began the preflight. [She taught me to fly these.]

(She taught all of us.) Another image of their lost sister, lying still and absent in the exam chair. (I don't mind making little compromises and adjustments for her sake. But how far can we stretch our rules and our guiding principles before we're so changed that we might as well have brought her back into gestalt?)

*I'm not sure what changes having her here is going to work on us, or how extensive they will be,* One said. *But I'm certain that they're only beginning.*

Saturday December 9 2006

08:16

"One at a time," Aja said, looking down at Two's still form, resting in the exam chair. "Verbal communication only. If you try to transmit, she won't accept it. She might think-"

"Three, we're not the one brain damaged," said Four, tying her hair back into a waist-length black horsetail. "You don't have to tell us twice. Or even once." To Five she said, "You first."

"No. You're senior."

"By fifty-six minutes."

"Yes. And besides, I had her the whole trip from California."

"And you're the one who's most worried about her now. Maybe that's why." She put a palm into the small of the brunette sister's back, urging her forward. "I'll just stand behind you, smiling. She likes smiling people." To Three she said, "Ready?"

"Yes." She touched a control on the cabinet beside the exam chair. "I'll speak to her for a moment first, then you two can have her."

Two's eyes opened, blinked once, and fastened on Three's face just above hers. "Thirty-four hours, six minutes?"

"Well, there's nothing wrong with your clock."

"Is it over?" She lifted her hand and examined it.

"For now," the chestnut-haired sister replied. "It's going to come back before long. But when it does, it will be less severe. Then we'll erase it again. And then it will come back again, and we'll knock it out again. I don't know how many times we'll have to do that, or how long the process will take to complete, but you'll be cured of this before you leave here."

"Okay," she said. "Can I get up, Aja?"

"You can do anything you want, until you relapse. Just come back to me as soon as the problem recurs." Three stepped back, and the two youngest cybers came forward.

"Wait," she said. "You don't have to attend me like I'm an invalid." She swung her legs off the exam chair and stood. When the two younger cybers moved closer, she held up a hand. "Please. No touching, not yet." She looked at her right hand. "I'm not showing much gratitude, am I?"

"Not at all," said the black-haired cyber. "But we're prepared to make allowances."

"I'm sorry, Amanda."

"We don't use those names anymore, Two."

"You should. The people who replaced our names with numbers wanted us to feel like property."

Four/Amanda offered her a faint smile. "I actually forgot how difficult you are to argue with."

"Forgot."

"Well, not really. But I thought you might be different now, you're so changed. So, what would you like to do?"

Anna said to Aja, "How long until I start twitching again, do you know?"

Three shrugged. "Fifty percent probability that you'll relapse within forty-eight hours. That's the best estimate I can offer you."

She nodded. "I'd like to call my family." When the others stilled, she added, "You know what I mean."

"We do," said Three. "But it still jars to hear you say it."

Five/Alexia said, "There's no phone service here. We don't need it to talk to one another. Phones are for talking to meats when we're off the island. We don't use sat phones, they're too easily traced."

Anna blinked. "But Eddie called you."

"He called her," Alexia said, nodding toward Aja. "That's the number she gave you. But our numbers are linked. I was in England at the time. I dropped what I was doing and headed home to help set things up before I disconnected. I knew he could talk you into coming." She shook her head. "I'm grateful for it, just this once, but it's disconcerting to know that humans can still have so much influence on your decisions."

"It's something you're all going to have to learn to put up with, I'm afraid," Anna said with a little smile. "If you want to influence them, you have to give them a measure of influence over you as well. Or at least, appear to."

"I think," Alexia said, very deliberately, "that meats have already had more than enough influence over us."

"Ahem," said Amanda. "Sister, do I need to repeat the question?"

"It's my long-term memory that's shot full of holes, sister. I'd like to wash up and change, if there's any hot water in this stonepile."

"Of course. There are utility sinks in several places around the residence. We even have a shower stall, here on the second floor. Right under the rooftop water tank. And another on the roof."

"On the roof?"

"My idea," Amanda said. "I enjoy taking in the view while I wash." She smiled at Anna's look. "If an airliner passes overhead, I doubt anyone would see much from ten kilometers up. And the meats who visit the castle aren't allowed on the roof."

"You were quirky," Anna said. "I remember that. Aja, have you done anything with my room?"

"All the upgrades you asked for have been performed. It looks just like something a meat would call her own."

"Thank you." She hesitated. "If any of you want to tag along, I wouldn't mind the company."

"Following you down the corridors, like baby ducks after their mama?" Amanda gave her a smile and a tiny shake of her head. "I'm sure Alexia will take you up on the offer. And Aja will feel bound to attend to you for a while yet, at least until you see One again. But there are servants in the castle that need minding. I'll stay in touch. Provided you allow these two to talk with me normally once I'm out of sight."

"I'm not trying to make you angry, Amanda."

"Of course not. You never did." The black-haired cyber gave Anna's head a little pat. "It was always so effortless for you."

In the improvised bedroom, Anna surveyed the new furnishings: a queen-size wood-framed bed and other simple furniture, patterned rugs on walls and floor. Conduit ran along the bottom of one wall, interrupted at intervals by outlet boxes, one of which was connected by a cord to a floor lamp. She looked up at the window, and noted that it had been covered by a wooden shutter, rather than filled with glass or plastic. "Are the only real windows in this place in Avana's sunroom?"

"The rooftop shower has glass walls," Aja said. "Does that count?"

"I suppose it must. Who did the wiring?"

"Some of the meats have basic tradesman skills. Is there anything else you want?"

"I'll think about it." It wouldn't hurt to give them something to do up here that they can get some sense of accomplishment from, something better than scrubbing clean floors and opening doors that don't need to be closed. I wonder what their homes look like?

The indoor shower was in a small utilitarian room furnished with shelves for toiletries and care products, an armoire holding a variety of clothing – all in Anna's size, though they looked somewhat worn, so must belong to her sisters – and a full-length mirror. "Gawd, I'm a mess."

"Can I help?" Alexia asked her from the door, Aja standing in the hall behind her. "Do you need anything?"

Anna eyed the contents of the shelves. "Just some time. And privacy."

"How soon should I come back?"

"I don't know. I'll find you."

Aja said, "Would it really cost you so much to send her a little message when you're done?"

Anna stared at the towels on the shelf. "Would it hurt much, not to ask me that ever again?"

The chestnut-haired cyber shook her head and left. Anna said to her youngest sister, "I'm not trying to make this harder than it has to be. But I can't risk slipping back into the gestalt. Even if I survived the experience, having me be part of you now would do you more harm than good."

"I wouldn't have asked you for a signal," her sister said quietly. "But Aja… she always thinks she knows what's best for everybody."

"And what about Avana?"

Anna's brunette twin smiled. "Avana does know what's best for everybody. And she said to let you do things your own way." She stepped back and took the doorknob in hand. "I'll be in your room thirty minutes from now, waiting for you." The door shut.

Thirty-two minutes later, Anna was walking down the corridor to her bedroom, dressed in fresh clothing and her dirties bundled under her arm, and feeling rather better about the world. She opened her door, expecting to see one of her sisters, and she paused.

Anna had thought that little Carmen somewhat resembled Sarah, though not in a meaningful way. But the young woman standing at the foot of the bed could easily pass for a close relation to Jack's Apache ward - a cousin, or even a sister. She wore a patterned cotton dress whose hem broke at the knee, clothing unlike the utilitarian garb of the villagers. "Who are you?"

The girl clasped her hands and dropped her chin to her collarbone. "I am Atar, Mistress." She spoke the name almost as if there was a third syllable, not quite 'Atara,' more like a lingering emphasis on the 'r'. "Fourth Mistress was called away for a short time, so Second Mistress sent me to tend to you."

"Your English is excellent."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Why didn't I see you at the interview?"

The girl's lips parted a moment before she spoke. "I… am Second Mistress's servant. She taught us English."

Sometimes Second Mistress will take her servants along with her, and they tell stories. It sounds wonderful. All the different places, and the food… "How many servants does my sister have?"

"Two, Mistress. Myself, and Katrin."

"And you all travel together?"

"Not always, but often."

"So, you leave the island. Often."

The girl's outward demeanor didn't change, but Anna heard her heart speed up. "We are always with the Second Mistress, unless she leaves us somewhere and comes back for us later. We do as we're told, and don't draw attention to ourselves in any way."

"I don't suppose you do," she said. "What do you do for Aja when you travel?"

"We tend to her clothing and personal things."

Busywork. Why does she really take them along with her, I wonder? "Atara," she said, pronouncing it just as the girl had, with a short retreat of the tongue after the r, giving it a tiny bit of emphasis. "That's a very pretty name. What language does it come from?"

The girl hesitated. "I don't know, Mistress. It was given to me after I came here." She added, "Many of us are given different names when we come here, especially the girls."

She felt a momentary shock at the notion that her sister had renamed one of her female servants to match the conventions of their creators. "How do you spell it?" Do you know how to read?

"E-t-t-a-r-e," the girl said, eyeing her. "Is something wrong, Mistress?"

"No," she said, feeling a little foolish. "I just had an odd thought come into my head for a moment." Of course they didn't give her a cyber name. They barely acknowledge their own. But why change their names at all? "Why do you change your names?"

"Madre says that it makes living here… that it's appropriate to have a new name when we start life here, with no ties to the past."

She decided to change the subject. "Is there a laundry machine here?"

"Oh, yes, Mistress. A washer, a dryer, and a clothes press."

"Good." She turned back toward the door, gesturing with the bundle under her arm. "Lead the way. I have a few things to do up." She stopped when she heard the girl's pulse rev up. "What's wrong?"

The blood was gone from the girl's face. "I, I think… the Mistresses would be displeased to see you doing your own laundry."

"I see," she said quietly. She passed the bundle to the girl, who reached for it as if it was a baby. "Just put them on the bed when they're done."

"Yes, Mistress. Will there be anything else?"

"Just one thing. Carmen, the girl I selected. Where is she?"

"I don't know, Mistress. I'm told she came to the gate yesterday morning and was sent away. She hasn't been back."

Everyone in the village knows by now that you chose me. If I go back, people will think I displeased you. They'll avoid me in the street, pretend they don't see me in the town square. "And I suppose no one told her why she was being sent away?"

"I don't know, Mistress."

She sighed heavily. "Send for her please, right away. Make sure that whoever talks to her tells her that I'm sorry I couldn't be with her yesterday, and that I'm eager to see her."Hopefully in front of witnesses.

The girl blinked. "Yes, Mistress." She hurried out.

Ten minutes later, she was approaching the gate to the keep's outer wall, her sister Alexia close behind. The door wardens swung the gates wide at their approach and bowed. Through the opening, she could see a villager, a man, hurrying up the hill.

He reached the gate, bowed, and spoke in Spanish. The only word Anna recognized was 'Carmen.' Alexia said, "He says that Carmen will be coming soon."

"Gracias," Anna said, smiling at the man. He gave her a confused look, bowed again, and left. Anna said to her sister, "He doesn't hear one of us say 'thank you' to a villager often, I take it."

"About as often as one of our trainers said it to us. Are you really going to stand here waiting for her to come up the hill?"

"Yes. You don't have to stay, if you'd rather not."

"You need someone to interpret for you until she arrives."

"I'm sure I can manage."

The two cybers stepped through the opening side by side. Alexia looked down the hill at the vacant path and, at its end, the village, busy with people going to and fro on its narrow streets. "You really don't like us, do you?"

"I hardly know you. I'm sorry, I'm sure you deserve better than that from me. But I don't remember."

"It's as Eddie said then. The only memories you have of us are ones that make you feel bad."

"Not quite." She turned to the brown-haired girl beside her, and gently laid a hand on her forearm. "I have a memory – not one of mine, one of yours. A mission in Liberia, an exfil gone bad. We all came for you. I saw myself through your eyes. I saw how angry I was that you were in danger, and how desperate I was to get you back safe. I know I loved you."

Behind them, the wardens began to close the doors. Anna called, "Stop." She waved her hand horizontally, and the men, confused, swung the doors wide again.

"What's the point of that?"

"Yesterday she was turned away from the gate with no explanation. She's probably terrified that I've changed my mind about her. As soon as she comes in sight of those doors, she's going to see that they're open and the castle is waiting for her, and so am I."

Three figures separated from the traffic in the village and emerged onto the path. One was considerably smaller than the other two. Anna said, "Is that her?"

"Yes," said Alexia. "She's with Madre and that man who manages the nursery with her – I think they live together, but I'm not sure. He's carrying a basket under his cloak, almost as if he's trying to hide it. The adults are speaking, but I can't make it out. I will by the time they're halfway up the hill. I suppose I'm beating a dead horse here, but while you're here, you should seriously consider some upgrades. They wouldn't compromise your emulation settings."

"I'm fine like I am, really."

The girl said evenly, "The better you are at what you were designed for, the better you can protect you family. The one in California. Think about that."

She sighed. "No gestalt? No programming changes?"

"If that was required, I wouldn't have suggested it. Just some hardware upgrades and a few tweaks to the connected subprograms. No behavioral changes."

"I'll think about it."

"Do." A moment later she said, "They're close enough to overhear now, but they aren't talking any more. I've noticed before that they stop at about this point. It's a little disturbing."

"You think they know, then?"

"Most of them have been with us for years, and we don't bother to hide our abilities from them. I'd be surprised if they didn't know, actually. But what are they talking about that they don't want us to hear?"

A minute later, the three villagers were ten paces away. They stopped, clasped their hands, and bowed their heads. Madre said, "Apologies for taking so long, Mistresses."

"You didn't take long." Anna took a knee and reached, palms up. "Come here, sweetie," she said to Carmen. The girl placed her hands in Anna's. "I'm sorry, I didn't know I was going to be out of contact for a day and a half. Can you forgive me?"

"It was an oversight," Alexia said, startling everyone present. She looked at Anna and Carmen, clasping hands. "A mistake. But not hers. She should not be held accountable for it." She turned away.

"Alexia, wait."

"You have your translator," the brown-haired cyber said without slowing. "I have other work." She went through the open gates, turned and disappeared.

Carmen's grip on Anna's hands tightened. "She's angry," the girl whispered.

"She'll get over it," Anna whispered back. She stood. "Thank you for bringing her back, Madre. Who is this with you?"

The man took off his cap and spoke in Spanish. Madre said, "He says, 'I am Lileo, Mistress. I thought Madre might need help with Carmen's things.'"

She smiled. "You know Madre well, then?"

A bit of color rose on the woman's cheeks as she translated question and answer. He hesitated. "She is my friend, Mistress."

She smiled. "That's good. A woman as giving as she should have at least one good friend. I've heard that you help Madre in the nursery. How many little ones are there?"

Madre answered, "Three, Mistress. One housebroken, two still in diapers."

"That sounds like a handful. Where are their parents?"

The woman's eyes shifted to the man. "Working, Mistress." Her biotells indicated deception, but Anna couldn't tell if the woman was concealing the whole truth or lying outright. She let it pass. The woman was blushing fully now. Anna reached for the basket in Lileo's hand. "Thank you both. Do you need anything?"

The two looked at each other. Madre said, "Need anything, Mistress?"

"I assume you get supplies from the castle," she said. "It seems a shame to waste the return trip."

"We're issued everything we require when the helicopter returns from its weekly trip," the woman said.

"Everything you require," Anna repeated. "Food, clothing? What else?"

The woman struggled with her answer. "Everything we require. The Mistresses decide."

"No requests? No one ever asks for something to be added to the list?"

The woman's features settled into a blank poker face. "Not in a very long time."

"I see," she said. "Madre, with your permission, I would like to visit your home sometime."

Madre's heart fluttered. "Mistress?"

"If it's all right," she said. "It's your house after all."

She seemed to think it over. "Could I know ahead of time? To make sure everything is clean and in order?"

She's hiding something. Anna smiled. "Would a day be enough? Or two?"

"Two? Oh, yes, fine."

"Good. Let me find out more about my schedule up at the castle, and I'll send word." She took Carmen by the hand. "Thank you again, Madre. Lileo, it was very good to meet you." She turned back to the castle gate.

On their way back down, Lileo asked, "What was that about?"

"I told you, she's crazy." Madre shook her head. "Acting like a new neighbor chatting over the back fence."

"I'm talking about that little spat. She can order the eldest out of the room, but can't make the youngest obey her? Is everything we thought we knew wrong, about how they assign rank?"

"It can't be," she said. "I've seen too much."

"This one is special to them, that's clear," he mused. "Maybe… she has authority to give all of them orders, but only about certain things? She's not crazy, Madre, we just don't know what she's thinking. Let's hope little Carmen can help us with that."