"They were hungry," Cortin said. "I'm afraid I'm not as strict as I should be--but they did want to see you. Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Blackfeather said. She'd never been all that fond of children; on the other hand, she did know they were humanity's future, and fewer than a replacement number, here in the Systems, were being born. "They aren't yours, I know; more company?"

"Not exactly." Cortin studied the reporter. "If I give you some background information, will you treat it as confidential until I say you can publish it? That should be less than a week."

"Of course!"

"I'll brief you while we're eating, then."

When the meal was over, Blackfeather was full, but scarcely aware of what she'd eaten. Taken as a whole Cortin's revelations, even delivered in the unemotional tone of what she'd called it, a briefing, were a shock. Blackfeather had antic.i.p.ated or guessed at parts, which along with her training helped her conceal that shock, but didn't lessen it. Especially since she remembered that Larry had expected and intended her to become part of the Protector's staff, opposing him.

She didn't want to go into that right now, though. A nice safe neutral topic would be better . . . if she could think of one, and something touching her ankle provided the perfect subject when she bent down to pick up the tiny culprit. "Children, and now a kitten--not at all what I expected when I got your invitation, Excellency."

"More normal and civilized, right?" Cortin smiled. "I'm not offended, Miss Blackfeather, so you needn't look defensive. Until recently, I was careful to conceal such things; a reputation can be most useful to an Inquisitor. Since the situation's changed, I can let the truth be known." She grimaced. "And since I've found out myself what the truth is, which was a shock at times."

"I can sympathize," Blackfeather said with feeling. "All these years I've thought I was free . . ."

"And I thought I was immune to love--free in a different way. But I'm glad I was wrong." Cortin looked around the table at her Family, smiling. "In my admittedly biased opinion, you won't find a better group of people in the entire Kingdom Systems, and I couldn't be more delighted that they adopted me. I'm sorry Mike had to break your conditioning so abruptly, but I hope that having it broken will let you enjoy your stay here."

"It'll make it possible, at least," Blackfeather said. "What I'm sorry about is what he had to go through to help me."

"I was simply doing my duty, Miss Blackfeather," Odeon said, startling her. "I had no choice, and given the same circ.u.mstances, I'd have to try doing it again. Though I'm not sure I'd be able to, a second time."

"Since I don't think I could have done it the first time," Blackfeather said, "I certainly couldn't fault you for that! And duty or not, I am grateful, and I feel I owe you a debt."

"No debt," Odeon said. "You don't owe me--us--any more than you owe anyone else you write about. All we ask for is objective observation and reporting, in spite of the fact that most of us are Enforcement."

"My word on it," Blackfeather said. "I can't promise favorable reports, but they'll be as honest as I can make them."

Monday afternoon, 23 March 2572

Cortin grinned as Odeon entered her room and took one of the armchairs, his lap immediately occupied by the kitten who'd become his almost-inseparable companion whenever he was available. "I know it's a day earlier than the deadline I gave you, but--"

Odeon chuckled. "I'm fine, Joanie, between Tanj here and the studying." He rubbed the kitten's ears, smiling at her loud purr.

"She's a little darling, and I'm almost afraid to say I'm really enjoying my research, as much as I got teased for it in school. I don't think that's what you called me in for, though."

"To find out exactly how you're doing, yes; the details of your research, no. And I hadn't expected you to bring your little friend along."

"Who brought her? I can't keep her away! Don't worry, though, she won't interfere."

"And just how do you know that?"

"A trip to the New Eden in the wee hours this morning, when I started feeling interested for the first time since Shayan worked on me. If I recall my explorations here correctly, you were with Chuck and Dave, Sis and Betty with the other two, and I didn't want to wake anyone. I also didn't want to take Tanj, but you know what a sucker I am--even worse than you, where kids and animals are concerned. So she went along, in my pocket. She watched, the first couple of times, then went to sleep. A pillow on the floor, if you're curious."

"Not primarily about that," Cortin said. "May I be nosy and ask how many you enjoyed?"

Uncharacteristically, Odeon flushed. "Uh--I can't match you, but--all the ladies who were awake. You know what it's like when you've been dry for a while."

"I sure do." Cortin tried to look stern, but failed miserably and gave up, grinning instead. "I should chew you out for not waking me, Captain. I a.s.sume, however, that you're back to normal and willing to demonstrate?"

"Willing and eager, Excellency."

Both of them were far more relaxed when they dressed for dinner, though Tangerine meowed plaintively at Odeon and tried to climb his trouser leg. He shrugged, grinning at Cortin, and sat down. "Part of her routine this time of day, I'm afraid," he apologized as the kitten jumped to his shoulder and began nibbling at his earlobe.

"Has you pretty well trained, doesn't she?" Cortin said, chuckling.

"Uh-huh." Odeon dug into a pocket, unwrapped and handed the kitten a piece of something Cortin couldn't identify but Tangerine obviously could; she hopped down to his lap with a sound halfway between a purr and a growl, eating her treat. Odeon let her finish, then put her on the floor. "I'm cleared for the convent defense, then."

Cortin nodded. "You are. I just wish I were, too."

The following evening, Cortin went to Odeon's room shortly before supper. "Mike, got a minute?"

"Any time. What's up?"

"Not that, this close to supper--will you and Sis be holding services this evening?"

"Of course. Are you going to bring Blackfeather?"

Cortin hesitated. "I don't know," she said at last. "She'll have to be exposed to it sooner or later, but I'm not sure an evening before the team goes into combat is the right time. If she reacts badly to either the nudity or the ceremony itself, it might make things harder on them."

"She's going in too," Odeon pointed out.

Cortin grimaced. "I know, blast it! She can and I can't--so you tell me which would be less damaging."

"In your place, I'd brief her, then let her decide whether she thinks she can accept it as a religious function." Odeon grinned. "As I may've said, I don't think anyone who's spent time in h.e.l.l is going to be shocked by anything as mild as that--my only hesitation is about how she'll react otherwise."

"Understood. All right, that's what I'll do."

In spite of Cortin's briefing, Blackfeather had trouble at first accepting a nude man and woman as real priests conducting a real religious rite. That changed quickly, though, in large part because of the Family's obvious acceptance of precisely that, and their equally-obvious devotion to the Protector. She didn't--yet, anyway--share that devotion, and if it hadn't been for Larry's certainty that the Protector was real, she thought it unlikely she'd have believed what was going on was an act of worship.

But Larry--no, she chided herself; she ought to start thinking of him by his real name--Shayan was certain of the Protector's existence and imminent arrival. Or . . . Blackfeather looked sharply at Cortin. Her lover hadn't said it in so many words, but now that she thought back, he'd certainly given the impression that Cortin was the Protector!

Even though it had seemed pointless at the time, Blackfeather now found herself wishing she'd paid more attention to prophecies of the Final Coming. Nothing she could remember from them said Cortin couldn't be the Protector instead of simply the Herald, which was disconcerting enough. A lot of things, in fact, pointed to it, now that she began to a.n.a.lyze everything she'd heard and read about Cortin and her unprecedented, rapid rise from being a curiosity as the only female Enforcement officer to High King's Inquisitor and Archd.u.c.h.ess--not to mention her tumbling of some of Enforcement's strictest regulations, such as Special Ops' lack of close family, not only with impunity but with the backing of all the Sovereigns. And working for drastic changes in the social and religious systems with divine sanction that became obvious every time she said Ma.s.s.

Cortin wasn't reacting the way Blackfeather would expect from a divine incarnation, though. Desire for revenge after rape and maiming was a human thing the Protector should be beyond. So was becoming an Inquisitor, nothing like Jeshua's forgiveness of His enemies and His gentle nature. Still, she thougt, there was precedent, if you went back to the First Testament; she'd never been comfortable with things like the innocent Job being tormented simply as a demonstration to Shayan, or the she-bears being sent to kill forty-two children whose only offense had been to tease Elisha about being bald. Cortin at least confined the punitive parts of her Inquisitorial attentions to criminals, and her truthsense let her be certain who those criminals actually were.