"You mean a horse?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Manners."

She swallowed. Fast.

"Here's the work part. You have to go over all the data and write up a report just the way the techs do. You have to do it on comp, and the computer will compare your work against the real techs' input. And where you're wrong you have to find out why and write up a report on it. You have to do that from start to birth and then keep up with all the other stuff and all your other studies. If you want something born, you have to work for it."

That was was a lot of work. "Do I get him, then?" a lot of work. "Do I get him, then?"

"Her, actually. We need another female anyway. Two males tend to fight. Some animals are like that. We're going to do another just like the one we have, instead of a new type, so we won't risk losing her. But if you don't keep up the work, you don't get the horse at all, because you won't have earned her. Understood?"

"Yes, ser," she said. Not with her mouth full. Horses grew up fast. She remembered that. Real fast. Like all herd animals. A year, maybe?

"They're real delicate," uncle Denys said. "They're a b.i.t.c.h to manage, frankly, but your predecessor had this notion that it was important for people to have them. Human beings grew up with other lifeforms on the motherworld, she used to say, and those other lifeforms were part of humans learning about non-humans, and learning patience and the value of life. She didn't want people on Cyteen to grow up without that. Her maman Olga was interested in pigs and goats because they were useful and they were tough and adaptable for a new planet. Ari wanted horses because they're a high-strung herd ungulate with a lot of accessible data on their handling: we can learn something from them for some of the other, more exotic preservation projects. But the other important reason, the reason of all reasons for having horses, she said, is that working with them does something to people. They're exciting to something in our own psych-sets,' those are her exact words: 'I don't want humans in the Beyond to grow up without them. Our ancient partners are a part of what's human: horses, cattle, oxen, buffalo, dolphins, whatever. Dogs and cats, except we can't support carnivores yet, or tolerate a predator on Cyteen-yet. Earth's ecology is an interlocking system,' she used to say, 'and maybe humans aren't human without input from their old partners.' She wasn't sure about that. But she tried a lot of things. So it's not surprising you want a horse. She She certainly did, although she was too old to try riding it-thank G.o.d. -Does it bother you for me to talk about her?" certainly did, although she was too old to try riding it-thank G.o.d. -Does it bother you for me to talk about her?"

"No." She gave a twitch of her shoulders. "It's just-funny. That's all."

"I imagine it is. But she was a remarkable woman. Are you through? We can walk back now."

xi Florian did the best he could. He and Catlin both.

He had even asked ser Denys if they were letting sera down somehow, or if there was something they ought to be doing to help her get well, and ser Denys had patted him on the shoulder and said no, they were doing very well, that when a CIT had trouble there were no tapes to help, just people. That if they were strong enough to take the stress of sera's upset without needing sera's help that was the best thing, because that was what CITs would do for her. "But don't let yourselves take damage," ser Denys had said. "That's even worse for sera, if something bad happened to you, too. You protect yourselves as well as her. Understand?"

Florian understood. He told Catlin, because they had agreed he would ask, she just wasn't good with CIT questions.

"We're doing right," he had said to her. "Sera's doing all right. We're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Ser Denys is happy with us."

"I'm not," Catlin said, which summed it up. Catlin was hurting worse than he was, he thought, because Catlin was mad about sera being hurt, and Catlin couldn't figure out who was responsible, or whether people were doing enough to help sera.

They were both relieved when sera had said she had an idea and a job for them to do. And when sera started back to cla.s.ses and things started getting back to normal, they had cla.s.ses then, down in the Town, ser Denys said they should and sera agreed. "Meet me after cla.s.s," she said.

So they did.

And sera walked with them out to the fishpond and fed the fish and said: "We have to wait until a rainy day. That's next Thursday. I looked."

On the charts that showed when the weathermakers were going to try to make it rain, that meant. Usually the charts were good, when they were down to a few days. And sera told them what they had to do.

Catlin was happy then. It was an Operation and it was a real one.

Florian just hoped sera was not going to get herself into trouble.

Skipping study was easy: sera just sent a request down to Green Barracks and said they couldn't come.

Then they worked out a way to get to C-tunnel without going through the Main Residency Hall, which meant going down the maintenance corridors. That was easy, too.

So sera told them what she wanted, and they all set up the Operation, with a lot of variations; but the one that they were going to use, sera thought of herself, because she said it would work and it was simplest and she could handle the trouble if it went bad.

So Catlin got to be the rear guard and he got to be the point man because sera said n.o.body suspected an azi and Catlin said he was better at talking.

The storm happened, the students kept the schedule sera had gotten from Dr. Edwards' cla.s.sbook, and sera whispered: "Last two, on the left," as the Regular Students came back from their cla.s.ses over in the Ed Wing, right down the tunnel, right past them where they were waiting in the side tunnel that led to air systems maintenance. It was a good place for them: dark in the access, and noisy with the fans.

Florian let them get past just the way sera had said. They had talked about how to Work it. He let them string way out.

Then sera patted him on the back just as he was moving on his own: he went out in the middle of the hall just before the last few students could disappear around the corner.

"Sera Carnath!" he called out, and the last students all stopped. He held up his fist. "You dropped something." And just the way sera had said, several of the students walked on, disappearing at the turn. Then more did, and finally Amy Carnath walked back a little, looking through the things she had in her arms.

He jogged up to her. Just one girl was waiting with Amy Carnath. He did a fast check behind to make sure no one was coming.

No one was. Catlin was supposed to see to that, back at the other turn, having a cut hand and an emergency if she had to, if it was some Older coming and not a kid.

So he gave Amy Carnath the note sera had written.

Dear Amy, it said. That was how you wrote, sera said. it said. That was how you wrote, sera said. Don't say a thing about this and don't tell anybody where you're going. Say you forgot something and have to go back, and don't let anybody go with you. I want to talk with you a minute. Florian will bring you. If you don't come, I'll see something terrible happens to you. Sincerely, Ari. Don't say a thing about this and don't tell anybody where you're going. Say you forgot something and have to go back, and don't let anybody go with you. I want to talk with you a minute. Florian will bring you. If you don't come, I'll see something terrible happens to you. Sincerely, Ari.

Amy Carnath's face went very frightened. She looked at Florian and looked back at her friend.

Florian waited. Sera had instructed him not to speak at all in front of any of the rest of them.

"I forgot something," Amy Carnath said in a faint voice, looking at her friend. "Go on, Maddy. I'll catch up."

The girl called Maddy wrinkled her nose, then walked on after the rest of them.

"Sera, please," Florian said, and indicated the way she should go.

"What does she want?" sera Carnath asked, angry.

"I'm sure I don't know, sera. Please?"

Amy Carnath walked with him. She had her library bag. She could swing that, he reckoned, but sera said sera Carnath didn't know how to fight.

"This way," he said, when they got to the service corridor, and sera Carnath balked when she looked the way he pointed, into the dark.

And when sera stepped out from behind the doorway.

"h.e.l.lo, Amy," sera said; and grabbed Amy herself, by the front of the blouse, one-handed, and pulled her, so Florian opened the door to the service corridor.

As Catlin came jogging up and into their little dark s.p.a.ce.

Amy Carnath looked at her. Terrified.

"Inside," sera said. And pushed sera Carnath, not letting her go. Sera Carnath tried to protect her blouse from being torn, but that was all.

"Let me go," sera Carnath said, upset. "Let go of me!"

Florian pulled the penlight from his pocket and turned it on; Catlin shut the door; sera pushed Amy Carnath against the wall.

"Let me go!" sera Carnath screamed. But the door was shut and the fans were noisy. sera Carnath screamed. But the door was shut and the fans were noisy.

"I'm not going to hurt you," sera said very calmly. "But Catlin will break your arm if you don't stand still and talk to me."

There were tears on sera Carnath's face. Florian felt a little sick, she was so scared. Even if she was the Target.

"I want to know," sera said, "where Valery Schwartz is."

"I don't know where he is," sera Carnath cried, biting her lip and trying to calm down. "He's at Fargone, that's all I know."

"I want to know where Sam Whitely is."

"He's down at the mechanics school! Let me go, let me go-" go-"

"Florian has a knife," sera said. "Do you want to see it? Shut up and answer me. What do you know about my maman?"

"I don't know anything about your maman! I swear I don't!"

"Stop sniveling. You tell me what I ask or I'll have Florian cut you up. Hear me?"

"I don't know anything, I don't know."

"Why am I poison?"

"I don't know!"

"You know, Amy Carnath, you know, and if you don't start talking we're going to go down deep in the tunnels and Catlin and Florian are going to ask you, you hear me? And you can scream and n.o.body's going to hear you."

"I don't know. Ari, I don't know, I swear I don't."

Sera Carnath was crying and hiccuping, and Ari said: "Florian, -"

"I can't tell you!" sera Carnath screamed. "I can't, I can't, I can't!"

"Can't tell me what?"

Sera Carnath gulped for air, and sera pulled sera Carnath's blouse loose and started unb.u.t.toning it, one-handed.

"They'll send us away!" sera Carnath cried, flinching away; but Catlin grabbed her from behind. "They'll send us away!"

Sera stopped and said: "Are you going to tell me everything?"

Sera Carnath nodded and gulped and hiccuped.

"All right. Let her go, Catlin. Amy's going to tell us."

Catlin let sera Carnath go, and sera Carnath backed up to a bundle of pipes and stood with her back against that. Florian kept the light on her.

"Well?" sera asked.

"They send you away," sera Carnath said. Her teeth were chattering. "If anybody gets in trouble with you, they can send them to Fargone."

"Who does?" does?"

"Your uncles."

"Giraud," sera said.

Sera Carnath nodded. There was sweat on her face, even if it was cold in the tunnels. She was crying, tears pouring down her cheeks, and her nose was running.

"All the kids?" sera asked.

Sera Carnath nodded again.

Sera came closer and took sera Carnath by the shoulder, not rough. Sera Carnath thought sera was going to hit her, but sera patted her shoulder then and had her sit down on the steps. Sera got down on one knee and put her hand on sera Carnath's knee.

"Amy, I'm not going to hit you now. I'm not going to tell you told. I want to know if you know anything about why my maman got sent away."

Sera Carnath shook her head.

"Who sent her?" sent her?"

"Ser Nye. I guess it was ser Nye."

"Giraud?"

Sera Carnath nodded, and bit her lips.

"Amy, I'm not mad at you. I'm not going to be mad. Tell me what the other kids say about me."

"They just say-" Sera Carnath gulped. "-They just say let you have your way, because everybody knows what happens if you fight back and we don't want to get sent to Fargone and never come back-"

Sera just sat there a moment. Then: "Like Valery Schwartz?"

"Sometimes you just get moved to another wing. Sometimes they take you and put you on a plane and you just have to go, that's all, like Valery and his mama." Sera Carnath's teeth started chattering again, and she hugged her arms around her. "I don't want to get sent away. Don't tell I told."

"I won't. Dammit, Amy! Who said that?"

"My mama said. My mama said-no matter what, don't hit you, don't talk back to you." Sera Carnath started sobbing again, and covered her face with her hand. "I don't want to get my mama shipped to Fargone-"

Sera stood up, out of the light. Maman Maman and and Fargone Fargone were touchy words with her. Florian felt them too, but he kept the light steady. were touchy words with her. Florian felt them too, but he kept the light steady.

"Amy," sera said after a little while, "I won't tell on you. I'll keep it secret if you will. I'll be your friend."

Sera Carnath wiped her face and looked up at her.

"I will," sera said. "So will Florian and Catlin. And they're good friends to have. All you have to do is be friends with us."

Sera Carnath wiped her nose and b.u.t.toned her blouse.