The human brain is a fragile instrument, easily damaged, easily perverted.

—admonition of the Suk Medical School

Anna Corrino survived, but remained in a coma for days, responding to no treatments, showing no sign of awareness. She was not dead, but the Sisterhood was in an uproar, fearing for the future of their entire order.

The Emperor’s sister was impulsive and unwise—the reason she’d been sent to Rossak in the first place. Though distraught, Reverend Mother Raquella saw nothing to be gained by blaming Valya, who had not watched Anna closely enough and therefore inadvertently allowed the girl to do something so inconceivably stupid. The Sisterhood did not look for scapegoats—it looked for solutions.

The unfortunate Corrino girl lay on a bed in the main medical clinic, uncomfortably close to where the vegetative failed Sister volunteers were kept alive. In adjacent, guarded rooms the brain-damaged survivors remained under close observation. Raquella wanted to summon Dr. Ori Zhoma immediately, pulling her away from Salusa Secundus to see if she could do anything to help Anna … but the Reverend Mother was not yet ready to let the Emperor know what had occurred.

There might still be time. She needed to be very cautious.

Dorotea herself had lain unconscious for days during her transformation, so Raquella did not entirely surrender hope. However, Dorotea had been strong, well trained, and committed … while Anna Corrino was none of those things. Anna’s condition was an unparalleled disaster, and all the lives in Raquella’s Other Memories could not tell her how to escape the certain Imperial repercussions.

Sister Valya had taken the tragedy personally. She spent every extra hour at Anna’s bedside, talking to her, touching the girl’s hand, trying to stimulate her back to awareness. As Raquella entered the room that afternoon, Valya looked pale and frightened. “Has Emperor Salvador been informed yet? How do you think he’ll react?”

“He sent his sister to us for safekeeping. When he learns about this, the Sisterhood could be in grave danger. Unless she comes out of the coma.”

Valya’s eyes narrowed, and she swallowed hard. “Perhaps if he never finds out exactly what occurred? We could say it was a tragic accident, that a predator attacked her during a jungle exercise, or that she fell from a slippery cliff path, like Sister Ingrid did.”

“But she isn’t dead, child, and even if she were that’s no excuse. She’s our responsibility.” In oppressive silence, they both looked down at the girl, neither of them speaking.

Suddenly, heaving a deep gasp, Anna sat straight up on the infirmary bed. Her eyes flung open, and she looked around without seeming to see her surroundings. Her mouth moved, and small, incomprehensible noises came out, growing louder—until Raquella realized they sounded like the voices of Other Memories that came and went inside her own head, as if Anna were channeling them. She seemed to be speaking dozens of nonsensical, overlapping conversations at the same time in Anna’s own voice.

Shouting for the medical Sisters, Raquella shuddered at the realization that Anna’s attempt to pass through the transformation might have left her damaged, like some of the other volunteers who had failed.

Perhaps it might have been kinder if she had died.

*   *   *

FOR THE NEXT week, the Mentat Karee Marques and several other Sorceresses monitored Anna, tending to her, nursing her. Though Anna had awakened, she might never recover, and Raquella knew she could not avoid letting the Emperor know for much longer, but she wanted a better understanding before she broke the news.

She called Valya and Dorotea—Reverend Mother Dorotea—to listen to the Sorceresses’ reports. Karee Marques looked highly agitated. “Anna’s jumbled voices have stopped for the most part, though they come in bits and pieces and finally fade away. When she spouts phrases, they are not always echoes from her other memories—sometimes she recites facts, random bits of learning such as historical lists, as if information is spilling out of her. She exhibits behavior similar to what was once called an idiot savant. She has an incredible capacity for certain details. She might prove to be useful, if she could learn to control the incredible flow of information.”

Sister Esther-Cano, the youngest of the pureblood Sorceresses, spoke up. “We have no idea how this could be, but Sister Anna has become an expert in the technology of foldspace travel. She has recited a wealth of information on all aspects of ship construction and operation, including the complexities of Holtzman mathematics and navigation chambers.”

Karee nodded. “We have verified the details to the extent that we could, and found no errors. She seems to know more even than the published papers suggest … quite possibly classified information that only Venport Holdings possesses. It is difficult to pull her focus away from such things even to feed her.”

Raquella clasped her hands in front of her on the desktop. “Does she discuss other subjects with any level of rationality?”

Karee shook her head. “She doesn’t seem interested in anything except foldspace travel—for now. She says she’s going to build her own ship and become a Navigator, so she can escape from this place forever.”

“She makes no secret about hating it here,” Sister Esther-Cano said. “She never wanted to come to Rossak in the first place, but was forced to.”

“Previously, she was emotionally unstable,” Valya pointed out, sounding nervous, “but this seems much different. I did report on prior indications of her mental quirks, such as how she was able to manipulate the movements of burrowers inside their hive wall, and she said she could also alter fogwood growth in the Palace gardens. Perhaps she had an odd kind of mental defense we did not recognize.”

Dorotea warned, “I know Emperor Salvador, and he will not take this well. He is quick to lash out and cast blame. We must be exceedingly careful about how we present this problem to him.”

Feeling like a martyr, Raquella bowed her head. “I am the Reverend Mother of the Sisterhood. I accepted Anna Corrino into my care, and I promised to protect her. Therefore, I will go to Salusa Secundus myself and give them the terrible news. Anna will accompany me to the Palace, but I will shoulder the blame personally, telling the complete truth and asking for understanding. Maybe in that way I can save the Sisterhood, even if it costs my own life.”

Dorotea straightened, and Raquella sensed a change in her demeanor, as if she intended to take charge of the situation. “No, Grandmother. The Corrinos already know and respect me. Maybe I can salvage this. They valued my service—I should be the one to go. Perhaps I can control the message.”

“I can’t let you go,” Raquella said.

“I am a Reverend Mother now.” Dorotea’s voice was even, but the defiance was clear. “You don’t have to let me. I will do what I need to.”

Despite her own protestations, Raquella realized that the younger woman was correct. It was the best solution. She was disturbed by the insubordination, but Dorotea had indeed ushered many Sisters through the process of becoming Reverend Mothers … something Raquella had never been able to do. And in choosing the candidates carefully, Dorotea had strengthened her own power base within the order. She was ambitious, with obvious aspirations of leading the Sisterhood, and the trip to Salusa would look good on her resume. Was she making a power play? If so, it was a risky one.

Finally, Raquella acquiesced with good grace. “Very well, go to Salusa and take Anna with you. Your past experience with the Corrinos may well make you our best hope.”

*   *   *

VALYA ACCOMPANIED ANNA Corrino and Dorotea, along with two of the new Reverend Mothers, across the polymerized treetops to the area where the shuttles landed. Anna was pliable and cooperative, though she continued to mumble a stream of unintelligible phrases. Her eyes were vacant, her expression flat.

The shuttle was ready to go. The two Reverend Mothers helped Anna aboard after Valya gave the girl a nervous, unacknowledged goodbye. Before stepping up the ramp herself, Dorotea turned to Valya. “This is the time for you to make your choice. Will you be on my side when I return? Raquella is not the only one who hears the memory-voices inside. Many of us know the truth of history now, and we were not told an accurate version of events. Reverend Mother Raquella took terrible risks, gambling our souls—our human souls!—for her ambitions. I do not believe as she does, nor would I make the same decisions, especially about her precious breeding programs!” A growl of disgust curdled in her throat. “I know about everything, because among the other lives in my mind, I have some of Raquella’s own memories. When I inform the Butlerians, and they come in force to find the hidden computers that we both know are up in those caves, will you be my ally, or my enemy? Think about it carefully.”

Valya froze, feeling her skin crawl. “You took a loyalty oath to the Sisterhood. You can’t break your vows like that.”

A vein throbbed on the side of Dorotea’s temple. “As human beings, each of us has a higher calling to destroy thinking machines. I know the truth now, and I can hear the screams of all those generations downtrodden by Omnius. That came about because of hubris, because humans thought they could control the technology they themselves unleashed. We dare not let it happen again! ‘Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.’”

Valya intoned. “The mind of man is holy.”

Moments later, Dorotea boarded the shuttle and sealed the hatch behind her.