The Misborn have been cast out by the Sorceresses, but those who survived know the underbelly of the jungle better than anyone else. Because of my past history with them, secret places have been revealed to us.

—REVEREND MOTHER RAQUELLA BERTO-ANIRUL, predawn address to the faithful

The Sisterhood had to be prepared. Not only did the rush of inner voices warn Raquella of the impending crisis, but Sister Valya had told her a specific reason for the threat. In becoming a Reverend Mother, Dorotea had learned—through Raquella’s old, embedded memories—about the secret computers.

And she intended to expose the illegal technology to the Butlerians.

Raquella had to do something to protect the Sisterhood before mobs came to destroy what they did not understand.

Dorotea also had allies among the Sisters, especially among the new Reverend Mothers. Appalled by the emergency, many of the women had been calling for an end to secrets. Nine of Dorotea’s most vehement Reverend Mothers demanded to search the restricted upper caves that held the breeding records, confident they would find proof of illegal technology.

Up in the breeding-record caves, the isolated chambers held shelves piled with documents printed on incredibly thin sheets of paper. For generations, the women of Rossak had compiled and maintained these mountains of information; it would require an army of Mentats to inspect and analyze it all.

Only a subset of the Sisters who worked with these hardcopy genetic records knew about the camouflaged holographic wall that concealed a large secondary chamber that contained forbidden computers. But if the Butlerian mobs or Imperial soldiers ransacked the tunnels, demanding answers, someone was sure to stumble upon the wrong room.

Raquella knew full well that Dorotea’s allies had no concrete proof—even the new Reverend Mothers had unreliable, nonsequential memories from the past voices they could now access. Her granddaughter might remember some of Raquella’s actions from long ago, before the birth of Arlett, but she certainly couldn’t be sure what the old Reverend Mother was thinking or doing now.

However, merely raising the specter of computers was tantamount to a decree of guilt, and feelings among the Sisters were inflamed even further when Raquella flatly refused to grant them access, stationing additional Sorceress guards on the high path and accusing Dorotea’s allies of gross insubordination.

She felt helpless as she watched the Sisters take sides. Karee Marques and her Sister Mentats had already predicted that a dark schism would occur in the Sisterhood. Raquella knew that if she did not openly address the issue, they would see the avoidance as a confession.

She had to hold her ground and remain true to the goals she had established, critical goals that would require drastic action. She conferred with Karee, Valya, Sabra Hublein, and fifteen other Sisters from her most trusted inner circle, those who knew the deepest secrets—and she gave them their instructions.

Then, in a bold move, Raquella summoned every member of the Sisterhood for an emergency meeting at dawn. As the misty sky brightened with sunrise, more than a thousand members of the Sisterhood streamed into the largest meeting chamber.

In such a huge crowd, no one would notice the absence of Sister Valya and a handful of specially picked assistants. This would be their only chance.

Standing before the assemblage, Reverend Mother Raquella raised her hands and waited for silence to fall. With ancient eyes, she looked out across the sea of faces. “Many of you have been eager for an open debate. You have your questions and concerns. It is time for you to speak your minds, all of you. I will listen to you, and respond.” She nodded to two hand-picked Sorceress guards, who closed and locked the doors, sealing all the Sisters inside the great chamber. “We will stay here until you have spoken your thought, even if it takes the entire day.”

Raquella was ready for all comments and questions.

But it was all a diversion. She needed to buy time.

*   *   *

WITH THE REST of the Sisterhood’s members gathered for the meeting, Valya and a dozen loyal Sisters rushed to dismantle the forbidden computers.

Behind the holographic barrier, they broke down the components, removed all the dense gelcircuitry storage modules, and used suspensor lifts to drop them down old ventilation and access shafts inside the cliff city to the bottom of the canyon wall. From there, hushed workers shuttled the sealed components deep into the tangled jungle. Reverend Mother Raquella had shown them a hiding place where the dismantled computers would be protected from the hazards of the dense undergrowth—where they would never be found by Butlerian ransackers, Imperial soldiers, or suspicious Sisters.

Back when Raquella had nearly died from the Omnius plague, one of the cast-off Misborn had taken her out to a hidden home of other deformed exiles in the jungle. In the caverns under a limestone sinkhole, the Misborn had sheltered her and nursed her back to health. No one else had ever found the place, and the Misborn had all died out in the decades since. The Reverend Mother had not been there in many years, but she remembered.

Valya led her companions into the jungle in a breathless rush, but with military efficiency. The lost cenote would be the perfect hiding place to store the dismantled computers and their priceless genetic information.