"Where is it taking him?" my sister demanded.
"Back to the hangar," Rashid answered. "On a normal Commitment Day, the children wake up near the plane in Master Crow's nest, right? The bird-servants must carry them there."
Even as he spoke, four more bird-creatures strode out of the darkness: a hawk, a goose, the jay, and a mallard. Their movements were unnaturally smooth, every step measured like honey. Silently, they gathered four more children and carried them out of the room.
"This is a good sign," Rashid said. He kept his voice low, as if he didn't want to disturb the birds as they passed. "Despite all the damage," he went on, "the machines have obviously figured out what to do — send the Neut children back to Tober Cove, because they're the only ones left alive. It's nice to know the programming for Birds Home is smart enough to deal with this situation."
My sister self continued to stare into the darkness, watching the bird-servants disappear. "We should follow them," she murmured.
"The robots won't harm the children," Rashid told her.
"But the children will soon wake up, won't they? And when they see what they've become, someone should be there to calm them. To tell them it's okay."
"The new priestess," Cappie said. "You."
My sister met Cappie's gaze. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then Female-Me said, "I'm ready to be priestess if you don't want the job. But you have first claim to it."
Cappie shook her head. "A Neut priestess? The cove has enough to swallow already. They'll accept the Neut children because they have to; but given a choice between a Neut and a true woman, I know which would make Tobers more comfortable. Isn't that a big part of the priestess's job — comforting people?"
"All right," my sister said. "But we'll do what we discussed last night — work as a team. Even if I'm the official priestess, we'll make our decisions together and…"
"No," Cappie interrupted. "I'm not going back to the cove. Not right away."
"What?" I blurted. "Not going home?"
"Someone has to stay here," she said. "Make sure that Birds Home really can repair itself."
"I'll do that," Rashid answered immediately. "I owe you that much, considering I was the one who brought Steck here. And there's so much I can learn in a place like this. I want to understand the cloning process… the exact way thoughts are transferred…"
"While you're doing that," Cappie said, "could you use a second pair of hands?"
"Probably," Rashid nodded. "It so happens I have an immediate opening for a new Bozzle… and there's a precedent of filling the position with a person of dual gendership."
Cappie glared at him with steely eyes. "If you think you're going to start up with me the way you were with Steck…"
"No!" Rashid said sharply. It was the first time his self-control had broken since he found Steck dead: the first time he sounded like a man instead of a Spark Lord. "I'm standing here with a corpse at my feet — her corpse! Do you think I'm so inhuman I can just…" His voice choked off. "No," he said with a catch in his throat, "I'm really just looking for an assistant, Cappie: a second pair of hands, as you put it. It'll be a long time before I… never mind. You help me here in Birds Home, and after that, I'll see you get back to Tober Cove. If that's what you want."
She looked at him for a moment more, then nodded. "It's a deal." Cappie turned back to my sister self. "Can you take care of Pona for a while?"
"Of course."
"I'll be back when I'm ready," Cappie added hurriedly. "I promise. It's just… I knew who I was when I was male and when I was female. Now that I'm neither one…" She shrugged.
"So you're trying to find yourself," I said. "But why can't you do that in Tober Cove? We need you there."
"Why? So you Fullins can fight over me?"
"We won't fight over you," I protested.
"In a few weeks, you might be fighting over who gets stuck with me. I know," she said quickly, "that's unfair. But it was just a few hours ago that you couldn't give yourself to me; not the way I needed. Has anything changed? Have you suddenly fallen in love with me because I'm a Neut? Not likely." She gave us the ghost of a smile, trying to take the sting from her words. "You may feel fond and sentimental about me right now, but that's not enough. There's too much pity in it — pity because I'm not male or female, and you think that's a tragic loss. Maybe it is, I don't know. But I need time to decide for myself."
"Then take the time," Female-Me told her. "Pona will be all right. And when you're ready to come back, I guarantee Tober Cove won't have a law about banishing Neuts."
"To make changes like that, you'll need help." Cappie smiled. "You'll need help from the Patriarch's Man."
She turned to me. "How about it? Will you say yes to Hakoore? For the good of the cove?"
"Patriarch's Man?" When I said it, the title sounded so sadly pompous — a relic of some long-dead tyrant, one more thing that should have gone on that junk heap in Mayoralty House. The Patriarch's Man was a self-deceiving fool with a book of laws and a machine that looked like a severed hand. "I don't know if I believe in the position," I said. "After everything that's happened in Birds Home…"
"You mean you've lost your faith in the gods?" Rashid asked. "This is so typical. I've bent over backward not to utter a word against your faith, but you're going to say I raised doubts—"
"I still believe in the gods," I answered quietly. "But not the Patriarch's Law."
"Then change it," Cappie said. "The Patriarch has been an ugly sore, festering on the face of the cove for a hundred and fifty years. Get rid of him."
"By becoming Hakoore's 'disciple'?"
"Yes… if that's what it takes to make things right."
A fire burned in her eyes. It felt strange to have someone believe in me.
"Do you agree?" I asked my other self. "If Hakoore puts the squeeze on me with that damned Patriarch's Hand…"
"I'll support you," she said. "Make sure your head stays straight." She laid her fingers lightly on my arm and smiled. "Two weasels together can beat a snake."
I smiled back. "All right — I'll do it. Patriarch's Man."
My commitment.
"Of course, you remember," Female-Me added, "there's a special arrangement between priestess and Patriarch's Man."
I raised my eyebrows. She was looking at me with cool appraisal. I returned her gaze evenly.
"This could get interesting," Cappie murmured.
"What?" Rashid asked. "What's this special arrangement?"
"Tell you later," she answered.
"And in the meantime," I said to Rashid, "can you do something about this radio in my head? I refuse to match wits with someone who can hear everything I think."
"Yes," my sister agreed, "please stop him transmitting. It's so embarrassing to know the second he gets horny for me."
"Me? Horny for you?"
"Silence, peasants!" Rashid commanded with mock severity. "Whatever you're arguing about, I don't care — I've had my fill of cultural observation for one day. Let's find the damned lab so I can get back to the hard sciences. I'm longing for things that make sense."
The lab was gigantic — far larger than all three coffin chambers put together. The front part held five large glass windows, showing words and numbers and graphs painted in colored light. There was also a corridor slanting upward, no doubt leading to Master Crow's nest. But what caught my interest most was the rear part of the room: a single wide aisle down the middle with banks of arcane machinery on either side. Even the height of OldTech culture couldn't have created such equipment. Glistening steel vats with pipes sprouting out in all directions. A tall pillar from floor to ceiling, with an exterior of black matte plastic and an interior of who knew what. Gray metal boxes that breathed out warm air through grilles, and faceless things with inhuman arms, delicately jiggling test tubes of red fluid.