Goddess
Chapter 10

Gaius, Cassius, the girls, and I all pile intothe flamen’s cart for the bumpy ride back to the house. For the first time inhours, I’m able to draw a full breath.

“Gaius, what were you thinking, giving me thename Lucretia!” is the first thing out of Lucia’s mouth.

“Why, what’s wrong with it?” he asks, surprised.

“It is an awful name! Terrible! Gross!” we allexclaim.

“Lucretia is my mother’s name,” he says mildly,raising his eyebrows. Nobody knows quite how to respond to this.

When we arrive at the House of Vestals, theFlamen Martialis leads us directly to Lavinia’s personal chamber, which isunusual. After a soft knock, she opens the door cautiously and peers out at us.“Aulus,” she says with pleasure, “I’ve been expecting you.” Then she sees usand gives a start. “Oh hello, girls, Gaius, and…?”

“Cassius,” Cassius helpfully supplies.

“Lavinia, we have a good deal to discuss,” saysthe flamen. “Let’s get comfortable.”

“Of course,” she says graciously. She leads usall into her antechamber, which is fitted out as a drawing room. I have neverbeen in here before. I wonder how often she has private callers.

There aren’t enough seats, so Marta, Lucia, andI take small chairs, and the flamen settles onto a chaise. Gaius and Cassiusstand behind him.

“Lavinia, my news will probably come as a shock.No doubt you are totally unaware that your three girls here have been developinga military weapon that could save the entire nation.”

“Indeed!” says Lavinia, with mild surprise.“Um…well done, girls?” she ventures to us. “So, are they new army recruits,then?” she asks the flamen with a smile. It’s clear she has decided that he’steasing her.

“Lucia prayed to Pomona and grew a fig tree,” Iblurt out. Then I blush, because that is sort of beside the point and thetension is getting to me. I wish this disclosure was just over with. “We caninvoke Diana and Vulcan and explode bombs that the academy is making. We thinkonly virgins can do it.”

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Cassius breaksin smoothly. He fills Lavinia in on the events leading up to today, making noeffort to conceal that he taught us and encouraged our illegal experiments. Ashe speaks, Lavinia’s expression goes from concerned to horrified. By the timeshe learns of the Pontifex Maximus’s approval, however, she only looks grave.

“Thank you, Cassius,” says the flamen. “Lavinia,I’ll be blunt. We need to devise a false front for our recruiting operation ofeligible young virgins to become our…lady archers, for lack of a better term. Ineed the Vestals to operate the recruiting effort, because no one will suspectyou. And we need to start right away, tomorrow morning, if possible. Time isextremely limited.”

“I understand,” she says, recovering somewhat.“I understand the urgency. What is your plan for the false front?”

“I have none,” he says frankly. “My only thoughtwas that we’d make the opportunity financially attractive. Maybe we could offercity girls fake government jobs, and then we could train them undercover at theacademy.”

Marta tsks. Everyone looks at her, and I cantell she’s immediately sorry she drew attention to herself. But she speaksanyway. “It’s no good to expect any secrecy with hundreds of women carting toand from the academy every day. And what are they going to tell their parents?‘Sorry, I can’t talk about my new job or tell you where it is?’”

“What do you propose, Marta?” says the flamen,surprised but willing to hear more.

“If we’re really dedicated to secrecy,” Martasays, “we need to make it impossible for anyone to follow these girls or kidnapthem or even ask them too many questions. They need to live on the academygrounds full time until after the war is over, under heavy guard.”

“And besides,” Lavinia chimes in, “you’lleventually have to send them to the front, won’t you?”

“No,” says the flamen decidedly. “All the youngwomen will stay in the city.”

Gaius nods in agreement. “Vestalis Maxima, thewar on the northern front is laying waste to the countryside. Our armies aredestroying every farm, every field, and every valuable military asset as theyretreat. The Selanthi aren’t interested in conquering a destroyed country. Soonthey’ll sail for Polonia and attempt to take the city by sea. With their entirearmy in ships, they’ll be exposed targets. We plan to use our bombs to sink anyvessel that attempts to offload soldiers onto our shores.”

“By the end of the day tomorrow, I will have packedalmost half of my academy students off to the northern front to teach ourtroops how to explode the Selanthi bombs by praying to Vulcan,” says theflamen. “That means I’ll have capacity for about three hundred girls in ourempty housing. We’ll need triple the space if we intend to swell our ranks toone thousand.”

“They can bivouac,” suggests Gaius.

“Um, what?” says Lucia. “What does that mean?”

“It means sleep outside, sleep under the stars,”explains Gaius. “The Selanthi will sail for Polonia without a doubt. They’ll behere in a few weeks at the most. It’s still May, the weather will be perfect.”

“Those other girls can do what they want, but ifyou think I’m sleeping in a gross buggy field, you’re crazy,” declares Lucia.Cassius smiles broadly at this.

“Anyway,” says Marta, narrowing her eyes atthem, “Gaius’s description of our northern border suggests the perfect falsefront. We need a recruiting effort that will send girls on an extended trip.Why not advertise for young unattached women who can travel to aid the homelesswar refugees? You know, cooking, cleaning, tending to the wounded and theorphaned children, that sort of thing.”

“I think that’s brilliant,” I say, impressedwith Marta’s savvy. “I also do think that you will need to make it financiallyattractive, Flamen. I would say the yearly salary for a typical low-wage girlwho comes to the temple is about two thousand sesterces. Make your commissionone thousand, with half up front, and the opportunity will look very good tothem, despite the danger involved in traveling up to the north.”

“Excellent,” says the flamen. “I don’tnecessarily have the budget right now, since I’ve already given the order torequisition all the forges within a fifty-mile radius to start cranking out ouriron bombs. But I will lean on the senate, and I don’t see how they can refuseme the funding. The pontiffs will back me,” he says. “Now we get down to theoperational details. Our timeframe is very compressed.”

He pauses to organize his thoughts. “Lavinia, Iwill need to designate some executive officers for the project. Gaius willorganize the training activities for these women.”

Lavinia nods at him. “Gaius has certainly provenhimself capable.”

“Excellent. And I would like Cassius here tooversee the recruitment efforts. He obviously already has a rapport with thegirls.”

Lavinia looks less thrilled with this choice.Cassius, after all, is the man who led her Virgins into sin and blasphemy.“Well, I am sure Cassius will try his best to handle this important responsibility,”she says coolly.

Even though he is behind me, I can feel him smiling at her. She lifts hereyebrows.

“Girls,” she says, “tomorrow morning please riseearly to meet Cassius and discuss your strategy for recruitment. Then go toyour temple duties and use that time to sound out potential applicants. We canrecruit a few girls right away, if they seem trustworthy enough.”

“Good idea,” says the flamen. “And after yourshift is over, I’ll arrange for a cart to pick you up and bring you back to theacademy training grounds. We still have tests and studies to perform.”

“Ugh,” says Lucia dramatically. “We’ll beworking all day without a single break.”

“Is that a problem?” says the flamen.

“You’ll have even longer days ahead of you,Lucia,” Gaius warns. “And by the way, I suggest you come to the traininggrounds disguised as normal girls again. Someone watching us from the cliffs oranother distant point could still be able to make out your Vestal clothing.”

“Ugh,” we all say and look at each otherdejectedly.

“I think, Gaius, they can leave the hair up thistime,” says Cassius, the corner of his mouth twitching. Gaius looks annoyed,but makes no objection.

“Well, I have lots of letters to write tonight,it seems,” Lavinia says after a pause. “Lots of announcements about the new Aidto the Front program, funding requests, meetings to schedule…I’m afraid we haveto say good night, unless anyone else has a further concern.” She looks around.

“Thank you so much for your help, Lavinia,” saysthe flamen sincerely. She nods and stands to show us out. The flamen kisses hercheek. Cassius gives her another dazzling smile and thanks her. Gaius passeswithout comment. “Hold on, girls,” she says before I walk by her. She shuts thedoor and motions for us to sit.

“Girls,” she says to us sadly. She holds my handbetween hers, turns to touch Marta’s face, and embraces Lucia. She’s silent fora long time. “You’re not ready for what’s coming,” she finally says. Then shemotions for us to leave, her head in her hands again.

***

As we ascend the temple steps in the brilliantmorning sunshine, Marta, Lucia, and I ready ourselves for the difficult taskahead. During our preparatory talk with Cassius, we discussed how to broachthis delicate topic with certain young supplicants, when we have only thebarest suspicion that they could be convinced to join the war effort. Althoughhe’s very experienced at divulging secret information, he doesn’t have a lot ofspecific advice. “Just go with your instincts,” he tells us.

“Very helpful,” Marta sniffs.

As we enter the temple and our eyes adjust, Ican see it will be a busy day, which is good and bad. This will give us lots ofcover for whisking girls into side rooms and having private conversations. Butit also means that we’ll have to work doubly hard to get through the long lineof customers who can’t be of any use to us.

Joyfully I notice that one of my favorite girls,my prime target for recruitment, is here already. “Claudia,” I greet her, “I’mso glad to see you. Are we going to pray for your brothers?”

“If you have the time,” she says. “I’ve comeevery morning for the last week. I just can’t stay away if there’s a chanceshe’ll hear me. I pray to Mars too, but somehow that doesn’t feel quite right.I’m so much closer to Vesta.”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” I say, hiding mydiscomfort. “Why don’t we go into a side room? There are some new devotionalswe can read together.”

Claudia gladly assents, and I lead her down thehallway to the farthest office. When we enter, Lucia and Marta are alreadythere.

“Oh, are we all going to pray together?” sheasks.

“Claudia,” I say, suddenly feeling veryuncomfortable with my duplicity, “I’m sorry I wasn’t totally honest with youjust now, but I had a different reason for asking you back here today. We canstill pray, but is it okay for us to ask you a few questions first?”

Claudia looks a bit uneasy about this suddenchange in tone. I realize I’ve been too heavy-handed, and I hope we haven’tlost her. It must seem as though we’re planning to interrogate her for somecrime.

“Claudia, you’re here because more thananything, we all want to help your brothers come home safely,” I say, hoping towin back some trust. Marta and Lucia give her reassuring smiles. “I only wantedto know whether you’d be interested in joining a special…club we’re forming tosupport the war effort,” I say.

“Oh yes,” she says immediately, brightening.“What is the club? Of course I want to join.”

Marta, Lucia, and I look at each other. Thewords are hard to replace.

“Claudia,” Lucia says, “if helping your brothersmeant doing something a little dangerous, would you still be interested?”

“Yes,” she says. “They’re in danger every singleday. I wish that I could take just a little part of it onto myself. I can bebrave.”

“Good! We feel just the same way,” says Lucia,clasping her hands. “We are doing a very secret job—something very important,something nobody can know about—and we need more girls to help us. For yoursafety, if you join us, you’d have to spend a little time away from your parents.You’d come stay with us instead. Can you do that?”

“Ah…I mean I guess it would depend on…I’m notsure,” she says. “Maybe if you told me what this job was it would be a littleeasier to decide.”

Marta, Lucia, and I exchange looks. I exhaleslowly and turn to Claudia again.

“Claudia,” I say. “Are you a virgin?”

“Yes,” she says uncomfortably.

Without blinking, Marta, Lucia, and I leanforward in concert and stare at her.

“What?” she says, unsettled. As rehearsed, wekeep staring.

“Yes!” she insists. “What is this about?”

When we tell her there is a secret weapon thatwe think only virgins can operate, she gasps in shock. At first she isdisbelieving, and I deeply regret that we can’t give any small demonstration toher. But finally our words start to have their own impact.

“The Flamen Martialis is taking us under hisprotection. We’re going to train at the academy,” Lucia explains. “The PontifexMaximus is backing him. All of the pontiffs and flamens had a unanimous vote.This is all totally legal.”

“Today is the first day we’re recruiting,” Iexplain, “so we’re not very good at it.” I look at her apologetically. “Youwon’t tell anyone, right, even if you aren’t going to join us?”

“Oh no, I won’t tell. In fact, I’m ready to signup,” she says, thrilling us. We all jump up gleefully and hug her. “We need youso badly,” I say.

“Don’t worry,” she promises, “I won’t let youdown.”

Before she leaves, we tell Claudia the coverstory of how she’ll be going away to aid the war refugees. Then we give her areceipt she can cash for her signing bonus, which absolutely delights her. Weforgot to use the money as an incentive, but upon reflection, I’m glad of that.I wouldn’t have wanted her to sign up for the wrong reasons.

After this incredible success, the three of us realizethat we’ve left the other temple supplicants unattended for far too long. Imake a mental note to ask the Vestalis Maxima for extra hands during our nextshift.

After Claudia, I get a long string of olderhousewives, and I become increasingly antsy as the day goes on. Now that we’vegot something so important to plan, dealing with the ordinary householdproblems of our supplicants is extremely tiresome. I just can’t get interestedin people’s domestic problems anymore, and praying to Vesta is hollow andpointless, no matter how hard I try to be sincere. I’m starting to feel likeMarta.

We sound out two other girls, Drusilla andFausta, using the same method that worked so well with Claudia. Drusilla seemsconvinced, and we even send her away happily with a signing receipt. Fausta isless receptive. My fear of blowing our cover returns with full force.

“I know it’s an extreme measure, Fausta,” Iplead. “But you have to believe us when we say that without our new weapon, theFlamen Martialis and the whole College of Pontiffs think that we willabsolutely lose this war.”

“That’s not what the reports from the front aresaying,” she says dismissively.

We look at each other. “Well, whatever you’veheard, it’s wrong,” snaps Marta.

“What Marta means,” says Lucia, “is that theFlamen Martialis—”

“I’m not about to get involved with anythingrisky like this,” she cuts Lucia off. “I’m sorry. I won’t say anything toanyone, but in my opinion, you’re all taking a foolish risk, stepping out ofyour sphere. Stick with Vesta, not Mars.” With this, she rises and showsherself out.

This is our last consultation of the day, sowe’re free to leave as well. Exhausted, we all trudge down the temple steps andmake our way slowly to the House of Vestals to change. We’ve just dressed whenwe hear Cassius pull up in his cart.

“What?” Lucia says angrily. “We haven’t eveneaten!”

Cassius isn’t sympathetic when he hears aboutour empty stomachs. “If I don’t deliver you right on time,” he says, “who knowswhich of my bones Gaius will break next?”

The cart ride to the academy is miserable. Westretch out on the blankets and try to nap, but the road is too bumpy andeventually we give up. But I’m heartened by the flamen’s smile when we finallyarrive. I look to Gaius, half-expecting a smile from him too, but he ispreoccupied with giving orders to academy students, businesslike as usual. I noticehe looks especially handsome in the late afternoon light.

“Our girls had some success today,” Cassiusannounces to the group of students gathering around us. “Two new recruits tojoin us tomorrow.”

“That’s fantastic news!” says the flamen. “Arethey really committed? Because my plan was to turn this first class into anetwork of recruiters—”

“Is there food?” Lucia interrupts rudely. Ingeneral, one does not interrupt the nation’s high priest of Mars when saidpriest is talking. But Lucia only observes social protocol when adequately fed.

“Well,” says the flamen, taken aback, “yes, butunfortunately it is all sacrificial, so—”

“Awesome,” says Lucia. “I’ll eat some, the godswon’t care.” And she goes to raid the altars for figs and wine.

Marta and I are hungry too, but we would neverdare consume food earmarked for a god. We look sadly at each other.

“Um. Ahem. Well,” says the flamen, looking afterLucia with alarm. “I’ll go arrange to have a meal brought out here. In themeantime, ladies, please join Gaius and we’ll regroup on the beach.”

As we walk onto the beach, I see with surprisethat the bay is now dotted with colorful little wooden boats bobbing in thewater. “The colors mark their distance from the beach,” Gaius explains. “We’regoing to try to quantify your range and accuracy compared with Lucia’s.”

Lucia is now surrounded by a ring of youngacademy students, some of whom seem to have procured a better meal for her thanaltar figs. She is laughing at someone’s joke, enjoying the opportunity toflirt.

The flamen joins our group and hands us each asmall bag of nuts and dried fruit. “That’s all we had on short notice,” heapologizes. He really is a nice man. I notice that Gaius is not in the leastconcerned that we haven’t eaten. Typical.

“Ladies, I have a few people I want you tomeet,” the flamen says. He introduces us to his wife, Julia, and his oldestdaughter, Honoria. Julia is tall and fair, while Honoria has a lighter figurewith dark hair and brown eyes. Both smile at us when they are introduced.“Isn’t this fun?” Honoria mock-whispers. “Daddy’s going to have us try the bombthing too.”

“Oh great!” I say, glad to have some more femalecompany out here on the beach, and truly curious to see if the flamen’s wifehas any success, as a married woman.

“Let’s see if we can manage not to blow eachother up!” she says gaily. “Ooh, there’s Lucia!” she says. “Come on, Mother.Let’s say hello. Gods, she’s as beautiful as I’ve heard.”

As they flounce away, Cassius comes up behind usfussing with a pen and clipboard, scribbling notes. “Olivia, Marta,” he says,“the record-keeping begins. Your ages?”

“We’re both sixteen,” I remind him.

“Family names?” he asks.

“Olivia Agricola and Marta Crispus.”

“Okay,” Cassius says to himself. “VestalVirgins. And Flamen, your wife’s and daughter’s ages?”

“My wife is thirty-eight,” he says, “and ourdaughter is sixteen.”

“And your daughter’s a virgin?” Cassius asks.

Horrified, Gaius elbows Cassius in the ribs.

“Ow, back off,” Cassius says to him with aninjured air. “This is important data we’re gathering here. I’m sorry, sir,” hesays, addressing the flamen, “but it’s prudent to ask.”

The flamen purses his lips and looks at Cassiusfor a long moment. I hold my breath.

“Well Iguess we’ll replace out, won’t we?” he says at last, the faintest hint ofamusement in his tone. Then he walks away. Gaius cringes in mortification andpresses his hand to his forehead as Marta and I giggle. We try to suppress it,but we keep setting each other off.

“Let’s get started then, shall we?” Cassius sayscheerily, unperturbed. He motions us toward the altars, where we join Lucia andthe others.

After a long period of rites, invocations,recitals, and sacrifices to Diana and Vulcan, Lucia personally blesses bothJulia and Honoria. The five of us are now ready to try our skills.

After Lucia blasts the water around the farthestboats in the bay, everyone on the shore murmurs in appreciation. Then Cassiusasks Julia to try. We’re all holding our breath to see if non-virgin women havethe necessary skill. It would make everything easier if we had a wider pool of recruits.They give her a ball without any black powder inside, so there’s no danger ofan accidental explosion, and we stand back to watch.

To our initial delight, Julia is able to sendthe ball several yards before it splashes down into the water. But then weremember she has already received Lucia’s blessing. And it turns out that asecond blessing does nothing.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” I say to theflamen. “I mean, in a weird theological contradiction, Diana is also thegoddess of childbirth. Would she hate married women or want to help them?”

“Remember Callisto,” Marta reminds me. “She wasone of Diana’s virgin companions, but Diana tried to kill her when shediscovered Callisto was pregnant.”

“Didn’t she break her vow of virginity?” asksGaius. “Maybe that’s why Diana went so crazy.”

“No, not at all,” I insist. “She didn’t breakanything. Jupiter coerced her.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Gaius says. Everyone nods.It’s not a surprising twist. It seems like at least half of our religiousstories involve Jupiter taking some woman against her will.

After our failed experiment with Julia, theflamen asks everyone to spread out down the beach so we can all practice atonce, since our time is so limited. We’re all surrounded by academy studentstaking notes. I notice Honoria is having no trouble with the bombs at all, andshe appears to have excellent range. Thatshould make the flamen happy, I think. Things would have gotten prettyawkward on the beach if she had failed.

After a while, Gaius comes to stand by us. Hisscrutiny makes me nervous. I send a couple of shots way off course, and then Ifail to make my third bomb explode at all. It just plunks into the sea.

“You know,” sighs Gaius, irritated pastendurance, “if you’re going to commit blasphemy and endanger your life and thelives of your friends, you should at least be good at it.”

“You step off her,” Marta whips around. “Let’ssee you try one, huh? Why don’t you show us how it’s done?”

“Marta, I would think you’d show a little morerespect to someone who saved your life,”Gaius retorts.

“Oh, that’s right,” Marta says. “Tell us againhow your brilliant tactical thinking lead you to run face-first into a giganticSelanthi bomb. Really great stuff. I hope they asked you to teach a class.”Gaius just clenches his jaw and looks skyward. Oh how I want them to continue.You do not get into a snide-off with Marta. Nine times out of ten, she willstomp you into oblivion. He deserves it.

“And speaking of deadly, life-threateningblasphemy, I believe it was you who let a tiny little woman get past you intothe Vestal temple,” she continues.

“Excuse me, but are you calling hertiny?” he points at me. “Because if sheran full tilt into you, you’d be in a cast, I guarantee it. With those hips shecould have broken down the door herself. No offense, Olivia.”

“None taken,” I say. I am snorting with laughternow. Oh gods. I am going to make them fight all the time.

“And speaking of stupid,” he says, inchingcloser to her and dropping his voice, “I am not the one who worshiped a fakegoddess for the last six years. At least Mars is real.”

“Oh yes, Mars is working out great for you!”Marta exclaims with enthusiasm. “He’s so gratified by your devotion that heallowed your enemy to amass a five-to-one advantage and invent a deadly weapon! You know, too bad there’s not a god ofcompetence you could consult instead,” she spits at him. Heh. I knew that was agood burn.

“Well, guess what, baby, there is one,” Gaiussays. “And he prays to me.”

As he stomps off, Marta’s mouth hangs open, herexpression a mixture of shock and disgust. “Did he just call me baby?” she asks me, appalled. “And bythe way, Olivia, your burn sucks.”

When the light starts fading, the flamen callsus all in for a group meeting. “We’ve learned a lot today, everybody,” he says.“Olivia, Marta, and Honoria all have comparable range and accuracy, but Lucia’sis by far the best. Our next concern is whether you girls could bless our newrecruits, or whether Lucia has to personally pray for every single one.”

“I’ve spent most of the day with the VestalisMaxima, working on technical details,” he continues. “Tomorrow is the formalbeginning of the war refugee aid program, and that should bring lots ofpotential applicants to the temple. Olivia and Marta will continue to work toreplace more girls who want to join us. Lucia, Honoria, and the girls who havealready signed on will come directly here tomorrow for training. Honoria hasalready been able to recruit five other girls that she knows personally.”

“Other flamens’ daughters?” I ask hopefully.

“No, unfortunately,” he says. “As it turns out,the other flamens aren’t anxious for their daughters to participate.” When hesees my unhappy expression, he hastens to reassure me. “Don’t worry, Olivia. Asyou yourself heard, we have the full support of the Pontifex Maximus. It’slikely they just don’t want their daughters in any physical danger.” He smiles.

“Our first class tomorrow will be starting acurriculum that Gaius has been working hard to design. They’ll have to gothrough some basic military training. We have to have them behaving like realsoldiers by the time the Selanthi arrive. They all have to follow orderswithout question, for example. I don’t want any last-minute hesitation aboutblowing up enemy ships and costing enemy lives.” Gaius is nodding agreement. Ihave a moment of hesitation myself. If all goes to plan, it’s true we reallywill be killing people. The idea had not even occurred to me.

“And finally,” the flamen says gravely, “we havereceived news from our commanders in the north. All the evidence suggests thatthe Selanthi attack on Polonia will go forward as expected, and we may have asfew as two weeks before the first wave arrives. Although we want to proceedwith as much secrecy as possible, I’m afraid we’re going to have to startrecruiting aggressively. Girls,” he says to me and Marta, “don’t be afraid toask for participation. If our secret gets out, it gets out. You can expect somepublic outcry, but remember all the recruits will be here at the academy fortheir safety. They’ll be heavily guarded. Good luck tomorrow.”

On the road back to the House of Vestals withCassius, Marta and I sit quietly, overwhelmed with the pace of these changes.This is a lot of responsibility to put on girls whose major goal used to be finishinga Vestal worship ritual without stepping on one another.

We arrive home to replace that Lavinia hasassembled the entire house for a meeting, almost two dozen girls in total.There are about thirty Vestals who attend the temple for the city of Polonia.We’re by far the largest establishment, and we’re also the only one withVirgins under twenty years old, because we’re responsible for teaching all theyoung trainees. Some of the girls will eventually transfer to temples in otherparts of the country once they’ve finished their first ten years.

“Hello, Olivia and Marta,” she welcomes us. “Wewaited for you to begin.” Then she pauses until she is sure she has the group’sfull attention. “Everyone, we’re about to enter a very stressful time in ourhistory. Announcements have been posted all over the city for a new refugee aidprogram that the Vestal Virgins will be administering. From this point forward,all of our energies will be devoted to recruiting for this program.” Laviniabegins handing out paper as she speaks.

“The first thing you all need to know is thatthe program is entirely fake,” she announces and waits for her audience toreact. All she gets is puzzled silence. “We are now part of a very important,and very secret, project for the Academy of Mars. Every single one of you willhave temple duty tomorrow, and you will be evaluating applicants based on thelist of criteria I have just handed out. The bottom line is this: if you followthis checklist to the letter, absolutely no one should qualify for the fake aidprogram.”

I look at my list. The criteria for the aidprogram are endless. The very first requirement is that you must be a virgin,although there’s no obvious relationship between one’s purity and one’s abilityto provide aid to the orphans and wounded. Maybe everyone will assume theVestal Virgins have a certain…prejudice. In addition, I see that you can’t bean only child, you can’t have brothers at the front, you must have both parentsliving, and then the list goes on for two more pages after that.

“Ladies, assuming someone passes every singleone of these requirements, you will then lead them down the west hallway of thetemple to take an eyesight test, which they will invariably fail,” Laviniasays. “Those who claim to be virgins will then be told that there is a secondopportunity for them to contribute to the war effort, and they should be ledinto the back office, where Olivia, Marta, and I will be waiting for them. Youwon’t have any further responsibility for the applicants once they enter theback office, and you’ll return to evaluate the next woman in line. Anyquestions?”

I’m starting to feel pretty good about thisscheme. At least rejected applicants will get some impression that the refugeeaid program is real. It’s certainly got a thorough enough vetting process.

When she’s taken every question, Laviniadismisses us. Exhausted, Marta and I fall into bed without furtherconversation. While I wait for sleep, odd unconnected thoughts pass through mybrain. I suddenly realize that my days will be largely spent away from Gaius.Then I wonder if any of Honoria’s friends are pretty.