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there are a number of candidates, subject to the same sort of breeding
attributes as yourself, but I have had more pressing matters and have put off
making a final choice. I will no longer let it go. You are seventeen, and that
is old enough. You will be informed in due time."
She wanted to protest, but there was really only one way to do so, and that
was to appeal to an intermediate power. "Does mother know of this?"
He did not take offense at the question. Of course, what her mother liked or
didn't like was beside the point when he made such a decision, but she was not
exactly one who would be easy to mollify. The wife of a great man was herself
a politician and had many ways to work her will upon him. If all else failed,
his wife alone knew many secrets that would be uncomfortable to have leaked,
even in the family holdings and on the Han cultural level.
"Your mother and I have talked this over many times. She will, of course, have
a voice in the final selection as is her right and duty, but she is certainly
in full agreement on this. It is decided, daughter. Go. Enjoy this time, which
is the last of childhood. It is precious."
This disturbing interview had suddenly turned her world upside down. She had
gone in flush with discovery and wanting so much her father's approval and
appreciation of her work; instead, she had found that what she knew was known
to him, and that her comfortable life was about to take a radical turn for
what could only be the worse.
She occupied her mind over the next few days helping the relatives move in and
lending a hand in the kitchens and service areas, but there was no joy in it.
Ahead, the marriage loomed like a great threatening wall against which she was
to be dashed, and every day that wall drew closer and closer.
She was in the great formal gardens in back of the main house, just looking at
the beautiful flowers and wanting to be as alone as possible in this
environment, when Tai Ming and Ahn Xaio sought her out.
They greeted her warmly, but something was clearly on their minds. "You two
are so serious," she noted. "What are your parents marrying you off as well?"
The knowledge of her father's decision had spread quickly, if only because
such things for one of her rank took much time to prepare.
"No not yet, anyway," Ming responded hesitantly. "It's just that there are "
"There are rumors," Ahn put in. "Strong rumors. Rumors supported by things
overheard and repeated."
"About what? My marriage? My husband to be?"
"In a way," Ming responded, trying to figure out a way to say it.
Song Ching knew that these two had much closer contact with the servants and
staff than she possibly could and that the servant and staff gossip network
was extremely reliable and useful. "One of you out with it! I can no longer
stand this!"
"Your father has told you that the knowledge you gained from the raid must be
erased?" Tai Ming asked her.
She nodded. "Yes, and I don't like it. I have never liked anyone inside my
mind even when it was for safety's sake, and I like erasures even less, but
they have no choice in this matter. Surely you have been told the same."
"Yes. All of us will be sent back to the Center before Leave time comes," Ahn
admitted, getting it out at last. "You, however, will be treated differently,
although you are not supposed to know that. They have a team of experts ready.
Psychochemists, a complete psychotech team all for you. Your father was
overheard giving the orders to General Chin." Chin was his chief aide, his
deputy up at administration headquarters, and would be acting director while
her father was on Leave.
"Oh, Song Ching, they are going to remake you!" Tai Ming blurted tearfully.
"They he said it was the only way you would ever be a good wife and mother."
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She suddenly felt a little nauseous. "He wouldn't dare!" she responded
angrily, but she knew her father well enough to know that not only would he
dare, he'd do it. He had probably been planning it all the time, which was why
he'd let her go on so long as she was. He'd been testing her, both for
abilities and for physical and mental development! Now she'd passed the last
test. But her father would never consider her an end result, merely the bearer
of grandsons who would be allowed the power and position she craved and
deserved but which could never be hers.
Now she would fulfill her father's master plan. There was no way around it.
She could hardly avoid the psychotechnicians who would be required before
going on
Leave to leave undisturbed all that she knew would be sure death not only for
the family but for her and then she'd be at the mercy of her father's power
and directives. She would never come off Leave. She would be wiped clean of
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