"Yes, Lieutenant. I look forward to serving them well to repay them for the opportunity only they could provide."

A smile softened the woman's face. "You're smarter than most who come in here, Beata. Men and women, both. You catch on quick, and you accept what's required of you. That's a good quality."

The lieutenant stood up behind her desk. "I think, with training, you could be a good leader-maybe a sergeant. It's tougher than plain soldier training, but if you can measure up, in a week or two you'll be in charge of your own squad."

"In charge of a squad? In only a week or two?"

The lieutenant shrugged. "It's not difficult, being in the army. I'm sure it's a lot less difficult than learning to butcher."

"Won't we have to learn to fight?"

"Yes, but while important at a basic level, fighting is for the most part a trivial and outmoded function of the army. The army was once a refuge for extremists. The fanaticism of warriors suffocates the society they are charged with protecting."

She smiled again. "Brains are the major requirement and women are more than equal there. With the Dominie Dirtch, brawn is unnecessary. The weapon itself is the brawn and, as such, invincible.

"Women have the natural compassion required to be officers-for instance the way I explained why you must discard your old things; men don't bother with explaining to their troops why something is necessary. Leadership is a nurturing of those under your command. Women bring wholesomeness to what used to be nothing but a savage fellowship of destruction.

"Women who defend Anderith are given the recognition to which they are entitled, the recognition they earn. We help the army contribute to our culture, instead of simply menace it, as before."

Beata glanced down at the sword at Lieutenant Yarrow's hip. "Will I get to carry a sword and everything?"

"And everything, Beata. Swords are made to wound in order to discourage an opponent, and you will be taught how. You will be a valued member of the Twenty-third Regiment. We are all proud to serve under Bertrand Chan-boor, the Minister of Culture."

The Twenty-third Regiment. That was where Inger told her he thought she should go to join: the Twenty-third Regiment. That was what the sign over the gate had said.

The Twenty-third Regiment was the one that tended the Dominie Dirtch. Inger said soldiers who tend the Dominie Dirtch had the best job in the army, and were the most respected. He called them "the elite."

Beata thought back to Inger. It already seemed another life.

As she had been leaving his place, Inger gently took a hold of her arm and turned her back. He said he believed some man at the estate had hurt her and asked her to tell him if that was true. She nodded. He asked her to tell him who it was.

Beata told him the truth.

He had cleared his throat and told her he finally understood why she had to leave. Inger was probably the only Ander who would have believed her. Or cared.

Inger had wished her a good life.

"Again," the captain ordered.

Beata, being first in line, lifted the sword and ran forward. She stabbed with her weapon at the straw man swinging by a rope. This time, she ran her sword right through his leg.

"Beautiful, Beata!" Captain Tolbert said. He always praised them when he approved of what they did. Being Haken, Beata found such praise an odd experience.

She almost fell trying to pull the sword back out of the straw man's leg as she ran past. She at least managed it, if not with grace. Sometimes the others didn't.

Fortunately for Beata, she had years of experience with blades. Although the blades had been smaller, she knew something about wielding blades and stabbing them where you intended.

Despite being Haken and supposedly not allowed to use knives because they were weapons, Beata had worked for a butcher and so it was overlooked, since butchers were Ander and they kept a tight rein on their Haken workers. Butchers only let the Haken girls and women cut up meat, along with the Anders. The Haken boys and men working for them did the lifting and lugging, mostly-the things not requiring them to handle blades.

Three of the other girls, Carine, Emmeline, and Annette, were Haken, too, and had never held anything more than a dull bread knife before. The four Ander boys, Turner, Norris, Karl, and Bryce, were not from wealthy families and had never handled a sword before, either, but as boys they had played with sticks as swords.

Beata knew that Anders were better than Hakens in every way, but she was having a difficult time making sure she didn't wrongly show up Turner, Norris, Karl, and Bryce. They were best suited to grinning moronically. That was about it, as far as she could tell. Most of the time they pranced around bragging about themselves to each other.

The two Ander girl recruits, Estelle Ruffin and Marie Fauvel, didn't have any experience with swords, either. They did like swinging their new swords about, though, as did the rest of them. They were better at it, too, than the four Ander boys. For that matter, even the Haken girls, Carine, Emmeline, and Annette, were better than the four boys at soldiering.

The boys could swing harder, but the girls were better at hitting the target. Captain Tolbert pointed that out so the boys would understand they weren't any better than the girls. He said to the boys that it didn't matter how hard you could swing a sword, if you couldn't hit anything.

Karl had gashed his leg the first day, and it had to be sewn closed. He hobbled around, still grinning, a soldier with a scar in the works.

Emmeline poked at the straw man's leg as she ran by. She missed the swinging leg and her sword's tip caught in the rope around the straw waist. She fell flat on her Haken face.

The four Ander boys erupted in laughter. The girls, Ander and Haken both, didn't. The boys called Emmeline a clumsy ox and a few other rude things under their breath.

Captain Tolbert growled in anger as he snatched the collar of the nearest: Bryce. "I've told you before, you may have laughed at others in your old life, but not here! You don't laugh at your fellow soldiers, even if that soldier is a Haken. Here you are all equal!"

He shoved Bryce — away. "Such a violation of respect to fellow soldiers requires punishment. I want each of you to name for me what you think a fair punishment."

Captain Tolbert pointed at Annette and asked her to name a fair punishment. She thought a moment and then said she thought the boys should apologize. Carine and Emmeline, the other two Haken girls, spoke up that they agreed. He asked Estelle. She pushed back her dark Ander hair and said the boys should be kicked out of the army. Marie Fauvel agreed, but added they could be let back in the next year. The four boys, when asked their idea of fair punishment, said just to be told not to do it again.

Captain Tolbert turned to Beata. "You hope to be a sergeant. What would you say was a good punishment, if you were a sergeant?"

Beata had her answer ready. "If we're all equal, then we should all be treated equal. Since the four of them think it's so funny, the whole squad should have to dig a new latrine instead of having dinner." She folded her arms. "If any of us gets hungry as we're digging, well, we have these four boys to thank."

Captain Tolbert smiled with satisfaction. "Beata has named a fair punishment. That will be it, then. If anyone objects, they can head home for their mothers' skirts because they don't have the courage it takes to be a soldier and stick up for their fellow soldiers."

Estelle and Marie, Anders both, cast dark glares at the Ander boys. The boys hung their heads and stared at the ground. The Haken girls weren't any happier about it, but the boys were more worried about the glares from the Ander girls.