Sister Cherna fell to the ground weeping. "We must be whores for his men."

Ann gathered her resolve. "Listen to me, all of you. That ends right now. Right now, you are free. You are again Sisters of the Light. Do you hear me? You are no longer his slaves!"

"But what about the others?" Sister Rochelle asked. "Can you get them?"

Sister Georgia drew up tall and stiff. "You wait here, Prelate. Sister Rochelle, Aubrey, and Kerena will go with me to see what we can do." She gave the three a look. "Won't we? We know what we must do."

The three nodded. Sister Kerena put a hand under Ann's arm.

"You wait here. Will you? Wait here until we return."

"Yes, all right," Ann said. "But you must hurry. We need to get out of here before it gets too late in the night, or we will raise suspicions traipsing through the camp when everyone else is sleeping. We can't wait for-"

"Just wait," Sister Rochelle said in a calm voice. "We will see to it. Everything will be all right."

Sister Georgia turned to the tent full of Sisters. "See to it she waits, will you? She must wait here."

The Sisters nodded. Ann put her fists on her hips.

"If you take too long, we will have to leave without you. Do you understand? We can't-"

Sister Rochelle put a hand against Ann's shoulder. "We will be back in plenty of time. Wait."

Ann sighed. "The Creator be — with you."

Ann sat among Sisters, who seemed to recede back into the prison of their private thoughts. Their joy, so evident when they had first seen her, had faded. They were once again distant and unresponsive.

They stared off without listening as Ann tried telling them some of the lighter stories of her adventures. She chuckled as she recounted incommodious moments, hoping someone would become interested and perhaps smile, at least. No one did.

None of them asked anything, or even seemed to be listening. They would no longer even meet her gaze. Like trapped animals, they wanted only to escape the terror.

Ann was growing more uncomfortable by the moment. By the moment, sitting among these women she knew so well, her hackles were beginning to rise at the thought that maybe she didn't know them as well as she had believed.

Sometimes, trapped animals didn't know enough to run for an open gate.

When the tent flap opened, they scooted away from her. Ann rose.

Four huge men, layered in leather plates, belts, straps, hides over their shoulders, and weapons jangling from their belts, ducked into the tent, followed by Sisters Georgia, Rochelle, Aubrey, and Kerena. The men's stringy, greasy hair whipped from side to side as they checked to each side. By the way they carried themselves they looked to Ann to be men of more authority than mere soldiers.

Sister Rochelle pointed. "That's her. The Prelate of the Sisters of the Light."

"Rochelle," Ann growled, "what's this about? What do you think-"

The man seeming to be in charge seized her jaw, turning her head left, then right, as he appraised her. "You sure?" His dark glower moved to Sister Rochelle. "She looks like the rest of the beggars to me."

Sister Georgia pointed at Ann. "I'm telling you, that's her." The man's eyes turned to Sister Georgia as she went on. "She's just fixed herself up like that to get in here."

The man gestured the other soldiers forward. They brought manacles and. chains. Ann tried to fight them off, to twist away, but the soldier who seized her, unconcerned, gripped her fists and pulled them out for another man to clamp on the manacles.

Two of them forced her to the ground as another man set down an anvil. They held the manacles' ears on the anvil as they hammered pins through the holes and then mushroomed the heads of the pins, locking the manacles on permanently. They made them too tight, so they dug into her flesh, but the men were indifferent to her unintended cry of pain.

Ann knew better than to struggle when it could do no good, so she made herself become still. Without her Han, she was as helpless as a child against these big men. The Sisters mostly cowered as far away as they could get. None watched.

The men hammered closed the open links at the end of the chains. Ann let out a grunt as she was slammed face down in the dirt. More manacles were affixed to her ankles. More chains were attached. Big hands lifted her. A chain around her waist webbed all the rest together.

Ann was not even going to be able to feed herself.

One of the men scratched his thick beard. "And she has no one with her?"

Sisters Georgia and Rochelle shook their heads.

He chuckled. "How'd she get to be the Prelate, if she's that dumb?"

Sister Georgia curtsied without meeting his eyes. "We don't know, sir. But she is."

He shrugged and started to leave, but then halted and cast his gaze over the shivering women on the floor. He pointed a thick finger at a Sister in one of the absurd transparent outfits.

"You."

Sister Theola flinched. She closed her eyes. Ann could see her lips moving in a futile prayer to the Creator.

"Come along," the man commanded.

Trembling, Sister Theola stood. The other three men grinned their approval of their leader's choice as they shoved her out ahead of them.

"You said you wouldn't," Sister Georgia spoke up, if meekly.

"Did I?" the man asked. He showed her a wicked grin. "Changed my mind."

"Let me go in her place," Sister Georgia called out as the man turned to leave.

He turned back. "Well, well. Aren't you the noble one." He seized Sister Georgia's wrist and pulled her after as he went out through the flap. "Since you're so eager, you can come along with her."

After the men left with the two women, the tent fell to terrible silence. None of the Sisters would look at Ann as she sat hobbled in the chains.

"Why?" Ann had spoken the word softly, but it rang though the tent like the huge bell atop the Palace of the Prophets. Several Sisters quailed at the single word. Others wept.

"We know better than to try to escape," Sister Rochelle said at last. "We all tried at first. We truly did, Prelate. Some of us died trying. It was prolonged and horrible.

"His Excellency taught us the futility of trying to escape. Aiding anyone in an attempt to escape is a grave offense. None of us wishes that lesson visited upon us again."

"But you could have been free!"

"We know better," Sister Rochelle said. "We can't be free. We belong to His Excellency."

"As victims at first," Ann said, "but now by choice. I willingly risked my life that you might be free. You were given the option, and you chose to remain slaves rather than reach for freedom.

"Worse, though, you all lied to me. You lied in the cause of evil." The women hid their faces as Ann delivered a withering glare. "And each of you knows what I think of liars-what the Creator thinks of those who lie in the cause of opposing his work."

"But Prelate-" Sister Cherna whined.

"Silence! I've no use for your words. You no longer have any right to have me hear them.

"If I ever get out of these chains, it will be by the aid of those who sincerely serve the Light. You are no better than the Sisters of the Dark. At least they have the honesty to admit their vile master."

Ann fell silent when a man stepped through the opening into the tent.

He was average in height and powerfully built, with massive arms and chest. His fur vest was open, revealing dozens of jewel-studded gold chains hanging from his bull neck. Each thick finger held a ring worthy of a king.

His smooth shaved head reflected points of light from the candles. A fine gold chain ran from a gold ring in his left nostril to another in his left ear. The long braided ends of his mustache hung past his jaw, matching the braid in the center under his lower lip.

His eyes, though, marked the nightmare of the dream walker.