Promised by Caragh M. O'brien

that?”
    â€œNo,” he said. “Don’t think it was your fault.”
    But it was, she thought. She was the one who had brought the ledgers to Emily’s family and started the trouble in the first place. As Leon’s arm tightened, Myrna tilted her face, regarding them frankly.
    â€œHow did your back heal?” Myrna said. “And your finger.”
    â€œWell enough, thanks to you. I’m in your debt, Masister,” Leon said. He reached out a hand to shake with her. “What happened after Kyle’s execution?”
    Myrna dabbed at her neck with a handkerchief. “Apparently, Emily garnered a lot of sympathy from people outside the wall, and she built on that. She united all the pregnant women of Wharfton for the first baby strike. They refused to advance any more babies, and they sent a message to the Protectorat demanding that he return Emily’s baby. They claimed it was the right of every mother to keep her own child.”
    â€œA baby strike,” Gaia said, amazed. She’d never guessed that Emily would be the one to organize such a protest.
    â€œI expect that didn’t go over well,” Leon said.
    Chardo Will and Dinah arrived then from different directions. They unobtrusively joined the circle on the rock ledge as Myrna continued.
    â€œThe Protectorat doesn’t play games,” Myrna said. “He didn’t reply to Emily’s demands. He simply turned off the water to Wharfton.”
    â€œEvery spigot?” Gaia asked.
    â€œEven the irrigation water for the fields,” said Myrna.
    Gaia tried to imagine the panic that had hit Wharfton as people discovered they had no water. “It was like a backward siege, wasn’t it? With the people inside the wall controlling the people outside by cutting off what they needed,” Gaia said. “Did the strikers give in?”
    â€œActually it got complicated,” Myrna said. “The people of Wharfton united behind the mothers, and inside the wall, the Protectorat’s hard-line policy backfired.” She glanced briefly at Leon. “People in the Enclave are not all as cold as you might think, and some of the very wealthy, influential families formed a consortium and spoke up on behalf of the people outside the wall. It became a humanitarian issue.”
    â€œI’ll bet,” Leon said dryly. “Those same families are probably the ones who own the fields outside the wall. They didn’t want to lose their investments.”
    â€œDid the Protectorat’s own people persuade him to turn on the water again?” Gaia asked.
    â€œNo,” Myrna said. “But he was forced to negotiate. On the third day of the siege, the Protectorat named two conditions to turn the water back on. He wanted all of the people of Wharfton to register their DNA into one database.”
    Gaia was confused, trying to remember. Hadn’t she and Mabrother Iris once discussed such a possibility? She thought he’d said it wouldn’t be practical.
    â€œBut that must be fifteen thousand people or more,” Gaia said.
    â€œSixteen thousand, four hundred, and twelve, to be exact,” Myrna said. “The Protectorat wanted cheek swabs collected from everybody, in family groups. That way he would have a record of everyone’s DNA, once and for all.”
    Gaia looked at Leon. “What good could that possibly do him?”
    Leon was watching Myrna. “It’s an overabundance of information, certainly, but he likes to plan ahead. It fits.”
    Gaia shifted her weight, repositioning Maya on her hip. “What was the second condition?”
    â€œHe wanted Emily to come live inside the Bastion, as his permanent guest,” Myrna said. “She could have her son back, but inside the wall, in the Protectorat’s own home.”
    â€œTo control her,” Gaia said, with instinctive understanding. It was practically the same thing that had happened to her in Sylum