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"How is it possible," Maharet asked in a low voice, "to break a cycle of violence throughthe males of the human species What can possibly be the outcome of such a brutal act?"

"You know the outcome as well as I do," Akasha said "It's too siinable until now All those centuries I sat upon my throne in Marius's shrine; I dreas lived without the tor this peace without tyranny And then the utter si The people who can realize such a dream are women; but only if all the men-or very nearly all the men-are removed

"In prior ages, such a thing would not have been workable But now it is easy; there is a vast technology which can reinforce it After the initial purgation, the sex of babies can be selected; the unwanted unborn can be mercifully aborted as so many of both sexes are now But there is no need to discuss this aspect of it, really You are not fools, any of you, no matter how emotional or impetuous you are

"You know as I know that there will be universal peace if the male population is limited to one per one hundred women All forms of random violence will very simply come to an end

"The reign of peace will be so the world has never known Then the radually But for the conceptual fraone Who can dispute that? It may not even be necessary to keep the one in a hundred But it would be generous to do so And so I will allow this At least as we begin "

I could see that Gabrielle was about to speak I tried to give her a silent signal to be quiet, but she ignored me

"All right, the effects are obvious," she said "But when you speak in terms of wholesale extermination, then questions of peace beco one half of the world's population If ht be a peaceful world as well "

"The men deserve ill happen to them As a species, they will reap what they have sown And re-a retreat, as it were It's the simplicity of it which is beautiful Collectively the lives of these men do not equal the lives of women who have been killed at the hands of men over the centuries You know it and I know it Now, tell me, how many men over the centuries have fallen at the hands of woht back to life every man slain by a woman, do you think these creatures would fill even this house?

"But you see, these points don't ain, we knohat I say is true What matters-what is relevant and even more exquisite than the proposition itself-is thathave the means to make it happen I aels And there is no one who can oppose us with success "

"That's not true," Maharet said

A little flash of anger colored Akasha's cheeks; a glorious blush of red that faded and left her as inhu as before

"You are saying that you can stop est this Will you suffer the death of Eric, and Mael, and Jessica, for such a point?"

Maharet didn't answer Mael was visibly shaken but with anger not fear He glanced at Jesse and at Maharet and then at me I could feel his hatred

Akasha continued to stare at Maharet

"Oh, I know you, believe htly "I kno you have survived through all the years unchanged I have seen you a thousand times in the eyes of others; I know you dream now that your sister lives And perhaps she does-in some pathetic form I know your hatred of me has only festered; and you reach back in youras if you could find there so now But as you yourself told ether in a palace of mud brick on the banks of the Nile River, there is no rhys visible and invisible; and horrible things can befall the roost innocent of us all Don't you see-this is as crucial to what I do now as all else "