Hesta did not answer immediately, because Pakart's question itself implied part of the answer—where else could orphans have come from?
"I don't know," Hesta said solemnly, as if making a promise. "What did Aji tell you?"
Pakart gave a cold laugh. "Of course he wouldn't disclose anything that might put them at moral risk. But when he spoke of building the nursery, he did mention the 'scaling up' of child-rearing methods..."
Pakart suddenly began coughing. Stella hurried over to soothe her breathing and handed her a cup of warm water.
The old woman pushed the cup away. She looked at Hesta like a hawk in the midst of a hunt.
"If the children sent there were all ordinary orphans, how could he control their numbers? And how could he possibly have entertained the idea of expanding the nursery even further?"
Pakart stared at Hesta, unwilling to miss the slightest change in her expression.
"Do you remember what I wrote in the materials I gave you—what kind of places in this world would produce such a scene?"
"I remember," Hesta said. "Urban orphanages before the invention of antibiotics, or the laboratories of dictators who disregard ethics, Pakart..."
"There are no laboratories in the mountains! The cheapest and most convenient way to produce people there is for women to get pregnant! Perhaps you understand my anger, or perhaps you don't—"
"I do," Hesta interrupted quietly. "Your speculation is not impossible. The first time I went there, a member of Deep Anchor told me that one out of every twenty-two newborns there was a Kashyapa—a Quicksilver Needles wielder."
Stella and Pakart's pupils constricted almost at the same time.
Hesta cautiously glanced at them both. "I haven't verified that figure yet, and I ask that you keep it confidential."
Pakart slowly leaned back against