Then it was Ruth's turn. As she stepped forward the Warden turned away. For one dreadful moment she thought this must be the sign of rejection, that she wasn't fit to take her place in the community. Her knees sagged and she felt Teacher Jonson's steady hand under her arm.

The Initiator stepped forward, her purple uniform shining splendidly under the lights. “It is not often that I have the pleasure of taking an active part in this ceremony,” she said. “For mine is a silent work, the work of watching. I am here because every society, however great its intentions, needs checks and balances. Warden, Custodian, Protector. These are all words that speak of keeping safe, holding secure. But a society that does nothing more than hold onto what it believes is bound for self-destruction. To survive one must grow. To grow one must reach out. To reach out one must risk. My position as the fourth is to remind you all of the necessity of risk taking. I am a goad.”

Ruth felt the uneasy stir of the community around her. The Initiator ,vent on. “Once in a while, perhaps no oftener than twice or thrice in a generation, a person is born into our community whose natural gifts seem out of tune with the rest. The obvious desire of the community is to get rid of the anomaly, to smooth it over, to make things comfortable once more. It is my job to see that this does not happen without due thought. To suggest to you all that these goads and prickles are necessary to our health as a community.”

She's talking about me, Ruth realised in deepest shame. A goad. A prickle. Like the porcupine. She tried to stand tall and face the piercing eye of the woman who had been her teacher for the last four months.

“Such a case has arisen among this year's neophytes. There is a group so small that it is almost lost among the five thousand of us, a group of mavericks, with unusual and sometimes startling and uncomfortable gifts. Gifts, nevertheless, which are vital to the health of the Ark. We call these special people Innovators, and it is to this group that we warmly welcome our newest member - Ruth!”

The Initiator placed a mauve sash around Ruth's shoulders. She muttered thanks and stumbled back to her place next to Charity. She didn't see the expression of envy on Angela's face, nor the stunned looks of the others. The rest of the ceremony, as the twenty-one boys of Eight D were welcomed, passed in a blur. She sat, hands clasped, and the voice of the Warden faded away. The blue, green and gold danced in front of her eyes, blurring, changing ...