“I realized it when I stopped at my sister’s house on my way here,” he said. “She has four children, two of them still young enough that they sleep in cribs. The slats that make up the crib’s sides are just as the sailor described.” Something about this made him uncomfortable enough that his words choked to a halt. The others waited as he took a drink of water, then cleared his throat. He gestured with his hands that he needed a moment to explain. “In the past, the quota was taken regularly from each province. Aushenia avoided this for generations, but I’m sure you’ve felt the insult of it in recent years.” He glanced at Grae, and went to sip again from his wooden cup. It appeared to be empty. “You pay the quota now, just as any other province—”
“Aushenia is not a province,” Grae said.
“As you say,” Renold demurred. “Regardless, I think a time may come when the league no longer collects quota.” Several began to question him, surprised, but he spoke through it. “The isles are to become plantations for the production of one crop: children. That’s what they are building. Compounds in which mothers will give birth to children. That’s what those dowels are for—for the cribs they will sleep in. Thousands of them.”
Hunt said, “As in a factory?”
Renold nodded. “There will be mothers and fathers and children who never know freedom. They will live and die on those islands or in the Other Lands.”
“Can this be true?” Elaz asked.
“Monstrous,” Hunt said.
“Worse than monstrous,” Renold added. “It will look clean to the world. The people won’t see it, but it will go on and on.”
“They’ll see it if we shout about it!” Lady Shenk said.
“Perhaps, but if they cover their ears …”
Barad let them argue for a while. Renold had confirmed what he had already expected. It was good that the group hear such things from one another, though. He had always known the league was capable of anything—anything at all—that would ensure their profits. This business on the islands was a logical progression of sorts. Why roam the Known World rounding up children, taking them from parents who then needed to be appeased or quelled? It was inefficient and messy. How much better to control production themselves, to treat the children purely as products, and to do it all far from the sight of the masses? If it proved feasible, the day might indeed come when the queen and the league stopped requiring quota from the provinces. Corinn could declare that she had freed them from the burden, and the Known World wouldn’t feel the crime. If that happened, they could shout about it all they wanted. People rarely believe what they cannot see. Not, at least, when seeing is more frightening than not.