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from her. That should have told her. She shouldn't have gone off alone with him." He began crying in earnest now. "I think she was protecting *me*. Because I told her to kill him that first day. I think she was trying to get him not to kill me."
Sister Carlotta tried to keep emotion out of her voice. "Do you believe you might be in danger from Achilles?"
"I am now that I told you," he said. And then, after a moment's thought. "I was already. He doesn't forgive. He pays back, always."
"You realize that this isn't the way Achilles seems to me, or to Hazie. Helga, that is. To us, he seems -- civilized."
Bean looked at her like she was crazy. "Isn't that what it *means* to be civilized? That you can *wait* to get what you want?"
"You want to get out of Rotterdam and go to Battle School so you can get away from Achilles." Bean nodded.
"What about the other children. Do you think they're in danger from him?"
"No," said Bean. "He's their papa."
"But not yours. Even though he took bread from you."
"He hugged her and kissed her," said Bean. "I saw them on the dock, and she let him kiss her and then she said something about how he promised, and so I left, but then I realized and I ran back and it couldn't have been long, just running for maybe six blocks, and she was dead with her eye stabbed out, floating in the water, bumping up against the dock. He can kiss you and kill you, if he hates you enough."
Sister Carlotta drummed her fingers on the desk. "What a quandary."
"What's a quandary?"
"I was going to test Achilles, too. I think he could get into Battle School."
Bean's whole body tightened. "Then don't send me. Him or me."
"Do you really think ..." Her voice trailed off. "You think he'd try to kill you there?" "*Try?*" His voice was scornful. "Achilles doesn't just *try*."