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Alive I'm alive it says alive, alive alive alive and into the room comes Mayor Ledger, pushed by Mr. Collins.
    He pulls up his step when he sees Mayor Prentiss standing there.
    "New bedding will arrive tomorrow," Mayor Prentiss says, still looking at me. "As will toilet privileges."
    Mayor Ledger's moving his jaw but it takes a few tries before any words come out. "Mr. President--"
    Mayor Prentiss ignores him. "Your first job will also begin tomorrow, Todd."
    "Job?" I say.
    "Everyone has to work, Todd," he says. "Work is the path to freedom. I will be working. So will Mr. Ledger."
    "I will?" Mayor Ledger says. "But we're in jail," I say.
    He smiles again and there's more amusement in it and I wonder how I'm about to be stung.
    "Get some sleep," he says, stepping to the door and looking me in the eye. "My son will pick you up first thing in the morning."
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    3 THE NEW LIFE [TODD]
    BUT IT TURNS OUT IT ain't Davy that worries me when I get dragged into the cold of the next morning in front of the cathedral. It ain't even Davy I look at.
    It's the horse.
    Boy colt, it says, shifting from hoof to hoof, looking down at me, eyes wide in that horse craziness, like I need a good stomping.
    "I don't know nothing bout horses," I say.
    "She's from my private herd," Mayor Prentiss says atop his own horse, Morpeth. "Her name is Angharrad and she will treat you well, Todd."
    Morpeth is looking at my horse and all he's thinking is submit, submit, submit , making my horse even more nervous and that's a ton of nervous animal I'm sposed to ride.
    "Whatsa matter?" Davy Prentiss sneers from the saddle of a third horse. "You scared?"
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    "Whatsa matter?" I say. "Daddy not give you the cure yet?"
    His Noise immediately rises. "You little piece of-"
    "My, my," says the Mayor. "Not ten words in and the fight's already begun."
    "He started it," Davy says.
    "And he would finish it, too, I wager," says the Mayor, looking at me, reading the red, jittery state of my Noise, filled with urgent red askings about Viola, with more askings I wanna take outta Davy Prentiss's hide. "Come, Todd," the Mayor says, reining his horse. "Ready to be a leader of men?"
    "It's a simple division," he says as we trot thru the early morning, way faster than I'd like. "The men will move to the west end of the valley in front of the cathedral and the women to the east behind it."
    We're riding east down the main street of New Prentisstown, the one that starts at the zigzag road by the falls, carries thru to the town square and around the cathedral and now out the back into the farther valley. Small squads of soldiers march up and down side roads and the men of New Prentisstown come past us the other way on foot, carrying rucksacks and other luggage.
    "I don't see no women," Davy says.
    "Any women," corrects the Mayor. "And no, Captain Morgan and Captain Tate supervised the transfer of the rest of the women last night."
    "What are you gonna do with em?" I say, my knuckles gripping so hard on the saddle horn they're turning white.
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    He looks back at me. "Nothing, Todd. They will be treated with the care and dignity that befits their importance to the future of New World." He turns away. "But for now, separate is best."
    "You put the bitches in their place," Davy sneers.
    "You will not speak that way in front of me, David," the Mayor says, calmly but in a voice that ain't joking. "Women will be respected at all times and given every comfort. Though in a nonvulgar sense you are correct. We all have places. New World made men forget theirs, and that means men must be away from women until we all remember who we are, who we were meant to be."
    His voice brightens a little. "The people will welcome this. I offer clarity where before there was only chaos."
    "Is Viola with the women?" I ask. "Is she okay?"
    He looks back at me again. "You made a promise, Todd Hewitt," he says. "Need I remind you once more? Just save her and I'll do anything you want, I believe were your exact