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"Prevailing opinion Meaning yours"

"Mine and Eustace’s" For a moment, Nina’s expression seemed to soften But only for a ot what you wanted Be happy"

"What I want is to get her out of there"

"Which is e’re counting on, Sara And we’ll get her out, in time"

"When?"

"I think that should be obvious When all of this is over"

"Are you blacked off the accusation "Don’tI’m particularly averse to But in this case, I don’t have to" She looked at Sara carefully "What do you think happens to those girls?"

"What do you hter’s the only one"

"She is now But she’s not the first There’s always another Eva Giving Lila a child is the only way Guilder can keep her calh, the woet her a new one"

A wave of dizziness filled Sara’s head; she had to sit down "How old?"

"Five or six It varies But it always happens, Sara That’s what I’ Maybe not today, or even tooes"

Sara forced herself to the next question: "What’s in the basement?"

"It’s where they make the blood for the redeyes We don’t know all the details The process starts with hue it somehow There’s a man down there, a kind of viral, or so it’s said They call hies in his body, so different comes out You’ve seen what happens to the woman?"

Sara nodded

"It happens to all of them, but it’s slower in the men The blood of the Source rejuvenates theoes down there, she’ll never coer, helplessness, a fierce desire to protect her daughter It was so intense she thought she ht be ill

"What am I supposed to do?"

"When the tiet her out You have : telling They had e, and the ransom would be paid in blood

"Hate her for it, Sara Think about what she does The moment will come for all of us, o willingly when I’hter is on her own We’ll never be able to reach her"

"Where is it?" Sara asked She didn’t have to be clearer than that; herwas obvious

"It’s better if you don’t know yet You’ll receive amatters"

"What if I can’t do it?"

"Then you die anyway And so does your daughter It’s just a matter of when I’ve told you about the how" Her eyes were looking deep into Sara’s There was no cooes according to plan, it will be the end of the redeyes Guilder, Lila, all of the to you?"

Sara’s , then saying, in a faint voice, "Yes"

"Then do your duty Do it for your daughter Kate, is that her name?"

Sara was dumbstruck "How did you-?"

"Because you told me Don’t you remember? You told ht Soho’d given her the lock of Kate’s hair

"Youhere"

Sara wanted to laugh She would have, if such a thing were still possible "You have a funny way of showing it"

"Maybe so But those are the ti pause "You have this inside you I knohen I see it"

Did she? The question was th

"Do it for your daughter, Sara Do it for Kate Otherwise she has no chance"

Chapter 50

The things they were doing were endurable Not without pain, and pain’s cousin, which was the anticipation of it But able to be borne For a long ti Theythey liked to do, and they would go on doing it, taking their dark pleasure, which Alicia did not surrender easily She silenced her cries, she bore it all stoically, she laughed whenever she could, saying: Do your damnedest, my friends I’m the one who must be kept in chains Do you think this fact, in and of itself, is not a kind of victory?

The water was the worst of it Strange, because Alicia had always liked the water She’d been a fearless swirotto at the Colony, holding her breath as long as she could, touching the botto the bubbles of her exhaled breath ascending froht far above Sometimes they funneled the water into her mouth Sometimes they pulled her down from the chains, strapped her to a board, and dunked her headfirst into an icy tub Each tioes, and counted the seconds until it was over