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Lara stirred and spoke up again. “And yet, even if this is all true, we have very limited options. If we were to sacrifice Madeleine today—”
“You will not sacrifice Madeleine!” Reese roared.
“We still would not have solved our problem. If she is the god’s last surviving heir, we will face exactly the same dreadful dilemma in another ten years.”
“That’s why she must marry me instantly and bear children as soon as possible,” Tivol broke in.
Reese turned on him. “Whatever else happens, she will not be marryingyou.”
Her father made a brushing motion. “Fine. You can marry her and sire her children. But areyouprepared to see them surredered at the temple? At least Tivol can be counted on to see his duty through.”
Lara raised her voice to be heard above the squabbling. “But we still have solved nothing. It would be another ten years before a child was large enough to be useful. Do we even have that kind of time?”
Madeleine wanted to shriek from revulsion at this cold calculation. She had never been the kind of person who yearned for babies, who pictured herself cuddling a cooing infant in her arms. But Lara was talking about children,Madeleine’schildren, as if they were livestock being bred for the slaughterhouse.
Harlo shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. The quakes are getting stronger. But—we have no choice but to try.” He turned back to Madeleine, and his expression was pleading. “We beg you to help us. To marry and conceive—and to be willing, when the time comes, to give up your most precious gift to save us all.”
She tried to preserve her calm, but she still wanted to shriek and rage and strike every single Council member across the face—and then run from the room, curl up in a corner, and sob. She took a slow breath. “I don’t know that I am willing,” she said, her voice as steady as she could make it. “I just know that you have presented me with a terrible dilemma, and the fact that you have lied to me for my entire life does not make me trust you or wish to accommodate you.”
Harlo bowed his head. “Keeping you in ignorance seemed like the kindest course, but perhaps we were wrong. Do not let your anger at us blind you to the terrible price everyone else in the world will pay.”
She gestured toward the table. “As Lara says, even if I cooperate, it will be years before—before anything can be done. Would there be any value in me giving yousomeof my blood? As much as I can stand to lose?”
She heard Reese’s voice say “Maddie,” but she didn’t look his way, just kept her eyes on Harlo.
“I don’t know. It might be enough to move the wheel an inch or two. It might buy us a couple of months.” He shook his head. “It might not.”
“That is a donation I am willing to make,” she said. “So that we—you—I can think through what else we might do to avert catastrophe.”
“Weknowwhat we must do,” Heloise said.
Madeleine looked at her. “No,” she said simply, “we don’t.”
Tivol stepped closer, his face eager. “Madeleine, if we could just talk—”
She jerked back, even though he wasn’t close enough to touch her. “I don’twantto talk to you.”
Reese practically leapt across the room to come to her side and put an arm around her shoulders. She knew it was cowardly, but she leaned against him just because she needed the support so badly. “You stay away from her,” Reese said fiercely. “You don’t deserve to ever talk to her again.”
Tivol started forward angrily. “If you think—”
Madeleine’s father grabbed him in a hard hold. “Let it go,” he said. “At least for now.”
“But—”
“There is much we still have to determine,” Harlo said, intervening smoothly. “But when can you come to the temple to give your gift?”
“Tomorrow, if you like. Unless you want to traipse over there now, in the dark.”
“Tomorrow will be excellent.”
Reese said, “I’ll come with you.”
She glanced around the room and then up at him. “Are you done here? You could leave with me now.”
He didn’t look back at her father or Harlo or anyone. “Of course.”
“Before you go,” Harlo said.
