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“What do you want?” Madame Brezing interrupted. “You can’t expect us to fight with you. Rivka’s capable enough in a scrap I suppose, but she has the sense to avoid trouble. And I’m just an old lady.”
“You’re much more than that, and you know it,” I said. “When the elite wake up tonight, they will feed before the ceremony. Some of them will come here to sate their thirst, or call one of your girls.”
“That’s not the way it works, sweetheart. And we haven’t seen many elite recently. The’re all feeling a little vulnerable, I suspect.”
“But many of them have favorites,” I said, eyeing Rivka. “They may have privileged access tonight.”
“I don’t command them. They come and go as they please.”
“You make the arrangements,” I pressed. “You know them, they trust you.” I pulled out the vial of antidote, and held it up so they could see it. It looked like a melted pearl in the sunlight.
“You want us to poison them?” Madame Brezing asked.
“If your staff drinks this before the elite feed, it should do the trick.”
“You want us to poison ourselves,” Rivka cut in.
“It won’t harm them. Though they may not feel the usual health boosts they’re used to.”
“And it will kill them? The elite, I mean.”
“Might do the opposite actually. Turn them human again. Make them vulnerable.”
Rivka squeezed her hands around the vial, and I let her take it from me. She twisted off the cap and smelled it, wrinkling her nose at the pungent scent.
Madame Brezing drew the shades, and Rivka’s eyes reflected the soft pink vial, almost like she was an elite herself.
“And you’ve tested it?” Madame Brezing asked.
“Did Nigel tell you how he got that scar?” I asked, allowing myself a small smirk.
“They’ll realize it immediately. It’s too dangerous. They won’t agree to it.”
“Then don’t ask them,” I said. It was more callous than I’d intended, but I was wasting time and the elixir pumped through my blood like a metronome, announcing each passing second.
Madame Brezing strode towards me, a look of fury on her face, and I rose to the challenge. If they refused to help, I might have to fight my way out. But I couldn’t risk them raising the alarm, and people would notice if they went missing. Rivka stepped between us, her palms up to keep us apart.
“You’re a child,” Madame Brezing said. “You want to murder all the elites, indiscriminately, because of what they are. And put the rest of us in harm’s way for your own personal cause.”
She glanced at the wall, which was covered in framed photographs and newspaper clippings going back decades. I saw a face that looked familiar, and then another I was sure I recognized. It hit me in a flash, all at once. The missing girls. The vials markedTrial MB#.
“It was you,” I said. “You supplied the girls for the king’s experiments.”
She flinched as if I’d struck her, and the rigid expression faded from her face. Suddenly she looked young, and vulnerable. She turned to Rivka, who was stunned into silence for once.
“What’s she talking about?” Rivka asked.
“I can explain—”
“All those missing girls. It was you this whole time?”
Madame Brezing sat heavily on the couch, hanging her head in her hands.
“So it’s blackmail then?” she asked weakly. “You really have settled in quickly.”
“I don’t have time to care about all that,” I said.
“Well I for one think we’d better hear it,” Rivka said. “Like right fucking now.”
