different about you. Color of your skin. The way you speak. The place you're from. Magic. It comes and goes in cycles, Kate. Each new generation picks their own Other. For the Keepers, it's people with magic. And for us, well, it's the Keepers. We will murder them all. No matter if some of them are confused, or easily led, or feebleminded. Or if they have families. They will die. It makes me despair sometimes."
There was such profound sadness in his voice that it made me want to hug myself.
"And then there are lost souls like Leslie, so full of selfhatred that they trample the world in a rush to blame someone for their pain." He shook his head. "Well, look at me, getting all melancholy in my old age. I don't know what came over me." I knew. It was looking at Julie's tortured body for the last twenty-four hours. He looked on her and felt terrible sorrow. I looked at her and I felt rage.
"When Erra died, did you get hold of any tissue samples?" I asked. "Blood, hair, that type of thing?"
Doolittle looked at me from above the rim of his glass. "Why don't you just tell me straight what it is you're hunting for."
"There is a ritual that may be able to save Julie. To do it, I need to be able to do what Erra did. I need to know if there are any differences between my blood and hers so I can figure out if it's possible to compensate for them."
"That will take time," Doolittle said.
"Can you keep her asleep long enough?"
Doolittle nodded and stood up. "Follow me."
We walked down the hallways, deeper and deeper into the medical ward. "This ritual, how certain are you that it will work?"
" `Certain' might be too strong a word."
"And if it fails?" Doolittle asked.
"Then I will finally be out of your hair and you won't have to patch me up anymore."
Doolittle stopped and looked at me. For a moment he looked stricken, and then he crossed his arms. "There will be none of that, now. You are my finest work. If I ever go to one of those medmage conferences they keep inviting me to, I will take you with me. Look!" He held his hands out toward me. "Bone dragons, sea demons, rakshasas, and worst of all, our own people, and these magic hands kept her alive through it all. Look at her walk! You can't even see the limp anymore. As long as you don't open your mouth, you will appear as a perfect example of a healthy adult female. With your history, they'll be calling me a miracle worker."
I snickered. "I promise to keep my mouth shut."
Doolittle shook his head in mock sorrow. "It's bad luck to promise impossible things. How is the knee? Honest now."
"Hurts."
"I'll take another look at it when the magic wave hits." Doolittle stopped before a door. "Ready?"
For what? "I was born ready."
Doolittle thrust a key into the lock and unlocked it with a quiet click. The door swung open, revealing a small chamber with a metal barrel in its center. Two feet wide, three feet tall, sealed with a flat lid. Doolittle approached it, twisted the metal clasp, and swung the lid aside. Cold assaulted my face. Inside, bags of red ice sat in neat rows.
"Erra's blood," Doolittle said. "After you and our lord fought her, Jim brought me her body. Before we buried her, I drained it dry."
Chapter 22
I MADE MY WAY UPSTAIRS AND WASHED OFF ALL OF my grime. Doolittle said he'd need at least twenty-four hours to review my blood and Erra's. Normally by now Voron would be screaming warnings at me from the depths of my memory, but he kept quiet. Perhaps it was because I trusted Doolittle, or maybe because Voron's ghost no longer had an iron grip on me.
I stood under the hot water, letting it run over my skin. Julie would have to wait, and not just for Doolittle. First, we had to find the Keepers, because if they managed to activate the device within the range of the Keep, nothing would matter. Curran had already warned the guards to notify us the moment any important news came or the magic wave hit. I didn't know how much time we had, but whatever it was I wanted to spend it well. For all we knew, we'd all kick the bucket tomorrow.
When I slid the shower door open, the smell of seared meat