Page 51 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

Her English was good, but some phrases made no sense to her, and she suspected that this was one of them.

"The version you were told on the island is Brotherhood propaganda. It's not true."

"So, what is the truth?"

"I'm not the best person for this." Bowen glanced toward the hallway, where Margaret was emerging from Tomek's room with an illustrated book in one hand and Tomek attached to the other. "Sullha doesn't know that female Dormants can transition. Can you explain it to her? You know how bad I am at this."

Margaret's eyebrows rose, and she looked at Sullha with an expression that held so much compassion that Sullha's stomach tightened in anticipation of whatever was coming.

"Of course. It was all new to me not too long ago, but I think I've got all the facts straight by now." Margaret sat on the couch and patted the cushion beside her.

Sullha accepted the invitation and sat next to Margaret. Bowen took the armchair across from them.

Tomek looked from one serious face to another and realized that it was time for grownups' boring talk, so he took his illustrated book from Margaret's hand and returned to his room.

"Both boys and girls can carry the godly genes," Margaret said. "But they can be passed down only through the mothers."

Sullha nodded. "I know that. We are carriers, and we give the genes to our sons and daughters, but only the sons can be turned immortal. The girls can't."

"That's not true," Margaret said. "Any child born to a dormant mother can transition, male or female. The venom bite is the catalyst for both, but the properties of the venom needed for activating boys are different from the ones needed to activate girls."

Sullha frowned. "I didn't know there were different kinds of venom. How does it work?"

"I'm getting there." Margaret smiled. "The venom needed to induce boys is produced in response to aggression, and the venom needed to induce girls is produced in response to sexual desire. The boys fight older immortal boys, those whose fangs and venom glands are already fully functional. The fight triggers the older males' aggression, and their glands produce the venom needed to induce the younger boys' transition. The same bites that can be used to kill another immortal are used to activate the dormant genes. That's why it's important to choose the right initiators, those who possess the necessary self-control not to overdose the boy and kill him by mistake."

"I didn't know that it was dangerous. I knew that the fight was brutal but not that it could be deadly."

Margaret frowned. "I don't think it ever happened in the history of the clan, but I don't know about the Brotherhood. From what I know about them, they don't even value the lives of their own warriors. Luckily, the kind of venom that induces women isnever deadly. For a young girl, twelve or thirteen, a bite alone is enough, and the venom production can be induced by something as simple as a kiss. The boy doing the kissing should have transitioned at least six months prior, though. That's how long it takes for their venom glands and fangs to become operational."

"What do older women need in addition to the bite?" Sullha asked.

Margaret glanced at Bowen and smiled. "There's no reason to feel uncomfortable, my love. This is basic sex education for immortals."

"I'm perfectly comfortable when you are the one providing the education."

Margaret chuckled and turned back to Sullha. "An older dormant female needs the full sexual act along with the bite to trigger the transformation."

Sullha sat very still.

The pieces began sliding against each other, rearranging and locking into a new picture.

The enclosure wall. The guards who were always human. No immortal males were ever allowed inside. The thousands of immortal warriors who filled the rest of the island were not permitted past that wall, not even to visit their mothers and sisters. Once they were out those gates, they never came back. She'd assumed it was about control, about keeping the breeders sealed away, and about severing the soldiers' ties with their families to hone them into the killing machines the Brotherhood needed.

Except that hadn't been the reason. The wall kept the immortals and the breeders apart so the males couldn't induce the females' transition into immortality, so the women could never become strong enough to mount any sort of resistance, so they would remain subjugated forever.

It was so cruel. So unfair.

"That's why," she said quietly. "That's why immortal males were never allowed inside. It wasn't to protect us. It was to keep us from turning immortal."

"Yes," Bowen said.

"But why?" She looked at him with dry eyes, anger keeping the tears at bay. "Why keep us human? So we couldn't escape? So we wouldn't be strong enough to fight off the humans they brought in to impregnate us?"

"That was a bonus but not the main reason," Bowen said. "Immortal females have a very low fertility rate. They rarely conceive. Immortal males aren't more fertile either. But dormant women, those carrying the godly genes, can conceive at the same rate as human women. The Brotherhood needs a steady supply of warriors, and immortal warriors can only be born to dormant mothers. Keeping them human keeps the numbers up. Sons for the army. Daughters to replace their mothers in the enclosure and keep it growing. It's a production line for the Brotherhood."

Sullha's hands curled into fists.

Generations of dormant women. Her mother. Her grandmother. Every woman in the enclosure, growing old and dying behind that wall, and every one of them unknowingly carrying inside her body godly genes. The potential for immortal life.