Page 33 of Sacrifice

My lips thinned. “Fine.”

“The Thorne patriarchs approached the Covenant and told them just how much money they could all make if they went into business together, with the Covenant growing the mushrooms and the Thornes doing all the distribution work. However, the Covenant elders made it quite clear that money was never going to be much of a priority to them. Aside from the relatively small amount we needed for purchasing necessities from outsiders who refused to trade, or paying for outside education for our healers and engineers, we really didn’t need much. So the Covenant declined. At least they did at first.”

“What changed?”

“The Thornes told us they had something else to offer. Something that they’d realized was far more important to us than massive piles of money.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “What was it?”

Augustus was silent for a moment. Then he looked back at me, brows raised. “You very astutely brought up a certain point on your first day here, Sebastian,” he said. “With the Covenant’s particular way of life, which included a staunch refusal to allowoutsiders to join, we ended up with a very serious problem after a while.”

My mind flashed back to the first few conversations I’d shared with him after my arrival. Then I nodded slowly as it dawned on me. “Inbreeding.”

He nodded. “There were only a few families here at the start, and… well, we saw what happened firsthand with such a lack of breeding stock, for want of a better term. We had many babies born with health problems. Many premature deaths, too. I’m sure you can imagine.”

“Yeah, I can,” I said gruffly.

“Your family was already extremely wealthy back then, because of the timber business, but they eventually decided to branch out into healthcare in the 1800s. The drug dealing was part of that decision, really, because owning and running hospitals makes a good cover for the distribution of drugs,” he went on. “Anyway, back then, it was considered terribly scandalous for unwed outsider girls and women to have babies, but it happened quite frequently anyway. They would give birth at the Thorne-owned hospitals, and often they would tell the doctors and nurses that they wanted to give the child up for adoption.”

“You’re saying my ancestors started giving the babies to the Covenant?” I asked, brows rising. In return for the drugs that made them millions?”

“Yes. That way, we had more genetic material in our midst, which eventually helped with the inbreeding problem that plagued us. The babies were with us a few days after their birth, so none of them ever knew they weren’t born directly into the Covenant,” Augustus replied. “In return for the babies, we gave the Thornes as many mushrooms as we could possibly grow. They sold them up and down the country, made anunfathomable amount of money, and gave us ten percent of the profits as our cut, along with the infants.”

“And that ten percent was used to pay for the necessities and university educations you mentioned earlier?” I said, nodding slowly. It was all starting to make sense now. I’d always known their money had to come from somewhere. I just had no idea my own fucking family was involved. Hell, not justinvolved.They’d been knee-deep with the Covenant for centuries. Totally enmeshed.

“Exactly. As I said, we didn’t need much. That is why we were happy to take such a small percentage despite owning the means of production, so to speak.”

“And this went on for two-hundred-odd years?”

“For the most part, yes. Some problems arose in the early twentieth century. Record-keeping and government regulations in the healthcare industry became far more stringent, and it became harder and harder for the Thornes to obtain babies for us. Sometimes, the Covenant would go for whole decades without a single child delivered to us. In fact, between the years of 1936 and 1983, we only had three babies given to us for adoption.”

“I’m guessing that soured the relationship.”

“Not exactly. That happened later.Muchlater,” Augustus said. “The Covenant knew it wasn’t the fault of the Thornes that it was getting harder to find babies. But we still needed them every so often, to keep our population growing without the old inbreeding issue cropping back up, so things started to get a little strained. But then the Thornes gave us a miracle solution in the 1980s.”

At the mention of that particular decade, something began to needle at my mind. A split-second later, every single one of my recent conversations with Jesse came rushing back to me, along with the sudden recollection of the locked freezer that Rose and Icouldn’t access when we ventured into the forbidden cave earlier this evening.

“IVF,” I said woodenly. “They gave you stolen embryos, didn’t they? To provide you with new DNA.”

Augustus nodded. “That’s right. Your family’s hospitals were providing the service to outsider families, and they used it to help us too.”

Rose looked between us helplessly. “What’s IVF?”

“In-vitro fertilization. It’s a type of assisted reproductive technology for people who have trouble conceiving babies,” I explained. “Basically, a woman’s egg is fertilized by sperm outside of her body. Once it successfully turns into an embryo, it’s implanted in her womb, where it continues to grow so she can eventually give birth.”

“So the Thorne family did this for us?” Rose asked, tilting her head. “They helped us have more babies?”

“In a sense, but… not exactly,” her father replied. “As Sebastian said, the most important thing to us was different DNA. Something new to put in our gene pool. So, on occasion, when an outsider couple had several viable embryos, the Thornes would ensure that one or two of them went missing.”

Rose frowned. In her beautiful eyes, I could practically see her mind ticking over as it processed all the new information. A moment later, her lips tightened. “So… they stole people’s babies. Or future babies, anyway.”

“Yes. No one ever noticed. A couple might be told that they had five viable embryos, when in actual fact, six were created. They would never question it. They had no reason to believe any of the hospital staff would lie to them about such a thing. And the hospital staff didn’t evenknowit was a lie, because the Thornes would ensure all the appropriate paperwork was changed when it went from the labs to the reproductive medicine wings of each hospital.”

“But it’s still wrong!” Rose shook her head, eyes wild with anger at her father’s admission. “It’s not like stealing a loaf of bread. It’s stealing a potentiallife! Taking them from their real family!”

“The biological parents never knew, so they weren’t hurt, and it was all for the greater good,” Augustus said. “We needed the genetic variation for the health of our people. But we knew most people wouldn’t view it that way, so we kept it quiet from the majority of the Covenant. Only the elders, healers, and alchemists know the full truth about what goes into maintaining our lifestyle.”

“So that’s what the fertility rituals are about, right?” I cut in. “The IVF stuff?”

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