Page 360 of Alchemised
TIME PASSED IN A HAZE. Those who hadn’t gone into the Tower with Morrough began sorting the remaining prisoners, dividing them up, marking the numbers on the shackles into files.
Now that the “festivities” had come to an end, additional cars were arriving. The more decorated members of the Undying, in their black uniforms. Others who appeared to be government officials. The Guild Assembly. Governor Greenfinch.
Most were entering the Alchemy Tower, which had been rinsed of all the blood.
The door of the cage Helena was in screamed open, and guards began pulling the prisoners out, shoving them towards various areas.
“Careful!” Pace snapped as Helena was seized by the arm and dragged to her feet. “Her wrist is broken. She needs medical care. These are smart, capable women. You should—”
The guard sneered at Pace. “We’ve got plenty of prisoners of all sorts.” He looked Helena over. “She’ll go in the cull group, same as you, crone.”
He ignored Pace’s attempts to reason with him, not for herself but for Helena, trying to convince him of her exceptional abilities, as he copied the number on Helena’s shackle onto a list along with Pace’s. They were pushed towards another cage and grabbed by another guard, who shoved them carelessly inside.
Pace tried to resist, still protesting, and she tripped, falling too fast for Helena to react. Her head struck one of the iron bars with a sharp crack, and she didn’t move.
Helena’s left hand was shaking as she braced herself against the bars, using her body to cover Pace as more prisoners were shoved into the cull cage, searching desperately for a pulse. Everyone shoved inside was either badly injured or extremely old. The cadet guarding the war room was slumped beside her, deathly pale, his bowels oozing through his fingers as he tried to hold them in.
She couldn’t help him.
She slumped down next to Pace, lifting her head onto her lap, hoping she was dead, that she wouldn’t witness whatever happened next.
A shadow fell over her.
She looked up, heart in her throat, and then froze at the sight of Mandl.
“My, my,” Mandl said, her wide mouth splitting into a smile, “I thought I recognised that hair of yours.”
Helena was too exhausted to feel anything at the sight of her.
Mandl gestured with a quick flick of her wrist. “Take her out.”
The guards who’d shoved Pace glanced over. “This is the cull cage.”
Mandl turned on him. “I don’t care what ‘cage’ it is, get her out.”
Helena was dragged out, her hand bumping roughly against other bodies. She bit back a moan of pain, and her shoulder was nearly wrenched from its socket again.
“It really is you.” Mandl appraised her as Helena was dropped at her feet. “You certainly put up a fight. Were you afraid I’d find you?”
Helena had scarcely thought of Mandl since she’d finished interrogating her.
“I hoped I would.” Mandl’s breath rushed across Helena’s. She smelled sharp and acrid, like formaldehyde. “I’m going to make sure Bennet gets you for one of his special projects.”
The guard cleared his throat.
“What now?” She turned on him sharply.
“They’re saying Bennet’s gone.”
“What?”
The guard lowered his voice. “Rumour is that Hevgoss was responsible. Bombings are—their sort of thing. No one’s saying much, though. Stroud took a batch earlier and had to bring them all back. Says the whole lab’s gone. Bennet and all the rest. But word’s not supposed to get out among the—” He gestured around the commons.
A glimmer of triumph sparked in Helena’s chest. Bennet was gone; he would never hurt Kaine or anyone else ever again.
Mandl stood, stunned. “But then what about the stasis warehouse. Will it be decommissioned?”
Before the guard could reply, she answered herself. “Of course not. The Undying will still need pristine bodies in reserve. Even without Bennet.”
