“What have I done, Sarah, what have I done to myself?” Sarah could not answer her. There were no words to describe the ruin of a soul. But she held her, she kissed her soft hair. “We’ll hunt you up a meal. Like that old woman. A nice meal.”

Leo looked at her out of awful, stricken eyes. “I don’t want to kill anybody.”

“You made a choice.”

“I don’t want to!”

Sarah moved quickly to close the bedroom door. He mustn’t overhear this.

“Leo, I’m going to tell you something about that man in there. I don’t want you to be frightened. It’s all going to come right. I hope it is.”

She went across to the graceful New Kingdom table that stood beneath the wide window. Paul’s magnum pistol lay there. The table had been a gift to Miri from Thutmose IV, “in exchange,” as she put it, “for some girlish indiscretions that he found very enjoyable.”

“This is going to come as a surprise, I know. That man in there is a killer of the Keepers. A professional.”

Leo’s eyes went to the closed door. “I didn’t think anybody knew about them.”

“There are people who know. He’s one of them. He’s murdered hundreds of them.” She said nothing of how that made her feel—the combination of relief and cold terror.

“Oh, my God. But why is she—”

“Leo, something happened tonight that I still don’t fully understand. She apparently enjoyed that man immoderately. She thinks, for whatever reason, that he fertilized her egg.”

“Only another Keeper can. Isn’t that true?”

Sarah nodded. “It’s a fantasy, nothing more. A tragic fantasy.”

“She can make a mistake like that?”

“Miriam—a Keeper woman—has only four eggs in her lifetime. This is her last one.”

“Does she have any children?”

“No. Apparently she’s lost her last egg, and—well, she seems to have had a bit of a breakdown.”

“Can’t you give her anything? I mean, you’re a doctor and all.”

“What we need to do is to give her a pregnancy test. When it comes up negative, my hope is that she’ll come to her senses.”

“And I’ll get—I’ll get to . . .” She lowered her eyes. Her face burned with shame. “I hate this!”

“You bought it,” Sarah said. “Wear it.”

“I don’t want to do any more killing! Not ever, Sarah.”

“Join the club.”

“But I have to, don’t I?”

“Join the club.”

Leo began to weep. The hopelessness in the small, defeated sobs was familiar from Sarah’s own private moments. Sarah embraced her, and Leo held on tight. “It hurts, Sarah. It hurts terribly!”

“Blood will fix that.”

Leo grew pale. “I’ll kill myself,” she said.

Sarah was silent. Leo hadn’t yet seen the attic. Better to put that off for a few days.