Bones of steel; circuits for veins.
My heart a vault of iron.
Keiro lifted his lantern. 'Where are you, Wise One?' Gildas had not been in his sleeping cage or anywhere in the main chamber, where the Comitatus had defiantly lit flares in every brazier and were celebrating their victory with raucous song and boasting. It had taken a few clouts of Keiro's fist among the slaves to find someone who had seen the old man, heading for the hovels. Now they had tracked him down to a small cell; he was bandaging a suppurating sore on a slave-child's leg, his mother holding a feeble candle and waiting anxiously.
'I'm here.' Gildas glared around. 'Bring that lantern closer. I can't see a thing.'
Finn came in and saw the light glimmer on the boy, noticing how sickly he looked.
'Cheer up,' he said gruffly.
The boy smiled, terrified.
'If you'd only touch him, sir,' the mother murmured.
Finn turned. She might once have been pretty; now she was haggard and thin.
'The touch of a Starseer cures, they say.'
'Superstitious bloody nonsense,' Gildas snorted, tying the knot, but Finn did it anyway, putting his fingers lightly to the boy's hot forehead.
'Not so different to yours, Wise One,' Keiro said silkily.
Gildas straightened, wiped his fingers on his coat, and ignored the taunt. 'Well, that's the best I can do. The wound needs to drain. Keep it clean.'
As they followed him out he growled, 'Always more infections, more disease. We need antibiotics, not gold and tinware.'
Finn knew him in this mood; the dark gloom that kept him sometimes for days in his cage, reading, sleeping, speaking to no one. The Maestra's death would be tormenting the old man. So, abruptly he said, 'I saw Sapphique.'
'What!' Gildas stopped dead. Even Keiro looked interested.
'He said—'
'Wait.' The Sapient looked around hastily. 'In here.'
It was a dark archway and it led to one of the vast chains that hung in loops from the Den roof. Gildas put his foot in the links and climbed until the darkness hid him; when Finn clambered after him he found the old man on a narrow shelf high in the wall, shoving ancient birdmuck and nests aside.
'I'm not sitting in that,' Keiro said.
'Stand then.' Gildas took the lantern from Finn and propped it on the chain. 'Now. Tell me everything. Each word, exactly.'
Finn put his feet over the edge and looked down. 'It was a place like this, high up. He was there with me, and I had the Key.'
'That crystal? He called it a key?' Gildas looked stunned; he rubbed his stubbly white chin. 'That is a Sapient word, Finn, a magic word. A device for unlocking.'
'I know what a key is.' His voice was angry; he tried to be calm. 'Sapphique told me to use it to unlock Time; there was a keyhole in some black, shining rock, but the Key was so heavy I couldn't manage it. I felt... devastated.'
The old man gripped Finns wrist, a hard, fierce grip. 'What did he look like?'
'Young. Long dark hair. Like the stories.'
'And the door?'
'Very small. The rock had light inside, like stars.'
Keiro propped himself elegantly against the wall. 'Strange dreams, brother.'
'Not dreams.' Gildas released him; the old man looked incredulous with joy. 'I know that door. It has never been opened. It lies about a mile from here, up in Civicry land.' He rubbed his face with both hands and said, 'Where is this Key?'
Finn hesitated. He had strung it on an old piece of string around his neck, but that had been too heavy, so now it was belted inside his shirt. Reluctantly, he tugged it out.
The Sapient took it reverently. His small hands with their raised veins explored it; he brought it close to his eyes and gazed at the eagle. 'This is what I've been waiting for. 1 ' His voice was choked with emotion.'The sign from
Sapphique.' He looked up. 'It decides everything. We leave at once, tonight, before
Jormanric gets to know what this thing is. Sudden and swift, Finn, we begin our Escape.'
'Now wait a minute!' Keiro peeled himself off the wall. 'He's not going anywhere. He's sworn to me.'
Gildas looked at him in distaste. 'Only because he's useful to you.'
'And not to you?' Keiro laughed in scorn. 'You're a hypocrite, old man. A glass trinket and a few ravings when he's off his head are all you're interested in.'
Gildas stood. He barely came to Keiro's shoulder, but his glare was malevolent, his wiry body tense.
'I would be careful, boy. Very careful.
'Or what? You'll turn me into a snake?'
'You're already doing that to yourself.'
With a shiver of steel Keiro drew his sword. His eyes were blue and icy.
Finn said, 'Stop this.' Neither of them even looked at him.
'I've never liked you, boy. I've never trusted you,' Gildas said grimly. 'You're a preening, arrogant thief who considers only his own pleasures, who would murder if it suited him—as it certainly already has. And you'd like nothing more than to make Finn your twin.'
Keiro's face was flushed. He raised the sword so that the sharp tip menaced the old man's eyes. 'Finn needs me to protect him from you. I'm the one who looks after him, holds his head when he's sick, watches his back. If we're speaking home truths, I could say that the Sapienti are old fools clutching rags of sorcery—'
'I said that's enough!' Finn stepped between them and shoved the blade aside.
Glowering, Keiro whipped it away. 'You're going with him? Why?'
'What's there to stay for?'
'For God's sake, Finn! We're well in here—food, girls, all we want! We're feared, respected—powerful enough to tackle Jormanric any time now. Then we'll be Winglords, both of us!
'And how long,' Gildas sneered, 'before two is one too many?'
'Shut up!' Finn turned, furious. 'Look at you both! The only friends I have in this hell and all you can do is fight over me. Do either of you care about me? Not the seer, the fighter, the fool who takes all the risks, but me, Finn?' He stood shivering, suddenly bone-weary, and as they stared at him he crouched, hands to his head, his voice breaking. 'I can't stand this anymore. I'm dying here, terrified, living between seizures, dreading the next one, I can't bear it anymore, I've got to get out, find out who I am! I have to Escape.'
They were silent. Dust fell slowly through the beam of the lantern. Then Keiro sheathed his sword.
Finn tried to stop shivering. He looked up, dreading to see the mockery in Keiro's eyes, but his oathbrother held out a hand and pulled Finn up until they were face-to-face.
Gildas growled, 'I care for you, you fool boy.'
Keiro's eyes were sharp and blue. 'Be quiet, old man. Can't you see he's manipulating us both, as ever? You're so good at that, Finn. You did it to the Maestra and you do it to us.'
He released Finns arm and stepped back. 'All right. Let's say we try to get out. Have you forgotten how she cursed you? A dying curse, Finn. Can we go up against that?'
'Leave that to me,' Gildas snapped.
'Ah yes. Sorcery.' Keiro shook his head in disbelief. 'And how do we know the Key will open this door? Doors only open if Incarceron wants it.'
Finn rubbed his chin. He made himself stand upright. 'I need to try.'
Keiro sighed. He turned away, gazing down at the fires of the Comitatus, and Gildas caught Finn's eyes and nodded. He seemed quietly triumphant.
