held the Key tightly. 'I don't know. It's pretty much what I'm trying to do. All right. Take me to Finn. And as we go I'll tell you what's Outside.'
Lights flickered on ahead. 'This way.' She paused. 'You do really know where they are?
This isn't a trick?'
Silence. Then, 'Oh Claudia. How angry your father will be with you. When he finds out.'
31
He fell all day and all night. He fell into a pit of darkness. He fell like a stone falls, like a bird with broken wings, like an angel cast down. His landing bruised the world.
'It's changed.' Keiro looked intently at the Key. 'The colors.' Finn lifted the crystal into a glimmer of light. The red lights were humming, flickering into a muted rainbow. The Key seemed warmer in his hand.
'Maybe she's Inside.'
'Then why doesn't she talk to us?'
Ahead, Gildas turned, a limping shadow in the darkness. 'Is this the way? Finn?'
He had no idea. The wreckage of the ship was far behind; the cube had become a funnel, narrowing as they hurried into it, the sides and roof closing in, becoming black faceted stone, the familiar obsidian glint of walls.
'Keep close to me,' he muttered. 'We don't know how far the protective field goes.'
Gildas barely heard. Since he had spoken to Jared the feverish possession of his quest had come over him again; anxiously he limped ahead, examining faint scratches on the walls, muttering to himself. He seemed to ignore his injuries, but Finn guessed they were more serious than he let on.
'The old fool's losing it,' Keiro muttered in disgust. He turned. 'And then there's her.'
Attia hung back. She seemed to be walking deliberately slowly; in the shadows she seemed deep in thought.
'That was some stunt she pulled.' Keiro walked on. He gave a sharp glance at Finn. 'A real blow under the belt.'
Finn nodded. Claudia had gone so still. Like someone stabbed with a deep wound keeps still, so as not to feel the pain.
'But,' Keiro said, 'it means there's a way out. So we can get out too.'
'You're heartless. You only ever think about yourself.'
'And you, brother.' His oathbrother glanced around, alert. 'If there is an Outside and you're some sort of king out there, then I'm guarding you like gold. Prince Keiro sounds good to me.'
'I'm not sure I can do that... be that.'
'You can. It's all pretense. You're a master of lies, Finn.' Keiro looked at him sidelong.
'You'll be a natural.'
For a moment they shared a look. Then Finn said, 'Can you hear something?'
A murmur. It drifted down the corridor, a gust of soft voices. Keiro drew his sword. Attia closed up. 'What is it?'
'Something ahead.' Keiro listened intently, but the sound did not come again. Standing still, one hand against the wall, Gildas whispered, 'Maybe it's Claudia. She's found us.'
'Then she was very quick about it.' Keiro walked on softly. 'Stay together. Finn, go at the back, and keep the Key safe.'
Gildas snorted but took his place between them.
It was a voice. It was speaking somewhere ahead, and as they crept toward it, the passageway became cluttered; great chains lay across it, manacles and shackles, scattered heaps of tools, a broken Beetle on its back. They passed small cells, some with the doors locked, and through the grille in one Finn saw a tiny dark room with rats clambering over an empty plate, a filthy pile of rags in one corner that might have been a body. Everything was still. He felt that this was a place forgotten even by its makers, a corner of itself even Incarceron had overlooked for centuries. Had it been somewhere like this that the Maestra's people had found the Key, with the desiccated bones of the man who had made it, or stolen it?
Stepping around a great pillar he realized he was beginning to forget her. Already it seemed so long ago, and yet the clatter of the bridge, her single look, were still inside him, waiting for him to sleep, to think he was safe. And her pity.
Attia grabbed him; he realized he had been walking past them.
'Stay awake, brother.' Keiro's hiss was fierce. Heart thudding, he tried to clear his head.
The prickling in his face subsided. He took deep breaths.
'All right?' Gildas whispered.
He nodded. The fit had nearly crept up on him. It made him feel sick.
Peering around the corner, he stared.
The voice was speaking in a language he had never heard, of clicks and squeaks and stilted syllables. It was addressing Beetles and Sweepers and Flies, and the metallic rats that came out of the walls to carry off corpses. Millions of them crouched motionless on the floor of a great hall, lined ropes and aerial walkways, all of them facing one brilliant star that shone like a spark in the darkness. Incarceron instructed its creatures and the words it spoke were a patchwork of sounds, a poetry of cracks and rumbles.
'Can they hear?' Keiro whispered.
'It's not just words.' It was a vibration too, deep in the heart of the darkness, a sound like a vast heart beating, a great clock chiming.
The voice stopped. At once the machines turned and filed away, moving in silent rows into the darkness till the last one was gone, barely making a sound.
Finn moved, but Keiro grabbed him tight.
The Eye still watched. Its light lit the empty hall. Then the voice said softly, 'Have you got the Key with you, Finn? Shall I take it now?'
He gasped. He wanted to run, but Keiro's grip said no. Biting his lip, he heard the
Prison's low amused chuckle. ''Claudia is Inside. Did you know that? Of course I intend to keep you both apart. I am so vast, it will be only too easy. Won't you speak to me, Finn?'
'It's not sure we're here,' Keiro muttered.
'It sounds sure to me.'
He had an irrational urge to step out from the Key's protection, to open his arms and go out. But Keiro wouldn't let go, and wriggled around to Attia. 'Back. Quickly.'
'Of course I am only a machine,' Incarceron said acidly.
'Unlike you. Or are you? Are you all so pure? Perhaps I should try a little experiment of my own.'
Keiro shoved him, panicking. 'Run!'
It was too late. There was a hiss and a crack. The sword flew out of Keiro's hand and clanged against the wall, held there upside down.
And Finn was hauled back, slammed against the stones, the Key in his belt pinning him there, the dagger he held whipping his arm flat with enormous power.
'Ah. Now I feel you, Finn. Now I feel your fear.'
He couldn't move. For a moment of terror he thought he was being sucked into the very fabric of the wall; then Gildas was there tugging at him, and he let go of the knife and his hand came free, and he realized the wall had become a magnet. Scraps of iron, flakes of bronze were flying in a fierce horizontal blizzard; the wall became clotted instantly with tools, chainwork, vast links. Finn ducked, cursing, as one clanged right next to his ear. 'Get me off!' he screamed.
His body was crushed between the Key and the magnet.
