Incarceron

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 Fi

Fi

"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, Fi

"You'll be a natural."

For a moment they shared a look. Then Fi

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. Fi

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 Fi

Stepping around a great pillar he realized he was begi

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.

Fi

The Eye still watched. Its light lit the empty hall. Then the voice said softly, "Have you got the Key with you, Fi

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, Fi

"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 Fi

"Ah. Now I feel you, Fi

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. Fi

His body was crushed between the Key and the magnet.

Gildas already had hold of the crystal; the old man dug his heels and gasped, "Help me," and Attia's small hands grabbed tight. Slowly, as if they were tugging it away from invisible fingers they pulled the weight of the Key from him and he fell forward, stumbling.

"Go. Go!"

Incarceron laughed its deep laugh. "But you can't go. Not without your brother."

Poised to flee, he stopped.

Keiro was standing by the wall. He had one hand oddly propped against it, the back of his hand to the black surface. For a moment Fi

"It's not the sword."

Fi

"Let go."

"I'm not holding anything," Keiro said. He turned his face away. Fi

"But..."

His brother twisted to look at him and Fi

The fingernail of his right forefinger. It was tight to the wall, and when Fi

"Shall I let him go?" The Prison said slyly.

Fi

"With a violence that made them all wince, every piece of metal fell from the walls in one resounding crash.

CLAUDIA STOPPED. "What was that?"

"What?"

"That noise!"

"There are always noises in the Prison. Please do go on about the Queen. She sounds so—"

"It came from down there." Claudia stared down the dim archway she was passing. She saw a low passageway, barely head-high, roped with spiderwebs.

Incarceron laughed, but there was a note of anxiety in its humor. "To find Fi

She was silent. Suddenly she sensed its tense presence all around her, as if it did not breathe, was waiting. She felt small and vulnerable. She said, "I think you're lying to me."