Incarceron

The white room adjusted itself. Everything was exactly as he had left it. He had a sudden pang of anxiety. What was happening to Claudia? Was she safe?

"You sent her through with no idea of the danger." The Warden flicked the control panel out and touched sensors. "Entering the Prison is hazardous, physically and psychologically."

Shelves slid back. The screen lit.

On it, Jared saw a thousand images. They flickered, a checkerboard of tiny squares, of empty rooms, bleak oceans, far towers, dusty corners. He saw a street packed with people, a hideous den of stunted children, a man beating a strange beast, a woman tenderly breastfeeding a baby. Bewildered, he stepped up below the images, watching them flicker, the pain, the hunger, the unlikely friendships, the savage bargainings.

'This is the Prison." The "warden leaned against the desk. "All the images seen by the

Eyes. Its the only way to find Claudia."

Jared felt a terrible misery soak him. In the Academy the Experiment was considered one of the glories of the ancient Sapienti, the noble sacrifice of the world's last reserves of energy to save the unredeemable, the poor, the despised. And it had ended in this.

The Warden watched him, a silhouette against the rippling images. "You see, Master, what only the Warden has ever seen."

"Why didn't... Why weren't we told ...?"

"There is not enough power. They can never be brought back, all those thousands of people. They are lost to us." He took out his watch and gave it to Jared, who took it numbly and then looked down at it. The Warden indicated the silver cube on the chain.

"You are like a god, Jared. You hold Incarceron in your hands."

He felt the pain inside him throb. His hands shook. He wanted to put it down, to step back, step away. The cube was tiny, he had seen it a thousand times on the watch chain and barely noticed it, but now it filled him with awe.

Was it possible it contained the mountains he saw, the forests of silver trees, the cities of ragged people preying on each other's poverty? Sweating, he held it tightly and the

Warden said softly, "Afraid, Jared? It takes strength to see a whole world. Many of my predecessors never dared look. They hid their eyes." A soft bell.

They both looked up. The screen had stopped flashing; as they stared, the pictures started to flick off, and one in the bottom right-hand corner grew, pixel by pixel, until it filled the whole screen.

It was Claudia.

Jared put the watch chain shakily down on the table.

She was talking to the prisoners. He recognized the boy Fi

"Can you speak to them?"

"I can," the Warden said. "But first we listen."

He flicked a switch. 

33

What use is one key among a billion prisoners?

"It tried to stop me finding you," Claudia said. She walked toward him down the gloomy corridor. "You should never have come Inside." Fi

"Come back with me now." She held out her hand. "Come quickly!"

"You just wait a minute." Keiro stood. "He goes nowhere without me."

"Or me," Attia muttered.

"All of you can come then. It must be possible." Then her face fell.

Fi

Claudia bit her lip. She suddenly realized she had no idea how to do this. There had been no portal on this side, no chair or control panel; she had simply found herself in that empty cell. And she didn't know the way back there, even if the place was important.

"She can't do it," Keiro said. He came and stared closely at her, and though it a

"At least I have this." She took the Key from a pocket and held it out. They saw it was identical to the one they knew, though its workmanship seemed better, the eagle perfect in its stillness.

Fi

"It's here, fool boy." Gildas grabbed at the wall and pulled himself upright. He was gray, his face clammy. He held the Key so tightly in his knotted hands that the skin around his knuckles was white as the bone beneath.

"Are you really from the Outside?" he breathed.

"I am, Master." She walked toward him and reached out her hand for him to feel. "And

Sapphique did Escape. Jared discovered that he has followers out there. They call him the Nine-Fingered One."

He nodded, and they saw there were tears in his eyes. "I know that. I have always known that he was real. This boy has seen him in visions. Soon I will see him."

His voice was gruff but there was a quaver in it Fi

For a moment he thought the Sapient would not let go; there was a brief interval when both his and Gildas's fingers grasped the crystal. The old man looked down. "I have always trusted you, Fi

His fingers opened; Fi

He looked at Claudia. "Now what?"

She took a deep breath, but it was not her voice that answered. Attia was in the shadows behind Keiro; she did not come forward, but her words were sharp. "What happened to the pretty dress?"

Claudia scowled. "I shredded it."

"And the wedding?"

"Off."

Attia's arms were wrapped around her thin body. "So now you want Fi

"Giles. His name is Giles. Yes, I want him. The Realm needs its King. Someone who's seen outside the Palace and the Protocol. Someone who has been right down into the depths." She let her a

Attia shrugged. "It's Fi

Claudia stared at her and Attia stared back. It was Keiro's cool laugh that broke the silence. "I suggest we sort all this out in the brave new world Outside. Before the Prison quakes again."

Fi

She swallowed. "Well ... I suppose we ... use the Keys."

"But where's the gate?"

"There is no gate." This was hard; they were all staring at her. "Not... as you think."

"So how did you get here?" Keiro asked.

"It's ... difficult to explain." As she spoke her fingers moved on the hidden controls of the

Key; it hummed, lights moved inside it.

Keiro jumped forward. "Oh no, Princess!" He snatched it from her; she jerked after it, but he had his sword drawn and pointed at her throat. "No tricks. We all go together or not at all."

Furious, she said, "That's the plan."