Incarceron (Incarceron, Book 1) by Catherine Fisher Page B

had left his body and had come back to find it sore and empty, that he was aslant inside it. "I didn't have them Outside. I'm sure of it."
    Keiro shrugged. "Gildas is desperate to hear about your vision."
    Finn looked up. "He can wait." There was an awkward silence. Into it he said, "Jormanric ordered her death?"
    "Who else? It's the sort of thing that amuses him. And it's a warning to us."
    Grim, Finn nodded. He swung his feet off the bed and stared down at his worn boots. "I'm going to kill him for that."
    Keiro raised an elegant eyebrow. "Brother, why bother? You got what you wanted."
    "I gave her my word. I told her she'd be safe."
    Keiro watched him a moment, then said, "We're Scum, Finn. Our word means nothing. She knew that. She was a hostage; if they'd gotten hold of you, the Civicry would probably have done the same, so think no more about it. I've told you before, you brood over things too much. It makes you weak. There's no room for weakness in Incarceron. No mercy for a fatal flaw. Here it's kill or be killed." He was staring straight ahead and there was an odd sourness in his voice that was new to Finn. But when he turned his smile was sharp. "So. What's a key, then?"
    Finn's heart thumped. "The Key! Where is it?"
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    Keiro shook his head in mock wonder. "What would you do without me?" He held up his hand and Finn saw that the crystal was dangling from one hooked finger.
    He snatched at it, but Keiro jerked it away. "I said, what's a key?"
    Finn licked paper-dry lips. "A key is a device that opens."
    "Opens?"
    "Unlocks."
    Keiro was alert. "The Winglocks? Any door?"
    "I don't know! I just... recognize it." He reached out hastily and grabbed it, and this time, reluctantly, Keiro let it go. The artifact was heavy, woven of strange glassy filaments, and the holographic eagle in its heart glared at Finn majestically. He saw that it wore a fine collar shaped like a crown around its neck, and tugging back his sleeve he compared it with the fading blue marks in his skin.
    Over his shoulder Keiro said, "It looks the same."
    "It's identical."
    "But it means nothing. In fact, if anything, it means you were born Inside."
    "This didn't come from Inside." Finn nursed it in both hands. "Look at it. What material do we have like this? The workmanship ..."
    "The Prison could have made it."
    Finn said nothing.
    But at that moment, just as if it had been listening, the Prison turned all the lights off.
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    ***
    WHEN THE Warden softly opened the observatory door the wall-screen was lit with images of the Havaarna Kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, those effete generations whose social policies had led directly to the Years of Rage. Jared was sitting on the desk, one foot propped on the back of Claudia's chair, the fox cub in his arms; she was leaning forward and reading from a pad in her hand.
    "... Alexander the Sixth, Restorer of the Realm. Created the Contract of Duality. Closed all theatres and public forms of entertainment... Why did he do that?"
    "Fear," Jared said dryly. "By that time any crowd of people was seen as a threat to order."
    Claudia smiled, her throat dry. This is what her father must see; his daughter and her beloved tutor. Of course he would know perfectly well that they knew he was here.
    "Ahem."
    Claudia jumped; Jared looked around. Their surprise was masterly.
    The Warden smiled a cold smile, as if he admired it.
    "Sir?" Claudia stood up, her silk dress uncreasing. "Are you back already? I thought you said one."
    "That was indeed what I said. May I come in, Master?"
    Jared said, "Of course," and the cub streaked from his hands and jumped up the bookshelves. "Were honored, Warden."
    The Warden walked to the table littered with apparatus
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    and touched an alembic. "Your Era detail is a little ... eccentric, Jared. But the Sapienti are not so bound by Protocol, of course." He lifted the delicate glassware and raised it so that his left eye, hugely magnified, gazed at them through it. "The Sapienti do as they