Thirteen by Tom Hoyle

was it?”
    â€œThe Traitor appeared, Lord Coron.” Cobra knew this news would not calm the situation: the Traitor was hated almost as much as the Imposter. “He came out of the darkness.”
    â€œWhat? I will have to deal with
him
myself!” Coron roared. “How could this happen? How?”
    The room was silent again. Then a knock at the door. A figure half appeared.
    Coron shouted: “I will kill anyone who interrupts me. Go!” Then he turned to the children. “I have been interrupted enough. Why have you failed me?”
    The three looked at the floor.
    â€œI want you to undo what you have done. Bring back Python, and kill . . .” Coron could hardly bring himself to say the name, “. . . kill
Adam
. The fact that he
again
escapes shows that he
is
the one.”
    Madness coursed through Coron. His mind had no limits. Insanity energized him, freed him from petty logic. He continued. “Go on! Reverse time, and make it different.” The Master would make him suffer. Coron cultivated his madness so that he could hide inside it.
    Asp, who was fifteen, but looked more than a year younger than the other two, decided to speak. “There was nothing we could do.”
    â€œNothing?
Nothing?
Nothing will come of nothing.” Coron laughed hysterically for about fifteen seconds. “Nothing? I want to know who was responsible.”
    â€œI can tell you, my lord Coron,” Viper said. “It was
Asp
. She should have stayed with the girl, and I should have gone with Adam. It only went wrong when she got involved.”
    Asp frowned and turned. “But you said—”
    â€œI think that she is not truly . . . not truly one of
us
,” said Viper.
    â€œMy lord, I would do anything . . .” started Asp.
    Coron raised his palm slowly and calmly. “Viper, what you say is a strange and dreadful thing. But I have long thought we had another traitor in the camp. A dog waiting to bite us. Someone who is not what they seem.” Ideas were quickly forming in his mind; unconnected links were fusing. Coron whispered, “Itis the
only
way to explain the failure. There must be another traitor.”
    Yes
, he thought.
Another virus to be eliminated
.
    Asp whimpered, “It isn’t true. Look at my head. Look—I was hit.”
    Cobra spoke now, clearly, authoritatively. “I too had my doubts about Asp. I feared the truth. I think she
enjoyed
the world out there.”
    Coron put his hands together and pressed them to his chin. “Asp. Asp. If you confess, you will be shown mercy.”
    Asp felt that she was in a cave—a damp, bare and isolated hole. She thought of her time at the festival. They had all enjoyed it, hadn’t they? But she had done wrong. Coron would save her. He would show mercy. She looked at Coron. “Yes, I did take some enjoyment from the world.”
    â€œI knew it,” said Coron. “How much?”
    â€œSome.” She thought again. “More than a bit.”
    â€œI see. And you worked with the Traitor?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “That isn’t true. I didn’t do that.”
    â€œAsp, my dear, dear child—” he smiled slightly—“it will help if you confess. It will make things less . . . ugly.”
    Asp thought hard. She was unsure what to say. The lie would help, surely. Coron was always right, but she had to help herself. Just this once.
    She took a risk. “Yes,” she said, nervously and hopefully. “I sort of worked with him.”
    Coron relaxed. “And you loved him?”
    This is working
, Asp thought. “No. Not that. Not like I love you.”
    â€œAnd you went to him?”
    â€œNo!”
    Coron stood up and approached Asp. He stroked her hair, then held her face with both hands. He now saw only treachery. To Coron, her denials were proof of how twisted she was. “Beautiful and