Incarceron Part 91

"Is that you?"

Nothing. She took two steps, then stopped. The sound came again, just ahead, a soft, oddly questing sound. She saw a red Eye open, turn slowly through a half circle, then stop and swivel back toward her. She kept very still.

"I see you," a voice said softly. "I recognize you."

Not Finns. Not anyone she knew.

"I never forget any of my children. But you haven't been here for a while. I'm not sure I understand that."

Claudia wiped her cheek with a grimy hand.

"Who are you? I can't see you."

"Yes you can. You're standing on me, breathing me."

She stepped back, staring down, but there was only the stone floor, the darkness. The red Eye watched her. She breathed a sickening breath.

"You're the Prison."

"I am."

It sounded fascinated. "And you are the Wardens daughter."

She couldn't speak. Jared had said it was an intelligence, but she hadn't realized it would be like this.

"Shall we help each other, Claudia Arlexa?"

The voice was calm and had as light echo. "You are looking for Finn and his friends. Isn't that right?"

"Yes." Should she have said that?

"I will lead you to them."

"The Key will do that."

"Don't use the Key. It interferes with my systems."

Was she mistaken, or had that been hurried, almost annoyed? She began to walk on slowly, into the dark corridor.

"I see. And what do you want in return?"

A sound. It could have been a sigh, or a soft laugh.

"Not a question I have been asked before. I want you to tell me what is Outside. Sapphique promised faithfully that he would come back and tell me, but he never has. Your father does not speak of it. I begin to wonder, in my heart of hearts, if there even is an Outside, or whether Sapphique pa.s.sed only into death and you live in a place here I am unable to detect. I have a billion Eyes and senses, and yet I cannot see out. It is not only the inmates who dream of Escape, Claudia. But then, how can I escape from myself?"

She came to a corner. The pa.s.sageway forked in two, both dark and dripping, and identical. She frowned and 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.

-Legends of Sapphique ***

"It's changed."

Keiro looked intently at the Key.