Incarceron Part 98

Before they could argue he had opened a hidden door in the wainscoting and led the way down some dank steps into the cellars.

Halfway down, Jared looked back. The men were watching curiously through the slit.

"It appears the Queen suspects me too," the Warden said calmly. He took a lantern from the wall and lit the candle inside it.

"We will have to work quickly. The study, as you've no doubt realized, is the same room here as at home. A s.p.a.ce halfway between this world and the Prison, a Portal, as the inventor Martor called it."

"Martor's writings are lost," Jared said, hurrying after him.

"I have them. They are cla.s.sified."

His dark figure paced down quickly, holding the lantern high, its shadows flickering down the wall. He glanced back at Jared's astonishment and allowed himself a smile.

"You will never see them, Master."

Between the casks the darkness lay deep; far above, the guards' voices seemed to whisper in confusion. At the bronze gate he jabbed the combination in swiftly; the gate shuddered open and as they pa.s.sed through, Jared felt that odd s.h.i.+ver of displacement he had felt before. 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 friends.h.i.+ps, 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 n.o.ble 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 G.o.d, 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 flas.h.i.+ng; 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 Finn, and the other one, Keiro, who was leaning back against a stone wall, listening. Gildas crouched nearby; Jared saw at once that the old man was hurt, Attia standing next to him.

"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?

-Lord Calliston's Diary ***

"It tried to stop me finding you," Claudia said. She walked toward him down the gloomy corridor.

"You should never have come Inside."

Finn felt awed. She was so out of place, bringing a scent of roses and strange fresh air that tantalized him. He felt he wanted to scratch at some itch in his mind; instead he rubbed a hand wearily over his eyes.

"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.