Incarceron Part 45

The girl stared back. She was a timid little thing, he'd thought, but this was the second time she'd confronted him, and it was getting annoying.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said quietly.

Keiro grinned. "You think I'm going to desert them, don't you?

"Yes."

Her directness threw him. It made him angry.

He turned and walked on, but she came after him like a shadow. Like a dog.

"I think you want to, but I won't let you. I won't let you take the Key."

He told himself he wouldn't answer her, but the words came out anyway.

"You have no idea what I'll do. Finn and I are oathbrothers. That means everything. And I keep my word."

"Do you?" Her voice slid into a sly copy of Jormanric's. "I haven't kept my word since I was ten and knifed my own brother. Is that how it works, Keiro? Is that how the Comitatus is still with us, inside you?"

He turned on her then, but she was ready for him. She leaped, scratching his face, kicking and pushing him so that he staggered and crashed back against the wall.

The Key fell out, a clatter on the filthy cobbles; they both grabbed for it, but she was quicker.

Keiro hissed with anger.

He caught her hair, dragged it back savagely. "Give it to me!"

She screamed and squirmed. "Let go of it!"

He pulled harder.

With a howl of pain Attia threw the Key into the darkness; instantly Keiro let her go and scrambled after it, but as soon as he picked it up, he dropped it with a yell. It lay on the ground, small blue lights traveling inside it.

Suddenly, with alarming silence, an image field sprang up around it.

They saw a girl dressed in a sumptuous dress, her back against a tree, lit by a glorious brilliance of light.

She stared at them both.

When she spoke, her voice was sharp with suspicion.

"Where's Finn? Who the h.e.l.l are you?"

THEY HAD given him a meal of honeycakes and some strange seeds and a hot drink that bubbled slightly, but he had been afraid to taste it in case it was drugged.

Whatever he was going into, he wanted a clear head.

They had also given him clean clothes and water to wash in. Outside the door of the room two of the Crane-men stood, leaning against the wall.

He crossed to the window. There was a long drop. Below was a narrow street, crowded with people even now, begging and selling and setting up makeshift camps in the street, sleeping under sacks, their animals wandering everywhere. The noise was appalling. He put his hands on the sill and leaned out, looking up at the roofs. They were mostly straw, with some metal patched here and there.

There was no way he could climb out on them; the house leaned outward as if it would fall, and he certainly would. For a moment he wondered if it might not be better to break his neck here than have to face some nameless creature, but there was still time. Things might change.

He ducked inside and sat on the stool trying to think. Where was Keiro? What was he doing? What plan did he have? Keiro was willful and wild, but he was a great plotter. The ambush of the Civicry had been his idea. He was bound to think of something good. Already Finn missed his brashness, his utter self-certainty.

The door opened; Gildas squeezed in.

"You!" Finn jumped up. "You've got a nerve ..."

The Sapient held up both hands. "You're angry. Finn, I had no choice. You saw what would have happened to us."

He sounded grim, went and sat heavily on the stool.

"Besides, I'm coming with you."

"They said only me."

"Silver coins do much."

He grunted tetchily.

"Most people try to bribe their way out of being taken to the Cave, it seems, not in."

There was only one seat in the room; Finn sat on the floor among the straw and wrapped his arms around his knees.

"I thought I was on my own," he said softly.

"Well, you're not. I am not Keiro, and I will not desert my seer."

Finn scowled. Then he said,

"Would you desert me if I saw nothing?" Gildas rubbed his dry hands together, making a papery sound.

"Of course not."

They were silent a moment, listening to the babble of the street.

Then Finn said, "Tell me about the Cave."

"I thought you knew the story. Sapphique came to the Citadel of the Justices, which must be where we are. He learned that the people here pay a Tribute every month to a being they only know as the Beast-the tribute is a young man or woman of the town. They go into a cave on the mountainside; none ever return."

He scratched his beard.

"Sapphique came before the Justices and offered himself in place of the girl whose life was due. They say she wept at his feet. As he went out all the people of the town watched him go, in silence. He entered the Cave alone, without weapons."

Finn said, "And?"