The decay was gradual and we were slow to recognize it.
Then, one day, I had been talking with the Prison, and as I left the room I heard it laugh.
A low, mocking chuckle. The sound turned me cold.
I stood in the corridor and the thought came to me of an ancient image I had once seen in a fragmented ma.n.u.script, of the enormous mouth of h.e.l.l devouring sinners.
It was then I knew we had created a demon that would destroy us.
-Lord Calliston"s Diary ***
The sound of the unlocking was painful, as if the Prison sighed. As if this was a door that had not been opened for centuries. But no alarms howled. Perhaps Incarceron knew no door could lead them out.
Gildas stepped back at Finn"s warning; chunks of debris and a red rain of rust clattered. The door shuddered inward, and stuck.
For a moment they waited, because the narrow slit was dark and a cool, oddly sweet-smelling air moved beyond. Then Finn kicked the rubble aside and put his shoulder to the door. He heaved, and rammed it until it stuck again. But now there was room to squeeze through.
Gildas nudged him. "Take a look. Be careful."
Finn glanced back at Keiro, sitting slumped and weary. He drew his sword and slipped sideways through the gap.
It was colder. His breath frosted. The ground was uneven, and ran downhill. As he took a few steps a strange tinny litter rustled around his ankles; putting a hand down, he felt drifts of crisp stuff, cold and wet, sharp against his fingertips.
As his eyes grew used to the deeper gloom, he thought he was standing in a sloping hall of columns; tall black pillars rose to a tangle overhead.
Groping to the nearest one, he felt it over with his hands, puzzled. It was icy cold and hard, but not smooth. A ma.s.s of fissures and cracks seamed it, knots and swelling growths, and branches of intricate mesh.
"Finn?"
Gildas was a shadow at the door.
"Wait."
Finn listened. The breeze moved in the tangle, making a faint silvery tinkle that seemed to stretch for miles. After a moment he said, "There"s no one here. Come through."
A few rustles and stirrings. Then Gildas said,
"Bring the Key, Keiro. We need to shut this."
"If we do, can we get back?" Keiro sounded worn.
"What"s to get back for? Give me a hand."
As soon as the dog-slave had slipped through, Finn and the old man shoved and forced the tiny door back into its frame. It clicked quietly shut.
A rustle. A sc.r.a.pe of sound. Light, steadying, in a lantern.
"Someone might see it," Keiro snapped.
But Finn said, "I told you. We"re alone."
As Gildas held the lantern high, they looked around at the ominous enclosing pillars.
Finally Keiro said, "What are they?"
Behind him, the dog-creature crouched down. Finn glanced at it, and knew it was looking at him.
"Metal trees."
The light caught the Sapient"s plaited beard, the gleam of satisfaction in his eye.
"A forest where the species are iron, and steel, and copper, where the leaves are thin as foil, where fruits grow gold and silver."
He turned.
"There are stories, from the old times, of such places. Apples of gold guarded by monsters. It seems they"re true."
The air was cold and still. It held an alien sense of distance.
It was Keiro who asked the question Finn didn"t dare to."Are we Outside?"
Gildas snorted. "Do you think it"s that easy? Now sit before you fall."
He glanced at Finn. "I"ll deal with his wounds. This is as good a place as any to wait for Lightson. We can rest. Even eat."
But Finn turned and faced Keiro.
He felt cold and sick, but he spoke the words stubbornly. "Before we go any further I want to know what Jormanric meant. About the Maestra"s death."
There was a second of silence.
In the ghostly light Keiro gave Finn one exasperated glare and crumpled wearily in the rustling leaves, pushing back his hair with blood-streaked hands.
"For G.o.d"s sake, Finn, do you really think I know? You saw him. He was finished. He would have said anything! It was just lies. Forget it."
Finn looked down at him.
For a second he wanted to insist, ask again, to silence the nagging fear inside him, but Gildas eased him aside.
"Make yourself useful. Find something to eat."