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Concealing the Claw again, I rose And because I wanted to be alone and think for a few moments, I walked away froe enough place the day before, when everyone ake and active Now it seeed blot of a roo ceiling Hoping that exercise would set my mind in motion (as it often does), I decided to pace off the roo softly so as not to wake the sleepers

I had not gone forty paces when I saw an object that seeed people and filthy canvas pallets It was a woman's scarf woven of some rich, s the scent of it, which was not that of any fruit or flower that grows on Urth, but was very lovely

I was folding this beautiful thing to put in my sabretache when I heard a child's voice say, "It's bad luck Terrible luck Don't you know?"

Looking around, then down, I saw a little girl with a pale face and sparkling e for it; and I asked, "What's bad luck, Mistress?"

"Keeping findings They come back for them later Why do you wear those black clothes?"

"They're fuligin, the hue that is darker than black Hold out your hand and I'll show you Now, do you see how it seee of my cloak across it?"

Her little head, which s for the shoulders below it, nodded sole people wear black Do you bury people? When the navigator was buried there were black wagons and people in black clothes walking Have you ever seen a burying like that?"

I crouched to look in clothes at funerals, Mistress, for fear they uild, which would be a slander of the dead - in most cases Now here is the scarf See how pretty it is? Is it what you call a finding?"

She nodded "The whips leave theh the space under the doors Because they'll coer on ht cheek

I touched it "These are the whips? The ones who do this? Who are they? I saw a green face"

"So did I" Her laughter held the notes of little bells "I thought it was going to eat htened now"

"Ma - they're different almost every time It's the whips that hurt, and she heldup Why are you looking so funny?"

(I recalled laughing with other people; three were young e Guibert handed e with a heavy handle and a lash of braided copper Lollian was preparing the firebird, which he would twirl on a long cord)

"Severian!" It was Jonas, and I hurried over "I' beside hione away"

"I could hardly do that, remember?"

"Yes," he said "I remember now Do you knohat this place is called, Severian? They told me yesterday It's the antechamber I see you already knew"

"No"

"You nodded"

"I recalled the naht one IThecla was here, I think She never considered it a strange place for a prison, I suppose because it was the only one she had seen before she was taken to our tower, but I find I do Individual cells, or at least several separate rooms, seem more practical to me Perhaps I'm only prejudiced"

Jonas pulled hi with his back to the wall His face had gone pale under the brown, and it shone with perspiration as he said, "Can't you iine how this place ca noroom with its dim lamps

"This used to be a suite - several suites, probably The walls have been torn away, and a uniform floor laid over all the old ones I' If you were to lift one of those panels, you'd see the original structure above it"

I stood and tried; but though the tips of h to exertus fro, I feel sure, to every word, said, "Hold me up and I'll do it"

She ran toward us I lifted her and found that with my hands around her waist I could easily raise her over led with the square of ceiling above her Then it went up, showering dust Beyond it I saw a network of slenderwithof clouds and birds The girl's arain, with more dust, and my vieas cut off When she was safely down, I turned back to Jonas "You're right There was an old ceiling above this one, for a room much smaller than this How did you know?"

"Because I talked to those people Yesterday" He raised his hands, the hand of steel as well as the hand of flesh, and appeared to rub his face with both "Send that child aill you?"

I told the little girl to go to her h I suspect she only crossed the roo the wall until she ithin earshot of us

"I feel as if I aking up," Jonas said "I think I said yesterday that I was afraid I would gosane, and that is as bad or worse" He had been sitting on the canvas pad where we had slept Now he sluainst the wall just as I have since seen a corpse sit with its back to a tree

"I used to read, aboard ship Once I read a history I don't suppose you know anything about it So many chiliads have elapsed here"

I said, "I suppose not"

"So different froessoe institutions I asked the ship and she gave , and I thought hisI used the square of flannel I carried to wipe my sword blade to dry his forehead

"Hereditary rulers and hereditary subordinates, and all sorts of strange officials Lancers with long, white host of his old hu down the poker He balances very badly, as the King's notebook told him"

There was a disturbance at the farther end of the roo quietly in s toward it Jonas seeripped my shoulder with his left hand; it felt as weak as a woan so" There was a sudden intensity in his quavering voice "Severian, the king was elected at the Marchfield Counts were appointed by the kings That hat they called the dark ages A baron was only a freeirl I had lifted to the ceiling appeared as if fro?" and I stood up and said, "I'll get us soht rained It all endured too long" As I walked toward the crowd, I heard him say, "The people didn't know"

Prisoners alking back with small loaves cradled in one arm By the time I reached the doorway the crowd had thinned, and I was able to see that the doors were open Beyond it, in the corridor, an attendant in a auze watched over a silver cart The prisoners were actually leaving the antecha for a moment that I had been set free

The illusion was dispelled soon enough Hastarii stood at either end of the corridor to bar it, and twoto the Well of Green Chimes