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Webster Ezmund Silk, Adherent Minister of the Interior, and personally highly favored by His Imperial Eminence the emperor, turned on his heel into a side corridor While still lavishly orna was perceptibly lower His brisk stride unerring, he did not pause or even slon as he perceived the rapid, uneven footfalls of so to catch up with him He did not have to look to knoas Paulson Gladstone, Minister of True Education in the easped from a few strides behind "Is it true the witch has spoken? The tied as he fought to keep pace He was a nervousat the cuffs of his coat as though the sleeves would roll up his arlance He knew the row froh favor with the emperor to receive the Gift

Webster had He was over a century old, but exactly how old he didn’t bother to remember He let his secretary keep track of such tedious details No e, he would re, steady, his hair untouched by gray, his face unmarked by the years At this point, his son, Ezra, looked more like his father

Webster had h the years and fathered many children When his last wife died, he hadn’t bothered to rerown up, beco his children age and die There was no need to rush into anotherhe had, it was ti was out of kilter with tile in his nerves

"The witch!" Gladstone whined beside him "Has she spoken?"

Webster halted at a tall oak door, ornately carved with a dragon A soldier in the red of the palace guard drew it open for hi to Gladstone, he answered the old oing down to confirm it"

Without another pause, he strode through the door and into the lift that, through a series of flywheels, belts, cranks, and cables would lower him to the roots of the palace As he turned to work the brass levers that would set the machinery in motion and initiate his descent, he finally looked upon Gladstone and saw the aged ile and careworn he appeared

For all of Webster Ezht he kne Gladstone felt

• • •

Far below the palace there were no crypts, no tos and queens as Ezra claimed there had been in the castle of the old realm The emperor, immortal in name and body, had no use for tombs

When the lift juddered to a stop and Webster opened the door, the contrast to the light, airy regions above couldn’t have beenthe ceiling of the corridor, their glow sickly against the dark that collected at these depths The corridor was narrow, h, natural walls They glistened with seepage, and so water

At this low level, the churning of great turbines spinning beneath the palace, fifteen of theh the floor and the soles of his feet They pulsed, the ehout the palace and into the Capital The roar of water wasHe did not doubt the constant throbbing, pulsing, and roaring had contributed to the witch’s insanity as reeted by two masked members of the Scarlet Guard, soldiers he’d handpicked, whose sole duty was to guard the witch Even though he had chosen the men himself, he could not identify them behind the scarlet masks that hid their faces wholly The uards inhuht himself in a shudder

Silently they turned and led hiravel and bedrock The muffled sound of their footfalls seemed to come from all directions at once Step by step they led him toward the prison A prison with only one cell and one inmate

The corridor ended in an antechamber where the Scarlet Guard stood watch There were half a dozen on duty at any one ti him or their two brethren who escorted him Behind a steel door with several locks to secure it lay the cell

One of his escorts peered through the sliding peep hole, then proceeded to insert an array of keys into a series of locks, hisproduced a cold musicality as tumblers rotated and internalopen The door was several inches thick andwas finished, it took both escorts to haul the door open

Perhaps it was overkill, but the depth of the prison and the thickness of the door lessened the chance of any etherea present in the palace reaching the witch

A fetid odor of dah the doorway The cell was black within They did not waste phosphorene on one who did not need light

One of his escorts retrieved a taper, for they needed light, and led the way into the chamber of the witch Webster followed next, and he was in turn followed by his second escort The guards’ brethren shut the door behind thele" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">