Malik turned to Vos, who looked frightened out of his wits. “Do the other prisoners know that you have caught this one?”
“No,” Vos said in a thin voice. “They have not been questioned since the first interrogation, just as you ordered.”
“Good. Go back to your homestead. Remove Noviny and his granddaughter to their homestead and have them kept there under guard. The other two Misfit freaks and the crippled gypsy are to be questioned again. Edel”—he addressed one of his own men—“accompany Chieftain Vos and conduct the interrogation. Begin with the cripple and torture him until he dies, regardless of what he does or does not confess. Make sure the other two witness it, then begin on the boy. That will loosen the old man‘s lips if they are keeping anything back. Find out why they came, what they have learned here, and what they intended to do. I will expect a report by tomorrow.”
Edel nodded, but Vos stammered a protest. “The…the Council of Chieftains will want to know what happened to the Misfits, Malik. And if this woman is truly the bondmate of the Master of Obernewtyn…”
“This is a freak, not a woman,” Malik snarled. “I will deal with her as all mutants ought to be dealt with. It is nothing to do with you. As far as anyone else will know, you saw her but once when she came to pay her respects to you, and then you had her taken back to Noviny’s property.”
“But the Council of Chieftains will…”
“I will deal with the Council,” Malik said with cold finality. “Now go.”
Malik was speaking quietly to one of his men, and I closed my eyes for a moment, battling fear. My tongue found the jagged edge of a chipped tooth, and my lip stung where it had been split. I could also feel the drain of energy as my body tried to repair itself. There was no way to stop the process, for it was not activated by my will.
I was so intent upon my thoughts that I failed to notice Malik’s armsmen circling behind me. When Malik abruptly ordered me to get up, I obeyed, relieved to find that my limbs would obey. But even as I stood, swaying slightly, I felt the cold metal of a demon band snap around my neck.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1999 by Isobelle Carmody
Map copyright © 2008 by Penguin Group (Australia)
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The text of this work was originally published by Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Camberwell, in 1999. Published here by arrangement with Penguin Group (Australia), a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carmody, Isobelle.
The keeping place / Isobelle Carmody.—1st Random House ed.
p. cm.—(Obernewtyn Chronicles; bk. 4)
Summary: When a Misfit is kidnapped, Elspeth is compelled to join the growing rebellion against the Council, but while her extraordinary mental powers could topple the corrupt authoritarian regime she is more concerned about destroying the remaining Beforetime weaponmachines.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89240-0
[1. Orphans—Fiction. 2. Persecution—Fiction. 3. Human-animal communication—Fiction. 4. Extrasensory perception—Fiction. 5. Kidnapping—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C2176Kee 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2008023456
Map design by Cathy Larsen
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Isobelle Carmody, The Keeping Place
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