Page 22 of Zenith Tower

He handed the pages to the healer.

The healer did not take them toward the infirmary. At the end of our corridor, she turned away from the metal doors and descended a narrow stair.

I watched until the papers disappeared from view.

They kept Kieran from us for three more days.

When they finally allowed a visit, all three of us were taken to a glass partition outside the infirmary room. Kieran lay beneath a gray blanket with thin silver leads running from his shoulder to instruments beside the bed. His face was pale, but his eyes were open.

I put my palm against the glass.

He lifted two fingers from the blanket in a weak greeting.

Hale leaned closer to the partition, studying Kieran’s breathing. Caspian stood beside me with one hand at my back.

I took the oilskin ledger from beneath my coat and held it where Kieran could see.

His gaze settled on it. His eyes closed for a moment, and some of the strain left his mouth.

A reader stepped between us and the glass. “The visit is over.”

I put the ledger away.

On the walk back, we passed the stair the healer had taken with Kieran’s copied pages. A metal plate beside it bore a single stamped word.

RECORDS.

Astra

“I’m going down that stair,” I said.

Caspian set his cup on the table. “Marrow said he would lock you in your room if you left the permitted corridors again.”

“I remember.”

“You’ve already been caught once.”

Hale stood near Kieran’s false window, listening without looking at either of us. We had been returned to our rooms after the infirmary visit. Kieran remained behind glass, and his copied record was somewhere below us.

“The infirmary asked for his history,” I said. “Marrow sent it to records.”

“Review requires comparison,” Caspian repeated the words.

“Comparison with what?”

He had no answer.

Hale turned from the wall. “I saw the shift change the night they took Kieran, and again before today’s visit. After the evening infirmary round, the outgoing readers carry theircases upstairs for handover. The next shift doesn’t come down until it ends.”

Caspian stared at him. “You’re helping her.”

“I’m preventing her from getting caught. She’ll go no matter what you or I say.”

Hale crossed to the table and flattened the meal wrapper between his hands. On its blank side, he drew the infirmary corridor and the turn toward the records stair.

“There’s an attendant here,” he said, marking the junction. “Caspian can keep her occupied. I’ll wait at the bottom of the stair. If anyone comes from the archive level, you come back immediately.”

“And if the door is locked?”