Exiled Guide Tamed the Beasts novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Bead

Stellan went back to his tank before the corridor lights reached full brightness.

At the door he stopped, and looked back at me with an expression I could not read.

"Don't tell Rafe I'm clear-headed," he said. "Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because if the Warden sees it, she'll fix it."

Then he was gone.

I sat on the edge of the cot for a long time with the steel dish in my hand.

Three black beads, each the size of a grain of rice, rolled in the bottom of it.

I took them to Bastian.

He was in the medical bay, sorting bandages with his big careful hands, and he looked up when I came in and then looked away, quickly.

I understood why.

We had both felt that moment in the corridor yesterday.

"I need your eyes," I said. "You were a medic."

"A long time ago."

"I found these in Stellan's room, the night I woke up. I think they came out of him."

I tipped the dish onto a white tray.

Bastian stared at the beads.

He picked one up between a finger and thumb the size of a spoon handle, and turned it under the lamp.

I watched his face change.

"Where did you say you found these?"

"On the tray by his bed."

He set the bead down very gently.

"There's a number on this one," he said. "Tiny. Stamped in the casing."

He fitted a lens over his eye and read it off.

"Cinderhold. Intake series. Seven-four-one."

"What is it?"

"I've got one of these," Bastian said. "I think we all do. Three each, set in the spine at intake, one at the nape, one in the middle of the back, one at the base."

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