Read In Solitary for Free Online Page A

through locked doors, even though I can mouth read. They
were
worried about something,
perpetually
– consequently it was a normal state of affairs and not one that struck me as in need of investigation. Finally, I was hardly ever allowed out of the Klees’s house – certainly not without an escort.’
    So I defended myself, but it did not save me from her scorn.
    While her tirade was in progress Fridjt entered carrying the child. He no longer looked an ogre – more like a crestfallen child himself. Stella turned a face of stone onto the small body, lying like a limp fish in the large man’s hands.
    ‘She’s dead,’ said Fridjt simply, but it sounded more like a question than a statement. He placed the infant carefully on one of the bunks and we all moved towards the door. The tower would dispose of the body, as it didwith waste food and dead animals. Anything that generated the kind of bacteria that infested dead flesh was a usable commodity. The Soal could use it but I did not tell Stella that. She would have eaten the child rather than let it benefit the Soal.
    We gathered our few belongings together and prepared to leave the tower, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Perhaps it was because we were all so preoccupied that we did not hear the approaching military. Stella went out first.

7
Murder
    …
upon which other lifeforms build
…
    Stella returned quickly to warn us of approachingSoal but we were somewhat disorientated – after the death of the baby and by the time we had gathered our thoughts towards separation it was too late.
    The vehicle hovered just outside the entrance to our segment and we knew we had been seen. There was nothing we could do – we stood, still as the infant behind us, waiting for the inevitable. A few moments later the entrance admitted a Soal – one of the hard-faced military. A painted gold bar running from his hands to his claw-like feet, along the edge of his skinwings, proclaimed him to be an officer. We were finished.
    ‘Look,’ I started desperately, ‘this is not what you think, Poston-Yarcave.’ I used his full rank to show him he was not dealing with an ignorant mudwalker – my own name was a shortened version of that rank. ‘We were all in separate segments when we heard your craft. We … we panicked.’ I laughed. ‘You can understand that.’
    The Soal officer ran his eyes over our group, then said in Terran, ‘You are the human, Cave?’
    I laughed again, slapping my knee.
    ‘Yes, yes. You know me then? You’ve seen me with Lintar?’ I tried for a recognition but could not place him. His feathers rose irritably.
    ‘I am from the continent. We have a call for your arrest – from Librarian Endrod.’
    I was stunned, and turned to look at the other two. Fridjt was standing quietly, his arms folded. Stella stared straight ahead. I could read nothing from either of their expressions.I turned back to the officer.
    ‘But I haven’t broken any laws,’ I raised my hands in the Soal gesture for honesty. ‘Not since I was banished.’
    The officer smiled in that detestable way the Soal have, by twisting the upper beak over the lower. His small eyes took in the three of us together. His meaning was plain.
    ‘But,’ I cried, ‘you didn’t know that I’d be with someone. You couldn’t know that.’
    Stella said dully, ‘They don’t need an excuse these days Cave. If they want to arrest you, they simply do that. There’s little justice on the mud.’
    I whirled round again angrily.
    ‘I have friends,’ I waved my crossbow in the air.
    Suddenly the second Soal was behind the first, in the entrance to the segment. He was saying something in his own language. I read it, automatically, over the officer’s shoulder.
    ‘What is the trouble? You are a long time here.’
    The officer did not answer – instead he turned to us and said, ‘Get on the mud – all of you.’
    I realized then that we were finished and made a move towards the door, half-turning to