Read Online Inverted World by Christopher Priest - Free Book Online Page A

This was a revelation to me: the terms of the oath had implied that no one but guildsmen should ever see outside the city.
    “What do you think?” Victoria said, sitting down on one of the seats which looked out across the view.
    I sat next to her. “I like it.”
    “Have you been out there?”
    “Yes.” It was difficult; already I was finding myself in conflict with the terms of the oath. How could I talk to Victoria about my work without breaking what I had sworn?
    “We’re not allowed tip here very often. It’s locked at night, and only open at some hours of the day. Sometimes it’s locked for several days on end.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “Do you?” she said.
    “It’s probably … something to do with the work out there.”
    “Which you’re not going to talk about.”
    “No,” I said.
    “Why not?”
    “I can’t.”
    She glanced at me. “You’re very tanned. Do you work in the sun?”
    “Some of the time.”
    “This place is locked when the sun’s overhead. All I’ve ever seen of it is when the rays touch the higher parts of the buildings.”
    “There’s nothing to see,” I said. “It’s very bright, and you can’t stare at it.”
    “I’d like to find that out for myself.”
    I said: “What are you doing at the moment? In your work, I mean?”
    “Nutrition.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s determining how to work out a balanced diet. We have to make sure that the synthetic food contains enough protein, and that people eat the right amount of vitamins.” She paused, her voice having reflected a general lack of interest in the subject. “Sunlight contains vitamins, you know.”
    “Does it?”
    “Vitamin D. It’s produced in the body by the action of sunlight on the skin. That’s worth knowing if you never see the sun.”
    “But it can be synthesized,” I said.
    “Yes … and it is. Shall we go back to the room and have some more tea?”
    I said nothing to this. I don’t know what I had expected by seeing Victoria, but I had not anticipated this. Illusions of some romantic ideal had tempted me during my days working with Malchuskin, and from time to time these had been tempered by a feeling that perhaps she and I might have to adapt to each other; in any event it had never occurred to me that there would be such an undercurrent of resentment. I had seen us working together towards realizing the intimate relationship formed for us by our parents, and somehow shaping it in such a way that it would become a realistic and perhaps even loving relationship. What I had not foreseen was that Victoria had seen us both in larger terms: that I would be forever enjoying the advantages of a way of life forbidden to her.
    We stayed on the platform. Victoria’s remark about returning to the room had been ironic, and I was sensitive enough to identify it. Anyhow, I felt that for different reasons we would both prefer to stay on the platform; I did, because my work outside had given me a taste for fresh air, and by contrast I now found the interior of the city buildings claustrophobic, and I supposed Victoria did, for this platform was as near as she could come to leaving the city. Even so, the undulating countryside to the east of the city served as a reminder of the newly discovered difference that separated us.
    “You could apply to transfer to a guild,” I said in a moment, “I’m sure—”
    “I’m the wrong sex,” she said abruptly. “It’s men only, or didn’t you realize that?”
    “No …”
    “It hasn’t taken me long to work a few things out,” she went on, speaking quickly and barely suppressing her bitterness. “I’d seen it all my life and never recognized it: my father always away from the city, my mother working in her job, organizing all those things we took for granted, like food and heating and disposal of sewage. Now I have recognized it. Women are too valuable to risk outside. They’re needed here in the city because they breed, and they can be made to