Sapphique - Incarceron 02 (25 page)

The Privy Council stirred. The Queen giggled.

'Stop it!' Finn leapt to his feet.

The Pretender stopped. He met Finn's eyes and said softly, 'Then let you sing, sire. Play for us. Speak in foreign tongues. Recite us the poems of Alicene and Castra. I'm sure they will sound most alluring in your gutter accent.'

Finn didn't move. 'Those things don't make a prince.' he whispered.

'We might debate that.' The Pretender stood. 'But you have no cultured arguments, have you? All you have is anger, and violence, Prisoner.'

'Sire,' the Shadow Lord said. 'Please sit.'

Finn glanced round. The Councillors watched him. They were the jury. Their verdict would condemn him to torture and death or give him the t
hrone. Their faces were hard to
read, but he recognized hostility, bewilderment. If only Claudia was here! Or Jared. He longed most of all for Keiro's harsh, arrogant humour. He said, 'My challenge still stands.'

The Pretender glanced at the Queen. In a low voice he said, 'And my acceptance.'

Finn went and sat by the wall, simmering.

The Shadow Lord turned to Giles. 'We have witnesses. Boys who were at the Academy with you. Grooms, maids, the ladies of the Court:

'Excellent. I want to see them all.' The Pretender settled back comfortably. 'Let them be brought in. Let them look at him and look at me. Let them tell you which is the Prince and which the Prisoner.'

The Shadow Lord looked hard at him. Then he raised a hand. 'Bring in the witnesses,' he snapped.

20

The Esoterica are the broken fragments of our knowledge.

The Sapienti will spend generations restoring the gaps.

Much of it will never be recovered.

PROJECT REPORT; MARTOR SAPIENS

'I should punish you. You were the one who told Claudia she was not my daughter.'

It was not the Prison's metallic sneer. Attia stared up at the red accusing Eye.

'I did tell her. She needed to know.'

'It was cruel.' The Warden's voice sounded grave, and weary. Quite suddenly the wall of the room rippled, and he was there.

Rho almost screamed. Attia stared, astonished.

A man stood before her in three-dimensional image, his edges frail and rippling. In places she could see right through him. His grey eyes were cold, and she had to make an effort not to flinch, or kneel, like Rho had hastily done.

She had only ever see
n him as Blaize. Now he was the
Warden. He wore a black silk coat and black knee — breeches; his boots were finest leather, his silvered hair caught back in a velvet ribbon. At first she thought that despite his austerity she had never seen anyone so fine, and yet as he stepped closer she caught the wear on his sleeve, the stained coat, the slightly untrimmed beard.

He nodded sourly. 'Yes. The conditions of the Prison begin to affect even me.'

'Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?'

'The dog-slave grows a little bold, it seems. So where is Sapphique's Glove?'

Attia almost smiled. 'Ask my captors.'

'We're not your ca
ptors,' Rhos stammered. 'You can
go, anytime.' The girl was gazing furtively up at the Warden with her grey and gold eyes. She seemed both fascinated and appalled.

'The Glove!' the Warden snapped.

Rho bowed, scrambled up and ran out.

At once Attia said, 'They've got Keiro. I want him released.'

'Why?' The Warden's smile was acid. He looked around the Nest with interest. 'I doubt very much whether he would do the same for you.'

'You don't know him.'

'On the contrary. I have studied his record, and yours. Keiro is ambitious and ruthless. He will act for himself, without a qualm.' He smiled. 'I will use that against him.'

He adjusted an invisible control; the image wavered, and then became clearer. He was so close she could have touched him. He turned and gazed at her sideways. 'Of course you could always bring the Glove yourself and leave him behind.'

For a moment she thought he had read her thoughts. Then she said, 'If you want it, tell them to release him.'

Before he answered Rho was back, breathless, the doorway behind her crowded with inquisitive girls. She laid the Glove down carefully before the Warden's image.

He crouched. He reached out for the Glove and his hand passed right through it. The dragonskin scales glittered. 'So! It still exists! What a marvel that is.'

For a moment he was fascinated. Behind him Attia glimpsed a vast, shadowy place, dimly red. And there was a sound, a pulsing beat that she recognized from her dream.

She said, 'If you went Outside, you could tell them about Finn. You could be a witness for him. Don't you see, you could tell them that you took his memory, that you put him here.'

He stood slowly, and dusted what looked like rust from his gloves.

'Prisoner, you assume too much.' He looked at her, a steel-cold gaze. 'I care nothing for Finn, or the Queen, or any of the Havaarna.' 'You care about Claudia. She could be in danger too His grey eyes flickere
d. For a moment she thought she
had stung him, but he was hard to read. He said, 'Claudia is my concern. And I fully intend to be the next ruler of the Realm myself. Now bring me the Glove.' 'Not without Keiro.'

John Arlex did not move. 'Don't bargain with me, Attia.'

'I won't let him be killed.' Her breath came short and it almost hurt to speak. She prepared herself for some great anger.

But to her surprise he glanced aside as if consulting something and then shrugged. 'Very well. Release the thief. But hurry. The Prison grows impatient for its freedom. And — '

There was a crack, a spitting of sparks.

Where he had been, only an echo blinded her eyes, a faint smell of burning hung.

Attia was startled, but she moved quickly, stooping and picking up the Glove, feeling again its heaviness, the warm, slightly oily texture of its skin. She turned to Rho.

'Send someone to get Keiro. And show me the way down.'

It happened so quickly Claudia almost thought she imagined it. One minute she was huddled miserably in the chair outside the guarded door gazing down the gilded corridor, and in the next moment the corridor was a ruin. She blinked.

The blue vase was c
racked. Its marble pedestal was
painted wood. The walls were a mess of wires and faded paint. Great damp patches soaked the ceiling; in one corner the plaster had fallen and drips cascaded in. She stood up, astonished.

Then with a ripple so subtle she felt it only in her nerves the splendour came back.

Claudia turned her head and stared at the two soldiers guarding the door. If they had noticed anything strange they weren't showing it, their faces carefully blank.

'Did you see that!'

'I'm sorry, madam.' The left-hand one's eyes kept straight ahead. 'See what?' She swivelled to the other. 'You?'

He seemed pale. His hand was sweaty on the halberd. 'I thought.. . but no. Nothing'

She turned her back on them and walked up the corridor. Her shoes clattered on the marble floor; she touched the vase and it was perfect. The walls were gilt panelling, beautifully ornamented with cupid masks and wooden swags. Of course she had known that much of the Era here was illusion, but she felt that for a moment she had been granted a vision, a glimmer of the world as it really was. It was hard to breathe. As if, for that instant, even the air had been sucked away.

The power had flickered.

With a crack that made her jump the double doors opened behind her and th
e Privy Councillors surged out,
a grave, chattering straggle. Claudia grabbed the nearest. 'Lord Arto. What's happened?'

He disengaged her hand gently. 'It's all over, my dear. We are retiring to consider our verdict; it must be presented tomorrow I must say I myself have no doubts as to ... ' Then, as if remembering her fate was involved, he smiled and fluttered a bow and was gone.

Claudia saw the Queen. Sia chatted with her ladies, and a foppish youth in a gold coat who was rumoured to be her latest lover. He looked hardly older than Caspar. The dog had been dumped in his arms; Sia clapped her hands and everyone turned.

'Friends! We have such a tiresome wait for the verdict, and I hate waiting! So tonight there will be a masked ball in the Shell Grotto, and everyone is to attend. Everyone, mind!' Her colourless eyes met Claudia's and she smiled her sweetest smile. 'Or I will be very, very displeased.'

The men bowed, the women dropped curtsies. As the entourage swept past Claudia breathed out in dismay, seeing the Pretender follow, surrounded by a group of the most fashionable young men. He was already gaining supporters, it seemed.

He bowed graciously. 'I'm afraid there's no doubt about the verdict, Claudia.' 'You were convincing?' 'You should have seen me!' 'You don't convince me.'

He smiled, a little sadly. Then he took her aside. 'My offer still stands. Marry me, Claudia. We were betrothed a long time ago, so let's do what our fathers wanted. Together we can give the people the justice they deserve.'

She looked at his earnest face, his perfect confidence, his concerned eyes, remembering how just for a second the world had flickered around her. Now she had no idea again how much was false.

She removed her arm from his and bowed. 'Let's wait for the verdict.'

He seemed to draw back, and then he bowed too, coldly. 'I would be a bitter enemy, Claudia,' he said.

She didn't doubt it. Whoever he was, wherever the Queen had found him, his confidence was real enough. She watched him rejoin the courtiers, their silk clothes brilliant in the flashes of sunshine through the casements. Then she turned and went into the empty Council Room.

Finn was sitting on the chair in the centre.

He glanced up, and she saw at once what a struggle it had all been. He looked drained and bitter.

She sat on the bench.

'It's over,' he said.

'You don't know that.'

'He had witnesses. A whole line of people — servants, courtiers, friends. They all looked at us both and said he was Giles. He had answers to every question. He even had this.' He rolled up his sleeve
and stared at the eagle on his
wrist. 'And I had nothing, Claudia.'

She didn't know what to say. She hated this powerlessness.

'But do you know what?' He rubbed the faded tattoo with his finger, gently. 'Now, when no one else believes me — maybe not even you — now is the first time since I came here that I really know I'm Giles.'

She opened her mouth and then closed it.

'This mark. It used to keep me going, in the Prison. I used to lie awake at night and dream of how things would be Outside, of who I really was. I imagined my mother and father, a warm house, having enough to eat, Keiro in all the splendid clothes he wanted. I used to look at this and know it must mean something. A crowned eagle with its wings spread wide. Like it was about to fly away.'

She had to snap him out of this. 'We needn't wait for their stupid verdict. I've made plans. Two horses will be ready for us, secretly saddled, at the edge of the Forest, at midnight. We can ride for the Wardenry, and use the Portal there to contact my father.'

He wasn't listening. 'The old man in the Forest said that Sapphique flew, in the end. Flew away to the stars.'

'And the Queen has ordered a masked ball. What better cover.'

His eyes lifted to her and she saw the signs Jared had warned her of; the white
ning of the lips, the strangely
unfocused gaze. She hurried across to him. 'Stay calm, Finn. Nothing is over. Keiro will find my father and—' The room vanished.

It became a chamber of grime, of cobwebs, of cables. For a second Finn knew he was back in the grey world of Incarceron.

Then the Privy Council chamber gleamed around him. He stared at her. 'What was
that?'

Claudia pulled him roughly to his feet. 'I think that was reality, Finn.'

Keiro spat the last wet rag out of his mouth and gasped in air. Breathing was a great relief he allowed himself a few vicious swearwords too. They had gagged him to keep him from talking to them. Obviously, they knew he was irresistible. Quickly, he pulled his chained wrists under him, dragged his feet through them, the muscles in his arms straining. He stifled a groan as his bruises ached. But at least his hands were in front now.