He looked upwards.
The Prison flickered white lights over its statue. Then it said,
I volunteer.
For a moment all Keiro heard was his own heart thudding and the echoes of slithering wood. Then Finn said, 'We're all right.'
He stepped out of an alcove in the wall, and from the shadows behind him Ralph said in despair, 'How do we get up now? There's no way ...'
'Of course there is.' Keiro's voice was brisk. From the darkness a red and gold tassel came down and hit Finn on the shoulder.
'Is it safe?'
'I've tied it to the nearest column. It's the best I can do. Come on.'
Finn looked at Jared. They both knew that if the column gave way or the rope fell apart the climber would fall to his death. Jared said, 'It has to be me. With respect, Finn, the Portal is a mystery to you.'
It was true, but Finn shook his head. 'You won't manage...' Jared drew himself up. 'I'm not so weak.'
'You're not weak at all.' Finn glanced up into the dimness. Then he grabbed the rope and tied it fiercely around Jared's waist and under his arms. 'Use it to abseil. Use all the footholds you can find and try not to put all your weight on
it. We'll—'
'Finn.' Jared put a hand on his chest. 'Don't worry: He braced the rope, then turned his head. 'Did you hear that?' 'What?'
'Thunder.' Ralph said doubtfully.
They listened a moment, hearing the terrible storm rage across the Realm, the atmosphere loosed from its long control.
Then Keiro yelled, 'Move!' and Jared felt the rope jerk him up the first stairs.
The climb was a nightmare. Soon the rope was burning his hands, and the effort of clambering and hauling himself up left him breathless. The old pain burnt in his chest, and the ache of his back and neck as he groped from splintered step to panel, grabbing at cobwebbed sills and shifting timbers, exhausted him.
Above, Keiro's face was a pale oval in the shadows. 'Come on, Master! You can do it
Jared gasped. He had to stop, just for breath, but as he did the small notch into which he had jammed his boot gave way, and with a crash and a cry he fell, the rope bringing him up short in a bone-cracking agony of wrenched muscles.
For a moment he saw nothing.
The world was gone and he was hanging weightless in a black sky, and around him, silently, galaxies and nebulae were icily turning. The stars had voices; they were calling his name, but still he circled, slowly, until the star that was Sapphique leant close and whispered, 'I'm waiting for you, Master. And Claudia is waiting.'
He opened his eyes. Pain flowed back like a wave, filling his veins, his mouth, his nerves. Keiro said, 'Jared. Climb. Climb!'
He obeyed. Like a child, without thinking, he tugged himself up, hand over h
and. Climbing through the pain,
through the dark fire of his breathing, while far below Finn and Ralph were two glimmers in the black hall. 'More. A bit more.'
Something grabbed above him. His sweat-soaked hands slid on the ropes, the skin raw, his knees and ankles knots of rubbed flesh. A warm grip caught on his. A hand hauled under his elbow.
'I've got you. I've got you.'
And then a strength that seemed miraculous to him heaved him upward and he crouched on all fours over the pain, coughing and retching.
'He's safe.' Keiro's yell was calm. 'Move, Finn.'
Finn turned to Ralph. 'Ralph, you're not coming. Do this for me. Get out and find the Privy Council. They have to take charge now Tell them I.. : He paused and swallowed. 'Tell them the King orders it. Food and shelter for everyone:
'But you
'I'll be back. With Claudia.'
'But sire, do you mean to re-enter the Prison?'
Finn wound the rope round his hands and swung upwards. 'Not if I can help it. But if I have to, I will.'
He climbed quickly and fiercely, pulling himself up with jerks of energy, disdaining Keiro's hand and rolling over the edge swiftly. The landing was dark. The whole gable-end of the house must have gone, because down at the far end he could see the sky against rafters and half a chimney.
'The Portal may be wrecked,' Keiro muttered. 'No. The Portal isn't even in this house.' Finn turned. 'Master?' The landing was empty
'Jared?'
Then they saw him. He was far down the corridor, at the study door. 'I'm sorry, Finn,' he said gently. 'This is my plan. I have to do this on my own.'
Something clicked.
Finn ran, Keiro at his back, and when he reached the door he flung himself at it, the black swan arched defiantly over him.
But it was locked from the inside.
35
The Prison was a being of beauty once. Its programme was love. But perhaps we were too hard to love. Perhaps we asked too much of it. Perhaps we drove it mad.
LORD CALLISTON'S DIARY
Rix reached out with his Gloved hand, and from above a tiny pencil-thin light beam came down to touch him. It rippled softly over his palm, and after a while he nodded.
'I see strange things in your mind, my father. I see how they made you in their own image, how you woke in the darkness. I see the people that inhabit you, I see all the corridors and cells and dusty dungeons where they live.'
'Rix!' Attia's voice was sharp. 'Stop this.'
He smiled, but didn't look at her. 'I see how lonely you are, and how crazed. You have fed on your own soul, my master. You have devoured your own humanity You have fouled your own Eden. And now you want to Escape.'
You see a beam of light in your hand, Prisoner.
'As you say. A beam of light.' But the smile was gone now, and Rix raised the Glove so that the light caught a glitter of silver dust that fell through his open fingers.
The crowd gasped.
The dust fell and fell. There was too much of it. It became a cascade of tiny sparkles in a black sky
'I see the stars,' Rix said, his voice tight. 'Beneath them lies a ruined palace, its windows dark and broken. I peep at it through the keyhole of a tiny doorway. A storm roars about it. It is Outside.'
Claudia gripped Atha's wrist. 'Is he . . ?'
'I think it's a vision. He's done this before.'
'Outside!' She turned to the Warden. 'Does he mean the Realm?'
His grey eyes were hard. 'I fear so.' 'But Finn . . .'
'Hush, Claudia. I need to understand this.'
Furious, she stared at Rix. He was shivering, his eyes thin slits of white. 'There is a way,' he whispered, rapt. 'Sapphique found it.'
Sapphique?
Incarceron's voice hummed and rumbled round the hail. And then it spoke again, and there was sudden fear in it, and wonder.
How are you doing this, Rix? How are you doing this?
Rix blinked. For a moment he seemed shaken. The people were silent.
Then he moved his fingers, and the shower of silver became gold. 'The Art Magicke,' he breathed.
Jared stood back from the door. If Finn was beating on it, as he suspected, the sound did not come through. He turned.
The Realm might be ruined but nothing in this room had changed. As the Portal straightened itself he felt the quiet hum of its mystery calm him, the grey walls and single desk focus his vision. He raised a shaking hand to his mouth and licked blood from the grazed skin.
Suddenly, fatigue rippled through him. All he wanted to do was sleep, and he slumped in the metal chair before the snowy screen and fought the desire to lay his head on the desk and close his eyes and forget everything.
But the snow held his gaze. Behind its mystery Claudia was trapped, and the Prison and the Realm were caught in that destruction.
He made himself sit up, wiped his face with a grubby sleeve, brushed the hair from his eyes. He took the Glove out and laid it on the grey metal surface. Then he made a few adjustments to the controls and spoke.
He used the Sapient tongue. He said, 'Incarceron!'
The snow still fell, but its patterns changed, to a swirl of wonder. It answered him, its voice amazed.
How are you doing this, Rix? How are you doing this?
'I'm not Rix.' Jared spread his fine hands on the desk and stared at them. 'You spoke to me once before. You know who I am.'
I knew a voice like this, long ago.
The Prison's murmur hung in the still air of the room.
'Long ago,' Jared whispered. 'Before you were old, and evil. When the Sapienti first created you. And many times since, in my endless journeying.'
You are Sapphique.
He smiled, wearily. 'I am now. And you and I, Incarceron, have the same problem. We are both trapped in our bodies. Maybe we can help each other.' He picked up the Glove and fingered its fine scales. 'Perhaps the hour has come that all the prophesies tell of. The hour that the world ends, and Sapphique returns.'
Claudia said, 'They're out of their minds with terror. They'll rush us and kill him.'
The crowd were increasingly disturbed. She could feel their panic, sense the urgency in the way they pushed forward, craning to see, their hot sweaty stench rising towards her. T
hey knew if Incarceron e
scaped it was the end for them. If they began to believe Rix could do this, they would have nothing left to lose.
Attia grabbed Rix's knife. Claudia lifted the firelock and looked at her father. He didn't move, his eyes fixed in fascination on Rix.
She pushed past him, Attia with her, and together they edged round to stand on the steps between Rix and the crowd, even though it was futile, a mere gesture of defence.
I knew a voice like this, long ago,
the Prison murmured. Rix laughed harshly. The words of his act seemed charged now, like prophecy.
'There is a way Out. Sapphique found it. The door is tiny, tinier than an atom. And the eagle and the swan spread their wings to guard it.'
You are Sapphique.
'Sapphique returns. Did you ever love me, Incarceron?'
The Prison hummed. Its voice was hoarse.
I remember you. Out of them all, you were my brother and my son. We dreamt the same dream.
Rix swung to the statue. He gazed up at its calm face, its dead eyes. 'Keep very still,' he whispered anxiously, as if for only the Prison to hear. 'Or the danger is extreme.'
He turned to the crowd. 'The time has come, friends. I will release him. I will bring him back!'
'Again!' Finn and Keiro threw themselves at the door but it didn't even shudder. There was no sound from inside. Breathless, Keiro turned his back to the ebony swan and said, 'We could get one of those planks and — ' He stopped.
'Hear that?'
Voices. The clamour of men in the house, men swarming
up the rope in the stairwell, shadowy figures crowding the fragmenting corridor.
Finn stepped forward. 'Who's there?'
But he knew who they were even before the flickering lightning showed him. The Steel Wolves had come in a pack of silver muzzles, their eyes bright behind the masks of assassins and murderers.
Medlicote's voice said, 'I'm sorry, Finn. I can't leave it like this. No one will be surprised if you and your friend perish in the ruins of the Wardenry. Then a new world will begin, without kings, without tyrants.'
'Jared is in there,' Finn snapped. 'And your Warden...'
'The Warden has given his orders.'
Pistols were raised.
Beside him, Finn felt Keiro's arrogant defiance, that odd way he had of making himself taller, every muscle taut. 'Our last stand, brother,' Finn said bitterly. 'Speak for yourself,' Keiro said.
The Steel Wolves advanced, a tentative line across the corridor.
Finn tensed, but Keiro seemed almost languid. 'Come on, my friends. A little closer, please.'
They stopped, as if his words made them nervous. Then, just as Finn had known he would, he attacked.
Jared held the Glove in both hands. Its scales were curiously supple, as if the cent
uries had worn them. As if only
Time had worn the Glove.
Aren't you afraid?
Incarceron asked, curious.