Текст книги "Incarceron"

Автор книги: Kathryn Fisher

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

34

He woke and found them all around him. The old, lame, the diseased, the half-made men. He hid his head and was filled with shame and anger. "I have failed you," he said.

"I have journeyed so far and I have failed."

"Not so," they answered. "There is a door we know, a tiny, secret door. None of us dare crawl through, in case we die there. If you promise to come back for us, we will show you."

Sapphique was lithe and slender. He looked at them with his dark eyes. "Take me there," he whispered.

-Legends of Sapphique

"What happened?" Jared gasped. "The Prison has interfered," the Warden hissed with fury. His fingers moved swiftly over the controls.

"Well, stop it! Order it to—"

"I cannot make Incarceron obey me." The Warden glared at him. "No one has done that for centuries. The Prison rules, Master. I have no power over it." Then in a voice so low

Jared barely heard, "It laughs at me."

Appalled, Jared stared at the blank screen. Outside, a fist pounded again on the bronze doors. A voice thundered, "Warden! Open this! The Queen demands your presence."

"Evian made a poor job of his assassination," the Warden said. He glanced up. "Don't fear, they won't get in. Even with axes."

"She thinks you were involved."

"Maybe. It is a good excuse to be rid of me. There will be no marriage now."

Jared shook his head. "Then were all finished."

"In that case, Master, I could do with your help." The gray eyes were fixed on him. "For

Claudia's sake we need to work together."

Jared nodded slowly. Trying to ignore the furious banging, he came around to the controls and examined them carefully. "This is so old. Many of the symbols are in the Sapient tongue." He looked up. "Let's try talking to Incarceron in the language of its makers."

THE PRISONQUAKE was swift and sudden. The floor buckled; walls crashed down. Finn grabbed Keiro; together they fell back against a door that gave under their weight, flinging them inside.

Claudia scrambled after them, but Attia said, "Help me with him!" She had Gildas doubled up, gasping. Hurriedly Claudia climbed back, wriggled his arm over her shoulders, and they struggled with him to the cell, where Finn hauled them in and slammed the door tight, he and Keiro wedging it with a split timber.

Outside, rubble cascaded down and they listened to it in dismay. The corridor was surely blocked.

"But you do not think you can lock me out, I hope?" Incarceron laughed its rumbling laugh. "No one can do that. I am inescapable. "

"Sapphique Escaped." Gildas's voice was a rasp of pain, but he spat the words out. His hands clutched his chest; they shook uncontrollably. "How did he do that then, without a

Key? Is there another way out, that only he discovered? A way so secret, so amazing, you can't block it? A way needing no gate and no machinery? Is that it, Incarceron? Is that what you fear, always watching, always listening?"

"I fear nothing.

"Not what you told me," Claudia snapped. She was breathing hard; she glanced at Finn.

"I must go back. Jared's in trouble. Will you come?"

"I can't leave them. Take the old man with you."

Gildas laughed: his body convulsed into wheezing gasps. Attia gripped his hands; then she turned her head. "He's dying," she whispered."Finn," the Sapient croaked.

Finn crouched down, sick with the prickling behind his eyes. Whatever injuries Gildas had were internal, but the shiver of his hands, the sweat and pallor of his face were only too clear.

The Sapient brought his mouth close to Finns ear. "Show me the stars," he whispered.

Finn looked at the others. "I can't..."

"Then allow me," the Prison said. The glimmer of light in the cell went out. One red Eye was a spark in the corner of the wall. "Look at this star, old man. This is the only star you will ever see."

"Stop tormenting him!" Finn's howl of rage startled them all. And then to Claudia's amazement he turned back to Gildas and clasped his hand. "Come with me," he said. "I'll show you."

The dizziness of his mind swept over him and he let it. He walked deliberately into its darkness and dragged the old man with him, and all around them the lake glimmered under its floating lanterns, blue and purple and gold, and the boat rocked beneath him as he lay in it and stated up at the stars.

They blazed in the summer night. Like silver dust they lay across the cosmos as if a great hand had scattered them, and their mystery enchanted the velvety blackness.

Beside him, Finn felt the old mans awe.

"These are the stars, Master. Whole worlds, far away, seeming tiny, but really huger than anything we know."

Lake water lapped.

Gildas said, "So far. So many!"

A heron rose from the water with a graceful flap. On the shore the music sounded sweet; voices laughed softly.

The old man said hoarsely, "I have to go to them now, Finn.

I have to go and find Sapphique. He won't have been content, you know, just to be

Outside. Not once he had seen this."

Finn nodded. He felt the boat unmoor beneath him, the Hit and slip of the swell. He felt the old man's fingers loosen in his. And as he stared at them, the stars grew and burned, became flames, tiny flames on the tips of tiny candles, and he was blowing them out, blowing at them with his whole breath, all his energy.

They vanished, and he laughed, a great laugh of triumph, and all the people around laughed with him, the King in his red coat, and Bartlett, and his pale new stepmother, and all the courtiers and nurses and musicians, and the little girl in the pretty white dress, the girl who had come that day, that they said would be his special friend.

She was looking at him now. She said, "Finn. Can you hear me?

Claudia.

" IT'S READY ." Jared looked up. "You speak, and the translation will be instant."

The "warden had been pacing, listening to the voices outside; now he came and stood by the desk, his arms folded.

"Incarceron," he said.

Silence. Then, on the screen, a small red point of light. It was tiny, like a star. It gazed out at them. It said, "Who is this speaking the old tongue?"

The voice was uncertain. It seemed to have lost some of its echoing rumble.

The Warden glanced at Jared. Then he said quietly, "You know who this is, my father. This is Sapphique."

Jared's eyes widened, but he stayed silent.

There was another silence. This time the Warden broke it. "I speak to you in the language of the Sapienti. I order you not to harm the boy Finn."

"He has the Key. No prisoner is allowed to Escape."

"But your anger may injure him. And Claudia." Had the Warden's voice changed as he spoke her name? Jared wasn't sure.

A moment of stillness. Then, "Very well. For you, my son."

The Warden made a sign to Jared to cut communications, but as his finger reached out to the panel, the Prison said softly, "But if you are indeed Sapphique, we have spoken often before. You will remember."

"That was long ago," the Warden said cautiously.

"Yes. You gave me the Tribute I required. I hunted you and you thwarted me. You hid in holes and stole my children's hearts. Tell me, Sapphique, how did you Escape from me? After I struck you down, after the terrible fall through darkness, what doorway did you find that I had overlooked? Through what crevice did you crawl? And where are you now, out there in the places I cannot even imagine?"

The voice was wistful; the Warden looked up at the steady

Eye on the screen. He was hushed as he answered. "That is a mystery I cannot reveal."

"A pity. You see, they did not give me any way to see outside myself. Can you imagine, Sapphique, you the wanderer, the great traveler, can you even dream of how it is to live forever trapped in your own mind, watching only the creatures that inhabit it? They made me powerful and they made me flawed. And only you, when you return, can help me."

The Warden was still. Dry-mouthed, Jared flicked the switch. His hands were shaky and damp with sweat. As he watched it, the Eye faded.

FINNS SIGHT was blurred and his whole body had emptied. He lay crooked; only Keiro's arm kept his head off the floor. But for a moment, before the Prison stench crept back, before the world surged in, he knew he was a prince and the son of a prince, that his would was golden with sunlight, that he had ridden into a dark forest one morning in a fairy tale and never ridden out again.

"Drink some of this." Attia gave him water; he managed a swallow and coughed and tried to sit up.

"He gets worse," Keiro was saying to Claudia. "This is what your father has done to him."

She ignored it and bent over Finn. "The Prisonquake has stopped. It just went quiet."

"Gildas?" Finn muttered.

"The old man's gone. He doesn't have to worry about Sapphique anymore." Keiro's voice was gruff. Turning, Finn saw the Sapient lying in the rubble, his eyes closed, his body curled, as if he slept. On his finger, loose and dull, as if Keiro had pushed it there in some vain effort to save him, shone the last skull-ring.

"What did you do?" Claudia asked. "He said ... odd things."

"I showed him the way out." Finn felt raw, scraped clean. He didn't want to talk about it now, not to tell them what he thought he had remembered, so he sat up slowly and said, "You tried the ring on him?"

"It didn't work. He was right about that too. Maybe none of them ever worked." Keiro pushed the Key into his hands. "Go. Get out now. Get the Sapient to design a key to spring me. And send someone back for the girl."

Finn looked at Attia. "I'll come back myself. I swear."

Attia smiled, wan, but Keiro said, "See you do. I don't want to be stuck with her."

"And for you too. I'll get all the Sapienti in my kingdom on it. We made a vow, brother. Do you think I've forgotten?"

Keiro laughed. His handsome face was grimy and bruised, his hair dull with dirt, his fine coat ruined. But he was the one, Finn thought, who looked like a prince. "Maybe. Or maybe this is your chance to be rid of me. Maybe you're afraid I'd kill you and take your place. If you don't come back, believe me, I'll do it."

Finn smiled. For a moment they looked at each other across the tilted cell, across the spilled manacles and shackles. Then Finn turned to Claudia.

"You first." She said, "You will come?"

"Yes."

She looked at him, then the others. Quickly she touched the eye of the eagle and was gone, in a brilliance that made them all gasp.

Finn looked down at the Key he held. "I can't," he said. Attia smiled brightly. "I trust you. I'll be waiting." But his finger didn't move, paused above the eagle's dark eye, so she reached over and pressed it for him.

CLAUDIA FOUND herself sitting in the chair amidst an uproar of voices and hammering.

Outside the gate Caspar was shouting, "... under arrest for high treason. Warden! Can you hear me?" The bronze resounded to frenzied blows.

Her father took her hand and raised her to her feet. "My dear. So where is our young

Prince?"

Jared was watching the bronze gate buckle inward. He flashed a quick, glad glance at

Claudia.

Her hair was tangled, her face dirty. A strange smell hung around her. She said, "Right behind me."

FINN WAS sitting in a chair too, but this room was dark, a small cell, like the one he remembered from long ago, ancient, the walls greasy with carved names.

Opposite him sat a slim dark-haired man. For a moment he thought this was Jared, and then he knew who it was.

He looked around, confused. "Where am I? Is this Outside?"

Sapphique was sitting against the wall, knees drawn up. He said quietly, "None of us have much idea where we are. Perhaps all our lives we are too concerned with where, and not enough with who."

Finn's fingers were tight on the crystal Key. "Let me go," he breathed.

"It's not me who's stopping you." Sapphique watched Finn and his eyes were dark and the stars were points of light deep inside them. "Don't forget us, Finn. Don't forget the ones back there in the dark, the hungry and the broken, the murderers and thugs. There are prisons within prisons, and they inhabit the deepest."

He stretched out his hand and took a length of chain from the wall; it clanked, rust flaking off. He slipped his hands inside the links. "Like you, I went out into the Realm. It wasn't what I'd expected. And I made a promise too." He dropped the metal on the floor, an enormous crash, and Finn saw the maimed finger. "Maybe that's what's imprisoning you."

He turned sideways and beckoned. A shadow rose from behind him and walked forward, and Finn stifled a cry, because it was the Maestra. She had the same tall, lanky walk, the red hair, the scornful eyes. She stood looking down at Finn and he felt that a chain bound him, fine and invisible and she held the end of it, because he could not move hand or foot.

"How can you be here?" he whispered. "You fell."

"Oh yes, I fell! Through realms and centuries. Like a bird with a broken wing. Like an angel cast down." He could barely tell if it was her whisper or Sapphique's. But the anger was hers. "And that was all your fault."

"I ..." He wanted to blame Keiro, or Jormanric. Anyone. But he said, "I know."

"Remember it, Prince. Learn from it."

"Are you alive?" He was struck with the old shame; it made it hard to speak.

"Incarceron doesn't waste anything. I'm alive in its depths, in its cells, the cells of its body."

I'm sorry.

She wrapped her coat about her with the old dignity. "If you are, that's all I ask."

"Will you keep him here?" Sapphique murmured.

"As he kept me?" She laughed calmly. "I don't need a ransom for my forgiveness. Goodbye, scared boy. Guard my crystal Key."

The cell blurred and opened. He felt as if he were dragged through a blinding concussion of stone and flesh; that huge wheels of iron rumbled over him, that he was opened and closed, riven and mended.

He stood up from the chair and the dark figure held out a hand to steady him.

And this time it was Jared.

35

I have walked a stair of swords, I have worn a coat of scars.

I have vowed with hollow words, I have lied my way to the stars.

-Songs of Sapphique

The gate shuddered.

"Don't worry. It will never break." Calm, the Warden surveyed Finn. "So this is the one you think is Giles." She glared at him. "You should know." Finn stared around. The room was so white it hurt, the glare of the lights making his eyes ache. The man he recognized as

Blaize laughed lightly, folding his arms. "Actually, it doesn't matter whether he is or not.

Now you have him, you will have to make him Giles. Because only he stands between you and disaster." Curious, he stepped closer to Finn. "And what do you think, Prisoner? Who do you think you are?"

Finn felt shaky and filthy; suddenly he knew that his skin was grimed with dirt, that he stank in this sterile room. "I ... think I remember. The betrothal..

"Are you sure? Or might it not be that these are memories someone else had, that are now buried in you, filaments of thought trapped in borrowed tissue, that the Prison built into you?" He smiled his cold smile.

"Once we could have found out," Claudia snapped. "Before Protocol."

"Yes." The Warden turned to her. "And that problem I will leave to you."

Finn saw how pale she was, how angry. She said, "All my life you let me believe I was your daughter. And it was all a lie."

"No."

"Yes! You selected me, you educated me, you formed me ... you even told me all that!

Created a creature that would be just what you wanted, that would be pliant and marry whom you said and be what you wanted. What would have happened to me afterward?

Would poor Queen Claudia have met with an accident too, leaving only the Warden to be

Regent? Was that the plan?"

He met her eyes, and his were clear and gray. "If it was, I changed it because I grew to love you." "Liar!"

Jared said unhappily, "Claudia, I ..." but the Warden held up his hand.

"No Master, let me explain. I chose you, yes, and I freely admit at first you were a means to an end. A squalling infant that I saw as rarely as possible. But as you grew, I came ... to look forward to seeing you. To the way you curtsied to me, showed me your work, were shy with me. And you have become dear to me."

She stared at him, not wanting to hear this, or believe it. She wanted to keep her anger bright, newly minted like a coin.

He shrugged. "I was not a good father. For that I am sorry."

In the stillness between them the hammering broke out again, even louder. Jared said urgently, "It hardly matters, sir, what you did or who this boy is. We are all condemned now. There is no escape from death unless we all enter the Prison."

Finn muttered, "I have to go back for Attia." He held out his hand to Claudia for the other

Key; she shook her head. "Not you. I'll go back." Reaching out, she took the crystal copy from him and compared the two. "Who made this?"

"Lord Calliston. The Steel Wolf himself." The Warden stared at the crystal. "I had often wondered if the rumors were true, whether a copy existed, somewhere in the depths of the Prison."

She moved her finger toward the panel, but he stopped her. "Wait. First we must ensure our own safety, or the girl will be better where she is."

Claudia looked at him. "How can I ever trust you again?"

"You must." He put a finger to his lips and nodded. Then, striding across the white cell, he touched the door control and stood back.

Two soldiers fell headlong into the room. Behind them, the ram on chains swung at empty air. Swords were drawn, sharp whispers of steel.

"Do please enter," the Warden said graciously.

The Queen herself was there, Claudia saw with shock, wearing a dark cloak. Behind his mother Caspar glared at her. 'I'll never forgive you," he snarled.

"Be quiet." His mother stalked past him into the room, paused at the strange shiver of energy at the threshold, then gazed around. "Fascinating. So this is the Portal."

"Indeed." The Warden bowed. "I am happy to see you so well."

"I very much doubt that." Sia stopped before Finn. She looked him up and down and her face paled. She pressed her red lips tight.

"Yes," the Warden said softly. "Unfortunately a Prisoner has escaped."

Furious, she turned on him. "Why have you done this? What treachery are you planning?"

"None. We can all come out of this safely. All of us. With no secrets spilled, no assassinations. Watch me."

He strode to the control desk, touched a combination of controls, and stood back.

Claudia stared, because the wall blanked and showed an image that she took a moment to recognize. In a vast room courtiers crowded in a buzz of scandal. Half-eaten food lay ignored on huge tables. Servants gossiped in anxious huddles.

It was her wedding feast.

"What are you doing?" the Queen snapped, but it was too late. The Warden said, "Friends." Every head in the room turned. Talk dried into a stillness of astonishment.

After a hundred years of Protocol the vast screen behind the throne had probably been forgotten; now Finn stared out at the Court through a fringe of cobwebs, a film of grime.

"Please forgive all the unfortunate confusions of the day," the "warden said gravely. "And I beg all of you, ambassadors from Overseas, and courtiers, dukes and Sapienti, ladies and dowagers all, to overlook this breach of Protocol. But a great day has dawned, and a great wrong has been righted."

The Queen seemed too astounded to speak; Claudia almost felt the same. But she moved; she grabbed Finns arm and hauled him close to her. They stood together facing the bewildered, fascinated faces of the Court as her father said, "Behold. The Prince we thought was lost, the heir of his father, the hope of the Court, Giles, has returned to us."

A thousand eyes stared at Finn. He looked back, seeing in each one the pinpoint of light, feeling their intense curiosity, their doubt, descend right into his soul. Was this how it would be, to be King?

"In her great wisdom the Queen found it necessary to conceal him in safe exile against a conspiracy against his life," the Warden said smoothly. "But at last, after many years, this danger is ended. The plotters have failed, and are arrested. Everything is calm again."

He glanced once at the Queen; fury was in every inch of her upright back, but when she spoke, her voice was pleasant with happiness. "My friends, I am so delighted! The "warden and I have worked so hard to counter this threat. I want you to prepare the banquet now, for the Prince's coming. Instead of a wedding, a great homecoming, but still a wonderful day, just as we planned."

The Court was silent. Then, from the back, a ragged cheer began.

She jerked her head; the Warden touched the panel. The screen dimmed.

She took a deep breath. "I will never, never forgive you for this," she said evenly.

"I know." John Arlex flicked another switch idly. He sat, and crossed one leg over another, his dark brocaded coat shimmering, and then he reached out and took both Keys from where Claudia had placed them and held them glinting in his hands.

"Such small bright crystals," he murmured. "And such power contained in them! I suppose, Claudia, my dear, that if one cannot be the master of one world, one should find another world to conquer." He glanced at Jared. "I leave her to you, Master. Remember our talk."

Jared's eyes widened; he cried, "Claudia!" but she already knew what was happening.

Her father was sitting in the chair of the Portal—she knew she should run forward, dart forward and snatch the Keys from him, but she couldn't move, as if the power of his terrible will kept her frozen.

Her father smiled. "Do excuse me, Majesty. I think I would be a specter at this feast." His ringers touched the panel.

A brilliance exploded in the room, making them all flinch; then the chair was empty, spinning slightly in the white room, and as they stared at it a spark spat in the controls, then another. Acrid smoke rose; the Queen clenched her fists and screamed at the emptiness, "You can't do this!"

Claudia was staring at the chair; as it imploded into flame, Jared tugged her hastily back.

She said bleakly, "He can. He has."

Jared watched her. Her eyes were overbright, her face flushed, but her head was high.

The Queen raged with anger, stabbing every button and causing only explosions. As she swept out with Caspar running at her heels, Jared said, "He'll come back, Claudia. I'm sure ..."

"It's nothing to me what he does." She turned to Finn, who was staring aghast at her.

"Attia," he whispered. "What about Attia? I promised to go back for her!"

"It's not possible ..."

He shook his head. "You don't understand. I have to! I can't leave them there. Especially not Keiro." He was appalled. "Keiro will never forgive me. I promised."

"We'll find a way. Jared will find one. Even if it takes years. That's my promise to you."

She grabbed his hand and pushed the frayed sleeve up to show the eagle mark. "But you must think about this now. You're here. You're Outside and you're free. Of them, of all of that. And we have to make this work, because Sia will always be there, plotting behind our backs."

Bewildered, he stared at her and realized she had no idea of what he had lost. "Keiro is my brother."

"I'll do all I can," Jared said quietly. "There must be another way. Your father came and went as Blaize. And Sapphique found it."

Finn raised his head and gave him a strange look. "Yes. He did."

Claudia took his arm. "We have to go out there now," she said quietly. "You have to lift your head up and be a prince. It won't be like you expect. But everything is acting here. A game, my father calls it. Are you ready?"

He felt the old fear wash over him. He felt he was walking into a great ambush that had been set for him. But he nodded.

Arm in arm, they walked out of the white room, and Claudia led him up through the cellars and the stairs. He passed through chambers of crowding, staring people. She opened a door and he cried out in delight, because the world was a garden and above it, brilliant and blazing, hung the stars, millions of them, higher and higher, above the pinnacles of the

Palace, and the trees, and the sweet beds of flowers.

"I knew," he whispered. "I always knew."

LEFT ALONE, Jared gazed around at the ruins of the Portal. The Wardens sabotage looked only too thorough. He had spoken kindly to the boy, but in his heart he felt a deep dread, because to find a way back through this destruction would take time, and how much time did he have?

"You were too much for us, Warden," he murmured aloud.

He climbed up after them, weary now, his chest aching. Servants ran past him; talk echoed in every chamber and hall. He hurried, stepping out into the gardens, glad of the evening cool, the sweet scents.

Claudia and Finn stood on the steps of the building. The boy looked as if he was blind with the glory of the night, as if its purity was an agony to him.

Beside them, Jared slipped his hand into his pocket and brought out the watch. Claudia stared. "Isn't that...?"

"Yes. Your father's."

"He gave it to you?"

"You might say that." And he held it in his delicate fingers, and she noticed, as if for the first time, that there was a tiny silver cube hanging on its chain, a charm that twisted and glittered in the starlight.

"But where are they?" Finn asked, tormented. "Keiro and Attia and the Prison?"

Jared gazed at the cube thoughtfully. "Closer than you think, Finn," he said.