Текст книги "Sapphique"

Автор книги: Kathryn Fisher

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‘So you keep telling me.’

‘You don’t need to be so savage.’ Keiro shrugged. ‘Too late. This is me, Finn. This is what the Prison has made me. Not like all this, no: He waved at the manor house. ‘This pretty world, those toy soldiers. I’m real.

And I’m free. Free to do whatever I want.’ He headed for the stairs.

‘Where are you going?’

‘That bath, brother. Those clothes.’ Finn nodded to Ralph. ‘Find him some.’ Seeing the consternation in the old man’s face, he turned away.

He had forgotten. In three months he had forgotten the wildness in Keiro, his arrogance, his utter wilfulness. How he had always been scared of what Keiro would do.

A woman’s scream of fury jerked his head up. It cut the morning like a knife, and it came from the Queen’s pavilion.

Well, at least that was one message that had gone home.

30

As the Beast I took your finger. As the Dragon I give you my hand.

Now you have crawled and clambered into my heart.

I can’t see you any more.

Are you still here?

MIRROR OF DREAMS TO SAPPHIQUE

The very air was freezing.

Huddled at the feet of the winged Sapphique, Attia could not stop shivering. Knees up, arms wrapped round herself, she suffered the numbing agony of cold. Her shoulders were white, her arms, her back. Snow made the miserable heap that was Rix into an albino wizard, his straggly hair glistening with half-melted slush. ‘We’ll die,’ he croaked.

‘No.’ The Warden had not stopped pacing. His footsteps made a complete circle about the base of the statue. ‘No. This is a bluff. The Prison is computing a solution. I know how its mind works. It’s trying out every plot and plan can devise, and in the meantime it hopes to force us to give it the Glove.’

‘But you can’t!’ Rix groaned.

‘Do you think I can’t speak to the Outside?’ Claudia was standing right behind him. She said, ‘Can you? Or are you bluffing too? Is this part of the game you’ve spent your life playing?’ Her father stopped and turned to her. Pinched with cold, his face was deathly pale against the high dark collar. ‘You still hate me then?’

‘I don’t hate you. But I can’t forgive you.’ He smiled. ‘For rescuing you from a life in hell? For giving you everything you could ever want – money, education, great estates? Betrothal to a prince?’ He always did this to her. Made her feel foolish and ungrateful. But still she said, ‘All that yes. But you never really loved me.’

‘How do you know?’ His face was close to hers.

‘I would have known. I would have felt...’

‘Ah, but I play games, remember?’ His eyes were clear and grey. ‘With the Queen. With the Prison. It has taught me to be careful what I show to the world He took a slow breath, the snow catching on his narrow beard. ‘Perhaps I loved you more than you knew. But if we come to accusations, Claudia, I might say this. You love only Jared.’

‘Don’t bring Jared into this! You wanted your daughter to be Queen. Any daughter would do. I could have been anyone.’ The Warden stepped back, as if her anger was a wave that pushed him away.

Rix chuckled. ‘A puppet,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘A puppet. Carved perfectly by a lonely man from wood.

And yet the puppet comes alive and torments him.’ John Arlex frowned. ‘Keep your stories for your act, magician.’

‘This is my act, sire.’ For a moment the voice was changed; it became the soft voice of Sapphique, so that they all stared at him through the falling snow. But Rix just grinned his gap-toothed grin.

The Prison howled. It gusted the snow against them in an angry scream. Attia glanced up and saw that the statue was crusted with icicles. Snow whitened the crevices of its hand, clogged the plumage of its coat. Sapphique’s eyes were glinting with ice; over his face a frost spread almost as she looked, stars of crystal joining up like some inhuman virus.

She was too cold to bear it. She jumped up. ‘We’ll freeze here. And god knows what’s happening elsewhere’ Claudia nodded gloomily. ‘Putting Keiro in the middle of a seige is a recipe for disaster. If only I knew where Jared is.’ I have come to my decision. The Prison’s venomous whisper was all around them.

‘Excellent The Warden glared up into the snowfall. ‘I was sure you’d come to your senses. Show me the Door. I’ll ensure the Glove is returned to you.’ Silence.

Then, with a snigger that sent shivers down Attia’s spine, Incarceron said, I am not such a fool,John. The Glove first.

‘We leave first.’ I don’t trust you.

‘Very wise,’ Rix muttered.

I was made by the Wise.

The Warden smiled coldly. ‘Nor do I trust you.’ Then you will not be surprised at what I do next. You think I cannot reach the Glove. But I have spent centuries investigating my own power and its sources. I have discovered things that astonished me. I assure you, John, I can suck the life out of your pretty Realm.

Claudia said, ‘What do you mean? You can’t …’ Ask your father. How pale he looks now. I will show all of you who is the true Prince of the Realm.

The Warden seemed shaken. ‘Tell me what you mean to do. Tell me!’ But only the snow fell, icy and relentless.

Attia said, ‘You’re scared. It’s scared you.’ They all saw his consternation. ‘I don’t understand what it means,’ he whispered.

Dismay struck Claudia like a blow. ‘But you’re the Warden…‘

‘I have lost control, Claudia. I told you, we’re all Prisoners It was Attia who said, ‘Do you hear that?’ A low thudding. It came from across the hail, and as they stared out they realized that the snow had stopped falling.

The electric snakes slid silently into the black tiles of the floor, which clicked across and became solid again.

‘Hammering,’ Rix said.

Attia shook her head. ‘More than that.’ Blows against the door, far off in the suddenly frosty air of the great hail. Blows of axes and sledgehammers and fists.

‘Prisoners,’ the Warden said. And then, ‘A riot.’ When Jared walked into the Great Chamber Finn turned in relief. ‘Any progress?’

‘The Portal is working. But the screen shows only snow.’

‘Snow!’ Jared sat, wrapping his Sapient coat around him. ’It seems to be snowing in the Prison. The temperature is five degrees below zero and dropping.’ Finn jumped up and paced in despair. ‘It’s taking its revenge.’

‘So it seems. For this.’ Jared took the Glove out and placed it carefully on the table. Finn came and touched its scaly skin.

‘Is it really Sapphique’s?’ Jared sighed. ‘I have tried every analysis I know. It just seems to be what it looks like. Reptile skin. Claws. Much of it is recycled matter.’ He looked baffled and anxious. ‘I have no idea how it works, Finn.’ They were silent. The shutters had been drawn back and sunlight slanted in. A wasp murmured in the window panes.

It was hard to believe a besieging army was encamped outside.

‘Have they made any move?’ Jared said.

‘None. It’s a stand-off. But they may attack and try to rescue Caspar.’

‘Where is he?’

‘In there.’ Finn nodded at the door to the next chamber. ‘It’s locked, and that’s the only way in.’ He leant against the empty fireplace. ‘I’m lost without Claudia, Master. She’d know what to do.’

‘You have Keiro instead. As you wanted.’ Finn smiled, wan. ‘Not instead. As for Keiro ... I’m beginning to wish—’

‘Don’t say that.’ Jared’s green eyes watched him. ‘He’s your brother.’

‘Only when it suits him.’ As if the words had summoned him like a spell, a soldier flung the door open and Keiro walked in.

He was breathless and exhilarated and looked every inch a prince. His coat was deepest midnight blue, his blond hair shone clean. Rings glinted on his fingers. He sprawled on the bench, admiring his expensive leather boots. ‘This is fantastic he said. ‘I can’t believe it’s real.’

‘It’s not,’ Jared said quietly. ‘Keiro, tell us about the situation Inside.’ Keiro laughed and poured some wine. ‘I can only guess that the Prison is furious, Master Sapient. I suggest you destroy your machines and nail up the door that leads there and forget all about it. No one can save the Prisoners now’ Jared watched him. ‘You sound just like its builders,’ he said.

‘Claudia’ Finn said.

‘Oh yes, well I’m sorry about the Princess. But it was me you wanted to rescue, wasn’t it? And I’m here. So let’s win our little war, brother, and enjoy our perfect kingdom.’ Finn stood over him. ‘Why did I ever make an oath with you?’

‘To survive. Because without me you couldn’t’ Keiro stood lightly, gazing at Finn. ‘But something’s changed in you, Finn. Not just all this. Something inside.’

‘I’ve remembered.’

‘Remembered!’

‘Who I am Finn said. ‘I remembered that I am a prince and that my name is Giles.’ Keiro said nothing for a moment. His eyes flickered to Jared’s and back. ‘Well. So will the Prince ride into the Prison with all his men and all his horses?’

‘No.’ Finn took the watch out and set it down on the table beside the Glove. ‘Because this is the Prison. This is where you came from. This is the vast edifice that had us all fooled He grasped Keiro’s hand and put the watch in it, lifting the silver cube close to his eyes. ‘This is Incarceron Jared expected awe, or astonishment. He saw neither. Keiro burst into a fit of laughter. ‘You believe that?’ he managed to gasp. ‘Even you, Master?’ Before Jared could answer the door opened and Ralph came in with a guard at his back.

‘What?’ Finn barked.

‘Sire.’ Ralph was pale and breathless. ‘Sire …’ The soldier stepped out from behind him and he had a drawn sword in one hand and a pistol in the other.

Two more men slipped round the door. One slammed it shut and put his back to it.

Jared stood, slowly.

Keiro didn’t move, his eyes alert.

‘We’ve come for the Earl. One of you open that door and get him. If anyone else moves I fire.’ The pistol was raised and pointed directly at Finn’s eyes.

Ralph gasped, ‘I’m sorry; sire, so sorry! They made me tell them …’

‘It’s all right, Ralph.’ Finn stared at the Queen’s man.

‘Jared?’ Jared said, ‘I’ll fetch him. Don’t shoot. There’s no need for violence.’ He moved to the door, out of Finn’s eyeline, and Finn was left staring at the gun. He smiled, wan. ‘This is the second time this has happened to me.’

‘Oh come on, brother.’ Keiro’s voice was light and sharp. ‘It was an odd day in the Prison when such things didn’t happen.’ A door was unlocked behind them. Jared’s voice spoke, low and quiet. Then there was a laugh of pure glee. That must be Caspar.

‘How did you get in here?’ Finn said.

The soldier’s aim did not waver. But he said, ‘We captured one of the Steel Wolves out there in the woods. He was . . . persuaded to talk. He showed us the tunnel the Sapient used.’ Sweating, Finn said, ‘Do you really think you’ll get out the same way?’

‘No, Prisoner. I think we’ll go out through the front door.’ Instantly, one of the other men swivelled his weapon. ‘Keep still!’ Keiro must have moved. Finn could only see his shadow on the floor.

Finn licked dry lips. ‘You are overconfident.’

‘I don’t think so. Have they harmed you, sire?’

‘They wouldn’t have dared.’ Caspar stalked into the room and stared around. ‘Well, this is better, don’t you think, Finn? Now I’m the one in command.’ He folded his arms.

‘What if I told these men to cut off a few ears and hands?’ Finn heard the threat in Keiro’s low laugh. ’You wouldn’t have the guts, little boy.’ Caspar glared. ‘No? I might do it myself.’

‘Sire,’ Jared said. ‘We brought you here to stop the seige, not to harm you. You know that.’

‘Don’t try to fool me with words, Jared. These two cut-throats would have killed me anyway, and maybe you as well, later on. This is a nest of rebels. And I don’t know where Claudia is hiding but she won’t get any mercy from us either.’ His eye fell on the Glove and he stared at it curiously. What is that?’

‘Please don’t touch that: Jared said, his voice edged with nerves.

Caspar took a step nearer to the table. ‘Why not?’ Keiro’s shadow had edged close. Finn tensed himself.

‘It’s a magical object of great power.’ Jared’s reluctance was just right. ‘It may give access to the Prison.’ Greed lit Caspar’s face. ‘She’ll be thrilled if I take that back for her.’

‘Sire.’ The guard’s eyes wavered. ‘Don’t …’ Caspar ignored him, took one step forward and in that instant Jared grabbed him, locked his arms behind him and held him in a tight grip.

Keiro whooped. Jared said, ‘Lower the gun. Please.’

‘You won’t hurt the Earl, Master,’ the soldier said. ‘And my orders are clear. The Prisoner dies.’ His finger twitched and Finn crashed as Keiro shoved him aside. The blast detonated with an explosion that threw him against the side of the table and stunned him, so that the shouts and smashing cups as Ralph and Jared heaved the table over and dragged him behind it seemed like objects inside his own head falling and breaking, the pool of wine like his own blood, trickling along the floor.

And then as the door was flung open, in all the stamping and shouts, he knew the blood was not his but Keiro’s because his brother lay still and crumpled beside him in the uproar.

‘Finn! Finn!’ Jared’s hands raised him. ‘Can you hear me?

Finn?’

‘I’m all right,’ he said. But the words came out thick and groggy and he dragged himself out of Jared’s grip.

‘Our men heard the shot. It’s all over.’ Finn’s hand touched Keiro’s arm. His heart was thudding; he gripped the blue velvet sleeve.

‘Keiro?’ For a moment there was nothing, no movement, no answer, and he felt all colour drain away from the world, his life shrivel to a terrible fear.

And then Keiro jerked and rolled and they saw that his hand was wounded, a slashed burnmark across the palm. He lay on his back and his body convulsed.

‘You’re laughing?’ Finn stared. ‘Why are you laughing?’

‘Because it hurts, brother.’ Keiro pulled himself upright and there were tears of agony in his eyes. ‘It hurts, and that means it’s real.’ It was his right hand, the metal thumbnail stark in the scorched flesh.

Finn shook his head and croaked out a laugh with him.

‘You’re mad.’

‘Indeed he is,’ Jared said.

But Keiro looked up at him. ‘It’s worth knowing, Master.

Flesh and blood. It’s a start, anyway.’ As they helped him up Finn looked round and saw Caspar under guard, the other men being hustled out.

‘Get that tunnel sealed,’ he hissed, and Soames bowed.

‘Immediately, my lord.’ But as he turned he stopped dead, and in that second something terrible happened to the world.

The bees stopped buzzing.

The table dissolved into worm-eaten dust and collapsed.

Patches fell off the ceiling.

The sun went out.

31

My Realm will last for ever.

KING ENDOR’S DECREE

Finn lurched to the casement and stared out.

He saw a darkening sky, clotted with clouds that built up and blotted out the daylight. The wind had risen, and the day was far, far colder than it should have been.

And the world was transformed.

He saw horses in the courtyard collapsing into twitching cybernetworks of limbs, their skin and eyes shrivelling and shredding. He saw walls crumbling into holes, a stinking moat where nothing grew, parched acres of arid grassland.

Flowers withered as he gazed on them; the swans rose and flapped away. All the glorious beauty of the honeysuckle and clematis was dried into spindly crisp bines, the few weak petals blown away by the wind.

Doors were flung open; a guardsman came running down the steps, his fine livery a mismatched moth-eaten suite of grey.

Pushing in next to Finn, Keiro stared. ‘What’s happening to it all? Are we still in the Prison? Is this one of Incarceron’s clean-ups?’ Finn’s throat was dry. He couldn’t answer.

It was like a spell dissolving. All around him Claudia’s paradise of the Wardenry was coming apart, the house a slipshod ruin, its golden-stoned splendour fading even as he watched, colour washing from the mews and the stables, even the maze twisting to a dank thicket of brambles.

Jared murmured, ‘Perhaps the Prison is in us.’ Finn turned. The room was a shell. The fine velvet hangings were rags, the once-white ceiling a mass of cracks.

Jared bent over the wreck of the table, searching in its dust.

The fire was out, every bust and portrait showed patches and crude repairs. And worst of all, on every wall, their illusory holoimages dead, hundreds of cables and wires were revealed in all their naked, ugly uselessness.

‘So much for Era.’ Finn grasped the red curtain and it fell to shreds in his fingers.

‘This was how it was all the time.’ Jared straightened, the Glove in his hand. ‘We fooled ourselves with images.’

‘But how …’

‘The power is gone. Completely.’ Jared gazed around, calm. ‘This is the true Realm, Finn. This is the kingdom you’ve inherited.’

‘So you’re telling me this whole place is a trick” Keiro kicked a vase over and watched it smash. ‘Like one of Rix’s tacky stage routines? And you knew? All along?’

‘We knew’

‘Are you all mad?’

‘Perhaps we are Jared said. ‘Reality is hard to bear, so Era was invented to shield us from it. And yes, most of the time it was easy to forget. After all the world is what you see and hear. For you that is the only reality.’

‘I might just as well have stayed Inside.’ Keiro’s disgust was complete. Then he turned, caught by the truth. ‘This destruction is the Prison’s work!’

‘Of course it is.’ Finn rubbed his sore shoulder. ‘How else—

’

‘Sire.’ The guard captain burst in, breathless. ‘Sire! The Queen!’ Finn shoved him aside and raced up the corridor, Keiro close behind. Jared paused to slip the Glove in his robe and then followed, quickly. He climbed the great staircase as fast as he could, over rotten treads and mice-gnawed wainscots, gusted at by the wind whipping through the windows where plastiglas had vanished. He dared not think about his Tower – but at least all the scientific equipment there was genuine.

Or was it?

Stopping with one hand on the bannister, he realized that he had no way of knowing. That nothing he had taken for granted could now be trusted.

And yet this disintegration didn’t devastate him, as it had Finn and his wayward brother. Perhaps it was because he had always felt his own illness to be a tiny flaw in the Realm’s perfection, a crack that could not be patched up or disguised.

Now everything was as marred as he was.

In the unsilvered mirror he caught a slant of his own delicate face, and smiled gently at himself. Claudia had wanted to overthrow Protocol. Perhaps the Prison had done it for her.

From the battlements, though, the terrible vista drained his smile away.

The Wardenry was a wasteland. All its meadows were scrub, all its rich woodlands mere naked branches against the grey winter sky.

The world had turned old in an instant.

But it was the enemy camp that held everyone’s eyes. All the gaudy pennants, the flimsy pavilions were wrecked, their poles snapped. Horses neighed in confusion, men’s armour rusted and fell from their bodies in the turmoil, their muskets suddenly useless antiques, their swords so brittle that they snapped in the hand.

‘The cannon.’ Fin’s voice was hard with joy. ‘They’ll never dare fire the cannon now, in case they explode. They can’t touch us.’ Keiro glanced at him. ‘Brother, this ruin doesn’t need cannon. A good shove would knock it down.’ A trumpet rang out. From the Queen’s pavilion a woman came out. She was veiled, and she leant on the arm of a boy in a gaudy coat who could only be the Pretender. Together they walked through the camp, almost unnoticed in the panic.

‘Is she surrendering?’ Finn muttered.

Keiro turned to a guard. ‘Get Caspar up here.’ The soldier hesitated, glancing at Finn who said, ‘Do as my brother says.’ The man ran. Keiro grinned.

The Queen came to the edge of the moat and looked up through her veil. Jewels glinted at her throat and ears. At least those must be real.

‘Let us in!’ the Pretender yelled up. He looked shaken, all his composure lost. ‘Finn1 The Queen wants to speak with you!’ There was no ceremony, no Protocol, no heralds, no courtiers. Just a woman and a boy, looking lost. Finn drew back. ‘Lower the drawbridge. Take them to the Great Chamber.’ Jared was staring down. ’It seems it’s not just me then,’ he murmured.

‘Master?’ Finn looked at him. The Sapient was gazing down at the veiled Queen with a great sadness in his eyes.

‘Best leave this to me, Finn,’ he said softly.

‘There must be hundreds of them out there!’ Attia stared across at the juddering door.

‘Stay here,’ the Warden snapped. ‘I’m the Warden. I’ll face them.’ He stepped down on to the snowy floor and trudged quickly towards the hammering. Claudia watched.

‘If they’re Prisoners they’re desperate,’ Attia said.

‘Conditions must be impossible.’

‘They’ll be looking for anyone to tear apart.’ Rix stared, his eyes glinting with the crazy brilliance Attia dreaded.

Claudia shook her head with fur ‘This is all your fault.

Why did you have to bring that evil Glove here!’

‘Because your dear father ordered me to, sweetkin. I, too, am a Wolf of Steel.’ Her father. She turned and ran down the steps, across the floor, after him. Locked in with madmen and thieves, her father was the only familiar presence here. Just behind her Attia gasped, “Wait for me.’

‘Doesn’t the apprentice want to stay with the sorcerer?’ Claudia snapped.

‘I’m not his apprentice. Keiro is.’ Attia caught up with her.

Then she said, ‘Is Finn safe?’ Claudia glanced at her thin face and short, hacked hair.

‘His memory has come back.’

‘Has it?’

‘So he says.’

‘And the fits?’ Claudia shrugged.

‘Does he . . . think about us?’ It was a whisper.

‘He thought about Keiro all the time,’ Claudia said acidly.

‘So I hope he’s happy now’ She didn’t say what else she thought – that Finn had barely mentioned Attia’s name.

The Warden had reached the small door. Outside it, the noise was terrible. Blades whacked into wood and metal; with one almighty smash the corner of an axe glinted through the ebony. The door shook to its foundations.

‘Silence out there,’ the Warden yelled.

Someone called out. A woman howled. The blows were redoubled.

‘They can’t hear you,’ Claudia said. ‘And if they get in …’

‘They don’t want to listen to anyone.’ Attia went round and stood before the Warden’s face. ‘Least of all you. They’ll blame you.’ Through the tumult he smiled coldly at them. ‘We’ll see.

I’m still the Warden here. But perhaps before we start we should take a few precautions’ He drew out a small disc of silver. On its lid was a wolf, the snarling mouth wide. He touched it and it lit.

‘What are you doing?’ Claudia jumped back as another blow sent wood splinters into the snow.

‘I told you. Making sure the Prison doesn’t win.’ She held his arm. ‘What about us?’

‘We are expendable.’ His eyes were grey and clear. Then he said into the device, ‘It’s me. ‘What’s the situation Out there?’ As he listened his face darkened. Attia moved away from the door; it was buckling now, the hinges straining, rivets cracking. ‘They’re coming through.’ But Claudia was watching her father as he said harshly, ‘Then do it now! Destroy the Glove. Before it’s too late.’ Medlicote slipped the receiver shut, dropped it into his pocket and gazed up the ruined corridor. Voices echoed from the Great Chamber; he walked quickly towards it, through a crowd of scared footmen, past Ralph, who caught his arm and asked, ‘What’s happening? Is this the end of the world?’ The secretary shrugged. ‘The end of one world, sir, perhaps the beginning of another. Is Master Jared in there?’

‘Yes. And the Queen! The Queen herself!’ Medlicote nodded. The half-moons of his spectacles were empty the lenses gone. He opened the door.

In the ruined chamber someone had found a real candle; Keiro had made a flame and lit it.

The Prison had taught survival, at least, Finn thought. They would all need those skills now He turned. ‘Madam?’ Sia stood just inside the door. She had not spoken since crossing the drawbridge, and her silence scared him.

‘I presume our war is at a standstill?’

‘You presume wrong,’ the Queen whispered. ‘My war is over.’ Her voice was broken, a faint quaver. Through her veil her eyes, pale as ice, watched him. She seemed bent, even bowed.

‘Over?’ He glanced at the Pretender. The boy who had claimed to be Giles stood grimly before the empty hearth, his right arm still bandaged, his fine armour tarnishing even as they watched. ‘What do you mean?’

‘She means it’s finished.’ Jared came forward and stood before the Queen and Finn was shocked at how she had shrunk. Jared’s voice was gentle. ‘I’m sorry this has happened to you,’ he said.

‘Are you?’ Sia whispered. ‘Maybe you are, Master Jared.

Maybe only you can know something of what I feel. I once taunted you with your own death. You would be justified now in doing the same to me.’ He shook his head.

‘I thought you said the Queen was young?’ Keiro muttered in Finn’s ear.

‘She is.’ But then her fingers caught at Jared’s sleeve, and Finn swallowed a gasp because they were the fingers of an ancient woman, mottled and sagging with wrinkled skin, the nails dry and splintered.

‘After all, of us both I will be the one now to die first.’ She glanced aside, with a trace of her old coquettish manner. ‘Let me show you death, Jared. Not these young boys. Only you, Master, will see what Sia really is.’ Hands trembling, she moved before him and raised her veil. Over her shoulder, Finn saw how Jared was caught between horror and pity; how he gazed silently on the Queen’s ruined beauty without lowering his eyes.

The room was silent. Keiro glanced back at Medlicote, standing humbly inside the door.

Sia dropped her veil. She said, ‘Whatever else I was, I have been a Queen. Let me die like a Queen.’ Jared bowed. He said, ‘Ralph. Light a fire in the red bedroom. Do the best you can.’ Uncertain, the steward nodded. He took the old woman’s arm, and helped her out.