Sapphique - Incarceron 02 (45 page)

'Of course I'm afraid. I think I've been afraid a long time now' He touched the ridged and heavy claws. 'But what would you know about that?'

The Sapienti taught me to feel.

'Pleasure? Cruelty?'

Loneliness. Despair.

Jared shook his head. 'They wanted you to love too. Your Prisoners. To care for them.'

Its voice was a wistful draught, a crack of sound.
You know you were the only one I ever loved, Sapphique. The only one I cared for. You were the tiny crack in my armour. You were the door.

'Was that why you let me Escape?'

Children always escape from their parents, in the end.
A murmur came through the Portal like a sigh down a long, empty corridor.
I am afraid too,
it said.

'Then we must be afraid together.' Jared slipped his fingers into the Glove. He pulled it on, firmly, and as he did he heard far-off a pounding, maybe on a door, maybe in his heart, maybe of a thousand footsteps crowding close. He closed his eyes. As the Glove enfolded it his hand chilled, became one with the skin. His neurons burned. The claws curled as he clenched them. His body became icy, and vast, and crowded with a million terrors. And then his whole being collapsed, shrivelling inward and

inward down an endless vortex of light. He bent his head, and cried aloud.

I am afraid too.
The Prison's murmur rang through all its halls and forests, over its seas. Deep in the Ice Wing its fear snapped icicles, sent flocks of birds flapping over metal forests no Prisoner had ever crossed.

Rix closed his eyes. His face was a rigour of ecstasy. He flung out his arms and cried, 'None of us need to be afraid ever again.
Behold!'

Claudia heard Attia's gasp. The crowd gave a great roar and surged forwards, and as she jumped back she turned her head and saw her father staring intently at the image of Sapphique. Its right hand was wearing the Glove.

Am
azed, she tried to say, 'How
?' but her whisper was lost in the tumult.

The statue's fingers were dragonskin, its nails were claws.
And they were moving.

The right hand flexed; it opened and reached out as if groping in the dark, or searching for something to touch.

The people were silent. Some fell on their knees, others turned and fought their way back through the packed rabble.

Claudia and Attia stood still. Attia felt as if her amazement would burst through her, as if the wonder of what she saw, of what it meant, would make her scream aloud with fear and joy.

Only the Warden watched calmly. Claudia realized that he knew what was happening here. 'Explain,' she whispered.

Her father gazed at the image of Sapphique and there was a grim appreciation in his grey eyes.

'Why, my dear Claudia,' he said in his acid voice. 'A great miracle is happening. We are so privileged to be here: And then, quieter, 'And it seems I have underestimated Master Jared yet again.'

A firelock slashed the roof. One man was already down, crumpled and moaning. Back to back, Finn and Keiro circled.

The ruined corridor was a breathless tangle of light, slanted with darkness. A musket fired, the ball splintering wood at Finn's elbow. He struck out, sweeping the gun aside, crashing the masked man back.

Behind him, Keiro fought with a snatched foil until it was broken, then threw it down and went in with bare hands. He moved with accuracy, savage and fast, and for Finn, beside him, there was no longer any Realm and no Incarceron, only the hot violence of blows and pain, a stab at the chest desperately fended off, a body flung against the panelling.

He yelled, sweat in his eyes, as Medlicote lunged at him, the secretary's foil whipping double as it struck the wall, and instantly they were both grappling for the blade, and

Finn had the man in a tight hold round the chest, forcing him down. Lightning flickered, showed Keiro's grin, the steel flash of a wolf muzzle. Thunder growled, a low, distant rumble.

A burst of flame. It shot up, and by its light Finn saw the Wolves dive, breathless and bloodied as it slashed over them.

'Throw your weapons down.' Keiro's voice was breathless and raw. He fired again, and they all flinched as plaster crashed in a white snow.
'Throw them down!'

A few thuds.

'Now lie down. Anyone still standing dies.'

Slowly they obeyed him. Finn tore off Medlicote's mask and flung it away. Sudden fury burnt in him. He said,'! am King here, Master Medlicote. Do you understand?' His voice was a rasp of wrath. 'The old world has ended and there will be no more plotting and no more lies!' He hauled the man up like a limp rag and slammed him against the wall.
'I
am Giles.
Protocol is over!'

'Finn.' Keiro came and took the foil from his hand. 'Leave him. He's half dead anyway.'

Slowly, Finn let the man go, and he slumped in relief. Finn turned to his oathbrother, gradually bringing him into focus, as if anger had been a rippling in the air.

'Keep calm, brother.' Keiro surveyed his captives. 'As I always taught you. .

'I am calm.'

'Right. Well, at least you haven't grown as soft as the rest of them out here.' Keiro swung round and raised the weapon. He blasted it, once, twice, at the study door, under the angry swan, and the door shuddered and burst inwards.

Moving past him, Finn strode in through the smoke, stumbling as the Portal rippled its welcome. But the room was empty.

36

This was death.

It was warm and sticky and there were waves of it, washing over Jared like pain. It had no air to breathe, no words to speak. It was a choking in his throat.

And then it was a grey brightness and Claudia stood in it, and her father, and Auth. He reached out to her and tried to speak her name, but his lips were cold and numb as marble and his tongue too stiff to move.

'Am I dead?' he asked the Prison, but the question murmured through hills and corridors and down cobwebbed galleries centuries old, and he realized that he was the Prison, that all its dreams were his.

He was a whole world, and yet he was a tiny creature. He could breathe, his heart was beating strongly, his eyesight was clear. He fit as a great worry had fallen from him, a great weight from his back, and maybe
it had, maybe that was his old li
fe.And inside him there were forests and oceans, high bridges over deep crevasses, spiral staircases down to the empty white cells where his illness had

been born. He had journeyed through it, explored all its secrets, fallen into its darkness.

Only he knew the riddle's answer, and the door that led Out.

Claudia heard it. In the silence the statue rippled and it spoke her name.

As she stared at it she stumbled back, but her father gripped her elbow. 'I've taught you never to be afraid,' he said quietly. 'And besides, you know who this is.'

It came alive, even as she watched. His eyes opened and were green, that intelligent, curious gaze she knew so well. The delicate face lost its ivory and was flushed with life. The long hair darkened and swung, the Sapient robe glimmered in iridescent greys. He spread his arms and the feathers shimmered like wings.

He stepped down from the pedestal and stood before her.
Claudia,
he said. And then, 'Claudia.'

Words choked in her throat.

But Rix was leaping in the roaring adulation of the crowd; he caught Attia's hand and made her bow with him in the storm of applause that went on and on, the howls of joy, the screaming cries that greeted Sapphique as he returned to save his people.

37

He sang his last song. And the words of that have never been written down. But it was sweet and of great beauty, and those that heard it were changed utterly. Some say it was the song that moves the stars.

SAPPHIQUE'S LAST SONG

Finn walked slowly to the screen and stared at it. It was no longer snowy, but clear and brilliant, and he could see a girl staring straight at him. 'Claudia!' he said.

She didn't seem to hear him. Then he realized he was looking at her through someone else's eyes, eyes that were very slightly blurred, as if the Prison's gaze had tears in it.

Behind him, Keiro came close.

'What in hell is going on in there?'

As if his words had triggered it, the sound snapped on, a burst of roaring and applause and howls of joy that made them wince.

* *

Claudia reached out and took the Gloved hand. 'Master,' she said. 'How have you come here? What have you done?'

He smiled his calm smile. 'I think I have undertaken a new experiment, Claudia. My
most ambitious research project
yet.'

'Don't tease me.' She clenched her fist on his scaled fingers.

'I never betrayed you he said. 'The Queen offered me forbidden knowledge. 1 don't think this was what she meant.'

'I never once thought you would betray me.' She stared at the Glove. 'These people all think you're Sapphique. Tell them it's not true.'

'I am Sapphique.' The noise that greeted his words was tremendous but he didn't take his eyes off her. 'He's what they want, Claudia. And Incarceron and I will give them their safety.' The dragon fingers curled round hers.
'I
feel so strange, Claudia.
It's as if you are all inside me, as if I've shed my skin and underneath is a new being, and I can see so much and I hear so many sounds and touch so many minds. I am dreaming the dreams of the Prison, and they are so sad.'

'But can you come back? Do you have to stay here for ever?' Her dismay sounded weak, but she didn't care, not even if her selfishness stood in the way of all Incarceron's Prisoners. 'I can't do without you, Jared. I need you.'

He shook his head. 'You will be Queen, and queens don't have tutors.' He reached out and put his arms round her and kissed her forehead. 'But I'm not going anywhere. You'll carry me on your watchchain.' He looked beyond her, at the Warden. 'And from now on there will be freedom for us all.'

The Warden's smile was narrow. 'So, my old friend, you have found yourself a body after all'
Despite all your efforts, John Arlex.
'But you haven't Escaped.'

Jared shrugged, an odd, slightly alien movement.
'Ah but I have. I've Escaped myself but I won't be leaving. That is the paradox that is Sapphique.'

He made a small movement with his hand, and all the people gasped. Behind them, all around them, the walls lit and they saw the grey room of the Portal, its door crowded with watchers, and Finn and Keiro jerking back in surprise. Jared turned. 'Now we're all together. Inside and Outside.'

'Do you mean the Prisoners can Escape?' Keiro snapped and Claudia realized they had heard everything.

Jared smiled. 'Escape to what? To the ruin of the Realm? We will make this their paradise, Keiro, just as it was supposed to be, just as the Sapienti always planned it. No one will need to Escape; I promise you that. But the door will be open, for those who wish to come and go.'

Claudia stepped back from him. She knew him so well, and yet he was different. As if his personality and another had intersected, two different voices fragmentin
g into one,
like the black and white tiles on the floor of the hail, forming a new pattern, and that pattern was Sapphique. She glanced around, saw Rix transfixed, edging closer, Attia still and pale, staring up at Finn.

People murmured, echoing his words, passing them from one to another. She heard the promise reverberate through the Prison's landscapes. But she felt desolate and sick, because once she had been the Warden's daughter, and now she would be the Queen, and without Jared it would be another role to play, another part of the game.

Jared edged past her and walked down to meet the crowd. They held out their hands and touched him, grasped the dragonglove, fell at his feet. One, a woman, sobbed, and he touched her gently, his hands round hers.

'Don't worry;' the Warden said softly in Claudia's ear.

'I can't help it. He's not strong.' 'Oh
I think he is stronger than all
of us.'

'The Prison will corrupt him.' Attia said it, and Claudia turned on her angrily. 'No!'

'It will. Incarceron is cruel, and your tutor is too gentle to control it. It will all go wrong just like it did before' Attia was cold; she knew her words hurt but she still said them, and a bitter misery made her add, 'And you and Finn won't have much a kingdom either, by the looks of things.'

She looked up at Finn and he gazed back. 'Come Out' he said. 'Both of you.'