Incarceron (Incarceron, Book 1) (42 page)

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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,

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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.

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"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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

***

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