Rebel's Cage (Book 4) (67 page)

So he was ready when the door burst open and Robert strode into the living area, followed by Jenn, both dressed, both very awake and very surprised to see him standing there, a jug of brew in his hands.

‘I think you woke him, Robert.’

‘Did I?’

‘Yes, when you crashed into my rooms.’

‘Oh.’ Robert offered a smile to Andrew. ‘Sorry. Won’t happen again, I promise.’ With that, he turned to Jenn, brisk and sharp, as though he were trying to hide something. ‘I’ll … er … finish getting dressed and wake Finnlay. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Will you be …’

Jenn just laughed at him, as she often laughed at Andrew when he was being silly. ‘I’ll be fine. We’ll have breakfast waiting for you when you get back. Go.’

‘Right.’ Robert headed for the door, then paused, his hand on the latch. He turned, looked at Jenn, then faced Andrew, a frown forming.

Andrew raised both hands. ‘No. I don’t want any more puzzles, or any more tests—’

‘I only gave you one test …’

‘I don’t care.’ Andrew was not really ready to do this, but knew he had to. ‘If you … if you want me to do anything at all …’

‘What?’ Robert asked quietly, and very seriously.

‘You have to promise you won’t try to … turn me against my mother. I can’t do that. I’m sorry.’

‘You’re
sorry?’
Robert’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Well, good. Not that you’re sorry so much, but that you’ve decided one way or the other. Good. Excellent. Now I have a question for you.’

‘Oh? What?’ Andrew felt heady, a little dizzy with relief. He’d never expected such a reaction. But Robert’s next words wiped the smile from his face.

‘Will you help me to get rid of Nash and Kenrick?’

Shock hit him first, followed rapidly by disbelief. ‘You’re …
asking
me?’

‘Yes,’ Robert said solemnly. ‘I’m asking you.’

Andrew didn’t know what to say. ‘But I …’

‘Think about it. We’ll talk later.’ With that, Robert flashed a brilliant smile at Jenn and left, closing the door quietly behind him.

Stunned, Andrew turned to his mother, who approached him with tears in her eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ she murmured, putting her arms around him. ‘And thank you! You don’t know how much …’

‘Oh,’ he whispered, and hugged her back. The day had barely started and he was already completely confused. ‘How many for breakfast?’

*

The table was a mess, breadcrumbs, knives, half-empty cups, pieces of apple peel and cheese crusts strewn everywhere. But when Robert swept all these aside, Finnlay rubbed his hands clean on his trousers and sat back as Jenn placed the book on the table before him.

‘This is it?’ he whispered, hopelessly reverent, his fingers itching to touch. ‘It looks so …’

‘Innocuous?’ Robert smiled and returned to his seat at the other end of the table. ‘That’s what I thought. But remember, when we found the silver rod, it was disguised as well. Thraxis was very determined this would never fall into the wrong hands.’

‘You’re assuming ours
aren’t
the wrong hands, I take it?’

Robert grinned. ‘I haven’t tried to open it. I don’t know how. I’m hoping the Key will tell Jenn.’

Finnlay looked at Andrew and the rapt expression on his face as he watched the mystery unfold before him. Finnlay felt that same excitement, and there were more than twenty years separating them.

‘I’m still not convinced the Key is going to help with this,’ Jenn offered, moving around the table to refill their cups. ‘No matter how I’ve phrased the question, it’s always refused to acknowledge that such a thing as the Calyx even exists.’

‘But it
did
tell you the Calyx was a cup or receptacle, didn’t it?’ Finnlay sat up, paying particular attention to the way Jenn moved around behind Robert, and the way Robert watched her without turning his head. ‘So it knows what a calyx is. And Kenrick used the same meaning, which he must have got from Nash.’

‘So you’re saying,’ Andrew offered, ‘that this book is a cup?’

Jenn filled Robert’s mug as he held it up for her. To untrained eyes, the brush of their hands would have seemed entirely innocent.

‘Well, Kenrick used the term in relation to a bowl,’ Finnlay answered the question, doing his best not to smile. ‘But essentially, yes, I suppose they’re much the same thing.’

‘Then how can we find out anything from it? What if it’s just a bowl?’

Jenn returned to her seat beside Robert, without even looking at him, giving Finnlay a clear answer to the question that had been haunting him since Robert had returned to his rooms after running out in such a bizarre manner.

They were together again.

They were trying to hide it, certainly, but they were
definitely
together. And Robert looked so good it was almost laughable. Something very important had happened between them, and with that and the Calyx, it was all Finnlay could do not to jump up and down and dance a little, which, of course, would only make them all think he’d gone a little insane and needed to be tied down somewhere safe where he couldn’t harm himself.

‘Well?’ Robert was talking again, drawing Finnlay’s attention back to the task at hand. ‘What do you think?’

‘Well,’ Finnlay replied, his eyes turning inexorably to the book – Calyx, rather. ‘I can’t say I’m not just a little disappointed that I wasn’t the one to find it – but it’s just incredible that we finally have it. I just hope we can—’

‘Make it work,’ Robert finished for him. ‘That’s exactly what I was thinking. Any ideas on how to get it to change properly?’

With the silver rod, Robert had simply touched his
ayarn
to it, but he didn’t have one any more. Perhaps he needed to look beyond the obvious. After all, if it was supposed to be easy to find, easy to open and use, they’d have done it centuries ago. So perhaps there was a clue, instead, in something they had written down, maybe in one of the books that referred to the Calyx and …

The excitement of it caught him again, and he had to smile. This thing in front of him would, if legend was correct, give them a way to live outside the Enclave in safety. His days of being a prisoner were numbered! He wouldn’t die in this place!

‘Finn? Are you all right?’ Jenn was watching him. He began to shake his head, then blinked.

‘Um, actually, I think I do have an idea.’

‘What?’

‘Robert, you said the first time it changed was just after you got it, right? But then it almost instantly changed back?’

‘Yes.’

‘And Jenn can touch it, and it doesn’t change?’

‘That’s right.’

‘What if you both touch it at the same time?’

Robert instantly got to his feet. ‘Why both of us?’

‘Oh, come on, Robert,’ Finnlay stood as well, unable to avoid the protectiveness in Robert’s stance. ‘You’re both mentioned in the Prophecy. If Thraxis wanted to keep this thing safe – which he obviously wanted to do – then surely he’d also make sure that only somebody special would be able to open it.’

‘But that doesn’t mean—’

‘Actually, Robert,’ Jenn spoke quietly, but firmly, ‘I think that’s exactly what it means. Much as I hate the idea of being involved in the Prophecy, it makes sense that it needs two people to open it. That way, one alone can’t abuse the contents for his or her own purposes. If I wanted to protect something, I’d do it that way.’

Robert’s gaze narrowed a moment, then he nodded. ‘Well, it’s worth a try, I suppose. I can’t Sense any power coming from it, so I doubt there’s much danger involved. Still, if you and Andrew step back, then we won’t have to worry about you.’

Finnlay took Andrew out of the way, standing by the fireplace as Robert and Jenn moved towards the book. Such a little thing that could mean so much.

He held his breath. Their hands came out together and, for a moment, they shared a look filled with more hope than Finnlay had seen before. Then their hands descended and touched the—

He didn’t see it happen, it was so fast. One second, the book sat there, where Jenn had left it, the next, something entirely different was in its place: square and gilt, engraved and beautiful.

‘You did it!’ Andrew sprang forward and gave his mother a hug.

Finnlay approached more slowly, suddenly a little shaky inside at the prospect of this
thing
before him.

Amar Thraxis
had made this more than a thousand years ago.

Mostly, it kept the shape of the book, only now it was larger and more solid. Along the top face, there were raised silver edges, which looked like they would move if necessary. Even as he watched, however, Robert and Jenn touched it again and these edges shifted and slid upwards, joining together until they formed the inner face of a shallow bowl.

A Calyx!

‘It seems to need some power to shift and change,’ Robert murmured, his face creased in concentration. ‘The moment we stop touching it, it stops moving.’

‘The silver rod!’ Finnlay almost leaped towards the table. ‘Do you still have it?’

But Robert was already there. He pulled a dagger out of his boot and twisted the handle away from the blade. Without pausing, he turned the handle around and inserted it into a grooved slot in the centre of the bowl, giving it the look of a huge, gold and silver flower.

‘Oh … my!’ Jenn breathed into the air. Instantly, Robert’s arm was around her waist, but whether he was trying to protect her, or support her, Finnlay couldn’t tell.

‘What? What is it?’

‘Can’t you see?’ She pointed at the bowl. ‘The surface, it’s changing. Like the Key does. Like it’s covered in oil or something.’

‘Don’t touch it,’ Robert warned, taking her hand away from it. ‘Look. There’s something else there.’

Finnlay crowded close, but he couldn’t see more than a dull polished surface. It neither moved, nor formed any other shape. One glance at Andrew told him only Robert and Jenn could see this – which, of course, was entirely logical if they were the only ones supposed to use it.

‘What can you see?’ Finnlay urged, unwilling to be left out.

‘There’s some sort of … writing, I think,’ Jenn looked at Robert. ‘Do you recognise the language?’

‘I … it looks vaguely familiar, but it’s almost as though there are parts of some figures missing. And it keeps shifting and changing. It’s not stable at all.’

‘Oh, no!’ Jenn moved closer, reaching out again.

‘What?’

‘The writing’s gone completely! The surface … it’s returned to normal. Did we do something wrong?’

‘No,’ Robert sighed, crouching down to look at the Calyx from below. ‘I think the rod ran out of power. I don’t think it had that much to begin with, certainly not enough to run the Calyx for more than a few seconds.’

‘So what do we do now?’ Finnlay couldn’t believe that was the end of the line, not after so long and still with so many questions unanswered.

There was a long, deep silence which Finnlay made no move to fill. Even Andrew sat still, saying not a word, but watching intently.

‘The Key,’ Jenn said without warning.

‘No.’ Robert’s reply was short, and entirely predictable.

Finnlay kept his silence, staying out for once. They didn’t need his help for this.

‘What other source of power do we have?’

‘We don’t even know what kind of power it uses.’

‘In which case, nothing will happen, and therefore there’s no problem.’

‘Or the Key’s power will conflict with what the Calyx needs and put them both out of action.’

‘You’re reaching, Robert, and you know it.’

‘Why did the rod run out of power? Wouldn’t Thraxis have made it to last this long?’

‘How was he to know how long it needed to last? Maybe the rod’s power was to be supplemented in some way.’

‘How? And by whom?’

Jenn paused at that, tilting her head to one side, fixing Robert in her gaze without mercy. ‘By
us,
Robert.’

‘Now
you’re
reaching.’

‘You found Kenrick with an orb and a bowl he called a calyx. Finn, you saw Nash with the same combination. Well, what if that’s the way these things worked? The two together, in this instance, the orb providing the power so the Calyx can be read.’

‘You can’t possibly assume Nash’s obscene process is related in some way to this.’

‘Why not? You got that orb from Kenrick – you know how it was designed to store power. The Key stores power as well. For all we know, this is exactly what it was created for!’

‘You’re guessing, Jenn. There’s no evidence—’

‘Do you want answers?’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘Well? Do you? Because if you want answers, then you have to risk this.’

‘That’s not the risk that bothers me.’

‘I know.’ Then she smiled, and if Finnlay was in any doubt
before about these two, that smile and Robert’s reaction to it swept it away. ‘Look, let’s just take the Calyx into the cavern, all right? If we get any adverse reaction, or if the Key starts talking, then we can change our minds.’

‘Huh,’ Robert turned away shaking his head, but not seriously. ‘Change
your
mind, you mean. Very well, since you’re so damned determined. Let’s get it over with.’

*

Robert walked across the cavern carrying the Calyx in his hands, feeling it grow warmer, heating him, almost singing to him.

The bell began to ring, as though warning him not to approach. He glanced over his shoulder at Jenn, but she just shook her head. Well, if the Key wasn’t saying anything to her, then it wouldn’t. But the sound was welcome, too, underscoring his anticipation, allowing him to feel the vibration shudder through the stone beneath his feet.

As he drew near the low platform bearing the ironwork pyramid and the bell which hung from its apex, the shape before him began to tremble, to shimmer and glisten in familiar patterns. He kept still as the Key went to work, anticipating his questions, even as he anticipated the answers.

And then, abruptly, the bell and pyramid were gone and before him, suspended in the air where the bell had been, was the Key in its purest form: a black, gleaming orb, bristling with power.

Everything here was disguised, everything as something other than its true nature. Why had he been surprised to find the Calyx also disguised?