27
Sapphique strapped the wings to his arms and flew, over oceans and plains, over glass cities and mountains of gold. Animals fled; people pointed up. He flew so far, he saw the sky above him and the sky said, "Turn back, my son, for you have climbed too high"
Sapphique laughed, as he rarely did. "Not this time. This time I beat on you until you open."
But Incarceron was angered, and struck him down.
"She's said that Jared has to leave." She turned and glared at her father, wanting to ask if it was his doing. "I told you. It was bound to happen." The Warden walked past her and sat on the chaise near the window of his room, gazing out at the pleasure gardens, where parties of courtiers walked in the evening cool. "I think you will have to comply, my dear.
It's a small price to pay to gain a kingdom."
She was ready to burst out in temper, but he turned and looked at her, that cold measuring look she so dreaded.
"Besides, we have something more important to discuss. Come and sit down."
She didn't want to. But she crossed to the chair by the gilt table and sat.
He glanced at his watch, then clicked the lid shut and kept it in his hand.
He said quietly, "You have something that belongs to me."
She felt her skin prickle with danger. For a moment she thought she couldn't speak at all, but then her voice came, surprisingly calm.
"Do I? What could that be?"
He smiled. "You are truly remarkable, Claudia. Even though I've created you, you always surprise me. But I've warned you before about pushing me too far." He put the watch in his pocket and leaned forward. "You have my Key."
She drew in a breath of dismay. He leaned back, crossing one leg over another, the leather of his boots gleaming. "Yes. You don't deny it, and that's wise. It was ingenious to place an image of the Key in the drawer, quite ingenious. I suppose I have Jared to thank for that. When I checked my study that day the alarms went off, I rolled the drawer open and glanced inside; I didn't think to pick up the Key. And the ladybugs— what a creative touch What a fool you must both have thought me.
She shook her head, but he stood abruptly and paced to the windows. "Did you talk about me with Jared, Claudia? Did you laugh together because you had stolen it from me? I'm sure you must have enjoyed that."
"I cook it because I had to." She clutched her hands together. "You kept it from me. You never told me."
He stopped and looked at her. He had smoothed his hair back now, and his gaze was as calm and considering as ever. "About what?"
She stood up slowly, and faced him. "About Giles," she said.
She had expected astonishment, a moment's startled silence. But he was not at all surprised. She knew, with sudden certainty, that he had been waiting for that name, that by saying it she had fallen into some trap.
He said, "Giles is dead."
"No he isn't." The jewels around her neck tickled; with a sudden fury, she tugged them off and flung them on the floor, then folded her arms and all the pent-up words burst out of her.
"His death was faked. You and the Queen faked it. Giles is in Incarceron, locked away.
You took his memory so he doesn't even know who he is. How could you do that?" She kicked a footstool aside; it fell and rolled. "I can understand why she did it, why she wanted her useless son to be King, but you! I was already engaged to Giles. Your precious plan would have worked out anyway. Why did you do that to us?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Us?"
"Don't I count? Didn't the fact that I would end up with Caspar mean anything to you? Did you ever think about me?" She was trembling. All the anger of her life was coming out, frustration for all the times he had driven away and left her for months, had smiled down at her and not touched her.
He rubbed his stubbly beard with thumb and forefinger. "I did think of you." His voice was quiet. "It was obvious you liked Giles. But he was a stubborn boy, too kind, too honorable.
Caspar is a fool and will make a poor King. You will be able to rule him far more effectively."
"That's not the reason you did it."
He looked away. She saw his fingers tapping on the fireplace. He picked up a dainty china figurine and examined it, then put it down. "You're right."
He was silent ; she wanted him to speak so much, she could have screamed. It seemed an age before he went back to the chair and sat and said calmly, "I'm afraid the real reason is a secret you will never learn from me."
Seeing her astonishment, he raised his hand. "I know you despise me, Claudia. I'm sure you and your Sapient think me a monster. But you are my daughter and I have always acted in your interests. Besides, Giles's imprisonment was the Queen's plan, not mine.
She forced me to agree."
She snorted in scorn. "Forced! She has power over you!"
He whipped his head up and hissed, "Yes. And so do you."
For a second the venom in his voice stung her. "Me?"
His hands were fists on the wooden armrests. He said, "Let it go, Claudia. Let it be. Don't ask, because the answer may destroy you. That's all I'm going to say." He stood, tall and dark, and his voice was bleak. "Now, about the Key. Nothing you have done with it has escaped me. I know about your search for Bartlett, about your communication with
Incarceron. I know about this Prisoner you believe is Giles."
She stared in amazement and he laughed his dry laugh. "There are a thousand million
Prisoners in Incarceron, Claudia, and you believe you've found the right one? Time and space are different there. This boy could be anyone."
"He has a birthmark."
"Does he now! Let me tell you something about the Prison." His voice cruel now, he came up to her and stared down at her. "It's a closed system. Nothing enters. Nothing leaves.
When Prisoners die their atoms are reused, their skin, their organs. They are made from each other. Repaired, recycled, and when the organic tissues are not available, they are patched with metal and plastic. Finn's eagle means nothing. It may not even be his. The memories he thinks he sees may not be his."
Horrified, she wanted to stop him, but no words would come. "The boy is a thief and a liar." He went on, remorseless. "One of a gang of cutthroats that preyed on others. I suppose he's told you that?"
"Yes," she snapped.
"How very honest. Has he told you that in order to get his copy of the Key an innocent woman was thrown to her death down a precipice? After he had promised her she was safe?"
She was silent.
"No," he said. "I thought not." He stood back. "I want all this nonsense to cease. I want the
Key. Now." She shook her head.
"Now, Claudia."
"I haven't got it," she whispered.
"Then Jared—"
"Leave Jared out of this!"
He caught hold of her. His hand was cold and he gripped her wrist like iron. "I want the
Key or you will regret defying me."
She tried to shake him off, but he held tight. She glared at him through her tumbling hair.
"You can't hurt me. I'm all you've got to make your plan work and you know it!"
For a moment they stared at each other. Then he nodded, and let her go. A white circle of bloodless skin looped her wrist like the mark of a manacle.
"I can't hurt you," he said hoarsely.