Gildas limped past. "Well, you get no pity from me. Let's get on."
Keiro stared at his back with a rigidity of hatred that made
Finn move in; his oathbrother snatched up the sword from the floor, but as he took one step after the Sapient, the Prison shivered and shuddered.
Finn grabbed the wall.
When the world stopped moving, the air was thick with dust; it hung like a fog, and there was a ringing in his ears. Gildas was hissing in pain. Attia scrambled over; she pointed through the miasma. "Finn. What's that?"
For a moment he had no idea. Then he saw it was a face. A face that was oddly clean, with bright clever eyes and a tangle of hastily tied hair. A face that was staring at him out of the mists of the past over the tiny flames of candles on a cake that he leaned over and blew out with one exhausting breath.
"Is that you?" she whispered.
He nodded, silent, knowing this was Claudia.
32
You will thank us for this. Energy will not be wasted on frivolous machines. We will learn to live simply, untroubled by jealousies and desires. Our souls will be as placid as the tideless seas.
The soldiers came after two hours. Jared had been waiting for them; he had lain on the hard bed in the silent room and listened to the sounds of the Palace through the open casement; the galloping horses far below, the coaches, the scurry, the shouts. It was as if
Claudia had taken a stick to a nest of ants and now they were in a swarming panic, their
Queen injured and their peace gone.
The Queen. As he sat up stiffly and gazed at the men, he hoped he wouldn't have to face her fury.
"Master." The liveried servant seemed embarrassed. "Would you come with us, sir."
Always the Protocol. It saved them from facing the truth. As they led him down the stairs, the guardsmen fell in discreetly behind, their halberds held like staffs of office.
He had already gone through all the emotions. Terror, bluster, despair. Now all that was left was a sort of dull resignation.
Whatever the Warden would do to him had to be borne. Claudia had to have time.
To his surprise they took him past the state rooms, where anxious envoys argued and messengers ran in and out, down to a small room in the east wing. When they ushered him in he saw it was one of the Queen's private drawing-rooms, cluttered with fragile gilt furniture, an elaborate clock on the mantelpiece heaped with cherubs and simpering shepherdesses.
Only the Warden was here.
He was not sitting at a desk, but standing, facing the door. Two armchairs were arranged at easy angles by the hearth, where a great bowl of potpourri sat in the empty fireplace.
It still felt like a trap.
"Master Jared." The Warden indicated one chair with a long finger. "Please sit."
He was glad to. He felt breathless and light-headed.
"A little water." The Warden poured it and brought the goblet over. As he drank from it
Jared felt Claudia's father ... no, not her father ... watching him acutely.
"Thank you."
"You haven't eaten?"
"No ... I suppose ... in all the fuss ..."
"You should take more care of yourself." The voice was hard. "Too many hours working at these forbidden devices."
He waved a hand. Jared saw that the table near the window was covered with pieces of his experiments, the scanners, the imagers, the devices to block alarms. He said nothing. "Of course you understand that all these are illegal." The Warden's eyes were ice-cold. "We have always allowed the Sapienti a certain leeway, but you seem to have been taking great advantage." Then he said, "Where is Claudia, Master?"
"I told you—"
"Don't lie to me. She is not at home. There are no horses unaccounted for."
"Perhaps ... she may be on foot."
"I do believe she is." The Warden sat opposite him, his black satin breeches creasing elegantly. "And perhaps you thought you were not lying when you said home?"
Jared put the cup down. They faced each other.
"How did she find out?" John Arlex said.
Jared decided, quite suddenly, to tell the truth. "The girl in the Prison told her, Attia, Finn's friend. From some records she had discovered."
The Warden nodded in slow appreciation. "Ah yes. How did she take it?"
"She was ... very shocked."
"Furious?"
"Yes."
"I would expect nothing else."
"And upset."
The Warden shot him a keen glare, but Jared returned it calmly. "She had always been so secure as your daughter, sir. Known who she was. She
... cares for you."
"Don't lie to me." The sudden snarl shocked him with its anger. The Warden got up and paced down the room. "There has only ever been one person Claudia has cared for in her life, Master Sapient. And that is you."
Jared sat still . His heart hammered. "Sir ..."
"Did you think I was blind?" The Warden turned. "No indeed. Oh, she had her nurses and her waiting women, but Claudia is far above their level and she knew it early. Every time I came home I saw how she and you laughed and talked, how she fussed with your coat if it was cold, sent for possets and sweetmeats, how you had your private jokes, your shared studies." He folded his arms and stared out of the window. "With me she was distant, reserved. She didn't know me. I was a stranger, the Warden, a great man at Court, someone who came and went. Someone to be wary of. But you, Master Jared, you were her tutor and her brother and more her father than I have ever been."
Jared was cold now. Behind the Warden's iron control was a blazing hatred; he had never sensed the depth of it before. He tried to breathe calmly.
"How do you think that felt, Master?" The Warden swung around. "Did you think I didn't feel it? Do you think I didn't suffer, not knowing what to do, how to change it? Aware that with every word I spoke I was deceiving her; every day, just by being there, by letting her think she was mine."
"She ... that is what she will not forgive."
"Don't tell me how she thinks!" John Arlex came and stood over him. "I have always been jealous of you. Is that not foolish? A dreamer, a man without family, so fragile a few blows would kill him. And the Warden of Incarceron is sick with envy."
Jared managed to say, "I... am very fond of Claudia ..."
"You know, of course, there are rumors about you." The Warden swung away abruptly and sat down again. "I don't believe them; Claudia is willful but not stupid. However, the Queen does, and let me tell you Jared, at the moment the Queen is screaming for revenge. On anyone. Evian is dead, but the plot obviously included others. You, for one."
He shivered. "Sir, you know well that is not so."
"You knew about it. Didn't you?"
"Yes, but..."
"And you did nothing. Told no one." He leaned forward. "That is treason, Master Sapient, and could easily have you hanged."
In the silence someone called outside. A fly buzzed in and droned around the room, hitting the glass and fumbling against it.
Jared tried to think, but there was no time. The Warden snapped, "Where's the Key?"
He wanted to lie. To make something up. Instead he kept silent.
"She's taken it with her, hasn't she?"