Keiro grinned. ‘No.’
‘Where’s Claudia?’ Jared’s agonized question cut the tension.
Keiro shrugged. ‘How should I know?’
‘They changed places Finn kept his eyes on his oathbrother.
‘She was sitting in the chair and she just dissolved. Keiro appeared. Is that what the Glove does? Is that the power it has? Can I put it on now, and...’
‘No one puts it on until I say.’ Jared moved past him. He went to the chair and gripped it, leaning on its back. His face was pale with weariness and he looked more anxious than Finn had ever seen him. Quickly, Finn said, ‘Master Medlicote, pour some wine please.’ The fragrant smell filled the air. Keiro sniffed it. ‘What is that?’
‘Better than the Prison muck.’ Finn watched him. ‘Try some. And you, Master.’ As the drink was poured he watched his oathbrother prowl round the room, exploring everything. It was all wrong. He should be happy. He should be so elated to have Keiro here. And yet there was a deep dread inside him, a shivery, sickening terror, because this wasn’t how it should have happened. And because Claudia was gone, and suddenly there was a hole in the world.
He said, ‘Who was with you?’ Keiro sipped the red liquid and his eyebrows rose. ‘Attia.
The Warden. And Rix.’
‘Who’s Rix?’ Finn said, but Jared turned from the screen instantly. ‘The Warden was with you?’
‘He told me to do it. He said, “Put the Glove on.” Maybe he knew . . .‘ Keiro stopped, instantly. ‘That’s it! Of course he knew. It was his way of getting the Glove out of the Prison’s reach.’ Jared turned back to the screen. Placing his fingers on it he stared sadly into its darkness. ‘At least she’s with her father’
‘If they’re still alive.’ Keiro glanced at Caspar’s tied wrists.
‘What’s going on here, anyway? I thought this was where people were free.’ Turning he saw them all staring at him.
Medicote whispered, ‘What do you mean, if they’re still alive?’
‘Use your brain’ Keiro sheathed the sword and went to the door. ‘The Prison is going to be very, very angry about this.
It may have killed them all already.’ Jared stared at him. ‘You knew that might happen, and you still...’
‘That’s how it is in Incarceron,’ Keiro said. ‘Every man for himself. As my brother will tell you.’ He turned and faced Finn. ‘So. Are you going to show me our kingdom? Or are you ashamed of your jaibird brother? That is, if we’re still brothers.’ Finn said quietly, ‘We’re still brothers.’
‘You don’t seem so pleased to see me.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s the shock. And Claudia ... she’s in there.
..‘ Keiro raised an eyebrow. ‘So that’s how it is. Well, I suppose she’s rich, and enough of a bitch to make a good Queen.’
‘That’s what I’ve missed about you. Your tact and courtesy.’
‘Not to mention my quicksilver wit and devastating looks.’ They stood face to face. Finn said, ‘Keiro. . .‘ A sudden explosion rumbled over their heads. The room shook, a plate sliding to the floor and smashing.
Finn swung to Jared. ‘They’ve opened fire!’
‘Then I suggest you get the Queen’s beloved son up to the battlements,’ Jared said quietly. ‘I have work to do here.’ He exchanged one swift look with Finn, and Finn saw the discarded Glove was in his hand. ‘Be careful, Master.’
‘Just stop them firing. And Finn.’ Jared came over and gripped his wrist. ‘Do not, on any account, leave this house. I need you here. Do you understand me?’ After a moment Finn said, ‘I understand.’ Another rumble. Keiro said, ‘Tell me that’s not cannon-fire.’
‘A whole regiment of it,’ Caspar said, smug.
Finn pushed him away and turned to Keiro. ‘Look. We’re beseiged. There’s an army out there and we’re outgunned and outmanned. Things are not good. I’m afraid you haven’t come into some paradise. You’ve come into a battle.’ Keiro had always been an expert at taking things in his stride. Now he looked curiously up the sumptuous corridor.
‘In that case, brother, I’m exactly what you need.’ Claudia felt as if she had been broken apart and reassembled, badly, piece by piece. As if she had been forced through some barrier of mesh, a matrix of collapsing dimensions.
She was standing on a great bare floor of black and white tiles.
Facing her father.
He seemed utterly dismayed. ‘No!’ he breathed. And then, almost like a cry of pain. ‘No!’ The floor rippled. She steadied herself, arms out, and then breathed in, and the stink of the Prison overwhelmed her, the stench of endlessly recycled air and human fear. She gasped, and put both hands over her face.
The Warden came towards her. For a moment she thought he would take her hands in his cold fingers, print her cheek with his icy kiss. Instead he said, ‘This shouldn’t have happened. How could this happen!’
‘You tell me.’ She glanced round, saw Attia staring at her, and a tall ragged man who seemed utterly astounded, his hands knotted and his eyes deep hollows of awe.
‘Magic,’ he breathed. ‘The true Art.’ It was Attia who said, ‘Keiro’s vanished. He vanished and you appeared. Does that mean he’s Outside?’
‘How am I supposed to know?’
‘You have to know!’ Attia yelled. ‘He has the Glove!’ The floor rippled, a wave of cracking tiles.
‘No time now for this.’ The Warden pulled out a firelock and gave it to Claudia. ‘Take this. Protect yourself against whatever the Prison sends.’ She held the weapon limply, but then she saw that behind them the whole vast space was flooding with clouds that swirled and blackened and sparked lightning. One flash cracked into the floor beside the Warden. He swung round, staring up. ‘Listen to me, Incarceron’ This is not our fault!’ Then whose fault is it? The voice of the Prison seethed with fury. Its words were crackled and raw, dissolving into hisses of static. You told him to do it. You betrayed me.
The Warden said coldly, ‘Not at all. It may look that way, but you and—’ Why should I not burn you all into ash?
‘Because you would damage your delicately-made creation.’ The Warden stepped close to the statue; Claudia stared up at it in awe as he pulled her after him. ’I think you are too astute to do that.’ He smiled. ‘It seems to me, Incarceron, that things have changed now between us. For years you have done what you wanted, ruled as you liked.
You controlled yourself. I was Warden only in name. Now the one thing you want is beyond your grasp.’ Claudia felt Attia jump up on the step behind her. ‘Listen to him,’ the girl whispered. ‘This is all about him and his power.’ The Prison laughed, a sinister chuckle. You think so?
John Arlex shrugged. He looked at Claudia. ‘I know so.
The Glove has been taken Outside. It will be returned to you only by my orders.’ Your orders? Indeed?
‘My orders, as Clanlord of the Steel Wolves.’ He was bluffing, Claudia thought. She said aloud, ‘Do you remember me, Prison?’ I remember you. You were mine and you are mine again. But now, unless I have my Glove, I will close down the lights and the air and the heat. I will leave millions to suffocate in darkness.
You will not the Warden said evenly, ‘or you will never have the Glove.’ He spoke as if to a child, with a clear severity. ‘Instead, you show me the secret door that Sapphique used.’ So that you and your so-called daughter can release yourselves, and leave me trapped here? The voice was clotted with sparks.
Never.
The Prison convulsed. Claudia staggered and fell against Rix. He grabbed her arm, grinning.
‘My father’s anger,’ he whispered.
I will destroy you all now.
The black squares of the floor rolled back and were holes.
Out of them rose cables with open mouths of venom. They kinked and curled like snakes of power, cracking and spitting.
‘Up the steps.’ The Warden climbed quickly to the feet of the winged man, Rix shoving Claudia after him. Attia came last, glancing round.
White vivid shocks split the darkness.