'Have you?' Finn gasped.
But before she could answer, Gildas snapped, 'One thing more. If you are Outside, where is Sapphique? What did he do when he got out there? When will he return to release us?'
There were flowers in the garden, brilliant red poppies.
Jared looked at Claudia, and in the silence between them a bee buzzed on the petals, a small murmur that made Finn shiver with lost memory.
Then Jared stood and came forward, so close, he and Gildas were face-to-face.
'Master,' he said courteously. 'Forgive me for my ignorance. For my curiosity. Forgive me if this seems a stupid question. But who is Sapphique?'
23
Nothing has changed, or will change.
So we must change it.
Finn thought the bee would come out of the nimbus of gold and land on him. As it buzzed near his hand, he jerked back and it darted away.
He looked at Gildas. The old man had almost staggered; Attia was helping him sit, and
Jared was reaching his own hand out as if to help, dismay on his face. He glanced at
Claudia; Finn heard his murmur. 'I shouldn't have asked. The Experiment ...'
'Sapphique Escaped.' Keiro pulled a bench over and sat in the hologlow, its light rich on his red coat. 'He got out. He's the only one that ever did. That's the legend.'
'No legend,' Gildas snapped hoarsely. He looked up. 'You really don't know? I thought ... that out there he would be a great man ... a king.'
Claudia said, 'No. At least... Well, we could do some research. He may have gone into hiding. Things here aren't perfect either.' She stood quickly. 'Perhaps you don't know, but people here believe Incarceron to be a wonderful place. A paradise.'
They stared at her.
She saw the startled disbelief in their faces, Keiro's changing almost instantly to an amused, acid grin. 'Fabulous,' he murmured.
So she told them. She told them about the Experiment, her father, the sealed enigma of the Prison. And then she told them about Giles. Jared said, 'Claudia ...' but she waved a hand at him and went on quickly, pacing on the astonishingly green grass. 'They didn't kill him, we know that. They hid him. And I think they hid him in there. I think he's you.'
She turned and faced them, and Keiro said, 'Are you saying ...' and then stopped and stared up at his oathbrother. 'Finn? A prince?' He laughed, wondering. 'Are you crazy?'
Finn hugged himself. He was shaking, he knew, and that rarely lost bewilderment was back in the corner of his mind, glimmers of things gone as fast as shadows in dim mirrors.
'You look like him,' Claudia said firmly. 'There are no photographs allowed now, it's not
Protocol, but the old man had a painting.' She held it up, slipping off the blue bag. 'Look.'
Attia breathed in.
Finn shivered.
The child's hair was shining and his face lit with innocent happiness. Impossible health radiated from him. His tunic was cloth of gold, his skin chubby and pink. A tiny eagle seared his wrist.
Finn stepped closer. He reached out and she lifted the miniature to him, and his fingers closed around the gilt frame; for a moment he felt he had hold of it, that he touched it. And then his fingertips met on nothing and he knew that it was far away, farther than he could imagine. And long ago.
'There was an old man,' Claudia said. 'Bartlett. He looked after you.'
He stared at her. His emptiness scared them both.
'Queen Sia then? Your stepmother, she must have hated you. Caspar, your half brother?
Your father, the King, who died. You must remember!'
He wanted to. He wanted to drag them out of the blackness of his mind, but there was nothing there. Keiro was standing and Gildas had his arm, but all he could see was
Claudia, her eager, fierce gaze on him, willing him to remember. 'We were betrothed.
When you were seven there was a big feast. A great celebration.'
'Leave him alone,' Attia snapped. 'Leave him.'
Claudia stepped closer. She stretched her hand out and tried to touch his wrist. 'Look at it, Finn. They couldn't take it away. It proves who you are.'
'It proves nothing!' Attia turned so suddenly, Claudia jerked back. The girl's fists were clenched, her bruised face white. 'Stop tormenting him! If you loved him you'd stop! Can't you see it hurts him and he can't remember? You don't really care if it's him, if he's Giles.
All you want is not to marry this Caspar!'
In the shocked silence Finn breathed hard. Keiro pushed him onto the bench; his knees gave way and he sat quickly.
Claudia was pale. She took a step back, but her eyes never left Attia. Then she said, 'Actually that's not true. I want the real King. The true Heir, even if he is of the Havaarna.
And I want to get you out of that place. All of you.'
Jared came close and crouched. 'Are you all right?'
Finn nodded. His mind was fogged; he rubbed his face with his hands.
'He gets like this,' Keiro said. 'And worse.'
'It may be the treatment they gave him.' The Sapient's dark eyes met Gildas's. 'They must have given him drugs to make him forget. Have you tried any antidotes. Master, any therapies?
'Our medicines are limited,' Gildas growled. 'I use powdered tumentine and a decoction of poppy. And once harestooth, but it made him sick.'
Jared looked politely appalled. Claudia knew by his face that such things were so primitive the Sapienti here had all but forgotten them. All at once she felt furious with frustration; she wanted to reach in and drag Finn out, to break down the invisible barrier.
But that was no use, so she made herself say calmly, 'I've decided what to do. I'm coming in. Through the gate.'
'How does that help us?' Keiro asked, watching Finn.
It was Jared who answered. 'I've made a careful study of the Key. From what I can see, our ability to contact each other is changing. The image is becoming clearer and more focused.
This may be because Claudia and I have come to Court; we're nearer to you, and the Key may register this. It may help you navigate toward the gate.'
'I thought there were maps.' Keiro eyed Claudia. 'The Princess here said so.'
Claudia sighed, impatient. 'I lied.'
She looked straight at him; his blue eyes were sharp as ice.
'But,' Jared went on hastily, 'there are problems. There is a strange ... discontinuity that puzzles me. The Key takes too long to show us each other; each time it seems to be adjusting some physical or temporal parameter ... as if our worlds are somehow misaligned ...'
Keiro looked scornful; Finn knew he thought all this was a waste of time. From the bench he lifted his head and said quietly, 'But you don't think, Master, do you, that Incarceron is another world? That it floats free in space, far from Earth.'
Jared stared. Then he said gently, 'No, I don't. A fascinating theory.'
