For a moment they faced each other, Gildas watching. Then Keiro tugged one of the rings over his knuckles and looked down at it. Wordless, he threw it at Finn.
Finn caught it, dropped the sword, and grabbed Attia's fingers, pushing the ring on; it was far too big for her, so he held it there, praying under his breath, to Sapphique, to the man whose life was in the ring, to anyone. Gildas crouched beside him, deeply cynical.
'Nothing's happening. What should happen?'
The Sapient scowled. 'This is superstition. You yourself scorned it.'
'Her breathing. It's slowing.'
Gildas felt her pulse, touched the dirty scars where the chains had been. 'Finn. Accept it.
There's no ...' He stopped. His fingers tightened, felt again.
'What? What—'
'I thought... The pulse seems stronger ...'
Keiro said, 'Then pick her up! Bring her. But let's go!'
Finn threw him the sword, crouched, and picked Attia up.
She was so light, he could carry her easily, though her head lolled against him. Keiro already had the door open and was looking out. 'This way. Keep quiet.'
He led them out.
They ran up a dusty winding stair to a trapdoor; Keiro flung it back and hauled himself into darkness, dragging Gildas quickly after him. 'The girl.'
Finn passed her up. Then he looked back.
In the stairwell a strange hum seemed to ripple the air. It rose ominously toward him and he climbed hastily, scrambling up and slamming the trapdoor down. Keiro was wrestling with a grid on the wall, Gildas grasping it with his knotted hands.
Attia's eyes flickered, then opened.
Finn stared. 'You should be dead.'
She shook her head, speechless.
The grid came off the wall with a rattling crash; behind it he saw a great dark hall, and in the center, tethered to the floor by an iron cable, the silver ship, floating free. They ran, Finn with Attia's arm over his shoulder, tiny figures over the smooth gray floor, vulnerable and exposed, like mice under the wide stare of an owl, because in the roof above them a great screen lit, and as Finn stared up it showed him an eye. Not the tiny red Eyes he knew, but a human eye, gray-irised, magnified enormously, as if it stared into a powerful microscope.
Then the ripple in the air came through the floor and threw them all off their feet, a Prisonquake that made the thin needle of the Sapient's tower vibrate to its top.
Keiro rolled and leaped up. 'Over here.'
A shimmering rope ladder hung down. Gildas grasped it and began to climb, swaying awkwardly, though Keiro held the end firmly.
Finn said, 'Can you get up there?'
'I think so.' Attia pushed hair from her face. She was still deathly pale, but the blueness was ebbing. She seemed to be able to breathe.
He looked down at her finger.
The ring was shrunken. A thin brittle hoop, it fractured as she grasped the rope; tiny fragments fell unnoticed. Finn touched one with his foot. It looked like bone. Ancient, dried bone.
Behind them, the trapdoor clanged open. Finn whirled; he felt Keiro hand him back the sword and draw his own.
Together, they faced the dark square of blackness.
'AND SO everything is ready for tomorrow.' The Queen placed the last of the papers on the red leather desk and sat back, putting her fingertips together. 'The Warden has been so generous. Such a dowry, Claudia. Whole estates, a coffer of jewels, twelve black horses. He must love you very much.'
Her nails were painted with gold. It was probably real, Claudia thought. She picked up one of the deeds and glanced over it, but all she was aware of was Caspar, striding up and down on the creaking wooden floor.
Queen Sia looked around. 'Caspar. Be quiet.'
'I'm bored rigid.'
'Then go riding, dear. Or badger-baiting, or whatever it is you do.'
He turned. 'Right. Good idea. See you, Claudia.'
The Queen raised a perfect eyebrow. 'Hardly the way the Heir speaks to his fiancee, my lord.'
Halfway to the door he stopped and came back. 'Protocol is for the serfs, Mother. Not us.'
'Protocol keeps us in power, Caspar. Don't forget that.'
He grinned and made a low and elaborate bow to Claudia, then kissed her hand. 'See you at the altar, Claudia.' She stood and curtsied coldly.
'Right. Now I'm off.'
He slammed the door and they could hear the thud of his boots down the corridor.
The Queen leaned across the table. 'Fm so glad we have this little time alone, Claudia, because I have something to say. I know you won't mind it, my dear.'
Claudia tried not to frown, but her lips tightened. She wanted to get away, find Jared. They had so little time!
'I have changed my mind. I have asked Master Jared to leave the Court.'
'No!'
It was said before she could stop herself.
'Yes, dear. After the wedding, he will return to the Academy.'
'You have no right...' Claudia was on her feet.
'I have every right.' The Queen's smile was sweet and deadly. She leaned forward. 'Let us understand each other, Claudia. There is only one Queen here. I will teach you, but I will not tolerate any rival. And you and I need to understand this, because we are alike, Claudia. Men are weak; even your father can be ruled, but you have been brought up to be my successor. Wait your time. You can learn a lot from me.' She leaned back, her fingers tapping the papers. 'Sit down, my dear.'
There was steely threat in the words. Claudia sat slowly. 'Jared is my friend.'
'From now on, I will be your friend. I have many spies, Claudia. They tell me much. It really will be for the best.'
She stretched out and pulled the bell; a servant came in instantly, in powdered wig and livery. 'Tell the Warden I await him.'
When he had gone she opened a box of sweetmeats and took a moment to select one, then offered them to Claudia with a smile.
Numb, Claudia shook her head. She felt as if she had picked up a pretty flower and found it rotting away inside, crawling with maggots. She realized she had never seriously thought of Sia as the danger. Her father had always been the one to fear. Now she wondered how wrong she was.
Sia watched her, her red lips in a small smile. She wiped them with a lace-edged kerchief. And as the doors were flung open, she leaned back in the chair and dangled her arm over the side. 'My dear Warden. What kept you?'
He was flushed.
Claudia noticed it at once, through the whirl of her dismay. He never hurried, yet now his hair was just a little askew, his dark coat unbuttoned at the top.
He bowed gravely, but his voice had an edge of breathlessness. 'I'm sorry, ma'am.
Something that required my attention.'
NOTHING CAME through the trapdoor.
Finn said, 'Get up the ladder.'
As Keiro turned, the floor rippled again. Finn stared at it. The quake lifted the flagstones as if a wave of water roared under them. Before he had rime to move, the whole world shifted. He fell crashing against the floor, then was rolling downhill, down a slope that should not be there. Slamming against a pillar he gasped, pain shooting down his side.
