The hall was tilting.
With sickening certainty he thought that the Sapient's tower was falling, that it had been fractured at its spindly base. Then the rope ladder brushed him and he grabbed it. Keiro was already on board, leaning over the silver timbers of the deck. Finn scrambled up; as soon as he could reach, they linked hands.
'I've got him. GO!'
The ship rose. With a howl of fear Finn slid onto the deck; the whole contraption swung and rocked and then it drifted, ropes snapping one by one below it.
There was an opening in the tower wall ahead, the wide shelf where Blaize had landed the craft. But as Gildas hauled with all his wiry strength to spin the spoked wheel, the ship jerked and they all fell, rubble cascading from above onto the deck and sails.
'Something's holding us down!' he roared.
Keiro hung over the side. 'God! There's an anchor!'
He clambered back. 'There must be a winch. Come on!'
They opened a hatch and scrambled down into the darkness under the deck. Thuds of falling brickwork crashed overhead.
They found a maze of walkways and galleys . Running down and flinging the doors open, Finn saw each cabin was empty; there were no stores, no cargo, no crew. Before he had time to think about it, Keiro yelled from the darkness below.
In the lowest deck it was dark. A circular capstan filled the space; Keiro was jamming the bar into place. 'Help me.'
Together, they pushed. Nothing moved; the mechanism was stiff, the anchor chain heavy.
Again they heaved, Finn feeling his back muscles crack, and slowly, with a long reluctant groan, the capstan creaked into motion.
Finn gritted his teeth and heaved again, sweat breaking out on his face; beside him he heard Keiro gasp and grunt.
Then another body was there. Attia, still pale, laboring on the bar next to him.
'What... good ... are you?' Keiro growled.
'Good enough,' she snapped back, and Finn saw to his surprise that she was grinning, her eyes bright under the tangled hair, color back in her face.
The anchor juddered. The ship swayed, then abruptly, lifted.
'We've got it!' Keiro dug his heels in and pushed, and quite suddenly the capstan was turning quickly under their weight, the great chain of the anchor rasping up through the floor and looping obediently as they forced it around.
When they had it all in and the mechanism ground to a stop Finn raced up the steps of the companionway, but as he burst out onto the deck he stopped with a yell of fright.
They were sailing in a cloud. It wisped around him, opening to give glimpses of Gildas swearing at the wheel, the great billowing sails, a bird below them in a patch of light.
'Where are we?' Attia muttered behind him.
Then the ship dropped out of the mist, and they saw they were in an ocean of blue air, the tilted tower of the Sapient already far behind.
Breathless, Keiro leaned on the rail and whooped with delight.
Finn stood next to him, looking back. 'Why didn't he try to stop us?' Reaching into his jacket, he touched the crystal sharpness of the Key.
'Who bloody cares!' his oathbrother said.
And then he turned and punched Finn hard in the stomach.
Attia screamed. Finn collapsed, all breath gone, the pain an amazement inside him, an airless blackness that loomed over his sight.
From the wheel Gildas yelled something, his words snatched away.
Slowly, the agony ebbed. When Finn could gasp in air he looked up and saw Keiro with both arms spread on the rail, looking down at him with a grin.
'What...?'
Keiro held out a hand and pulled him up, staggering, face-to-face. 'That'll teach you not to draw a sword on me again,' he said.
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
