deepest place of darkness and loneliness.
‘Give me a name,’ he begged.
The Prison said, ‘I lay this fate on you, Prisoner. You shall have no name unless I give it to you. And I will never give it.’ He groaned. He reached out his fingers and found raised letters on the door. Great iron letters, riveted through.
After hours, he had grasped their shape.
‘Sapphique,’ he said, ‘will be my name.’
Keiro leapt.
With a gasp Attia saw him jump high, the chain flung away. He caught the Glove.
And then he was gone.
Attia dived for him; Rho grabbed her. As he fell his hand shot out; grabbing the ivy he swung and crashed into the side of the viaduct, a concussion that should have stunned him but somehow he held tight, twisted round, scrabbling in the glossy leaves.
‘You fool!’Attia stormed.
Keiro grabbed the ivy. He glanced up at her and she saw the bruised triumph in his eyes. ‘Now what, dog- slave?’ he yelled. ‘Do you pull me up, or do I fall?’ Before she could answer movement shook them all. Under her feet the viaduct was humming. A high, faint vibration trembled in its girders and meshes. ‘What is it?’ she breathed.
Rho turned, her mismatched eyes gazing into the darkness.
She drew in a breath; her face was white. ‘They’re coming.’
‘What? Another migration? Up here?’
‘There!’ Keiro yelled.
Attia stared into the darkness, but whatever had terrified them both was invisible to her. The bridge was shivering, as if a great host had set foot on it, as if their massed tramp had set the whole thing moving on a frequency that would make it shudder and rupture into impossible waves.
Then she saw them.
Fist-sized shapes, dark and rounded, they crawled, on the meshes and wires, in the ivy leaves. For a second she had no idea what they were; then with a creeping of her skin she realized they were Beetles, millions of them, the Prison’s all-devouring carnivores. Already the viaduct was glistening with them; there was a terrible new sound, the acidic crack and dissolving of metal, the rustle of carapaces and small pincers cutting steel and wire.
Attia snatched a firelock from the nearest girl. ‘Get your people! Get them down!’ But the Cygni were already moving, she could see them unravelling ladders that flipped out far below, the rungs lashing to and fro.
‘Come with us,’ Rho said.
‘I can’t leave him.’
‘You have to!’ Firelocks were slashing; looking down she saw that Keiro had hauled himself up and was kicking savagely at one of the Beetles that had reached him. It fell with a sudden high whine.
Two of the things came out of the ivy at her feet; she leapt back, staring, and saw the metal under them begin to smoke and corrode rapidly, its surface dulling to black. Then it crumbled to dust.
Rho fired at them, and jumped the gap. ‘Attia! Come on!’ She could have gone. But if she did she would never see Finn again. Never see the stars.
She said, ‘Goodbye, Rho. Thank the others for me.’ Smoke rose between them, blurring the world. Rho said, ‘I see both dark and gold for you, Attia. I see Sapphique opening the secret door to you.’ She stepped luck. ‘Good luck.’ Attia wanted to say more but the words seemed to choke in her throat. Instead she raised the weapon and fired a vicious sweep at the Beetles swarming towards her. They burst into blue and purple flame, a sizzling explosion of circuits.
‘That’s what I like to see!’ Keiro had climbed up the ivy, now he was hauling himself over the side of the viaduct, the Glove tucked in his belt. He grabbed for the weapon.
Attia jerked back. ‘Not this time.’
‘What are you going to do? Kill me?’
‘I don’t need to. They’ll do it for me.’ He watched the relentless glistening insects devour the viaduct, and his face was bright and hard. Already the bridge was severed; chunks of it fell away into the unguessable distances below. The gap to Rho’s empty ladders was too far to jump now.
He turned.
Mesh shuddered; a vibration sent a great crack splitting through girders. With a sound like gunshot, bolts and rivets snapped.
‘No way out.’
‘Only down.’ Attia glanced over. ‘Do you think ... If we climbed. . .?‘
‘It would collapse before we were halfway.’ He bit his lip, then yelled out at the sky. ‘Prison! Do you hear me?’ If it did it did not answer. Under Attia’s feet the metal began to separate.
‘Do you see this?’ Keiro pulled out the dragonglove.
‘If you want it, you have to save it. You have to catch it. And us!’ The road broke open. Attia slid, bracing her feet wide.
Frost fell in showers from girders; a great creaking, straining howl rang through the structure. Metal struts sprang out.
Keiro grabbed her by the arm. ‘Time to take a chance,’ he hissed in her ear.
And before she could yell in terror he had leapt with her off the bridge.
Claudia pondered the selection of masks. One was a columbine’s upper face with glittering blue sapphires, topped with a blue feather. Another was white silk, a cat with elegant slanting eyes and whiskers of silver wire. Fur trimmed its edge. She picked a red devil from the bed, but it had to be held on a stick, so that was no use. Tonight, she needed to be as secret as she could.
The cat, then.
Sitting cross-legged on the bolster she said to Alys, ‘You’ve packed what I need?’ Her nurse, folding clothes, frowned. ‘Claudia, are you ire this is wise?’
‘Wise or not, we’re going.’
‘But if the Council find that Finn is the Prince …’ She looked up. ‘They won’t. You know that.’ Far below, in the halls and chambers of the palace, musicians were tuning up. Faint scrapes and screeches and ripples of notes rang through the corridors.
Alys sighed. ‘Poor dear Finn. I’ve grown fond of him, Claudia. Even though he’s as moody as you can be.’
‘I’m not moody, I’m practical. Finn’s still trapped in his past.’
‘He misses this boy Keiro. He told me one day all about their adventures. The Prison sounded such a terrible place, and yet ... well, he seemed almost sad, looking back. Wistful.
As if he was...’
‘Happier there?’
‘No. No I wouldn’t say that. As if his life was more real there.’ Claudia snorted. ‘He probably told you a pack of lies. His stories are never the same twice. Jared says he learnt that in order to survive.’ The mention of Jared silenced them both. Finally Alys said cautiously, ‘Have you heard from Master Jared?’
‘He’s probably far too busy to answer my letter.’ It sounded defensive, even to her.
Alys did the straps up on the leather bag and pushed a stray hair back. ‘I hope he’s taking care of himself. I’m sure that Academy is a draughty great barn of a place.’
‘You fuss over him,’ Claudia snapped.
‘Of course I do.We all should.’ Claudia stood. She didn’t want the worry of this now, didn’t want to have to face Jared’s loss. And the words Medlicote had spoken burnt in her. Jared could never be bought. She would never believe that. ‘We’ll leave the ball at midnight. Make sure Simon is waiting with the horses. Behind the folly near the stream, out beyond the High Meadow’
‘I know. And if he’s seen?’
