‘There is much sorrow here,’ he said. ‘There is much fear.’ It was the patter of his act. And yet it was fragmented, changed. As if in the kaleidoscope of his mind it was falling into new patterns. Quietly he said, ’I need a volunteer. One who is willing to have its deepest fear revealed. Willing to bear its soul to my gaze.’ He looked upwards.
The Prison flickered white lights over its statue. Then it said, I volunteer.
For a moment all Keiro heard was his own heart thudding and the echoes of slithering wood. Then Finn said, ‘We’re all right.’ He stepped out of an alcove in the wall, and from the shadows behind him Ralph said in despair, ’How do we get up now? There’s no way …’
‘Of course there is.’ Keiro’s voice was brisk. From the darkness a red and gold tassel came down and hit Finn on the shoulder.
‘Is it safe?’
‘I’ve tied it to the nearest column. It’s the best I can do.
Come on.’ Finn looked at Jared. They both knew that if the column gave way or the rope fell apart the climber would fall to his death. Jared said, ‘It has to be me. With respect, Finn, the Portal is a mystery to you.’ It was true, but Finn shook his head. ‘You won’t manage...’ Jared drew himself up. ‘I’m not so weak.’
‘You’re not weak at all.’ Finn glanced up into the dimness.
Then he grabbed the rope and tied it fiercely around Jared’s waist and under his arms. ‘Use it to abseil. Use all the footholds you can find and try not to put all your weight on it. We’ll—’
‘Finn.’ Jared put a hand on his chest. ‘Don’t worry: He braced the rope, then turned his head. ‘Did you hear that?’
‘What?’
‘Thunder.’ Ralph said doubtfully.
They listened a moment, hearing the terrible storm rage across the Realm, the atmosphere loosed from its long control.
Then Keiro yelled, ‘Move!’ and Jared felt the rope jerk him up the first stairs.
The climb was a nightmare. Soon the rope was burning his hands, and the effort of clambering and hauling himself up left him breathless. The old pain burnt in his chest, and the ache of his back and neck as he groped from splintered step to panel, grabbing at cobwebbed sills and shifting timbers, exhausted him.
Above, Keiro’s face was a pale oval in the shadows. ‘Come on, Master! You can do it Jared gasped. He had to stop, just for breath, but as he did the small notch into which he had jammed his boot gave way, and with a crash and a cry he fell, the rope bringing him up short in a bone-cracking agony of wrenched muscles.
For a moment he saw nothing.
The world was gone and he was hanging weightless in a black sky, and around him, silently, galaxies and nebulae were icily turning. The stars had voices; they were calling his name, but still he circled, slowly, until the star that was Sapphique leant close and whispered, ‘I’m waiting for you, Master. And Claudia is waiting.’ He opened his eyes. Pain flowed back like a wave, filling his veins, his mouth, his nerves.
Keiro said, ‘Jared. Climb. Climb!’ He obeyed. Like a child, without thinking, he tugged himself up, hand over hand. Climbing through the pain, through the dark fire of his breathing, while far below Finn and Ralph were two glimmers in the black hall.
‘More. A bit more.’ Something grabbed above him. His sweat-soaked hands slid on the ropes, the skin raw, his knees and ankles knots of rubbed flesh. A warm grip caught on his. A hand hauled under his elbow.
‘I’ve got you. I’ve got you.’ And then a strength that seemed miraculous to him heaved him upward and he crouched on all fours over the pain, coughing and retching.
‘He’s safe.’ Keiro’s yell was calm. ‘Move, Finn.’ Finn turned to Ralph. ‘Ralph, you’re not coming. Do this for me. Get out and find the Privy Council. They have to take charge now Tell them I.. : He paused and swallowed. ‘Tell them the King orders it. Food and shelter for everyone:
‘But you …’
‘I’ll be back. With Claudia.’
‘But sire, do you mean to re-enter the Prison?’ Finn wound the rope round his hands and swung upwards. ‘Not if I can help it. But if I have to, I will.’ He climbed quickly and fiercely, pulling himself up with jerks of energy, disdaining Keiro’s hand and rolling over the edge swiftly. The landing was dark. The whole gable-end of the house must have gone, because down at the far end he could see the sky against rafters and half a chimney.
‘The Portal may be wrecked,’ Keiro muttered.
‘No. The Portal isn’t even in this house.’ Finn turned. ‘Master?’ The landing was empty
‘Jared?’ Then they saw him. He was far down the corridor, at the study door. ‘I’m sorry, Finn,’ he said gently. ‘This is my plan.
I have to do this on my own.’ Something clicked.
Finn ran, Keiro at his back, and when he reached the door he flung himself at it, the black swan arched defiantly over him.
But it was locked from the inside.
34
The Prison was a being of beauty once. Its programme was love.
But perhaps we were too hard to love. Perhaps we asked too much of it. Perhaps we drove it mad.
Rix reached out with his Gloved hand, and from above a tiny pencil-thin light beam came down to touch him. It rippled softly over his palm, and after a while he nodded.
‘I see strange things in your mind, my father. I see how they made you in their own image, how you woke in the darkness. I see the people that inhabit you, I see all the corridors and cells and dusty dungeons where they live.’
‘Rix!’ Attia’s voice was sharp. ‘Stop this.’ He smiled, but didn’t look at her. ‘I see how lonely you are, and how crazed. You have fed on your own soul, my master.
You have devoured your own humanity You have fouled your own Eden. And now you want to Escape.’ You see a beam of light in your hand, Prisoner.
‘As you say. A beam of light.’ But the smile was gone now, and Rix raised the Glove so that the light caught a glitter of silver dust that fell through his open fingers.
The crowd gasped.
The dust fell and fell. There was too much of it. It became a cascade of tiny sparkles in a black sky
‘I see the stars,’ Rix said, his voice tight. ‘Beneath them lies a ruined palace, its windows dark and broken. I peep at it through the keyhole of a tiny doorway. A storm roars about it. It is Outside.’ Claudia gripped Atha’s wrist. ‘Is he . . ?’
‘I think it’s a vision. He’s done this before.’
‘Outside!’ She turned to the Warden. ‘Does he mean the Realm?’ His grey eyes were hard. ‘I fear so.’
‘But Finn . . .’
‘Hush, Claudia. I need to understand this.’ Furious, she stared at Rix. He was shivering, his eyes thin slits of white. ‘There is a way,’ he whispered, rapt.
‘Sapphique found it.’ Sapphique? Incarceron’s voice hummed and rumbled round the hail. And then it spoke again, and there was sudden fear in it, and wonder. How are you doing this, Rix? How are you doing this?
Rix blinked. For a moment he seemed shaken. The people were silent.
Then he moved his fingers, and the shower of silver became gold.
‘The Art Magicke,’ he breathed.
Jared stood back from the door. If Finn was beating on it, as he suspected, the sound did not come through.
