Incarceron Part 103

"In that case, Master, I could do with your help."

The gray eyes were fixed on him.

"For Claudia's sake we need to work together."

Jared nodded slowly. Trying to ignore the furious banging, he came around to the controls and examined them carefully.

"This is so old. Many of the symbols are in the Sapient tongue."

He looked up.

"Let's try talking to Incarceron in the language of its makers."

THE PRISONQUAKE was swift and sudden. The floor buckled; walls crashed down. Finn grabbed Keiro; together they fell back against a door that gave under their weight, flinging them inside.

Claudia scrambled after them, but Attia said, "Help me with him!"

She had Gildas doubled up, gasping. Hurriedly Claudia climbed back, wriggled his arm over her shoulders, and they struggled with him to the cell, where Finn hauled them in and slammed the door tight, he and Keiro wedging it with a split timber. Outside, rubble cascaded down and they listened to it in dismay. The corridor was surely blocked.

"But you do not think you can lock me out, I hope?" Incarceron laughed its rumbling laugh.

"No one can do that. I am inescapable. "

"Sapphique Escaped."

Gildas's voice was a rasp of pain, but he spat the words out. His hands clutched his chest; they shook uncontrollably.

"How did he do that then, without a Key? Is there another way out, that only he discovered? A way so secret, so amazing, you can't block it? A way needing no gate and no machinery? Is that it, Incarceron? Is that what you fear, always watching, always listening?"

"I fear nothing. Not what you told me," Claudia snapped.

She was breathing hard; she glanced at Finn.

"I must go back. Jared's in trouble. Will you come?"

"I can't leave them. Take the old man with you."

Gildas laughed: his body convulsed into wheezing gasps. Attia gripped his hands; then she turned her head. "He's dying," she whispered.

"Finn," the Sapient croaked.

Finn crouched down, sick with the p.r.i.c.kling behind his eyes. Whatever injuries Gildas had were internal, but the shiver of his hands, the sweat and pallor of his face were only too clear. The Sapient brought his mouth close to Finns ear.

"Show me the stars," he whispered. Finn looked at the others.

"I can't..."

"Then allow me," the Prison said.

The glimmer of light in the cell went out. One red Eye was a spark in the corner of the wall. "Look at this star, old man. This is the only star you will ever see."

"Stop tormenting him!" Finn's howl of rage startled them all.

And then to Claudia's amazement he turned back to Gildas and clasped his hand. "Come with me," he said. "I'll show you."

The dizziness of his mind swept over him and he let it. He walked deliberately into its darkness and dragged the old man with him, and all around them the lake glimmered under its floating lanterns, blue and purple and gold, and the boat rocked beneath him as he lay in it and stated up at the stars. They blazed in the summer night. Like silver dust they lay across the cosmos as if a great hand had scattered them, and their mystery enchanted the velvety blackness.

Beside him, Finn felt the old mans awe.

"These are the stars, Master. Whole worlds, far away, seeming tiny, but really huger than anything we know."

Lake water lapped.

Gildas said, "So far. So many!"

A heron rose from the water with a graceful flap. On the sh.o.r.e the music sounded sweet; voices laughed softly.

The old man said hoa.r.s.ely, "I have to go to them now, Finn. I have to go and find Sapphique. He won't have been content, you know, just to be Outside. Not once he had seen this."

Finn nodded.

He felt the boat unmoor beneath him, and the and slip of the swell. He felt the old man's fingers loosen in his. And as he stared at them, the stars grew and burned, became flames, tiny flames on the tips of tiny candles, and he was blowing them out, blowing at them with his whole breath, all his energy. They vanished, and he laughed, a great laugh of triumph, and all the people around laughed with him, the King in his red coat, and Bartlett, and his pale new stepmother, and all the courtiers and nurses and musicians, and the little girl in the pretty white dress, the girl who had come that day, that they said would be his special friend. She was looking at him now.

She said, "Finn. Can you hear me? Claudia."

"IT'S READY ." Jared looked up. "You speak, and the translation will be instant."

The warden had been pacing, listening to the voices outside; now he came and stood by the desk, his arms folded.

"Incarceron," he said.

Silence.

Then, on the screen, a small red point of light.

It was tiny, like a star. It gazed out at them. It said, "Who is this speaking the old tongue?"

The voice was uncertain. It seemed to have lost some of its echoing rumble.

The Warden glanced at Jared.

Then he said quietly, "You know who this is, my father. This is Sapphique."

Jared's eyes widened, but he stayed silent.

There was another silence. This time the Warden broke it. "I speak to you in the language of the Sapienti. I order you not to harm the boy Finn."

"He has the Key. No prisoner is allowed to Escape."

"But your anger may injure him. And Claudia."

Had the Warden's voice changed as he spoke her name? Jared wasn't sure.

A moment of stillness. Then, "Very well. For you, my son."

The Warden made a sign to Jared to cut communications, but as his finger reached out to the panel, the Prison said softly, "But if you are indeed Sapphique, we have spoken often before. You will remember."

"That was long ago," the Warden said cautiously.

"Yes. You gave me the Tribute I required. I hunted you and you thwarted me. You hid in holes and stole my children's hearts. Tell me, Sapphique, how did you Escape from me? After I struck you down, after the terrible fall through darkness, what doorway did you find that I had overlooked? Through what crevice did you crawl? And where are you now, out there in the places I cannot even imagine?"

The voice was wistful; the Warden looked up at the steady Eye on the screen.

He was hushed as he answered. "That is a mystery I cannot reveal."

"A pity. You see, they did not give me any way to see outside myself. Can you imagine, Sapphique, you the wanderer, the great traveler, can you even dream of how it is to live forever trapped in your own mind, watching only the creatures that inhabit it? They made me powerful and they made me flawed. And only you, when you return, can help me."

The Warden was still. Dry-mouthed, Jared flicked the switch.

His hands were shaky and damp with sweat.

As he watched it, the Eye faded.

FINNS SIGHT was blurred and his whole body had emptied. He lay crooked; only Keiro's arm kept his head off the floor. But for a moment, before the Prison stench crept back, before the world surged in, he knew he was a prince and the son of a prince, that his would was golden with sunlight, that he had ridden into a dark forest one morning in a fairy tale and never ridden out again.

"Drink some of this."