Кэтрин Фишер - Sapphique

‘If they’re Prisoners they’re desperate,’ Attia said.

‘Conditions must be impossible.’

‘They’ll be looking for anyone to tear apart.’ Rix stared, his eyes glinting with the crazy brilliance Attia dreaded.

Claudia shook her head with fur ‘This is all your fault.

Why did you have to bring that evil Glove here!’

‘Because your dear father ordered me to, sweetkin. I, too, am a Wolf of Steel.’ Her father. She turned and ran down the steps, across the floor, after him. Locked in with madmen and thieves, her father was the only familiar presence here. Just behind her Attia gasped, “Wait for me.’

‘Doesn’t the apprentice want to stay with the sorcerer?’ Claudia snapped.

‘I’m not his apprentice. Keiro is.’ Attia caught up with her.

Then she said, ‘Is Finn safe?’ Claudia glanced at her thin face and short, hacked hair.

‘His memory has come back.’

‘Has it?’

‘So he says.’

‘And the fits?’ Claudia shrugged.

‘Does he . . . think about us?’ It was a whisper.

‘He thought about Keiro all the time,’ Claudia said acidly.

‘So I hope he’s happy now’ She didn’t say what else she thought — that Finn had barely mentioned Attia’s name.

The Warden had reached the small door. Outside it, the noise was terrible. Blades whacked into wood and metal; with one almighty smash the corner of an axe glinted through the ebony. The door shook to its foundations.

‘Silence out there,’ the Warden yelled.

Someone called out. A woman howled. The blows were redoubled.

‘They can’t hear you,’ Claudia said. ‘And if they get in …’

‘They don’t want to listen to anyone.’ Attia went round and stood before the Warden’s face. ‘Least of all you. They’ll blame you.’ Through the tumult he smiled coldly at them. ‘We’ll see.

I’m still the Warden here. But perhaps before we start we should take a few precautions’ He drew out a small disc of silver. On its lid was a wolf, the snarling mouth wide. He touched it and it lit.

‘What are you doing?’ Claudia jumped back as another blow sent wood splinters into the snow.

‘I told you. Making sure the Prison doesn’t win.’ She held his arm. ‘What about us?’

‘We are expendable.’ His eyes were grey and clear. Then he said into the device, ‘It’s me. ‘What’s the situation Out there?’ As he listened his face darkened. Attia moved away from the door; it was buckling now, the hinges straining, rivets cracking. ‘They’re coming through.’ But Claudia was watching her father as he said harshly, ‘Then do it now! Destroy the Glove. Before it’s too late.’ Medlicote slipped the receiver shut, dropped it into his pocket and gazed up the ruined corridor. Voices echoed from the Great Chamber; he walked quickly towards it, through a crowd of scared footmen, past Ralph, who caught his arm and asked, ‘What’s happening? Is this the end of the world?’ The secretary shrugged. ‘The end of one world, sir, perhaps the beginning of another. Is Master Jared in there?’

‘Yes. And the Queen! The Queen herself!’ Medlicote nodded. The half-moons of his spectacles were empty the lenses gone. He opened the door.

In the ruined chamber someone had found a real candle; Keiro had made a flame and lit it.

The Prison had taught survival, at least, Finn thought. They would all need those skills now He turned. ‘Madam?’ Sia stood just inside the door. She had not spoken since crossing the drawbridge, and her silence scared him.

‘I presume our war is at a standstill?’

‘You presume wrong,’ the Queen whispered. ‘My war is over.’ Her voice was broken, a faint quaver. Through her veil her eyes, pale as ice, watched him. She seemed bent, even bowed.

‘Over?’ He glanced at the Pretender. The boy who had claimed to be Giles stood grimly before the empty hearth, his right arm still bandaged, his fine armour tarnishing even as they watched. ‘What do you mean?’

‘She means it’s finished.’ Jared came forward and stood before the Queen and Finn was shocked at how she had shrunk. Jared’s voice was gentle. ‘I’m sorry this has happened to you,’ he said.

‘Are you?’ Sia whispered. ‘Maybe you are, Master Jared.

Maybe only you can know something of what I feel. I once taunted you with your own death. You would be justified now in doing the same to me.’ He shook his head.

‘I thought you said the Queen was young?’ Keiro muttered in Finn’s ear.

‘She is.’ But then her fingers caught at Jared’s sleeve, and Finn swallowed a gasp because they were the fingers of an ancient woman, mottled and sagging with wrinkled skin, the nails dry and splintered.

‘After all, of us both I will be the one now to die first.’ She glanced aside, with a trace of her old coquettish manner. ‘Let me show you death, Jared. Not these young boys. Only you, Master, will see what Sia really is.’ Hands trembling, she moved before him and raised her veil. Over her shoulder, Finn saw how Jared was caught between horror and pity; how he gazed silently on the Queen’s ruined beauty without lowering his eyes.

The room was silent. Keiro glanced back at Medlicote, standing humbly inside the door.

Sia dropped her veil. She said, ‘Whatever else I was, I have been a Queen. Let me die like a Queen.’ Jared bowed. He said, ‘Ralph. Light a fire in the red bedroom. Do the best you can.’ Uncertain, the steward nodded. He took the old woman’s arm, and helped her out.

As soon as the door closed Keiro said, ‘I don’t get it.’

‘She tried to preserve her youth.’ Jared sat, as if the moment had weakened him. ‘They called her a witch, but she almost certainly used skinwands and some sort of ongoing genetic implants. Now all her stolen years have come crashing down on her at once.’

‘It sounds like one of Rix’s fairtytales,’ Keiro said calmly.

‘So she’ll die?’

‘Very soon.’

‘Fine. That just leaves him.’ Keiro jabbed his injured hand at the Pretender.

Finn lifted his head and he and the Pretender gazed at each other. ‘You don’t look so much like me now,’ Finn said.

The boy’s appearance had altered too, his lips thinner, nose longer, hair too dark. There was still a resemblance but it had no real substance any more. It had died with the Era.

‘Look,’ the Pretender said. ‘It wasn’t my idea. They found me. They offered me a kingdom! You would have done it — anyone would! They promised my family enough gold to keep my six brothers fed for years. I had no choice.’ He drew himself up. ‘And I was good, Finn. You have to admit it. I had everyone fooled. Maybe I even fooled you.’ He glanced down at his wrist, where the eagle tattoo had vanished. ‘Another piece of Protocol,’ he murmured.

Keiro found a chair and lounged in it. ‘I think we should put him in that tiny cube you call the Prison.’

‘No. He writes a confession and admits publicly that he was an imposter. That the Queen and Caspar were behind a plot to place a false Giles on the throne. And then we let him go Finn looked at Jared. ‘He’s no threat to us now’ Jared nodded. ‘I agree.’ Keiro looked less than convinced, but Finn stood. ‘Take him away.’ But as the Pretender reached the door Finn said softly, ‘Claudia never believed in you.’ The Pretender stopped and laughed. ‘No?’ he whispered.

He turned his head and gazed back at Finn. ‘I think she believed in me more than she ever believed in you.’ The words stabbed Finn; a breathtaking pain. He whipped his sword out and advanced on the Pretender, wanting only to run him through, to destroy this venomous infuriating image of all he had never been. But Jared was in his way, and the Sapient’s green gaze held him still.