‘So you are King, sire.’ Was it that simple? he wondered. But all he said was, ‘Ralph, go now.’ The old steward didn’t move. ‘I would like to stay and help. To rescue the Lady Claudia and my master.’
‘I’m not sure there are any masters now.’ Jared drew in his breath. Keiro had slithered to one side; now all his weight was on the curved bannister, and it was bending, the wood snapping out, dry and brittle. ‘Be careful!’ Keiro’s reply was inaudible. Then he heaved himself up, leapt two steps that cracked under him and flung himself at the landing.
He grabbed it with both hands, but as he did so the whole staircase collapsed behind him in a thunderous crashing of dust and worm-ridden timber, tumbling down on the hail, choking the stairwell.
Keiro swung, dragging himself up, every muscle in his arms straining, blinded by dust. Finally he got one knee over and crumpled on the landing in cold relief.
He coughed until the tears made tracks down his smudged face. Then he crawled to the edge and looked down. Below was a black swirling vortex of dust and debris. ‘Finn?’ he said. He stood, his legs aching. ‘Finn? Jared?’ He was either completely crazy or off his head on ket, Attia thought.
Rix stood before his audience in perfect confidence, and the people stared up at him, bewildered, excited, thirsting for truth. But this time the Prison was in the audience too.
Are you mad, Prisoner? it said.
‘Almost certainly, father,’ Rix said. ‘But if I succeed, you will take me with you?’ Incarceron spat a laugh. If you succeed you really would be the Dark Enchanter. But you’re just a fraud, Rix. A liar, a mountebank, a conman. Do you think to con me?
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’ Rix glanced at Attia. ‘I’ll need my old assistant.’ He winked, and before she could stammer an answer he had turned to the crowd and stepped forward to the edge of the pedestal.
‘Friends he said. ‘Welcome to my greatest wonder! You think you will see illusions. You think I will fool you with mirrors, with hidden devices. But I am not like other magicians. I am the Dark Enchanter, and I will show you the magic of the stars!’ The crowd gasped. So did Attia.
He raised his hand, arid he was wearing a glove. It was made of skin, dark as midnight, and flickers of light sparked from it.
Behind Attia, Claudia said, ‘I thought . . . Don’t tell me Keiro had the wrong one.’
‘Of course not. This is a prop. Just a prop.’ But the doubt had slid into Attia too, like a cold knife, because how could you know, with Rix, what was real and what was not?
He waved his hand in a great arc, and the snow stopped falling. The air grew warmer, lights in every colour rainbowing from the high roof. Was he doing this? Or was Incarceron amusing itself at his expense?
Whatever the truth, the people were transfixed. They stared upwards, crying out. Some fell on their knees. Some moved back, afraid.
Rix was tall. Somehow he had brought nobility to his craggy face, made the wildness in his eyes a holy glimmer.
‘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.
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.