Incarceron (Incarceron, Book 1) (39 page)

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window was covered with pieces of his experiments, the scanners, the imagers, the devices to block alarms. He said nothing. "Of course you understand that all these are illegal." The Warden's eyes were ice-cold. "We have always allowed the Sapienti a certain leeway, but you seem to have been taking great advantage." Then he said, "Where is Claudia, Master?"

"I told you--"

"Don't lie to me. She is not at home. There are no horses unaccounted for."

"Perhaps ... she may be on foot."

"I do believe she is." The Warden sat opposite him, his black satin breeches creasing elegantly. "And perhaps you thought you were not lying when you said home?"

Jared put the cup down. They faced each other.

"How did she find out?" John Arlex said.

Jared decided, quite suddenly, to tell the truth. "The girl in the Prison told her, Attia, Finn's friend. From some records she had discovered."

The Warden nodded in slow appreciation. "Ah yes. How did she take it?"

"She was ... very shocked."

"Furious?"

"Yes."

"I would expect nothing else."

"And upset."

The Warden shot him a keen glare, but Jared returned it

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calmly. "She had always been so secure as your daughter, sir. Known who she was. She ... cares for you."

"Don't lie to me." The sudden snarl shocked him with its anger. The Warden got up and paced down the room. "There has only ever been one person Claudia has cared for in her life, Master Sapient. And that is you."

Jared sat still
.
His heart hammered. "Sir ..."

"Did you think I was blind?" The Warden turned. "No indeed. Oh, she had her nurses and her waiting women, but Claudia is far above their level and she knew it early. Every time I came home I saw how she and you laughed and talked, how she fussed with your coat if it was cold, sent for possets and sweetmeats, how you had your private jokes, your shared studies." He folded his arms and stared out of the window. "With me she was distant, reserved. She didn't know me. I was a stranger, the Warden, a great man at Court, someone who came and went. Someone to be wary of. But you, Master Jared, you were her tutor and her brother and more her father than I have ever been."

Jared was cold now. Behind the Warden's iron control was a blazing hatred; he had never sensed the depth of it before. He tried to breathe calmly.

"How do you think that felt, Master?" The Warden swung around. "Did you think I didn't feel it? Do you think I didn't suffer, not knowing what to do, how to change it? Aware that with every word I spoke I was deceiving her;

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every day, just by being there, by letting her think she was mine."

"She ... that is what she will not forgive."

"Don't tell me how she thinks!" John Arlex came and stood over him. "I have always been jealous of you. Is that not foolish? A dreamer, a man without family, so fragile a few blows would kill him. And the Warden of Incarceron is sick with envy."

Jared managed to say, "I... am very fond of Claudia ..."

"You know, of course, there are rumors about you." The Warden swung away abruptly and sat down again. "I don't believe them; Claudia is willful but not stupid. However, the Queen does, and let me tell you Jared, at the moment the Queen is screaming for revenge. On anyone. Evian is dead, but the plot obviously included others. You, for one."

He shivered. "Sir, you know well that is not so."

"You knew about it. Didn't you?"

"Yes, but..."

"And you did nothing. Told no one." He leaned forward. "That is treason, Master Sapient, and could easily have you hanged."

In the silence someone called outside. A fly buzzed in and droned around the room, hitting the glass and fumbling against it.

Jared tried to think, but there was no time. The Warden snapped, "Where's the Key?"

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He wanted to lie. To make something up. Instead he kept silent.

"She's taken it with her, hasn't she?"

He didn't answer. The Warden swore. "The whole world thinks Giles is dead. She could have had everything, the Realm, the throne. Did she think I would let Caspar get in her way?"

"You were in the plot?" Jared said slowly.

"Plot! Evian and his naive dreams of a world without Protocol! There has never been a world without Protocol. I would have let the Steel Wolves deal with the Queen and Caspar, and then had them executed, simple. But now she has turned against me."

He was staring blankly across the room. Jared said gently, "The story you told her ... about her mother."

"That was true. But when Helena died the baby was sickly and I knew it would die too. And what then of my plans? I needed a daughter, Master. And I knew where to get one." He sat in the armchair opposite. "Incarceron is a failure. A hell. The Wardens have long known that, but there is no remedy, so we keep it secret. I thought I would rescue one soul from that, at least. In the depths of the Prison I found a woman who was so desperate she was willing to part with her newborn girl. I paid well. Her other children survived because of it."

Jared nodded. The Warden's voice had sunk; he seemed to be talking to himself, as if he had justified this endlessly to himself over the years.

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"No one realized, except the Queen. That sorceress took one look at the child and knew."

A sudden understanding came to Jared. Fascinated, he said, "Claudia always wondered why you agreed to the plot against Giles. "Was it because the Queen ..." He stopped, not knowing the words, but the Warden nodded without looking up.

"Blackmail, Master Sapient. Her son was to be the one to marry Claudia. If I had not agreed, she taunted me that she would tell Claudia publicly who she was, disgrace her before the whole Realm. I could not have borne that."

For a moment there was a wistful distance in him, a stillness. Then he raised his head and saw Jared's look and his face went cold. "Do not feel sorry for me, Master. That's something I do not need." He stood. "I know she's gone into Incarceron. For this Finn. There's nothing for you to betray. And she has taken the Key." He laughed bitterly. "It's as well she took it. There's no way out without it."

Suddenly he stalked to the door. "Follow me."

Startled Jared stood, fighting down a shard of fear, but the Warden stepped out into the corridor and waved the guards away impatiently. The men looked at each other.

One said uneasily, "Sir, the Queen has issued orders that we stay with you. For your protection."

The Warden nodded slowly. "My protection. I see. Then please remain here and guard this door after I enter. Allow no one to follow us down."

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Before they could argue he had opened a hidden door in the wainscoting and led the way down some dank steps into the cellars. Halfway down, Jared looked back. The men were watching curiously through the slit.

"It appears the Queen suspects me too," the Warden said calmly. He took a lantern from the wall and lit the candle inside it. "We will have to work quickly. The study, as you've no doubt realized, is the same room here as at home. A space halfway between this world and the Prison, a Portal, as the inventor Martor called it."

"Manor's writings are lost," Jared said, hurrying after him.

"I have them. They are classified." His dark figure paced down quickly, holding the lantern high, its shadows flickering down the wall. He glanced back at Jared's astonishment and allowed himself a smile. "You will never see them, Master." Between the casks the darkness lay deep; far above, the guards' voices seemed to whisper in confusion.

At the bronze gate he jabbed the combination in swiftly; the gate shuddered open and as they passed through, Jared felt that odd shiver of displacement he had felt before.

The white room adjusted itself. Everything was exactly as he had left it. He had a sudden pang of anxiety. What was happening to Claudia? Was she safe?

"You sent her through with no idea of the danger." The Warden flicked the control panel out and touched sensors. "Entering the Prison is hazardous, physically and psychologically."

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Shelves slid back. The screen lit.

On it, Jared saw a thousand images. They flickered, a checkerboard of tiny squares, of empty rooms, bleak oceans, far towers, dusty corners. He saw a street packed with people, a hideous den of stunted children, a man beating a strange beast, a woman tenderly breastfeeding a baby. Bewildered, he stepped up below the images, watching them flicker, the pain, the hunger, the unlikely friendships, the savage bargainings.

'This is the Prison." The "warden leaned against the desk. "All the images seen by the Eyes. Its the only way to find Claudia."

Jared felt a terrible misery soak him. In the Academy the Experiment was considered one of the glories of the ancient Sapienti, the noble sacrifice of the world's last reserves of energy to save the unredeemable, the poor, the despised. And it had ended in this.

The Warden watched him, a silhouette against the rippling images. "You see, Master, what only the Warden has ever seen."

"Why didn't... Why weren't we told ...?"

"There is not enough power. They can never be brought back, all those thousands of people. They are lost to us." He took out his watch and gave it to Jared, who took it numbly and then looked down at it. The Warden indicated the silver cube on the chain.

"You are like a god, Jared. You hold Incarceron in your hands."

He felt the pain inside him throb. His hands shook. He

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wanted to put it down, to step back, step away. The cube was tiny, he had seen it a thousand times on the watch chain and barely noticed it, but now it filled him with awe. Was it possible it contained the mountains he saw, the forests of silver trees, the cities of ragged people preying on each other's poverty? Sweating, he held it tightly and the Warden said softly, "Afraid, Jared? It takes strength to see a whole world. Many of my predecessors never dared look. They hid their eyes." A soft bell.

They both looked up. The screen had stopped flashing; as they stared, the pictures started to flick off, and one in the bottom right-hand corner grew, pixel by pixel, until it filled the whole screen.

It was Claudia.

Jared put the watch chain shakily down on the table.

She was talking to the prisoners. He recognized the boy Finn, and the other one, Keiro, who was leaning back against a stone wall, listening. Gildas crouched nearby; Jared saw at once that the old man was hurt, Attia standing next to him.

"Can you speak to them?"

"I can," the Warden said. "But first we listen."

He flicked a switch.

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33

***

What use is one key among a billion prisoners?

--Lord Calliston's Diary

***

"It tried to stop me finding you," Claudia said. She walked toward him down the gloomy corridor. "You should never have come Inside." Finn felt awed. She was so out of place, bringing a scent of roses and strange fresh air that tantalized him. He felt he wanted to scratch at some itch in his mind; instead he rubbed a hand wearily over his eyes.

"Come back with me now." She held out her hand. "Come quickly!"

"You just wait a minute." Keiro stood. "He goes nowhere without me."

"Or me," Attia muttered.

"All of you can come then. It must be possible." Then her face fell.

Finn said, "What is it?"

Claudia bit her lip. She suddenly realized she had no idea how to do this. There had been no portal on this side, no chair or control panel; she had simply found herself in that empty cell. And she didn't know the way back there, even if the place was important.

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"She can't do it," Keiro said. He came and stared closely at her, and though it annoyed her, she stared calmly back.

"At least I have this." She took the Key from a pocket and held it out. They saw it was identical to the one they knew, though its workmanship seemed better, the eagle perfect in its stillness.

Finn put his hand to his pocket. It was empty. Alarmed, he turned.

"It's here, fool boy." Gildas grabbed at the wall and pulled himself upright. He was gray, his face clammy. He held the Key so tightly in his knotted hands that the skin around his knuckles was white as the bone beneath.

"Are you really from the Outside?" he breathed.

"I am, Master." She walked toward him and reached out her hand for him to feel. "And Sapphique did Escape. Jared discovered that he has followers out there. They call him the Nine-Fingered One."

He nodded, and they saw there were tears in his eyes. "I know that. I have always known that he was real. This boy has seen him in visions. Soon I will see him."

His voice was gruff but there was a quaver in it Finn had never heard before. Oddly scared he said, "We need the Key, Master."

For a moment he thought the Sapient would not let go; there was a brief interval when both his and Gildas's fingers grasped the crystal. The old man looked down. "I have always trusted you, Finn. I never believed you were from Outside, and I was