Incarceron Part 63

"We were betrothed. When you were seven there was a big feast. A great celebration."

"Leave him alone," Attia snapped. "Leave him."

Claudia stepped closer. She stretched her hand out and tried to touch his wrist.

"Look at it, Finn. They couldn't take it away. It proves who you are."

"It proves nothing!" Attia turned so suddenly, Claudia jerked back.

The girl's fists were clenched, her bruised face white. "Stop tormenting him! If you loved him you'd stop! Can't you see it hurts him and he can't remember? You don't really care if it's him, if he's Giles. All you want is not to marry this Caspar!"

In the shocked silence Finn breathed hard. Keiro pushed him onto the bench; his knees gave way and he sat quickly. Claudia was pale. She took a step back, but her eyes never left Attia.

Then she said, "Actually that's not true. I want the real King. The true Heir, even if he is of the Havaarna. And I want to get you out of that place. All of you."

Jared came close and crouched. "Are you all right?"

Finn nodded. His mind was fogged; he rubbed his face with his hands.

"He gets like this," Keiro said. "And worse."

"It may be the treatment they gave him."

The Sapient's dark eyes met Gildas's.

"They must have given him drugs to make him forget. Have you tried any antidotes. Master, any therapies?"

"Our medicines are limited," Gildas growled. "I use powdered tumentine and a decoction of poppy. And once harestooth, but it made him sick."

Jared looked politely appalled.

Claudia knew by his face that such things were so primitive the Sapienti here had all but forgotten them.

All at once she felt furious with frustration; she wanted to reach in and drag Finn out, to break down the invisible barrier. But that was no use, so she made herself say calmly, "I've decided what to do. I'm coming in. Through the gate."

"How does that help us?" Keiro asked, watching Finn.

It was Jared who answered. "I've made a careful study of the Key. From what I can see, our ability to contact each other is changing. The image is becoming clearer and more focused. This may be because Claudia and I have come to Court; we're nearer to you, and the Key may register this. It may help you navigate toward the gate."

"I thought there were maps." Keiro eyed Claudia. "The Princess here said so."

Claudia sighed, impatient. "I lied." She looked straight at him; his blue eyes were sharp as ice.

"But," Jared went on hastily, "there are problems. There is a strange ... discontinuity that puzzles me. The Key takes too long to show us each other; each time it seems to be adjusting some physical or temporal parameter ... as if our worlds are somehow misaligned ..."

Keiro looked scornful; Finn knew he thought all this was a waste of time.

From the bench he lifted his head and said quietly, "But you don't think, Master, do you, that Incarceron is another world? That it floats free in s.p.a.ce, far from Earth."

Jared stared. Then he said gently, "No, I don't. A fascinating theory."

"Who told you that?" Claudia snapped.

"It doesn't matter."

Unsteadily, Finn stood. He looked at Claudia.

"In this Court of yours, there's a lake, isn't there? Where we floated lanterns with candles inside?" The poppies around her were red tissue in the sun.

"Yes," she said.

"And on my birthday cake, tiny silver b.a.l.l.s."

Claudia was so still, she could hardly breathe. And then as he stared at her in unbearable tension her eyes went wide; she turned, yelled, "Jared! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

And in the dark room of spheres instantly there was only darkness, and a strange tilted giddiness, and a scent of roses. Keiro reached his right hand carefully into the empty s.p.a.ce where the holo-image had been.

Sparks spat; he jerked back, swearing.

"Something scared them," Attia breathed. Gildas frowned.

"Not something. Someone."

SHE HAD smelled him. A sweet, unmistakable perfume that she realized now had been there for a long time, that she had known but ignored, caught up in the tension of the moment. Now, as she faced the blazing border of lavender and delphiniums and roses, she felt Jared behind her rise slowly to his feet, heard his small breath of dismay as he registered it too.

"Come out," she said icily. He was behind the rose arch. He stepped from it reluctantly, the peach silk of his suit soft as petals. For a moment none of them spoke. Then Evian smiled an embarra.s.sed smile.

"How much did you hear?" Claudia demanded, hands on hips.

He took out a handkerchief and wiped sweat from his face.

"Quite too much, I'm afraid, my dear."

"Stop the act."

She was furious.

He glanced at Jared and then, curiously at the Key.

"That is an amazing device. If we had had any idea it existed, we would have moved heaven and earth to find it."