Incarceron

She was silent. She was looking at Fi

"And you're marrying him," he said quietly.

Gildas swore. Keiro gave his oathbrother a scathing look. "What does it matter who she marries! Perhaps she decided she likes him better than you." He turned, hands on hips, and faced her arrogantly. "Is that it, Princess? Was this all a little diversion for you, a pretty game?" He jerked his head. "Such lovely flowers! Such a sweet dress!"

He came up so close to her that she almost felt he would reach out and grab her, but then

Fi

She couldn't. How could she tell them that? "Jared found some things out. You have to believe me."

"What things?"

"About Incarceron. It's finished, Fi

Outside ..."

"And what about me?" Gildas snapped. "I've spent sixty years pla

She stood up and stalked toward him, furious. "You use him like my father uses me. All he is to you is a way out; you don't care about him! Any of you!"

"That's not true!" Attia hissed.

Claudia ignored her. Looking hard at Fi

There was some sort of commotion outside her door; she turned and yelled, "I won't see anyone! Send them away!"

Fi

She couldn't bear it anymore. Not Keiro's anger, not the fierce old man, not him. He was hurting her, and none of this was her fault, none of it. She reached out for the Key. "This is good-bye, Fi

Her fingers closed on the link. Voices argued outside the door.

And then Attia said, "He's not your father, Claudia." They all turned to her.

She was sitting on the floor, arms around her knees. She didn't get up or say anything more but just sat there in the shocked silence she had created, her narrow face grimy and calm, her dark hair greasy.

Claudia came right up to her, "What?" Her own voice sounded small and unfamiliar.

"I'm afraid it's true." Attia was cool and distant. "I wouldn't have told you, but now you're forcing me to, and it's time you knew. The Warden of Incarceron is not your father."

"You lying little bitch!"

"No, it's true."

Keiro gri

Claudia felt as if the world had shaken. Suddenly the hubbub outside was too much; turning her back on them, she hauled open the door. Jared was there, and two guards holding him back.

"What is this?" Her voice was steel. "Let him through."

"Your father's orders, lady—"

"My father," she screamed, "can go to hell!" Jared pushed her back into the room and slammed the door. "Claudia, listen—"

"Please, Master! Not now!"

He saw the lightfield. Claudia stalked back to it. "All right. Tell me," she said.

For a moment Attia said nothing. Then she stood up, brushing dirt from her bare arms. "I never liked you. Haughty, selfish, spoiled. You think you're so tough—you wouldn't last ten minutes in here. And Fi

"Attia" Fi

"Back there in the Sapient's tower we found lists of all the Prisoners who have ever been in this place. They all looked for their own names, but I didn't." Attia came close to

Claudia. "I looked for yours."

Fi

"I said she wasn't in Incarceron. But she has been."

He felt so cold. Looking at Claudia, he saw her face was white; it was Jared who said quietly, "When?"

"She was born here, and she lived here for one week. Then, nothing. She vanishes from the records. Someone took a week-old baby girl out of the Prison, and there she is, look, the daughter of the Warden. He must have been very desperate for a daughter. And there must have been one who died, or he would have chosen a son."

Keiro said, "You recognize her from a photo of a baby? That's—"

"Not just a baby." Attia kept her eyes on Claudia. "Someone put paintings of her into the book. Images, just like us. Of her growing up. Of her having everything she wanted, clothes, toys, horses. Of her ..."

"Getting betrothed?" Keiro said slyly.

Fi

Her lips set. "No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'd tell you if you were." She turned earnestly. "I would tell you, Fi

He looked at Claudia. She seemed stu

Gildas spun around and the two Sapienti exchanged glances. "You see what this means."

The old man was triumphant. He was bleeding and limping, but his whole body was charged with energy. "They took her out. Sapphique got out. There is a way. Perhaps if we brought both the Keys together, we could unlock it."

Jared frowned. "Claudia?" he said.

She couldn't move for a moment. Then her head jerked up and she looked Fi

30

All my years to this moment

All my roads to this wall.

All my words to this silence

All my pride to this fall

She paced the study floor anxiously, dressed in dark trousers and jacket. "Well?"

"Five minutes." Jared worked on the controls without looking up. He had already placed a handkerchief on the chair and operated the device; the handkerchief had disappeared, but he couldn't get it back.

Claudia stared at the door.

She had torn up her wedding dress in a fury that had amazed even herself, shredding the lace and ripping the flouncy skirt wide open. All that was over. Protocol was over. She was at war now. Racing down here through the dark cellars, she had run through anger and bewilderment and the emptiness of a wasted past.

"All right." Jared looked up. "I think I understand what's what, but where this machine will take you, Claudia ...?"

"I know where it takes me. Away from him." The knowledge that he was not her father still rang in her head like a great blare of sound, endlessly echoing, so that she felt she would never hear anything else but that girl's quiet, devastating words. Jared said, "Sit in the chair."

She grabbed her sword and walked over and stopped. "What about you? When he finds out..