Sapphique

Jared bent over the wreck of the table, searching in its dust.

The fire was out, every bust and portrait showed patches and crude repairs. And worst of all, on every wall, their illusory holoimages dead, hundreds of cables and wires were revealed in all their naked, ugly uselessness.

‘So much for Era.’ Fi

‘This was how it was all the time.’ Jared straightened, the Glove in his hand. ‘We fooled ourselves with images.’

‘But how …’

‘The power is gone. Completely.’ Jared gazed around, calm. ‘This is the true Realm, Fi

‘So you’re telling me this whole place is a trick” Keiro kicked a vase over and watched it smash. ‘Like one of Rix’s tacky stage routines? And you knew? All along?’

‘We knew’

‘Are you all mad?’

‘Perhaps we are Jared said. ‘Reality is hard to bear, so Era was invented to shield us from it. And yes, most of the time it was easy to forget. After all the world is what you see and hear. For you that is the only reality.’

‘I might just as well have stayed Inside.’ Keiro’s disgust was complete. Then he turned, caught by the truth. ‘This destruction is the Prison’s work!’

‘Of course it is.’ Fi

’

‘Sire.’ The guard captain burst in, breathless. ‘Sire! The Queen!’ Fi

Or was it?

Stopping with one hand on the ba

And yet this disintegration didn’t devastate him, as it had Fi

Now everything was as marred as he was.

In the unsilvered mirror he caught a slant of his own delicate face, and smiled gently at himself. Claudia had wanted to overthrow Protocol. Perhaps the Prison had done it for her.

From the battlements, though, the terrible vista drained his smile away.

The Wardenry was a wasteland. All its meadows were scrub, all its rich woodlands mere naked branches against the grey winter sky.

The world had turned old in an instant.

But it was the enemy camp that held everyone’s eyes. All the gaudy pe

‘The ca

‘Is she surrendering?’ Fi

Keiro turned to a guard. ‘Get Caspar up here.’ The soldier hesitated, glancing at Fi

The Queen came to the edge of the moat and looked up through her veil. Jewels glinted at her throat and ears. At least those must be real.

‘Let us in!’ the Pretender yelled up. He looked shaken, all his composure lost. ‘Fi

‘Master?’ Fi

‘Best leave this to me, Fi

‘There must be hundreds of them out there!’ Attia stared across at the juddering door.

‘Stay here,’ the Warden snapped. ‘I’m the Warden. I’ll face them.’ He stepped down on to the snowy floor and trudged quickly towards the hammering. Claudia watched.

‘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 Fi

‘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 Fi

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 begi

‘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, Fi