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.'I never betrayed you he said.'The Queen offered me forbidden knowledge.1 don't think this was what she meant.''I never once thought you would betray me.' She stared at the Glove.'These people all think you're Sapphique.Tell them it's not true.''I am Sapphique.' The noise that greeted his words was tremendous but he didn't take his eyes off her.'He's what they want, Claudia.And Incarceron and I will give them their safety.' The dragon fingers curled round hers.'I feel so strange, Claudia.It's as if you are all inside me, as if I've shed my skin and underneath is a new being, and I can see so much and I hear so many sounds and touch so many minds.I am dreaming the dreams of the Prison, and they are so sad.''But can you come back? Do you have to stay here for ever?' Her dismay sounded weak, but she didn't care, not even if her selfishness stood in the way of all Incarceron's Prisoners.'I can't do without you, Jared.I need you.'He shook his head.'You will be Queen, and queens don't have tutors.' He reached out and put his arms round her and kissed her forehead.'But I'm not going anywhere.You'll carry me on your watchchain.' He looked beyond her, at the Warden.'And from now on there will be freedom for us all.'The Warden's smile was narrow.'So, my old friend, you have found yourself a body after all' Despite all your efforts, John Arlex.'But you haven't Escaped.'Jared shrugged, an odd, slightly alien movement.'Ah but I have.I've Escaped myself but I won't be leaving.That is the paradox that is Sapphique.'He made a small movement with his hand, and all the people gasped.Behind them, all around them, the walls lit and they saw the grey room of the Portal, its door crowded with watchers, and Finn and Keiro jerking back in surprise.Jared turned.'Now we're all together.Inside and Outside.''Do you mean the Prisoners can Escape?' Keiro snapped and Claudia realized they had heard everything.Jared smiled.'Escape to what? To the ruin of the Realm? We will make this their paradise, Keiro, just as it was supposed to be, just as the Sapienti always planned it.No one will need to Escape; I promise you that.But the door will be open, for those who wish to come and go.'Claudia stepped back from him.She knew him so well, and yet he was different.As if his personality and another had intersected, two different voices fragmenting into one, like the black and white tiles on the floor of the hail, forming a new pattern, and that pattern was Sapphique.She glanced around, saw Rix transfixed, edging closer, Attia still and pale, staring up at Finn.People murmured, echoing his words, passing them from one to another.She heard the promise reverberate through the Prison's landscapes.But she felt desolate and sick, because once she had been the Warden's daughter, and now she would be the Queen, and without Jared it would be another role to play, another part of the game.Jared edged past her and walked down to meet the crowd.They held out their hands and touched him, grasped the dragonglove, fell at his feet.One, a woman, sobbed, and he touched her gently, his hands round hers.'Don't worry;' the Warden said softly in Claudia's ear.'I can't help it.He's not strong.' 'Oh I think he is stronger than all of us.''The Prison will corrupt him.' Attia said it, and Claudia turned on her angrily.'No!''It will.Incarceron is cruel, and your tutor is too gentle to control it.It will all go wrong just like it did before' Attia was cold; she knew her words hurt but she still said them, and a bitter misery made her add, 'And you and Finn won't have much a kingdom either, by the looks of things.'She looked up at Finn and he gazed back.'Come Out' he said.'Both of you.'Behind her Rix said, 'Shall I open you a magic door, Attia? And will I get my Apprentice back?''No chance.' Keiro flickered a blue glance at Finn.'The pay's better out here.'At the edge of the steps, Jared turned.'Well, Rix,' he said.'Shall we see more of the Art Magicke? Make us a door, Rix.'The sorcerer laughed.He took a small piece of chalk from his pocket and held it up, and the crowd stared.Then he bent over and drew with it on the marble floor where the statue had once stood.Carefully he drew the door of a dungeon, ancient and wooden, with a barred grille and a great keyhole and chains looped across it.On it he wrote SAPPHIQUE.'They all think you're Sapphique' he said to Jared, straightening.'But of course you're not.I won't tell them, you can trust me He came close to Attia and winked at her.'It's all an illusion.There's a patchbook like it.A man steals fire from the gods and saves the people with its warmth.They punish him by binding him with a great chain for ever.But he struggles and squirms, and at the world's end he will come back.In a ship made of fingernails.' Then he smiled at her sadly.'I'll miss you, Attia.'Jared reached out and touched the chalked door with the tip of a dragonclaw.Instantly it became real, and opened, the door falling inwards with a great clang, leaving a rectangular darkness in the floor.Finn stepped back, bewildered.At his feet too the floor had swung down.The pit was black and empty.Jared led Claudia gently to its edge.'Go on, Claudia.You'll be there, and I here.We'll work together, just as we always haveShe nodded, and looked at her father.The Warden said, 'Master Jared, may I have a word with my daughter?' Jared bowed and moved away.'Do as he says,' the Warden said.'What about you?'Her father smiled his cold smile.'My plan was for you to be Queen, Claudia.That was what I worked for.Perhaps it is time I did some work here, in my own realm.This new regime will need a Warden.Jared is far too lenient, and Incarceron too harsh.'She nodded.Then she said, 'Tell me the truth.What happened to Prince Giles?'He was silent a while.He stroked his narrow beard with his thumb.'Claudia.''Tell me
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