Attia snatched a firelock from the nearest girl. ‘Get your people! Get them down!’ But the Cygni were already moving, she could see them unravelling ladders that flipped out far below, the rungs lashing to and fro.

‘Come with us,’ Rho said.

‘I can’t leave him.’

‘You have to!’ Firelocks were slashing; looking down she saw that Keiro had hauled himself up and was kicking savagely at one of the Beetles that had reached him. It fell with a sudden high whine.

Two of the things came out of the ivy at her feet; she leapt back, staring, and saw the metal under them begin to smoke and corrode rapidly, its surface dulling to black. Then it crumbled to dust.

Rho fired at them, and jumped the gap. ‘Attia! Come on!’ She could have gone. But if she did she would never see Finn again. Never see the stars.

She said, ‘Goodbye, Rho. Thank the others for me.’ Smoke rose between them, blurring the world. Rho said, ‘I see both dark and gold for you, Attia. I see Sapphique opening the secret door to you.’ She stepped luck. ‘Good luck.’ Attia wanted to say more but the words seemed to choke in her throat. Instead she raised the weapon and fired a vicious sweep at the Beetles swarming towards her. They burst into blue and purple flame, a sizzling explosion of circuits.

‘That’s what I like to see!’ Keiro had climbed up the ivy, now he was hauling himself over the side of the viaduct, the Glove tucked in his belt. He grabbed for the weapon.

Attia jerked back. ‘Not this time.’

‘What are you going to do? Kill me?’

‘I don’t need to. They’ll do it for me.’ He watched the relentless glistening insects devour the viaduct, and his face was bright and hard. Already the bridge was severed; chunks of it fell away into the unguessable distances below. The gap to Rho’s empty ladders was too far to jump now.

He turned.

Mesh shuddered; a vibration sent a great crack splitting through girders. With a sound like gunshot, bolts and rivets snapped.

‘No way out.’

‘Only down.’ Attia glanced over. ‘Do you think ... If we climbed. . .?‘

‘It would collapse before we were halfway.’ He bit his lip, then yelled out at the sky. ‘Prison! Do you hear me?’ If it did it did not answer. Under Attia’s feet the metal began to separate.

‘Do you see this?’ Keiro pulled out the dragonglove.

‘If you want it, you have to save it. You have to catch it. And us!’ The road broke open. Attia slid, bracing her feet wide.

Frost fell in showers from girders; a great creaking, straining howl rang through the structure. Metal struts sprang out.

Keiro grabbed her by the arm. ‘Time to take a chance,’ he hissed in her ear.

And before she could yell in terror he had leapt with her off the bridge.

Claudia pondered the selection of masks. One was a columbine’s upper face with glittering blue sapphires, topped with a blue feather. Another was white silk, a cat with elegant slanting eyes and whiskers of silver wire. Fur trimmed its edge. She picked a red devil from the bed, but it had to be held on a stick, so that was no use. Tonight, she needed to be as secret as she could.

The cat, then.

Sitting cross-legged on the bolster she said to Alys, ‘You’ve packed what I need?’ Her nurse, folding clothes, frowned. ‘Claudia, are you ire this is wise?’

‘Wise or not, we’re going.’

‘But if the Council find that Finn is the Prince …’ She looked up. ‘They won’t. You know that.’ Far below, in the halls and chambers of the palace, musicians were tuning up. Faint scrapes and screeches and ripples of notes rang through the corridors.

Alys sighed. ‘Poor dear Finn. I’ve grown fond of him, Claudia. Even though he’s as moody as you can be.’

‘I’m not moody, I’m practical. Finn’s still trapped in his past.’

‘He misses this boy Keiro. He told me one day all about their adventures. The Prison sounded such a terrible place, and yet ... well, he seemed almost sad, looking back. Wistful.

As if he was...’

‘Happier there?’

‘No. No I wouldn’t say that. As if his life was more real there.’ Claudia snorted. ‘He probably told you a pack of lies. His stories are never the same twice. Jared says he learnt that in order to survive.’ The mention of Jared silenced them both. Finally Alys said cautiously, ‘Have you heard from Master Jared?’

‘He’s probably far too busy to answer my letter.’ It sounded defensive, even to her.

Alys did the straps up on the leather bag and pushed a stray hair back. ‘I hope he’s taking care of himself. I’m sure that Academy is a draughty great barn of a place.’

‘You fuss over him,’ Claudia snapped.

‘Of course I do.We all should.’ Claudia stood. She didn’t want the worry of this now, didn’t want to have to face Jared’s loss. And the words Medlicote had spoken burnt in her. Jared could never be bought. She would never believe that. ‘We’ll leave the ball at midnight. Make sure Simon is waiting with the horses. Behind the folly near the stream, out beyond the High Meadow’

‘I know. And if he’s seen?’

‘He’s just exercising them.’

‘At midnight! Claudia...’ She scowled. ‘Well, if he has to he’ll just have to hide in the Forest.’ Seeing Alys’s alarm she raised a hand. ‘And that’s the end of it!’ Wearing the cat mask would mean the white silk dress, which was annoyingly cumbersome, but under it she would wear dark breeches and if she was hot, she’d have to put up with it. Boots and jacket were in the pack. As Alys fussed about the fastenings of the dress Claudia thought about her father. His mask would have been very simple, of black velvet, and he would have worn it with a faint air of scorn in his grey eyes. He never danced, but he would have stood elegantly at the fireplace and talked, and bowed, and watched her in the minuet and the gavotte. She scowled.

Was she missing him? That would be ridiculous.

But there was something that was pulling him into her mind, and as Alys hitched the last lace tight Claudia realized that it was his portrait, there on the wall, looking at her.

His portrait?

‘There.’ Alys stepped back, hot. ‘That’s the best I can do.

Oh you do look well, Claudia. White suits you...’ There was a tap on the door.

‘Come in she said, and Finn came in, and they both stared.

For a moment she wasn’t even sure it was him. His clothes were black velvet, slashed with silver, and his mask was black, and his hair was caught back in a dark ribbon. But for a moment it could have been the Pretender, until he spoke.

‘I look ridiculous.’

‘You look fine.’ He propped himself on a chair. ‘Keiro would love this place. He would be so flamboyant here, so popular. He always said he’d make a great prince:

‘He’d have us at war within a year.’ Claudia glanced at her nurse. ‘Leave us now please, Alys.’ Alys went to the door. ‘Good luck, both of you,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll see you at the Wardenry’ When she was gone they listened to the tuning fiddles.

Finally Finn said, ‘Is she going now?’

‘Leaving at once, with the carriage. A decoy.’

‘Claudia . . .‘

‘Wait.’ Surprised, he saw she had crossed to a small portrait on the wall, of a man in a dark doublet.

‘Isn’t that your father?’

‘Yes. And it wasn’t here yesterday.’ Finn stood up and crossed to stand behind her. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Certain.’ The Warden gazed out at them. His eyes had that cold calm certainty that Finn remembered, the slightly scornful air that Claudia often had.

‘You’re like him,’ he said.

‘How can I be like him!’ Her venom startled him. ‘He’s not really my father, remember.’

‘I didn’t mean like that. . .‘ But it was best not to say any more about it, he thought. ‘How did it get here?’

‘I don’t know.’ She reached up and took the painting down.

It looked like oil on canvas, and the frame seemed worm-eaten, but when she turned it over they saw it was plastiglas, and the painting a clever reproduction.