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.’ Finn grasped the red curtain and it fell to shreds in his fingers.

‘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, Finn. This is the kingdom you’ve inherited.’

‘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.’ Finn rubbed his sore shoulder. ‘How else—

’

‘Sire.’ The guard captain burst in, breathless. ‘Sire! The Queen!’ Finn shoved him aside and raced up the corridor, Keiro close behind. Jared paused to slip the Glove in his robe and then followed, quickly. He climbed the great staircase as fast as he could, over rotten treads and mice-gnawed wainscots, gusted at by the wind whipping through the windows where plastiglas had vanished. He dared not think about his Tower — but at least all the scientific equipment there was genuine.

Or was it?

Stopping with one hand on the bannister, he realized that he had no way of knowing. That nothing he had taken for granted could now be trusted.

And yet this disintegration didn’t devastate him, as it had Finn and his wayward brother. Perhaps it was because he had always felt his own illness to be a tiny flaw in the Realm’s perfection, a crack that could not be patched up or disguised.

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 pennants, the flimsy pavilions were wrecked, their poles snapped. Horses neighed in confusion, men’s armour rusted and fell from their bodies in the turmoil, their muskets suddenly useless antiques, their swords so brittle that they snapped in the hand.

‘The cannon.’ Fin’s voice was hard with joy. ‘They’ll never dare fire the cannon now, in case they explode. They can’t touch us.’ Keiro glanced at him. ‘Brother, this ruin doesn’t need cannon. A good shove would knock it down.’ A trumpet rang out. From the Queen’s pavilion a woman came out. She was veiled, and she leant on the arm of a boy in a gaudy coat who could only be the Pretender. Together they walked through the camp, almost unnoticed in the panic.

‘Is she surrendering?’ Finn muttered.

Keiro turned to a guard. ‘Get Caspar up here.’ The soldier hesitated, glancing at Finn who said, ‘Do as my brother says.’ The man ran. Keiro grinned.

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. ‘Finn1 The Queen wants to speak with you!’ There was no ceremony, no Protocol, no heralds, no courtiers. Just a woman and a boy, looking lost. Finn drew back. ‘Lower the drawbridge. Take them to the Great Chamber.’ Jared was staring down. ’It seems it’s not just me then,’ he murmured.

‘Master?’ Finn looked at him. The Sapient was gazing down at the veiled Queen with a great sadness in his eyes.

‘Best leave this to me, Finn,’ he said softly.

‘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 Finn safe?’ Claudia glanced at her thin face and short, hacked hair.

‘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 Finn had barely mentioned Attia’s name.

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 beginning of another. Is Master Jared in there?’

‘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, Finn thought. They would all need those skills now He turned. ‘Madam?’ Sia stood just inside the door. She had not spoken since crossing the drawbridge, and her silence scared him.