CHAPTER NINETEEN

Half an hour later Jane was locked in a neat little room that doubled as a prison cell, in a tower that rose above the Wyld Fell palace. The bird with the bat face had informed the Governor that Elion was back in Paris. The bird informed the Governor that the girl who sat beside him was a companion of Elion. The bird informed the Governor that it had already flown to the city of Coronet to report all of the above information to Emperor August.

The bird flew away and the Governor asked Jane: ‘Where is Elion?’

When Jane didn’t answer the question (asked over and over) she was arrested and escorted by five Empire soldiers through a maze of hallways and ladders and staircases and inclined pathways until she emerged at the tippy top of the palace into the little room that was was the palace prison.

With the door shut and locked, Jane stood in the middle of the room and turned slowly. This little room did not feel like what Jane imagined a prison should feel like. Jane didn’t know that in the world of Paris royal prisoners were held in luxury until their trial.

Yellow flamed candles revealed a neat little room, with a desk, a set of draws, and a bed constructed of notched branches. A white blanket was spread across the bed, and a white cushion lay at the end. On the desk was a bowl filled with fruit: purple apples and yellow grapes and crimson bananas. The rug that covered the floor was woven with pictures of crops: corn and pumpkin and peas and beans. On the wall was a painting of a King and Queen, both thrips, strolling in a garden. The King wore a green robe that trailed in the grass; the Queen wore a similar robe, only hers was trimmed in silver while the King’s robe was trimmed in gold. The Queen had her hand out, palm flat, and hovering just above her hand, as though it was about to land, was a fat bee.

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Jane went to the door to inspect it for weakness. It was, however, built from thick planks and when she put her shoulder against the door she quickly realised that this door could not be broken or forced open.

Across from the door a small window could be just large enough to squeeze through if it wasn’t for a series of vertical wooden bars that were held fast by thick lower and upper beams. Because the bars were wooden Jane could cut through them if she found some kind of saw, and she was about to start a (what she knew would be fruitless) search, except she realised that even if she did cut through the bars and clamber through the window there would be a thousand foot drop to the floor of the woods. A brief plummet then death.

The only way to escape this little prison would be to fight her way out, starting with the first person or creature that came through the door.

She sat on the bed, then lay down. She put her head on the pillow which was deliciously soft. She shut her eyes.

She thought of Tom, or Elion, and wondered what he was up to now? Was he also in a prison, waiting to be transferred onto a ship? Would he be able to escape and get himself into the machine? Would he find the Wyld Book of Secrets?

Every part of Jane ached, particularly her ankle, but even with the pain she somehow went to sleep.

For one hour, she slept.