What had the Oracle said? You must visit someone youve no wish to visit and go somewhere youve no wish to go.
To go to the Citadel, he would have to pass through Black Bastion, Helgiras fortress.
My visions are usually not so disjointed. At this point I am not sure whether this is one vision or three separate ones. I will record them as one for now and hope for clarification later.
He turned the page. There was no more text. He turned another page and froze. At the bottom right corner of this page, there was a small skull mark.
He had left the mark, on the page that bore the vision of his death.
Were these two visions but part of the same larger vision? By going to the Citadel this night, was he going to his end?
Think no more on the exact hour of your death, prince. That moment must come to all mortals. When you will have done what you need to do, you will have lived long enough.
He set his hand on the Crucible, bowed his head, and began the password.
CHAPTER 
23
She made sure she always stood or walked where it was darkest, kept a wary eye for the presence of Atlanteans, and an even warier one for the possibility of Master Haywood and Mrs. Oakbluff being led about like a pair of bloodhounds.
But no one arrested her. She made it back to Mrs. Dawlishs house and headed directly for the princes room.
He was not there. She spent a petrified moment thinking hed been taken after all, until she noticed his uniform jacket on the back of a chairand the still warm kettle next to the grate.
So hed come back, taken off his jacket, boiled water for tea, and thenshe felt the kettle againbetween a quarter to a half hour ago, gone somewhere else.
But where? He could not vault anywhere. Atlantis monitored the periphery of the no-vaulting zone. And Lady Wintervale had blocked the wardrobe portal on her end.
Birminghams voice rang out in the hall, reminding the boys that it was time to prepare for bed. Soon Mrs. Hancock would come around to knock on all the boys doors, making sure they were in their rooms at lights-out.
She checked the common room; he was not there. The baths were already locked. Only the lavatory was left.
Wait, she told herself. But half a minute felt like a decade. She swore and made for the lavatory, a facility she used only when it was entirely or mostly unoccupied. It was now shortly before lights-out: the place was not going to be empty.
She took three deep breaths before going inside, and still she almost ran out screaming. The trough was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with boys emptying their bladdersthe last thing she wanted to witness, even if it was from the back.
You want my place, Fairfax? asked Cooper as he stepped back from the trough, refastening his trousers.
No, thank you! Im looking for Sutherland. He has my classical geography book.
She knocked on the stalls. You in there, Sutherland?
Good Lord, cant a man visit a privy in peace anymore? came Birminghams grumpy reply from the last stall.
All the boys laughed. Iolanthe contributed her own nervous guffaws and escaped with unholy haste.
On a different night she might not have worried so muchif the prince didnt have some secret plans brewing, he wouldnt be Titus VII. But this day theyd faced their nemesis and escaped by the skin of their teeth. He must be dying to find out how shed pulled off the deed. Not to mention they desperately needed to come up with a coherent strategy, together, to counter the Inquisitors next move.
She returned to the princes room. There was one place she hadnt checked, the teaching cantos. The Crucible was on his desk; she placed her hand over it. Once she was in the pink marble palace, she ran to his classroom.
A note on his door said, F, I will be gone for a short while. No need to worry about me. And no need to worry about lights-out. T.
Instead of reassuring her, his vagueness about his destination and purpose made her even more uneasy.
She opened the doorand paused on the threshold. Inside the classroom, illuminated by a dozen torches, woody vines rose wrist-thick from openings on the floor, intertwined in knots and arabesques on the walls, and spread open upon the ceiling. Clusters of small golden flowers hung from this canopy. A bank of French windows opened to a large balcony and a dark, starry sky.
There were no tables or chairs upon the carpet of living grass, but two elegant bench swings set at oblique angles to each other. The prince sat on one of those
swings, in his Eton uniform, his arms stretched out along the back of the bench.
Tell me what I like to read in my leisure time, he said.
Who gives a damn! Where are you?
As if he hadnt heard her at all, he repeated his demand.
With a pinch in her heart she remembered it wasnt really him, only a record and a likeness . Ladies magazines, English.
Where did you last kiss me?
The memory still burned. Inside Sleeping Beautys castle.
He nodded. What can I do for you, my love?
Hed never before called her that. Her chest constricted. Was he saving all such endearment for after his death? Tell me where youve gone.