Still Arthur hesitated. He saw Noon streak up like a rocket, then turn and plunge to meet Dusk’s ascent. Fire and night met with a terrible shriek as the two tumbled down, trading lightning-fast blows and parries as they fell.
The Will shouted, ‘Get in the –’
Noon and Dusk struck the ground like a shooting star, right in the middle of the melee. The force of the impact rocked the entire veranda. Arthur and Suzy were hurled into each other, and it knocked down most of the Commissionaires and the Midnight Visitors – and all of the remaining tea chests.
As Arthur struggled to his feet, he saw Noon burst out of the debris, rage distorting his handsome face. He turned towards Arthur and leaped forward, only to fall as Dusk grabbed his ankle. Then both were on their feet and fighting again.
‘Slay the girl!’ screamed Noon to his minions as they began to clamber out of the splintered piles of wood and burning wreckage. ‘Close the weirdway!’
Four Commissionaire Sergeants smashed their way through the thin line of Midnight Visitors and rushed towards Arthur and Suzy.
This time, Arthur didn’t wait. He turned and plunged into the dark doorway, once again dragging Suzy by the hand.
The red glow of fire streamed in behind Arthur, followed by the rattling boom of a Visitor’s whip. Then the doorway snapped shut, and everything was suddenly quiet and dark save for the glow of the Key in Arthur’s hand, which revealed the sides and roof of an upwards-sloping tunnel that was not made of lava. Arthur let go of Suzy and led the way at a swift walk, though he didn’t like the feel of the ground underfoot. It rippled and moved, like walking on a trampoline, and the walls of the tunnel were soft as well.
Suzy saw him slide his finger along the wall for the third time and whispered, ‘Weirdways are all like this. This is a big one, though. Often you have to crawl. And if they close down, you get squelched, cause they’re made with Nothing. Or through Nothing.’
‘Weirdways exploit the interstices of Nothing in the structure of the House,’ said the Will. ‘There is little danger provided a weirdway is well made. Now, Arthur. When we come out you must get as close to Mister Monday as possible and then, holding your own Key, recite this incantation: ‘Minute by minute, hour by hour, two hands as one, together the power.’ Quite simple, really. The Hour Hand will fly to you. You must catch it and then immediately prick your right thumb with the Hour Hand and prick your left thumb with the Minute Hand and smear a drop of blood from your left hand on the Hour Hand and from your right thumb on the Minute Hand. Then hold both Keys together and recite another very simple incantation: “I, Arthur, anointed Heir to the Kingdom, claim this Key and with it the Mastery of the Lower House. I claim it by blood and bone and contest, out of truth, in testament, and against all trouble.” Got that?’
‘No,’ said Arthur, shaking his head. ‘Which thumb for which hand? And what if Mister Monday is holding on to the Hour Hand?’
‘Oh, he won’t be,’ said the Will breezily. ‘He’ll be asleep, or in a steam bath. The Dayroom is full of steaming pools. Let me go over what you need to do –’ ‘Hang on!’ said Arthur. ‘What if Mister Monday isn’t asleep or in a steam bath? What do I do?’
‘We shall improvise,’ said the Will. ‘I shall instruct you as required.’
Silence greeted this remark. Even the Will seemed to recognise ‘we shall improvise’ wasn’t a big help to Arthur.
‘I reckon you can take on Mister Monday,’ said Suzy, punching Arthur on the arm quite hard, obviously in an effort to bolster his confidence. ‘He’ll probably be flat out snoring anyway.’
‘There’s no choice,’ said Arthur. He was thinking once more of the plague. Of the cure. Of his parents. ‘I have to go through with it.’
I will improvise, he thought grimly. I will do whatever it takes. I will keep on fighting and thinking and trying, no matter what.
‘Excellent!’ said the Will and it went over what it had said before. Arthur repeated the instructions. After four repetitions, he was reasonably sure that he could remember what to do. But he couldn’t help thinking about everything that might go wrong. Starting with Mister Monday ready and waiting at the other end of the weirdway. Surely Noon would have warned him? Or had Dusk stopped him in time?
‘Are you ready?’ the Will asked. ‘The weirdway is narrowing. We are about to emerge into Monday’s Dayroom.’
‘Can we lose the hair first?’ asked Suzy.
‘If you must,’ sighed the Will. It waited as they all recited the spell and various heads of hair and beards fell to the floor. ‘Are you ready now?’
‘Yes,’ said Arthur, and Suzy nodded in agreement.
‘We’re ready.’
The weirdway was indeed getting much narrower.
Arthur had to duck his head and then get down on all fours and crawl the last few yards. He couldn’t see an exit as such, but there was a circular patch of darkness ahead that was not lit up by the Key’s glow. When Arthur touched it, his hand disappeared. It was similar to Monday’s Postern in the wall around the House, as manifested in Arthur’s world.
‘That is the door,’ said the Will. ‘Go through, but not too quickly. The ledge is narrow on the other side.’
Arthur crawled through carefully and stopped so suddenly that Suzy ran into his feet.
It was a very narrow ledge he’d come out on. It was not much wider than he was and only extended for about ten feet to either side. Worse than that, it was quite a long way up the crater wall. Arthur looked down and, through billowing clouds of steam, saw a bubbling lake, lit deep within by red and yellow plumes of molten magma. The whole crater was a steaming lake, and Arthur could see nowhere to go and no way to get down off this ledge unless they flew, and Suzy was the only one with wings.
Nevertheless, he knew that first appearances in the House could be misleading. So he crawled to the side and let Suzy emerge. They both huddled on the ledge, staring down into the turbulent waters, watching the great billows of steam that rose up as lava poured out deep below.
Above them, the golden net that prevented flying visitors gleamed, picking up and reflecting the light from the elevators that surrounded the volcano. For the first time, Arthur wondered where those elevators went to. He had always thought Monday’s Dayroom must be at the top of the House. But of course, this was only the Lower House, and there were the regions governed by the Morrow Days above. Or so he presumed.
Arthur shook his head. He shouldn’t be thinking about stuff like that. He had to concentrate on the immediate problem. It was hard to think because it was much, much hotter than it had been and he was sweating furiously under his heavy coat.
‘There’s something in the middle,’ said Suzy, who had continued to stare down. ‘Look, there!’
She pointed as the steam clouds momentarily parted. There, right in the middle of the bubbling lake, was an island and a sprawling building. A low, spread-out, L-shaped house complex with red-tiled roofs that looked kind of familiar to Arthur. He was sure he’d seen it before somewhere. In a book. A Roman villa.
‘Monday’s Dayroom,’ said the Will. ‘There is a fine bridge to it from the other side. But we will have to cross by the spiderwire. It may be a little difficult to see at first. Look by your left foot, Arthur.’
Arthur looked down. At first he couldn’t see a thing, then he caught the faintest shine of some gossamer thread. He reached down and touched it. It was a taut wire, about as thick as his finger, but almost completely translucent. Arthur plucked it and it emitted a soft harmonic note.
‘Uh, how do we use this?’
‘It will stick to the soles of your feet,’ said the Will. ‘You simply walk down it to Monday’s Dayroom.’
‘I think I’ll fly,’ said Suzy.
‘No, you –’ snapped the Will. ‘No. Close to the island, fliers attract targeted bursts of steam that will strip the flesh from your bones. The only way down is by spiderwire, and there is no time to procrastinate. Arthur, step on.’
‘What happens if I lose my balance?’ asked Arthur. ‘I mean, my soles might stick, but I’ll be hanging upside down.’
‘Then you will have to walk the whole way upside down,’ said the Will. ‘Hurry! It is easier than it sounds.’
‘What would you know? You’re a frog,’ muttered Suzy. ‘You haven’t even got soles.’
‘Shhh,’ said Arthur. He stood up, carefully stowed the Key in his sleeve pocket, and tied a handkerchief around the sleeve so it couldn’t fall out. Then he spread his arms out for balance, took a deep breath of the humid air, and slid one foot out along the spiderwire.
Twenty-three
IT WAS EASIER than it looked. Arthur slid one foot after the other along the spiderwire. It felt rock-solid under his feet, and he had no trouble with balance. At least he had no trouble with balance as long as he didn’t look down. As soon as he glanced towards his feet, he started to shake and quiver, and that became a general wavering that threatened to send him upside down. But if he looked up and ahead, it stopped again.
Suzy came next, moving quickly. She had no trouble at all and didn’t even need to extend her arms, because her wings spread out and easily kept her upright.
Soon she was right behind Arthur and he was all too conscious of his own slow progress.
‘Is this perhaps the time to mention that the spiderwire is impermanent?’ asked the Will after Arthur had slowly shuffled along another twenty yards.
‘No,’ said Arthur. He made himself go faster and tried not to look down. ‘What do you mean impermanent?’
‘It will disappear in a few minutes.’
Arthur started a peculiar running motion. It was very odd to not be able to pick up his feet. It also made balancing more difficult and, though Arthur was making faster progress, he also picked up a wobble that got worse and worse.
‘Faster,’ said the Will when they were halfway down the wire, moving through thick clouds of cooling steam. It wasn’t anywhere near as hot as Arthur had feared. It was just like the steam in the bathroom after a shower. ‘Much faster!’
Arthur tried to comply. The wobble got even worse and Arthur realised he was expending as much energy throwing himself from side to side to try to regain his balance as he was running along the wire.
‘Faster! The spiderwire unravels!’ called out the Will just as Arthur spotted the island up ahead. It was about two hundred yards away. The bubbling waters were only ten or twenty yards below, the steam was much hotter, and the red glow of deeply submerged lava brighter. Arthur was unpleasantly reminded of Suzy telling him the few ways it was possible to be killed in the House. Fire, if it’s hot enough. Superheated water probably fell into the same category.
Arthur stopped that train of thought and focused all his energy into a sprint, but it was very difficult to pick up speed. He simply couldn’t go any faster without lifting his feet.
Fifty yards . . . forty yards . . . thirty . . . twenty . . . ten . . . five . . .
‘We’re going to make it!’ shouted Arthur as his feet finally left the spiderwire and he threw himself onto the cool green grass of the lawn that surrounded Monday’s Roman villa.
But when he turned around, Arthur nearly had a heart attack. Suzy had not only fallen back, she was hanging upside down!
Arthur sprang up and ran to the spiderwire. But when he put his right foot on it and tried to slide along, he slid off and almost fell off the island into the water.
‘One-way wire,’ said the Will. ‘Leave her. We must get on.’
‘Stop!’ shouted Arthur. ‘What’s wrong with you anyway? She’s my friend!’
‘Even friends must be sacrificed for the goal –’ the Will began.
But Arthur wasn’t listening. He undid the handkerchief around his sleeve and pulled out the Key.
‘Hurry!’ he shouted to Suzy and then said to the Will, ‘How long before the spiderwire unravels?’
‘It is already withdrawing from the far anchor,’ said the Will. Arthur looked down and saw the little frog staring across the lake into the clouds of steam. ‘At the current rate of unravelling and the speed of Suzy Blue, she will fall into the water in ten seconds.’
Arthur touched the Key to the spiderwire and commanded it fiercely.
‘Stop! Do not unravel!’
The Key glowed a little brighter for a second, but Arthur couldn’t see any difference.
‘That was foolish,’ complained the Will. ‘Using the Key may alert Mister Monday –’
‘I said to stop!’ snapped Arthur. Then, contradicting himself, he added, ‘Did it work? Will it stay up?’
The Will didn’t answer for a second. Then it said mulishly, ‘It has slowed. The spiderwire was made with the Greater Key and is governed by the schedule laid upon it then. But it has slowed.’
Arthur stood back and waved frantically at Suzy, willing her on. She was flapping her wings furiously and was almost upright again.
‘Faster!’ he screamed. ‘Go faster!’
Suzy hurled herself forward, her wings beating up a storm. She got closer and closer and Arthur could see the tension and fear in her face. He found himself gripping the Key so tightly that it almost cut him again and left a livid line down his palm.
Closer, closer . . .
Twenty feet from the island, the wire snapped out from under Suzy’s feet. She screamed and flapped with all her might. At the same time, a huge bubble formed in the lake beneath her and Arthur remembered the other danger. Gouts of steam specifically designed to hit free-fliers.