Arthur blinked, not least because there were several other Piper’s children clad in similar strange combinations standing behind Suzy.
‘Suzy’s Raiders,’ Suzy said, seeing him look. ‘Irregulars. Marshal Dusk signed off on it. Told ’im it was your idea.’
‘My idea,’ Arthur started to say, but he bit off his words as he saw Suzy wiggling her eyebrows at him.
‘On account of the Piper’s children bein’ under a cloud, so to speak,’ added Suzy. ‘Better to ’ave us all in one lot. Easier to watch, that way. If Old Prim – I mean, if Dame Primus wants to knock us off.’
‘It’s not a personal matter, Miss Blue,’ said Dame Primus with a sniff. ‘I am merely doing whatever is necessary to ensure Lord Arthur’s eventual triumph. You yourself have fallen under the spell of the Piper’s music once. Ensuring that it doesn’t happen again is simply common sense.’
‘You don’t have to kill us,’ said Suzy, bristling. She rummaged in her pockets and produced two ugly grey stumps of candle wax. ‘We can just stick this ’ere wax in our ears and we won’t be able to hear the pipe! Besides, it’s General Turquoise Blue now!’
Dame Primus snorted and was about to speak when Arthur held up his hand.
‘I’ve already given orders that no Piper’s children are to be harmed,’ he said. ‘Neither are the Raised Rats, provided they do not act against us. Now, I am going to see the Rats. They owe me a question, and I owe them an answer, so I’m sure they will at least negotiate. Dame Primus, Marshals, everyone, please carry on as we have discussed. Doctor Scamandros, would you mind coming with me?’
‘Certainly, Lord Arthur, certainly,’ puffed Dr Scamandros. ‘Ah, do you intend to use the Fifth Key again?’
‘It’s the quickest way,’ said Arthur. ‘I can go straight to the Rattus Navis IV. I can probably see out of the reflection of the silver jug they had. What, Suzy?’
Suzy was tugging at his sleeve.
‘I’m coming too, right? To see the Rats and then sort out Saturday?’
‘You probably should stay and look after the Piper’s child—’
‘Stay! Just because you’ve got taller than’s sensible and your teeth all shined up doesn’t mean you can do without me! Who’s saved your bacon a mort of times?’
‘I perhaps should advise you, Lord Arthur, that I felt quite a level of resistance when we travelled here,’ said Scamandros. ‘Indeed, I was almost hurled back. It might be more prudent to take the elevator to Port Wednesday and send for the Raised Rats.’
‘There isn’t time,’ said Arthur. ‘But I think I will need you, so if you can bear it—’
‘I will attend you,’ said Scamandros. ‘I will hold on more tightly this time, though you now lack coattails. If I may take your arm?’
‘What about me?’ Suzy demanded.
‘Yes, you can come too,’ Arthur told her. ‘At least to talk to the Rats.’
Arthur offered one arm to Dr Scamandros and the other to Suzy, though this made it difficult to hold up the Fifth Key. He was about to gaze into it when he hesitated and looked across at Dame Primus. She had gone back to the map table and was studying it, giving no sign that she was about to split in two and do as he asked.
Arthur had also remembered something else.
‘Dame Primus!’ he called out. ‘Before you do split into two, I would like The Compleat Atlas of the House back again. I expect it will also be very useful.’
Dame Primus kept looking at the table and did not turn her head to speak.
‘The Atlas has a mind of its own,’ she said. ‘I believe it was last seen in the Middle House, probably getting a new binding put on without visible assistance. I expect it will return here in due course, or it will find you wherever you are. I suggest that you check any bookshelves you happen to be near.’
‘Oh,’ said Arthur, and then it struck him.
She’s lying to me, he thought. Or avoiding the truth. I wonder why she doesn’t want me to have the Atlas? It could be very useful. But she can’t look me in the eye and lie –
Marshal Dawn erupted from her desk and rushed across the room, brandishing a message slip and calling, ‘Dame Primus! There is a small geyser of Nothing reported near Letterer’s Lark!’
Dame Primus took the slip.
‘You see, Arthur! Well, if you will not go, then I must do as you ask. Marshal Dawn, prepare an escort and the private elevator!’
Dawn saluted and rushed away. There was a hush in the room as everyone watched Dame Primus, a hush that immediately dissipated as she looked about her, a deep frown on her face. Frenetic activity resumed everywhere, apart from a quiet space around Dame Primus and another around Arthur, Suzy and Scamandros.
‘Reckon this’ll be worth seeing,’ muttered Suzy. ‘Think she’ll split in half and wriggle like a worm?’
Arthur shook his head. That would be too undignified for Dame Primus.
As they watched, she took a step forward, and as she did so, she blurred and diminished, as if she’d walked into a hole in the ground. Then a smaller version of herself walked ahead, leaving a second smaller version behind, so that there were two seven-foot-tall Dame Primuses standing in a line, instead of one eight-foot-plus version. They looked identical and were dressed exactly the same, but one had the clock-sword of the First Key and the trident of the Third Key, and the other had the gauntlets of the Second Key and the baton of the Fourth.
The two embodiments of the Will turned to each other and curtsied.
‘Dame Quarto,’ said the one who had the sword and the gauntlets.
‘Dame Septum,’ said the one who had the trident and the baton.
‘Hmmph,’ whispered Scamandros. ‘Self-aggrandisement. They’ve added one and three, and two and five. Trying to make the sum of the whole greater, I suppose.’
Quarto and Septum turned and curtsied to Arthur.
‘Lord Arthur,’ they chorused.
‘Hello,’ said Arthur. ‘Thank you for splitting. I guess we’d all better get on with it.’
‘Indeed,’ said Dame Quarto.
‘We had,’ added Dame Septum. She raised her hand and dramatically announced, ‘I shall attend to the Middle House!’
‘And I to the mountains!’ declared Dame Quarto, and both strode from the room.
‘And I to . . . sorting out Superior Saturday,’ said Arthur. Somehow it didn’t sound the same. He raised the mirror and concentrated on looking through it and out of the reflection in the silver jug in the stern cabin of the Rattus Navis IV. He would soon find himself wherever the ship might be upon the strange waters of the Border Sea.
SEVEN
IT WAS MUCH harder going through the doorway with two people hanging on, and for a fearful moment Arthur thought all three of them would be thrown back, and not to the safety of the Citadel, but somewhere else not of his choosing. The ground swayed unsteadily beneath his feet, the light dazzled his eyes, and Suzy and Scamandros felt like enormous lead weights dragging his arms back and down. But he kept pushing forward, his total concentration on reaching his goal. He could half-see the table and chairs in the big cabin on the Rattus Navis IV. Even though it looked just a step away, it was almost impossible to reach.
Then, with a Herculean effort that left Arthur sweating and gasping, they fell out onto the tilted-over floor of the ship and slid across the floorboards into the starboard hull. Then, as the ship rolled back the other way and pitched forward, they slid diagonally across to the port side, smacked into the table, and sent the silver jug clanging onto the deck.
As they got up and grabbed hold of whatever they could to stay upright, the door burst open and a Newnith soldier gaped in the doorway.
‘Boarders!’ he shouted as he drew a sparking dagger from the sheath at his belt. ‘The enemy!’
Scamandros reached into his sleeve and came out with a tiny cocktail fork with a pickled onion on it, which he didn’t expect and hurriedly replaced.
Suzy drew her savage-sword at the same time, but the Newnith was quicker and had his sea legs. He rushed at Arthur, who instinctively raised his arm to protect himself, even though an arm would be no real protection from a long dagger that was spewing out white-hot sparks.
But it was his right arm, and in his right hand Arthur held the Fifth Key. Before the Newnith could fully complete his downward cut at the boy, there was a brilliant flash of light, a sudden, strange chemical stench, a stifled scream, and then just a pair of smoking boots on the deck where the Newnith had been.
Arthur felt a surge of annoyance.
How dare these pathetic creatures attack me? he thought. How dare they! I shall walk among them and wreak havoc . . .
Arthur shook his head and took a breath, forcing this arrogant temper tantrum back to wherever it had come from. He was frightened by it, frightened that he could get so angry, and that his immediate response was to attack.
As the rage lessened, he became aware that his arm hurt quite a lot.
‘Ouch!’ he exclaimed. The point of the Newnith’s dagger had made contact with him after all. He rolled his arm over to get a better look, and saw that it had done more than just scratch the skin. There was a six-inch-long incision in his forearm, and it looked cut to the bone. Yet even as he looked, the cut closed up, leaving only a very faint white scar. Arthur wiped off what little blood there was with his left hand, and tried not to notice that it was neither red like a normal human’s nor blue like a Denizen’s. It was golden, like a deep, rich honey, and that was almost more painful to him than the cut itself. Whatever he was becoming was very strange indeed.
‘There’s nothing left of ’im,’ said Suzy with satisfaction, turning over the vapourised Newnith’s smoking boots with the point of her sword.
‘I didn’t mean to do it,’ said Arthur sadly. ‘It was the Key.’
‘We’d best get ready.’ Suzy tugged on the table, to drag it to the door, but it was bolted to the deck and she only succeeded in staggering into Scamandros when she lost her grip. Still unsteady, both of them went backwards into one of the well-upholstered chairs. Suzy was up again in a moment, while Scamandros struggled like a beetle thrown upon its back.
‘Won’t just be one Newnith on board,’ Suzy warned. ‘They’ll be charging in any moment.’
‘They might not have heard,’ said Arthur. It was noisy, the constant rhythmic thud of the ship’s steam engine mixed with the groan and creak of the rigging above, as well as the regular crash and jolt as the ship plunged through what had to be fairly sizable waves.
‘They heard orright,’ said Suzy. She spat on her hands and gripped her sword more tightly. ‘I expect your Key can burn up a passel of ’em, though.’
‘I don’t want to burn them up,’ Arthur protested. ‘I just want to talk to the Raised Rats!’
‘We are very glad to hear that,’ said a voice from under the table.
Suzy swore and ducked down to have a look.
‘A trapdoor,’ she exclaimed in admiration. ‘Sneaky!’
A four-foot-tall rat clad in white breeches and a blue coat with a single gold epaulette on his left shoulder clambered out from under the table and saluted Arthur, his long mouth open in a smile that revealed two shiny gold-capped front teeth. He had a cutlass at his side, but it was sheathed. A Napoleonic hat perched at a jaunty angle on his head.
‘Lord Arthur, I presume? I am Lieutenant Goldbite, recently appointed to command this vessel following Captain Longtayle’s promotion and transfer. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting you before, but I am acquainted with your past dealings with us. Perhaps you and your companions would like to sit?’
He gestured at the armchairs.
‘Do we have a truce?’ asked Arthur, still standing. ‘And do you speak for all aboard?’
‘I am the captain,’ said Goldbite. ‘I say truce for all of us, Newniths and Raised Rats.’
‘The Piper’s not ’ere, is he?’ asked Suzy. She hadn’t sat down either, though Scamandros had settled back down only moments after finally managing to get up.
‘The Piper is not aboard this ship,’ said Goldbite. ‘And though we owe him a considerable debt and so will carry his troops and so forth, the Raised Rats have chosen to be noncombatants in the Piper’s wars, and should not be considered in the same light as the Newniths. Speaking of them, if you wouldn’t mind sitting down, I shall just pop out and stand down both my own folk and the Newniths.’
‘I’m sorry about the one . . . the one I killed,’ said Arthur. He was very aware that the Newniths, though they felt obliged to serve the Piper, actually just wanted to be farmers. Arthur felt they were much more like humans than Denizens. ‘He attacked me, and the Key . . .’
Goldbite nodded. ‘I will tell them. He was not the first, nor will he be the last. But I trust there will be no more fighting between us on the Rattus Navis IV. Please do help yourself to biscuits from that tin there, and there is more cranberry juice in the keg.’
‘Might as well,’ said Arthur as the Raised Rat left via the door. He picked up the silver jug and refilled it from the keg, while Suzy got out the biscuits, tapping them on the table to make the weevils fall out. She offered them around, but Arthur and Scamandros passed, the latter taking a slightly crushed ham and watercress sandwich on a red chequered china plate out of one of his inner pockets.
‘I’m curious to know why there are Newniths on board,’ said Arthur quietly. ‘I hope the Piper isn’t going to attack us here in the Border Sea.’