“Open them up,” said Helve. “We don’t have to go back immediately. We might as well get our mail before the rush.”
The bags were opened, cascades of mail pouring out onto the tables. Then suddenly a letter left the cascade, flew through the air, and struck one of the recruits sharply on her helmet. She reached up and caught it, exclaiming in delight. “I got a letter!”
Ten seconds later, a brown-paper parcel ricocheted off Florimel’s armor and into her hands. It was followed by an envelope for Fred, and soon everyone except Arthur had something. Even Sergeant Helve had received a small pink envelope decorated with flowers.
“I won’t get anything,” said Arthur. He didn’t know why he knew that, but he did.
Even as he spoke, a large, buff-colored envelope smacked him in the face. Arthur reeled back onto a bench and found himself sitting down with the envelope in his hands.
It was addressed to Arthur Penhaligon, which confirmed the name he had remembered.
Arthur opened it. The letter was written on the inside of the envelope, so he had to crack the seams and smooth it out, which was quite difficult. It was very heavy paper. The letter was handwritten in pale silver ink.
Dear Arthur,
An agent of ours has your parents under its control. Unless you immediately relinquish the Keys to Us and give up all claims to being the
Rightful Heir, we will have our agent cleanse their minds of all knowledge of you. Our agent will also do this to your brothers and sisters and your friends. It will be as if you were never born. Your home will continue to physically exist, but you will have no place in it. As we believe that you desire to return to a merely mortal existence, you should consider this as an opportunity. Simply sign on the dotted below and everything will be taken care of.
Saturday, Most Superior Denizen of the Upper House
Arthur read the letter again, but he couldn’t make sense of it. He was a Piper’s child. Whatever parents or family he might have had were long dead, somewhere in the Secondary Realms. And as far as he knew, he had no desire to return to some kind of mortal existence.
“This is good,” said Fred, tapping his own letter. “From my old mates back in Gilding Workshop Seventeen. Bringing back lots of memories. Who’s your letter from, Ray?”
“I’m not sure,” said Arthur. “I think it’s a hoax. Only…I do feel as if it’s triggered some memory just out of reach. Something about keys…”
“Right, that’s enough loafing,” ordered Sergeant Helve. “There’s more cleaning to be done. And preparation for tomorrow’s lessons.”
Arthur stuffed his letter into his pouch and stood up. He was just in time as Helve suddenly snapped, “Stand
fast!” swiveled on the spot, and saluted an officer who Arthur had seen coming but had dismissed as one of the ghostly figures of another unit.
“Thank you, Sergeant,” said the officer. Close up, it was easy to see he was one of the lieutenants who had talked with Colonel Huwiti before the battle. His helmet plume was rather ragged now, and he’d been cut down the arm. Blue blood had dried in a line from shoulder to wrist, surrounded by scorch marks. On a mortal, it would have been an incapacitating injury. The lieutenant seemed little bothered by it, returning Helve’s salute with only a slight stiffness.
“I’m taking your two Piper’s children,” said the lieutenant. “Orders came in just before the battle. From the very top. All Piper’s children to report to GHQ immediately. Have they had their Not-Horse riding lessons yet?”
No, we haven’t,
thought Arthur with a sinking heart.
“
N
o!” Leaf cried out. “No message—but hey! Don’t hang up! Put me through to Suzy Turquoise Blue, please.”
“Please hold,” said the Operator.
A stab of pain hit Leaf behind the right eye as the Operator spoke, and her left hand wriggled without any conscious direction. It was horrible, as if the hand itself had become imbued with a life of its own. But Leaf knew what was happening.
The mold was established inside her brain and now it was checking its control. The Skinless Boy might already be able to see through Leaf’s eyes, hear through her ears, feel what she felt.
“Hello. Suzy here.”
“Suzy! It’s Leaf. I’ve got the pocket, but the mold…the Skinless Boy’s mental mold is in my head! And I can’t get back to the House!”
“Well done!” said Suzy. Her voice faded, and Leaf heard her say, “She has it, Sneezer. Set the dials!”
“I need help,” said Leaf. “I know you’re not supposed—”
Her left hand was flopping about like a stranded fish, but so far it was the only limb affected. The pain behind her eye was no worse…but it wasn’t getting any better either.
“Who cares about that!” exclaimed Suzy, talking away from the receiver and then into it again. “I’m coming through. Hurry, Sneezer!”
The phone abruptly hung up, the dial tone returning. Leaf dropped it back in the box, then used her right hand to restrain her flailing left arm before she hurt herself. Her arm didn’t fight against her, as Leaf had half-feared, but the strange sensation she’d first felt in that limb was starting to occur in her right leg as well.
“Come on, Suzy!” Leaf whispered. She had an idea of what to do to save herself, but first she had to get rid of the pocket. The mold was taking over so fast!
The door opened and Leaf choked on a gasp, because it wasn’t Suzy. It was a teenage girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Arthur’s sister. The youngest one. Michaeli.
“What are you doing here?” asked Michaeli. “Who are you?”
“Friend of Arthur’s!” said Leaf, but her mouth wasn’t working properly because her lips and tongue were
suddenly partially numb so it came out as, “Fiend up Arfloor.”
“What?” asked the girl. She had a cell phone in her hand, thumb poised over what was probably a speed-dial button for the police.
“Arthur!” burst out Leaf, speaking slower so she could be understood. “I’m a friend of Arthur’s!”
“What are you doing here?” repeated Michaeli. She hadn’t pressed the button. “And what’s wrong with you?”
“Arthur sent me,” said Leaf. “Got Grayspot.”
Michaeli recoiled in horror, backing out the door so fast she ended up against the corridor wall on the other side.
“Not contagious,” said Leaf, spoiling her words by losing control of her leg and falling on the floor, where she writhed around in a desperate struggle with her own body.
Michaeli screamed then, but it wasn’t because of Leaf’s contortions. Suzy Turquoise Blue had materialized in the corridor, and she was wearing pale yellow wings that were fully extended, tip feathers touching the ceiling and walls. She also had a Metal Commissionaire’s truncheon in her hand, an apparently wooden club that was covered in crawling blue sparks.
“What’s going on?!” screamed Michaeli. She had dropped her phone, Leaf was pleased to see.
“I’m a friend of Arthur’s,” said Suzy. She folded her
wings and bent over Leaf, gesturing with the truncheon in her hand. “Do I need to knock you out with this, Leaf?”
“Not yet,” chattered Leaf. Her jaw was moving of its own accord. But her right arm was still her own. She made contact with her jeans and tried to pull out the box with the sorcerous pocket, but her legs kept thrashing away. “Thanks…coming…so quick.”
“I’ve been watching through Seven Dials,” said Suzy. “Off and on, after the Army nobs knocked me back. Got to do something useful, even if old Primey objects.”
She suddenly transferred the truncheon to her belt and put her booted foot on Leaf’s thigh, stopping her spasms. Then she reached down and took the plastic box.
Leaf’s arms whipped around to try to snatch the box back as Suzy took the sorcerous pocket, confirming Leaf’s worst fears. The Skinless Boy could see what she saw. It would probably be only minutes before it had total control of her body.
“Take…to House,” she said. “Quickly.”
“What about you?” asked Suzy.
“Knock me out,” whispered Leaf. Her right hand was starting to crawl across the floor to Suzy’s foot. “Tell Sylvie in ambulance. Get…sedate…”
“The old lady in the conveyance with the light on top?” asked Suzy, but she was really only talking to distract Leaf
as she whipped out the truncheon and tapped her on the shoulder. There was a sharp crack, and a river of blue sparks ran up and down Leaf’s body, from toe to head. Every muscle in her body spasmed, and her eyes rolled back.
“You’ve killed her!” cried Michaeli from the doorway. She’d picked up a broom from somewhere and was brandishing it with a technique that suggested past lessons in kendo or perhaps a role in a stage musical of
Robin Hood
.
“No, I haven’t,” protested Suzy, keeping a wary eye on the broomstick. “You’re Arthur’s sister Michaeli, right?”
“Yes…”
“I’m Suzy Turquoise Blue. You might say I’m Arthur’s chief assistant.”
“His
what
? What is going on?”
“No time to explain,” said Suzy airily. “Could you nip down to the…what d’ye call it, ambulance, outside and tell the old lady that Leaf needs to be taken care of. I must hasten away.”
“But…”
Michaeli lowered the broom a little. Suzy took this as an invitation and gingerly edged past, her wings flapping a little. A few feathers brushed Michaeli’s face, making the other girl jump.
“Those wings…they are real!”
“I should hope so,” said Suzy. “Best you can get.
Hopefully the owner won’t miss ‘em before I get back. Which way is the Eastern Hospital?”
“Uh, East Area? Kind of that way,” said Michaeli, pointing.
“Thank you,” said Suzy. “And your roof garden lies beyond that door?”
Michaeli nodded, bewilderment plain on her face. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Back to the House, first creation of the Architect and epicenter of the Universe,” said Suzy. “If I can find the Front Door, and if the Skinless Boy and his minions don’t stop me. Good-bye!”
Michaeli gave a tentative wave. Suzy bowed, clapped her wings behind her back, and ran up the stairs to the roof garden.
Behind her, Michaeli looked at Leaf to see if she was still breathing, but didn’t go any closer. Then she went across to her own room and looked out the window. There was an ambulance in the street. She hesitated for a moment, then ran down the stairs.
Suzy patted the ceramic iguana that stood in the roof garden on the head, jumped on its back, and launched herself
into the sky with a few strong wingbeats. Thirty feet above the roof, she caught an updraft and quickly soared to a height of several hundred feet.
The wings, besides being exceptional examples of their kind for flying, were also imbued with several other properties. Suzy was counting on one of them to make the return trip to the House uneventful. According to Dr. Scamandros, who had reluctantly helped her borrow them from Dame Primus’s dressing room, flying with the wings would generate a sorcerous effect that would make mortals unable to look at her. The wings also had some protective qualities, but again, only when in use for flight. Suzy had thought this rather shabby, and still thought so, even after Dr. Scamandros had explained that it was the nature of sorcery to never live up to expectations.
Not that Suzy anticipated anything other than flying. She intended to fly to the manifestation of the House, which she had seen through Seven Dials was located above the hospital. Then she would fly right up to the Front Door and, if necessary, hover in front of it while she knocked. Then it would be straight back to Monday’s Dayroom with the pocket. From there she would work out how to get it to Arthur so he could throw it in sufficient Nothing to get rid of it and the Skinless Boy.
A very straightforward and satisfactory job,
Suzy
thought. Even Dame Primus could hardly complain—though she would, of course, and carry on about the Original Law, but Suzy was used to that. It would be a small price to pay for saving Arthur’s world from the Spirit-eater.
Suzy was three-quarters of the way to the hospital and could clearly see the House ahead when she also saw the flaw in her plan. From the lack of interest from various official-looking mortals she had flown above, it was probably true that the wings shielded her from the gaze of humans. And while this would not work on Nithlings, both she and Dr. Scamandros had thought it very unlikely that the Skinless Boy had a set of wings.
What they hadn’t given full thought to was the fact that someone had made the Skinless Boy in the first place and had helped it get through the Front Door to Earth, in defiance of numerous laws of the House. Anyone who would raise a Spirit-eater would not hesitate to use more common Nithlings. There could easily be other Nithlings here, sent to help the Skinless Boy achieve whatever he had been sent to do.
And now here they were. Suzy flapped her wings hard to gain height as she saw them. Three winged shapes, slowly flying in a circle about five hundred yards out from the Front Door. Currently they were playing a game with one of the mortals’ flying machines, taking turns to dive in
front of it as it came around on its orbit of the hospital, its spinning top part chattering away. The fact that the mortal pilot couldn’t see them and wouldn’t know what he’d hit if one of them miscalculated was obviously the main attraction of the game.
Suzy didn’t know exactly what kind of Nithlings they were. They were roughly human-sized, but one had the head of a rodent, one had a head like a snake, and the third had a head that resembled a partially squashed avocado with eyes and a toothy mouth. They all had normal-enough limbs, save for great variety in the number of fingers. All three wore Denizen cast-off shirts, waistcoats, and breeches, similar to the clothes favored by Suzy herself, though these Nithlings did not have hats. They also had very fine-looking red-feathered wings, not the cheap paper ones. The wings probably had similar properties to Suzy’s own, though Nithlings also had a native ability to remain unseen in the Secondary Realms.
They were armed with tridents, which suggested they might have once served Drowned Wednesday, but that was surely misdirection. Suzy knew too much about Drowned Wednesday to fall for that one. The sad, food-obsessed Trustee would not have employed Nithlings. These three had to be in the service of one of the four remaining Morrow Days.