Lord Sunday

Twelve

FORTUNATELY FOR ALL concerned, the tile did take Suzy, Dusk, Giac, Part Six of the Will, and two score artillerists to a position adjacent the Citadel. There they met one of the rearguard guides, who led them quickly past a gaping hole of Nothing that was slowly and inexorably spreading like ink across blotting paper, and on to the Citadel itself, through the abandoned trenches and fire-wash blackened ground left by the Newniths’ siege.

The great fortress was strangely quiet, its buildings abandoned. A winding column of black smoke rose from the lakeside bastion, which had been set on fire to destroy the last of the stores that could not be taken up to the Middle House.

The guide took them to the central keep by the shortest path, one that would normally be blocked by sealed gates, portcullises, and heavy doors. But all the Citadel’s portals and defences were open now, and the few sentries remaining left their posts to join the party as they passed, though they kept a wary eye out to the rear, watching for any of the old-fashioned type of free-willed Nithling that might try to follow, as many of these creatures were beginning to emerge from the pools and pockets of Nothing that were bubbling up all around the Citadel.

The soldiers who had already departed for the Middle House had left a lot of nonessential items behind, for there were packs, bags, chests, and boxes pushed to the sides of many of the rooms and corridors. Along the way, Suzy snagged a Regimental Brigadier General’s coat for herself, and a Horde staff officer’s blue tunic with chain mail epaulets and a curious hat called a shako for Giac, who adopted both with enthusiasm.

The elevator in Sir Thursday’s study had been expanded to its maximum size, about a hundred feet wide and a hundred and twenty feet long, with a tall arched ceiling some sixteen feet high. Even before Dusk and Suzy and their troops arrived, it was packed with the rearguard, including a dozen Not-Horses, a wagon loaded with Nothing-powder, and more than a hundred soldiers from the Legion, the Horde, the Borderers, and the Regiment, with various officers and NCOs from the different units all trying to assert their authority in order to ensure their soldiers had the best and most comfortable placements.

This bickering ceased when Dusk arrived and took charge. Suzy left him to his organising, and wove her way through the crush to join three Piper’s children who were sitting on a barrel. They were wearing the peculiar mishmash of uniforms favoured by herself and adopted by the irregulars who’d now formed Suzy’s Raiders. Suzy knew these three, though not well, since she hadn’t had much time to meet all the other Piper’s children in the Army.

‘Have a biscuit, General,’ said one of the children, reaching into the barrel, which was stuffed to the brim with biscuits. Since neither Denizens nor Piper’s children needed to eat, but liked to do so anyway, it was surprising that the barrel was marked ESSENTIAL GOODS FOR EVACUATION.

Suzy took the raisin-filled biscuit with glee and, between mouthfuls, introduced everyone.

‘Bren, Shan, Athan. This ’ere’s Colonel Giac,’ she said. ‘He’s my new aide-de-camp.’

‘Colonel?’ Giac beamed, repeating his new rank to himself with great satisfaction.

‘And the bird is Part Six of the Will,’ added Suzy. She swallowed and said, ‘Who’ll be joining up with Dame Primus soon, I expect, so don’t tell ’im nothing about you know what.’

‘What?’ asked the raven.

‘It don’t concern you or Dame Primus,’ said Suzy. ‘Or anyone but us Piper’s children.’

Part Six of the Will looked at her with one beady eye.

‘I will be charitable and presume you have good intentions,’ it said. ‘But you be careful, Suzy Blue.’

‘Anyhow, what’s the news?’ asked Suzy.

Athan shrugged. ‘The Maze is falling apart, we’re all off to the Middle House, Sir Thursday’s snuffed it. Don’t know anything else.’

Suzy was about to ask another question when the elevator juddered into movement and everybody stumbled into everyone else, which was very painful in the case of the Denizens who got trodden on by the Not-Horses’ steel-clad toes.

‘We’re away,’ said an artillerist in the crowd as the elevator began to accelerate upward. She sounded relieved, and there was a general lessening of tension among all the Denizens, and a sudden rise in the volume and extent of conversation.

Unlike Suzy’s elevator descent from the Upper House, the ascent to the Middle House was quite a steady and civilised journey. It was much slower, taking several hours, but there were raisin-filled biscuits, and though the bandstand was empty to begin with, various soldiers produced instruments and soon there was a scratch quartet of musicians playing typically soothing elevator music not very well.

Suzy, in her usual fashion, did not dwell on the bad news or think much about what lay ahead. Instead she set her Piper’s children to looking around the transported stores, to see if there was anything that they might want to ‘borrow,’ as she put it. But there was nothing of any great interest to Suzy, though she did procure a savage-sword for herself and got Giac a brassbound shooting stick that he said would be a fine replacement for his umbrella. He even thought it would be easier to cast spells with it and, in his newfound confidence, was going to give it a try before Part Six of the Will dissuaded him.

Their arrival was also smooth, with hardly a bump and the merest chime to announce the fact. The doors slid open and at once Marshal Dusk strode out, with Suzy, the raven, Giac, and the Piper’s children close behind.

Suzy recognised the courtyard the elevator had appeared in. It was the central bailey in front of the main keep of Binding Junction, the fortress on the Top Shelf of the Middle House. Suzy shielded her eyes with her hand as she looked around. It was very hot and bright on the Top Shelf, a consequence of there being two suns in the sky above, one smaller than the other.

The courtyard had been empty when Suzy had last passed through, but now it was full of Army wagons, all carefully lined up against the walls. The curious scaly-leaved trees were gone, not even their stumps visible. Soldiers were everywhere, moving about purposefully, either because they genuinely had work to do or wanted to appear as if they did. There were a few High Guild Bookbinders wandering about as well in their velvet robes, carrying papers and pots of glue, or their long needle-like spears.

Marshal Dusk was met by several officers. After speaking briefly to them, he beckoned to Suzy.

‘Dame Primus wishes to see you immediately, General Turquoise Blue,’ he said. ‘She is on the battlements, surveying the camp.’

‘Guess you’d better come too-’ Suzy began to say to Part Six of the Will, but it was already in flight, flapping up to the top of the keep, several hundred feet above them. Even at that distance, Suzy recognised the very tall and formidable figure who was looking down, straight at her.

Dame Primus raised her arm as the raven alighted on her hand. There was a flash of light, a disturbing sound like the hum of a giant cymbal lightly struck, and the raven disappeared.

‘Pity,’ muttered Suzy. ‘It was the best part so far, if you ask me. ’Ope it has some effect on old grizzleguts.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Marshal Dusk.

‘Nuffin’,’ said Suzy. ‘Just thinking aloud. Guess we’d better go up. Don’t s’pose you’ve got a decent pair of spare wings? Or a couple of pairs? I’ve only got some mangy grease monkey pinions, and I don’t trust ’em.’

‘Wings are strictly rationed for the moment,’ said Dusk. ‘On the direct orders of Dame Primus. We will need every pair if we are to assault the Upper House, and the Incomparable Gardens thereafter. The stairs are over there.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Suzy. She looked back at Athan, winked, and touched the side of her nose. The Piper’s child grinned and he, Shan, and Bren melted back into the crowd, towards the line of quartermaster’s wagons.

‘Come on, then, Giac,’ said Suzy. ‘Last one to the top is a rotten sorcerer.’

She started off at a run, but paused after a few steps when Giac didn’t immediately follow. He was looking puzzled.

‘Come on!’

‘But I already am a rotten sorcerer,’ he said.

‘No, it means ... it’s a joke,’ Suzy started to explain. ‘Oh, never mind. I’m just saying race you to the top. For fun, and also because it will annoy Dame Primus.’

‘Annoy Dame Primus?’ asked Giac worriedly. ‘Is that a good idea?’

‘Well, no,’ said Suzy. ‘It’s a stupid idea, that’s part of the ...’

She stopped talking and took Giac by the hand.

‘Never mind. We’ll just walk fast. I can’t expect you to take in everything at once. You remind me of Arthur.’

‘I do?’ asked Giac. One of his rare smiles passed across his face.

‘Yep,’ said Suzy. ‘I expect we’ll have to go and get him out of trouble as well, soon as we see what Dame Primus wants.’

The battlements were crowded. Marshal Noon, Marshal Dawn, and Friday’s Dawn were there, accompanied by numerous senior officers, their telescopes, aides, and telephone operators. But even amid the throng, Dame Primus was easy to spot. She stood head and shoulders above even the tallest Denizen, and was now perhaps nine feet tall or even taller. She wore her armoured coat of gold scales, with its spiked pauldrons that threatened the safety of any neighbour when she turned around. In addition to her grey wings that were a legacy of Part Five of the Will, she now also had a plume of glossy raven feathers that appeared to grow directly from her head, testament to the recent absorption of Part Six.

She also had the First Key clock-hand sword thrust through her belt and the Second Key gauntlets on her hands. Interestingly, the Third and Fourth Keys had become a very large and ugly-looking pendant of a crossed trident and baton, hanging from a chain of golden esses around her neck.

Suzy slowed down as she got closer to Dame Primus, and she motioned Giac to stay behind her. Though she wasn’t scared, precisely, for she prided herself on never being really scared, she had become increasingly wary of Dame Primus, particularly when others were concerned. Suzy thought she was protected by Arthur’s orders to Dame Primus, but knew that didn’t apply to Giac.

The embodiment of Parts One through Six of the Will of the Architect turned as Suzy approached, a flange of her armour slicing off the sleeve of an unwary Regimental Major who had been holding a field telephone for her. The Major winced and stepped back as Suzy saluted.

‘Suzy Turquoise Blue,’ said Dame Primus. Suzy shivered as the Will spoke, for her voice was now even more powerful, and laden with sorcery. ‘I am glad you survived the Upper House.’

‘So am I,’ said Suzy. ‘Uh, ma’am.’

‘You have learned some manners, I see,’ said Dame Primus. ‘Perhaps my lesson on the Border Sea was worthwhile.’

Suzy didn’t reply. She’d blithely forgotten that one of the things she actually was afraid of was being forced to behave like a lady again.

‘Part Six is with me now, so I know much of what occurred in the Upper House, and of the disposition of Saturday’s forces, but I would like to know more. I have questions for you, and this minion of Saturday’s you have brought with you.’

‘Oh, to be a minion,’ muttered Giac to himself dreamily. ‘I was a sub-minion.’

‘You will speak when spoken to and not before, Colonel Giac,’ said Dame Primus sharply. Giac bowed deeply. When he straightened up, each of his epaulets had sprouted a crown inside a woven wreath, Dame Primus perhaps unintentionally having confirmed Suzy’s irregular grant of his rank.

‘We have a great host here,’ continued Dame Primus. ‘The survivors of the Far Reaches, the Lower House, and the Great Maze, combined with the forces of the Middle House. Our fleet from the Border Sea will soon arrive here on the Extremely Grand Canal, and the sailors, scavengers, merchants, and marines will join the Land Army, as the Piper and the ships of his cursed Raised Rats have blockaded direct egress for ships into the Upper House.

‘Due to the work of myself as Part Six, we have access to one elevator shaft into the Upper House,’ continued Dame Primus, pointedly ignoring Suzy’s and Giac’s contributions to that operation. ‘But that is not enough to land a sufficient force to engage both the Piper’s troops and Saturday’s. We need to open more elevator shafts. After we have discovered what additional information you may have to offer, Miss Turquoise Blue-’ ‘General,’ said Suzy, though it was difficult to get any words out against Dame Primus. ‘Lord Arthur made me a General.’

Dame Primus bent her gaze down to the Piper’s child. For a moment Suzy feared that she would blast her with words so potent they might as well be a death spell. Then the raven feathers on her head ruffled, and the Will looked back up, above Suzy’s head, to the bright sky above that was the underside of the Upper House.

‘After we have spoken, General Blue,’ said Dame Primus, ‘I intend that you shall lead a strike force back to Floor 6879 of Saturday’s tower, to open more elevator shafts. To secure our beachhead, as it were.’

‘Sure,’ said Suzy. ‘But I get to pick who comes along, right?’

Dame Primus narrowed her strange, luminous pink eyes in thought.

‘You may, within reason. You will, of course, take Doctor Scamandros, who will be needed to open the elevator shafts. There is also someone else I wish you to speak with, to enlist to our cause.’

‘Who’s that, then?’ asked Suzy.

‘The Lieutenant Keeper of the Front Door.’

‘Well, he’s right handy with a blade, but I never heard of him leaving the Door.’

‘I am speaking of the new Lieutenant Keeper of the Front Door,’ said Dame Primus. ‘Though she lacks the swordcraft, I suspect she may be of use. Certainly Lord Sunday thought so, enough to send his Dusk to fetch her.’

‘Exactly who is the new Lieutenant Keeper?’ asked Suzy. She had never felt a need to suppress her curiosity.

‘A mortal,’ said Dame Primus. ‘Arthur’s friend Leaf.’

‘Leaf!’ exclaimed Suzy. ‘I never!’

‘It is a most peculiar and in many ways unfortunate circumstance. But if Lord Sunday wants her, then she must be secured. I believe we can get her out of the Front Door. What’s left of the Door, that is. Now, do you have any idea where Lord Arthur may have gone?’

‘Dunno,’ said Suzy with a shrug. ‘I didn’t see ’im after he went down the plughole. Don’t you know?’

‘No.’ Dame Primus’s mouth tightened and her lips became menacingly thin. ‘We do not. He and his Keys are sorely needed, both to stem the tide of Nothing that has risen alarmingly and to continue the campaign against the faithless Trustees and the aberration that is the Piper. I trust that you are not covering up for some mortal indiscretion of Arthur’s, Suzy? Are you sure he has not gone back to his world?’

‘I dunno.’ Suzy gulped. ‘Like I said, I ’aven’t seen Arthur since he went down the gurgler and I got tied up.’

Dame Primus’s gaze bored into Suzy. The girl tried to meet the Will’s eyes, but had to look away.

‘Very well,’ said Dame Primus softly. ‘Now tell me about what you know of Saturday’s assault upon the Incomparable Gardens.’

‘I don’t know much,’ said Suzy. She coughed and added, ‘I never got to the top. Course I’ll tell you what I know, only my throat’s gone dry.’

‘Tea,’ ordered Dame Primus. Her long, elegant fingers snapped with a crack that was as loud as a small cannon, and several Denizens rushed forward bearing a samovar, an enamelled tea caddy, a silver teapot, and fine porcelain cups.

Suzy eyed the samovar suspiciously. Dame Primus didn’t normally respond well to hints.

She wants something, thought Suzy. And that can’t be good.