Drowned Wednesday

Page 32

The inside of the wardrobe was bigger than the outside. There were racks of clothes against the side walls, and shelves of boots, shoes, and accessories. The rear wall was wallpapered with a simple blue flower pattern, and had a chaise lounge against it, next to a small table with an open book of fashion plates on it.

Arthur hurried over, shoved the table and book aside, and pulled the chaise lounge away from the wall. Then he reached up and pulled a loose corner of wallpaper. It came away easily, revealing a mirrored surface underneath. Arthur ripped some more, and then Suzy and Leaf and Jebenezer and even Ichabod were there pulling at the paper as well.

‘What if it’s really deep on the other side?’ asked Leaf. ‘Will we get the bends going up? Can you get the bends in the House?’

‘I don’t know!’ snapped Arthur. ‘We haven’t got a choice, have we? Go through as soon as the paper’s off.’

‘What about you?’ asked Suzy.

‘I’ve got to make sure everyone gets out,’ said Arthur. ‘You guys go or you’ll get trampled.’

As the paper was almost all off, he took the Carp’s jar from Jebenezer and stepped back out of the wardrobe, hitting a solid wall of waiting Denizens, who were barely kept in check by the combined efforts of the Mates, some of the Carp’s Followers, and the more dependable crew.

Arthur managed to squeeze through back to the blanket box. He stepped up on that, ignoring the fact that it was vibrating, along with the floor, like a badly tuned car.

‘Okay, Carp, maximum volume,’ said Arthur. ‘Repeat what I say.’

‘I shall do so,’ replied the Carp.

‘Quiet down!’

‘Don’t push and wait your turn!’

‘Everyone will get out!’

‘Listen carefully but don’t move till I tell you to.’

‘There are two walls of mirrors to go through.’

‘Walk slowly and carefully through the wardrobe mirrors and keep going through the next set of mirrors. You will come out underwater. Swim up and try to help anyone who needs it.’

‘Everyone at the back stay still. If you’re in front of the wardrobe, start walking slowly forward!’

‘As space opens in front of you, walk slowly forward! Steady! Everyone will get through!’

Arthur kept giving instructions as the Denizens shuffled forward into the mirrored doors of the wardrobe. Every now and then one would panic and Arthur would stop breathing as it looked like the fear would spread, only for everything to come back under control as calmer Denizens wrestled the panicked one back into line.

But it’s all taking too long, Arthur thought as he was forced to step down from the blanket box, which was shaking itself to pieces. The floor under his feet was starting to glow a nasty, dull red — if it wasn’t for his Immaterial Boots, Arthur was sure he would feel the heat.

‘Let’s move a bit faster!’ he called out, the Carp repeating his words. Perhaps half the Denizens had gone through, so there was more room and less likelihood of a terrible crush.

Five minutes later, the walls started to weep black, tarlike tears the size of Arthur’s head, and the floor was twisting and tilting by as much as six inches up and down.

‘Come on, faster now!’ called Arthur. ‘Jogging on the spot and then forward when space opens up!’

He demonstrated jogging as best he could with his crab-armoured leg on a moving surface. Perhaps two hundred Denizens remained, but the room was clearly under enormous stress, and that meant that the Moth and the worldlet outside must be close to final destruction.

‘Can you tell what’s happening outside?’ whispered Arthur to the Carp as he moved to the back, smiling and waving on jogging Denizens. ‘I mean the Moth side, Feverfew’s worldlet.’

‘It’s still there because we’re still here,’ said the Carp. ‘Hold on a moment. I’ll check.’

It whizzed around its jar several times, then stopped.

‘The underlying structure is holding, though the cosmetic features, like the hills and so forth have all gone. Remarkable, really. Grim Tuesday lacked true flair, but his work was always very solid.’

‘How long have we got?’

‘Minutes, not hours,’ said the Carp. ‘I can’t say closer than that.’

‘Right,’ said Arthur grimly. There was some sort of holdup near the rear ranks of Denizens. He threaded his way over to it, to find Sunscorch, Pannikin, and Captain Swell trying to pry Captain Catapillow from a display cabinet. Arthur was only mildly surprised not to see Concort, who must have already fled through the wardrobe.

‘I can’t go without at least the heart of my collection,’ sobbed Catapillow. ‘Just one cabinet. You can help me carry it! If it can’t go, I won’t go!’

‘Lord Arthur, please tell the Captain he has to leave the stamps behind,’ asked Sunscorch.

‘You do have to leave them,’ said Arthur. ‘Look around! This place isn’t going to last much longer. We have to hurry everyone through, and you need to set an example.’

‘No,’ said Catapillow mulishly. He hugged the cabinet. ‘If my collection is to be destroyed, then I’ll go with it.’

‘I guess let him stay, then,’ said Arthur. He glanced over the remaining Denizens. There were perhaps fifty left, all gathered near the wardrobe, which was becoming harder to get into as the floor bucked up and down. ‘Everyone else, let’s get through the mirrors!’

The boy turned and joined the back of the relatively orderly queue that was steadily streaming into the wardrobe. He was glad to be able to grab hold of Denizens around him, because he would have fallen over otherwise, the floor was so unstable.

‘The ceiling’s slanting down, isn’t it?’ Arthur asked as they got down to the last twenty Denizens. ‘From that corner. Really quickly!’

In the far left corner, the distance from the floor to the ceiling had been cut in half, and the ceiling was still steadily moving down, like some kind of industrial stamper. It hit some of the display stands, which resisted the downward pressure for a moment, then buckled in a spray of glass and metal.

‘Catapillow! This is it! Come now or you’ll die!’ shouted Arthur as he edged closer to the wardrobe. There were only a dozen Denizens in front of him now — and Suzy and Leaf! Arthur’s head snapped around, Catapillow forgotten for a second.

‘I told you to go through! We might not make it now!’

The floor broke in half as he spoke, a crevasse opening up in the middle of the room. Yellow mud boiled up out of it, preceded by clouds of stinking gas. Catapillow was on the wrong side, still clutching his display case.

Arthur held his breath and grabbed Leaf and Suzy, or they grabbed him and the three of them jumped through the wardrobe mirrors, only just making it as the crevasse split the floor even further, toppling the wardrobe over.

Inside, the wardrobe was a tangled mess of trampled clothes and broken furniture. But even worse, it had toppled forward, so that the mirrored back wall was now the ceiling, twelve feet above the three children and impossibly out of reach.

‘Stand on my shoulders —’ Arthur started to say, but he hadn’t seen Sunscorch, who had wedged himself in a corner. Without wasting a word, the Second Mate picked up Leaf and threw her straight up and through the mirror gate. As he turned to pick up Suzy, she jumped, got one foot on his shoulder, and leapt up without assistance.

Arthur stumbled, his crab-armoured leg caught in discarded coats.

‘Go!’ he shouted to Sunscorch as he desperately tried to untangle himself and only made it worse. ‘Go!’

Thirty

SUNSCORCH WENT, but he grabbed Arthur under one burly arm, jumped on the exposed springs of the wrecked chaise lounge, and used their bounce to propel himself, Arthur, and the tangle of coats up through the gate.

It happened so quickly that Arthur barely had time to get a breath, and he didn’t have time to make sure the Carp’s jar was securely in his pocket. He saw it hurtle past, and then he was through the mirror and completely surrounded by water.

Arthur kicked the coats free, but Sunscorch didn’t let him go. He struck out in a direction that Arthur hoped was the surface, because he couldn’t see anything except dark blue and tons of bubbles.

We could be hundreds of feet down, he thought. I’ve got through so much and then to drown at the end … I’ll never make it … the Denizens will, but I won’t … and Leaf won’t … It’s all my fault, I should have made her leave the hospital, how am I ever going to explain to her parents … I have to take a breath, I have to take a —

The dark blue water suddenly became lighter, interrupting Arthur’s panicky thoughts. He saw Denizens all around, some doing powerful strokes and kicks, some barely dog-paddling, a few just floating.

Then, before he could begin to think that the light must mean the surface was close, he was suddenly there. His head broke through, light and air welcoming him, and he gasped and laughed and water ran out of his nose all at the same time.

Denizens bobbed everywhere, as far as he could see, gently lifted by the small swell. Arthur’s gaze moved across each survivor superfast, looking for the faces he most wanted to see — and there they were. Suzy, about ten yards away. Leaf somewhat closer. And there was a jam jar moving mysteriously across the water, into Arthur’s hand.

‘You can let me go now, Sunscorch,’ said Arthur. ‘Thanks.’

‘I might have lost the ship, but I still ain’t lost a passenger,’ said Sunscorch. He released Arthur, who promptly sank and had to be hauled up again till he got his treading-water action going properly.

‘I have summoned Drowned Wednesday,’ said the Carp. ‘She is on her way and will be here shortly.’

‘You what? She’ll eat us! I thought we’d get on some dry land first!’

‘I am sure she won’t eat us,’ said the Carp. ‘Have faith, Arthur. . .’

Arthur wasn’t listening. He craned his head out of the water to look around, hoping to see some sign of solid ground, or a ship, or something. But all he could see were thousands of floating Denizen snacks looking tempting for one crazily hungry Leviathan.

‘How did you communicate with her?’

‘I am the Will. She is the Trustee. Now that I am back in the House, I am able to speak into her mind, much as I did into yours, Arthur.’

‘Well, tell her to transform into her human shape,’ said Arthur. ‘And tell her to order her Dawn to get here with as many ships as she can. Can you do that?’

‘I can speak the message into her mind,’ said the Carp. ‘Whether it will totally penetrate is unclear. It is done.’

‘Can you speak with your mind to anyone else?’ asked Arthur. ‘The Raised Rats, for example?’

The Carp shook its moustache-like growths back and forth.

‘No. I am connected to you as the Rightful Heir, and to Wednesday as the Trustee.’

‘Land ho!’

The cry came from some Denizens to Arthur’s right. He paddled himself around, but even before he looked, he was pretty sure what he would see.

It wasn’t land, though it looked like it.

It was Drowned Wednesday, bearing down on them. Still vast and almost certainly still hungry.

‘We made it!’

That was Suzy, splashing over backstroke.

‘Stop saying that!’ said Arthur. ‘We haven’t made it. We’re probably going to get eaten. Wednesday won’t be able to help herself if she sees all these Denizens floating about. It’ll be like three thousand pretzels waiting to get munched.’

‘Is that her?’ asked Leaf, whose swimming style was very economical and practised. She leaned back and floated easily, making circular motions with her hands. ‘Wow! Talk about huge!’

‘If anyone has any bright ideas, now is the time to spit them out,’ said Arthur, spitting out some seawater himself as his mouth was splashed midsentence.

‘Pity the Captain’s not here,’ said Suzy. ‘It’d be real interesting to see what his harpoon could do to a whale that big.’

‘No way!’ said Leaf. ‘I’m not letting anyone harpoon any whale. I’m a member of Greenpeace —’

‘She doesn’t mean it, Leaf,’ said Arthur. ‘And the Mariner wouldn’t do it anyway. I think. I wish he was here. In a ship.’

‘The Mariner?’ asked the Carp. ‘That would be the Architect’s adopted son? The middle one?’

‘Yes,’ said Arthur and Suzy together.

‘I might be able to talk to his mind,’ mused the Carp. ‘Seeing as he is of the Architect’s kin. I suppose I could talk to the Piper for that matter too, or Lord Sunday.’

‘Lord Sunday!’ exclaimed Arthur. ‘What? Is he —’ ‘The eldest child of the Architect and the Old One. Their first experiment together, when the Architect inhabited a mortal woman —’

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