‘Probably Superior Saturday,’ said Arthur. ‘That’s who Drowned Wednesday went to in the first place, to get his help to return the Keys to the Will.’
‘Her help,’ said Monckton. ‘Superior Saturday is female. Or she was, last we heard. Now, I think you will agree, we have answered your first question. So we shall ask one in return. Why do you want to go to Feverfew’s secret harbour?’
Arthur thought for a moment. There seemed to be nothing to be gained from trying to not answer the question, or fudging the answer. He liked the Rats. They seemed very straightforward, and he knew he would need more of their help.
‘I believe the Third Part of the Will is there. Drowned Wednesday doesn’t have it anymore, and she says Feverfew took it, with help from the Morrow Days. I want to get to the Will and release it. Then I can get the Third Key from Drowned Wednesday, fix her up, get Leaf back, and. . .’
The two Rats leaned forward as Arthur hesitated.
‘Then . . . I’m not sure. I guess I’ll need to go back home for a little while, to make sure everything’s okay. But if I manage to get the Third Key, I suppose I’ll have to work out what to do about Sir Thursday and just . . . get on with it.’
‘That is a generous answer, Arthur. Please, your next question.’
‘It’s not exactly a question,’ said Arthur. ‘I need to get to that secret harbour. If there are only two ways in, and one of them is Feverfew’s augury puzzle, it looks like I’ll have to get in through Wednesday’s stomach. Which means I have to survive getting swallowed up. The only way I can think of doing that would be to be in a submarine or something like it. I’ve heard you have lots of strange ships, so my question is this:
‘Do you have a submarine or know where one is, and can I borrow it?’
Seventeen
‘A VALUABLE QUESTION, Lord Arthur,’ said Monckton. He hesitated, his whiskers shivering, then went on. ‘We do indeed have a submersible boat, a craft we keep secret. But I am afraid it is laid up underneath our dock at Port Wednesday, for lack of an essential component, which we have been waiting on for some time.’
‘What kind of component?’ asked Arthur. ‘And who’s making you wait? Uh, only answer if that doesn’t count as another question.’
‘That can be accounted as part of your second question, Arthur,’ replied Monckton. ‘The submersible boat was made for us in the Far Reaches, by Grim Tuesday’s minions. The component it lacks is, in fact, a canister of Accelerated Coal, which must be replaced every century or so. However, since the fall of Grim Tuesday, very few of our orders are coming through from the Far Reaches.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m sure Dame Primus is doing her best to sort everything out,’ said Arthur defensively. ‘Grim Tuesday was using way too much Nothing —’ ‘That was not a criticism, merely an observation,’ said Monckton. ‘We are aware that changes were necessary in the Far Reaches, and we have been advised that we will get a new fuel canister within the next thirty or forty years.’
‘Thirty or forty years! That’s hopeless,’ said Arthur. He thought for a moment, then said, ‘How about I get you a new fuel canister? Will you then let me use the submersible to get into Drowned Wednesday’s stomach?’
‘Will you allow me to confer with Lieutenant Longtayle for a moment?’ Monckton asked. ‘The submersible is very valuable, and it would not be easy for even it to survive a passage into the Leviathan’s interior — and out again.’
‘Sure, go ahead.’
Monckton and Longtayle retreated to the other side of the cabin to whisper, while Arthur studied the drawings and the map again. His head was full of rapid thoughts darting around and linking together to lead him into new ideas.
Okay, if I can get into Wednesday’s stomach and then into Feverfew’s private worldlet, I still need to find the Will and release it and get back out again. Presuming the place will be full of pirates, it would be dumb to go in there by myself … This is kind of like working out how to rob a bank or something … I need to get a team together to help me …
There’re the Rats, of course, to run the submarine … I wonder if the Rats can fight … I probably need some Denizens who can fight the pirates, though we should try and sneak in, but just in case … I wonder if Dawn would come along … Then there is the sorcery angle, so if I could get Doctor Scamandros to help out … and Sunscorch, he’d be a good fighter, though the rest of the Moth’s crew wouldn’t be up to much —