Drowned Wednesday(79)

Arthur cleared his throat, not without some difficulty, and spoke.

‘Greetings! I am Arthur, chosen by Part One of the Will to be the Rightful Heir to the House!’

‘I knew you were coming,’ said the Carp, its words mysteriously echoing all around the arena. Its voice was of a strange pitch, and could have come from either a deep-voiced woman or a high-voiced man. ‘It is as I have told my Followers. Hold true to your faith that the Rightful Heir will come. The pirate Feverfew will be cast down, and we shall return to the House!’

‘You are Part Three of the Will, aren’t you?’ asked Arthur. It was hard to see through the curved glass, but he could see that the fish was actually composed of tiny shining letters, moving in lines. Its skin was like the detailed etching on a banknote. From a distance it looked like solid colour, but up really close you could see what it was made of.

‘Indeed I am,’ replied the Carp. It did a circuit around the bowl and returned to face Arthur. ‘What was your name again?’





Twenty–six




‘ARTHUR! ’

The Carp blew out a huge stream of bubbles, and a strange chuckling, gargling sound filled the air. It took Arthur a moment to realise the goldfish was laughing.

‘Only joking, Lord Arthur! I am not a goldfish, though I have that shape. While it is true I depend upon newly escaped slaves for news of the House and Realms beyond this island prison, I have heard of your heroic exploits!’

‘You haven’t read that book about me, have you?’ asked Arthur. ‘Because it isn’t true —’ ‘I have read no book,’ said the Carp. ‘I have merely heard stories. Now tell me of the ships waiting to enter this worldlet, and the legions amassed to assault the vile Feverfew’s fort!’

‘Uh, there’s just me and Suzy,’ said Arthur. ‘We had to sneak in through Wednesday’s stomach. In the Raised Rats’ submersible.’

‘Only the two of you?’ asked the Carp. It did four rapid circles of its bowl, then calmed down and approached Arthur again. ‘And you dealt with the Raised Rats? You are very confident, Lord Arthur. But I expect that my Followers can defeat the pirates after you have slain Feverfew himself.’

‘I wasn’t planning to run into Feverfew,’ said Arthur. ‘I just planned to sneak in here, find you — the Will — and sneak out again. The submersible is waiting to take us back out of Drowned Wednesday. Then Wednesday can release you and give me the Key. Once I have that, I can take on Feverfew. I have to rescue my friends in the slave huts — if they’re still alive — as well as your Followers, but I can’t do it straightaway.’

‘I have faith,’ muttered the Carp. ‘But there are limits. Why did you not bring the First and Second Keys with you? I cannot feel their presence.’

‘Because I want to stay human,’ said Arthur angrily. ‘I don’t want to turn into a Denizen. This is all your stupid fault anyway. I mean, the Will’s fault. I never wanted to get involved, but now I have to sort it all out and I wish I didn’t have to but I do! So how about helping me instead of complaining?’

The Carp started doing circles again and did not respond, but Arthur heard a strange whooshing sound. He looked around and saw that the Followers of the Carp had begun to file into the amphitheatre and sit down on the terraces in numerical order. Suzy and Jebenezer were right behind him.

The strange whooshing sound came from the assembled Denizens all drawing in highly indignant breaths at the same time. But before they could say anything or start throwing things, which some of them looked like they wanted to do, the Carp stopped circling and came right up to the glass near Arthur.

‘You are the Rightful Heir, proclaimed by the two parts of the Will that precede me. There is no doubt about that. So I must help you to help myself. It is a pity that things were not arranged otherwise, but I believe it will all turn out for the best. How do you intend to take me to this submersible?’

Good question, thought Arthur.

‘Uh, I was hoping you’d be in a more . . . mobile . . . shape. Can you get out of that bowl?’

‘My current shape has been fixed by the Third Key, as part of my imprisonment,’ said the Carp. ‘If you had the other Keys you could free me, but that is water under the bridge. The bowl is a later addition of Feverfew’s. As the Rightful Heir, I suspect you could banish the bowl, but then I should only be able to flop around on the ground.’

Arthur scratched his head with both hands and resisted the urge to pull his hair out or start smacking his forehead.

‘How did the slaves carry you up here, then?’ asked Suzy. ‘You and that bowl would be a mighty heavy load even for twenty Denizens.’