Drowned Wednesday(89)

‘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.