Drowned Wednesday(90)

‘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 —’

‘Okay, we don’t need a history lesson now!’ interrupted Arthur. Drowned Wednesday was looming larger and larger, and the glad cries of ‘land ho’ among the Denizens had been replaced by cries of fear. ‘See if you can communicate with the Mariner! Maybe he can get here with a ship and pick us up before Wednesday —’

‘It’s not as simple as that,’ said the Carp. ‘I haven’t seen him for millennia, and it’s not as if I’m charged with making him do anything. I’ll have to try and recall what he looked like to begin with. Besides, I’m sure that Wednesday won’t eat us up —’

‘Why not use the Mariner’s charm you wear?’ Sunscorch asked Arthur. ‘Or is it worn out?’

‘The Mariner’s charm?’ Arthur asked. He pulled it out, sank below the surface yet again, and came spluttering back out. ‘You mean it can actually do something?’

‘So legend has it,’ replied Sunscorch. ‘Doctor Scamandros would know, but he is gone now, like our late Captain Catapillow.’