‘I’m in favour,’ croaked Suzy.
‘Aye!’ called out Fred.
Both of them came closer to the door and together said, ‘Arthur?’
I really hope this isn’t a trick, thought Arthur. I guess if I absolutely have to, I can use the Key …
‘Aye,’ he said, and he lifted the beam and slid back the locking bolts.
All three were inside a minute later. Suzy clapped Arthur on the back, but Fred just nodded firmly, looking him in the eye, their gaze that of two soldiers who have met again in trying circumstances. Ugham bowed to Arthur, then immediately helped to re-bar and bolt the door, before crouching to keep watch through the mail slot.
‘Thanks, Arthur. It’s good to get out of that snow,’ said Suzy with a shiver. ‘Beats me why Fred’s lot like it so much here.’
‘We don’t like the snow,’ said Fred. ‘The weather’s been busted for years. Not to mention the diurnal cycle.’
‘What’s that?’ asked Suzy.
‘The routine of day and night,’ said Fred. ‘We had a year of night once, before someone got the sun up again.’
‘It’s good to see you,’ said Arthur gruffly. ‘I thought … I thought I might not, after you were captured.’
‘Oh, well, we’re just like bad pennies,’ said Suzy cheerfully. ‘Always turn up when least expected. Like those Fetchers outside. Whose are they, do you know? Can we go properly inside? Somewhere with a fire?’
She started to turn the handle of the inner door, but Arthur intervened.
‘No, it’s too noisy in there. Let’s talk for a minute here, if the Fetchers aren’t advancing.’
‘Methinks they wait for some commander or personage of note,’ said Ugham. ‘I have not bickered with Fetchers afore now. I have heard word of them as minor servants, sent forth to seek and steal. They would be unworthy opponents for such as we, save they come in such numbers as valour could not withstand.’
‘I wonder what they’re waiting for,’ said Fred. ‘What was that horrible scream?’
‘They’re probably waiting for Saturday’s Dusk or one of her other main servants,’ Arthur ventured. ‘Though the Dusk I met in the Pit didn’t sound like that. We’d better not waste time … What I want to know is how you got here? Why did the Piper send you two here … and, er, Banneret Ugham, of course? What happened after you were captured?’
‘Uh, the Piper didn’t send us,’ said Fred, his forehead knotted into a frown. ‘It’s a bit of a long story. I suppose I’d better start at the beginning, though I’m a bit hazy about the start – everything went black for me when the Piper came up the ramp—’
‘Me too,’ interrupted Suzy. ‘I just conked out when I heard his pipe. Dunno what happened then.’
‘You all went completely still,’ said Arthur. ‘Like statues. Sir Thursday went into the Improbable Stair and I went with him, but I threw the pocket in the Spike first, which was just as well, because it blew the Spike up or something so the Maze could move again.’
‘We knew the Spike had gone, later on, because the New Nithlings told us,’ said Fred. ‘That was when I woke up again, in their camp, with this thing on my throat.’
He pointed to the line around his neck. On closer examination, Arthur could see that it was a tattoo, or perhaps writing in some kind of indelible ink. Bending closer still, he could just make out the tiny letters and the words they made up. Like the letters in the Will, these ones also moved and shimmered and changed alphabets and were therefore even more difficult to read.
‘ “I will serve … and obey … the Piper to my … last breath,” ’ Arthur read.
‘One of the Newniths … what they call themselves … told me that’s what it said,’ continued Fred. ‘They treated me … all of us … pretty well, though they made us wear these uniforms and they kept us locked up. Ugham was our guard. That was because the Piper had left for somewhere else and hadn’t given us any instructions. I guess after about twelve hours, or more maybe, he came back and we were taken in to see him. He was furious about something, but was kind of weird about it. He kept breaking things and throwing his arms up and down but he was whispering, not shouting. It was really hard to hear him. That went on for a while, then this Denizen got dragged in by the guards. He said he had a message from Lady Friday about abdicating and leaving the Key—’
‘Yeah, I got that message too,’ Arthur chimed in.
‘Then he tried to give the Piper this metal tablet, but the Piper made him drop it on the ground and told no one to touch it because it was probably a nefarious device. One of the Newniths opened up the package with a spear point and the Piper was talking about it when Suzy whispered to me—’