‘Then let’s get under way,’ rumbled the Mariner. ‘And smartly.’
Leaf nodded and headed for the stairs, with the Captain close behind. They did not speak for some time, but as they reached Circle Six, the Mariner laid one large hand gently on Leaf’s shoulder and stopped her.
‘You still have the medallion?’ asked the Mariner.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Leaf.
‘You had best give it back to Arthur when you can. It was not meant to be passed into other hands.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Leaf. ‘I didn’t know who—’
‘No harm done,’ said the Mariner. ‘But I am not without business of my own. Three times I will answer to the call. I owe young Arthur that. This is the second, and for the third and final time, the call must come from Arthur himself.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Leaf again. The Mariner raised his hand and indicated for her to go on.
The window was where she remembered. It was clear glass or something like glass, about seven feet long and three feet high. It looked directly out on to the lake and the crater floor, a few hundred feet below.
‘There,’ said Leaf. ‘All those people, the sleepers lined up on the shore. Oh! Friday’s already landing on the rock. She’ll use the Fifth Key to suck all the people’s memories out of them. Their experiences!’
The Captain looked out – at Lady Friday alighting on the silver chair upon the rock; at the thousands of sleepers who were lined up all around the crater; at the dozen or more Denizens who circled above Friday.
‘The odds are poor,’ he said. ‘But the position is good.’
With that, he tapped the glass with the point of his harpoon and it flew out in a single piece, shattering on the rock far below. Leaf shuddered as a wave of pain and nausea went through her, but it was soon past. The feeling came from the harpoon, she realised, and she sidled away from the Mariner.
‘Now,’ mused the Mariner. ‘I shall get perhaps two good casts before they are upon us. What, then, shall be my targets?’
Down below, Lady Friday raised her hand and the mirror that was the Fifth Key shone even brighter.
‘Quick!’ shouted Leaf. ‘She’s going to—’ The Key flashed, its stark light banishing darkness from every corner and crevice within the crater. The lake and dome flicked to silver, and from the eyes and mouths of the thousands of sleepers, a mad spaghetti of coloured streamers sprang out towards Lady Friday’s hand. Once again she gathered them up, the mirror in her hand transforming from something of pure white brilliance to a bright rainbow that overflowed down her arm.
Lady Friday raised the mirror and tipped her head back, opening her mouth with its perfect white teeth.
‘Stop her!’ yelled Leaf. ‘Don’t let her drink them all up!’
‘That’s Leaf’s voice,’ said Arthur as he stumbled out onto the rocky surface of the crater, accidentally pushing over several sleepers. For some reason his balance was way off and he stumbled again before he righted himself. He could hear his friend but he couldn’t see her anywhere or make out what she was shouting. All he could see was a sea of sleepers, Friday perched on her rock, and the Denizens who flew above her.
‘Friday is using the Key,’ warned the Will, who came right after him. It shrank itself down some more and scuttled between two swaying sleepers. ‘In a most peculiar fashion.’
‘This is unusual,’ said Scamandros, who was next to emerge from the white-lit transition from the Seven Dials. He raised his glasses to his forehead and peered at the nearest sleeper. ‘These mortals are being drained of … well, not life, exactly, but close to it.’
Leaf had stopped shouting. Arthur was about to push forward when he heard a distant crackling sound and a pain he knew danced across his teeth. An instant later, the Mariner’s harpoon flew down from the crater wall. It looked as if it would strike Friday but she leaped up the merest fraction of a second ahead of its impact, yellow wings bursting to turn her jump into flight. The Key stayed in her hand, rainbow-bright and full of experience.
‘The Mariner!’ shouted Friday, pointing up at the crater wall. ‘Attack him!’
A dozen Denizens, including the monocled Noon, wheeled in the air and flew towards the window where the Mariner held out a hand for his returning harpoon.
‘Stop!’ roared Arthur. He raised the baton of the Fourth Key high, hands steady in the gauntlets of the Second Key. ‘Keys, bring Friday to me! And you Denizens, leave the Mariner alone!’
Arthur’s voice echoed throughout the crater. It did not sound like a boy shouting, but a great lord calling for his servants to do his bidding.