‘What do we do if we’re separated from you, sir?’ asked Arthur.
‘Give the Not-Horses their heads,’ replied Jarrow. ‘They’ll find the nearest friendly force. But so you know, we’re headed today for tile two hundred and sixty eight/four hundred and fifty seven. It’s scheduled to move at dusk to a position only ten miles from the Citadel. We’re currently on tile two hundred and sixty five/four hundred and fifty nine. We’re going to go east for three miles and then south two miles. The tiles east are bare hills, grassy steppe, and jungle with clearings; go south from the jungle and you get a ruined city and then lake and marsh, which is the tile we want. We’ll have to be extra vigilant in the jungle, the ruined city, and the marsh. Easy to be surprised in all three, and hard to ride away. We’ll take another thirty minutes’ rest and then ride. I’ll stand watch on the rise there. Keep the harness on our mounts, but you should give them a rubdown. Don’t want them to rust.’
Arthur and Fred obediently got wire brushes, cleaning cloths, and bottles of solvent from their saddlebags and began to work on the knee joints and other areas where the Not-Horses were prone to rust. The creatures nickered and whinnied slightly, enjoying the attention, and Arthur found himself warming to them. Out here in the field, with the sunlight dimming their red eyes, they seemed altogether different from the cold, ruby-orbed beasts of the dark stables.
‘I wonder why they want us at GHQ,’ said Fred. ‘Troop Lieutenant Jarrow said the order came from Sir Thursday himself.’
‘He probably found out I was here as a Piper’s child,’ said Arthur, without conscious thought.
‘What?’ Fred looked under his Not-Horse’s belly to stare up at Arthur.
‘He probably found out I was here as a Piper’s child,’ repeated Arthur slowly. His words had the ring of truth, but he didn’t know what they meant. He just couldn’t remember …
Before he could think any further, Jarrow came scrambling down the slight slope.
‘Mount up!’ he called softly, cupping his mouth with his hands, so his voice did not travel. ‘New Nithlings!’
Nineteen
AT HER CURRENT speed of over 180 miles per hour, Suzy was only nine hundred feet and four seconds away from the door when one of the Nithlings finally spotted her. It shrieked, surprising its comrade, who crashed into the helicopter it was playing chicken with. The Nithling, invisible to the pilot, smashed through the canopy and caused enormous damage as it thrashed around the cockpit while trying to get out again. In the process it accidentally killed both pilots. The attack helicopter reared up on its tail, hung there for an instant, then plunged down into the parking lot and exploded, showering the hospital front, the surrounding soldiers, and FBA agents with burning debris.
Suzy spread her wings at eight hundred feet, the shock of their opening momentarily blacking her out. Too effective, the wings brought her to a hover within a second, still a few hundred feet above the Front Door, with two Nithlings flapping up towards her as fast as they could manage.
Suzy dove down again, straight at the Nithlings as if she were going to attack. They stopped to receive her assault, raising their tridents, but at the last second Suzy dipped one wing, slid sideways and down through the air, and landed on one foot on the hospital roof. The Front Door was right in front of her, but with the Nithlings now diving after her, Suzy didn’t think there was time to knock.
She angled towards the Front Door, shut her eyes – and went straight through it.
Expecting an impact, Suzy wrapped her arms around her head. But after a few seconds of not hitting anything, she cautiously opened her eyes and lowered her hands.
She was floating, or possibly falling, in total darkness. Her wings weren’t moving, but she had a sensation of movement in her inner ear. She couldn’t see a thing, not even when she frantically craned her neck around to see if she could catch sight of the Front Door she’d just come through.
‘Uh-oh,’ she whispered. Not having used the Front Door before, she’d thought that she would just come out the other side on Doorstop Hill. Evidently it was not as simple as that.
Suzy thought about her situation for a moment, then whispered, ‘Wings, shed light.’
She was relieved both to be able to hear herself and, a little later, to see herself, as the wings slowly began to glow, casting a pearly nimbus of light all around her.
Even with the light, there was still nothing else to see.
Suzy looked up, down, and all around, hoping for some indication that there was somewhere … or even something … else in this strange absence.