Superior Saturday(17)

‘Fortunately, the bulwark between the Far Reaches and the Lower House held for several hours, allowing enough time for the evacuation of important records and items, and a fair number of Denizens. Complete destruction of the Lower House followed, with the final remnants succumbing an hour ago. Nothing now presses directly against the lower bulwark of the Middle House.

‘In a possibly unrelated complication, when the Piper’s army withdrew, he covered his retreat with an explosion of Nothing that has weakened the barrier mountains here in the Great Maze, and, as always, there is Nothing leeching into the Border Sea. That is why we are both needed. We must use the power of the Keys to delay the destruction of the House.’

‘Delay the destruction?’ asked Arthur. ‘Can’t we stop it?’

‘I doubt it. But we must hold off the Void long enough for you to claim the last two Keys. Then matters can be arranged in an orderly fashion.’

‘You mean that no matter what we do, the House – and the whole Universe beyond – is doomed?’ asked Arthur. ‘It’s only a matter of time?’

‘I didn’t say that, Lord Arthur.’ Dame Primus glanced away as she spoke, as if something had caught her eye. ‘You misunderstood me. Once we have stabilised the House, you can gain the Keys, and then we will be in a position to assess the damage and see what can be done.’

‘But I thought you said—’

‘You misunderstood me,’ Dame Primus repeated smoothly. She looked back at Arthur again and met his gaze. Even more than usual, he felt like a small animal caught in the glare of the headlights of a rapidly approaching truck, but he didn’t look away. ‘Now, where do you wish to commence work? Here, with the mountains, or in the Middle House?’

‘Neither,’ said Arthur. ‘Someone put those drills to work, and that someone pretty much has to be Superior Saturday, doesn’t it? Or Lord Sunday, working with her, I suppose, though that bit of paper poor old Ugham had suggests otherwise.’

‘What paper?’ Dame Primus asked suspiciously.

‘The one signed just with an ‘S’ that said ‘I do not wish to intervene or interfere’ or whatever. It’s in my old coat, I think.’

‘Signed merely with a single “S”? That is Lord Sunday’s mark. Superior Saturday, as she calls herself, would not be so humble as to use a single letter.’

‘Okay, that just about confirms Sunday’s out of it – for now at least. So we need to make sure that Saturday can’t do anything else. I mean, it’s all very well shoring up the defences, but what if she’s undermining the House somewhere else we don’t even know about?’

The three Marshals nodded in approval. Attack was the best method of defence, as far as they were concerned.

‘I agree that Saturday must be dealt with,’ said Dame Primus. ‘But our first priority must be to reinforce the House! It is not supposed to fall like this. I cannot be in two places at once, so you have to do some of the work. When what we hold of the House is secure, then we can talk about freeing Part Six of myself and confronting Saturday. Not before!’

‘You can’t be in two places at once,’ said Arthur thoughtfully, almost to himself.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Dame Primus bent forward a little, as if to hear Arthur better.

‘You can’t be in two places at once,’ Arthur repeated loudly. ‘Yet we have five Keys between us, and once you were five separate beings. Is it possible for you to become two?’

Dame Primus frowned even more.

‘I mean two of you, with an equal mix of all parts of the Will,’ Arthur added hurriedly. Most of the individual parts of the Will were quite unbalanced, some of them dangerously so. He didn’t want the snaky, judgmental Part Four off on its own, for example.

‘It . . . is . . . possible,’ said Dame Primus. ‘But not at all recommended. We would do much better—’

‘And you can join back together again?’ Arthur was not giving up on the idea so easily.

Dame Primus nodded stiffly.

‘Okay, then you can split into two and each half of you can take two Keys and go fix up whatever needs fixing up,’ said Arthur. ‘Or, hey, you could split into four and take a Key each—’

‘I will not divide myself so much,’ said Dame Primus furiously. ‘It would merely offer a target for Saturday or even the Piper, who might well overcome such a fraction of myself and wrest the Keys from our control.’

‘Two, then,’ said Arthur. ‘Dame Primus and Dame . . . uh . . . Two?’

‘Secundus,’ whispered Scamandros.