Leaf screamed as her shoulder moved. Then, once again, she blacked out.
When Leaf came to, the tentacle was still wrapped around her, but there was also something else supporting her back so she couldn’t move, and this made the pain in her shoulder almost bearable.
It was also quiet around her. The shouting and tumult of battle, the crash of Nothing-powder weapons, and the sizzle of lightning-charged spears and swords had gone.
I’ve gone completely deaf, thought Leaf. And Daisy’s going to kill me as well.
For some reason this made her laugh, a strange hysterical laugh that she cut off as soon as she realised she could hear it, though it was muffled and sounded like it came from far away.
So I’m not deaf. Leaf turned her head a little and saw that she was lying on Daisy’s back, securely held down by a tentacle just near the beastwort’s strange flower head. A petal twisted towards her, as if checking on her condition.
And I guess Daisy isn’t going to kill me.
Leaf turned her head to the other side. In a dopey way she was surprised to see Suzy and Dr Scamandros, standing near a blazing fire made of wrecked desks, looking back at her. Some thirty or so Piper’s children were sitting around the fire toasting marshmallows, a process that required constant movement as the smoke kept changing direction to blow horizontally towards different sides of the tower.
Beyond the fire, there were lots of Denizen soldiers. As Leaf watched them march out of numerous elevators, more sound slowly leaked back into her ears. She could hear their drums and fifes, bagpipes and rababs, and the bellowing orders of the NCOs.
Over the top of this background noise, and closer, there was something else. Leaf looked at Suzy and saw her mouth move. A few seconds later, she matched these movements to the sounds she was hearing.
‘Leaf! Tell your pet to let Doctor Scamandros come and fix you up! You’re hurt.’
Tell me something I don’t know, thought Leaf.
‘Leaf!’
Suzy stopped shouting and said something to Dr Scamandros, who shrugged. Leaf stared at them for some time, before it finally percolated through that she had to do something herself.
‘Uh, Daisy,’ she began. Then she stopped, remembering that she no longer held the lead. Daisy wasn’t under her control anymore.
Two more petals tilted down towards her, paying attention.
‘Um, Daisy, if you wouldn’t mind,’ croaked Leaf, ‘could you put me down and let Doctor Scamandros come and help me? I’m hurt.’
The petals shivered and undulated, but Leaf didn’t know what that meant.
‘Please,’ she said wearily, and shut her eyes.
She opened them again a moment later, and bit back a scream as Daisy lifted her up and gently deposited her thirty feet away, all three of her tentacles hovering nearby in a protective manner. Dr Scamandros rushed over and knelt by her side.
‘Dear me, dear me,’ he said. The tattoos on his face were of a grovelling rabbit that got picked up, put in a pot, and had the lid slammed down on it. The sorcerer was rummaging in his pockets anxiously as he spoke. ‘Lord Arthur will be extremely vexed—’
‘I’m not . . . going to die . . . am I?’ asked Leaf.
Dr Scamandros did not answer. He was busy writing something on Leaf’s forehead with a long white feather quill. It tickled and Leaf wondered why she was unable to laugh. It was also deadening the pain, which was welcome, though at the same time, she was beginning to feel very sleepy.
‘We held them off?’ asked Leaf. ‘The Army arrived?’
‘Yes, yes, all is well,’ soothed Scamandros. He had a scalpel out and was cutting Leaf’s coat. She noticed idly that it was not the blue coat of the Lieutenant Keeper but her radiation suit again, strangely bleached and tattered. That made her look at her right hand, and though her fingers were curled as if they still gripped a hilt, the Lieutenant Keeper’s sword was not in her grasp.
‘My sword,’ she whispered. The world was going blurry and sound was starting to become distant again, save for a single deep bass drum that was unaccountably becoming louder, even though its beat was very slow, and getting slower by the second.
Dr Scamandros didn’t answer. He was busy with a large red tomato-soup can and a small silver funnel, which he had balanced without visible support on Leaf’s chest.
‘Giac!’ he called urgently. He didn’t turn around or look aside as he punctured the can in two places and began to pour the bright red liquid into the silver funnel. ‘Look in my left pocket! I need a magisterial watch!’
Suzy tried not to watch Scamandros and Giac as they worked on the mortally wounded Leaf. She kept one eye on the beastwort, though, for there was no knowing what it would do if Leaf did die.
‘I know I said I wanted to be a General,’ said Fred. ‘But I never wanted – it came to my hand. I didn’t even know what it was—’
Suzy looked up at him. Fred had grown a foot since he’d picked up the Lieutenant Keeper’s sword a scant few seconds after Leaf had fallen and been taken away by the beastwort to a far corner of the floor. Daisy’s retreat had almost lost them the battle, but Fred’s assumption of power and his sword-trained muscles had helped. Even so, Suzy’s Raiders would have been overwhelmed if the advance elements of the Army had not arrived far sooner than expected. Led by Thursday’s Dawn, Noon, and Dusk, they had made short work of the Newniths, who had quickly retreated. Upward, Suzy noted.
More than half of her force was dead. Thirty-nine Piper’s children had been slain, and though Suzy talked about their very long, eventful lives having to come to an end sometime, even she found it hard to remain cheerful.
‘Blue looks orright on you,’ she said now. ‘Got a bit of gold too. Appropriate.’
‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,’ said Fred, his forehead creased in a deep frown. ‘I can sense the Door, and the sword . . . the sword wants to go back. Doc Scamandros says whatever Dame Primus did is wearing off. He said the sword is kind of a Denizen itself. The Architect made it.’
‘I knew that,’ said Suzy halfheartedly.
Dr Scamandros stood up, followed a moment later by Giac. Both took off their hats.
‘No,’ whispered Suzy.
Twenty-three
DR SCAMANDROS WIPED his brow with a large silk handkerchief, and Giac wiped his with his sleeve. Then both turned and smiled.
‘She will live,’ said Scamandros.
Suzy rushed over to them.
‘Don’t you never take your ’at off like that again!’ she scolded. ‘You sure she’s orright?’
‘It was a little delicate,’ said Scamandros. ‘Mortals are so fragile. But with adequate rest she will entirely recover.’
He paused, and a dark tsunami reared up one side of his face while on the other a tower was swallowed up by a dark hole in the ground.
‘Presuming we are not all destroyed,’ he added.
‘We should get ’er ’ome,’ said Suzy. Her eyes looked very old as she gazed down at the unconscious girl. ‘She’s not thirteen yet. I forget sometimes.’ She looked at Fred. ‘You reckon you could take her back to Earth?’
‘Probably,’ said Fred. ‘Depends what those Nithlings are up to in the Door. You reckon Dame Primus’ll let me, though?’
‘Don’t ask,’ said Suzy. ‘She never said you ’ad to do anything, only Leaf while she ’ad the sword. And Old Primey ain’t ’ere anyhow . . .’
‘Yes, she is,’ said Giac. ‘Over there.’
Suzy swivelled around like a spinning top. Sure enough, Dame Primus had emerged from one of the elevators, at the head of a gaggle of superior Denizens.
‘Pick ’er up and take ’er now,’ ordered Suzy.
Fred looked nervously over at the beastwort.
‘What about Daisy? She’s not going to let me—’
‘Ah, I believe that I may be of assistance there,’ said Dr Scamandros. He reached into his pocket and pulled something half out, before slipping it back in and walking behind Giac.
He gestured for the others to crowd around, and bend their heads to conceal what he had.
‘Best not to let Daisy see it,’ he whispered, handing over a coiled leather lead to Fred. ‘I knew I had one of Grobbin’s leads somewhere. As the beastwort is still collared, all you need do is walk up and throw one end of the lead. It will attach itself.’
Fred took the lead and examined it carefully.
‘This is about twenty feet long,’ he whispered.
‘It stretches, once attached,’ said Dr Scamandros.
‘Daisy’s tentacles are at least thirty feet long,’ said Fred.
‘I believe the creature responds to kindness,’ said Dr Scamandros. ‘Look how it cared for Leaf even after she no longer commanded it by sorcery.’
‘I’ll do it if you won’t,’ said Suzy. She reached for the lead, but Fred snatched it away.
‘I never said I wouldn’t do it,’ he snapped.
‘Do what?’ asked a deep, powerful voice.
Suzy, Fred, Scamandros, and Giac straightened up. Dame Primus looked down at them with her cold, cold eyes.
‘Leash the beastwort, milady,’ stammered Fred.
‘I see you have assumed a most important post,’ said Dame Primus.
‘Uh, not intentionally. It was just that my savage-sword broke on a Newnith’s helm and then I was knocked down and I was crawling around looking for a weapon—’
‘Enough,’ interrupted Dame Primus. ‘It does not matter. We must move onward and upward. The Drasils have wilted, and this tower now projects fully into the Incomparable Gardens, which has allowed Saturday to mass far more force there, with the Piper’s army hot on her heels. We must capture both of them quickly, before they can interfere or, in some unlikely event, defeat Lord Sunday.’
‘That’d be orright, wouldn’t it?’ said Suzy. ‘I mean, if they off ’im, that’s one less—’
‘No, it would not be orright,’ said Dame Primus. ‘It is Lord Arthur who must release Part Seven of myself and claim the Seventh Key. If Saturday or the Piper do so . . . all will go astray.’
‘ ’Ow’s the ’ouse ’olding up, then?’ asked Suzy.
‘Pronounce your consonants and I may tell you,’ said Dame Primus. ‘For now, I desire all of you to stay close to me. That cursed Piper has got his army into the Gardens, so he’s sabotaged the moving chains, or else Saturday has, and the elevators go no farther, so wings will be issued. Somebody organise a transport sling for the beastwort and the girl.’
A messenger corporal wrote Transport Sling on a slate and dashed away.
‘We fly out and up in five minutes,’ concluded Dame Primus. Her own magnificent wings were already in place. The feathers looked like they were made of beaten gold and powdered with diamonds, so they glittered when she moved.
Suzy inclined her head, Fred saluted, and Scamandros and Giac both gave very deep bows.
Dame Primus did not so much as nod. She turned on her spiked heel and strode away, already barking out orders to the flock of officers and messengers that surrounded her.
‘I liked her better when she was just a frog,’ said Suzy.
‘So I definitely can’t take Leaf home,’ said Fred.
‘Nope. But you still ’ave to use the lead,’ Suzy pointed out. ‘Ain’t going to get Daisy into a transport sling by being nice to her.’
‘Yes, we will,’ said a weak voice from the ground. ‘I’ll ask her. I need her to carry me anyway.’
‘Leaf!’
Suzy knelt by the girl’s side, as Dr Scamandros and Giac hurried over.
‘Gently, my dear, gently,’ instructed Scamandros. ‘You are held together by complex sorcery, and must not move too quickly, or strain yourself, lest it all unravel.’
‘Daisy will pick me up,’ said Leaf weakly. ‘Did I hear you say something about me going home, Suzy?’
‘Can’t,’ said Suzy. ‘Old Primey gave a direct order. Got to bring you along.’
Leaf nodded. ‘That’s okay. I . . . I want to see it out now. I mean, however it goes. I might as well be there at the end.’
‘The end,’ whispered Giac. He shivered.
‘Arthur will sort out Sunday,’ said Suzy. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘But what happens then?’ asked Leaf. ‘What happens when the Will is complete and Arthur has all seven Keys?’
‘He fixes everything up,’ said Suzy quickly. Her consonant-dropping accent, always at its strongest when talking to Dame Primus, was almost completely gone, and her voice had an urgency Leaf didn’t remember hearing from Suzy before. ‘Come on, we’d better get moving. Wings to put on, which reminds me, I asked Bren, Shan, and Athan to snaffle us a bunch of the good ones, officer-grade. Leaf, you ask Daisy to pick you up, see if she will. The rest of us’d better get back to the marshmallow fire, have a few before it’s too late.’
She’s really worried, thought Leaf. And now I’m not, for I was almost dead, but here I am, still alive. And where there’s life . . .
‘Daisy!’ she called out. ‘Would you be very kind and pick me up carefully and carry me on your back again? Please?’
Daisy quivered and stood up taller on her hundreds of feet. One tentacle scooped up Leaf and very carefully laid her on its back, the tip curling around to make sure she couldn’t fall off.
Fred smiled and dropped the lead back in Dr Scamandros’s pocket.
The transport sling was rather like an enormous upside-down parachute, though one made of very heavy material. Following the directions of a Borderer Wingmaster, Leaf had Daisy go to the middle of the vast circle of canvas. Then a hundred winged Borderers picked up the ropes that ringed the cloth, and began to hover as high as the ceiling would allow.
‘This is the tricky part,’ called out the Wingmaster. ‘We can’t go up, because we have to go out first, so the sling’ll drop at first. Don’t be concerned, Admiral. Uh, how much does your beastwort weigh?’
‘I don’t know,’ Leaf answered. ‘It – she – is very light on her feet.’
‘I’m sure there will be no problem,’ said the Wingmaster. She somewhat lessened this confident prediction by bellowing to her troops, ‘Keep it together, people! Synchronisation is the key to a successful sling! If anyone drops a corner or lets our very valuable and important passengers slide out, I will rip your wings from you and throw your miserable carcass straight down so the Nothing gets a head start on dissolving you! Is that understood?’
‘Yes, Wingmaster!’ chorused the Borderers.
‘You need help, then, Wingie?’ asked Suzy. She and her Raiders, all equipped with glowing golden wings of the highest quality, were also ready to fly, after the sling.
‘No, thank you, General,’ replied the Wingmaster. ‘This is a very specialised operation, you understand.’
She flew out the side of the tower and looked all around before shouting her next orders. The Borderers began to fly out, dragging the ropes and the canvas sling behind them. As it neared the edge, Leaf swallowed. If the Borderers flying out behind were too slow, she and the beastwort would slide out the back of the sling – and it was a very, very long way down.
But the Borderers knew their business. There was a frightening moment when the sling swung out and fell, but its downward movement was almost immediately arrested as the slack was taken up on the ropes. Very quickly, the whole sling was rapidly ascending, the hundred Denizens flapping their wings furiously to lift their burden.
Leaf lay on Daisy’s back and looked up at the underside of the Incomparable Gardens. It was brown and dried-out looking, and there was an inverted forest of dead-looking roots or tendrils hanging down.
Above Leaf, stretching all the way to the hole in the Gardens around the tower’s top, there were thousands and thousands of flying soldiers. There were so many of them she felt like she was part of a giant swarm, a tiny mote in a vast, ascending cloud of avenging Denizens.
It was comforting to be a part of such a huge force, and especially to not be at the forefront of it, since even sev
eral thousand feet below the entrance hole to the Incomparable Gardens, Leaf could hear the boom and crash of massed Nothing-powder weapons. Battle had been joined somewhere above.
Suzy swooped down inside the sling, ignoring the Wingmaster’s shout to keep clear, and, flapping vigorously, landed near Leaf. Several of Daisy’s petals rotated to point at her, but Leaf patted the beastwort and no tentacles struck the new passenger.
‘ ’Ow are you?’ asked Suzy.
‘I’m all right,’ said Leaf. ‘I feel weak, but . . . I’m all right. Have you heard any news of Arthur?’
‘Nope.’
‘What about everything else?’
Suzy looked around and scratched her head, then she said very quietly, ‘I just heard the lower two parts of the Middle House are gone and Nothing is bubbling up the Extremely Grand Canal. The Border Sea is so mixed up with Nothing, it’s dangerous to sail. Luckily the Fleet got in and disembarked everyone just before we lost the Middle of the Middle. They’re flying up behind us now.’
‘You said Arthur will fix everything up,’ said Leaf. ‘He’s always come through before.’
‘True,’ said Suzy. She grinned. ‘Good point. I’d better go and check on the lads and lasses.’
Suzy’s wings beat down and she leaped into the air, climbing between the Borderers to the accompaniment of the Wingmaster’s shouts telling her to stay clear of the ropes.
‘Glad I could cheer you up,’ said Leaf to herself.
Pity I don’t feel so cheerful, she thought. Where are you, Arthur?
Twenty-four
Arthur was crouched down, hidden inside the sorcerous illusion of a shrub. At least he hoped he was hidden, because he thought there was still at least one superior Denizen on the hilltop above him and possibly even Lord Sunday himself.
The dragonfly had hovered for only five minutes, long enough for Sunday and his entourage to land, do whatever they did on the hilltop, and then depart again. But Arthur was pretty certain six passengers had got off the dragon-fly and only five had re-embarked, and since it was hard to see from the low angle inside the illusory shrub, Arthur wasn’t sure if the Trustee was one of the five.