Lady Friday Part 18

"She's already in the crater! Everybody is," Harrison said as he ducked into a stairwell. "They'll take the sleepers in the Pink Prep Room anytime now. Hurry!"

Leaf followed Harrison down the stairs. "We have to stop Lady Friday," she said. "She can't " "She can" said Harrison. "She is. Nothing we can do about it except hide and hope we survive." "Why is she doing this?" asked Leaf. "How long have I been out?"

"Why? I don't know! It all happened suddenly. Axilrad got the order. I.. . I started to help and then I realized 'every mortal' meant me as well. Oh, you've been under for only six or seven hours. No harm done, I'm sure."

"We have to get weapons and head for the crater," said Leaf. "If we can distract Lady Friday at least " "We'll be killed!" said Harrison. "Use your head. We'll be lucky if we can save ourselves. Wait! Where are you going?" "The crater," said Leaf. "There must be something I can do." "You'll get caught up," hissed Harrison. "You'll get experienced. You're as crazy as Friday!" "Thanks for waking me up," said Leaf. "At least you've done one good thing." "And that's it!" Harrison turned away from Leaf and clattered down the stairs.

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I need a bow or a gun or even a slingshot, thought Leaf. Something to shoot at Friday when she hops on that rock, something to distract her long enough to run out.. .. No, that won't work.... 7 suppose Harrison is right. . ..

Angry tears welled up at the corner of her eyes. Leaf knuckled them away as she climbed up the steps. She didn't have a clear idea of what she was going to do, but she knew she had to do something. Throw a rock from up above, perhaps, though she doubted she could throw anywhere near far enough to reach the middle of the lake.

At the next level, which she noted was circle eight, Leaf pulled out the Mariner's medallion.

"This is probably the last time I'll ask for help," she said. "If you don't come soon, it'll be too late. Lady Friday's experiencing everybody. Everything's gone wrong. I need help now"

The medallion remained a lump of carved bone in her hand. Leaf tucked it in and continued to head up. A vague notion was forming in her mind. If all the Denizens were busy herding sleepers into the crater, then circle ten would be empty. There was a reasonable chance she might find something useful in Noon's office. Some kind of weapon. A replacement telephone. Something.

Or I might find Friday's Noon again. Leaf shivered and 281 .

forced herself to take another step, keeping close to the wall and what little shadow there was under the gaslights.

Circle Ten was as quiet as it had been before, which gave a false sense of security. There could be any number of Denizens about to pop out of their rooms. Leaf crept as quietly as she could, counting off the numbers over the doors.

She was just pa.s.sing the nine o'clock mark when she saw something move right on the curve, at the eleven. If she hadn't been so nervous, she might have missed it, for it was low and small and moving slowly.

A gray-green tendril, the tip of an ambulatory seedpod. It quested about from side to side, and more of it slid into view, the thicker parts, closer to the body of the plant.

Leaf stopped and slowly began to back down the pa.s.sage. She had only gone a few paces when she caught sight of another tendril, this time behind her. She was caught between two of the plants, and they were between her and the stairs.

The girl held her breath and very slowly edged over to the nine o'clock door. She gripped the handle and began to turn it, but it only moved a fraction before she met resistance. It was locked.

Leaf looked up at the gaslight above, thinking that perhaps if she could grab the pipe and point it, she could use 282.

it like a flamethrower. But there was no visible pipe, just the dragon head of the gas jet, a solid lump of bronze set into the ceiling.

The nearer tendril stopped its questing and suddenly, sickeningly advanced, rippling like a snake as it headed straight for Leaf.

Leaf shut her eyes and remembered Milka's words.

Count yourself lucky that you mortals die easily.

A terrible crackling noise filled the air and Leaf felt an excruciating pain shoot through every bone in her body, including her teeth and skull. She screamed and fell to the ground.

"Set the dials, Sneezer," said Arthur. He stood outside the circle of clocks, still clad in his paper-patchwork clothes, still bearing all Four Keys. After their arrival via the Improbable Stair which had gone better than Arthur had expected, with only one strange stop along the way there'd been no time to change or do anything except have a hasty conference with Dr. Scamandros, who now stood behind him, along with Part Five of the Will, Suzy, and Fred. Sneezer, the butler, stood within the circle of the seven grandfather clocks, turning the hands to the 283*+.

setting he and Scamandros had worked out for Lady Friday's retreat. "You're sure Leaf didn't mention my mother?" Arthur asked again. "Definitely not, no," replied Dr. Scamandros. "She had very little time. I fear for her." "So do I," said Arthur. "Any luck with the telephone to Dame Primus?" Dr. Scamandros shook his head. "Nor with telegrams. They keep coming back marked Return to Sender."

"The dials are set for watching, sir," said Sneezer as he retreated back out of the circle. "May I suggest you take a few minutes to look before going through?"

"Only long enough to make sure it's not opening into Nothing," said Arthur. "I don't want to waste any time. Anything could be happening to Leaf and my .. . the other mortals."

As he spoke, a trail of white fog appeared out of the floor between the clocks and began to slowly spin around, spreading quickly till there was a slowly rotating cloud. Silver luminescence rose through the white, growing brighter as it reached the edges.

Arthur blinked, and in that blink the cloud became a window to another world. Looking through it, he saw a great crowd of people humans standing ahead. In 284.

front of them was a lake, and in the middle of the lake there was a stone column with a silver chair set atop it. Above the chair, a winged figure was descending .. . a very tall Denizen with extra-large yellow wings, who held something impossibly bright in her right hand.

"Sneezer!" snapped Arthur. "We need to go through right now!"

The butler jumped into the circle, so quickly that his long white hair whipped around his face and the tails of his coat leaped up almost to the small of his back. He deftly adjusted the hands of several of the clocks and jumped back out.

"Go, milord!"

Arthur and his companions moved almost as swiftly as Sneezer had, entering the circle as the clocks began to chime.

285*+.

Chapter Twenty-five

et up, young miss."

Leaf opened one eye. She was lying on the floor. She lifted her head slightly to see if there was a tendril poking through her chest or some hideous botanical growth implanted in her flesh, to kill her slower than Milka had thought.

There wasn't. There was no sign of the seedpods at all. There was, instead, a very tall old man with white hair and a white three-day growth on his chin. His piercing blue eyes were fixed on Leaf. He wore a knee-length blue coat, blue breeches, and sea-boots folded over at the knee. In his hard-knuckled right hand he gripped a nine-foot-long harpoon that glittered with a light painful to Leaf's eyes.

"Captain!" sobbed Leaf. "Sir!"

The Mariner bent down and hauled her up by her elbow. "We'd best move sharp-ish," he said. "I cracked that dome when my skiff landed and all manner of gardener's horrors are climbing in. Not to mention we'd best avoid Friday. She'll not be pleased."

Leaf tried to take a breath and coughed, the cough turning into a sob. The Mariner clapped her on the back, almost propelling her into the wall. "That's no way for a ship's boy from the old Mantis to behave," he scolded. "You're safe enough now." Leaf bit back her sobs and stood at attention. "Begging your pardon, sir," she said, unintentionally aping her mentor, Albert. "But there are a lot of mortals who need rescuing out in the crater. Including my aunt."

"Mortals to be rescued!" exclaimed the Mariner. "I've sailed into a storm, I see. Well, let's be getting the gauge of it. Do you know of a lookout where I can espy the lay of the land?"

"There's a big window," said Leaf. "On Circle Six at about twenty past. That's down and around a bit." "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 pa.s.sed into other hands." "I'm sorry," said Leaf. "I didn't know who "

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"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 gla.s.s or something like gla.s.s, 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 sh.o.r.e. 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 gla.s.s 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 realized, and she sidled away from the Mariner.

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"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 colored 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 289*+.

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 gla.s.ses 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, 290*+.

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.

Lady Friday jackknifed in the air as she tried to fly back to her balcony. Still holding the mirror with its cargo of experience, she was carried backwards as if blown by a wind, landing in an unladylike sprawl in front of Arthur. More sleepers tumbled out of her way, but she paid them no heed.

"So, you got out," she said to the Will conversationally. "This boy managed what you could not yourself."

"That is so, madam," said the Will. "And now it is time for you to relinquish your charge to this same boy, who is not a boy at all, but Lord Arthur, the Rightful Heir."

"I am ready to do so," said Friday. "But may I just taste a little more? I am defeated, I know, but only as a mortal can I truly know the feeling of defeat. Give me just 291.

a few minutes more, let me enjoy the rich textures of mortal life once more "

"No," said Arthur. He sheathed the baton and held out his hand. "I, Arthur, anointed Heir to the Kingdom, claim the Fifth Key"

Friday screamed and tried to tip the mirror to her mouth, rainbow threads falling everywhere around her face. Arthur spoke more quickly, gabbling out the words.

" and with it the demesne of the Middle House. I claim it by blood and bone and contest out of truth in testament and against all trouble!"

The mirror flew from Friday's hand into Arthur's. She shrieked again and hurled herself after it. Arthur dodged aside, hurtling farther than he intended due to the lesser gravity. Friday whirled to try again, but the Will, grown larger again, gripped the back of her neck with its sharp bat teeth and shook her till thin rivulets of blue blood ran down her shapely neck.

Arthur looked for a moment at the rainbow-hued mirror in his hand and then at all the sleepers. He felt no sense of triumph. He felt sick in his heart, hollow and defeated.

"I suppose my mom's here somewhere," he said. "We were just that little bit too late." Dr. Scamandros coughed and raised his hand. "Ahem, Lord Arthur, I believe it may not be entirely too late. The 292.

great majority of the extracted experiences must still lie within the Key. It is possible they can be returned. Friday would know best."

Arthur turned to Friday, who hung limp and silent in the Will's jaws. "Is it possible to return the experiences?" he asked.

"Perhaps," said Friday dully. "I do not know. If it lies within the power of the Key, it can be done. I am no sorcerer."

"Arthur, the Mariner is signaling," said Fred.

Arthur looked up at the crater. He could make out the Mariner clearly now, and he felt a small surge of happiness when he saw that the small figure by his side was Leaf.

"Arthur!" roared the Mariner, his seagoing voice of command almost as loud as Arthur's sorcerously magnified shout had been. "There are dangerous plants getting in! Order Friday's Denizens to repel boarders!"

"What?" Arthur shouted back. "Dangerous what?" "Plants!" shouted the Mariner, and Leaf too, from the look of it, though her voice was totally drowned out.

The Denizens who were circling above heard it clearly. All but one swooped down towards Arthur and for a second he thought they were going to attack. But they halted to hover a good distance away, and one of them spoke.

"Lord Arthur, may we go to fight the plants at once? If 293.

their way in is not stopped promptly, we will be swamped."

"Go and fight the plants," ordered Arthur. Then he looked up and said, "Hey, where have Friday's Noon and Dusk gone?"

"Lord Arthur, if I may interrupt," said Scamandros. "There may be a time factor in returning the experiences. A degradation may occur if it is not done quickly "

"Right!" said Arthur. "How do I put the experiences back?"

Scamandros looked doubtful and the tattoos on his cheeks changed from books with turning pages to a wild tangle of question marks that began to fight one another.

"The Keys shortcut much sorcery," he said. "If you a.s.sume the position Lady Friday took when taking the experiences, and simply ask the Fifth Key to replace the stolen experiences, it may work. Unfortunately, to discern a more rigorous technique would take me days or weeks."

"Give me your wings, Fred," Arthur said quickly. "Stick them on. Thanks. Don't let Friday go, Will. Suzy, keep an eye out for Friday's Noon and Dusk. They should know they're beaten, but..."

He flexed the wings and leaped into the air, careful to hold the Fifth Key level. He knew that it wasn't like a cup 294.