"Does this mean I don't need to try to reach the mind of the Mariner?" asked the Carp. "Have you regained your faith in me?"
Arthur spat out some water and said, "Yes. You could say that."
He paused to tread water for a while and rest, and looked behind. The Denizens were very slowly beginning to swim away in the other direction. But that wasn't all that caught Arthur's eye.
"Is that a ship on the horizon?"
"A three-masted brigantine, under full sail," said Leaf, shading her eyes with one hand. "See, I didn't waste my time on the Mantis. Albert... Albert was a good teacher too."
"The ship's boy," said Arthur, suddenly horror-struck. "I haven't seen him! We couldn't have left him behind, could we?"
"No," said Leaf in a very small voice. Her eyes grew red, though Arthur could see no tears on her sea-washed face. "He... Albert got... Albert got killed when Feverfew attacked the ship. I've been trying not to think about... that's why I want to go home... I... I don't want any more adventures."
Arthur was silent. He didn't know what to do or say.
"He lived a long time," said Suzy. "I reckon he would have had a lot of good times, even if he couldn't remember a tenth of 'em, 'cos of the washing between the ears. And like all of us Piper's children, he would've died long ago if he'd been back on the old Earth. Remember what he taught you and he'll always be with you. That's what we say, when one of us goes."
"Drowned Wednesday is almost upon us," boomed the Carp suddenly. "The time has come to release me from my bowl! Lord Arthur, please unscrew the cap."
Arthur wiped his eyes, kicked hard with his legs, and picked up the jar.
"Feverfew is dead, and his bindings with him," said the Carp. "I have grown used to the bowl, but no more shall I be imprisoned in any way!"
Arthur unscrewed the lid as he sank, getting it off just as Leaf and Suzy helped him back up. They could kick much more efficiently than he could, and he appreciated their help, even if every now and then one of their kicks connected with him rather than a vacant patch of seawater.
The Carp swam free. A tiny goldfish that turned to face the onrushing whale.
"Wednesday!" roared the Carp. "I, Part Three of the Will of Our Supreme Creator, the Ultimate Architect of All, do summon thee to fulfill thy duty as Trustee of the said Will!"
Drowned Wednesday slowed, and shrank faster, though she still came forward. When she was thirty feet away, she was the size of a misshapen dolphin. It leapt into the air — and when it came down, it was a woman who stood upon the sea as if it were land.
She was not the misshapen, lumpy thing Arthur had seen before. She was beautiful, impeccably dressed in a gown of shimmering mother-of-pearl, the trident of the Third Key glowing in her hand. Only the uncontrollable trembling of that hand and the blue blood flowing down from her bitten lip indicated the difficulty she had keeping such a presentable shape.
"I, Wednesday, Trustee of the Ultimate Architect of All, do acknowledge the Third Part of the Will, and ask into whose hands shall I place that which was entrusted to me?"
Arthur knew what came next. Without prompting from the Carp, and held up by Leaf and Suzy, he spoke quickly but clearly.
"I, Arthur, anointed Heir to the Kingdom, claim this Key and with it Mastery of the Border Sea. I claim it by blood and bone and contest, out of truth, in testament, and against all trouble."
The trident flew from Wednesday's hand to Arthur's. As his fingers closed around it, he felt himself rise out of the sea, Suzy and Leaf letting go.
At the same time, Drowned Wednesday cried out in pain, and doubled over, sinking into the water. She clutched her stomach and rolled, her arms and legs ballooning.
"Be as you were," commanded Arthur, pointing the Third Key at her. "When you were never hungry, when the Architect was still here."
The puffiness retreated, but Wednesday remained hunched over, still sinking.
"Float!" commanded Arthur. He felt the trident hum in his grasp, and the sea around Wednesday momentarily shone a deep, rich blue. Wednesday bobbed to the surface, clawing at her stomach.
"Too late, Lord Arthur," croaked the Denizen. "I am poisoned within. Nothing eats at my flesh and bone, and soon I shall be no more. But I thank you, for I did not wish to end as I was, a vast thing, near mindless in hunger. Rule my Border Sea well, Lord Arthur!"
Something small and jewel-like sparkled in her mouth as she spoke. It trembled on her lip long enough for Arthur to see what it was, and in the instant that it fell, he directed the power of the Third Key upon it.
"Balaena," he said, naming it so his directions would not go astray. "Float over there, and stay small until you do."
He waved the trident, and the tiny metal cigar-shape that was the Balaena floated through the air and over to a clear patch of sea. Arthur dipped his trident and it slowly fell. As it hit the sea, there was a huge eruption of water, from which the full-sized submersible emerged, looking battered but intact.
Arthur looked back at Drowned Wednesday, but all that was left was a horrid, oily slick of Nothing that was moving against the wind towards Leaf and Suzy.
Arthur pointed the trident at it, relishing the feel of power flowing through it and into him.
"Return to the Void!" he ordered. The sea flashed gold in answer, and all that had been Drowned Wednesday vanished.
Thirty–one
ARTHUR HARDLY MOVED for at least a minute after he'd banished the Nothing. He felt stunned. It had happened so quickly, and now one of the seven Trustees of the Architect was not only defeated, but dead.
And the Third Key to the Kingdom was in Arthur's hand.
"How about helping us all walk on water?" asked Suzy finally, when Arthur continued to just stand there staring at the trident in his hand.
"Sorry," he mumbled. He waved the trident and visualised Suzy and Leaf rising out of the waves. This happened, but they shot up about twenty feet, then splashed down again up to their waists, before getting a proper footing.
"What happens now?" asked Leaf.
"We must commandeer that ship and get swiftly to Port Wednesday," said the Carp, who had suddenly grown up to a similar size it had been when they first met. "There will be a tremendous amount of work to see to. Ha-ha. Pardon me. There will be a great deal of work. A new Noon and Dusk will need to be appointed. I shall have to meet with Dame Primus, with a view to... ahem... consolidating my paragraphs into the greater whole. I believe the Border Sea has spread where it should not, so the bounds will need to be re-established. Judging from Feverfew's loot, considerable unauthorised and dangerous trading has been going on between the House and the Secondary Realms and this must be regulated..."
The Carp continued, but Arthur wasn't listening. There was a whole lot of stuff popping to the surface just near the bow of the Balaena. Salvage, floating up from the depths. One item had caught his attention. Something small and round, in a particular shade of yellow. He walked over to it, ignoring the Carp's indignant call.
The object was a fluffy yellow elephant. A sleeping elephant, curled into a ball. Its head and trunk were bare, the yellow fluff worn down to the cloth underneath.
Arthur picked it up. It was his elephant. The one toy his birth parents had been able to give him before they died. He'd had it for years and years, but had lost it on his fifth birthday when he took it to a picnic that had been suddenly abandoned due to rain. Bob and Emily had hunted for it the next day, and his older brothers and sisters had as well, several times, but Elephant had never been found.