The Atlas!
Arthur had a momentary panic as he scrabbled under his cape and apron for his shirt pocket. For an instant he thought he'd dropped the Atlas back on the railway! A second later his hand closed on the rough cloth cover and he sighed in relief.
"Heart attack?" asked Suzy curiously. "Thought you were too young."
"No, just checking the Atlas," said Arthur. He looked at Suzy again and for a moment felt like giving her a hug, he was so relieved to see her. But the moment passed. He offered his hand instead. Suzy took it.
"Delighted, I'm sure," said Suzy formally. "See, I've been learning me manners." As they shook, the nail on her index finger suddenly shone with a very bright, clear light, almost blinding Arthur. Suzy let go immediately and tugged on the finger till the joints cracked and the light went out.
"Supposed to stop once I found you," she grumbled. "Dame Primus? that's her as used to be Part One of the Will? fixed it so it would get brighter when you were close."
"But how did you know I was here?" asked Arthur.
"That'd be telling," said Suzy, holding her index finger up to her nose. It lit up once again and she flinched. "Stupid finger spells! That Will was a frog for too long if you ask me."
"But how did you know?" Arthur repeated.
"Well, after the telephone was cut off I thought I'd nip over to your world, only Dame Primus wouldn't let me go, cos of the Original Law. I said, 'It's a pretty dumb Law when you can't do anything but everyone else can' and Dame Primus said, 'You'll go to your room, young lady, for the next decade if you're not careful, trouble or no trouble,' and I said, 'Arthur's the Master, he made me Monday's Tierce, you're only the Steward,' and then she sent me to my room. Only I climbed out through the chimney and Sneezer let me use Seven Dials to have a look at what was going on, and I saw the Grotesques had gone through, and then the Scoucher, and I wanted to warn you but your head is too thick or something and won't receive waking dreams, so Sneezer helped me ask the Atlas and it steered you to that girl Leaf who I met when we were on the Improbable Stair, and then I sent a dream to her telling her where the Grotesques had opened their side of the Door in your world, and I? Where was I?"
She took a deep breath and rushed on.
"Oh? we figured Leaf could tell you and then you could use that door to get back into the House. But then I thought maybe I'd better go and help you out anyway, so I went to see the Lieutenant Keeper and asked him to let me through, but he wouldn't, so then I sneaked back into the Dayroom and looked through Seven Dials again and saw you were going through the Door, so I went down to the Atrium to meet you. But when you didn't show up, I knocked on the Door and talked to the Lieutenant Keeper.
"I sez to him, 'Did Arthur come through the Door?' and he sez, 'Yes,' and then I waited and he didn't say anything so I sez, 'Where did he go?' and he sez, 'The Far Reaches,' and I sez, 'How long ago?' and he sez, 'Two hours by House Time,' and then I sez, 'Let me go through too,' and he sez, 'No,' and I sez, 'Why?' and he sez, 'Even if I could permit it, you can only use that door from the Secondary Realms. Here, you have to go through the House.'
"So I went back to Dame Primus and after a bit of shouting and carrying on she sez, 'Grim Tuesday deserves to have you on his doorstep,' and she fixed me up with all the trimmings to help you out, like this fingernail thing."
"Right," said Arthur weakly. After having hardly spoken for a day it was almost too much to listen to Suzy, who was clearly in a talkative mood. "So how did you get into the Far Reaches and get that? that wheel and everything?"
"The Grim uses the Piper's children for messengers," said Suzy, brandishing the cleft stick with the parchment in the end. "Monday's Noon, that used to be Dusk, did a transfer for me to the Middle House, and then a friend of his there sold my contract to Grim Tuesday so I could join his messengers. Then I swapped with Ned to come down the line because my finger glowed when I went near the railway."
Arthur shook his head, his new earring jangling annoyingly against his neck. He was still tired and sore and it was all a bit too much to take in. Then he realized the significance of what Suzy was saying.
"You're indentured!" he said. "That means you're trapped here!"
"Only temporarily," replied Suzy with a shrug. "Once you find Part Two of the Will and take over from Grim Tuesday, then you can release me from my indenture."
"And me," said Japeth. "Sir. Excellency. Eminence. Highness. Majesty. Whoever you actually are."
"He's Monday," said Suzy. "The Master of the Lower House." Japeth choked on whatever he was going to say and immediately leaned into a very deep bow that put his head almost at Arthur's feet.
"I'm not Monday!" said Arthur. Distress was clear on his face. He wasn't Monday. He wasn't one of the Days. He was just a boy caught up in great events and as soon as possible he would go back to his normal, uneventful life. "I'm Arthur Penhaligon. I've handed over the Mastery of the Lower House to the? to Dame Primus or whatever she calls herself. Please, get up!"
Japeth raised himself a little, but remained hunched over. He retreated several steps, tripped over a broken piece of rail, and fell flat on his back. Arthur hurried over to help him up, making the Denizen even more flustered.
As Japeth straightened himself out, Arthur turned back to Suzy.
"How am I supposed to find Part Two of the Will and take over from Grim Tuesday anyway? I can't even free myself from this Pit! Ow! OW!"
A drop of Nothing-laced rain had fallen on his lip. Arthur frantically wiped it off and hopped around clutching his face till the pain subsided. He didn't know whether it was the Lieutenant Keeper's spell or some residual enchantment from the First Key, but the burns from the Nothing rain healed in a matter of minutes. But he still felt the pain?
"That's why I'm here," said Suzy. "To help you. You might want to look the other way - this is a bit disgusting."
"What is?" asked Arthur, as Suzy reached into her mouth with two fingers. "This!" said Suzy, ripping out a tooth from the back of her mouth, complete with bleeding roots.
Arthur grimaced and stepped back as Suzy spat blood onto the train tracks.
"Had to smuggle it in as an extra wisdom tooth right at the back," she explained, setting the tooth down on the ground, being careful to shield it with her umbrella. "Got everything we need in it."
Arthur looked down at the tooth.
How could this ugly-looking molar have anything in it? he thought, but he was wise enough in the ways of the House to keep silent for a moment.
As Arthur watched, the color from the bloody roots slowly spread upwards, changing the tooth from white to a deep, even red. Then the tooth began to shimmer and change, its outline becoming blurry and indistinct. An instant later, Arthur was looking down at a fat little wooden doll about an inch high and two inches around, with a smiling face, red cheeks, and a bright red-painted coat with a black line around the stomach to mark where it could be opened. It looked like the smallest doll from a set of Russian dolls, the kind that nested one within another.
"Uh, you sure this is right?" asked Arthur.
"Open it up," said Suzy with a sniff. "See for yourself."
Arthur bent down and unscrewed the doll. When he lifted off the top half his thumb and forefinger were savagely forced apart, nearly spraining them, as a larger doll exploded out.
The second doll was five times the size of the tiny doll he'd just opened. Arthur sighed as Suzy raised an eyebrow.
"Come on," she said. "There's three more dolls inside that one, then the one with the stuff. Don't stick your head too close, mind."