"What about Japeth?" asked Arthur.
"Sorry." Suzy shrugged. "Nothing I can do."
"Perhaps I could take your wheel, Miss Suzy, and catch up with my gang," suggested Japeth. "Then, when you defeat Grim Tuesday, sir, you might take the trouble to release me from my indenture? And perhaps find employment suitable for a former Thesaurus?"
"More like if than when," muttered Arthur. "And I can't just fly out on you. You didn't run out on me."
"Nor will you run out on me, I'm sure," said Japeth, bowing again. "This is merely a delay, postponement, deferment, or recess. I am sure you will be successful and my release, rescue, deliverance, redemption, saving of my bacon -" "You said it," said Suzy. "Nice to meet you, Japeth. Don't worry. Arthur's smarter than he looks. I reckon he'll see you right. Tuesday'll be a pushover compared to Monday."
"Really?" asked Japeth.
"Nah, don't be soft," said Suzy. "I just said that to cheer you up. Shouldn't have asked. Now, Artie, we need to get the wings and stickit fingers on. I'll have to cut some holes in your coat and shirt."
"Don't call me Artie! And why do I need holes in my clothes?"
"Because the wings are stuck on with sealing wax to your shoulders," explained Suzy, indicating the stick of red wax. "With a string through the wax, so when it's time to drop the wings, you pull the string, break the seal, and down you drop, nice as ninepence. Come on."
Still Arthur hesitated. He felt that he was once more being pushed into something that he had no control over. But was there any real choice?
"That train is remarkably fleet, fast, light-footed," said Japeth, who was watching the smoke plume from the Grim's train. "If I am to take the wheel, I perhaps should set forth, depart, leave, or absent myself immediately."
"You're right," said Arthur. He forced a deep breath into his tired lungs and stood up straighten He owed it to Japeth - and Suzy and everyone else - to do his absolute best and then some more. Giving up was not an option. "I will defeat Grim Tuesday and I will release you and all the other indentured workers. No one should be a slave. Here, or anywhere else."
"That's more like the old Arthur," said Suzy. "There I was thinking this Pit had sucked the guts out of you. In a manner of speaking."
"Thanks a lot," muttered Arthur. He held out his hand to Japeth. "Good luck. I'll do my best to help you."
This time, there were fewer sparks when Japeth shook his hand. But Arthur felt a surge of energy come out of his palm and travel up through his arm, and Japeth's arm trembled as if he felt something similar. Then Arthur noticed that Japeth had grown several inches, and his ragged shirt had restitched itself, even the string holding together his cuffs transforming into mother-of-pearl links.
"I will serve you too, Arthur, when I can," said Japeth, letting go of his hand.
"Farewell for now, Master. Miss Suzy, if I may trouble you to explain, elucidate, or illuminate the workings of this wheel?"
He hurried over to the wheel and climbed in. Suzy showed him the lever that controlled its speed and the locked access hatch to the gearbox that could only be opened by Grim Tuesday or one of the Grotesques, to allow the wheel to use its stored clockwork power to go up the railway rather than down.
Japeth gently pushed the lever forward and the wheel moved off. The Denizen waved as he passed Arthur, then pushed the lever as far as it would go. The wheel accelerated away, and was soon lost in the rising shadows.
The rain had also just started again. Spotting drops, so far without the Nothing taint. The clouds were spreading out from the edges of the Pit, drawing closer to the fading sunburst.
Arthur stood still as Suzy sliced through his cape and shirt with a short, sharp knife - the knife she'd picked up in Monday's antechamber. Standing still while Suzy cut behind him reminded Arthur unpleasantly of being in the hospital, about to be injected in the upper arm.
After cutting the slits in his clothes, Suzy picked up one of the pieces of paper and quickly folded and tore it into two separate wings. The paper became fluffier and more feathery as she worked.
"Lie down," she instructed Arthur. He lay down but craned his head to see what she was doing.
Suzy put the wings on the ground and weighted them with a piece of ballast. She unrolled two pieces of twine and set them next to the wings. Then she picked up the stick of sealing wax and the matches.
"This'll sting a bit," she said as she struck a match against the ground. It flared with a loud whoompah, and a flame about three feet long shot up out of the match.
"Down," said Suzy. The flame receded. "Down some more. That's it."
Arthur couldn't see what she did next, but he felt it. A blob of hot sealing wax went straight onto his shoulder blade, then he felt the paper wing brushing his back and the string dangling past his neck. Suzy's thumb pressed hard into the wax.
"Don't move!" she warned. "Got to do the next one quickly or they'll grow unbalanced."
Arthur bit his lip to suppress a yelp as the wax dripped on the other side. It was worse when he expected it, but it was only a momentary pain.
"Done!" exclaimed Suzy with satisfaction. "They take about ten minutes to grow. I'll make mine, then you can stick them on for me."
"I don't know how!" Arthur protested.
"It's easy," replied Suzy as she quickly folded and tore the remaining paper into wings. "Just heat the wax, drop a bit on my shoulder, whack the wing and the string on, drop a bit more wax, then seal it with your thumb. There's already holes in my clothes from my regular wings."
"OK," said Arthur doubtfully. He took the wings and weighted them down with the same piece of ballast, and put the string next to them. Then he picked up the matches. They looked normal enough apart from the cover of the box.
"Hurry up," said Suzy, who was lying on the floor scratching her back through the holes in her clothes. "This stone is cold."
Arthur struck the match on the ground, flinching as it roared into life. The flame was even longer than the one Suzy had struck, and dancing around in an excited fashion that had nothing to do with any wind. It even seemed to have a tiny, grinning face.
"Down," said Arthur. "Down a lot."
The flame slowly ebbed, the face losing its grin and becoming sad. When it was only an inch or so high, Arthur picked up the sealing wax and quickly melted the end to drop a dollop on Suzy's back. Being nervous, he got it a bit wrong, so some wax fell on her coat and ran onto the skin. Arthur dripped a bit more on.
"What's the holdup?" asked Suzy. "It's not like it's a complicated spell or anything."
Arthur frowned and dripped a whole lot more wax, then he carefully pressed the wing and the string down, melted more wax on top, and pressed it down with his thumb. He expected that this would leave a thumbprint in the wax, but it didn't. Instead it made the wax glow in rainbow colors, followed by a perfect round seal, with a profile of his own head wearing a crown of laurel, and words around the outside in some weird alphabet that slowly changed into regular letters that read dominus Arthur magister domus inferior and then changed again to lord Arthur master of the lower house.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Suzy in an exasperated tone. "Grim Tuesday to come and ask you to tea?"
"Sorry," said Arthur. He'd been briefly mesmerized by his own seal. Quickly he put on the second wing. It had already grown a bit on the ground, and was much more like feathers than paper. Clean, glowing white feathers, totally in contrast to the soot-stained stone and the gathering darkness.
Arthur felt his own wings begin to flap, sending a draft around his ankles. But they were still too small to lift him off the ground.