"That's enough!" ordered Tom. His harpoon vanished, he spun the wheel and pushed back several levers. The red dye in the central gauge ebbed away. "We're almost at the mooring point. You will need to gather around me for the transfer back to the House."
The Will frowned, but stood up with visible effort and waddled the few steps to Tom's feet.
"Fat little rat," whispered Suzy. "Nothing like Part One."
"I guess they could all be different," whispered Arthur back. "Not that I want to find out."
"Stand close," said Tom. He reached into his pocket and drew out a silver carving fork. He frowned, returned it, and pulled out a very large silver soup spoon, rubbing it carefully against his sleeve. Then he held it up so it caught the blue light from the portholes.
"Focus on your own reflection in the spoon," he instructed. "Don't look at anything else. Don't get distracted. Don't look away. Everybody looking?" Arthur and Suzy nodded.
The Will sighed and reared up on its hind legs, its stubby tail helping it to balance.
"Hold it a little lower, if you please? Yes, I am looking."
Arthur stared fixedly at the curved back of the spoon. His reflection was curved and fuzzy, mixed in with Suzy's and the reflection of the bear. Arthur tried to concentrate on maintaining his stare, but his mind was wandering ahead, trying to think about other options. But he couldn't think of anything other than sending the telegram to Dame Primus and trying to stay one step? or preferably many more steps? ahead of Grim Tuesday.
Tom began to bellow his spell (or poem or chant or whatever it was). Having an extremely loud, incomprehensible shout going on and on above his head was very distracting but Arthur forced himself to keep staring at the shiny spoon and his own curved face.
It got easier to look after the first minute. The other reflections drifted away, and Arthur lost all sense that there was anything or anyone else around him. There was only his shimmering reflection. He was alone in the universe, looking at himself, and that was all there was -
Tom finished the spell and wrapped his weather-beaten hand around the spoon.
Arthur blinked.
They were back in Tom's room in the Treasure Tower. Arthur could hear distant bellowing and shouting. No words were distinguishable, it was all angry roaring, until a few distinct words came through, one voice cutting through the other. Arthur recognized the quieter voice as Soot's.
The louder one's shout was, "Captain! To me!"
Tom cursed.
"I must obey!" he explained. "Good fortune, Arthur. Here!"
He tore the gold coin from his right ear and flipped it to Arthur as he strode to the door, his "friend" materializing in his hand on his second step.
Arthur caught the coin, sticky with Tom's blood, and looked over to the table.
"Thanks! But how do I send a -"
He was too late. Tom had gone, the door swinging shut behind him.
Suzy hurried over to the desk, while the Will climbed awkwardly into Tom's chair and recommenced looking haughty and disapproving.
"There'll be a telegraph blank here somewhere," Suzy explained, quickly sorting through the papers. "You just write in the squares. Here!"
She took a quill and an ink bottle from deep inside her shirt, unscrewed the bottle, licked the point of the quill, and handed it to Arthur.
"You write it," he said. He tried to hand the quill back. He'd never used anything but a ballpoint or felt tip.
Suzy shook her head. "I'm still taking penmanship. Dame Primus says my letters are a disgrace. Particularly the esses. And the haitches."
Arthur looked at the telegram blank. It was a simple printed form, headed THE ELEVATED AND WORSHIPFUL TELEGRAPHIC, TELEPHONIC, AND MESSAGE SERVICE OF THE HOUSE. Under that, there was to and a line of seven word boxes, message and five lines of seven boxes, and from with its line of seven boxes, plus a red-inked circle in the corner about the size of the blood-dappled gold coin Arthur held. There was also a very small box with the words reply paid under the circle.
Dipping the quill in the turquoise-blue ink, Arthur somewhat blobbily wrote Dame Primus. He had to re-ink for the -mus, ignoring Suzy's unspoken but evident scorn at his clumsiness with the quill.
He thought for a few seconds, then with several refills, numerous splotches, and some scratching, wrote:
IN TREASURE TOWER GOT WILL IT WON'T RECOGNIZE ME SAYS NEEDS OFFICIAL FORM SEND FORM OR HELP HELP!
He hesitated at the from boxes, then simply put Arthur and ticked the box next to reply paid.
As soon as he'd ticked the box, the red-lined circle began to glow with a silver light, and the handwritten annotation 12R appeared.
"Lob the coin down," Suzy instructed.
Arthur placed the gold coin on the circle. The whole form immediately vanished. In its place were four silver coins of varying sizes and designs.
"Lucky you got the change," said Suzy, sweeping the coins off the table and into her pocket. "They embezzle it half the time."
"We'd better find that weirdway next door," said Arthur, suddenly conscious that he couldn't hear any shouting outside.
"Which side?" asked Suzy.
"Forgot to ask," Arthur shouted as he made his way to the door. "Come on! You too, Will."
"If you must call me anything, you may address me as Most Excellent Testamentary Clause," said the sun bear.
"Claws?" said Suzy, as she tilted the chair to speed the bear on its way. "Orright, Claws, hop to it."
"No, no, no," protested the sun bear. "Most Excellent?"
"Claws it is," said Suzy loudly. "After you, Claws."
"I said? oh? just don't speak to me," huffed the Will as it waddled after Arthur.
Out on the walkway, Arthur was already trying the door on the left. It opened easily enough, but the cell beyond was completely empty and quite dark, illuminated only by the spill of light from the walkway lanterns. Arthur dashed in, quickly scanned the room, and dashed out again.
"The other one!" he said. He tried to keep his voice down, but it still echoed.
The echo was answered by a shout from below. A harsh, powerful voice that was not Tom's. It echoed up from a point not as far below as Arthur would have hoped. Perhaps only three or four levels down.
"Captain! Did you hear that?"
"What?" came the reply from Tom, while Arthur and Suzy crept along to the next door, gently slid back the bolt, and pushed open the door. There was a light inside this cell, and Arthur immediately felt more hopeful. They would find the weirdway quickly and get away, at least for the time being.
"That was no Nithling! It must not have eaten the other intruders!" the voice continued.
"Let us deal with the Nithling, Lord Tuesday," said Tom. "It is strong, and grows stronger. We must find it first."
"Come here, Nithling!" roared the voice, which Arthur now knew must belong to Grim Tuesday. "I do not have time to waste searching for miscreants!"
He growled out something else, then more clearly shouted, "By the power of the Second Key, all intruders stand before me!"
Arthur felt unseen hands tug at him, dragging him back towards the nearest steps down. Suzy also took several steps back, a look of surprise on her face. Only the Will appeared unaffected. It stood to Arthur's left, watching him struggle as his Immaterial Boots slid backwards across the woven iron floor.
Arthur grimaced and threw himself forward. But he just fell face-first onto the cold iron and began to slide back, as if dragged by invisible captors. He tried hooking his fingers through the mesh of the walkway floor, but had to let go before they were broken or torn off.
Flailing wildly for some other handhold, Arthur touched the Will's tail. As soon as he did, the dragging force disappeared. Arthur immediately gripped the tail hard.
"How dare you!" squealed the Will, its high-pitched voice echoing out into the central void.