"I can never rest, for if I rest, the Will may escape," continued Sir Thursday. "It makes me a little irritable. But I have my orders. So you see, Lieutenant, I am not going to release the Will and I am not going to give you the Key until I am directly ordered to do so. Which, though I do not have a lot of communication with the Upper House, seems extremely unlikely."
Sir Thursday brushed his hands to remove the last bits of powdered metal and stalked over to Arthur, leaning close.
"You may have plans, Arthur, to try to free the Will yourself. But you are not Arthur Penhaligon here, Master of the Lower House, the Far Reaches, and the Border Sea. You are a commissioned officer in my Army and I am ordering you to do nothing to free the Will. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," said Arthur.
"Disobeying orders on active service is considered mutiny," said Sir Thursday. "For which the penalty is death. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then the matter is concluded, at least for the remainder of your service." Sir Thursday's mouth curved up on one side, in what he probably imagined was a grin. "Much can happen in ninety-nine years, Mister … Green."
"Yes, sir!" said Arthur, thinking, More like the next twenty-four hours. You're going to get me killed on this suicide mission.
"You had best join the assault unit and prepare yourself," said Sir Thursday. "We shall enter the Improbable Stair in eighteen minutes. Dismiss!"
Arthur saluted and did an about-turn. But as he spun around on his heel, he heard a distant voice speaking directly into his mind. It was very faint but clear, and he recognised the tone. All the Parts of the Will had a kind of monomaniacal directness, even in mental speech.
Arthur, I am here, bound to the Key. I can free myself if Sir Thursday's attention and power are sufficiently diverted.
Arthur gave no sign he had been contacted. He continued marching, his mind juggling many plans, fears, and notions, constantly dropping, picking up, and throwing them about.
To hear what was said and to speak to his mind, the Will must have been in the room with Sir Thursday. It said it was bound to the Key, so that must have been there as well. But Sir Thursday carried no visible weapons. He wore a private's uniform but without a cartridge bag or bayonet frog to put anything in.
But there was that badge, Arthur thought. That weirdly oversized badge on his cap. A sword with a snake wound around the hilt …
Twenty-three
ARTHUR FOUND A sergeant waiting for him. It felt strange to be saluted by him instead of being shouted at, but it was a pleasant kind of strange. Arthur thought he would quickly get used to being an officer. The sergeant led him down a winding stair to a vast, echoing armoury that occupied a cavern hewn from the rock under the Star Fort. There were racks and racks of weapons and armour, in eight rows that each stretched for at least a hundred yards. The eleven Piper's children were clattering about, collecting their equipment. They were watched with resigned suspicion by three grizzled Denizen Armourer Sergeants. One of the sergeants, catching sight of Arthur and his new badges of rank, shouted, "Stand fast!"
The Piper's children stood at attention, but not very fast or very smartly. One of them was even on the brink of slouching. Arthur ignored this.
"As you were," he called. "Carry on. Corporal Blue!"
Suzy appeared from behind a rack of bell-barrelled musketoons. She had a savage-sword buckled onto a wide, non-regulation leather belt. On the cross-belts above, she carried four small Nothing-powder pistols in holsters.
Arthur gestured at her to go back behind another rack, then joined her there, where they were shielded from the others by a line of eight-foot-high arrow shields known as pavises.
"Arthur, I've got the pocket!" whispered Suzy. She tapped her tunic.
"The pocket? My shirt pocket?" asked Arthur, taken aback. He'd been about to tell her about Sir Thursday. "You mean the one used to grow the Skinless Boy?"
"Well, I ain't talking about just any pocket," said Suzy. "Do you want it now? I reckon you can stick it in that spike thing, if it's made of Nothing."
"Yes," Arthur said quickly. He held out his hand. "But how did you get it? Did Leaf … is my family all right?"
"Dunno." Suzy rummaged around inside her tunic and pulled out a clear plastic box with the scrap of material in it. "Leaf got the pocket, but she couldn't get back to the House. She telephoned from your home, and I nipped through the Seven Dials, but by the time I got there that brain fungus had taken her over. I didn't have time to stick around, so I flew into the Front Door. Only I got stopped by Superior Saturday's Noon, who would have had my guts for garters if the Lieutenant Keeper, bless his white hair, hadn't lobbed in –"
"I'll have to get the full story later," Arthur interrupted. He was desperate to hear all the details, but he had to concentrate on the problems immediately at hand. "We've only got a few minutes. Sir Thursday knows who I am. He's ordered me not to free the Will, which I think is in that cap badge he wears. The snake. And the Key is the sword."
Suzy scratched her head. "That's a bit of a poser. I thought he'd be the sort who'd just cut your head off."
"He follows orders and regulations," said Arthur. "But I reckon if I show any insubordination he will kill me. Besides, I think he's planning to get me killed anyway, during this attack on the spike."
"He's bound to," agreed Suzy, which wasn't very encouraging. "What are you going to do?"
Arthur looked around to check that no one had come within hearing distance.
"The Will spoke to me, in my head. It said it could free itself if Sir Thursday is sufficiently distracted. Once it's free, I guess it can help me get the Key. Only … I have to admit, even if I do get the Key and the Will helps, I'm a bit … nervous … about taking on Sir Thursday."
"I know what you mean," said Suzy.
"Also, since I've been ordered not to try to free the Will, I can't even try to distract Sir Thursday myself," said Arthur.
"Why not?" asked Suzy. "Just disobey orders. I do it all the time, with Old Primey."
"I don't think I can," Arthur explained. "I can feel a sort of pressure in my head when I think about disobeying orders, and find it hard to even imagine going against a direct order from Sir Thursday. I think it's from recruit school, and it's gotten even worse since I was commissioned. That must be why Sir Thursday made me an officer."
"I'll distract him," said Suzy. She had a thoughtful look in her eyes. "I reckon I've had so much practice disobeying orders I can manage."
"It's not as simple as that," said Arthur hurriedly. "We have to wait until Sir Thursday has destroyed the Nothing spike. If it isn't destroyed, we won't have a chance against the New Nithlings … though now that I think about it … "
"What?" Suzy took a power-spear from a rack and mimed throwing it, to test its weight. Arthur ducked as she swung it around but kept talking.
"I wonder if anyone has tried talking to the New Nithlings and their commander," said Arthur. "I know they're the enemy, but they're not like normal Nithlings that just want to kill and destroy. Who knows what these ones really want? Maybe I could negotiate with them."
"Negotiate with Nithlings?" asked Suzy. "You can't negotiate with Nithlings –" "Five minutes!" called the sergeant who'd shown Arthur to the armoury. "Five minutes!"
"Five minutes!" repeated Arthur. "I'd better get ready."
He ran over to a rack of Legionary armour and, after a moment's hesitation, pulled out a junior centurion's bronzed cuirass rather than the segmented armour of an ordinary Legionary. He put it on, and wedged the plastic box with the sorcerous pocket into the sheath under the armhole of his cuirass, meant to hold a last-resort dagger. "Can you get me a savage-sword, Suzy? One of the medium-sized ones."