‘Done,’ said the raven. It flew up and perched on Arthur’s shoulder. ‘I am complete. I am Part Six of the Will of the-’
Arthur didn’t wait to hear any more. He turned and ran along the quay as fast as he could go, flames spattering on the stone behind him. Steam klaxons sounded too, and the war cries of the Newniths, which he knew all too well from the battles in the Great Maze.
Through all that noise, through the hammering of engines, the scream of klaxons, the hiss and roar of the firestorm and the shouts, there was still that other sound. A clear and separate sound, beautiful and terrible to hear.
The sound of the Piper, playing a tune upon his pipes.
‘Ah,’ said the raven. ‘The Architect’s troublesome third son.’
‘Troublesome!’ Arthur snorted. ‘He’s a lot worse than that.’
The quay ended at a solid rock face, with no obvious exits. Arthur stared at it for a second, then started to hunt for protuberances or bits of stone that looked out of place. He quickly found one, pressed it, and rushed in as the rock-slab door groaned open.
The cavern beyond was an equipment room, the walls covered with racks of many different metalworking tools, which at a different time would have interested Arthur. With the Piper’s Army landing behind him, he barely spared them a glance.
‘How do I lock the door?’ he asked the Will, after he made sure there was another exit.
‘I have no idea,’ the Will replied.
‘You’ve been here for the last ten thousand years! Haven’t you learned anything?’
‘My viewpoint has been rather limited,’ the raven explained. ‘Not to mention extremely fragmented.’
Arthur grabbed several long iron bars and propped them up against the door, kicking them down so they were wedged in place.
‘That might last a few minutes,’ he said. ‘Come on!’
‘Where are we going?’ asked the Will.
‘Out of here, for a start.’ Arthur opened the far door and looked up a circular stairway made of red wrought iron that was decorated with gilded rosettes in its railings and on the steps. ‘The Piper will take a while to land all his troops, but they’ll send out scouting parties for sure, and I guess Saturday will send forces down. We have to stay out of the way of both.’
‘Saturday may well be occupied high above,’ said the Will. ‘Her tower has reached the underside of the Incomparable Gardens, and the Drasil trees are no longer growing taller.’
Arthur started running up the steps, taking three at a time. The raven flew behind him, occasionally alighting on his head.
‘Why does she want to get into the Incomparable Gardens?’ Arthur asked as he climbed.
‘Because the Incomparable Gardens are the first place the Architect made, and so shall be the last to fall,’ cawed the raven. ‘But also because Saturday believes that she should have always ruled there. She envies Sunday and would supplant him.’
‘Even if it means destroying the House?’ asked Arthur. The stairway was winding up between walkways like the one where he and Suzy had arrived out of the Simultaneous Nebuchadnezzar.
It would be really easy to enter the Improbable Stair right now, he thought. Going up these steps makes it really easy to visualise...
‘She believes the Incomparable Gardens would survive even if the rest of the House crumbles into Nothing,’ said the raven. ‘She may even be correct. Making the lower parts of the House fall was the only way she could stop the Drasils from growing.’
‘So she’ll get in? Can’t Lord Sunday stop her?’
‘I know nothing of Sunday’s current capabilities,’ said the Will. ‘Nor his intentions. We must find and free Part Seven to help us with that. But first, of course, you must claim the Sixth Key from Saturday, the self-proclaimed Superior Sorcerer.’
‘I know,’ said Arthur. ‘But how am I supposed to do that?’
‘Where there’s a Will there’s a-’
‘Shut up!’ protested Arthur. ‘I’m sick of hearing that.’
‘Oh?’ asked the Will. ‘Heard it before? I do apologise.’
‘How about something a bit more concrete?’ asked Arthur. ‘Like a plan, or some intelligent advice for a change?’
‘Hmm,’ said the raven. ‘I take it my lesser Parts have not endeared themselves to you?’
‘Not exactly,’ said Arthur. ‘Some bits are better than others. How long is this stair going to go up?’
‘I do have a plan, actually,’ said the Will, after another fifty steps.
‘Okay, what is it?’ Arthur wasn’t even slightly out of breath, despite running up so many steps. He still found that incredible.
‘Your friend, the Piper’s child, you want to attempt a rescue?’
‘Yes,’ said Arthur.
If Suzy’s still alive...
He stopped and the raven almost crashed into his face before managing to land on his shoulder. ‘Are you sure you’re part of the Will?’ Arthur had to ask. ‘The rest of you doesn’t usually care much about... anyone, really.’
‘It’s all part of my plan,’ the Will assured him. ‘You see, when I was suspended in the rain, I did get to visit many nooks and crannies that were rarely visited by anyone else. Including the hanging cages where they put prisoners.’
‘Hanging cages?’ Arthur didn’t like the sound of that.
‘Yes,’ said the raven eagerly. ‘Now, on the south and west sides of the tower, there’s all the big lifting apparatus and so on. On the north side it’s completely sheer and undisturbed, I don’t know why. But on the east side, there are lots of small extensions, platforms, balconies, crane-jigs and suchlike. Toward the top, around 61620, the Internal Auditors have a buttress that sticks out about fifty feet, and from that buttress they hang cages for prisoners. That’s probably where your friend is now. Unless the Artful Loungers killed her straight off. They are vicious creatures, and those Nothing-poison daggers of theirs-’
‘Let’s assume she’s alive,’ Arthur interrupted. Then he hesitated before adding, ‘I want to rescue her – but how would we get to these cages and not attract the attention of the Internal Auditors? There’s going to be a battle going on – maybe two battles...’
‘That will help us,’ said the Will. ‘But as to how we get there, it’s rather simple. We disguise ourselves as a Bathroom Attendant.’
‘Ourselves?’ asked Arthur. ‘As a single Bathroom Attendant?’
‘Yes,’ croaked the raven happily. ‘You’re almost tall enough to be a short Bathroom Attendant, and I can make myself into the mask.’
‘But why would a Bathroom Attendant go up there in the first place?’
Arthur shuddered as he remembered the gold-masked faces of the Bathroom Attendants who had washed him between the ears, temporarily removing his memory.
‘Because they’re Internal Auditors,’ explained the Will. ‘I mean, all Bathroom Attendants are Internal Auditors, though not all Internal Auditors are Bathroom Attendants.’
‘You mean they work for Saturday? She’s the one who wants all the Piper’s children’s memories erased?’
‘Yes, yes,’ said the Will. ‘It’s all got to do with trying to delay the appearance of the Rightful Heir. Or, if you get knocked off, another one, and so on.’
‘So we disguise ourselves as a Bathroom Attendant, get to the Internal Auditors’ offices, and rescue Suzy from the hanging cage. But how does that fit in with getting the Key from Saturday? Or anything else, for that matter?’
‘Well, there shouldn’t be any Internal Auditors there,’ said the Will. ‘They’re Saturday’s best troops, so they’ll be up top, ready to fight their way into the Incomparable Gardens. Like I said, it’s the east side, so it’ll be the quiet side. We rescue your friend, then we watch the Piper’s troops fight Saturday’s troops and, at the right moment, you open an elevator shaft to the Citadel and bring your troops through.’
‘I don’t know how to open an elevator shaft,’ said Arthur.
‘It’s easy – or at least it will be then, because all of Saturday’s sorcerers that are stopping the elevators will be distracted. Or if they’re not, you use the Fifth Key to take us out, we regroup, and then come back the same way. How does that sound?’