Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix Page A

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 hesez, ‘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.