Lady Friday by Garth & Corduner Nix

up and down but he was whispering, not shouting. It was really hard to hear him. That went on for a while, then this Denizen got dragged in by the guards. He said he had a message from Lady Friday about abdicating and leaving the Key—”
    “Yeah, I got that message too,” Arthur chimed in.
    “Then he tried to give the Piper this metal tablet, but the Piper made him drop it on the ground and told no one to touch it because it was probably a nefarious device. One of the Newniths opened up the package with a spear point and the Piper was talking about it when Suzy whispered to me—”
    “I said, ‘I reckon that’s a Transfer Plate,’” said Suzy. “So I jumped for it and Fred jumped after me and Ugham tried to catch both of us and so we were all connected when I touched the plate ... and here we are. Is there a fire inside? Or some hot water? I think my fingers might be about to drop off.”
    “Lady Friday’s messenger,” asked Arthur. “Did you hear him say that the Fifth Key has been left in Friday’s Scriptorium, for me or Saturday or the Piper?”
    “Yes,” said Fred. Suzy nodded. Ugham turned back from the mail slot for a moment to also nod gravely.
    “Part Five of the Will is somewhere here in the Middle House too,” continued Arthur. “At least Friday’s message said so. I suppose none of it may be true.”
    “I reckon the Piper believed it,” said Suzy. “About the
    Key anyway. Just before we jumped, he was whispering away with his generals about how to seize it first.”
    “I guess Superior Saturday believes it’s here as well,” added Arthur. “Those Fetchers must be hers .... She controls the elevators; she can send anything down here. Which reminds me—I wonder where my lookouts are.”
    He looked up at the ceiling in puzzlement, then shook his head.
    “Uh, I forgot, they’ve probably gone to report in the main chamber. This door can lead into two places, depending on which way you turn the handle.”
    “Let’s go to the warm place, then,” said Suzy. “I wonder if they’ve got any tea.”
    “What are the Fetchers doing?” asked Arthur.
    “They stand in some disorder,” said Ugham. “But perchance I spy some other ... yes ... a Superior Denizen alights from the cloud. His wings are silver.”
    “Saturday’s Dusk, probably,” said Arthur. “That’s not good.”
    “Old silver wings? The Lieutenant Keeper saw him off when I was in the Door,” said Suzy. “So you should have no trouble, Arthur, with the Key.”
    “You know I don’t want to use the Key,” said Arthur sharply. “We’d better get inside and ask if there’s another way out.”
    He turned the handle and opened the door—but instead of opening onto the main gold pool chamber it opened onto the gloomy interior of the tower.
    “I must have done it wrong,” said Arthur. He shut the door, turned the handle the other way, and opened the door again, but once more there was only the tower interior beyond.
    “Were you expecting something else?” asked Suzy.
    “Yes,” snapped Arthur. “The inner chamber! Elibazeth said they had other defenses. I guess this is one. I’ll ask my sentries.”
    He started up the steps with Suzy and Fred following, but by the time they reached the first landing, he knew from the silence above that Jugguth and the other two Denizens had probably gone back inside the main chamber—and Elibazeth had then closed it off. Running up to the next two landings proved this to be the case. The tower was deserted and the only way out was back down and through the front door.
    The only obvious way out, thought Arthur. But perhaps there is another exit after all ....
    “What are the Fetchers doing?” he shouted downstairs, at the same time as he opened one of the shutters on the north side of the tower.
    “They still stand like the cattle they are,” reported Ugham. “But the silver-wing’d Denizen comes forward, bearing aloft a white cloth. He seeks a parley, methinks. Doubtless he