Lady Friday by Garth & Corduner Nix Page A

fears they have not the strength to carry the day against Lord Arthur’s Key.”
    Arthur looked out the window, onto the groaning, ice-edged waterwheel, a huge and menacing machine made somehow scarier by the gathering darkness beyond. He watched it turn. If it was slow enough, he thought it would be possible to climb out onto one of the flat spokes and be carried and slide down to the ground, out of sight of the Fetchers on the southern and eastern side. Or he’d fall into the canal and drown or get frozen to death.
    It was slow enough, Arthur reckoned, though it would still be a dangerous path to the canal bank. But then the only other way would be to fight through the Fetchers and Saturday’s Dusk, and Arthur was not confident about doing that. At least not without using the full powers of the Key.
    “Ugham!” shouted Arthur. “Tell Saturday’s Dusk you have to go inside to get me. Tell him to come back in half an hour. That should give us a reasonable head start.”
    “What are we going to do?” asked Fred.
    Arthur pointed out the window.
    “We’re going to climb out onto a spoke of the wheel and get carried down, jumping off just before it hits the water. Then we’ll head west along the canal to where the Paper Pushers are.”
    “Hmmph,” said Suzy. “Back into the cold, in other words.”
    “Yes,” confirmed Arthur. “Back into the cold.”
     

 
     
     
Chapter Nine
     
    Leaf shivered as the sleepwalkers slid off their beds and formed a line in obedience to Harrison’s orders. There was something awful and creepy about their unseeing, half-open eyes and their floppy movements. Almost as if they were like perfect string puppet representations of humans, only with invisible strings.
    “Follow me!” called out Harrison, and he walked to the far door. Lowering the silver cone, he added in his own weak voice, “You too, Leaf! Bring up the rear.”
    “What if I don’t?” Leaf asked rebelliously. She tried to project a more aggressive tone than she felt, but she sounded weak and childish, even to herself.
    “I can make the sleepers bring you,” said Harrison. “Though they would hurt themselves in the process. Please, it would be easier for everyone if you just come along.”
    “I’m not helping you take these people to get killed,” said Leaf.
    “They don’t get killed,” said Harrison, but he didn’t look at Leaf when he spoke. “They’ll still be alive at the end of the day. After She’s finished with them. Come on! We’ll both get punished if we’re late.”
    “I’m not cooperating,” said Leaf. “But I want to see what’s outside, so I guess I’ll come along.”
    “You’ll learn,” said Harrison sourly. He slid back the two bolts securing the outside door and then wrestled with the long handle, the sound of a large and stiff lock clicking back inside. Then he pushed the door open, using his shoulder and grunting with the effort, as the door was several inches thick and the outer face was lined with steel plate.
    Purple light streamed in, casting an unattractive glow over the faces of Harrison and the sleepers. Leaf slitted her eyes, not because it was too bright, just that the color was too intense, and it made her feel slightly ill.
    It was warmer out in the purple sunlight, and a light breeze ruffled Leaf’s hair, bringing with it a strange, slightly earthy scent, reminiscent of forests she’d walked in previously but overlaid with something like an exotic spice.
    There was smooth gray rock underfoot, whorled in patterns to show it had once been lava, long cooled. The rock shelved down gently to the lake in the middle, which looked like normal water, though it too was tinged purple by the light.
    Leaf looked around and saw that the crater wall reached up three or four hundred feet. It was dotted with windows of various sizes and there were some doors high up as well, with suspended walkways hugging the cliff between them. Farther around the crater, probably where the