Keys To The Kingdom_ Sir Thursday Part 20

Whichever it was, the Piper staggered back and let out a cry of pain and an ger that burned the inside of Arthur's ears, even after he managed to clap his palms to his head. The boy turned and bolted back towards the bastion. Behind him, the great kettledrums of the enemy beat out a staccato alarm, a nd tens of thousands of New Nithlings shouted out in rage at their enemy's treachery, a noise that was as loud as thunder and much more frightening.

Arthur sprinted to the sally port and through the open door. As soon as he w as past, it was bolted with six huge bolts, and then when he had gone forwar d along the pa.s.sage, a vast stone was swung against it and locked in place.

"I told you not to do anything!" Arthur shouted at the Will, which had coile d itself on his forearm, its head held low. "That was dishonorable and stupi d. The New Nithlings will go berserk." "You told me not to poisonously bite anyone," said the Will. "I did not. It was an acid. Unfortunately, the Piper will only be incapacitated, at best, for a d ay or so. If I got it in his mouth. If he still has a mouth."

A clatter of footsteps and armor announced the arrival of Marshal Dusk and his entourage.

"What happened, Sir Arthur?" asked Dusk. "We could not see clearly, but th e a.s.sault has begun!"

"The Will spat acid at the Piper," said Arthur bitterly. "For some dishonorab le reason of its own."

"The Piper is a traitor to the Rightful Heir," said the snake. "And a very p owerful enemy who now will not take the field against us for a day or more. Besides, the parley was finished."

"Get off my arm," said Arthur coldly. "And get out of my sight."

"As you wish," replied the Will. It slithered off Arthur's arm and made its s inuous way across the floor, disappearing into a gap in the stones.

"Has any help arrived from the Lower House?" Arthur asked as he was led b ack through the outer defenses. Even through the many thick stone walls t hat were now between him and the enemy, he could hear the drums and the s houting.

"Not yet, sir," replied Marshal Dusk. "Where shall you direct the battle, Sir Arthur? I suggest the Star Fort."

"No," said Arthur. "Somewhere on the second line of bastions, where I can b e closer to what's happening."

"The central western bastion is the tallest in the second line," Dusk info rmed him. "Usually it would be too noisy and clouded with smoke, for there are two royal and four demi-cannon mounted there. But without Nothing-pow der"

"Yes, I know," said Arthur. "Will that telephone work there?"

"I believe it will work anywhere within the Maze," said Dusk as they emerged out into the fresh air onto a high catwalk that linked two of the second-li ne bastions. "Provided it is cranked at exactly the right speed. Fortunately Captain Drury is an expert."

"I'll call Dame Primus again and hurry "

His words were lost in a t.i.tanic boom and blast of air, and a rumbling underf oot that shook the catwalk and made several of the officers lose their balanc e. "What was that?" asked Arthur.

"A mine," said Dusk grimly. He looked back at the outer line of bastions. The southwest bastion was no longer visible, hidden beneath a plume of dus t and smoke that coiled up several hundred feet and billowed out horizonta lly as well. "They must have tunneled under in the last few days and they have no shortage of Nothing-powder."

Beyond the giant, dark cloud, the sound of the drums increased in tempo an d volume.

"They're a.s.saulting through the breach!" said Dusk. "We must hurry!"

He led the way at a run, with Arthur close behind. The cloud of smoke and dust quickly overtook them, shrouding them in its choking ma.s.s as they wer e admitted into the second defense line.

Behind them, the surviving bastions of the first line threw down their bridg es, closed all connecting gates and doors, and prepared for the onslaught of seventy-five thousand New Nithling soldiers.

Chapter Twenty-nine

There is no answer, sir," said the Operator. "We cannot raise anyone in th e Dayroom of the Lower House."

Arthur handed the telephone back to Captain Drury and shook his head.

"No answer! I can't understand what's happening. There should be someone there. And we should have had help arrive by now!"

Marshal Dusk did not say anything. They were in the third-line central-west bastion now. There were still individual bastions holding out in the first a nd second lines, but the defenses had been breached in numerous places, all in the s.p.a.ce of an hour.

"Is it going to get worse at night?" asked Arthur, with a glance at the setting sun. "Or better?"

"I fear it will make no difference," said Dusk. "The moon will be bright, and there are fires enough to light their way."

There were many fires burning below them. The New Nithlings had brought a new weapon to bear, a tube that squirted something like superconcentrated firewash in a tight stream. They had used this "incandescent lance" as i t was quickly dubbed to burn through thick stone walls as well as gates.

The only thing that had saved the third defense line thus far was that th e enemy appeared to have used up all their supplies of these tubes, which could only be used once.

"Has that runner come back from the Star Fort?" Arthur asked.

"No, sir," replied one of the staff officers. His head was bandaged, the re sult of the last attempted escalade by the Nithlings against the central ba stion. Their ladders had seemed too short up until the last moment, when th ey had thrown them against the wall and activated some mechanism that exten ded both ends by several yards. Arthur himself had fought in the effort to turn back that attack, an intense and horrible few minutes where New Nithli ngs seemed to be pouring over the walls like water.

Arthur's soldiers had repulsed the attack, but the New Nithlings were ma.s.si ng once more below. Thousands and thousands of them, filling all the s.p.a.ce between the defense lines, safe now because the defenders had run out of fi re-wash and even easily procured debris to throw at them.

"They're forming up!" warned Dusk. "Stand ready!"

His order was echoed all around the walls of the bastion and out across to t he bastions on either side, picked up and repeated by officers and NCOs.

"You had best get to the Star Fort now, sir," said Dusk. He spoke very quietl y, close to Arthur's ear. "I do not think we will hold them this time."

"I'm not going," said Arthur. He looked at the crocodile ring on his finger and thought of his home and family. They all seemed so distant now, so far away. He could not easily even summon up their faces or voices in his memo ry. "I will use the Key against them. We will prevail."

He held up the baton and it caught the last light of the sun, transforming not into the unwieldy sword of Sir Thursday but a slim, needle-sharp rapier that caught the sunlight and reflected it back in a coruscation of beams that lit u p all the bastions with a clean brilliance that cut through all smoke and dust .

"The Army and Sir Arthur!" shouted Dusk. Once again, his cry was picked up across the bastions, but it was louder now, more heartfelt.

"Sir Arthur! Sir Arthur!"

The Denizens below answered with their drums and their shouts. Rank after r ank began to march towards the bastions, all abristle with ladders and hook ed lines and smoking firepots to hurl.

"Sir Arthur!"

It was not a war cry. Captain Drury was tugging at his elbow. But he was not holding the phone. He was pointing to the far west, where the disk of the s un had finally disappeared, though some of its light still lingered in the u pper sky.

"Sir! Look!"

Arthur blinked and blinked again. Through the drifting smoke, in the dim tw ilight, he couldn't at first make out what Drury was pointing at. Then he s aw it. The skyline had changed. There was a mountain range immediately to t he west, perhaps three miles distant.

A cheer rose up amid the shouts of "Sir Arthur," the wild cheer of unexpect ed hope.

"The spike," said Marshal Dusk. "Sir Thursday lied. He did destroy it."

"No," said Arthur. "I think maybe I did I threw a sorcerous pocket in it."

"A what?" asked Dusk.

"Never mind," said Arthur. For a moment, he savored an intense feeling of r elief. The pocket was destroyed and the Skinless Boy with it. His family wa s safe. But the relief was very brief. Arthur looked out the embrasure and, though he had not held much hope, was unsurprised to see that the New Nith lings, though they might have lost some of their reinforcements to tectonic strategy when the tiles moves, were unfazed.

I wonder what I can do with the Key, Arthur thought as he looked out at the solid tidal wave of New Nithlings. I suppose I can use it to make me stron ger and quicker and tougher than any Nithling or Denizen. But there's just so many of them, it won't make a difference in the end. They just keep comi ngit is like being in a natural disaster. There's just nothing that can be doneand those New Nithlings just want to be farmers, it's all so crazy A hand suddenly jerked Arthur back behind the merlon.

"Pardon," said a familiar voice. It was followed a moment later by the sight of a barrel flying over the battlements, two burning fuses trailing sparks as it went past. Four seconds later, there was a huge explosion near the base o f the wall.

"A grenado," said Sunscorch, Wednesday's Noon, with a wide grin. "Bigges t we could make. And there's plenty more where that came from."

"Sunscorch!" exclaimed Arthur. "You came!"

"Aye, me and a few others," said Sunscorch.

Arthur sat up as more explosions boomed beyond the walls. The bastion was suddenly packed with Denizens. There were blue-jacketed sailors lighting fuses on barrels of Nothing-powder and firing them out of squat wooden m ortars they'd set up at the back. There were Commissionaire Sergeants and Metal Commissionaires forming up in ranks alongside the soldiers. Midnig ht Visitors flew overhead, raining long metal darts down on the New Nithl ings.

A crowd of buff-coated artillerists rushed past, wheel-barrowing smaller bar rels of powder and piles of canister shot, discussing how low they could dep ress the bastion's cannons, ecstatic that they could once again use their we apons.

"Dame Primus is preparing to sally below," said Sunscorch. "She's going t o use the Keys, and she's got the Monday superior Denizens and Wednesday' s Dawn and old Scamandros and everybody we could bring who's ever fought a Nithling or who says they have. About five thousand, all told, though t hey're still coming through." Sunscorch paused to look over the side.

"This lot don't look much like no Nithlings to me."

"They're New Nithlings," said Arthur. "Almost Denizens"

"You don't sound real happy, Arthur. I mean, Lord Arthur."

"Just call me Arthur," said the boy. He looked at the sword in his hand and it slowly changed back into a baton, which he thrust through his belt. The n he stood up and looked through the embrasure.

The New Nithlings were retreating in good order. Though Dame Primus had not yet attacked, she had stalked out of the sally port, with her varied troop s fanning out behind her.

It was not the presence of her followers that made the Nithlings retreat. It was Dame Primus herself. Eight feet tall, and clad in a greatcoat that was surprisingly similar in color and cut to the Piper's, she was wreathed in a sorcer-ous nimbus of whirling blue and green sparks that lashed out every fe w seconds up to eighty feet away, striking down Nithlings. And that was just with her standing still. When she raised her Second Key-gauntleted fists an d crashed them together, a whole group of at least a hundred Nithlings was s uddenly lifted into the air and smashed against the rear wall of the nearest second-line bastion.

For the first time, Arthur saw what it really meant to wield the Keys. He cr ied out as Dame Primus took the trident of the Third Key from her belt and w aved it negligently, all the fluid in the bodies of several hundred Nithling s leaving them in a ghastly spray that splashed onto a burning walkway nearb y, almost extinguis.h.i.+ng the flames.

"Let them retreat!" shouted Arthur. "Let them go!"

No one could hear him. Even Sunscorch, only a few yards away, was busy shou ting at the mortar crews, telling them to fire farther out.

Arthur took the baton of the Fourth Key from his belt and held it up.

"Magnify my voice," he said. "And cast light upon the field."

The baton did the latter first. It merely glowed itself, but in answer the n ewly risen moon shone suddenly brighter, its green light becoming bright eno ugh in a few seconds to cast shadows.

"Let the New Nithlings retreat to their trench lines!" said Arthur, at norm al volume. But as his words left, they became much, much louder, louder eve n than the booming mortars and cannons. "Cease fire and let them go!"

His voice was so loud, an echo came back from the new mountain range that had moved in at sunset.

"Gogogogo"

The bright moon faded, and there was sudden quiet.

"They are going," said Marshal Dusk, relief in his voice. "I wonder if they w ill be back."

"It all depends on the Piper," said Arthur, his voice heavy and slow with e xtreme exhaustion. "But with Dame Primus here as well as me, and all four K eys, and our extra troops I think he will either make peace or retreat bac k to where he came from and prepare for another go."

"But with the tiles moving"

"He has an Ephemeris," said Arthur. "I saw the corner of it sticking out of his greatcoat pocket. And we're in no shape to pursue them, are we?"

Suiting action to words, Arthur slumped down with his back against the ba ttlements. Many followed his example, but Marshal Dusk remained standing, and Sunscorch busied himself directing the mortar crews to swab out and clean their ma.s.sive wooden barrels.

"Just a moment of peace," muttered Arthur. "Before Dame Primus gets here. Just one moment of peace, that's all I want"

His voice trailed off and his head slumped forward, as sleep claimed him.

On his finger, the crocodile ring glinted in the moonlight.

It was now exactly one-half pure gold.

Chapter Thirty

Leaf woke in a panic, choking. Before she could work out where she was and what she was choking on, a stream of clear fluid gushed out of her nose and into a bucket that was being held in front of her, and her head was held o ver it. "Keep still," said a calm female voice. "This will last about five minutes." "Eerggh, ick, eurch," spat Leaf as the stuff just kept coming, flowing fast enough that some of it washed back down her throat. That was what made her cough. "You've just come out of sedation," the voice continued. "This clear fluid is a mixture of an agent we've used to flush a foreign well, fungoid, out of y ou and the denatured fungoid itself. Once it's out, you'll be fine." "Oh ish sho horrigle," gasped Leaf. She felt weak and flaky and very disorie nted and her sinus cavities really hurt. She was in a bed, that was clear, b ut the roof was green and very low and kind of saggy, and there were clear p lastic walls everywhere.

She turned her head and saw it was a nurse holding her head and the bucket.

A nurse in a biohazard suit, her face indistinct behind a double visor. "You're in a field hospital, set up on the oval at what I believe is your scho ol," explained the nurse. "Everything is going to be okay."

"Howlongsh'ere?" "How long have you been here?" Leaf nodded. "I think it's been a week. Things have been very hectic, though they're picki ng up now. At least they caught the terrorists who spread this thing." "Shwat!?" "Well, not caught exactly, as they were all killed in the raid on their headqua rters."

Leaf shook her head in disbelief, till that motion was stopped by an even fir mer grip. "Don't do that, please. Keep it in the receptacle." A week, she thought in disbelief. I've been under sedation for a week. But Suzy must have gotten the pocket to Arthur, or I wouldn't be here "Air ow my parents?" "How are your parents?" Leaf had meant "where are my parents?" but she nodded gently anyway, makin g sure this did not disrupt the cascade of fluid.

"I'll have to check. No visitors here, of course. They're probably home, I sh ould imagine." "Ay woor in Est Eerea Hopital."

The nurse's hand holding the bucket shook.

"They were in East Area Hospital?"

Leaf nodded slowly.