Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters from Garth Nix books. I DO however own Mr Whale and any other characters
Chapter 1 : New Revelations
'Slain?' questioned Arthur, his mind reeling.
'Indeed Arthur, we believe that Mister Monday was assassinated by Superior Saturday's minions, a stab through his heart and head with a sorcerous blade finished him off,' Dame Primus spoke sharply, causing Leaf to jump.
'You said something about Grim Tuesday too?' asked Arthur. This time Monday's Noon replied,
'Yes, some of the artisans who were filling in the Pit found him lying besides a pool of Nothing, it appears he is under some form of magical enchantment, perhaps wrought by one of the advanced Upper House sorcerers employed by the Morrow days.' Arthur remembered the Pit all too well; he had spent most of his Tuesday searching for the Second Key and the next part of the Will there. He could still remember the choking Fog and the Nothing–laced rain that burned and sizzled.
'So the Grim is still alive then?' said Arthur, his mind buzzing with questions. Why would Saturday want to kill the former trustees? Who exactly is behind this? Who is helping them?
'The Grim is still alive at the moment, but only just.' said Wednesday's Noon, 'He is walking the thin line between life and death at the moment, so to speak,' he finished quietly. At that moment, the doors burst open and a surprisingly large fox bounded in and skidded to a halt in front of the table. Dame Primus looked startled,
'What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be guar-' her sentence was cut off as Dr Scamandros interrupted,
'How goes your search for a way to break the enchantment that holds Grim Tuesday?' Dame Primus glared at him frostily.
'Not well I am afraid, methinks that this enchantment in within the mind, like a psychological poison,' the fox spoke as it changed into the shape of a young girl, dressed in remarkably modern clothing for a denizen. Her voice was quiet but Arthur could feel the hidden power coursing through her mind. Not a minute had passed when there was a quiet knock on the door,
'I suppose you'll have to come in then,' muttered Dame Primus irritably. The door opened and a slender girl, only a few years older than Leaf, stepped through the doorway. She had piercing eyes, the colours swirling around inside the iris and a scythe was slung across her back making her look rather intimidating. Leaf was staring at the girl until Suzy poked her to remind her that staring was rude. Leaf was sure she had seen the girl somewhere but her memory refused to reveal any more information.
'What do you want?' asked Dame Primus quite rudely. The girl sighed,
'I can do nothing more for Grim Tuesday until he can tell me what they did to him, we were wondering if Arthur could look up what is troubling him in the Atlas for us?' Arthur's immediate thought was No! I do not want to become a Denizen just to save Grim Tuesday, he tried to kill me! Why should I help him? What if the gold band goes past the fifth marker? Just then he caught the eye of the older girl, though her face was cold he saw in her eyes a great concern for the Grim, he switched his gaze onto the younger girl. She stared at him. Fool, have you still not picked up the point? The girl was speaking in his mind and he panicked, his lungs tightening up. Arthur was quite taken aback by the way the girl spoke to him; recently he had become accustomed to being called 'Lord Arthur' a lot. The girl withdrew from the mental encounter and left Arthur feeling slightly dazed, that was why he did not hear Dame Primus calling him to open the atlas. As he hurried over, he noted that Leaf was deep in conversation with a thin man dressed in a black overcoat and a very long, silver needle jammed in his mouth like a cigar. They seemed to be arguing.
'I am telling you, no! There is nothing left to show you.' whispered the man.
'You're lying, I can tell,' responded Leaf. She smirked. The man sighed,
'Fine, you win. I'll show you Grim Tuesday, happy now?' The man loped down the corridor.
Meanwhile Arthur concentrated on a question for the Atlas, How can we remove the enchantment that binds Grim Tuesday?
The Atlas sprang open, as Arthur expected. The invisible hand began to write.
The enchantment that binds Grim Tuesday is not from the House or any of the secondary realms that were created by neither The Architect nor from a worldlet created by one of the Morrow days or any other great sorcerer capable of such a feat.
Everybody in the room stared stunned at the Atlas,
'How is that possible?' croaked Dr Scamandros, the tattoos on his face changing to depict ships lost in the fog, one of them crashing onto a rock just above his eye. The room was silent.
Leaf was led by the man down a corridor and through a very narrow alley which she guessed was another of the 'additions' that had been added to the House.
'Here we are,' said the man, so softly that Leaf barely heard him, lost in a haze of her own imagination. She could feel the magic radiating from the entrance of the room, buffeting her with its power. She peered in; the interior was decorated like a ship's cabin with a bed in one corner and a desk in the other: they filled most of the space in the room.
'So you three are staying in this room?' asked Leaf, surprised,
'So, where is Grim Tuesday?'
'Ah… that I would not know, if Adder has hidden him with an illusion I will not see and neither will you until she lets us,' he smiled. Adder appeared behind Leaf, startling her. 'Hello Leaf, may I enquire why you are here?' Adder's lips twisted into a smile,
'How are your studies into sorcery going? Show me your fingers.' Leaf proceeded to demonstrate some tricks, 'Tell me; has anyone taught you how to disperse illusions yet?' The man looked surprised; Adder did not normally offer to teach anything, from how to boil coffee to casting apocalypse spells.
'Uh… no…' said Leaf, unsure whether this was a trap.
'In that case I am feeling rather generous today so you will use this as an opportunity to learn,' she spoke passively, 'Watch.' She wrote something on a piece of paper and placed it in a ring of fire, which she had conjured up… three hours later Leaf was still struggling with the spell. 'Try again tomorrow,' said Adder, she was not the most patient of people so it was really a miracle nothing was destroyed yet.