It had been snowing on the Flat of the Middle House for as long as anyone could remember, which was a considerable period in the House. The denizens there had simply grown used to the cold, and the wind, and the constant drifts that blocked their doors. But Saturday's Dusk was a man who was used to well-ordered pavements and warm, comfortable lifts to take him wherever he needed to be, he was not at all suited to all this hiking.
Marshal Dawn of course was loving it, tough, gritty soldier as she was, and the Rat? Well, she just clung to Dawn's back, her snout tucked to her chest to avoid the nippy gale. The Improbable Stair had started to disintegrate almost the moment they'd alighted upon it, the Void surging up almost faster than they could run. It had taken much of Dusk's determination to get them even to this the lowest quarter of the domain.
Now they were marching in single file, Dusk's hand pressing hard against his wound beneath his cloak. He knew he was done for by now but he just had to hold on a little longer, just until he was sure Thursday had been stopped. They were heading for a collection of lights at the foot of the extremely grand canal that Maliumpkin assured them was Letters' Lark.
Dusk was gazing at his shoes when he felt a tap on his shoulder and he stumbled.
"What?" he asked irritably of Dawn who pointed at the ground some two meters hence.
"Look, tracks." she said and Dusk's eye darted towards the patch of snow.
It was scuffed up and a series of footprint led away in the direction of the mountain. Dawn crouched next to them and Maliumpkin jumped down to sniff at it.
"One set belong to Thursday." Dawn muttered to herself, touching the snow lightly. "The other two might be Piper and Clara."
"The small ones belong to a human." Mali confirmed, her whiskers twitching to dislodge a few snowflakes. Dawn's frown deepened.
"They're less than half an hour old." she murmured excitedly. "And Thursday's aren't much later than the others, see? The snow hasn't covered them any more or less."
"We're close!" Dusk cried in relief. "Come, we mustn't let them get ahead."
With renewed vigour they set off again but they'd barely gone a few steps before Maliumpkin tugged at Dawn's hair to make her stop again.
"What now?!" Dusk demanded but the Rat ignored him.
Her fur, already ruffled by the wind, stood up on end and she leapt from Dawn's back again. The denizens watched as she scurried towards a second patch of disturbed snow, then gave a cry of despair.
"No!" she screamed, falling to her knees beside the mutilated body of a Raised Rat, frozen solid in the snow.
Dawn and Dusk shuffled their feet and looked elsewhere as Mali wept noisily. Denizens did not grieve, witnessing it was strange.
"Um, there there." Dusk said awkwardly.
"Those bastards!" Mali sobbed, hiccupping into her hands. "They killed him!"
"Do-do you want to bury him?" Dawn asked tentatively which earned her a furious look from Dusk. Maliumpkin sniffed and got to her feet.
"No, the snow will do that." she said stonily. "Your quarry paused here too, look, the footsteps divert. Let's get a move on."
This sudden transformation was a surprise to Dusk but he shook it off quickly. Mali didn't return to Dawn's shoulder, opting instead to hop through the snow ahead of them, sniffing at the tracks as she went. Dusk had expected Clara and the Piper to head straight for Letters' Lark but he was mistaken. When they were still a good twenty minutes away from the town, the tracks veered right towards a building Dusk had not previous noticed in the driving snow. It was a mill of some kind, a large wheel was frozen solid by the ice in the canal and several tall chimneys rose against the dark ceiling.
"Perhaps they took shelter." Dawn suggested and Dusk nodded. They hurried over to the large doors and Dusk pounded on the wood impatiently. They heard a tisk from inside.
"Oh go away!" came a disgruntled voice. "No! No more visitors today, we're CLOSED!"
"Listen you little cretin!" Dusk shouted angrily. "I have had a very long day and if you don't open this door right now I'm going to blow it off its hinges!"
An empty threat, his magic was horribly depleted by this point but they didn't need to know that. Dawn rolled her eyes and pushed him aside.
"Look here, I order you to open the door in the name of the Glorious Army of the Architect! Special war measures."
The denizen on the inside groaned and grumbled but they heard bolts and chains being undone all the same. Dusk raised and eyebrow at his cousin.
"What special war measures?" he muttered.
"I don't know, I made that up." she whispered back with a shrug.
"How very human of you, you've been hanging around Clara for too long."
"I could say the same of you." Dawn replied pointedly and Dusk could do nothing more than look taken aback because the door opened then.
The female denizen who glared out at them wore a leather apron and a thoroughly irritated expression.
"What? What do you want?!" she snapped at them before either could open their mouths. Quietly, Maliumpkin slipped past her skirts and into the mill unnoticed.
"We're looking for someone. Stand aside." Dusk said coldly, and he brushed past her into sweltering heat.
He saw at once that it was indeed a gilding factory, although it was curiously empty. The denizen who'd let them in seemed to be the only worker on the floor and she snorted as she slammed the door on the weather.
"Yeah, you and the last bloke who came storming through here!"
"Sir Thursday?" Dawn asked sharply.
"So he claimed, although I'd have thought a Day would conduct himself with better decorum." she sniffed pompously. "He came in here, waving his sword around, demanding to know if there had been a girl in here."
"Has there?" Dusk jumped in. "About this tall, brown hair, there was probably a man with her?"
"Yes sir, both of them came in just over half an hour ago. The girl was shivering like some kind of weakling human, and they took my best cloaks! Headed off to the port soon after to catch a ferry up to Top Shelf. Although to be honest she was mighty keen to know if Friday's Dawn was around."
"Friday's Dawn? What could she want with him?" Dawn wondered and Dusk shrugged.
"Is he around?" he asked.
"Not as far as I know sir. We just gild here, we don't care much for politics. Now will you be marching off over ground like Sir Thursday or would you like to take the tunnel instead?"
"What tunnel?"
"There's a passage to Letters' Lark from the cellar, much more convenient and quicker too, that's the way the girl and her handsome friend went."
"We'll take the tunnel." Dusk said firmly, though he didn't much care for her comment on the Piper.
She led them below where they met up with Maliumpkin again. She was tucking something away in her satchel. When asked what she'd been up to she replied simply that she'd been in touch with her superiors. Dusk didn't inquire further, he didn't care about what his colleagues called witheringly 'Mouse Politics'. Traveling along the tunnel was indeed much quicker than slogging through the snow and they made it to the town in good time. Dusk lifted the metal hatch they found in the roof when they reached the end of the tunnel and peered cautiously out. He almost immediately ducked back down again, slamming the hatch closed.
"Damn!" he hissed, as the fireball whooshed overhead and caused the metal to turn red.
"What was that?" Dawn asked sharply as Dusk shook his burnt fingers.
"Artful Loungers." he growled. "There's fighting above, the whole wharf is on fire. Architect knows what they're doing down here! Saturday can't have found out that Clara's here already!"
"We'd better get up there and take a look." Dawn prompted and Dusk carefully opened the hatch and popped his head out.
The air was full of smoke and steam as the fire clashed with the snow. Dusk was reminded vividly of Saturn Square and he wondered if it was Clara who had wrought this destruction. But then he saw that it was the Loungers hurling sorcery everywhere, burning the Paper Wharf and setting the whole town ablaze. Dusk yanked Dawn up and together they ran for cover as flames rained down from above.
"Who are they fighting?!" Dawn demanded, peering up into the dark sky as the shapes swooping back and forth between the Loungers.
"Winged Servants of the Night probably." Dusk said, casting his gaze skyward as well. "Can you see any sign of Clara?"
Before Dawn could do more than shake her head, Maliumpkin's ears prinked and she whipped around, staring in the direction of the Extremely Grand Canal.
"I hear screaming." she said suddenly. "On the Canal, we must hurry!"
Dusk set off at a sprint, pulling ahead of the women who got cut off by a falling building. There were about a dozen boats bobbing in the water, all of them burning fiercely. Only one was undamaged and its crew of Paper Pushers were desperately trying to navigate their way up stream. Dusk skidded to a halt as a Lounger fell to earth a few yards from him and a couple of the Servants descended on him with firewash projectors.
Worried he might be mistaken for a Lounger, he backed away and pressed himself against the brick wall of the building behind him, the only one that seemed to be still fully standing. What happened next happened so fast that Dusk could do little more than watch. There was a lull in the fighting, and two figures bolted from a tunnel across the wharf from Dusk. They sprinted like mad things towards the edge of the canal, looking as if they might try and jump for the departing barge.
The taller of the two was faster than the other and made it without incident. The small one was nearly there when a dark shape launched itself from behind a large crate. Dusk winced as the two went sprawling in the snow. Then his blood chilled as he recognised the voices drifting towards him through the battle smoke.
"Thursday! Get off me! Leave me alone!" Clara shrieked, kicking and flailing around as he former commanded grabbed her ankle and dragged her back towards him.
"Mine! You're mine! No one will take you away!" Thursday snarled. He was clawing at her to stop her wriggling free. "You are never going to leave me again Second Lieutenant!"
"You crazy bastard!" Clara shouted before catching Thursday in the face with a particularly vicious kick.
By the sounds of his roar, Dusk guessed she must have broken his nose. He let go of her boot and she scrambled away from him at top speed, regaining her feet and starting to run. But Thursday was faster and he caught hold of her.
"I am going to make you regret the day you were born girl!" Thursday growled as Clara writhed in his grip, screaming her head off. "If you think you have known pain thus far you are woefully wrong!"
Dusk wasn't quite sure what Clara did next because the smoke was thickening with every passing second. He just heard Thursday shout in pain once more. Perhaps she bit him, there was no way to be sure. Thursday reaction was to throw his captive to the ground and dash her head against the cobbles. And again. And again.
A red mist descended on Dusk and he started forward, snatching up the fallen Lounger's umbrella as he went. With fury coursing through him he took aim and blasted the hateful man off his feet. The Trustee was sent flying away from Clara who lay curled up on the floor, her arms over her head. He landed on his back a good ten feet away and skidded a further five. Dusk hadn't made it halfway across the wharf before Clara has picked herself up and vaulted off the canal. He watched in horror as she missed the edge of the barge by inches and plunged into the freezing water. After all that she was going to drown?!
But this human was determined to live it seemed. She clawed her way up the side of the barge even as the textually charged water threatened to drag her down. Those on board leant over the edge and dragged her to safety. Dusk was intending to jump after when he noticed that Thursday was also back on his feet. The Day had completely taken leave of his senses. His eyes were wide and his mouth was snarling. He held his Key aloft as he ran after his quarry. Dusk didn't have the strength for another spell, he could barely stand. His last resort was to physically place himself between Thursday and the barge. What was ridiculous way to die, defending a human!
"No!" screamed a woman's voice, and out of nowhere came Dawn.
She rugby tackled her commander to the ground just as he was about to slice Dusk to ribbons. She pinned him down whilst Maliumpkin grabbed handfuls of his hair and pulled. Dawn turned wild eyes on Dusk who was staring at them, gobsmacked.
"Go!" she shouted in a strangled way, struggling to restrain Thursday. "Go damn you! I'll handle this!"
Dusk turned and followed her order. He jumped, and just about made it onto the boat which was now quite far from the wharf. He landed none too gracefully on the deck and sunk to his knees, his will finally crumbling and his vision blurring. But he wasn't out of the woods yet. He groaned as an Artful Lounger descended from above and bore down on him. He couldn't, he just couldn't, his insides were riddled with Nothing and he was falling into darkness. Hopefully it would quick.
"Hey! Piss off flyboy! That's my Dusk!" Clara's voice said angrily.
The Lounger turned in time to meet Clara's rapier. She could handle the blade with greater proficiency than Dusk could have imagined, maybe all those months in the army hadn't been a waste after all. The Lounger screamed as the determined human sent him careering overboard. There was splash and then, at last, peace. Clara bent over Dusk, holding his face between her hands and smiling grimly at him.
"Saturday's Dusk, you're like a bad penny aren't you?" she sighed, just as Dusk lost consciousness.
.
.
.
.
When Dusk awoke he found himself lying on a sofa, his feet sticking over the edge and a scratchy blanket draped over most of his body. He grunted and flung it away so he could sit up. Or at least he tried to, but pain stabbed at his stomach and he gasped, falling back on the mass of pillows arranged behind his head.
"Oi, stay still or you tear the stitches idiot!" said Clara's voice somewhere nearby.
Dusk blinked rapidly and turned his head to take in the rest of the room. It was small, but cosy, full of threadbare furniture and stacks of paper. A potbellied stove was filling it with heat and Clara was curled up in an armchair beside this. She was rubbing her eyes wearily, looking like she'd just woken up.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, unfolding herself from the chair and wending her way towards him through all the tat in the room.
She was wearing a Paper Pusher's uniform as, Dusk now realised, was he. He rubbed his middle gingerly and felt new stitches in place of those he had sewn himself weeks ago. It still hurt badly though and he winced. Clara grimaced.
"Thought so." she sighed as she reached behind her for a piece of parchment lying on the coffee table. "Uh, Piper said this should kill the pain, but I don't know how it works exactly."
"Give it here, I can do it myself." Dusk said in a strained voice and she handed it over. He began to lift his shirt but then paused, looking pointedly at Clara. "Do you mind?" he asked and he could have sworn she suppressed a coy smile.
"Not at all." she said archly, turning her back. The corner of his mouth twitched and she pressed the paper to the most painful spot.
"Ahh…" he sighed in relief as the paper disintegrated and the pain lessened considerably.
"Can I look again?" Clara asked, glancing over her shoulder at him anyway. He pulled his shirt down quickly.
"Yes, you can look." he said. She turned to face him and perched herself on the edge of the table.
"Better?" she inquired, gazing at him shrewdly.
"Much better thank you. Bless the sorcerer who invented Sympathy Paper. I don't think I'm in danger of dying anymore."
"Thank god." Clara sighed. "I'll make tea."
"That is the beautiful thing you have ever said Miss Jenkins." Dusk said and Clara snorted.
As she moved over to the stove and put the kettle on to boil, the door in the corner opened to admit a blast of icy air and the Piper. Dusk stiffened and sat up a little straighter.
"Ah, the hero awakens at last." Piper said witheringly. "You've had Jenkins here bouncing off the walls all night."
"I wasn't that bad." Clara mumbled with her back to the men.
Piper smirked and moved over to stand indecently close to her, leaning over in a way that caused some unknown emotion to rise in Dusk's chest. He didn't know what it was and he glared at the Piper sourly as he murmured in Clara's ear,
"You keep telling yourself that darling."
Clara shoved him back and brought Dusk's tea over with her cheeks burning red.
"Bugger off Piper." she muttered darkly. "Go and keep watch like I told you to!"
"Is this the thanks I get for saving both your lives?" Piper complained, his face falling into a mock hurt expression. However he left them alone after Clara shot him a warning look.
"Prick." she said to herself.
"What are you doing with him?" Dusk demanded hotly. "He's vile! What in the House possessed you to ally yourself with the likes of him?"
"Convenience." Clara explained. "And he did save my life, slimy git, so I kind of owe him. Anyway forget him, what's the story with you? I'm guessing the Rats pointed you in the right direction."
"They did." Dusk confirmed after taking a long sip of his drink. "I came with Marshal Dawn but she's still in Letters' Lark, or so I assume she is."
"Yeah I thought I saw her." Clara said. "I had no idea Thursday was after us. Thank god you guys were there or I'd be dead meat by now."
Clara smiled gratefully at him and Dusk was momentarily distracted by this. His eyes slid over her face, taking in all the scratched and bruised, particularly the vicious looking gash in her temple where Thursday had bashed her against the floor. She was a sorry sight, but he couldn't stop himself from fixating on that smile all the same. He shook himself and blinked hard to wretch his mind back to the present.
"Clara, what is going on? Why are in the Middle House? You should hiding! Quite apart from Thursday, Friday or Saturday are bound to get wind of your whereabouts soon." he said sternly. To his surprise, Clara snorted in contempt.
"I don't think we need to worry about either of them anymore." she said. Dusk looked at her questioningly and she took a creased envelope from her sleeve. She tossed it over to him and he scanned the letter within quickly.
"Friday has resigned?" he asked, frowning deeply at the words before him.
"So she claims." Clara said, shrugging. "And Saturday's taken over, not very well by the looks of things. It's been a very half arsed coup if I do say so myself. I think she's close to the Gardens now, otherwise she'd been putting a bit more effort in here."
"I think you are right." Dusk said, folding the letter up slowly and with deliberation. "Do you know if she has sent Pravuil or my brother down here to lead the assault?"
"No idea, all I know is that Friday's vanished off the face of the House, her Noon and Dusk as well, and Dawn is somewhere on Top Shelf. Which is really bad news for us cause I need to find her!"
"Why?" Dusk asked in confusion. Clara suddenly looked a bit shifty and she dropped her gaze to her tea cup, her fingers fiddling with the handle.
"Well, uh, see I've kind of got a plan." she mumbled awkwardly. "It's a really crappy plan, it's not even a plan really."
"Clara," Dusk said sternly. "What are you doing?"
"Ok, but promise you won't flip out, or laugh at me." she said desperately. "I-I kind of, need to get into the Incomparable Gardens and talk to Lord Sunday."
Dusk stared at her.
"Talk to Lord Sunday." he said softly. "I see, to what end?"
"To tell him to sort out the House." Clara said, still not looking Dusk in the eye. "To make him stop the Void and to make him sort out Saturday. He's got the Seventh Key for Christ sake! He's sat on his backside and done nothing for far too long."
"Right." Dusk said slowly. "And you think simply talking to him will bring about this miraculous change of heart?"
"Well it has to!" Clara said desperately, finally bringing her gaze back to meet Dusk's. "It's time to put a stop to this madness!"
"Clara have you lost your mind!" Dusk cried. "Do you honestly think that Lord Holier Than Thou, Couldn't Give a Damn, Sunday, is going to talk to a human?! Let alone listen to what she has to say! He'll kill you without a second thought! Worse, he'll get one of his Times to do so, he's that arrogant!"
"Dusk he's not stupid!" Clara shot back. "He must see that the whole House is going to hell! He knows that the Gardens aren't safe whilst the rest of the House is crumbling into the Void! He has to do something!"
"This is your big plan?! Talk to Sunday? And what if that doesn't work? Always assuming of course you haven't died along the way."
"Then we go to plan B." Clara said firmly.
"Which is?"
"I'm still the Heir, I can always just release the seventh part of the Will, get the seventh Key and sort everything out myself. Then when the universe isn't going to end anymore, I'll give the Keys back, after making a new deal with the Trustees of course, one than doesn't have any convenient loopholes."
Dusk slumped back on the pillows again and shook his head in disbelief. It was the flimsiest, most ridiculous thing he had ever heard in his life. There was no way it would work, she was going to get herself killed with her folly! Then he picked up on a slip in her grammar and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"You said Keys." he said suspiciously. "Plural, what other Key are you planning on taking?"
Clara spread her hands wide.
"Take a wild guess."
"The fifth? Are you serious? Friday will ring your neck!"
"It's the only way into the Gardens. The Stair won't work, nor will the lifts and the Rats say there are no transfer plates. So either we take the fifth Key or we wait for Saturday to finish her Tower and hitch a lift with her, and by then it'll be too late."
"You want to ally yourself with Friday now?"
"Do I look thick in the head? I realised a long time ago that Friday is a backstabbing bitch. No I'm going to take the fifth key and give her a slap whilst I'm at it. Serves her right for leaving me to rot in the army."
And for throwing you into Thursday's bed, Dusk thought privately. He had served Saturday for too long not to recognise the thirst for revenge in a woman's face when he saw it. Mortals sometimes got their sayings right, about hell and fury and women's scorn.
"Is there anything I can say to dissuade you?" Dusk asked, already knowing the answer. Clara shook her head. Dusk sighed heavily.
"Very well." he said resignedly. "I suppose it's better than doing nothing."
"You don't have to come with me." Clara said at once. "The Paper Pushers will take us as far as the Upper Sky Lock then you can hide out on Top Shelf whilst we sort this out."
"Are you joking? After all the trouble I've been through just to find you?! I'm seeing this through to the end thank you very much. And besides," Dusk glanced towards the door and expression grew dark. "I don't think you should be alone with that man."
Clara smiled again and drained the last of her tea in one gulp before getting to her feet.
"Well, if you're planning on tagging along you should sleep some more. I need to go and talk to the Paper Pushers anyway, see how much longer we've got to go. It'd be great if we had some wings but…"
She trailed off and stood awkwardly by the door before shaking her head and disappearing through it. Dusk watched her go with a slightly wistful air before remembering to finish his own tea. After that he took her advice and settled down to sleep once again.