Sir Thursday by Garth Nix Read Free Book Online Page B

of his chair. Everyone looked at him, and he slowly sat back down again, taking a deep breath to try and slow his suddenly speeding heart.
    “Really, Lord Arthur, must I repeat myself again? If the Morrow Days are allowed to continue as they are, there is a great risk the entire House will be destroyed.”
    “Are you sure?” asked Arthur nervously. “I mean, Mister Monday was really lazy, and Grim Tuesday wanted to make lots of stuff and own it, and Wednesday…she couldn’t help being a total pig. That doesn’t mean they wanted to destroy the House.”
    “In every case, the Trustees have put the House at risk,” said Dame Primus stiffly. “Mister Monday’s sloth meant the Lower House did not properly transport or store records, so it is even now impossible to ascertain what has happened to numerous Denizens, parts of the House, important objects, millions or possibly trillions of sentientmortals, and even entire worlds in the Secondary Realms. There has also been considerable interference with the Secondary Realms, most of it via the Lower House.
    “Grim Tuesday’s case is even worse, for in his avarice, he mined so much Nothing that the Far Reaches of the House were in danger of inundation by Nothing. If the Far Reaches had fallen into Nothing, it is quite possible the rest of the House would have collapsed as well.
    “Drowned Wednesday failed to stop the Border Sea from breaking its bounds and now it extends to many places it should not, allowing passage to and from the House for those able to pass the Line of Storms, and impinging on areas of Nothing, again weakening the fabric of the House.”
    She paused to sip her blood-red wine.
    “All of this together suggests that the Trustees, knowingly or not, are part of a plan to demolish the House and reduce it and everything else the Architect created into Nothing!”
    “The whole universe?” asked Arthur.
    “ The whole universe, ” said Dame Primus. “Though as yet we do not know who is behind this plot, or what they can possibly hope to gain. Lord Sunday or Superior Saturday are the obvious candidates…but then they too would be destroyed. Unless they have found a way todestroy only part of the House…it is a curious puzzle. Being only three parts of the Will, I lack significant knowledge. In any case, it matters not, for our strategy does not differ, whether we oppose the Trustees or some force behind them.”
    “What is ‘our’ strategy?” asked Arthur.
    “As it has been,” said Dame Primus. “You will wrest the Fourth Key from Sir Thursday, the Fifth from Lady Friday, the Sixth from Superior Saturday, and the Seventh from Lord Sunday.”
    “That’s it?” asked Arthur. “You call that a strategy?”
    “What did you expect from a frog-bear-fish?” said Suzy under the table, just loud enough for only Arthur to hear her.
    “It is the grand strategy,” replied Dame Primus stiffly. “Naturally there are details to be gone into. One of the first things that must be done is to restore the bounds of the Border Sea before it causes any more problems. Since you have decided to retain the Third Key, Arthur, this should be your next task.”
    “What do I have to do?”
    “Wednesday’s Dawn has identified thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and sixty-two places where the Border Sea has impinged on the Secondary Realms or Nothing. In each case, you must use the power of the Key to force theSea back to its proper place. Fortunately, you do not need to visit each location, as the power of the Third Key can be directed from Port Wednesday.”
    “But I’d have to use the Key thirty-seven thousand times,” said Arthur. He looked at the crocodile ring on his finger. It didn’t appear to have changed at all since he’d used the Atlas. Then he lifted it really close, and could see that the gold had spread by the width of a hair and was now right on the fourth band. “I’d become a Denizen in no time. And I could never go home.”
    “This