Superior Saturday by Garth Nix Read Free Book Online Page A

not like it, for they know the flowers are a harbinger of change. Go, I grant you the time to look upon them!’
    Arthur stood up nervously and looked across the clock face, but he didn’t move. He didn’t really want to go anywhere near the trapdoors on either side of the central pivot of the clock.
    ‘Hurry,’ urged the Old One.
    Arthur walked closer. The trapdoors were smashed in, splintered stubs of timber hanging from the thick iron hinges. Something rustled from inside, and Arthur looked down into a deep narrow chamber that was piled high with rose petals. The puppet woodchopper was there, still with its green cap on, the feather bent in half. But its limbs were broken, and all it could do was wriggle on the rose petals, gnash its teeth, and hiss.
    Arthur shuddered and retreated to the rim, almost backing into the Old One.
    ‘I hope ... I hope we will not be enemies,’ said Arthur.
    The Old One inclined his head, but did not speak. Arthur jumped down from the clock face and hurried away, his mind churning with fears and facts and suppositions. He had hoped the Old One could help him make sense of his situation, make matters clearer.
    But he had only made it worse.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Five
     

 

     
     

     
    ‘Lord Arthur, I am vastly relieved to see you,’ called out Scamandros as he saw Arthur hurrying back. ‘I trust the Old One answered your questions?’
    ‘Not exactly,’ said Arthur. ‘Not even close, really. Is the Nothing still advancing?’
    In answer, Scamandros cast out a lure with his fishing rod. The lure, a lobsterlike crustacean four or five inches long, disappeared into darkness. Scamandros wound the line back in, counting marks on the woven thread as he did so. There was no lure on the end.
    ‘Six ... seven ... eight. The speed of encroachment has increased, Lord Arthur.’
    ‘Where was Dame Primus when you last were in touch? And Suzy?’
    ‘They were both in the Citadel,’ said Scamandros. ‘It has become the general headquarters of your forces throughout the House, Lord Arthur.’
    ‘Could be tricky to get there,’ said Arthur. ‘Using the Fifth Key, I mean, since they secured the Citadel against Lady Friday. I suppose we could take the Improbable Stair—’ Scamandros began to shake his head, and Arthur stopped himself. ‘Oh, yeah, you can’t go on the Stair. Oh, well ... there was a mirror in Sir Thursday’s ... in my quarters. I guess I can try that, and if it doesn’t work then we’ll have to think of somewhere else, in the Middle House or wherever, and try to take an elevator from there.’
    He took out the Fifth Key and held it up for a moment in front of his face, then dropped it to his side.
    ‘Uh, if I can make a door, how do I take you with me?’
    Dr Scamandros held up his hand and wiggled his fingers.
    ‘If you allow me to hold on to your coattails, I shall be carried through, Lord Arthur.’
    ‘Hold on, then,’ said Arthur. ‘We’ll give it a try.’
    He looked into the mirror and tried to remember what his quarters in Thursday’s Citadel had looked like. He remembered the big four-poster bed with the carved battle scenes on the posts, and then there was the wardrobe, the chair he’d been shaved in, and, yes, there was a tall, bronze-framed mirror in the corner. If he thought of that mirror like a window, then looking through it he would be able to see the bed, and the door, and the painting on the wall ...
    Slowly, he began to see the room, though much of it was clouded and fuzzy. It took him a few seconds to work out that the bronze mirror was partially covered with a cloth. But he could see enough of the chamber, he was sure, for the Key to open a door there.
    ‘Fifth Key, take me ... us ... to my room in the Citadel of the Great Maze!’
    It was not so easy to go through the door of white light this time, nor was the transfer so immediate. Arthur felt himself held back not just by his coattails but by a force that pushed against his entire