Suzy poured ink across her ringer and began to write on Monday's tail. As she formed the first letter, all the bibliophages stopped moving, and everyone felt their sudden focus and concentration. Then, as Suzy completed a downstroke and the letter was complete, every single one of the thousands of bibliophages lunged forward, a tidal wave of snakes falling upon the Master of the Lower House.
"Key! Kill him!" shouted Monday before his voice dissolved into a wordless howl of pain.
The Hour Key struck viciously at Arthur, but he deflected it, so it drove into him below and to the left of his heart, straight into his lung. Arthur shrieked at the pain and staggered to his feet, the last coils of Monday releasing him as Nothing dissolved the snake's nerves and muscles.
Suzy kept feverishly writing, though she couldn't see what she was doing, there were so many bibliophages biting and attacking the greater snake. Monday was still trying to get back through the doorway and had in fact gotten most of himself through.
When there was nowhere left to write, Suzy jumped off and helped Arthur up. She stared aghast at the Hour Hand embedded in his chest, with the Minute Hand wedged under it so it could go in no farther.
"Has it come out the back?" whispered Arthur. The ditch was swimming around him and he knew only the power of the Minute Hand kept him from fainting. The Hour Hand was still shaking back and forth, cutting deeper into his body, despite all he could do.
"Yes, yes, it has!" sobbed Suzy.
Arthur sighed and barely managed to whisper,
"Key... hold the Hour Hand for... a minute... a minute..."
He let go of the Hour Hand, reached behind his own back, and pricked his right thumb with the point of the Greater Key, though it was already slick with his own blood. Then he reached around again, held the Minute Key with his right hand, and pricked the thumb of his left hand with the Lesser Key. Then he smeared a drop of blood from his left thumb onto the Hour Key and from his right thumb onto the Minute Key.
Behind him, Monday managed to hurl himself back through the doorway, sending both Suzy and hundreds of bibliophages flying,
Arthur touched the bloodied circle ends of the Keys together and sobbed out, "I, Arthur, anointed Heir to the Kingdom... claim this Key and with it the Mastery of the Lower House... I claim it by blood and bone and contest..."
The Hour Key drove in again, at least an inch. Arthur screamed and the whole world darkened. But he only had a few words left to get out. Just a few words. He could do it. He had to do it.
"Out... out of truth, in testament, and..."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Against all trouble!"
The Hour Hand eased itself out of Arthur's chest and the two hands twisted in his grasp, until the Hour Hand lay across the Minute Hand. There was a bright flash, and the Minute Hand grew longer as the Hour Hand shrank. Then Arthur was holding not two clock hands, but a sword that had some resemblance to what it had been, in the shape of its circular pommel, the circles on each end of the hilt, and the gold chasing down the silver blade.
The wound in Arthur's chest closed over with a pop, and the pain began to ebb away. Arthur stood straighter and took a long, lingering breath. Suzy stared back at him, her hands and wings shaking.
"I guess," Arthur said, raising the sword, "I guess we've won."
He looked down at the writhing river of biblio-phages they were standing in and lowered the sword into the heaving mass.
"Return to Nothing!" commanded Arthur. The sword shone, and delicate rivulets of molten gold shot from its point, moving and dividing until a fine network of gold spread all through the ditch. As it spread, the bibliophages faded and became indistinct, until they disappeared and the golden threads went with them.
"Rise up!" said Arthur, touching the bottom of the ditch. The ground rumbled and shook beneath his feet, then slowly began to rise, burying the door. Arthur quickly touched it with the sword and commanded it to rise as well. In a few seconds, the ditch was no more, and the door was back in place against the wall of the villa.
"I feel a bit off," said Suzy. She looked very pale and was holding her side. Pravuil had obviously wounded her, and dragging Arthur out hadn't helped. She started to stagger, then collapsed.
Arthur just managed to catch her head as she fell back on the grass. A second later, he touched the sword to her stomach and said, "Heal. Be well."
A glowing nimbus of light spread from the Key and surrounded Suzy's body. As it spread, her hands and wings stopped their violent shivering. Suzy opened her eyes again. When the light faded, she slowly got up. She felt her side and experimentally flexed both her fingers and wings.
"I thought we were done for," she said quietly. Then she smiled and jumped in the air, her wings sending a blast of air in Arthur's face. "But we done it, Arthur! You finished off Mister Monday!"
Arthur stared at her. He knew he should be celebrating but somehow he just didn't feel like jumping up and down. He wasn't in pain, but he felt really tired.
"You have the Key, the First of the Seven Keys to the Kingdom! Well done, Arthur! Very well done!" exclaimed the Will as it came hopping across the lawn, high-jumping in excitement. "Where there's a Will, there's a Way, if I do say so myself. Where is the former Monday?"
Arthur gestured with the sword at the door.
"Summon him forth," instructed the Will. "Let justice be meted out. There is much to do, you know, Arthur."
"You'd think we could 'ave a cup of tea and a biscuit first," muttered Suzy. She stopped jumping and scowled at the Will, who ignored her.
"Monday!" called out Arthur, not very enthusiastically. He waved the sword... the First Key... in the air. "Come out!"
The door opened, and a bedraggled figure slowly limped out. It was recognizably Monday, but only just. The bibliophages' Nothing poison had eaten away part of his face, and there were strange holes all over... and completely through... his body. His clothes were ripped and shredded, little more than rags that he clutched around himself.
"Execution," said the Will with some satisfaction. "A tap on the shoulder will do, Arthur, and just say, 'From Nothing, to Nothing.' That will do the trick."
Monday collapsed on his knees before Arthur and bowed his head. Arthur extended the Key and touched it to Monday's shoulder. But he did not say the words the Will had told him. He remembered what Dusk had said about Mister Monday as they slowly fell into the Coal Cellar. Monday was not always as he is now.
"Be healed," said Arthur quietly. "In body and in mind."
Monday looked up in astonishment as the Will jumped up and down angrily, booming out something that Arthur ignored. He watched the holes in Monday shrink into pinpoints as the flesh regrew. Even Monday's clothes restitched and rewove themselves. But they weren't as fine as the ones he'd worn before, and neither was his face so handsome. But Arthur saw that his eyes were also kinder, and there were laughter lines around them. He stared up at Arthur and then bowed his head once more.
"I beg forgiveness, Master," he said. "I do not know why I did what I have done. But I thank you for my new life."
"Charity is a very labor-intensive virtue," said the Will crossly. "And you never know where it will end. But I suppose it was well-enough done."
"Indeed," said someone. "I'm sure it will end badly for all concerned."
Everyone swung around just in time to see the door slide shut on a very small, narrow elevator, no larger than a phone booth. A bell rattled, and the elevator shot up and vanished inside a beam of light that easily pierced the golden net above.
"Pravuil!" shouted Suzy. "I thought I finished the little creep off."