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‘Oh,’ said Japeth ‘A cold! Can you transfer it? Then maybe you could bribe an Overseer –’
Arthur shook his head He had no idea how to transfer his cold, besideshe was about to do He couldn’t understand why the Denizens were so keen to have mortal ailments Except, of course, that for them they were purely cosmetic, since they didn’t feel sick
Half an hour later the constant wetness of the cloud began to turn into actual rain, and the gang paused briefly to put on their capes The rain soon becaing drop One fell on Arthur’s hand, burning his skin as it slid off with a sizzling noise But as with the Scoucher’s cut, the burn healed within a few ht Arthur dully That’s all I need
The stinging drops kept co down every fewpockmarks in the stabilised ed to keep going, but only because Japeth was al hi farther and farther behind, the candle flaht, and Nuh the rain
‘I can’t go any farther,’ Arthur finally gasped when they lost sight of Nuo I’ll catch up when I’ve had a rest I can hide from the Overseers behind all this junk’
Japeth lowered the boy down next to yet another pile of broken train parts Arthur leaned back against a pair of bogey wheels and his head sank down on his knees He halfheartedly wiped his nose on his sleeve and thought about casting the breathing spell again But he was so tired
After a while, he realised that Japeth was still standing in front of him
‘Go!’ said Arthur weakly ‘I’ll work out soet stea is less to be feared than descending farther into the Pit,’ said Japeth slowly ‘I have seen only despair and fatalis the Denizens here But you offer some hope You are not indentured You have some latent power I shall take uard Shelter Shield you Shepherd Mind Watch Tend Keep vigil Watch and ward Patrol Do the rounds’
Japeth kept talking, but Arthur felt hi into some distant space In less than a second, Arthur was asleep
He woke up to a peculiar whirring sound and the hu hi down the line!’
Arthur sat up and ih that started deep in his chest and rolled up through his throat A cough that kept going and going, as if his body were desperate to get so, Arthur plunged his fingers into his nose and his thued to sputter out the words of the Lieutenant Keeper’s spell But the coughing continued, his nose kept running, and Arthur was overco to choke to death here in the ghastly Pit
Suddenly the coughing stopped and Arthur’s nose dried up at the sa as it spread through both lungs He felt fine, though very stiff in the legs According to his backwards watch, he’d been asleep for three hours
‘We must hide! Conceal ourselves! Take cover!’ Japeth warned
Arthur looked up the track and a large Nothing-laced raindrop hit his cheek, al the painful stinging sensation, and looked again, careful to keep his hood well forward
He sao fuzzy lights coer than his strom lantern, and only about a foot apart They were too close together and didn’t look bright enough to be the lights of a train The whirring sound was also too quiet, and the rails were only hu like they would for a full-sized locomotive and its load
Nevertheless, Arthur hurried around the pile of scrap metal and hunkered doith Japeth behind an upturned bench seat thrown froe plant They put their lanterns down the central hole of a huge driving wheel, covered it with a steel da plate, and sat completely still in the darkness
Arthur held his breath, fear rising as he stared at the lights and the dark shape behind them
EIGHT
ARTHUR PEERED OVER the upturned bench at the approaching vehicle Shrouded by the rain and disguised by a niht, it was extre was for sure – it wasn’t a train In fact, as it closed in, Arthur saw that it was a single wheel about six feet high and two feet wide, running on only the inner rail of the track Or more exactly, it heels, one inside the other The inner wheel didn’t hts were fixed to the sides of this inner wheel, and there was so inside it The outer wheel rotated around the inner wheel
Arthur couldn’t see any sign of a steao Perhaps it simply ran downhill and could never return to the top It also seemed an unlikely conveyance for Grim Tuesday, which was a relief It would be hard for anyone much taller or fatter than Arthur to fit inside the wheel
Mind you, Arthur thought, Griht not be like the picture on the station doorHe htor not even have a human shape
‘What is that?’ whispered Japeth
‘I don’t know,’ Arthur whispered back He stared at the approaching wheel Was it his i! Arresting! Ceasing to proceed forward!’
‘Ssshhh! Don’t panic,’ hissed Arthur He bent down and picked up a long tube of Nothing-pocked copper, perhaps a former steam-pipe or fire-tube It was slippery and wet, but felt coly heavy in his hand
‘What if whoever’s in it has a steaain ‘Maybe it will go past’
But the wheel stopped about ten yards away The rail stopped hue, low sound that still canise it as the constant tick of clockwork That iht unpleasantmemories of the clockwork creatures froure inside the wheel stretched one leg out, then another The movements seemed normal, not clockwork, but Arthur clutched his hts rose up in his mind Perhaps he should step out and surrender, ask to be taken to Gri in I’ to sit and wait to be steamed or cut to bits
The wheel-rider slipped completely out and stood up behind the left lantern of the wheel The light, spread and blurred by the rain, e the size of the person or what he or she was doing But Arthur couldn’t see any stea out or the shine of an unsheathed blade
The diht flashed froer, he leaped up and rushed forward, swinging the