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The boy turned and joined the back of the relatively orderly queue that was steadily strearab hold of Denizens around him, because he would have fallen over otherwise, the floor was so unstable
‘The ceiling’s slanting down, isn’t it?’ Arthur asked as they got down to the last twenty Denizens ‘From that corner Really quickly!’
In the far left corner, the distance fro had been cut in half, and the ceiling was still steadilydown, like some kind of industrial stamper It hit some of the display stands, which resisted the doard pressure for a lass and metal
‘Catapillow! This is it! Coed closer to the wardrobe There were only a dozen Denizens in front of him now -- and Suzy and Leaf! Arthur’s head snapped around, Catapillow forgotten for a second
‘I told you to go through! We ht not make it now!’
The floor broke in half as he spoke, a crevasse opening up in the middle of the room Yellow as Catapilloas on the wrong side, still clutching his display case
Arthur held his breath and grabbed Leaf and Suzy, or they grabbed hih the wardrobeit as the crevasse split the floor even further, toppling the wardrobe over
Inside, the wardrobe was a tangled mess of trampled clothes and broken furniture But even worse, it had toppled forward, so that the , twelve feet above the three children and impossibly out of reach
‘Stand on my shoulders --’ Arthur started to say, but he hadn’t seen Sunscorch, who had wedged hi a word, the Second Mate picked up Leaf and threw her straight up and through the ot one foot on his shoulder, and leapt up without assistance
Arthur stuht in discarded coats
‘Go!’ he shouted to Sunscorch as he desperately tried to untangle himself and only rabbed Arthur under one burly are, and used their bounce to propel hiate
It happened so quickly that Arthur barely had tiet a breath, and he didn’t have time to make sure the Carp’s jar was securely in his pocket He saw it hurtle past, and then he was through the mirror and completely surrounded by water
Arthur kicked the coats free, but Sunscorch didn’t let hio He struck out in a direction that Arthur hoped was the surface, because he couldn’t see anything except dark blue and tons of bubbles
We could be hundreds of feet down, he thought I’ve got through so much and then to drown at the end … I’ll never make it … the Denizens will, but I won’t … and Leaf won’t … It’s all my fault, I should haveto explain to her parents … I have to take a breath, I have to take a --
The dark blue water suddenly becahts He saw Denizens all around, so, a few just floating
Then, before he could begin to think that the light must mean the surface was close, he was suddenly there His head broke through, light and air welcohed and water ran out of his nose all at the same tiently lifted by the sazefor the faces he most wanted to see -- and there they were Suzy, about ten yards away Leaf so mysteriously across the water, into Arthur’s hand
‘You can let ht have lost the ship, but I still ain’t lost a passenger,’ said Sunscorch He released Arthur, who proot his treading-water action going properly
‘I have summoned Drowned Wednesday,’ said the Carp ‘She is on her way and will be here shortly’
‘You what? She’ll eat us! I thought we’d get on some dry land first!’
‘I am sure she won’t eat us,’ said the Carp ‘Have faith, Arthur’
Arthur wasn’t listening He craned his head out of the water to look around, hoping to see so But all he could see were thousands of floating Denizen snacks looking tery Leviathan
‘How did you communicate with her?’
‘I am the Will She is the Trustee Now that I am back in the House, I am able to speak into her mind, much as I did into yours, Arthur’
‘Well, tell her to transform into her huet here with as many ships as she can Can you do that?’
‘I can speak the e into her mind,’ said the Carp ‘Whether it will totally penetrate is unclear It is done’
‘Can you speak with your mind to anyone else?’ asked Arthur ‘The Raised Rats, for exarowths back and forth
‘No I ahtful Heir, and to Wednesday as the Trustee’
‘Land ho!’
The cry caht He paddled himself around, but even before he looked, he was pretty sure what he would see
It wasn’t land, though it looked like it
It was Drowned Wednesday, bearing down on thery
‘Weover backstroke
‘Stop saying that!’ said Arthur ‘We haven’t et eaten Wednesday won’t be able to help herself if she sees all these Denizens floating about It’ll be like three thousand pretzels waiting to getstyle was very economical and practised She leaned back and floated easily, e!’
‘If anyone has any bright ideas, now is the ti out some seawater himself as his mouth was splashed midsentence
‘Pity the Captain’s not here,’ said Suzy ‘It’d be real interesting to see what his harpoon could do to a whale that big’
‘No way!’ said Leaf ‘I’ anyone harpoon any whale I’m a member of Greenpeace --’
‘She doesn’t mean it, Leaf,’ said Arthur ‘And the Mariner wouldn’t do it anyway I think I wish he was here In a ship’
‘The Mariner?’ asked the Carp ‘That would be the Architect’s adopted son? The ht be able to talk to hisas he is of the Architect’s kin I suppose I could talk to the Piper for that matter too, or Lord Sunday’
‘Lord Sunday!’ exclaimed Arthur ‘What? Is he --’ ‘The eldest child of the Architect and the Old One Their first experiether, when the Architect inhabited a mortal woman --’