Lady Friday

Chapter Twelve

“Are you afraid?” asked Lady Friday. She folded her wings and walked closer to Leaf, who stood completely still and felt very, very small.

“Yes,” whispered Leaf. The light was still too bright for her to look up, to face Lady Friday.

“It is interesting, fear,” said Friday. “There is always a lot of it in you mortals. I like a little of it, but not too much. That is why those I taste must be asleep, lest present fear overwhelm the other, older experiences. Now, do you know why I have brought you here, Leaf?”

“No.”

“I do not drink from young mortals,” said Friday. “Their experiences are too fresh, too slight to savour. Old mortals are best. Ah, how I enjoy a lifetime of eighty or ninety mortal years, with all the complex flavours of love and hope and sorrow and joy. If only the taste lasted longer than it does. Ah, well! You have caught me full of mortal experience and I do believe some melancholy has lingered on my palate .... Yes, I feel quite sad that the lives I taste are so quickly gone, and I must discipline myself not to immediately have some more ....”

She paused, and though Leaf could not look, she had the horrible suspicion that Friday was licking her lips.

“Now, as for you, Miss Interfering Leaf. I have brought you here because even though I have a most excellent plan to not only remove your friend Arthur but also several other major annoyances, I am not so stupid as to count on its success. My spies tell me Arthur is most attached to his friends, that he would do anything to help them. So you will serve as bait for a trap, or as a negotiating point, or a hostage, or something equally useful should the occasion arise. Just do as you are told and stay out of the way.”

“What if I don’t?” said Leaf, but again it didn’t come out as defiant. It sounded pathetic and hopeless.

“You are also not stupid, I think,” said Friday. “As I hold you to use against Arthur, I hold someone to use against you. Do I not?”

Leaf froze, unable to think of any response to that.

“Do I not?” snapped Friday. “Some blood relation, I think. Aunt Orange or Apple or some such fruity name.”

“Mango,” whispered Leaf. “Don’t ... please don’t experience her.”

I’m begging, she thought, some part of her unable to believe the situation she was in. I’m begging for Mango’s life, or something close to it.

“Oh, I can still feel the poignancy of it!” declared Friday. “The emotion is lasting longer! I almost feel like a mortal and it must be at least a minute .... No ... it’s fading .... Axilrad, I must have another batch .... No ... too soon ... I’ll run out ... perhaps some other distraction ...”

Leaf heard the Trustee’s wings unfurl and she threw herself forward, onto the hard stone.

“Please! Don’t do anything to Aunt Mango!”

“Your mango shall be the last fruit I taste,” called out Friday with a clear, carrying laugh, and then with a single, powerful beat of her wings, she leaped back up into the air.

Leaf stayed facedown, trying not to sob, her hand unconsciously going to the Mariner’s medallion, her fingers clutching it so hard they turned almost as white as the whalebone disc.

She lay there for at least a minute, letting the fear slowly ebb away, to be equally slowly replaced by her natural courage and determination. Now that Lady Friday had gone, she could think again, no longer struck with a feeling that had been as close to blind panic as she’d ever experienced.

So long as Friday’s not in front of me I can be brave, thought Leaf. She bit back a sob. That’s better than being a total coward, I guess. I just have to stay out of her way ....

“I told you,” said Harrison. “Guess you’ll help me now, won’t you?”

Leaf didn’t answer. She slowly stood up and looked over at the balcony on the crater rim where Lady Friday and her attendants were alighting. She watched them go inside, ignoring Harrison.

If I give in now, she’ll just experience Aunt Mango anyway, thought Leaf. Giving in never works ... and I can’t let her use me against Arthur ....

“I said you’d better help me now,” said Harrison again, stepping around so he was in front of her and she couldn’t ignore him.

“Why?” asked Leaf. “She won’t keep her word. Besides, Arthur will sort her out before too long. You’d do better to help me.”

“What?” asked Harrison weakly. “But you’ve seen Her, the power of the Key ....”

“You’d better decide whose side you’re on,” said Leaf. “You said you wanted to get back to Earth, didn’t you?”

“Yes ...”

“Do you reckon Lady Friday will ever let you go?”

“No ...”

“Then help me!” urged Leaf. “Is there a telephone anywhere here that connects with the House?”

“I don’t ...” replied Harrison. He looked around, to check if any Denizens were in earshot, but he and Leaf were alone in the crater, save for the fallen sleepers who lined the shore.

“I don’t know ....” he continued. “I’d have to ask a Denizen. But they’d never tell me. It’s pointless anyway. Just help me work and we’ll both stay out of trouble.”

“Staying out of trouble won’t get you back to Earth,” said Leaf. “Or help anyone else. I’m frightened by Friday too, but we have to do something!”

“I can’t,” whispered Harrison. “I ... I haven’t got the guts. Not anymore.”

“Cover for me, then,” said Leaf. “Give me some job that’ll let me wander around carrying something.”

She didn’t mention that this was a trick she’d learned from her friend the Ship’s Boy Albert, who’d been killed by Feverfew. Skiving, he’d called it. The trick was to find something that looked like it needed to be delivered somewhere else on the ship and then you could walk around for ages with it before someone in authority noticed and took action. Denizens in particular were susceptible to this ruse, as they couldn’t imagine someone inventing a task for themselves.

“But if you’re caught somewhere you shouldn’t be, they’ll blame me!”

“If you won’t help, then you’re as bad as She is,” said Leaf. “You’ll be with the enemy when Arthur gets here.”

“He will come? You’re sure? Is he really ten feet tall?”

“He will come,” said Leaf with a conviction she was far from feeling. “He’s ... he’s not quite that tall, but he is ... um ... well, he’s beaten four Trustees already.”

“I guess you could go get pillowcases from the linen store,” said Harrison. He was weakening, Leaf could tell. “But that won’t help you find a phone. Like I said, you’d have to ask a Denizen ....”

“Yes,” said Leaf. “I have an idea about who to ask. Where is the linen store?”

Harrison didn’t answer; instead, his face twisted up in indecision.

“Remember, helping me is helping Arthur, and he’s your only chance of ever getting away from here,” said Leaf. “It’s now or never.”

“I’ll do it ....” said Harrison. “I mean, okay! I’ll do it. Come on-I’ll show you the way to the linen store. It’s at Circle Three, Twenty-five Past.”

“What about them?” asked Leaf quietly, pointing to the quiet bodies on the shore.

“Martine takes them from here,” said Harrison. “She’ll come out when the sun goes down.”

“Who’s Martine? A Denizen?”

“No, she’s human too. She’s been here longer than me. Crazy as a loon, though. She only works nights. Not that night here is anything like home. There’s three moons and they’re big ... and they change color.”

“Maybe she’s worth talking to,” said Leaf. “Where would I find her?”

“Circle Six, Half-Past,” muttered Harrison. He started walking back to the door where they’d entered the crater. “But she is crazy. Come on!”

Leaf followed him, but not without a glance back at the sleepers.

“Also, I need a drink. Have you got human food and, drink, and uh, a toilet I can use? And tea?”

“I get basic food and there are four restroom facilities for us mortals throughout the establishment,” said Harrison. “But I don’t have any tea. The Denizens love the stuff and they keep it for themselves. I don’t have any coffee either, so you’ll have to make do with water.”

“Oh, I don’t want the tea to drink myself,” said Leaf. “I was thinking about using it to trade with a Denizen. I’ll have to think of something else.”

Just after she spoke, a thought did occur to her and she bent down and picked up a small stone, one of the few that lay around the smooth floor of the crater.

“By the way, do you know where that Denizen Feorin hangs out?” Leaf asked.

“There aren’t many Denizens here,” said Harrison. “Maybe fifty altogether. Most are up on Circle Ten from Ten to Noon to Ten Past. I guess they have rooms there. They supposedly patrol around as well, but I don’t often see them on my rounds-which reminds me, I’ll have to get started again soon. Got to keep everyone turned ....”

He sighed and bent his head, and the small spring in his step that had come on when he agreed to help Leaf disappeared, giving way to his usual depressed shuffle. Leaf followed silently, her head full of plans and schemes, most of which she had to admit were totally impractical. She kept coming back to just three basic aims, but was entirely unsure how she might achieve them.

First, find a telephone to the House and call Arthur. Second, find Aunt Mango and get her away from wherever she is. Three, hide out with Mango somewhere until help comes.

Actually, there were four basic aims, Leaf thought, and the fourth was perhaps the most strident in her mind. Keep away from Lady Friday.

As Harrison had predicted, they met no one on the way to the linen store. This was a chamber almost identical to the room where Leaf had found the Skinless Boy’s pocket. It brought back unpleasant memories and also made her think, because the linen was all branded with the name of the same laundry service that served East Area Hospital.

“All this stuff gets washed back on Earth, right? Not here.”

“I guess so,” said Harrison. “I dump the dirty sheets and stuff in a chute and get the fresh linen here ....”

“So someone must take it back and forth,” said Leaf. “There must be a way between here and Lady Friday’s hospital back on Earth.”

“If there is, you need to have her power to use it,” said Harrison.

Leaf shook her head.

“No way Lady Friday takes the dirty laundry to Earth and carries back a load of fresh sheets herself! So there must be a way ... but maybe it’s some kind of sorcery. It’s worth checking out, though.”

“I have to get back to the people stores ... I mean wards,” said Harrison nervously. He was backsliding already. “Axilrad might come looking. Don’t stay away too long. You’d better come and help me fairly soon, otherwise-”

“You go, then,” said Leaf. “I’ll find you when I need you.”

“Don’t do ... well, don’t ....” Harrison’s voice trailed off. He looked at the floor, scuffed his feet, and left.

Leaf looked around the linen store till she found a loose bolt in one of the metal shelves. She pulled it out and used it to scratch some invented letters onto the stone from the crater, in an effort to make it look interesting and strange. Perhaps even sorcerous ....

At the same time, she practiced a rhythmic, barking cough.

“Ah-woof, ah-woof, ah-woof.”