01 Mister Monday by Nix Garth

Author:Nix, Garth [Nix, Garth]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: &WORKING
Published: 2010-04-10T21:24:01+00:00

"No?" continued Dusk. "Why lose more Commissionaires, brother, to no avail? The Grim charges dear for their replacement, does he not?"

"What then? The boy will not hand it over willingly, or from fear. I have tried that."

"Let him keep it, for now," said Dusk. "He does not know how to use it. Let us put him somewhere safe and unpleasant. When he has suffered enough, he will give us the Key."

"What place is safe from the interference of the Will?" asked Noon. "Nowhere I know."

"There is one place the Will cannot go," replied Dusk. "Or dare not. The Deep Coal Cellar. The Old One will not suffer the Will to come there."

"The Old One?" Dawn shivered. Her voice was bright and loud, and her tongue was golden. "We should not meddle with him."

"He is chained." Dusk shrugged. "And he has never interfered with any of the workers in the Cellar."

"But if he can gain the Key?" asked Dawn. "He might free himself "

"Never," said Dusk. "All the Seven Keys together could not free him from that chain."

"There are often Nithlings in the coal cellars, even in the Deep," said Noon. "If one of them should gain the Key "

"How, when we cannot?" whispered Dusk. "I have studied the Keys and I tell you, now it has bonded, it can only be given, not taken. It will protect its wielder from serious harm, though not entirely from pain, and not at all from discomfort. I say put the boy into the darkness and the damp. He will soon see that his only way out is to give us "

"Me," interrupted Mister Monday, suddenly straightening up. "Give me the Key."

Dawn, Noon, and Dusk smiled and bowed to Mister Monday before Dusk continued.

"As you say, sir. The boy will soon come to realize that he must give Mister Monday the Key."

"Delays! Difficulties!" complained Mister Monday. "But I see sense in your plan, Dusk. Take care of it. I am going back to take a nap."

"What about me, sir?" Suzy suddenly piped up. "I didn't mean to do it, sir. It was that Will that made me."

Mister Monday ignored her. He slowly stood up, left the shooting stick where it was, and ambled towards the open elevator. The Commissionaires and Sergeants saluted as he passed, and Dawn, Noon, and Dusk bowed once more. The elevator door closed, then almost immediately opened again. There was no sign of Monday inside.

"Honest, sir! It wasn't my fault," Suzy continued, to Noon. She knelt down and bowed her head so low it touched the grass, her ringers scrabbling into the dirt in her distress. "Don't send me to the Coal Cellar. Let me go back to work!"

"Where is the Will?" asked Noon. He strode over to Suzy and lifted her up by the hair till she stood on tiptoe, grimacing at the pain.

"It left when the dinosaur came," Suzy cried. "It knew a weirdway out, a small one, too small for us to use."

"What shape has it assumed?" asked Noon.

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