willing it to connect, but that didn’t help.
“Probably nine minutes now,” said Leaf. “You’ve got to do something, Arthur!”
Arthur glanced at the crocodile ring very quickly. Leaf saw him look.
“Maybe Scamandros is wrong about the sorcerous contamination,” she said. “Or the ring doesn’t measure very well.”
“It’s OK, Leaf,” said Arthur slowly. “I’ve been thinking about all that anyway. You know why the Will chose me to be the Rightful Heir, how it tricked Mister Monday? I was going to die…but getting the First Key saved me—”
“Sure, I remember,” said Leaf hastily. “Now we’re all going to die unless you do something!”
“I am going to do something,” said Arthur. “That’s what I’m explaining to you. I’ve worked out that I was going to die anyway, so everything I’ve done—everything I do from now on—is a kind of bonus anyway. Even if I turn into a Denizen, I’ll still be alive and at least I can help other people—”
“Arthur, I understand!” Leaf interrupted. “Just do something, please! We can talk afterwards!”
“OK,” said Arthur. He dropped the telephone. As it fell, it turned into a shower of tiny motes of light that faded and were gone before they hit the floor.
Arthur took a deep breath and for a moment marvelled at just how deeply he could breathe now, his asthma gone with his old human self, all earthly frailties being left behind in his transition to a new immortal form. Then he took the mirror that was the Fifth Key out of his pocket and held it up in front of his face. An intense light shone around it in a fierce corona, but Arthur looked directly at the mirror without difficulty, seeing only the reflection of his own changing face, his more regular nose, his whiter teeth and his silkier hair.
Leaf shielded her eyes with her arm, and even the sleepwalkers turned their heads away and screwed their eyes shut tighter as they kept shuffling forward.
I really hope this works, thought Arthur. It has to work. Only I wish I could have checked with Dr Scamandros, because I don’t really know what…
Arthur grimaced, banished his fearful inner voice and focused on what he wanted the Fifth Key to do. Because it seemed easier and somehow made it sound more like it would happen, he spoke aloud to the Key.
“Fifth Key of the Architect! I, Arthur Penhaligon, Rightful Heir of the Architect, um…I desire you to shield this city inside a bubble that keeps it separate from the Earth, a bubble that will protect the city and keep everyone in it safe from all harm, and…well…that’s it…thanks.”
The mirror flashed and this time Arthur did have to blink. When he opened his eyes, he felt momentarily unsteady on his feet and had to raise his arms like a tightrope-walker to regain his balance. In that instant he saw that everyone else had stopped moving. Leaf and the line of sleepers were still, as if they had been snap-frozen. Many of the sleepers had one foot slightly off the ground, a position that no one could possibly keep up in normal circumstances.
It was also newly quiet. Arthur couldn’t hear the helicopters or gunfire or any other noise. It was like being in a waxwork museum after closing time, surrounded by posed statues.
Arthur slipped the mirror into his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair—which had got considerably longer than he cared for, though it somehow stayed out of his face.
“Leaf?” he said tentatively, walking over to tap his friend lightly on the shoulder. “Leaf? Are you OK?”
Leaf didn’t move. Arthur looked at her face. Her eyes were open but her pupils didn’t move when he waved his finger back and forth. He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing.
Arthur felt a sudden panic rise in him.
I’ve killed them, he thought. I was trying to save them, but I killed them…
He touched Leaf on the shoulder again, and though a faint nimbus of red light sprang up around his fingers, she still didn’t move or react in any way.
Arthur stepped back and looked around. There was a faint red glow around each of the sleepers too, and when he walked over and touched them, this light also grew momentarily brighter. Arthur didn’t know what the glow meant, but he found it slightly comforting, as it suggested some sorcerous effect was active and he hadn’t just killed everyone.
But I don’t even know if I have protected us from the nukes, Arthur thought. What time is it?
He turned and ran down the hall, through the next two wards and out into the lobby. From there it took him a minute to find the office and a clock. It had stopped at exactly 11:57, the second hand quivering on the twelve. The clock also had a faint red sheen, and there were ghostly scarlet shadows behind the second and hour hands.
Arthur ran outside. The front doors slammed shut behind him with a sound all too like the trump of doom. He slid to a halt just before he fell down the wheelchair ramp, because everywhere he looked was tinted red. It was like looking at the world through red sunglasses on an overcast day, because the night sky had been replaced by a solid red that was buzzing and shifting and hard to look at, like a traffic light viewed far too close.
“I guess I’ve done something,” Arthur said to himself. “I just don’t know exactly what…”
He walked a little further, out into the car park. Something caught his eye, up in the sky, a small silhouette. He peered at it for a few seconds before he worked out that it was a helicopter gunship. But it wasn’t moving. It was like a model stuck on a piece of wire, just hanging there in the red-washed sky.
Stuck in a moment of time.
That’s why everyone is frozen in place, Arthur thought. I’ve stopped time…that’s how the Key is keeping everyone in the city safe…
If time was only frozen or slowed inside a bubble around the city, it could start again, or be started again by some other power. Which meant that the nuclear strike on East Area Hospital would still happen. He hadn’t saved the city from the attack. He’d just postponed it…
“If it isn’t one thing, it’s another,” whispered Arthur. He looked along the empty street, all strange and red-hued, and wondered if he should run over to his home and see if his family was all right. Maybe he could carry them down into the cellar…but if he did that, he might be wasting time better spent in learning how to protect everyone else. He couldn’t carry everyone in danger to safety.
He’d gained a breathing space for the city, and he could extend it by going back to the House. If he left now, he should be able to return to almost exactly the same time, even if he spent days or even weeks in the House.
Should is not the same as definitely, thought Arthur grimly. I wish I understood the time relativities better. I wish I knew more about how to use the Keys. I wish I’d never, ever got involved in all—
Arthur stopped himself.
“If I wasn’t involved, I’d be dead,” he said aloud. “I just have to get on with it.”
Getting on with it, Arthur thought, included facing
