Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [116]
“What is it?” whispered Nicko.
“There’s someone on the beach,” whispered Jenna. “Maybe it’s someone from the ship. Keeping guard.”
Nicko peered around the tree trunk.
“It’s not someone from the ship.” He smiled.
“How do you know?” asked Jenna. “It could be.”
“Because it’s Alther.”
Alther Mella was sitting on the beach, staring mournfully out into the drizzle. He had been there for days, hoping that someone from Keeper’s Cottage would turn up. He needed to talk to them urgently.
“Alther?” whispered Jenna.
“Princess!” Alther’s careworn face lit up. He wafted over to Jenna and enfolded her in a warm hug. “Well, I do believe you’ve grown since I last saw you.”
Jenna put her fingers to her lips. “Shhh, they might hear us, Alther,” she said.
Alther looked surprised. He wasn’t used to Jenna telling him what to do.
“They can’t hear me.” He chuckled. “Not unless I want them to. And they can’t hear you either—I’ve put up a Scream Screen. They won’t hear a thing.”
“Oh, Alther,” said Jenna. “It is so lovely to see you. Isn’t it, Nicko?”
Nicko had a big grin on his face. “It’s great,” he said.
Alther gave Boy 412 a quizzical look. “Here’s someone else who’s grown too.” He smiled. “Those Young Army lads are always so painfully thin. It’s nice to see you’ve filled out a bit.”
Boy 412 blushed.
“He’s nice now too, Uncle Alther,” Jenna told the ghost.
“I expect he was always nice, Princess,” said Alther. “But you’re not allowed to be nice in the Young Army. It’s forbidden.”
He smiled at Boy 412.
Boy 412 smiled shyly back.
They sat on the drizzly beach, just out of sight of the Vengeance.
“How’s Mum and Dad?” asked Nicko.
“And Simon?” asked Jenna. “What about Simon?”
“Ah, Simon,” said Alther. “Simon had deliberately slipped away from Sarah in the Forest. Seems he and Lucy Gringe had planned to secretly get married.”
“What?” said Nicko. “Simon got married?”
“No. Gringe found out and shopped him to the Custodian Guards.”
“Oh, no!” gasped Jenna and Nicko.
“Oh, don’t worry yourselves about Simon,” said Alther, strangely unsympathetic. “How he managed to spend all that time in the custody of the Supreme Custodian and come out looking like he’d had a holiday, I don’t know. Although I have my suspicions.”
“How do you mean, Uncle Alther?” asked Jenna.
“Oh, it’s probably nothing, Princess.” Alther seemed unwilling to say any more about Simon.
There was something Boy 412 wanted to ask but it felt odd talking to a ghost. But he had to ask, so he plucked up his courage and said, “Er, excuse me, but what’s happened to Marcia? Is she all right?”
Alther sighed. “No,” he said.
“No?” three voices asked at once.
“She was set up,” Alther frowned. “Set up by the Supreme Custodian and the Rat Office. He’s put his own rats in. Or rather DomDaniel’s rats. And a vicious lot they are too. They used to run the spy network back at DomDaniel’s place in the Badlands. They’ve got a very nasty reputation. Came in with the plague rats hundreds of years ago. Not nice.”
“You mean our Message Rat was one of them?” asked Jenna, thinking of how she had rather liked him.
“No, no. He got marched off by the Rat Office heavies. He’s disappeared. Poor rat. I wouldn’t give much for his chances,” said Alther.
“Oh. That’s awful,” said Jenna.
“And the message for Marcia wasn’t from Silas either,” said Alther.
“I didn’t think it was,” said Nicko.
“It was from the Supreme Custodian,” Alther said. “So when Marcia turned up at the Palace Gate to meet Silas, the Custodian Guards were waiting for her. Of course that wouldn’t have been a problem for Marcia if she had got her Midnight Minutes right, but her timepiece was twenty minutes slow. And she’d given away her KeepSafe. It’s a bad business. DomDaniel has taken the Amulet, so I am afraid he’s now