Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [125]
“Sunbathing?” squeaked Aunt Zelda. “At night?”
“Aunt Zelda,” said Jenna sternly, “forget the rabbits. There’s a storm coming.”
Aunt Zelda stopped fussing and surveyed the three damp figures in front of her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “What was I thinking about? Go and get dry by the fire.”
While Jenna, Nicko and Boy 412 stood steaming by the fire, Aunt Zelda peered out into the night again. Then she quietly closed the cottage door.
“There’s a Darkenesse out there,” she whispered. “I should have noticed, but Boggart’s been bad, very bad…and to think you’ve been out in it…on your own.” Aunt Zelda shivered.
Jenna started to explain, “It’s DomDaniel,” she said. “He’s—”
“He’s what?”
“Horrible,” Jenna said. “We saw him. On his ship.”
“You what?” said Aunt Zelda, openmouthed, not daring to believe what she was hearing. “You saw DomDaniel? On the Vengeance? Where?”
“Near the Deppen Ditch. We just climbed up and—”
“Climbed up what?”
“The ladder. We got on the ship—”
“You—you’ve been on the Vengeance?” Aunt Zelda could hardly understand what she was hearing. Jenna noticed that her aunt had suddenly gone very pale, and her hands were trembling slightly.
“It’s a bad ship,” said Nicko. “Smells bad. Feels bad.”
“You were on there too?”
“No,” said Nicko, wishing now that he had been. “I would have gone, but my Unseen wasn’t good enough, so I stayed behind. With the canoes.”
It took Aunt Zelda a few seconds to take this all in. She looked at Boy 412.
“So you and Jenna have been on that Darke ship…on your own…in the middle of all that Darke Magyk. Why?”
“Oh, well, we met Alther—” Jenna tried to explain.
“Alther?”
“And he told us that Marcia—”
“Marcia? What’s Marcia got to do with it?”
“She’s been captured by DomDaniel,” said Boy 412. “Alther said he thought she might be on the ship. And she was. We saw her.”
“Oh, my. This just gets worse.” Aunt Zelda collapsed into her chair by the fire. “That interfering old ghost should know better,” snapped Aunt Zelda. “Sending three youngsters off to a Darke ship. What was he thinking of?”
“He didn’t send us, really he didn’t,” said Boy 412. “He told us not to, but we had to try to rescue Marcia. But we couldn’t though…”
“Marcia’s captured,” whispered Aunt Zelda. “This is bad.” She stabbed at the fire with a poker, and a few flames shot into the air.
A long, loud rumble of thunder rolled across the sky right above the cottage, shaking it to its foundations. A wild gust of wind found its way through the windows, blowing out the storm candles and leaving only the flickering fire to light the room. A moment later a sudden downpour of hail clattered against the windows and fell down the chimney, putting out the fire with an angry hiss.
The cottage was plunged into darkness.
“The lanterns!” said Aunt Zelda, getting up and finding her way through the dark to the lantern cupboard.
Maxie whined and Bert hid her head under her one good wing.
“Bother, now where’s the key?” muttered Aunt Zelda, scrabbling around in her pockets and finding nothing. “Bother, bother, bother.”
Crack!
A bolt of lightning shot past the windows, illuminating the scene outside, and struck the water very close to the cottage.
“Missed,” said Aunt Zelda grimly, “just.”
Maxie yelped and burrowed under the rug.
Nicko was staring out the window. In the brief glare of the lightning he had seen something he had not wanted to see again.
“He’s coming,” he said quietly. “I saw the ship. In the distance. Sailing over the marshes. He’s coming here.”
Everyone scrambled to the window. At first all they could see was the darkness of the approaching storm, but as they watched, staring into the night, a flicker of sheet lightning played across the clouds and showed them the sight that Nicko had glimpsed before.
Silhouetted against the lightning, still far away but with its sails flying in the howling wind, the huge Darke ship was cutting through the waves and heading toward the cottage.
The Vengeance was coming.
43
THE DRAGON BOAT
Aunt Zelda was panicking.
“Where is the key? I can