Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [127]
“Oh.”
“Wow.”
“Phew.” Nicko whistled. Maxie sat down and breathed respectful clouds of dog breath into the chill air.
In the middle of the temple, resting on the mosaic floor, lay the most beautiful boat anyone had ever seen.
The golden Dragon Boat of Hotep-Ra.
The huge green and gold head of the dragon reared up from the prow, its neck arched gracefully like a giant swan’s. The body of the dragon was a broad open boat with a smooth hull of golden wood. Folded neatly back along the outside of the hull were the dragon’s wings; great iridescent green folds shimmered as the multitude of green scales caught the light of the lantern. And at the stern of the Dragon Boat the green tail arched far up into the darkness of the temple, its golden barbed end almost hidden in the gloom.
“How did that get here?” breathed Nicko.
“Shipwrecked,” said Boy 412.
Jenna and Nicko looked at Boy 412 in surprise. “How do you know?” they both asked.
“I read about it in A Hundred Strange and Curious Tales for Bored Boys. Aunt Zelda lent it to me. But I thought it was a legend. I never thought the Dragon Boat was real. Or that it was here.”
“So what is it?” asked Jenna, entranced by the boat and getting the strangest feeling she had seen it somewhere before.
“It’s the Dragon Boat of Hotep-Ra. Legend has it he was the Wizard who built Wizard Tower.”
“He did,” said Jenna. “Marcia told me.”
“Oh. Well, there you are, then. The story said Hotep-Ra was a powerful Wizard in a Far Country and he had a dragon. But something happened and he had to leave quickly. So the dragon offered to become his boat, and she carried him safely to a new land.”
“So that boat is—or was—a real dragon?” whispered Jenna, in case the boat could hear her.
“I suppose so,” said Boy 412.
“Half boat, half dragon,” muttered Nicko. “Weird. But why is she here?”
“She was wrecked off some rocks by the Port lighthouse,” said Boy 412. “Hotep-Ra towed her into the marshes and had her pulled out of the water into a Roman temple that he found on a sacred island. He started rebuilding her, but he couldn’t find any skilled craftsmen at the Port. It was a really rough place in those days.”
“Still is,” grunted Nicko, “and they’re still no good at building boats either. If you want a proper boatbuilder you come upriver to the Castle. Everyone knows that.”
“Well, that was what they told Hotep-Ra too,” said Boy 412. “But when this oddly dressed man turned up at the Castle claiming to be a Wizard, they all laughed at him and refused to believe his stories about his amazing Dragon Boat. Until one day the Queen’s daughter fell ill, and he saved her life. The Queen was so grateful that she helped him build the Wizard Tower. One summer he took her and her daughter out to the Marram Marshes to see the Dragon Boat. And they fell in love with it. After that Hotep-Ra had as many boatbuilders working on it as he wanted, and because the Queen loved the boat, and she liked Hotep-Ra too, she used to bring her daughter out every summer just to see how they were getting on. The story says the Queen still does that. Oh, er…well, not any more, of course.”
There was a silence.
“Sorry. I didn’t think,” muttered Boy 412.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Jenna a little too brightly.
Nicko went over to the boat and expertly ran his hand over the gleaming golden wood of the hull.
“Nice repair,” he said. “Someone knew what they were doing. Shame no one has sailed her since though. She’s so beautiful.”
He began to climb an old wooden ladder that was propped up against the hull.
“Well, don’t just stand there, you two. Come and have a look!”
The inside of the boat was like no other boat anyone had ever seen. It was painted a deep lapis lazuli blue with hundreds of hieroglyphs