Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [131]
Beside Marcia, her three seasick guards lay slumped in pathetically groaning heaps, wishing that they too had learned to swim. At least they would have been thrown overboard by now.
Far above Marcia, in the full force of the Storm he had created, DomDaniel was sitting bolt upright on his ebony throne, while his miserable Apprentice shivered beside him. The boy was meant to be helping his Master to prepare his final lightning Strike, but he was so seasick that all he could do was stare glassily ahead and give the occasional moan.
“Quiet, boy!” snapped DomDaniel, trying to concentrate on gathering the electrical forces together for the most powerful Strike he had ever done. Soon, thought DomDaniel triumphantly, not only would that interfering witch’s nasty little cottage be gone but the whole island too, evaporated in a blinding flash. DomDaniel fingered the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Amulet, which was now back in its rightful place. It was back around his neck, not the scrawny neck of some half-baked stick insect woman Wizard.
DomDaniel laughed. It was all so easy.
“Ship ahoy, sire,” a faint voice called down from the crow’s nest. “Ship ahoy!”
DomDaniel cursed.
“Don’t interrupt!” he shrieked above the howl of the wind and Caused the sailor to fall with a scream into the seething waters below.
But DomDaniel’s concentration had been broken. And, as he tried to regain control of the elements for the final Strike, something caught his eye.
A small golden glow was coming out of the dark toward his ship. DomDaniel fumbled for his eyeglass and, raising it to his eye, could hardly believe what he saw.
It was impossible, he told himself, absolutely impossible. The Dragon Boat of Hotep-Ra did not exist. It was nothing more than a legend. DomDaniel blinked the rain out of his eyes and looked again. The wretched boat was heading straight for him. The green glint of the dragon’s eyes shot through the dark and met his one-eyed gaze through the eyeglass. A cold shiver ran through the Necromancer. This, he decided, was the doing of Marcia Overstrand. A Projection of her fevered brain as she schemed against him, deep within his own ship. Had she learned nothing?
DomDaniel turned to his Magogs.
“Dispatch the prisoner,” he snapped. “Now!”
The Magogs flicked their dirty yellow claws open and closed, and a thin sheen of slime appeared over their blind-worm heads, as it always did in moments of excitement. They hissed a question to their Master.
“Anyway you like,” he replied. “I don’t care. Do whatever you want, but just do it. Fast!”
The ghastly pair slithered off, dripping slime as they went, and disappeared belowdecks. They were pleased to get out of the storm, excited by the fun they had in store.
DomDaniel put away his eyeglass. He no longer needed it, for the Dragon Boat was quite near enough for him to easily see. He tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for what he took to be Marcia’s Projection to disappear. However, to DomDaniel’s dismay, it did not disappear. The Dragon Boat drew ever closer and appeared to be fixing him with a particularly nasty stare.
Edgily, the Necromancer started pacing the deck, oblivious to the squall of rain that suddenly poured down on him, and deaf to the noisy flapping of the last few remaining shreds of the sails. There was only one sound that DomDaniel wanted to hear, and that was the sound of Marcia Overstrand’s last scream far below in the hold.
He listened intently. If there was one thing DomDaniel enjoyed, it was hearing the last scream of a human being.