Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [136]
Everyone exchanged glances.
“Yes, aren’t they just?” said Aunt Zelda who knew exactly which ship the Boggart was talking about, having been too engrossed watching everything from the kitchen window with the Boggart to have noticed the invasion of the Brownies.
“Yeah. Well, I’ll be off now,” said the Boggart. “Can’t stand bein’ so clean anymore. Just want ter find a nice bit a mud.”
“Well, there’s no shortage of that outside, Boggart,” said Aunt Zelda.
“Yeah,” said the Boggart. “Er, just wanter say thank you, Zelda, fer…well, fer lookin’ after me, like. Ta. Them Brownies’ll leave when I’ve gone. If you get any more trouble, just yell.”
The Boggart waddled out of the door to spend a few happy hours choosing a patch of mud to spend the rest of the night in. He was spoiled for choice.
As soon as he left, the Brownies became restless, their little red eyes exchanging glances and looking at the open door. When they were quite sure that the Boggart was really gone, a cacophony of excited shrieks started up and the pile suddenly collapsed in a spray of brown goo. Free of Boggart Breath at last, the Brownie pack headed for the door. It rushed down the island, streamed over the Mott bridge and headed out across the Marram Marshes. Straight for the stranded Vengeance.
“You know,” said Aunt Zelda as she watched the Brownies disappear into the shadows of the marsh, “I almost feel sorry for them.”
“What, the Brownies or the Vengeance?” asked Jenna.
“Both,” said Aunt Zelda.
“Well, I don’t,” said Nicko. “They deserve each other.”
Even so, no one wanted to watch what happened to the Vengeance that night. And no one wanted to talk about it either.
Later, after they had cleared as much brown goo out of the cottage as they could, Aunt Zelda surveyed the damage, determined to look on the bright side.
“It’s really not so bad,” she said. “The books are fine—well, at least they will be when they’ve all dried out and I can redo the potions. Most of them were coming up to their drink-by date anyway. And the really important ones are in the Safe. The Brownies didn’t eat all the chairs like last time, and they didn’t even poo on the table. So, all in all, it could have been worse. Much worse.”
Marcia sat down and took off her wrecked purple python shoes. She put them by the fire to dry while she considered whether to do a Shoe Renew or not. Strictly speaking, Marcia knew she shouldn’t. Magyk was not meant to be used for her own comfort. It was one thing to sort out her cloak, which was part of the tools of her trade, but she could hardly pretend that the pointy pythons were necessary for the performance of Magyk. So they sat steaming by the fire, giving off a faint but disagreeable smell of moldy snake.
“You can have my spare pair of galoshes,” Aunt Zelda offered. “Much more practical for around here.”
“Thank you, Zelda,” said Marcia dismally. She hated galoshes.
“Oh, cheer up, Marcia,” said Aunt Zelda irritatingly. “Worse things happen at sea.”
46
A VISITOR
The next morning all that Jenna could see of the Vengeance was the top of the tallest mast sticking out of the marsh like a lone flagpole, from which fluttered the remnants of the tops’l. The remains of the Vengeance was not something Jenna wanted to look at, but like everyone in the cottage who woke up after her, she had to see with her own eyes what had happened to the Darke ship. Jenna closed the shutter and turned away. There was another boat that she would much rather see.
The Dragon Boat.
Jenna stepped out of the cottage into the early morning spring sunshine. The Dragon Boat lay majestically in the Mott, floating high in the water, her neck stretched out and her golden head held aloft to catch the warmth of the first sunlight to fall upon her for hundreds of years. The shimmer