Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [14]
Jenna was pale, trying to understand what she was hearing. “Was that me?” she asked Sarah in a low voice. “Was I the baby Princess?”
Sarah nodded slowly.
Marcia’s voice trembled slightly as she carried on. “It was terrible! Alther was starting on the SafeShield Spell when there was another shot, and a bullet spun him around and threw him to the floor. I finished Alther’s spell for him, and for a few moments all three of us were safe. The Assassin fired his next bullet—it was one for the Princess and me this time—but it skittered off the invisible shield and shot straight back at him, catching him in the leg. He fell to the floor, but he still kept hold of his pistol. He just lay there and stared at us, waiting for the spell to end, as all spells must.
“Alther was dying. He took off the Amulet and gave it to me. I refused. I was sure that I could save him, but Alther knew better. He just very calmly told me that it was time for him to go now. He smiled and then—and then he died.”
The room was silent. No one moved. Even Silas stared deliberately at the floor. Marcia continued in a low voice.
“I—I couldn’t believe it. I tied the Amulet around my neck and gathered up the baby Princess. She was crying now, well, we both were. Then I ran. I ran so fast that the Assassin had no time to fire his pistol.
“I fled to the Wizard Tower. I couldn’t think where else to go. I told the other Wizards the terrible news and asked for their protection, which they gave us. All afternoon we talked about what we should do with the Princess. We knew she could not stay in the Tower for long. We could not protect the Princess forever, and anyway, she was a newborn baby who needed a mother. It was then that I thought of you, Sarah.”
Sarah looked surprised.
“Alther often talked to me about you and Silas. I knew you had just had a baby boy. It was the talk of the Tower, the seventh son of the seventh son. I had no idea then that he had died. I was so sorry to hear that. But I knew you would love the Princess and make her happy. So we decided that you should have her.
“But I couldn’t just walk over to The Ramblings and give her to you. Someone would have seen me. So, late in the afternoon, I smuggled the Princess out of the Castle and left her in the snow, making sure that you, Silas, would find her. And that was it. There was nothing more I could do.
“Except, after Gringe had flustered me into giving him a half crown, I hid in the shadows and watched for you as you came back. When I saw the way you held your cloak and the way you walked as if you were protecting something precious, I knew that you had the Princess and, do you remember, I told you, ‘Tell no one you found her. She was born to you. Understand?’”
A charged silence hung in the air. Silas stared at the floor, Sarah sat motionless with Jenna, and the boys all looked thunderstruck. Marcia stood up quietly, and from a pocket in her tunic she took a small red velvet bag. Then she picked her way across the room, being careful not to step on anything, particularly a large, and none too clean, wolf that she had just noticed asleep in the middle of a pile of blankets.
The Heaps watched, mesmerized, as Marcia walked solemnly over to Jenna. The Heap boys parted respectfully as Marcia stopped in front of Sarah and Jenna and knelt down.
Jenna stared with wide-open eyes as Marcia opened the velvet bag and took from it a small gold circlet.
“Princess,” said Marcia, “this was your mother’s and now it is yours by right.” Marcia reached up and placed the gold circlet on Jenna’s head. It fitted perfectly.
Silas broke