Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [144]
Aunt Zelda shook her head. The Wizard Tower was somewhere she would have liked to have visited, but when Silas was briefly Alther’s Apprentice she had been too busy taking over as Keeper of the Dragon Boat from the previous White Witch, Betty Crackle, who had let things go somewhat.
“Ah, well, let’s hope you get to see it one day. It is a wonderful place,” he said, remembering the luxury and Magyk that had surrounded them all then. A little different, thought Alther, from a makeshift party beside a fishing boat.
“Well, I have every hope that Marcia will be going back very soon,” said Aunt Zelda. “Now that we seem to have got rid of that awful DomDaniel man.”
“I was Apprenticed to that awful DomDaniel man, you know,” Alther continued, “and all I got for my Apprentice Supper was a cheese sandwich. I can tell you, Zelda, I regretted eating that cheese sandwich more than anything else I had ever done in my life. It bound me to that man for years and years.”
“Until you pushed him off the Wizard Tower.” Aunt Zelda chuckled.
“I didn’t push him. He jumped,” protested Alther. Yet again. And not, he suspected, for the last time.
“Well, good for you, whatever happened,” said Aunt Zelda, distracted by the babble of excited voices coming from the open doors and windows of the cottage. Above the hubbub came Marcia’s unmistakable bossy tones:
“No, let Sarah take that one, Silas. You’ll only drop it.”
“Well, put it down, then, if it’s that hot.”
“Mind my shoes, will you? And get that dog off for goodness’ sake.”
“Wretched duck. Always under my feet. Eurgh, is that duck poo I’ve just trodden on?”
And finally: “And now I’d like my Apprentice to lead the way, please.”
Boy 412 came out the door, holding a lantern. He was followed by Silas and Simon, who were carrying the table and chairs, then Sarah and Jenna with an assortment of plates, glasses, bottles, and Nicko who had a basket piled high with ten cabbages. He had no idea why he had a basket of cabbages, and he was not going to ask either. He had already trodden on Marcia’s brand-new purple python shoes (there was no way she would be wearing galoshes to her Apprentice’s Supper), and was keeping out of her way.
Marcia followed, carefully stepping over the mud, carrying the blue leather Apprentice Diary she had Made for Boy 412.
As the party emerged from the cottage, the last of the clouds cleared away and the moon rode high in the sky, casting a silver light over the procession as it made its way to the landing stage. Silas and Simon set the table down next to Alther’s boat, Molly, and put a large white cloth over it, then Marcia directed how everything should be set out. Nicko had to put the basket of cabbages in the middle of the table just where Marcia told him to.
Marcia clapped her hands for silence.
“This is,” she said, “an important evening for all of us, and I would like to welcome my Apprentice.”
Everyone clapped politely.
“I’m not one for long speeches,” Marcia continued.
“That’s not how I remember it,” Alther whispered to Aunt Zelda, who was sitting next to him in the boat so that he did not feel left out of the party. She nudged him companionably, forgetting for a moment that he was a ghost, and her arm went right through him and her elbow hit Molly’s mast.
“Ouch!” Aunt Zelda yelped. “Oh, sorry, Marcia. Do go on.”
“Thank you, Zelda, I will. I just want to say that I have spent ten years looking for an Apprentice, and although I have met many Hopefuls, I have never found what I was looking for, until now.”
Marcia turned to Boy 412 and smiled. “So, thank you for agreeing to be my Apprentice for the next seven years and a day. Thank you very much. It’s going to be a wonderful time for us both.”
Boy 412, who was sitting next to Marcia, blushed bright red as Marcia handed him his Apprentice Diary. He held the diary tightly with his clammy hands, leaving two slightly grubby handprints on the porous blue leather, which would never come off and would always remind him of the evening that changed his life forever.
“Nicko,” said Marcia, “hand the