Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [17]
Marcia looked around, tutting to herself. Something was wrong. The sentry was not here. And yet he was still here. He was, she suddenly realized, between the Here and the Not Here.
He was nearly dead.
Marcia made a sudden dive toward a small mound by the archway, and Jenna fell out of the cloak.
“Dig!” hissed Marcia, scrabbling away at the mound. “He’s here. Frozen.”
Underneath the mound lay the thin white body of the sentry. He was curled up into a ball, and his flimsy cotton uniform was soaked with the snow and clung coldly to him, the acid-bright colors of the bizarre uniform looking tawdry in the cold winter sunlight. Jenna shivered at the sight of the boy, not from the cold but from an unknown, wordless memory that had flitted across her mind.
Marcia carefully brushed the snow from the boy’s dark blue mouth while Jenna lay her hand on his white sticklike arm. She had never felt anyone so cold before. Surely he was already dead?
Jenna watched Marcia lean over the boy’s face and mutter something under her breath. Marcia stopped, listened and looked concerned. Then she muttered again, more urgently this time, “Quicken, Youngling. Quicken.” She paused for a moment and then breathed a long slow breath over the boy’s face. The breath tumbled endlessly from Marcia’s mouth, on and on, a warm pale pink cloud that enveloped the boy’s mouth and nose and slowly, slowly seemed to take away the awful blue and replace it with a living glow. The boy did not stir, but Jenna thought that now she could see a faint rise and fall of his chest. He was breathing again.
“Quick!” whispered Marcia to Jenna. “He won’t survive if we leave him here. We’ll have to get him inside.” Marcia gathered the boy into her arms and carried him up the wide marble steps. As she reached the top, the solid silver doors to the Wizard Tower swung silently open before them. Jenna took a deep breath and followed Marcia and the boy inside.
7
WIZARD TOWER
It was only when the doors of the Wizard Tower had swung closed behind her and Jenna found herself standing in the huge golden entrance Hall that she realized just how much her life had changed. Jenna had never, ever seen or even dreamed of a place like this. She knew that most other people in the Castle would never see anything like it either. She was already becoming different from those she had left behind.
Jenna gazed at the unfamiliar riches that surrounded her as she stood, entranced, in the massive circular Hall. The golden walls flickered with fleeting pictures of mythical creatures, symbols and strange lands. The air was warm and smelled of incense. It was filled with a quiet, soft hum, the sound of the everyday Magyk that kept the Tower operating. Beneath Jenna’s feet the floor moved as if it were sand. It was made up of hundreds of different colors that danced around her boots and spelled out the words WELCOME PRINCESS, WELCOME. Then, as she gazed in surprise, the letters changed to read, HURRY UP!
Jenna glanced up to see Marcia, who was staggering a little as she carried the sentry, step onto a silver spiral staircase.
“Come on,” said Marcia impatiently. Jenna ran over, reached the bottom step and started to climb the stairs.
“No, just wait where you are,” explained Marcia. “The stairs will do the rest.”
“Go,” said Marcia loudly and, to Jenna’s amazement, the spiral staircase started turning. It was slow at first, but it soon picked up speed, whirling around faster and faster, up through the Tower until they reached the very top. Marcia stepped off and Jenna followed, jumping dizzily, just before the steps whirled back down again, called by another Wizard somewhere far below.
Marcia’s big purple front door had already sprung open for them, and the fire in the grate hastily burst into flames. A sofa arranged itself in front of the fire, and two pillows and a blanket hurled themselves through the air and landed neatly on the sofa without Marcia having to say a word.
Jenna helped Marcia lay the sentry boy down on the sofa.