Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [38]
Even Marcia ignored the barley cake’s well-known tendency to glue the teeth together and ate almost a whole slab. Boy 412 gulped down his share and finished off all the bits that anyone else had left too. Then he lay back on the damp sand and wondered if he would ever be able to move again. He felt as though someone had poured concrete into him.
Jenna put her hand in her pocket and took out Petroc Trelawney. He sat very still and quiet in her hand, Jenna stroked him gently, and Petroc put out his four stumpy legs and waved them helplessly in the air. He was lying on his back like a stranded beetle.
“Oops, wrong way up.” Jenna chuckled. She set him the right way up, and Petroc Trelawney opened his eyes and blinked slowly.
Jenna stuck a crumb of barley cake on her thumb and offered it to the pet rock.
Petroc Trelawney blinked again, gave the barley cake some thought, then nibbled delicately at the cake crumb. Jenna was thrilled.
“He’s eaten it!” she exclaimed.
“He would,” said Nicko. “Rock cake for a pet rock. Perfect.”
But even Petroc Trelawney could not manage more than a large crumb of barley cake. He gazed around him for a few more minutes and then closed his eyes and went back to sleep in the warmth of Jenna’s hand.
Soon the water in the can over the fire was boiling. Silas melted the dark chocolate squares into it and added the milk. He mixed it up just the way he liked it, and when it was about to bubble over, he poured in the sugar and stirred.
“The best hot chocolate ever,” Nicko pronounced. No one disagreed as the can was passed around and finished all too soon.
While everyone was eating, Alther had been practicing his casting technique with his fishing rod in a preoccupied manner, and when he saw that they had finished, he wafted over to the fire. He looked serious.
“Something happened after you left,” he said quietly.
Silas felt a weight lurch to the bottom of his stomach, and it wasn’t just the barley cake. It was dread.
“What is it, Alther?” asked Silas, horribly sure that he was going to hear that Sarah and the boys had been captured.
Alther knew what Silas was thinking.
“It’s not that, Silas,” he said. “Sarah and the boys are fine. But it is very bad. DomDaniel has come back to the Castle.”
“What?” gasped Marcia. “He can’t come back. I’m the ExtraOrdinary Wizard—I’ve got the Amulet. And I’ve left the Tower stuffed full of Wizards—there’s enough Magyk in that tower to keep the old has-been buried in the Badlands where he belongs. Are you sure he’s back, Alther, and it’s not some joke the Supreme Custodian—that revolting little rat—is playing while I’m away?”
“It’s no joke, Marcia,” Alther said. “I saw him myself. As soon as Muriel had rounded Raven’s Rock, he Materialized in the Wizard Tower Courtyard. The whole place crackled with Darke Magyk. Smelled terrible. Sent the Wizards into a blind panic, scurrying here, there and everywhere, like a crowd of ants when you tread on their nest.”
“That’s disgraceful. What were they thinking of? I don’t know, the quality of the average Ordinary Wizard is appalling nowdays,” said Marcia, casting a glance in Silas’s direction. “And where was Endor? She’s meant to be my deputy—don’t tell me Endor panicked as well?”
“No. No, she didn’t. She came out and confronted him. She put a Bar across the doors to the Tower.”
“Oh, thank goodness. The Tower is safe.” Marcia sighed with relief.
“No, Marcia, it’s not. DomDaniel struck Endor down with a Thunderflash. She’s dead.” Alther tied a particularly complicated knot in his fishing line. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Dead,” Marcia mumbled.
“Then he Removed the Wizards.”
“All of them? Where to?”
“They all shot off toward the Badlands—there was nothing they could do. I expect he’s got them in one of his Burrows down there.”
“Oh, Alther.”
“Then the Supreme Custodian