Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [39]
“My rooms? DomDaniel in my rooms?”
“Well, you’ll be pleased to know he was in no fit state to appreciate them by the time he got up there, as they had to walk all the way up. There wasn’t enough Magyk left to keep the stairs working. Or anything else in the Tower for that matter.”
Marcia shook her head in disbelief. “I never thought DomDaniel could do this. Never.”
“No, neither did I,” said Alther.
“I thought,” said Marcia, “that as long as we Wizards could hang on until the Princess was old enough to wear the Crown, we would be all right. Then we could get rid of those Custodians, the Young Army and all the creeping Darkenesse that infests the Castle and makes peoples’ lives so miserable.”
“So did I,” said Alther, “but I followed DomDaniel up the stairs. He was blathering on to the Supreme Custodian about how he couldn’t believe his luck—not only had you left the Castle, but you had taken the one obstacle to his return with you.”
“Obstacle?”
“Jenna.”
Jenna gazed at Alther in dismay. “Me? An obstacle? Why?”
Alther stared at the fire, deep in thought. “It seems, Princess, that you have somehow been stopping that awful old Necromancer from coming back to the Castle. Just by being there. And very likely your mother did too. I always wondered why he sent the Assassin for the Queen and not for me.”
Jenna shivered. She suddenly felt very afraid. Silas put his arm around her. “That’s enough now, Alther. There’s no need to frighten us all out of our wits. Frankly, I think you just dropped off to sleep and had a nightmare. You know you get them every now and then. The Custodians are simply a load of thugs that any decent ExtraOrdinary Wizard would have seen off years ago.”
“I am not going to just sit here and be insulted like this,” Marcia spluttered. “You have no idea the things we have tried to get rid of them. No idea at all. It’s been all we can do to keep the Wizard Tower going sometimes. And with no help from you, Silas Heap.”
“Well, I don’t know what the fuss is all about, Marcia. DomDaniel’s dead,” Silas replied.
“No, he’s not,” said Marcia quietly.
“Don’t be silly, Marcia,” snapped Silas. “Alther threw him off the top of the Tower forty years ago.”
Jenna and Nicko gasped. “Did you really, Uncle Alther?” asked Jenna.
“No!” exclaimed Alther crossly. “I didn’t. He threw himself off.”
“Well, whatever,” said Silas stubbornly. “He’s still dead.”
“Not necessarily…” said Alther in a low voice, staring into the fire. The light from the glowing embers cast flickering shadows over everyone except Alther, who floated unhappily through them, absentmindedly trying to undo the knot he had just tied in his fishing line. The fire blazed for a moment and lit up the circle of people around it. Suddenly Jenna spoke.
“What did happen on top of the Wizard Tower with DomDaniel, Uncle Alther?” she whispered.
“It’s a bit of a scary story, Princess. I don’t want to frighten you.”
“Oh, go on, tell us,” said Nicko. “Jen likes scary stories.”
Jenna nodded a little uncertainly.
“Well,” said Alther, “it’s hard for me to tell it in my own words, but I’ll tell you the story as I once heard it spoken around a campfire deep in the Forest. It was a night like this, midnight with a full moon high in the sky, and it was told by an old and wise Wendron Witch Mother to her witches.”
And so, beside the fire, Alther Mella changed his form into a large and comfortable-looking woman dressed in green. Speaking in the witch’s quiet Forest burr, he began.
“This is where the story begins: on top of a golden Pyramid crowning a tall silver Tower. The Wizard Tower shimmers in the early morning sun and is so high that the crowd of people gathered at its foot appear like ants to the young man who is clambering up the stepped sides of the Pyramid. The young man has looked down at the ants once already and felt sick with