Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [48]
So it really had happened, thought Alther.
The ghost wafted over to the hatch on the rubbish chute, which was still gaping open, and peered into the chill blackness. He shivered and reflected on the terrifying journey they all must have had. And then, because Alther wanted to do something, however small it might be, he stepped over the boundary between the ghostly and the living world. He Caused something to happen.
He slammed the hatch closed.
Bang!
DomDaniel woke up with a start. He sat bolt upright and stared around him, momentarily wondering where he was. Soon, with a little sigh of satisfaction, he remembered. He was back where he belonged. Back in the rooms of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Back at the top of the Tower. Back with a vengeance. DomDaniel looked about him, expecting to see his Apprentice, who should have returned hours ago with the news at last of the end of the Princess and that awful woman, Marcia Overstrand, not to mention a couple of the Heaps thrown into the bargain. The fewer of them remaining the better, thought DomDaniel. He shivered in the chill air of the night and clicked his fingers impatiently to rekindle the fire in the grate. It flared up and, pouf! Alther blew it out. Then he wafted the smoke out from the chimney and set DomDaniel coughing.
The old Necromancer may be here, thought Alther grimly, and there may be nothing I can do about that, but he’s not going to enjoy it. Not if I can help it.
It was well into the early hours of the morning, after DomDaniel had gone upstairs to bed and had had considerable trouble sleeping due to the fact that the sheets seemed to be intent on strangling him, when the Apprentice returned. The boy was white with tiredness and cold, his green robes were caked in snow and he trembled as the Guardsman who had escorted him to the door made a quick exit and left him alone to face his Master.
DomDaniel was in a foul temper as the door let the Apprentice in.
“I hope,” DomDaniel told the trembling boy, “that you have some interesting news for me.”
Alther hovered around the boy, who was almost unable to speak from exhaustion. He felt sorry for the boy—it was not his fault that he was Apprenticed to DomDaniel. Alther blew on the fire and got it going again. The boy saw the flames jump in the grate and made to move over to the warmth.
“Where are you going?” thundered DomDaniel.
“I—I’m cold, sir.”
“You’re not going near that fire until you tell me what happened. Are they dispatched?”
The boy looked puzzled. “I—I told him it was a Projection,” he mumbled.
“What are you on about, boy? What was a Projection?”
“Their boat.”
“Well, you managed that I suppose. Simple enough. But are they dispatched? Dead? Yes or no?” DomDaniel’s voice rose in exasperation. He had already guessed the answer, but he had to hear it.
“No,” whispered the boy, looking terrified, his sodden robes dripping on the floor as the snow began to melt in the faint heat that Alther’s fire was giving off.
DomDaniel cast a withering look toward the boy.
“You are nothing but a disappointment. I go to endless trouble to rescue you from a disgrace of a family. I give you an education most boys can only dream of. And what do you do? Act like a complete fool! I just do not understand it. A boy like you should have found that rabble in no time. And all you do is come back with some story about Projections and—and drip all over the floor!”
DomDaniel decided that if he was awake, he didn’t see why the Supreme Custodian should not be awake too. And as for the Hunter, he’d be very interested in what he had to say for himself. DomDaniel strode out, slamming the door behind him, and set off down the static silver stairs, clattering past endless dark floors left empty and echoing by the exodus of all the Ordinary Wizards earlier