Septimus Heap, Book One_ Magyk - Angie Sage [93]
“Keep watching,” Aunt Zelda told her. “As the moon grows it draws up the things from the ground. And the cottage draws in the people that wish to come here. The pull is strongest at the full moon, which is when you came.”
But when the moon was a quarter full, Marcia had left.
“How come Marcia’s gone?” Jenna asked Aunt Zelda the morning they discovered her departure. “I thought things came back when the moon was growing, not went away.”
Aunt Zelda looked somewhat grumpy at Jenna’s question. She was annoyed with Marcia for going so suddenly, and she didn’t like anyone messing up her moon theories either.
“Sometimes,” Aunt Zelda said mysteriously, “things must leave in order to return.” She stomped off into her potion cupboard and firmly locked the door behind her.
Nicko made a sympathetic face at Jenna and waved her pair of skates at her.
“Race you to Big Bog.” He grinned.
“Last one there’s a dead rat.” Jenna laughed.
Stanley woke up with a start at the words “dead rat” and opened his eyes just in time to see Nicko and Jenna grab their skates and disappear for the day.
By the time the full moon arrived and Marcia had still not returned, everyone was very worried.
“I told Marcia to sleep on it,” said Aunt Zelda, “but oh, no, she gets herself all worked up over Silas and just ups and goes in the middle of the night. Not a word since. It really is too bad. I can understand Silas not getting back, what with the Big Freeze, but not Marcia.”
“She might come back tonight,” ventured Jenna, “seeing as it’s the full moon.”
“She might,” said Aunt Zelda, “or she might not.”
Marcia, of course, did not return that night. She spent it as she had spent the last ten nights, in the middle of the Vortex of Shadows and Shades, lying weakly in the pool of filthy water at the bottom of Dungeon Number One. Sitting next to her was Alther Mella, using all the ghostly Magyk he could to help keep Marcia alive. People rarely survived the actual fall into Dungeon Number One, and if they did, they did not last long, but soon sank below the foul water to join the bones that lay just beneath the surface. Without Alther, there is no doubt that the same fate would have befallen Marcia eventually.
That night, the night of the full moon, as the sun set and the moon rose in the sky, Jenna and Aunt Zelda wrapped themselves up in some quilts and kept watch at the window for Marcia. Jenna soon fell asleep, but Aunt Zelda kept watch all night until the rising of the sun and the setting of the full moon put an end to any faint hopes she may have had of Marcia returning.
The next day, the Message Rat decided he was strong enough to leave. There was a limit to how much pureed eel even a rat could stomach, and Stanley thought he had well and truly reached that limit.
However, before Stanley could leave, he either had to be commanded with another message or released with no message. So that morning he coughed a polite cough and said, “Excuse me, all.” Everyone looked at the rat. He had been very quiet while he was recovering, and they were unused to hearing him speak.
“It is time I returned to the Rat Office. I am already somewhat overdue. But I must ask, Do you require me to take a message?”
“Dad!” said Jenna. “Take one to Dad!”
“Who might Dad be?” asked the rat. “And where is he to be found?”
“We don’t know,” said Aunt Zelda snappily. “There is no message, thank you, Message Rat. You are released.”
Stanley bowed, very much relieved.
“Thank you, Madam,” he said. “And, ahem, thank you for your kindness. All of you. I am very grateful.”
They all watched the rat run off over the snow, leaving small footprints and tailprints behind him.
“I wish we had sent a message,” said Jenna wistfully.
“Best not,” Aunt Zelda said. “There’s something not quite right about that rat. Something different