Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [0]
BOOK SIX
Darke
ANGIE SAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARK ZUG
Dedication
For my brother, Jason,
with love
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue - Banished
Chapter 1 - The Visit
Chapter 2 - Visitors
Chapter 3 - Birthday Eve
Chapter 4 - Apprentices
Chapter 5 - Runaways
Chapter 6 - Choice
Chapter 7 - The Bringer of the Book
Chapter 8 - Chemistry
Chapter 9 - Charming
Chapter 10 - Upstairs
Chapter 11 - A Darke Domaine
Chapter 12 - Boomerang
Chapter 13 - Gothyk Grotto
Chapter 14 - Dagger Dan’s Dive
Chapter 15 - Doom Dump
Chapter 16 - Call Out
Chapter 17 - Witch Princess
Chapter 18 - The Emissary
Chapter 19 - The SafeChamber
Chapter 20 - Cordon
Chapter 21 - Quarantine
Chapter 22 - Ethel
Chapter 23 - Safety Curtain
Chapter 24 - Palace Things
Chapter 25 - Simon and Sarah
Chapter 26 - Absences
Chapter 27 - Bott’s Bridge
Chapter 28 - Hermetically Sealed
Chapter 29 - Retreat
Chapter 30 - In the Dragon House
Chapter 31 - Horse Stuff
Chapter 32 - Day of Recognition
Chapter 33 - Thieves in the Night
Chapter 34 - The Big Red Door
Chapter 35 - The Longest Night
Chapter 36 - Outside
Chapter 37 - Brothers
Chapter 38 - The Pig Tub
Chapter 39 - Descent
Chapter 40 - Annie
Chapter 41 - Bleak Creek
Chapter 42 - The Darke Halls
Chapter 43 - Dungeon Number One
Chapter 44 - The Wizard Tower
Chapter 45 - Dragons
Chapter 46 - Synchronicity
Chapter 47 - The Great UnDoing
Chapter 48 - Restoration
Chapter 49 - The Chief Hermetic Scribe
What Happened in the Darke Domaine— and Afterward
About the Author
Also by Angie Sage
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Prologue
Banished
It is a Darke and stormy night.
Black clouds hang low over the Castle, shrouding the golden pyramid at the top of the Wizard Tower in a dim mist. In the houses far below, people stir uneasily in their sleep as the rumble of thunder enters their dreams and sends nightmares tumbling from the sky.
Like a giant lightning conductor, the Wizard Tower rears high above the Castle rooftops, Magykal purple and indigo lights playing around its iridescent silver sheen. Inside the Tower the duty Storm Wizard prowls the dimly lit Great Hall, checking the StormScreen and keeping an eye on the UnStable window, which has a tendency to panic in a storm. The duty Storm Wizard is a little on edge. Magyk is not usually affected by a storm, but all Wizards know about the Great Lightning Strike of Long Ago, which briefly drained the Wizard Tower of its Magyk and left the rooms of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard badly scorched. No one wants that to happen again—particularly the duty Storm Wizard.
At the top of the Wizard Tower in her as yet unscorched four-poster bed, Marcia Overstrand groans as a familiar nightmare flickers through her sleep. A loud craaaack of lightning splits open the cloud above the Tower and zips harmlessly to earth down the duty Storm Wizard’s hastily conjured Conductor. Marcia sits bolt upright, dark curly hair awry, trapped in her nightmare. Suddenly her green eyes open wide with surprise as a purple ghost shoots through the wall and skids to a halt beside the bed.
“Alther!” gasps Marcia. “What are you doing?”
The tall ghost with long white hair tied back in a ponytail is wearing bloodstained ExtraOrdinary Wizard robes. He looks flustered.
“I really hate it when that happens,” he gasps. “Got Passed Through. By lightning.”
“I’m very sorry, Alther,” Marcia replies grumpily, “but I don’t see why you had to come and wake me up just to tell me that. You may not need to sleep anymore, but I certainly do. Anyway, it serves you right for being out in a storm. Can’t think why you want to do that—argh!”
Another craaaack of lightning illuminates the purple glass of Marcia’s bedroom window and makes Alther appear almost transparent.
“I wasn’t out there for the fun of it, Marcia, believe me,” says Alther, equally grumpily. “I was coming to see you. As you requested.”
“As I requested?” says Marcia blearily. She is still half in her nightmare about Dungeon Number One—a nightmare that always