Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [102]
There was no one in the Castle that terrible night who moved through the Darke Fog with anything approaching Jenna’s lightheartedness. Her happiness at finding Sarah safe overwhelmed everything. She hardly cared about the Darke Domaine or Simon’s sudden, suspicious appearance. She had her mum back and that was all that mattered.
And every route she had learned for her Extramural Ramblings Certificate all those years ago led to the very place she was now headed: The Big Red Door, There and Back Again Row.
Chapter 34
The Big Red Door
The Darke Domaine stopped at the Ramblings.
It had faded slowly. First they began to hear the sound of Thunder’s hooves, muffled and distant but growing louder every step. Hazy shadows began to form recognizable shapes—Lucy first heard, then saw Marcellus’s mangled shoe flapping on the paving stones—but they knew they had reached the boundary when they could at last make out the glimmer of a distant rushlight. As they stepped out of the Darke Fog, they found themselves in an alleyway not far from Ma Custard’s Cake Stop. Feeling as though a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders, everyone exchanged strained glances—although only Lucy and Sarah met Simon Heap’s eyes. No one spoke.
Free of the Darke Fog, Thunder snorted and pulled away from Jenna’s grasp. As he headed noisily back to his master’s side Jenna let go and, to her surprise, saw a rat clinging to Thunder’s mane.
“Stanley?” she said, but the rat did not respond. Its eyes were shut tight and it was muttering something that sounded like, “Stupid, stupid stupid rat.” It did not look happy, thought Jenna.
Marcellus looked about anxiously. The border of a Darke Domaine was not a place to relax—this was where outriders patrolled, extending its boundaries, pulling the Domaine ever outward. He placed a finger on his lips for silence and, reverting to what Septimus called old-speak—as he did when a little tense—he whispered to Jenna, “Whither now, Princess?”
Jenna pointed at the lone rushlight, which illuminated the entrance to the Ramblings she had been heading for—a tumbledown archway covered in ivy and a purple flowering plant that grew out of untended walls in the Castle. The purple flowers were long gone in the dead of winter but the woody twigs of the plant hung down and brushed their heads as they stepped through the old stones into the hush of the Ramblings backwater.
Muttering, “I knaht uoy, esaelp eriter,” Septimus was busy returning his Darke Disguise to its tinderbox. It folded up as helpfully as his House Mouse and as thin as a piece of tissue paper. He pushed the lid on tight and placed the little box back in his deepest pocket, along with the precious key to Dungeon Number One.
“I’ll put a SafeScreen on the arch,” he said. “At least that will keep the Darkenesse out for a little while longer.”
Marcellus disagreed. “No, Apprentice. We must leave no clue that we have come this way. We must leave it as we found it.”
Freed from the Darke Domaine, the party split into its natural alliances, which meant that Septimus and Simon got as far away from each other as possible. Marcellus and Septimus led the way. Simon—grabbed by Lucy on one side and Sarah on the other—stayed back, hiding his awkwardness at being near Jenna and Septimus by fussing with Thunder. Jenna hovered between the two groups like a magnet, attracted by the presence of her mother and repelled by the presence of Simon. Eventually, after two wrong turnings, Jenna joined Marcellus and Septimus and once again led the way.
The Ramblings was a strange place that night. Normally on the Longest Night it had a festive atmosphere.