Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [106]
“I’ll come with you,” Septimus and Simon said at the same time—and then glared at each other.
Sarah regarded her oldest and youngest sons. “You can both come, but I’m not having you squabbling all the way to Well Hall and back,” she said sternly. “Understood?”
Septimus and Simon grunted assent and then frowned, annoyed at sounding so similar.
Flanked by her oldest and youngest sons, both now taller than she, Sarah set off for the once familiar trip to the well. As she walked between them, moving swiftly along the silent passageways, she could hardly believe what was happening. It was all her dreams come true. No matter that her sons refused to speak to each other, or that terrible things were happening in the Castle right then—and no doubt would soon reach them too. She had, for a few precious minutes, her boys back. Not all her boys, it was true, but she had the very two of whom so many times she had despaired of ever seeing again—and indeed had often believed dead.
Sarah’s moment of contentment did not last long. As they made their way back from the Well Hall, each carrying two heavy pails of water, they saw a telltale eddy of Darkenesse appear around the far corner of Big Bertha. Quickly they hurried into There and Back Again Row and the Big Red Door threw itself open. They rushed in and the door immediately slammed itself shut. Sarah shoved the key in the lock and turned it.
“It needs an Anti-Darke,” Septimus said. “I’ll do one.”
Sarah didn’t like Anti-Darkes. She had grown up in a family that contained both witches and wizards and she was not happy hearing the word “Darke” spoken in her home, even when it was partnered by the word “Anti.” Sarah subscribed to the witch view on words—a deed named was a deed claimed. “No, thank you, love,” she said. “We’ll be safe without. The door has its own Magyk.”
Marcellus, who had been feeling rather useless since they had arrived in the room, was glad to weigh in with some advice. “We need all the protection we can get, Mistress Heap,” he said. “My Apprentice is right.”
Both Simon and Sarah shot Marcellus a questioning look. “Your Apprentice?” said Sarah.
Marcellus decided not to—as Septimus would have said—go there. “I would go as far as to say that an Anti-Darke may be essential for our survival,” he said.
Simon could hold back no longer. “That is true,” he said. “What we need is a fluid Anti-Darke combined with a powerful SafeScreen. Once those are in place we must have an effective Camouflage—that is crucial.”
Septimus gave a snort of derision. Did Simon really expect him to take the advice of the very person who had caused this whole thing to happen?
Simon misunderstood the snort. He tried to explain. “Look, you can do the most powerful Anti-Darke in the world, but it’s no good if it’s visible. A Darke Domaine will just hammer away at it until it’s gone. And sooner or later it will be. Trust me, I know.”
“Trust you?” spluttered Septimus—worried by the fact that he had actually agreed with everything Simon had said. “You must be joking.”
The argument continued.
Sarah tried to ignore her sons. She wanted them to sort things out between them and she hoped that the knowledge that a Darke Domaine was coming their way would concentrate their minds. She busied herself checking all the preserved and dried food that Silas had piled up in the larder—and she told Septimus and Simon to stop bickering. She calmed Thunder by blowing on his nose and whispering to him—and she told Septimus and Simon that there was to be no arguing about anything. She began sweeping up some wood shavings that Silas had left behind—and she told Jenna to keep out of other people’s quarrels. She told Lucy to let Jenna be. And then, when a full-on fight, with Jenna and Septimus on one side and Simon and Lucy on the other, seemed inevitable, Sarah’s patience ran out.
“Stop it, all of you!” she yelled, banging the end of her broom on the floor. “Stop it right now!”
The melee by the door paused and they looked at Sarah, surprised.
“I will have no angry words in this