Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [148]
Gingerly he opened The Darke Index at the inside of the back cover. Muttering a short incantation, he ran his finger across the well-worn endpaper and, as he did so, letters began to appear beneath his fingers.
An irritated tut came from Marcia. A simple Reveal—why hadn’t she thought of that?
Beneath Simon’s moving finger an alphabetical list began to Reveal itself. His finger slowed at G and everyone waited, but The Great UnDoing was not listed. Simon’s finger slowed at the T but The Great UnDoing was not there. A palpable lack of confidence began to fill the little room and when Simon reached the letter U his hand began to shake. Suddenly “UnDoing. Great. The.” appeared. Smiling with relief, Simon handed the Revealed index to Marcia.
“‘UnDoing. Great. The. Begin with Magyk, end with Fyre,’” she read aloud. “Thank you, Simon.”
Simon nodded. He did not trust himself to speak.
Marcia sat down. She put her spectacles on and opened The Darke Index. “Now, Septimus, read the symbols out to me again, beginning with Magyk. Slowly, please.”
And so Septimus went through the list. At each symbol he paused while Marcia quickly leafed through the pages, grubby and grease-stained from Merrin’s sticky hands. Each page had one of the symbols at the beginning of the text. At the foot of the page—looking to the casual observer like page numbers—were two numbers. Marcia noted down the numbers, then said briskly, “Next.” It seemed to take forever but it was only a matter of minutes before Marcia had a column of forty-nine pairs of numbers.
Marcia handed Septimus the numbers and then she opened The Undoing of the Darkenesse.
“Read the numbers out to me please, Septimus.”
The red glow suffusing the study went out like a light. There was a collective gasp.
“SafeShield’s out,” Marcia said grimly.
* * *
Far below, the Barricade smashed to the ground and the first Thing walked across it, into the Wizard Tower courtyard. Twelve more followed, along with a stream of Darke Fog.
At the top of the Tower Septimus read out the first number of the first pair. “Fourteen.”
With urgent fingers Marcia flipped the thick pages of The Undoing of the Darkenesse to page fourteen.
Septimus read out the second number of the first pair. “Ninety-eight.”
As fast as she could Marcia began to count along the words on page fourteen until she reached the ninety-eighth word.
“Let.” It seemed a very small word for all the trouble finding it.
And so, agonizingly slowly, Marcia began to put together The Great UnDoing.
Outside the Wizard Tower, on the topmost marble step, a Thing reached out a long bony finger and pushed against the tall silver doors. They swung open like shed doors left unlatched in a summer breeze. The Thing walked into the Wizard Tower and the Darke Domaine tumbled in after it. The lights went out and someone screamed. In the shadows of her tiny office Hildegarde was suddenly certain that her little brother, who at the age of seven had disappeared during a Do-or-Die exercise in the Young Army, was outside the door. She ran to open it and the Darke Fog rushed in.
Things streamed in across the threshold, bringing the Darke Domaine with them. They milled around, squashing the dying floor beneath their feet, watching Wizards and Apprentices slump to the ground. As the Darke Fog began to fill the hall, the Things wandered across to the Stopped stairs and began to climb. Behind them the Darke Domaine moved slowly up through the Wizard Tower, filling every space with Darkenesse.
At the very top of the Tower, Marcia had in her hands a piece of paper with a string of forty-nine words on it, which formed, she sincerely hoped, The Great UnDoing. She and Septimus were running up the narrow stone steps to the Pyramid Library with Alther following in their wake. They flung themselves through the little door and Marcia hurried over to the window that led outside.