Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [30]
The other witches looked on, impressed.
From somewhere inside her tattered black robes, Linda drew out a small silver cage on a chain, as delicate and beautiful as any of the jewelry in the stall. She unscrewed the bottom of the cage, opened her right hand and slammed the cage down over the bird. Then she poked the panicking bird into the cage with a prodding finger—it was a tight fit even though the bird was tiny. Quickly Linda tipped the cage upside down and screwed the floor back on, then she swung the cage over her neck so that it hung dangling by its chain like an exotic pendant. Inside the cage the bird blinked in shock.
“Hostage,” Linda informed the other witches. They nodded, impressed, and—as they always were with Linda—slightly scared.
Linda held her left fist up to the cage and slowly unfurled her fingers. Inside her fist sat the other bird, trembling. It gave a despairing tweet at the sight of the caged bird and fell silent. Linda raised the bird up to her eyes and began to mutter in a low, threatening monotone. The bird stood on her palm, transfixed. Linda finished whatever ghastly thing she was saying and the bird flew up and hovered, looking down at the silver cage dangling from Linda’s grubby neck. Linda pointed a long-nailed finger at the fluttering scrap of blue and the bird vanished. UnSeen, it flew off on an erratic course, which followed Jenna’s path as she headed for the Palace.
“Lovebirds!” Linda commented scathingly. “Love. What rubbish.” She laughed. “But useful rubbish. I still have that bird in the palm of my hand.” She held out her empty hand and snapped her fingers shut. “And the Princess.”
Chapter 10
Upstairs
Jenna and her invisible bird reached the Palace Gate at the same time as Beetle. Beetle looked flustered.
“Thought I was going to be late,” he puffed. “Foxy . . . Chief Charm Scribe, my foot.”
“You mean he isn’t?” Jenna was surprised.
“Well, he is—if Jillie Djinn would only let him. Foxy said when he got back she’d taken all the Charms into the Hermetic Chamber for what she called stocktaking and wouldn’t let him have them.”
Jenna raised her eyes to heaven. “That woman. You’re well out of that place, Beetle.” She looked concerned. “But that means you haven’t got a SafeCharm.”
Beetle grinned. “That’s okay. I probably won’t need one. Anyway, I’ve got this. Foxy found it in the Pending Cupboard.” He took a small, slightly curved, flat piece of wood from the inside top pocket of his admiral’s jacket and showed it to Jenna. “Foxy reckons it’ll be more use than a SafeCharm. He said a sea captain came in a couple of days ago and swapped it for a love Charm. It’s a heartbeat thingy. You put it next to your heart like so . . .” Beetle put the Charm back into his top left pocket. “Foxy says that if you get really scared it knows and brings you back to the last place you were safe. Shall we get going?”
Beetle and Jenna walked up the Palace drive under a dark cloud that had blown in from the Port. Jenna did not want to meet Sarah right then, so she took the path around the back of the Palace. By the time they reached the small door into the turret at the far end, a cold wind was blustering up from the river and fat drops of sleety rain were beginning to fall. Jenna pushed open the door and they stepped inside. The door slammed in a sudden gust, the noise echoing down the Long Walk.
It was unusually dark inside the Palace. When Nicko had at long last returned safely home, Jenna had celebrated having both Septimus and Nicko in the Castle once more by asking Maizie Smalls, who lit the torches in Wizard Way, to live at the Palace. In return for two rooms looking out on the river and supper every night, Maizie had agreed to light a candle in every room in the Palace and to light the Long Walk with rushlights.