Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [46]
“I’ll keep watch for you,” said Marcus as Beetle carefully removed the two planks and swung himself over the edge. “I won’t let anyone do a Ransom on you.”
Beetle’s head was just visible above the manhole. “Do a what?” he asked.
“A Ransom. You know, when they push you in the drain and won’t let you get out until you give ’em all your stuff.”
“All your stuff?” Beetle was distracted, looking into the drain.
“Yeah.” Marcus grinned. “Not much fun running up the Dive with no clothes on, I can tell you. Be careful, the rungs are rusty.”
“Ah. Okay.” Very carefully Beetle began to climb down into the drain. The rungs were indeed rusty. They felt loose against the brickwork and as Beetle cautiously placed his boot into the slime at the bottom of the drain, the last one came away in his hand. He dropped it into the mud with a dull thub and shone his light along the drain.
Beetle’s blue light didn’t show much; it was made for the clean whiteness of ice, not the brown muckiness of sludge. But it did show enough for him to see that the lump that he had feared was an unconscious Jenna was indeed a pile of old clothes. Just to make sure, Beetle waded through the muck, trying to ignore the wetness seeping into his boots, and tentatively poked at the lump with his foot. It moved. Beetle yelled. A huge rat ran out and scuttled off into the dark.
“You all right?” Marcus’s face appeared in the manhole opening.
“Yeah.” Beetle felt a little foolish. “A rat. Big one.”
“There’s a lot around here,” said Marcus. “And they’re not Message Rats, that’s for sure. It’s a whole different species, I reckon. Bite you as soon as look at you. You were lucky.”
“Ah . . .”
“I take it that’s not the Princess?” Marcus asked.
“No.”
“You don’t want to stay down too long. It’s been raining for days now. There might be a rush.”
“A what?” Beetle couldn’t hear Marcus clearly as a low thunder like the rush of blood in his head was filling his ears.
“A rush. Oh sheesh—hey, look out!”
Beetle didn’t hear a word Marcus said, but he did hear what was coming along the drain. He leaped up, grasping for the rung, only to find that it was gone. It was, he remembered, lying in the mud where he had thrown it. The roar in his ears grew louder, and the next thing Beetle knew, a hand was reaching down and Marcus was yelling, “Grab hold. Quick!”
A few seconds later Beetle and Marcus were lying on the wet cobblestones at the end of Dan’s Dive, staring down at the wall of water rushing along the drain below.
“Thanks,” gasped Beetle.
“No worries,” puffed Marcus. “Good thing Princess Jenna wasn’t down there.”
Beetle sat up. He ran his hands through his hair as he always did when he was worried—and immediately wished he hadn’t. Where was Jenna?
Chapter 15
Doom Dump
Jenna was in Doom Dump.
As she wordlessly yelled for Beetle and the lantern fizzled out, Jenna had heard the studded door creak open behind her. Terrified, she had tried to run, but her feet had stayed planted firmly outside the door. And when an arm had stretched out and a hand grabbed the back of her cloak and began to pull her inside, Jenna’s feet had taken her across the threshold of Doom Dump and waited patiently while a girl, wearing witch robes that would not have looked out of place in Gothyk Grotto, Locked and Barred the door.
“Marissa!” gasped Jenna, but once again she made no sound.
“Goldfish.” Marissa smirked. Mockingly she opened and closed her mouth like a fish.
Keeping her hand firmly on Jenna’s cloak, Marissa shoved Jenna along the corridor of a typical long, narrow Castle house. It was totally dark, but Marissa knew her way. She threw open the first door leading off the corridor and pushed Jenna into a tunnel-like room, lit at the far end by a pair of rushlights and a tiny fire sputtering in a huge fireplace. The rushlights illuminated what at first appeared to be a comforting scene—a table around which a group of woman were seated for a meal. But Jenna felt anything but comforted. Sitting at the table was the Port Witch Coven.