Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [68]
Beetle hoped that what lay within did not include Hildegarde, Sarah and Silas. Or Jenna.
Chapter 22
Ethel
Sarah, forget that contrary duck and get out!” Silas was yelling.
Silas and Hildegarde were anxiously hopping up and down on the path outside Sarah’s open sitting room window. Maxie was whining fretfully. Inside Sarah was frantically searching for Ethel.
“I can’t just abandon her,” Sarah shouted back, hurling a pile of wash off the sofa and throwing the cushions onto the floor. “She’s hiding because she’s frightened.”
“Sarah, get out!”
To Hildegarde’s dismay, Silas clambered back in through the open window. Maxie went to follow; Hildegarde pulled the protesting wolfhound away.
“Mr. Heap, Mr. Heap!” she called in through the window. “Come back, please! No, Maxie. Down.”
Inside the room Silas was propeling a reluctant Sarah toward the open window. “Sarah,” he told her, “duck or no duck, it is time to go. Come on.”
Sarah gave one last try. “Ethel, dear,” she called out, “Ethel, where are you? Come to Mummy!”
An exasperated Silas maneuvered Sarah out the window. “Ethel is a duck, Sarah, and you are not her mummy. You have eight children to be mummy to, and they all need you more than that duck does. Now get out!”
A moment later, much to Hildegarde’s relief, both Silas and Sarah were standing beside her. Suddenly the candle flickering in the room next door to Sarah’s went out. Quickly Hildegarde reached up to close the window.
“Quack!” A flurry of movement came from underneath a pile of old curtains propped up beside the door and a yellow beak poked out.
“Ethel!”
Neither Silas, who was distracted by the sudden appearance of Jenna rounding the corner at the far end of the Palace, nor Hildegarde, who was pulling down the window, were quick enough to stop Sarah leaping back inside. Hildegarde was, however, quick enough to stop Silas clambering in after Sarah.
“No, Mr. Heap. Stay here,” she said firmly, hanging on to Silas’s sleeve just to make sure. “Mistress Heap, please come back, oh no—”
As Sarah scooped Ethel out from the pile of curtains, the door to her sitting room crashed open. A wave of Darkenesse flooded inside, and Sarah screamed a terrified, piercing scream that Jenna would never forget. Sarah clutched her duck to her, mouth wide open in a shriek, and was lost to human sight. As the Darkenesse swirled toward the open window, Hildegarde had no choice but to slam the window shut and put a rapid Anti-Darke on it just to make sure nothing escaped.
“Sarah!” Silas yelled, banging on the window. “Saraaaaaah!”
Jenna arrived, breathless. “Mum!” she gasped. “Where’s Mum?”
Unable to speak, Silas pointed into the room.
“Get her out, Dad, get her out!” yelled Jenna.
Silas shook his head. “It’s too late. Too late . . .” As he spoke the candle on the little table beside the window guttered and went out. Sarah’s sitting room was Darke.
There was a stunned silence on the path outside the window. With reluctance, Hildegarde broke it. “I think,” she said softly, “I think we should go now. There’s nothing we can do.”
“I’m not leaving Mum,” said Jenna stubbornly.
“Princess Jenna, I am so sorry, but there is nothing we can do for her now,” Hildegarde said gently. “Marcia has instructed that we go outside the Cordon.”
“I don’t care what Marcia has instructed,” snapped Jenna. “I’m not leaving Mum.”
Silas put his arm around Jenna. “What Hildegarde says is true, Jenny,” he said, using his old baby name for her, something Jenna had not heard for years. “Your mum would not want us to stay here. She would want us—and you in particular—to be safe. Come on.”
Jenna shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. But she stopped resisting and allowed Silas to lead her away.
The subdued party walked slowly across the grass, which was becoming dusted with white as the sleet began to turn to snow in the cold of the encroaching night. They headed toward the silent circle of Wizards, scribes and Apprentices holding their purple Cords. Suddenly the sky