Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [70]
“Because I am not going to let that happen,” said Silas. “We are going to help Marcia figure this out.”
“Marcia is the one who made all this happen,” Jenna said, annoyed. “If she hadn’t tried to boss Mum around and if she had bothered to explain things, then Mum would have had time to get out.”
“And if your mother hadn’t gone running off after a duck she would have had time to get out too,” Silas pointed out. “But that is beside the point,” he added quickly, noticing Jenna’s stormy expression. “We need to get to the Wizard Tower. Marcia will need all the help she can get.”
They walked out the door in the kitchen garden wall and stepped into the small alleyway that ran along the back, going toward Wizard Way to the left and to the river to the right. Silas led the way with Maxie; Jenna and Hildegarde followed in silence. At the end of the alleyway Jenna stopped.
“I’m not going to the Wizard Tower,” she said angrily. “I’m sick of Wizards. And I’m sick of Wizards messing everything up—especially on my birthday.”
Silas looked at her sadly. He didn’t know what to say. Jenna seemed so irritable nowadays, and whatever he said was never quite right—and, he thought, it didn’t help that she was dressed in that awful witch costume, either. He rummaged in his pocket, brought out a large brass key and handed it to her.
“What’s that for?” asked Jenna.
“Home,” said Silas. “Our place in the Ramblings. I’ve been fixing it up. Making it just how your mum always wanted it to be. It . . . it was going to be a surprise for her next birthday. She’s always wanted to go home. But now . . . well, now you at least can go home.”
Jenna looked at the key lying heavy and cold in her palm. “That’s not home, Dad. Home is where Mum is. Home is there.” She pointed back at the Palace, the top row of Darke attic windows just visible over the alley wall.
Silas sighed. “I know. But we’ll need somewhere to sleep for now. I’ll meet you there later—Big Red Door, There and Back Again Row. You know the way.”
Jenna nodded. She watched Silas walk briskly away, heading toward Wizard Way.
“Shall I come with you?” asked Hildegarde, who had kept a discreet distance behind Jenna and Silas. And then, receiving no answer, asked, “Jenna—Princess Jenna, are you all right?”
“No. And no,” Jenna said sharply, cutting Hildegarde short before her sympathy got too much for her. She turned and ran back up the alley.
Hildegarde decided not to follow. Princess Jenna needed some time on her own.
Jenna followed the alley back up past the kitchen garden wall, around the dogleg turn that skirted the edge of the Dragon Field, and headed toward the river. The freezing night air bit into her as she ran, and she pulled her witch’s hood up over her head to keep warm. The dark, dull shine of the river came into view and, breathless now, she slowed to a walking pace. The alley came to an end at a small, neglected jetty, which Jenna wandered onto. At the very end of the jetty she sat down on the damp and mossy wooden boards, wrapped her cloak around her and gazed at the sluggish black waters flowing silently beneath her feet. And there she sat, thinking of Sarah imprisoned in the Palace, wondering what was happening to her. She remembered childhood stories, Darke tales told around the fire late at night when she was meant to be asleep, tales told by visiting Wizards to the Heaps’ crowded room in the Ramblings, of people emerging after years inside a Darke Domaine, their eyes wild and empty, their minds gone, their voices babbling gibberish. She remembered the whispered discussions on what could have reduced people to such a state, all kinds of ghastly details that came into people’s heads late at night. And she could not help but think that all these terrible things could now, at that very moment, be happening to her mum.
Jenna sat, silent tears dripping down her neck, gazing out at the river. Flakes of snow began to settle on her witch’s cloak, and the cold coming from the water set her shivering, but she did not notice. All she wanted was to find Septimus and tell him what had