Septimus Heap, Book Six_ Darke - Angie Sage [82]
“Aargh!” he gasped.
“Don’t move, Beetle,” said Marcia, advancing toward him. “Just . . . stay . . . there.”
Beetle’s arm felt as though the pointed end of a red-hot stick was being thrust into it, and the look on Marcia’s face as she came forward was terrifying. But he did not move. Marcia stopped a little way in front of him, her green eyes flashing furiously. She stretched out her arms and grasped something, as though she were picking up a two-handled pot.
“Reveal!” she said triumphantly. A cloud of purple filled the exit to the Hermetic Chamber and showed a dark shape within it. As the cloud cleared, the gangly form of Merrin Meredith was Revealed, both ears held firmly in Marcia’s iron grip.
Merrin swallowed hard and winced. The Paired Code had sharp edges.
“He’s swallowed it!” Marcia cried incredulously.
Chapter 27
Bott’s Bridge
Rose was late. Things were somewhat chaotic at the Wizard Tower and she had had to fill in at the sick bay until the duty Wizard had eventually turned up from the Call Out. But now, excited by the prospect of being part of the amazing piece of Magyk that was the Safety Curtain, Rose raced down Wizard Way, trying not to be any later for Bertie Bott than she possibly could.
* * *
In front of the dazzling Safety Curtain, Bertie Bott stood resolutely guarding the fusion point, unaware that only a few feet behind him, on the other side of the shimmering purple wall, twenty-five Things were patrolling to and fro, silently looking for the join.
Bertie’s stomach was grumbling. He was having cruel visions of supper: sausages and mashed potatoes dripping with gravy, treacle tart and custard and possibly even a small square of chocolate fudge, if he could manage it. Bertie sighed inwardly. He was sure he could. As Bertie wondered whether he would prefer peas or a double helping of mash with his sausages, his stomach emitted the loudest rumble yet. A mere arm’s length behind him, the strangler Thing stopped and listened hard.
Bertie was getting extremely cold. Even his finest pre-loved, fur-lined cloak was not keeping out the chill of the Longest Night. Bertie took it off to shake the fur out and thicken it up for a while—a trick he knew from the cloak business—but as he shook it, the edge of the cloak touched the Safety Curtain. Bertie never knew what hit him.
Lightning fast, the Thing punched a hole through the fusion point, grabbed Bertie’s cloak with one hand and pulled hard. Bertie toppled backwards into the Safety Curtain. In a moment the strangler Thing had its hands around Bertie’s throat and was pulling him in so that he lay across the Safety Curtain like a small, humpbacked bridge—later immortalized in Apprentice textbooks as Bott’s Bridge.
On either side of Bertie the Magykal purple light still shone like a luminous wall, but now there was a dark gap, like a broken tooth in a smile. As Bertie Bott lay face-up on the snow-dusted grass, a Darke tide of Things began to flow across him. (Many years later, when the Safety Curtain was Raised by one who wished he had not missed his only chance to see it done, this scene was the first to be replayed.)
Rose arrived at the two torches that flanked the Palace Gate. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and then pushed open the gate, on which a large notice had been stuck that tersely read: PARTY CANCELLED. Gudrun the Great—the faded old ghost on guard at the Palace Gate—smiled at Rose, but Rose, almost blinded by the startling brilliance of the Safety Curtain, did not see her.
“Take care, Apprentice,” whispered Gudrun. “Take care.” But all Rose heard was the whispering of the wind blowing in off the river.
As Rose approached the Safety Curtain she began to feel uneasy. Rose was a sensitive Apprentice who was