Angie Sage - Septimus Heap 01 - Magyk

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Magyk

Book 1 of Septimus Heap

by Angie Sage

Table of Contents

1 • Something in the Snow

2 • Sarah and Silas

3 • The Supreme Custodian

4 • Marcia Overstrand

5 • At the Heaps

6 • To the Tower

7 • Wizard Tower

8 • The Rubbish Chute

9 • Sally Mullin’s Café

10 • The Hunter

11 • The Trail

12 • Muriel

13 • The Chase

14 • Deppen Ditch

15 • Midnight at the Beach

16 • The Boggart

17 • Alther Alone

18 • Keeper’s Cottage

19 • Aunt Zelda

20 • Boy 412

21 • Rattus Rattus

22 • Magyk

23 • Wings

24 • Shield Bugs

25 • The Wendron Witch

26 • Midwinter Feast Day

27 • Stanley’s Journey

28 • The Big Freeze

29 • Pythons and Rats

30 • Message for Marcia

31 • The Rat’s Return

32 • The Big Thaw

33 • Watch and Wait

34 • Ambush

35 • Gone to Ground

36 • Frozen

37 • Scrying

38 • Defrosting

39 • The Appointment

40 • The Meeting

41 • The Vengeance

42 • The Storm

43 • The Dragon Boat

44 • To Sea

45 • Ebb Tide

46 • A Visitor

47 • The Apprentice

48 • The Apprentice Supper

49 • Septimus Heap

What Aunt Zelda Saw in the Duck Pond

After…

Extras

+> 1 <+

Something in the Snow

^ »

Silas Heap pulled his cloak tightly around him against the snow. It had been a long walk

through the Forest, and he was chilled to the bone. But in his pockets he had the herbs that

Galen, the Physik Woman, had given him for his new baby boy, Septimus, who had been born

earlier that day.

Silas drew closer to the Castle, and he could see the lights flickering through the trees as

candles were placed in the windows of the tall narrow houses clustered along the outside walls.

It was the longest night of the year, and the candles would be kept burning until dawn, to help

keep the dark at bay. Silas always loved this walk to the Castle. He had no fear of the Forest by

day and enjoyed the peaceful walk along the narrow track that threaded its way through the

dense trees for mile after mile. He was near the edge of the Forest now, the tall trees had begun

to thin out, and as the track began to dip down to the valley floor, Silas could see the whole

Castle spread before him. The old walls hugged the wide, winding river and zigzagged around

the higgledy-piggledy clumps of houses. All the houses were painted bright colors, and those

that faced west looked as if they were on fire as their windows caught the last of the winter

sun’s rays.

The Castle had started life as a small village. Being so near to the Forest the villagers had put

up some tall stone walls for protection against the wolverines, witches and warlocks who

thought nothing of stealing their sheep, chickens and occasionally their children. As more

houses were built, the walls were extended and a deep moat was dug so that all could feel safe.

Soon the Castle was attracting skilled craftsmen from other villages. It grew and prospered,

so much so that the inhabitants began to run out of space until someone decided to build The

Ramblings. The Ramblings, which was where Silas, Sarah and the boys lived, was a huge stone

building that rose up along the riverside. It sprawled for three miles along the river and back

again into the Castle and was a noisy, busy place filled with a warren of passages and rooms,

with small factories, schools and shops mixed in with family rooms, tiny roof gardens and even

a theater. There was not much space in The Ramblings, but people did not mind. There was

always good company and someone for the children to play with.

As the winter sun sank below the Castle walls, Silas quickened his pace. He needed to get

to the North Gate before they locked it and pulled up the drawbridge at nightfall.

It was then that Silas sensed something nearby. Something alive, but only just. He was

aware of a small human heartbeat somewhere close to him. Silas stopped. As an Ordinary

Wizard he was able to sense things, but, as he was not a particularly good Ordinary Wizard, he

needed to concentrate hard. He stood still with the snow falling fast around him, already

covering his footprints. And then he heard something—a snuffle, a whimper, a small breath?

He wasn’t sure, but it was enough.

Underneath a bush beside the path was a bundle. Silas picked up the bundle and, to his

amazement, found himself gazing into the solemn eyes of a tiny baby. Silas cradled the baby in

his arms and wondered how she had come to be lying in the snow on the coldest day of the

year. Someone had wrapped her tightly in a heavy woolen blanket, but she was already very

cold: her lips were a dusky blue and the snow dusted her eyelashes. As the baby’s dark violet

eyes gazed intently at him, Silas had the uncomfortable feeling that she had already seen things

in her short life that no baby should see.

Thinking of his Sarah at home, warm and safe with Septimus and the boys, Silas decided

that they would just have to make room for one more little one. He carefully tucked the baby

into his blue Wizard cloak and held her close to him as he ran toward the Castle gate. He

reached the drawbridge just as Gringe, the Gatekeeper, was about to go and yell for the Bridge

Boy to start winding it up.

“You’re cutting it a bit fine,” growled Gringe. “But you Wizards are weird. Waddyou all

want to be out for on a day like this I dunno.”

“Oh?” Silas wanted to get past Gringe as soon as he could, but first he had to cross Gringe’s

palm with silver. Silas quickly found a silver penny in one of his pockets and handed it over.

“Thank you, Gringe. Good night.”

Gringe looked at the penny as though it were a rather nasty beetle.

“Marcia Overstrand, she gave me an ‘alf crown just now. But then she’s got class, what with

‘er being the ExtraOrdinary Wizard now.”

“What?” Silas nearly choked.

“Yeah. Class, that’s what she’s got.”

Gringe stood back to let him pass, and Silas slipped by. As much as Silas wanted to find out

why Marcia Overstrand was suddenly the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, he could feel the bundle

beginning to stir in the warmth of his cloak, and something told him that it would be better if

Gringe did not know about the baby.

As Silas disappeared into the shadows of the tunnel that led to The Ramblings, a tall figure

in purple stepped out and barred his way.

“Marcia!” gasped Silas. “What on earth—”

“Tell no one you found her. She was born to you. Understand?”

Shocked, Silas nodded. Before he had time to say anything, Marcia was gone in a shimmer

of purple mist. Silas spent the rest of the long, winding journey through The Ramblings with

his mind in turmoil. Who was this baby? What did Marcia have to do with her? And why was

Marcia the ExtraOrdinary Wizard now? And as Silas neared the big red door that led to the

Heap family’s already overcrowded room, another, more pressing question came into his

mind: What was Sarah going to say to yet another baby to care for?

Silas did not have long to think about the last question. As he reached the door it flew

open, and a large red-faced woman wearing the dark blue robes of a Matron Midwife ran out,

almost knocking Silas over as she fled. She too was carrying a bundle, but the bundle was

wrapped from head to toe in bandages, and she was carrying him under her arm as if he were

a parcel and she was late for the post.

“Dead!” cried the Matron Midwife. She pushed Silas aside with a powerful shove and ran

down the corridor. Inside the room, Sarah Heap screamed.

Silas went in with a heavy heart. He saw Sarah surrounded by six white-faced little boys, all

too scared to cry.

“She’s taken him,” said Sarah hopelessly. “Septimus is dead, and she’s taken him away.”

At that moment a warm wetness spread out from the bundle that Silas still had hidden

under his cloak. Silas had no words for what he wanted to say, so he just took the bundle out

from under his cloak and placed her in Sarah’s arms.

Sarah Heap burst into tears.

+> 2 <+

Sarah and Silas

« ^ »

The bundle settled down into the Heap household and was called Jenna after Silas’s mother.

The youngest of the boys, Nicko, was only two when Jenna arrived, and he soon forgot

about his brother Septimus. The older boys slowly forgot too. They loved their little baby sister

and brought home all kinds of treasures for her from their Magyk classes at school.

Sarah and Silas of course could not forget Septimus. Silas blamed himself for leaving Sarah

alone while he went out to fetch the baby’s herbs from the Physik Woman. Sarah just blamed

herself for everything. Although she could hardly remember what had happened that terrible

day, Sarah knew she had tried to breathe life back into her baby and had failed. And she

remembered watching the Matron Midwife wrapping her little Septimus from head to toe in

bandages and then running for the door, shouting over her shoulder, “Dead!”

Sarah remembered that all right.

But Sarah soon loved her little baby girl as much as she had loved her Septimus. For a

while she was afraid that someone would come and take Jenna away too, but as the months

passed and Jenna grew into a chubby, gurgling baby, Sarah relaxed and almost stopped

worrying.

Until one day when her best friend, Sally Mullin, arrived breathless on the doorstep. Sally

Mullin was one of those people who knew everything that was going on in the Castle. She was

a small, busy woman with wispy ginger hair that was forever escaping from her somewhat

grubby cook’s hat. She had a pleasant round face, a little chubby from finishing off too many

cakes, and her clothes were generally covered in sprinkles of flour.

Sally ran a small café down on the pontoon beside the river. The sign over the door

announced:

THE SALLY MULLIN TEA AND ALE HOUSE

CLEAN ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE

NO RIFFRAFF

There were no secrets in Sally Mullin’s café. Anything and anyone arriving at the Castle by

water was noticed and commented on, and most people coming to the Castle did prefer to

arrive by boat. No one apart from Silas liked the dark tracks through the Forest that

surrounded the castle. The Forest still had a bad wolverine problem at night and was infested

with carnivorous trees. Then there were the Wendron Witches, who were always short of cash

and had been known to set traps for the unwary traveler and leave them with little more than

their shirt and socks.

Sally Mullin’s café was a busy, steaming hut perched precariously over the water. All

shapes and sizes of boats would moor up at the café pontoon, and all sorts of people and

animals would tumble out of them. Most decided to recover from their trip by having at least

one of Sally’s fierce beers and a slab of barley cake, and by telling the latest gossip. And anyone

in the Castle with half an hour to spare and a rumbling tummy would soon find themselves on

the well-trodden path down to the Port Gate, past the Riverside Amenity Rubbish Dump, and

along the pontoon to Sally Mullin’s Tea and Ale House.

Sally made it her business to see Sarah every week and keep her up to date with

everything. In Sally’s opinion Sarah was much put-upon with seven children to care for, not to

mention Silas Heap, who did very little as far as she could see. Sally’s stories usually involved

people Sarah had never heard of and would never meet, but Sarah looked forward to Sally’s

visits all the same and enjoyed hearing about what was going on around her. However, this

time what Sally had to tell her was different. This was more serious than everyday gossip, and

this time it did involve Sarah. And, for the first time ever, Sarah knew something about it that

Sally did not.

Sally swept in and closed the door conspiratorially behind her. “I’ve got some terrible

news,” she whispered.

Sarah, who was trying to wipe breakfast from Jenna’s face, and everywhere else that the

baby had sprayed it, and clean up after the new wolfhound puppy all at the same time, was not

really listening.

“Hello, Sally,” she said. “There’s a clean space here. Come and sit down. Cup of tea?”

“Yes, please. Sarah, can you believe this?”

“What’s that, then, Sally?” asked Sarah, expecting to hear about the latest bad behavior in

the café.

“The Queen. The Queen is dead!”

“What?” gasped Sarah. She lifted Jenna out of her chair and took her over to the corner of

the room where her baby basket was. Sarah lay Jenna down for a nap. She believed that babies

should be kept well away from bad news.

“Dead,” repeated Sally unhappily.

“No!” gasped Sarah. “I don’t believe it. She’s just not well after her baby’s birth. That’s why

she has not been seen since then.”

“That’s what the Custodian Guards have been saying, isn’t it?” asked Sally.

“Well, yes,” admitted Sarah, pouring out the tea. “But they are her bodyguards, so they

must know. Though why the Queen has suddenly chosen to be guarded by such a bunch of

thugs, I don’t understand.”

Sally took the cup of tea that Sarah had placed in front of her.

“Ta. Mmm, lovely. Well, exactly…” Sally lowered her voice and looked around as though

expecting to find a Custodian Guard propped up in the corner, not that she necessarily would

have noticed one amid all the mess in the Heaps’ room. “They are a bunch of thugs. In fact,

they are the ones who killed her.”

“Killed? She was killed?” exclaimed Sarah.

“Shhh. Well, see here…” Sally pulled her chair closer to Sarah. “There’s a story going

around—and I have it from the horse’s mouth…”

“Which horse would that be, then?” asked Sarah with a wry smile.

“Only Madam Marcia”—looking triumphant, Sally sat back and folded her arms—“that’s

who.”

“What? How come you’ve been mixing with the ExtraOrdinary Wizard? Did she drop by

for a cup of tea?”

“Almost. Terry Tarsal did. He had been up at the Wizard Tower delivering some really

weird shoes that he had made for Madam Marcia. So when he had stopped moaning about her

taste in shoes and how much he hated snakes, he said that he had overheard Marcia talking to

one of the other Wizards. Endor, that little fat one, I think. Well, they said the Queen had been

shot! By the Custodian Guards. One of their Assassins.”

Sarah could not believe what she was hearing. “When?” she breathed.

“Well, this is the really awful thing,” whispered Sally excitedly. “They said she was shot on

the day her baby was born. Six whole months ago, and we knew nothing about it. It’s terrible

… terrible. And they shot Mr. Alther too. Dead. That’s how come Marcia took over…”

“Alther’s dead?” gasped Sarah. “I can’t believe it. I really can’t… We all thought he’d

retired. Silas was his Apprentice years ago. He was lovely…”

“Was he?” asked Sally vaguely, eager to get on with the story. “Well, that’s not all, see.

Because Terry reckoned that Marcia had rescued the Princess and had taken her away

somewhere. Endor and Marcia were just chatting, really, wondering how she was getting

along. But of course when they realized Terry was there with the shoes, they stopped. Marcia

was very rude to him, he said. He felt a bit strange afterward, and he reckoned she’d done a

Forget Spell on him, but he’d nipped behind a pillar when he saw her muttering and it didn’t

take properly. He’s really upset about that as he can’t remember whether she paid him for the

shoes or not.”

Sally Mullin paused to draw breath and have a large gulp of tea.

“That poor little Princess. God help the little one. I wonder where she is now. Probably

wasting away in some dungeon somewhere. Not like your little angel over there… How is she

doing?”

“Oh, she’s just fine,” said Sarah, who usually would have talked at length about Jenna’s

snuffles and new tooth and how she could sit up and hold her own cup now. But just at that

moment Sarah wanted to turn the attention away from Jenna—because Sarah had spent the

last six months wondering who her baby really was, and now she knew.

Jenna was, thought Sarah, surely she must be… the baby Princess

For once Sarah was glad to wave good’bye to Sally Mullin. She watched her bustle off

down the corridor, and, as Sarah closed the door behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then

she rushed over to Jenna’s basket.

Sarah lifted Jenna up and held her in her arms. Jenna smiled at Sarah and reached out to

grab her charm necklace.

“Well, little Princess,” murmured Sarah, “I always knew you were special, but I never

dreamed you were our own Princess.” The baby’s dark violet eyes met Sarah’s gaze and she

looked solemnly at Sarah as if to say, Well, now you know.

Sarah gently laid Jenna back in her baby basket. Her head was spinning and her hands

shook as she poured herself another cup of tea. She found it hard to believe all that she had

heard. The Queen was dead. And Alther too. Their Jenna was the heir to the Castle. The

Princess. What was happening?

Sarah spent the rest of the afternoon torn between gazing at Jenna, Princess Jenna, and

worrying about what would happen if anyone found out where she was. Where was Silas when

she needed him?

Silas was enjoying a day’s fishing with the boys.

There was a small sandy beach in the bend of the river just along from The Ramblings. Silas

was showing Nicko and Jo-Jo, the two youngest boys, how to tie their jam jars onto the end of a

pole and dip them in the water. Jo-Jo had already caught three tiddlers, but Nicko kept

dropping his and was getting upset.

Silas picked Nicko up and took him over to see Erik and Edd, the five-year-old twins. Erik

was daydreaming happily and dangling his foot in the warm, clear water. Edd was poking at

something under a stone with a stick. It was a huge water beetle. Nicko wailed and clung on

tightly around Silas’s neck.

Sam, who was nearly seven, was a serious fisherman. He had been given a proper fishing

rod for his last birthday, and there were two small silver fish laid out on a rock beside him. He

was about to reel in another. Nicko squealed with excitement.

“Take him away, Dad. He’ll frighten the fish,” Sam said crossly.

Silas tiptoed off with Nicko and went to sit beside his oldest son, Simon. Simon had a

fishing rod in one hand and a book in the other. It was Simon’s ambition to be the

ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and he was busy reading all of Silas’s old magic books. This one, Silas

noticed, was called The Compleat Fish-Charmer.

Silas expected all his boys to be some kind of Wizard; it was in the family. Silas’s aunt was a

renowned White Witch and both Silas’s father and uncle had been Shape-Shifters, which was a

very specialized branch, and one that Silas hoped his boys would avoid, for successful

Shape-Shifters became increasingly unstable as they grew older, sometimes unable to hold

their own shape for more than a few minutes at a time. Silas’s father had eventually

disappeared into the Forest as a tree, but no one knew which one. It was one of the reasons

why Silas enjoyed his walks through the Forest. He would often address a remark to an

untidy-looking tree in the hope that it might be his father.

Sarah Heap came from a Warlock and Wizard family. As a girl, Sarah had studied herbs

and healing with Galen, the Physik Woman in the Forest, which was where she had met Silas

one day. Silas had been out looking for his father. He was lost and unhappy, and Sarah took

him back with her to see Galen. Galen had helped Silas to understand that his father, as a

Shape-Shifter, would have chosen his final destination as a tree many years ago and would now

be truly happy. And Silas too, for the first time in his life, realized he felt truly happy sitting

next to Sarah by the Physik Woman’s fire.

When Sarah understood all she could about herbs and healing, she had said a fond

good-bye to Galen and joined Silas in his room in The Ramblings. And there they had stayed

ever since, squeezing in more and more children while Silas happily gave up his

Apprenticeship and worked as a jobbing Ordinary Wizard to pay the bills. Sarah made herb

tinctures at the kitchen table when she had a spare moment—which did not often happen.

That evening, as Silas and the boys made their way up the beach steps to go back to The

Ramblings, a large and menacing Custodian Guard, dressed in black from head to toe, barred

their way. “Halt!” he barked. Nicko started to cry.

Silas stopped and told the boys to behave.

“Papers!” shouted the Guard. “Where are your papers?”

Silas stared at him. “What papers?” he asked quietly, not wanting to cause trouble with six

tired boys around him needing to go home for supper.

“Your papers, Wizard scum. The beach area is forbidden to all without the required

papers,” sneered the Guard.

Silas was shocked. If he had not been with the boys, he would have argued, but he had

noticed the pistol that the guard was carrying.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know.”

The Guard looked them all up and down as if deciding what to do, but luckily for Silas he

had other people to go and terrorize. “Take your rabble out of here and don’t come back,”

snapped the Guard. “Stay where you belong.”

Silas hurried the shocked boys away up the steps and into the safety of The Ramblings.

Sam dropped his fish and started to sob.

“There there,” said Silas, “it’s all right.” But Silas felt that things were most certainly not all

right. What was going on?

“Why did he call us Wizard scum, Dad?” asked Simon. “Wizards are the best, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” said Silas distractedly, “the best.”

But the trouble was, thought Silas, there was no hiding it if you were a Wizard. All Wizards,

and only Wizards, had them. Silas had them, Sarah had them and all the boys except Nicko

and Jo-Jo had them. And as soon as Nicko and Jo-Jo went to the Magyk class in school they

would have them too. Slowly but surely, until there was no mistaking it, a Wizard child’s eyes

would turn green when he or she was exposed to Magyk learning. It had always been

something to be proud of. Until now, when suddenly it felt dangerous.

That evening, when at long last all the children were asleep, Silas and Sarah talked late into

the night. They talked about their Princess and their Wizard boys and the changes that had

overtaken the Castle. They discussed escaping to the Marram Marshes, or going into the Forest

and living with Galen. By the time dawn broke and at last they fell asleep, Silas and Sarah had

decided to do what the Heaps usually did. Muddle through and hope for the best.

And so, for the next nine and a half years, Silas and Sarah kept quiet. They locked and

barred their door, they spoke to only their neighbors and those they could trust and, when the

Magyk classes were stopped at school, they taught the children Magyk at home in the

evenings.

And that is why, nine and a half years later, all the Heaps except one had piercing green

eyes.

+> 3 <+

The Supreme Custodian

« ^ »

It was six in the morning and still dark, ten years to the day since Silas had found the bundle.

At the end of Corridor 223, behind the big black door with the number 16 stamped on it

by the Numerical Patrol, the Heap household slept peacefully. Jenna lay curled up snugly in

her small box bed that Silas had made for her from driftwood washed up along the riverbank.

The bed was built neatly into a big cupboard leading off a large room, which was in fact the

only room that the Heaps possessed.

Jenna loved her cupboard bed. Sarah had made some bright patchwork curtains that Jenna

could draw around the bed to keep out both the cold and her noisy brothers. Best of all, she

had a small window in the wall above her pillow that looked out onto the river. If Jenna

couldn’t sleep, she would gaze out of her window for hours on end, watching the endless

variety of boats that made their way to and from the Castle, and sometimes on clear dark

nights she loved to count the stars until she fell fast asleep.

Angie Sage - Septimus Heap 01 - Magyk

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