Heart in her mouth, Aunt Zelda watched the Dragon Boat climbing into the skyit was an incredible sight. Although Aunt Zelda had seen the boat fly once before, when the dragon had done battle with DomDaniel's ship, the Vengeance, she had only caught glimpses in flashes of lightning. Now the boat sailed into the bright summer evening sky, sunlight glinting on her golden hull, greens and blues shimmering from her massive wings. The sight of the Dragon Boat, which she had looked after for so very many years, now flying free high above her took Aunt Zelda's breath away and tied her stomach up in knots.
But there was another, nastier, reason why Aunt Zelda's stomach was carefully tying itself into a particularly complicated knot. For, as the Dragon Boat had begun her run along the Mott, the suspicious gray cloud had suddenly shot forward, and a blindingly bright ball of light had come roaring out of it, aimed at the boat. Aunt Zelda had screamed, "Stop!" but no one had heard her, and it was far too late for the Dragon Boat to stop anyway.
Aunt Zelda picked up the splintered remains of a plank from the bridgethe only piece to have fallen on her side of the Mott. Her worst fears were confirmed, the plank was charred and still hot to the touchit had been hit by a Thunderflash.
Aunt Zelda stared into the sky, holding her breath with fear. The Dragon Boat was still easy to see, for she did not fly fast; she was built for long-haul flight, slow and steady, saving her energy. She sailed majestically above the Marram Marshes, wings beating rhythmically, head held highand behind her scuttled the small dark cloud. Aunt Zelda's knees suddenly felt very strange. She sank to the ground and started biting her nails, something she had not done since waiting for her Witch Graduation results.
Onboard the Dragon Boat everyone had just about got their breath back after the takeoff. In fact, in the terror of the takeoff none of them had noticed the Thunderflash, or had any idea Simon Heap was now trailing them. Jenna was up in the prow; Septimus held the tiller and Nicko, who was not comfortable with any kind of boat taking to the air, had only just opened his eyes. He stared up at the dragon's wings, which were beating steadily. They were blowing surprisingly strong gusts of air through the boat which, combined with the up and down motion, made him feel as though the boat was at sea, rather than a thousand feet in the air. Nicko began to relax and look about himand something caught his eye.
"There's a weird cloud behind us, Sep," said Nicko.
Septimus, who hardly dared look anywhere except straight ahead of him, caught the concern in Nicko's voice and made himself turn around. A dark gray cloud was flying toward them in a deliberate, distinctly uncloudlike fashion.
"Simon!" muttered Septimus.
"Oh, pigs," said Nicko, squinting back into the sun, which was low in the sky. "Do you really think so?"
"It's a Darke cloud. I thought I felt something just now, but I told myself it was just because I was feeling scared about flying. It's the same sort of feeling really."
"What's he going to do then, Sep?"
"I dunno," Septimus replied, glancing behind him again. "But I don't suppose he's come just to say 'hello, that's a nice boat you've got there.' "
"Hmm," muttered Nicko. "Perhaps we ought to go a bit faster."
"Not sure how to do that. I could ask Jenna..." But without Septimus uttering a word, the dragon began to beat her wings more rapidly, and the great gusts of wind passing their faces grew into a gale.
But the cloud easily kept up with them, following the Dragon Boat as surely as if someone had tied it on with a piece of string.
"There he is!" Nicko suddenly yelled above the noise of the wings.
Septimus spun around in time to see Simon fly out from the cloud, and in a moment he was hovering behind them, easily keeping pace. Septimus stared back at his brother; he looked different somehowwhat was it? And then he realized. Over his right eye, the eye that 409 had hit with the stone from his catapult, Simon wore an eyepatch. Good old 409, thought Septimus. He smiled.
"I'll take that smile off your stupid face if you don't land thatthat ridiculous mutant," Simon yelled at Septimus.
"What'd he say, Nik?" yelled Septimus.
"Dunno. Can't hear. Load of rubbish, I expect," Nicko shouted back.
"Hand over the Queenling and I'll let you both go!" shouted Simon.
"He's still yelling," said Nicko.
"Yeah. Keep an eye on him, Nik. Watch out for him reaching for a Thunderflash."
"He wouldn'tnot up here."
"He would."
"If you don't bring that contraption down to land right now you will leave me no choice!" Simon screamed.
Neither Septimus nor Nicko had noticed that Jenna had joined them in the stern of the Dragon Boat. She looked angry.
"I have had enough of him chasing me." She raised her voice above the whooshing noise of the wings as they swept down, the wind blowing her hair across her face and into her eyes. "I really have." From her tunic pocket Jenna drew out the Enlarging Glass that she had picked up from the Camera Obscura.
"What's that, Jen?" said Septimus and Nicko at once.
"I'll show you. Watch!" Jenna held out the Glass so that the sun's rays were focused into a bright spot of light; then Jenna slowly moved the spot until it rested on Simon's face. For a moment there was no reaction, then all at once Simon's hand flew up to his face. He yelled and shot away, looking around to see what had burned him. Jenna tried to follow him with the light, but Simon ducked and weaved this way and that, searching for the Darke forces that were chasing himfor Simon had felt the Darkenesse from the Glass.
He soon worked out where it was coming from. "You!" yelled Simon furiously as he saw Jenna holding the Enlarging Glass. Shaking with rage, Simon took a Thunderflash from his belt. "That will be the last thing you ever do," he screeched.
This time they heard himand seconds later they also heard the Thunderflash. A loud rumble shook the air as a brilliant ball of white light flew from Simon's outstretched hand and roared toward the Dragon Boat. Instinctively Jenna, Nicko and Septimus threw themselves onto the deck, although they knew that when the Thunderflash struck it would make no difference where they were. As they hit the deck, a terrifying thud knocked the boat sidewaysthe dragon reared her head in shock and the boat slewed over, tilting the deck to a crazy angle and sending the crew rolling to the opposite side. A fearsome noise of ripping cloth and crunching bones echoed around them, and then the thing they had all been dreading happenedthe Dragon Boat began to fall.
Jenna forced herself to look up. A plume of black smoke trailed from the dragon's right wing, which hung limp and broken at her side, and the smell of burned flesh filled the air. The remaining good wing flapped frantically, trying to right the boat and stop the freefall to the Marsh below. Jenna clung to the side of the boat, willing the dragon to stay aloft. She saw the dragon painfully spread the injured wing out until, although it hung limp and broken, it was now horizontal and could act like a stabilizer. Slowly the deck tilted back to a small incline rather than a steep mountainside, but they were still falling. Leaving the boys at the tiller, Jenna inched her way up the sloping deck until she was back at the dragon's neck.
Simon's laugh echoed eerily around the boat. Although he had not quite scored the direct hit he had hoped fordue to the irritating fact that he could see through only one eyehe had wounded the dragon, and his next shot would finish the job. Simon took his third and last Thunderflash from his belt.
"Now!" Jenna whispered to the dragon.
The dragon's tail twitched. As Simon flew in close, it suddenly flashed in the sunlight; the golden barb whipped through the air and hit him full on, hurling him into the sky. Like a baseball sailing out of the ballpark, Simon arched up, up into the blue in a perfect curve, until, at the peak of his parabola, gravity reclaimed him, and he began his descent, describing an equally perfect curve all the way down to the Hundred-Foot Pit.
Merrin was in the middle of a shouting match with Aunt Zelda when Simon Heap shot past him and entered the pit with the most enormous splash. Being soaked in filthy bog water did not improve Merrin's mood one bit. He was fed up with Aunt Zelda telling him what to dowhat business was it of hers if he had an eyeglass? Wasn't he allowed anything of his own? She was as bad as DomDaniel. No, she was worse. At least DomDaniel had let him keep thingswell, things that no one else had wanted.
The argument had erupted in the middle of Simon throwing his last Thunderflash. As the tremendous roar shook the cottage, Aunt Zelda had looked away in despair, and a glint of sun by the Hundred-Foot Pit had caught her eye. She had seen Merrin gleefully watching the battle through his Eyeglass. The Darke Eyeglass was bad enough, but what had really got to Aunt Zelda was the expression on Merrin's facehe looked happier than she had ever seen him before. Happy, thought Aunt Zelda, at the fact that the three people she loved most in the world were quite possibly about to fall to their deaths.
"Put that wretched Eyeglass away!" Aunt Zelda had yelled angrily.
Merrin had jumped with surprise and then pointedly ignored her. He was not going to miss the best thing he had seen in years.
"I will not have that Darke thing here any longer!" Aunt Zelda carried on. "You will throw it in the pit right now!"
Goaded, Merrin had yelled back, "No, I won't!" and missed seeing the swipe of the dragon's tail. But neither Merrin nor Aunt Zelda missed the gigantic splash Simon Heap made as he fell to earth and disappeared into the black depths of the Hundred-Foot Pit.
Simon Heap shot all the way down to the bottom of the pit, where he desperately fought his way out of a forest of clinging strands of Marsh Bane. Fifty-five seconds later he emerged, gasping for breath and covered in decayed slugs. Merrin was nearly sick with the stench of it, but something drew him toward Simon; the boy offered him a hand and pulled him from the pit. Simon lay in a spluttering, slimy heap on the bright green grass of the knoll and coughed up a few slugs. Merrin sat beside him, staring at this stranger who had arrived out of the blue. Maybe he was a Sign. A savior. A way out of being told what to do by Aunt Zelda. A way out of eating cabbage every day. He glanced up guiltily at the thought of Aunt Zelda, but she had rushed into the cottage and was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly Simon sat up, coughed up a bucketful of marsh water and noticed Merrin for the first time.
"Where'd you get that?" he demanded.
"What?" asked Merrin in injured tones. Why, Merrin wondered, did everyone always talk to him as though he had done something wrong?
"That Eyeglass."
"Nowhere. II mean I found it. It's mine."
Simon looked at the boy, sizing him up. An unusual lad, he thought. Could be useful. But what was he doing here, out on the Marsh in the middle of nowhere? "You live with the old witch, then?" Simon asked.
"No," Merrin said sulkily, as though Simon had accused him of something really bad.
"Of Course you do. Where else would you live in the middle of this dump?"
"Yeah..." Merrin allowed himself a smile. "It is a dump, isn't it? Stupid cottage full of poxy little potions. She's got no idea what the real stuff is like."
Simon looked at Merrin with narrowed eyes. "And you do?" he asked in a low voice.
"Yeah. I was Apprentice to the best Necromancer there has ever been. He trusted me with everything. Everything."
Simon looked surprised. So this must be DomDaniel's old Apprentice. Somehow he had survived being Consumedthere must be something more to the boy than met the eye.
An idea began to form in Simon's mind. "You must miss him terribly," he said sympathetically.
"Yeah," muttered Merrin, persuading himself that he did indeed miss DomDaniel. "Yeah, I do."
Simon looked Merrin up and down. He wasn't ideal, but he was someone he could do business with. And he wanted to get his hands on that Eyeglass. "D'you want a job?" asked Simon.
"A job?" asked Merrin, taken aback.
"Yes. You know, similar to what you did before."
"How similar?" asked Merrin suspiciously.
"How do I know," said Simon, somewhat exasperated, "seeing as I don't know exactly what you did before? Are you going to take the job or not?"
"Merrin!" Aunt Zelda's angry shout suddenly pierced the air. "Merrin, get away from that evil mancome back here right now!" Then, with more pressing things to do, she rushed into the cottage.
Merrin watched Aunt Zelda's angry patchwork figure disappear. How dare that old witch yell at him like that? What made her think he was going to do what she told him?
"Well," said Simon impatiently, "are you going to take the job?"
"Yes," said Merrin, "I'll take it."
"Shake on it," said Simon. Merrin took Simon's outstretched hand and before he knew what was happening, his arm felt as if it was being pulled from its socket.
"Aah!" Merrin yelled in pain as his feet left the ground and Simon pulled him roughly aloft. With some difficulty Simon managed to gain just enough height to take him over the roof of Keeper's Cottagealthough Merrin's dangling feet caught in the thatch and one of the boy's boots fell off. Merrin looked down at the roof in horror, already regretting his snap decision. "Help!" he yelled.
His voice drifted down the chimney and did no more than enter Wolf Boy's fevered dreams. Aunt Zelda heard nothing. She was too busy to notice that the boy she had saved from being Consumed, the boy she had carefully nursed back to health, had left her and gone back to where he had come from.