PathFinder (15 page)

The light from the purple window faded and Tod guessed that the window only lit up when there was someone on the stairs. As she watched the now silver stairs still slowly turning, Tod began to piece together a jigsaw of memories. She remembered a wide avenue with burning torches high on their silver torch posts. She remembered going through an amazing blue archway and seeing a flight of brilliant white steps leading up to two tall silver doors. She remembered how the doors had swung open and a stream of purple and blue stars had come tumbling down towards her. She remembered the buzz of
Magyk
all around her … and then she remembered nothing more. Nothing until she had woken up inside her tent.

I think
, Tod said to herself,
I’m in the Wizard Tower
.

Dandra Draa

Buzzing with excitement
, Tod watched the stairs revolving downwards and wondered if she was brave enough to step on to them herself. She saw each flat, grooved slab of silver briefly meet the edge of the floor and then move on down, a few seconds later to be replaced with the next tread and then the next. Tod decided to go for it. She was about to step on when she became aware of someone above on the stairs. Quickly, she moved back into the shadows.

Tod saw a solid, well-worn pair of shiny brown boots appear through the hole in the ceiling. Grazing the top of the boots was a purple robe edged in a shimmering purple silk ribbon. Remembering that only the ExtraOrdinary Wizard wore purple, Tod gazed in awe as the young man with purple ribbons hanging from his sleeves slowly rotated down. He was immersed in a book, oblivious to his watcher in the shadows. Her gaze took in a belt of gold and platinum, embellished with
Magykal
signs and symbols, a teardrop-shaped lapis-and-gold amulet around his neck, and as his face came into view she had to suppress a gasp of astonishment.
He was Nicko
. Except … Nicko had shaved. And he had taken the plaits out of his hair. And was a bit taller. No, he wasn’t Nicko, and yet he so very nearly was. And then, as Tod stared at the young man’s curly straw-coloured hair haloed in purple light she remembered something Nicko had said about the Wizard Tower:
Yeah, some of my brothers work there
. Tod grinned.
So the ExtraOrdinary Wizard was one of Nicko’s brothers.
Trust Nicko not to mention it
, she thought.

The ExtraOrdinary Wizard disappeared from view and the stairs were now clear. Taking a deep breath, Tod stepped on to them – and felt as though someone had pulled a rug out from under her. She clung on to the central post, determined to get off at the next possible opportunity. What Tod did not know was that the Apprentice dormitories were only one floor above the main entrance hall – known as the Great Hall. She would very soon
have
to get off.

The dim night lighting of the upper domestic floors of the Wizard Tower grew ever brighter as the Great Hall came into view. Down Tod went, past the golden vaulted roof with its night-time stars (a recent installation of the new ExtraOrdin­­­ary Wizard), past the flickering pictures on the wall depicting brave deeds and important moments from the Wizard Tower’s history and into the peace and calm of the night-time Great Hall.

The tread and the floor met and, unsteadily, Tod stepped off on to what felt strangely like sand. Puzzled, she looked down and saw her name slowly appear in the grainy surface:
Welcome, Alice TodHunter Moon, Apprentice
.

Tod gasped. She was an
Apprentice
? How had that happened? She could remember nothing about it. As she stared at the wobbly green letters, the words faded and were replaced with:
Sorry. Shouldn’t have said that. My mistake
. Tod was still staring at the floor, wondering what it might decide to say next, when she became aware of someone at her side. A tall woman with an aquiline nose and thick, short dark hair – through which ran a striking streak of white – had appeared from nowhere. She wore a long, somewhat formal pale blue robe with shiny red ribbons on the hem and elaborate green snakes embroidered up the sleeves. She smiled at Tod delightedly.

“Alice!” she said, grabbing both of Tod’s hands in her own. “Are you feeling better now?”

Tod nodded.

“Still wandering around at night,” the woman-with-snakes said with a huge smile. She let go of Tod’s hands, stepped back and smiled. “Ah, I can see you do not remember me. But then, you were only four.”

But Tod did remember. She remembered the shining green eyes and the half-amused smile.

“I am Dandra,” the woman said. “Dandra Draa.”

“My mother’s friend,” said Tod.

“Indeed I was.” Dandra corrected herself: “No, Alice, I
am
your mother’s friend. And I will always be. I promised her that I would be a second mother to you and that when you were fourteen – which is a good age to begin to be acquainted with
Magyk
– you could come to the Wizard Tower and see how you liked the old trade.” Dandra took in Tod’s bemused look. “The old trade – what some call Wizarding. Or
Magyk
. Sorcery. Bewitchment. Conjuring. Call it what you will. If you have a talent for it, this is the place to be.” She shook her head. “How the time has flown. I can hardly believe you are fourteen already.”

“I’m not,” Tod said. “I’m twelve.”

“But you have the ring – the snakes upon your thumb,” said Dandra, puzzled. “That’s how I recognised you when they brought you upstairs.” She smiled. “But even if I hadn’t seen your mother’s ring, I would have known you for your mother’s daughter. You are
so
like Cassi. But why, Alice, are you here so soon?”

“Something happened,” said Tod. She didn’t want to say any more right then.

Dandra saw Tod’s closed expression – her lips pressed together, her eyes suspiciously bright. “I understand,” she murmured. “Things happen.” Dandra looked at her best friend’s daughter and her heart flipped in a little twist of pity. The child looked so thin and dishevelled, her black hair sticking up on end, standing there twisting her strange elflock, the same as her father wore, and with such black circles under her dark eyes.

“Come, Alice,” Dandra said. “I will take you back to the dorm. I don’t suppose you’ll be able to find your way back to the right bed now that they’ve stuffed the place with those silly tents.”

Tod was reluctant to go. Greedily, her eyes took in the amazing space around her – the unbelievably tall silver doors rearing up to the full height of the vaulted hall, its seven golden beams arching up from the floor like graceful trees dividing the luminous dark blue ceiling and its dusting of stars into segments like slices of cake. She gazed at the pictures around the walls that faded in and out of view, and her attention was taken by one particularly bright one that showed a small green dragon and rider fighting a monstrous, six-winged, six-eyed dragon.

“Couldn’t I just stay here for a bit?” asked Tod.

Dandra was taking her position as Tod’s second mother very seriously. “It’s very late,” she said, “and you need your sleep. You can see it all in the morning.”

Tod looked crestfallen. She hated the feeling of being the little kid sent back to bed. Dandra reversed the direction of the stairs and Tod was about to step back on to them when a cold draught of air swept into the hall. The great silver doors were opening. The ExtraOrdinary Wizard strode in, across the message that the floor had written –
Welcome, Septimus Heap, ExtraOrdinary Wizard
–
and made straight for Tod and Dandra. Before Tod could catch her breath he was standing right beside her and Dandra Draa was saying, “ExtraOrdinary, this is our new guest, Alice TodHunter Moon –” Dandra looked at Tod questioningly – “who still likes to be known as Tod?” she asked.

Tod smiled. “Yes, please,” she said.

The ExtraOrdinary Wizard smiled in return. “Hello, Tod,” he said. “I hope you’re feeling better now?”

“Yes, thank you,” Tod said politely.

“I am taking Alice – I mean, Tod – back to bed,” Dandra said. “I shall be down soon. We have ten minutes still, I think?”

“Eight,” the ExtraOrdinary Wizard said, glancing at his timepiece. “Well, goodnight, Tod.” He smiled at Tod, and her expression caught him by surprise. It reminded him of how he had once been – lost and confused. It seemed cruel to send her back upstairs to a lonely dormitory. He also knew that it was rare for someone to be so sensitive to
Magyk
that they fainted. He looked at the skinny, wild-looking girl and for a brief moment thought he saw a glint of green in her dark eyes. “But perhaps, Tod, you would like to come and see what we are doing tonight?”

One look at Tod’s face told him what her answer was going to be.

“Yes, please.”

Marcia Overstrand

Tod followed the ExtraOrdinary
Wizard down the wide, white marble steps determined to keep her mind clear of the
Magykal
buzzing and singing that threatened to invade it. At the foot of the steps an elderly Wizard with white hair tied back into a ponytail drifted over to join them. He, too, wore purple, and for a moment Tod was confused. She had been told that there was only one ExtraOrdinary Wizard in the Castle – so why were there suddenly two? Through his faded purple robes, Tod saw a stream of brilliant blue lights that were dropping from the top of the Tower, and when the old Wizard moved she saw he was floating some inches above the ground. With a flash of excitement, Tod realised that she was looking at a ghost. She had never seen a ghost before. People said there were some ancient PathFinder ghosts from the Days of Beyond down by the marsh in her village, but they rarely showed themselves and were reputed to look very strange. But this ghost looked like a kindly elderly man. Noticing her gaze, the ghost smiled at her, his friendly green eyes crinkling as he did so.

“A new Apprentice, Septimus?” he said, addressing the ExtraOrdinary Wizard in a voice that sounded, Tod thought, as though he were talking in a large, empty room.

The ExtraOrdinary Wizard caught Tod’s embarrassed look and grinned. “Maybe, Alther. Maybe. But for the moment she is our guest. She is, Dr Draa tells me, the daughter of an old
Magykal
family. Alther, allow me to introduce Alice TodHunter Moon. Alice, this is Alther, a wise friend and the old tutor of someone we are about to meet. Well, we hope we are about to meet.”

Alther bowed. Tod was not sure what to do. She guessed you couldn’t shake hands with a ghost, so she bowed too.

“How are we doing for time, Septimus?” Alther asked in his oddly distant voice.

Septimus looked at his timepiece again. “We are approaching the Midnight Minutes,” he said.

They gathered at one side of the smooth white marble steps that reached high above their heads, in front of what Tod could see was the outline of an archway sitting beneath the steps like a cupboard under the stairs. The archway had
VII
inscribed on its keystone, which Tod knew was number seven in the ancient PathFinder numbering system. She peered into the arch and saw an eerie white mist swirling deep within it. It reminded her of the one in the woods where she and Oskar had put on their
Tristan
tops.

“It’s weird,” she whispered to Dandra Draa. “It’s like there is something really deep and strange in there.”

Dandra looked at Tod. “In where?” she said.

“Inside the arch,” said Tod.

All eyes turned to Tod and she felt embarrassed. Clearly it was not a time to be chatting. Something serious was about to happen. “Sorry …” she whispered.

To Tod’s discomfort the ExtraOrdinary Wizard was looking at her in a very unsettling manner.
“You can see the arch?”
he asked.

Tod nodded.

“What can you see inside?”

“Er. Well, it’s like a tunnel with a kind of swirly white cloud deep inside …” Tod’s voice trailed off. She wished he would stop staring at her like that.

“And does the arch have a symbol anywhere?” the Extra­Ordinary Wizard asked, testing her.

“Er, yes. Number seven. But it’s written the ancient way: ‘V,’ One, One.”

“How do you know these numbers, Tod?”

“We’re taught them when we are little. They are PathFinder numbers. Oh! There’s someone in there!” Tod gasped. In the depths of the white mist, she saw the dark shape of a figure.

The arch began to glow with a dull purple light, which became ever brighter. Tod saw the figure coming towards them and then suddenly a tall dark-haired woman in a richly embroidered cloak was striding out into the night air, her green eyes glittering with the reflections of the
Magyk
around her.

“Marcia!” The ExtraOrdinary Wizard sounded relieved. “You made it!”

“Of course I did,” she said. “Alther! Dandra! What a wonderful welcoming committee.” She swung around and threw her arm out somewhat theatrically towards the archway, which was still shining a brilliant purple. “So,
now
can you see it?” she asked.

“Well, I can
now
,” the ExtraOrdinary Wizard said – a little grumpily, Tod thought. Slowly the purple light began to fade and Tod watched the archway return to just a dark space within the white marble. “It’s gone again,” he complained.