Midnight at the Beach

"Uncle Alther!" yelled Jenna happily. She scrambled down the bank and joined Alther, who was standing on the beach staring, puzzled, at a fishing rod he was holding.

"Princess!" Alther beamed and gave her his ghostly hug, which always made Jenna feel as though a warm summer breeze had wafted through her. "Well, well," said Alther, "I used to come here fishing as a boy, and I seem to have brought the fishing rod too. I hoped I might find you all here."

Jenna laughed. She could not believe that Uncle Alther had ever been a boy. "Are you coming with us, Uncle Alther?" she asked.

"Sorry, Princess. I can't.You know the rules of Ghosthood:

A Ghost may only tread once more

Where, living, he has trod before.

And, unfortunately, as a boy I never got farther than this beach here. Too many good fish to be had, you see. Now," said Alther changing the subject, "is that a picnic basket I see in the bottom of the boat?"

Lying under a soggy coil of rope was the picnic basket that Sally Mullin had made up for them. Silas heaved it out. "Oh, my back," he groaned. "What has she put in it?" Silas lifted the lid. "Ah, that explains it." He sighed. "Stuffed full of barley cake. Still, it made good ballast, hey?"

"Dad," remonstrated Jenna. "Don't be mean. Anyway, we like barley cake, don't we, Nicko?"

Nicko pulled a face, but Boy 412 looked hopeful. Food. He was so hungry - he couldn't even remember the last thing he had to eat. Oh, yes, that was it, a bowl of cold, lumpy porridge just before the 6 A.M. roll call that morning. It seemed a lifetime away.

Silas lifted out the other rather squashed items that lay under the barley cake. A tinder box and dry kindling, a can of water, some chocolate, sugar and milk. He set about making a small fire and hung the can of water over it to boil while everyone clustered around the flickering flames, warming up their cold hands in between chewing on the thick slabs of cake.

Even Marcia ignored the barley cake's well-known tendency to glue the teeth together and ate almost a whole slab. Boy 412 gulped down his share and finished off all the bits that anyone else had left too. Then he lay back on the damp sand and wondered if he would ever be able to move again. He felt as though someone had poured concrete into him.

Jenna put her hand in her pocket and took out Petroc Trelawney. He sat very still and quiet in her hand, Jenna stroked him gently, and Petroc put out his four stumpy legs and waved them helplessly in the air. He was lying on his back like a stranded beetle.

"Oops, wrong way up." Jenna chuckled. She set him the right way up, and Petroc Trelawney opened his eyes and blinked slowly. Jenna stuck a crumb of barley cake on her thumb and offered it to the pet rock.

Petroc Trelawney blinked again, gave the barley cake some thought, then nibbled delicately at the cake crumb. Jenna was thrilled. "He's eaten it!" she exclaimed.

"He would," said Nicko. "Rock cake for a pet rock. Perfect."

But even Petroc Trelawney could not manage more than a large crumb of barley cake. He gazed around him for a few more minutes and then closed his eyes and went back to sleep in the warmth of Jenna's hand.

Soon the water in the can over the fire was boiling. Silas melted the dark chocolate squares into it and added the milk. He mixed it up just the way he liked it, and when it was about to bubble over, he poured in the sugar and stirred.

"The best hot chocolate ever," Nicko pronounced. No one disagreed as the can was passed around and finished all too soon.

While everyone was eating, Alther had been practicing his casting technique with his fishing rod in a preoccupied manner, and when he saw that they had finished, he wafted over to the fire. He looked serious. "Something happened after you left," he said quietly.

Silas felt a weight lurch to the bottom of his stomach, and it wasn't just the barley cake. It was dread.

"What is it, Alther?" asked Silas, horribly sure that he was going to hear that Sarah and the boys had been captured.

Alther knew what Silas was thinking. "It's not that, Silas," he said. "Sarah and the boys are fine. But it is very bad. DomDaniel has come back to the Castle."

"What?" gasped Marcia. "He can't come back. I'm the ExtraOrdinary Wizard - I've got the Amulet. And I've left the Tower stuffed full of Wizards - there's enough Magyk in that tower to keep the old has-been buried in the Badlands where he belongs. Are you sure he's back, Alther, and it's not some joke the Supreme Custodian - that revolting little rat - is playing while I'm away?"

"It's no joke, Marcia," Alther said. "I saw him myself. As soon as Muriel had rounded Raven's Rock, he Materialized in the Wizard Tower Courtyard. The whole place crackled with Darke Magyk. Smelled terrible. Sent the Wizards into a blind panic, scurrying here, there and everywhere, like a crowd of ants when you tread on their nest."

"That's disgraceful. What were they thinking of? I don't know, the quality of the average Ordinary Wizard is appalling nowdays," said Marcia, casting a glance in Silas's direction. "And where was Endor? She's meant to be my deputy - don't tell me Endor panicked as well?"

"No. No, she didn't. She came out and confronted him. She put a Bar across the doors to the Tower."

"Oh, thank goodness. The Tower is safe." Marcia sighed with relief.

"No, Marcia, it's not. DomDaniel struck Endor down with a Thunderflash. She's dead." Alther tied a particularly complicated knot in his fishing line. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Dead," Marcia mumbled.

"Then he Removed the Wizards."

"All of them? Where to?"

"They all shot off toward the Badlands - there was nothing they could do. I expect he's got them in one of his Burrows down there." "Oh, Alther."

"Then the Supreme Custodian - that horrible little man - arrives with his retinue, bowing and scraping and practically drooling all over his Master. The next thing I know he's escorted DomDaniel into the Wizard Tower and up to ... er, well, up to your rooms, Marcia."

"My rooms? DomDaniel in my rooms?"

"Well, you'll be pleased to know he was in no fit state to appreciate them by the time he got up there, as they had to walk all the way up. There wasn't enough Magyk left to keep the stairs working. Or anything else in the Tower for that matter."

Marcia shook her head in disbelief. "I never thought DomDaniel could do this. Never."

"No, neither did I," said Alther.

"I thought," said Marcia, "that as long as we Wizards could hang on until the Princess was old enough to wear the Crown, we would be all right. Then we could get rid of those Custodians, the Young Army and all the creeping Darkenesse that infests the Castle and makes peoples' lives so miserable."

"So did I," said Alther, "but I followed DomDaniel up the stairs. He was blathering on to the Supreme Custodian about how he couldn't believe his luck - not only had you left the Castle, but you had taken the one obstacle to his return with you."

"Obstacle?"

"Jenna."

Jenna gazed at Alther in dismay. "Me? An obstacle? Why?"

Alther stared at the fire, deep in thought. "It seems, Princess, that you have somehow been stopping that awful old Necromancer from coming back to the Castle. Just by being there. And very likely your mother did too. I always wondered why he sent the Assassin for the Queen and not for me."

Jenna shivered. She suddenly felt very afraid. Silas put his arm around her. "That's enough now, Alther. There's no need to frighten us all out of our wits. Frankly, I think you just dropped off to sleep and had a nightmare. You know you get them every now and then. The Custodians are simply a load of thugs that any decent ExtraOrdinary Wizard would have seen off years ago."

"I am not going to just sit here and be insulted like this," Marcia spluttered. "You have no idea the things we have tried to get rid of them. No idea at all. It's been all we can do to keep the WizardTower going sometimes. And with no help from you, Silas Heap."

"Well, I don't know what the fuss is all about, Marcia. DomDaniel's dead." Silas replied.

"No, he's not," said Marcia quietly.

"Don't be silly, Marcia," snapped Silas. "Alther threw him off the top of the Tower forty years ago."

Jenna and Nicko gasped. "Did you really, Uncle Alther?" asked Jenna.

"No!" exclaimed Alther crossly. "I didn't. He threw himself off."

"Well, whatever," said Silas stubbornly. "He's still dead."

"Not necessarily..." said Alther in a low voice, staring into the fire. The light from the glowing embers cast flickering shadows over everyone except Alther, who floated unhappily through them, absentmindedly trying to undo the knot he had just tied in his fishing line. The fire blazed for a moment and lit up the circle of people around it.

Suddenly Jenna spoke."What did happen on top of the WizardTower with DomDaniel, Uncle Alther?" she whispered.

"It's a bit of a scary story, Princess. I don't want to frighten you."

"Oh, go on, tell us," said Nicko. "Jen likes scary stories."

Jenna nodded a little uncertainly.

"Well," said Alther, "it's hard for me to tell it in my own words, but I'll tell you the story as I once heard it spoken around a campfire deep in the Forest. It was a night like this, midnight with a full moon high in the sky, and it was told by an old and wise Wendron Witch Mother to her witches."

And so, beside the fire, Alther Mella changed his form into a large and comfortable-looking woman dressed in green. Speaking in the witch's quiet Forest burr, he began.

"This is where the story begins: on top of a golden Pyramid crowning a tall silver Tower. The WizardTower shimmers in the early morning sun and is so high that the crowd of people gathered at its foot appear like ants to the young man who is clambering up the stepped sides of the Pyramid. The young man has looked down at the ants once already and felt sick with the giddy sensation of height. He now keeps his gaze firmly fixed on the figure in front of him - an older but remarkably agile man who, to his great advantage, has no fear of heights. The older man's purple cloak flies out from him in the brisk wind that always plays around the top of the Tower, and to the crowd below he looks like nothing more than a fluttering purple bat creeping up to the point of the Pyramid.

"What, the watchers below ask themselves, is their ExtraOrdinary Wizard doing? And isn't that his Apprentice following him, chasing him even?

"The Apprentice, Alther Mella, now has his Master, DomDaniel, within his grasp. DomDaniel has reached the pinnacle of the Pyramid, a small square platform of hammered gold inlaid with the silver hieroglyphs that Enchant the Tower. DomDaniel stands tall, his thick purple cloak streaming out behind him, his gold and platinum ExtraOrdinary Wizard belt flashing in the sun. He is daring his Apprentice to come closer.

"Alther Mella knows he has no choice. In a brave and terrified leap he lunges at his Master and takes him by surprise. DomDaniel is knocked off his feet, and his Apprentice dives onto him, grabbing at the gold and lapis lazuli Akhu Amulet that his Master wears around his neck on a thick silver chain.

"Far below, in the courtyard of the WizardTower, the people gasp in disbelief as they gaze with squinting eyes into the brightness of the golden Pyramid and watch the Apprentice grapple with his Master. Together they balance on the tiny platform, rolling this way and that as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard tries to break free of Alther Mella's grasp on the Amulet.

"DomDaniel fixes Alther Mella with a baleful glare, his dark green eyes glittering with fury. Alther's bright green eyes meet the stare unflinchingly, and he feels the Amulet loosen. He pulls hard, the chain snaps into a hundred pieces, and the Amulet comes away in his grasp.

"Take it," hisses DomDaniel. 'But I will be back for it. I will be back with the seventh of the seventh."

"One piercing scream rises from below as the crowd sees its ExtraOrdinary Wizard launch himself from the top of the Pyramid and tumble from the Tower. His cloak spreads like a magnificent pair of wings, but it does not slow his long, tumbling fall to earth.

"And then he is gone.

"At the top of the Pyramid his Apprentice clutches the Akhu Amulet and gazes in shock at what he has seen - his Master enter the Abyss.

"The crowd clusters around the scorched earth which marks the spot where DomDaniel hit the ground. Each has seen something different. One says he changed into a bat and flew away. Another saw a dark horse appear and gallop off into the Forest, and still another saw DomDaniel change into a snake and slither under a rock. But none saw the truth that Alther saw.

"Alther Mella makes his way back down the Pyramid with his eyes closed so that he does not have to see the dizzying drop beneath him. He only opens his eyes when he has crawled through the small hatch into the safety of the Library, which is housed inside the golden Pyramid. And then, with a sense of dread, he sees what has happened. His plain green woolen Apprentice Wizard robes have changed to a heavy purple silk. The simple leather belt that he wears around his tunic has become remarkably weighty; it is now made of gold with the intricate platinum inlay of runes and charms that protect and empower the ExtraOrdinary Wizard that Alther has, to his amazement, become.

"Alther gazes at the Amulet that he holds in his trembling hand. It is a small round stone of ultramarine lapis lazuli shot through with streaks of gold and carved with an enchanted dragon. The stone lies heavily in his palm, bound with a band of gold pinched together at the top to form a loop. From this loop hangs a broken silver link, snapped when Alther ripped the Amulet from its silver chain.

"After a moment's thought Alther bends down and takes out the leather lace from one of his boots. He threads the Amulet onto it and, as all ExtraOrdinary Wizards have done before him, hangs it around his neck. And then, with his long wispy brown hair still awry from his fight, his face pale and anxious, his green eyes wide with awe, Alther makes the long journey down through the Tower to face the waiting, murmuring crowd outside.

"When Alther stumbles out through the huge, solid silver doors that guard the entrance to the WizardTower, he is greeted by a gasp. But nothing more is said, for there is no arguing with the presence of a new ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Amid a few quiet mutterings the crowd disperses, although one voice calls out. 'As you have gained it, so will you lose it.'

"Alther sighs. He knows this is true.

"As he makes his lonely way back into the Tower to begin the work of undoing DomDaniel's Darkenesse, in a small midnight at the beach room not so very far away a baby boy is born to a poor Wizard family.

"He is their seventh son, and his name is Silas Heap."

There was a long silence around the fire while Alther slowly regained his own form. Silas shivered. He had never heard the story told like that before. "That's amazing, Alther," he said in a hoarse whisper. "I had no idea. H-how did the Witch Mother know so much?"

"She was watching in the crowd," said Alther. "She came to see me later that day to congratulate me on becoming ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and I told her my side of the story. If you want the truth to be known then all you need to do is tell the Witch Mother. She will tell everyone else. Of course, whether they believe it or not is another matter."

Jenna was thinking hard. "But why, Uncle Alther, were you chasing DomDaniel?"

"Ah, good question. I didn't tell the Witch Mother that. There are some Darke matters that should not be spoken of lightly. But you should know, so I will tell you. You see, that morning, like every morning, I had been tidying up the Pyramid Library. One of the tasks of an Apprentice is to keep the Library organized, and I took my duties seriously, even if they were for such an unpleasant Master. Anyway, that particular morning I had found a strange Incantation in DomDaniel's handwriting tucked into one of the books. I had seen one lying around before and hadn't been able to read the writing, but as I studied this one, an idea occurred to me. I held the Incantation up to the looking glass and discovered I was right: it was written in mirror writing. I began to get a bad feeling about it then, because I knew that it must be a Reverse Incantation, using Magyk from the Darke side - or the Other side, as I prefer to call it, as it is not always Darke Magyk that the Other side puts to use. Anyway, I had to know the truth about DomDaniel and what he was doing, so I decided to risk reading the Incantation. I had just started when something terrible happened."

"What?" whispered Jenna.

"A Spectre Appeared behind me. Well, at least I could see it in the looking glass, but when I turned around it wasn't there. But I could feel it. I could feel it put its hand on my shoulder, and then - I heard it. I heard its empty voice speaking to me. It told me that my time had come. That it had come to collect me as arranged."

Alther shivered at the memory and raised his hand to his left shoulder as the Spectre had done. It still ached with cold, as it had ever since that morning. Everyone else shivered too and drew closer around the fire.

"I told the Spectre that I was not ready. Not yet. You see I knew enough about the Other side to know you must never refuse them. But they are willing to wait. Time is nothing to them. They have nothing else to do but wait. The Spectre told me it would return for me the next day and that I had better be ready then, and it faded away. After it went, I made myself read the Reverse words, and I saw that DomDaniel had offered me up as part of a bargain with the Other side, to be collected at the time I read the Incantation. And then I knew for sure he was using Reverse Magyk - the mirror image of Magyk, the kind that uses people up - and I had fallen into his trap."

The fire on the beach began to die down, and everyone clustered around it, huddling together in the fading glow as Alther continued his story. "Suddenly DomDaniel came in and saw me reading the Incantation. And that I was still there - I had not been Taken. He knew that his plan was discovered and he ran. He scuttled up the Library stepladder like a spider, ran along the top of the shelves and squeezed through the trapdoor that led outside of the Pyramid. He laughed at me and taunted me to follow him if I dared. You see, he knew I was terrified of heights. But I had no choice but to follow him. So I did."

Everyone was silent. No one, not even Marcia, had heard the full story of the Spectre before then.

Jenna broke the silence. "That's horrible." She shuddered. "So did the Spectre come back for you, Uncle Alther?"

"No, Princess. With some help I devised an Anti-Hex Formula. It was powerless after that." Alther sat in thought for a while, and then he said, "I just want you all to know that I am not proud of what I did at the top of the WizardTower - even though I did not push DomDaniel off. You know, it is a terrible thing for an Apprentice to supplant his Master."

"But you had to do it, Uncle Alther. Didn't you?" said Jenna.

"Yes, I did," said Alther quietly. "And we will have to do it again."

"We shall do it tonight," declared Marcia. "I shall go right back and throw that evil man out of the Tower. He'll soon learn that he doesn't mess with the ExtraOrdinaryWizard." She got up purposefully and wrapped her purple cloak around her, ready to go.

Alther leapt into the air and put a ghostly hand on Marcia's arm. "No. No, Marcia."

"But, Alther -  " Marcia protested.

"Marcia, there are no Wizards left to protect you at the Tower, and I hear you gave your KeepSafe to Sally Mullin. I beg you not to go back. It is too dangerous. You must get the Princess to safety. And keep her safe. I shall go back to the Castle and do what I can."

Marcia sank back down onto the wet sand. She knew Alther was right. The last flames of the fire spluttered out as large wet flakes of snow began to fall and darkness closed in on them. Alther put his ghostly fishing rod down on the sand and floated above the Deppen Ditch. He gazed across the marshlands that stretched far into the distance. They were a peaceful sight in the moonlight, broad wetlands dusted with snow and dotted with little islands here and there as far as he could see.

"Canoes," said Alther, floating back down. "When I was a boy that's how the marsh folk got around. And that's what you're going to need too."

"You can do that, Silas," said Marcia dismally. "I'm far too tired to go messing about with boats."

Silas got to his feet. "Come on then, Nicko," he said. "We'll go and Transmute Muriel into some canoes."

Muriel was still floating patiently in Deppen Ditch, just around the bend, out of sight of the river. Nicko felt sad to see their faithful boat go but he knew the Rules of Magyk, and so he knew only too well that in a spell, matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Muriel would not really be gone but, Nicko hoped, rearranged into a set of smart canoes.

"Can I have a fast one, Dad?" asked Nicko as Silas stared at Muriel and tried to think of a suitable spell.

"I don't know about 'fast,' Nicko. I shall just be happy if it floats. Now, let me think. I suppose one canoe each would be good. Here goes. Convert to Five! Oh, bother."

Five very small Muriels bobbed up and down in front of them.

"Dad," complained Nicko, "you're not doing it right."

"Wait a minute, Nicko. I'm thinking. That's it - Canoe Renew!"

"Dad!"

One enormous canoe sat wedged into the banks of the Ditch.

"Now, let's be logical about this," Silas muttered to himself.

"Why don't you just ask for five canoes, Dad?" suggested Nicko.

"Good idea, Nicko. We'll make a Wizard of you yet. I Choose Canoes for Five to Use!"

The spell fizzled out before it really got going, and Silas ended up with just two canoes and a forlorn pile of Muriel's colored timbers and rope.

"Only two, Dad?" said Nicko, disappointed not to be getting his own canoe.

"They'll have to do," said Silas. "You can't change matter more than three times without it getting fragile."

In fact, Silas was just pleased that he had ended up with any canoes at all.

Soon Jenna, Nicko and Boy 412 were sitting in what Nicko had named the Muriel One canoe, and Silas and Marcia were squashed together in the Muriel Two. Silas insisted on sitting in the front because, "I know the way, Marcia. It makes sense."

Marcia snorted dubiously, but she was far too tired to fuss.

"Go on, Maxie," Silas told the wolfhound. "Go and sit with Nicko."

But Maxie had other ideas. Maxie's purpose in life was to stay by his master, and stay by his master he would. He bounded onto Silas's lap, and the canoe tilted dangerously.

"Can't you control that animal?" demanded Marcia, who was dismayed to find herself horribly close to the water again.

"Of course I can. He does exactly what I tell him, don't you, Maxie?"

Nicko made a spluttering sound.

"Go sit at the back, Maxie," Silas told the wolfhound sternly. Looking crestfallen, Maxie bounded over Marcia to the back of the canoe and settled himself down behind her.

"He's not sitting behind me," said Marcia.

"Well he can't sit by me. I have to concentrate on where we're going," Silas told her.

"And it's high time you were going too," said Alther, hovering anxiously. "Before the snow really sets in. I just wish I could come with you."

Alther floated up and watched them set off, paddling along the Deppen Ditch, which was now slowly filling as the tide came back in and would take them deep into the Marram Marshes. Jenna, Nicko and Boy 412's canoe led the way, with Silas, Marcia and Maxie following them.

Maxie sat bolt upright behind Marcia and breathed excited dog breath onto the back of her neck. He sniffed the new, damp marshland smells and listened to the scrabbling sounds made by assorted small animals as they scuttled out of the way of the canoes. Every now and then his excitement overwhelmed him, and he dribbled happily into Marcia's hair.

Soon Jenna reached a narrow channel running off the Ditch. She stopped.

"Do we go down here, Dad?" she called back to Silas.

Silas looked confused. He didn't remember this bit at all. Just as he was wondering whether to say yes or no, his thoughts were interrupted by a piercing shriek from Jenna.

A slimy mud-brown hand with webbed fingers and broad black claws had reached out of the water and grabbed the end of her canoe.