Queste

T hey spread the map out on the snow below the tree. As they unfolded it the stiffened paper crackled and looked yellow against the frosty whiteness.



"No, Ullr," said Jenna. "You are not sitting here." She held up the missing piece. "Do I have to do anything special?" she asked. "Like say the ReUnite or something?"



"No," said Beetle. He grinned. "It's ready to go."



Jenna let go of the circular piece of paper and slowly it fluttered down. Ullr went to bat at it with his paw but Jenna grabbed the cat and held him tight. The missing piece hovered for a few seconds above the hole, turning this way and that, deciding which way to go - and then, to the accompaniment of



"Yaaay!" it slipped into place. Snorri's map was complete once more.



"That's amazing," said Jenna. "You can't even see the join."



Beetle inspected the map with a professional air. "Nice work," he said.



Septimus took his Enlarging Glass from his Apprentice Belt and held it over the center of the map. As the glass passed across, they watched the minutely annotated details rendered in Snorri's neat hand spring into focus. They saw an octagonal building shaded a delicate gray. In heavy letters over the gray, Snorri had written HOUSE OF FORYX. In the middle of the octagon Snorri had drawn a key, and wrapped around the outside of the octagon was a huge snake. The House of Foryx was on what seemed to be an island, connected to the surrounding land by a spidery contraption of a bridge. Beside the bridge was a tree and a small figure with an arrow pointing to it. Snorri had written in tiny writing, BEWARE THE TOLL-MAN. She had also written the words BOTTOMLESS PIT across the gap that the bridge spanned, but Septimus did not care. He was so relieved that the Queste had not taken them away from the House of Foryx after all that he felt he could walk over a hundred bottomless pits if he had to - although he would rather not. One was quite enough.



With Ullr securely ensconced in her backpack, Jenna stood for a moment between the two soaring pillars that formed the gateway to the bridge. She looked up and saw it rise, black and spiderlike into the white air, its thin wire ropes shining with damp. The fog swirled around her feet and a long, low wail came from somewhere far below.



Jenna swallowed hard. This was the way to Nicko, she told herself, and this was the way she would have to go. She stepped between the pillars and onto the icy dusting of unmarked snow that lay on the first precarious plank. Ahead of her the line of planks rose up into a curve and disappeared into the fog. Jenna put out her hands to take the wire handrails. They were taut, cold, and felt frighteningly flimsy. Aware that Septimus was right behind her, Jenna gathered her courage and took another step forward. The bridge gave slightly under her weight. She froze, horribly aware that there was nothing but a thin plank of wood between her and a plunge to oblivion - but she was determined not to show how scared she was. "It's fine," she said brightly. "Come on, Sep."



Septimus did not move.



"Go on," said Beetle. He gave him a gentle shove and Septimus stepped onto the bridge. Jenna moved up a couple of paces. Once again the bridge swayed. In a panic, Septimus grabbed the wire handrails.



"Wait for me," said Beetle, sounding more confident than he felt. He stepped onto the bridge, which moved once again. Septimus felt sick. He had been determined to walk across the bridge calmly, as though it was no more than a few feet above the ground - but suddenly he knew he couldn't.



Jenna glanced back and saw that Septimus's green eyes were wide with fear. "It's okay, Sep," she said. "The trick is to just take one step at a time. One foot in front of the other is all you have to think about. It doesn't matter how long it goes on for because we know we are going to get to the other side. All we have to do is put one foot in front of the other, okay? It's easy."



Septimus nodded. His mouth was too dry to speak.



Like a trio of snails creeping along a washing line, they set off up the bridge with Jenna counting out the steps. "One...two...three...four...five...that's it, Sep, you're doing great. Look how far we've gone already - oh no, I didn't mean that, no don't look - keep going, keep going, ten...eleven...twelve...thirteen..."



Septimus obeyed, putting one foot in front of the other like one of Ephaniah's automatons.



Unblinking, he stared straight ahead into the mist. The scene before him was oddly unchanging - always a few feet of bridge in front of them, rising in a gradual curve and disappearing into the whiteness. Sometimes a gust of wind blew some of the mist away and revealed a little more of the stretch in front but Septimus did not see it, as whenever that happened he closed his eyes until the bridge stopped swaying.



But closing his eyes did not take away the terrible wails and despairing cries that issued from the bottomless pit. As they progressed along the wobbling planks, clinging onto the ice-cold handrails with numb fingers, the cries became louder and ever more desperate. These bothered Beetle more than the bridge and he began to sing his own very special tuneless version of an old Castle favorite,



"How Much Is That Weasel in the Window?" For the first time ever, Septimus did not object.



And so, to the accompaniment of Beetle's drone - which was at times hard to distinguish from the moans far below - they put one foot in front of the other and climbed the ever-ascending curve. They had probably been no longer than a quarter of an hour on the bridge when Jenna said, "It's flattening out. Can you feel it? We must be nearly at the top."



At the mention of "top" Septimus had a sudden vision of them suspended in the middle of nowhere.



The dizzying absence of earth traveled up from the soles of his feet and made his head spin. He swayed backward - Beetle caught him and the weasel song stopped. "Hey, steady, Sep. Easy does it."



Septimus could not move. His hands gripped the wires, his knuckles white. Jenna felt his fear seeping into her, too. A long, desolate lament drifted up from the chasm, rising and falling as if telling the lonely tale of the lost souls who inhabited the fog. Septimus listened, entranced. He felt an overwhelming urge to let himself fall into the soft pillow of fog and join the voices below. He loosened his grip on the handrails. At that moment a patch of fog lifted and Jenna saw a large black bird fly across their path. She gasped in surprise.



Septimus woke from his trance. "Jen...what is it?" he croaked.



"Nothing, Sep." But the flight of the bird had triggered her thoughts. "Sep, the Flyte Charm.



Remember?"



At Jenna's words, Septimus felt as if the fog had cleared from his mind. He remembered the feeling of the Charm in his hand, the silver flights on the golden arrow fluttering like the wings of a tiny bird, the Charm buzzing in his hand. And as he remembered, his feet began to feel lighter and less anchored to the rickety planks of the bridge. His legs no longer felt like jelly and the keening voices from below no longer invited him to jump into the fog. To the accompaniment of a renewed burst of the weasel song behind him, Septimus took a step forward.



"Come on," he said. "We'll soon be there."



Septimus didn't see the end of the bridge - his head was full of the image of the Flyte Charm and nothing else. But as Jenna and Beetle walked down the last few yards of the bridge, the gaunt shape of the House of Foryx slowly materialized out of the fog.



"It's massive," whispered Jenna.



Beetle replaced the weasel song with a long, low whistle.



With a huge feeling of relief, Jenna stepped off the bridge. As she kneeled to set Ullr free from the backpack, she found her eyes drawn up to the House of Foryx. It was a daunting sight. It towered above them - more of a fortress than a house - a forbidding mass of granite blocks perched on top of a rocky escarpment. True to Snorri's drawing, it consisted of a central octagonal column flanked by four octagonal towers that disappeared into the milky white sky, the tops of their crenulated battlements hidden by a low snow cloud. A few small windows broke up the smooth gray surface but a strange swirling sheen - like oil on water - covered them. They reminded Jenna of the eyes of a blind old cat that she and her friend Bo had once adopted.



Spurred on by the resumption of the twenty-first rendition of the weasal song, Septimus had at last reached the end of the bridge. He stepped from the final wobbly plank and, with a feeling of exhilaration - he had done it - he let go of the image of the Flyte Charm. His feet felt heavy once more and his boots settled firmly back onto the ground. Painfully, Septimus tried to uncurl his fingers, which had been clamped tight to the freezing wire handrails, but they would not move. He shoved his frozen hands into his tunic pockets and the Questing Stone slipped into his right hand and nestled into his palm. "It's hot!" he gasped.



"What are you talking about?" said Jenna. "It's freezing."



Septimus did not reply.



Gently, Jenna took Septimus by the arm and led him away from the edge of the chasm. "Come on, Sep," she said, "let's get going."



But Septimus had something to say and he didn't know where to begin. So he took his clenched hand from his pocket and opened it - in his palm lay the Questing Stone. It was glowing a brilliant orangy-red now, and it shone out in the white, muted surroundings like a beacon.



"What's that?" asked Beetle suspiciously.



"Huh," said Jenna. "It's a Magykal hand-warmer. You might have told us, Sep, we could have all used that."



"It's not a hand-warmer," muttered Septimus.



"No, it's not, is it?" said Beetle, peering down at the Stone. "You kept this quiet, Sep."



"Kept what quiet?" asked Jenna.



"The Questing Stone," said Beetle. "He's got the Questing Stone. Sep - why didn't you say?"



"Because we were looking for Nik and Snorri, that was the important thing. And, well, at first I didn't think it mattered."



"You took the Questing Stone and you didn't think it mattered?" Beetle was aghast.



"Give me a break, Beetle. I didn't know it was the Stone when I took it, did I? I wouldn't have taken it if I had. Hildegarde gave it to me just before we escaped from the Wizard Tower. She said it was her SafeCharm."



"Well, it's obviously not her SafeCharm," said Beetle snappily.



"And she wasn't Hildegarde," said Septimus.



"What's going on?" asked Jenna crossly. "Who wasn't Hildegarde? Tell me."



"Hildegarde wasn't Hildegarde," replied Beetle, a trifle unhelpfully.



"Beetle," protested Jenna, fixing Beetle with a Princessy stare.



"Beetle's right, Jen," said Septimus, coming to Beetle's rescue. "I've been going over and over it - the moment when I took the Stone. I know Marcia says never accept Charms from strangers, but I didn't think Hildegarde was a stranger. But she had been standing next to the Questing Pot, hadn't she?



And I Saw the Thing in the Pot. So when Tertius Fume started putting the Tower into Siege, I reckon the Thing must have got out of the Pot and InHabited Hildegarde. It was so dark and crazy anything could have happened."



Jenna looked at Septimus, puzzled. "But why didn't you tell us?" she asked.



"Well...when I first found out I had it, I really thought that if I got away from the Castle and the Questing Guards like Marcia told me, then it would be okay. And we could all go and find Nik and Snorri and forget about the Queste. And then when it turned green - "



"When what turned green?" asked Jenna.



"The Stone. It started off blue but then, when we were in the hut, I saw it had turned green, just like Alther said it would. And then I realized I was on the Queste."



"So why didn't you tell us?"



Septimus took a while to answer. "I couldn't. I just couldn't. I'm sorry. We were following Snorri's map and everything seemed okay so I thought..." Septimus ran out of words. He felt terrible, as if he had betrayed his closest friends.



"But Sep, it is okay. We're still rescuing Nik, aren't we?" said Jenna.



"No," snapped Beetle suddenly. "This has nothing to do with Nicko now. We are with Sep, and Sep is on the Queste. He has no choice. Once you Accept the Stone, Your Will is Not Your Own. Isn't that right, Sep?"



Septimus nodded miserably.



Jenna shook her head in disbelief. "No! No way. We are on our quest - for Nik. And, look, we've done it." She pointed up to the great octagonal towers looming out of the mists. "Because there is the House of Foryx."



Beetle was adamant. "We don't know that," he said. "We don't know anything anymore. Like I said, all we know for certain is that we are with Sep, and Sep is on the Queste. Oh yes - and one more little detail..."



"What?" asked Jenna quietly, surprised at Beetle's angry torrent of words.



"That no one has ever come back from the Queste."



There was silence as this sunk in.



Septimus felt awful. "I...I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm really sorry."



A few stray snowflakes drifted down from the sky. Fiercely, Jenna brushed them from her eyes. She looked up at the great granite fortress looming out of the mist far above them, hoping somehow to find a clue that Nicko was indeed there. As she stared at the blind windows, a flight of ravens flew out of one of the towers, cawing. Jenna shivered and pulled her cloak tighter. Ullr mewed miserably and rubbed against her leg, his hackles raised.



At last Jenna spoke. "Well, if we're on some stupid Queste, then that's okay. We'll do it and we'll come back - with Nik. That will show them." With that, Jenna marched off up the steep zigzag path, with Ullr at her heels.



Beetle and Septimus followed in her wake.



"I'm sorry," said Septimus after a few minutes. "I should have told you about the Stone."



"Yes," said Beetle. "You should have." A few minutes later he said, "Wouldn't have made any difference. I would have still come."



"Thanks, Beetle."



"Jenna would have too," said Beetle.



"Yeah," said Septimus. "I don't think I could have stopped her."



"I don't think you could stop Jenna from doing anything," said Beetle with a grin. "Not once she's made up her mind."



Halfway up the path Jenna stopped and waited for Septimus and Beetle to catch up. Snow was falling steadily now and it seemed as if the only color in the whole world was the fiery orange of the Questing Stone that shone in Septimus's hand as he and Beetle emerged from the mist.



"You know," said Jenna, "this place reminds me of a story Dad used to tell us about the weary travelers who climbed up to a huge tower in the mist. They got to a door with weird creatures carved all around it and pulled the bellpull. Ages later it was opened by a little hunchback figure who stared at them for hours and then said in a really creepy voice, 'Yeeeeeeeees?' You remember that, Sep?"



"Nope," said Septimus. "I was in the Young Army at the time - probably at the bottom of a wolverine pit while you were listening to bedtime stories."



"Oh sorry, Sep. Sometimes it feels as though you were with us all the time."



"Wish I had been," said Septimus quietly. Sometimes he tried to imagine what he had missed but it wasn't a good thing to do. It gave him a feeling of heaviness that was hard to shake off.



They set off once more walking together, but soon the path narrowed and they were forced to go on in single file. The path became steeper, winding in and out of rocky outcrops, and as they climbed the air grew colder. Beetle had a feeling that they were near the top. He braced himself for the sight of the snake that Snorri had drawn wrapped around the tower.



It must, he thought, be enormous. He wondered what it ate - and then he decided to stop wondering.



It wasn't making him feel good.



Now the path widened and began to level off. With their boots crunching on fine gravel, they approached the smooth white marble of the wide terrace that surrounded the House of Foryx. On the terrace they stopped to catch their breath. In front of them a bank of mist rose, rolling and swirling with the snow, and behind that they could just make out the gray granite of the House of Foryx. They glanced at one another. Where was the snake?



Stealthily, they crept across the terrace, their feet slipping on the damp smoothness of the marble.



Septimus held out the Questing Stone and like a beacon it guided them through the whiteness to the foot of a flight of wide, shallow steps.



"Wait there," Septimus whispered. "I'll go check out the snake."



"No," said Jenna. "We'll all go. Won't we, Beetle?"



Beetle nodded reluctantly. He hated snakes. "Okay," he said.



Cautiously, they crept up the steps, Septimus holding the Questing Stone before him to guide the way. "There's no snake," said Septimus from the mist. "Just a big old door with lots of strange carvings around it."



"No snake?" asked Beetle just to make sure.



"No snake," came Septimus's voice, "not even a tiny licorice one."