As they drew farther away, the Wizard Tower became visible - but only just. The Darke Domaine was rising higher and only the top two floors of Marcia's rooms and the Golden Pyramid were now clear of the Fog. The indigo and purple SafeShield still shone brightly, but every now and then there was a new color visible - a faint flash of orange.
Sarah and Jenna took comfort from the lights. They thought of Silas somewhere in the Tower, adding his - admittedly small and somewhat unreliable - share of Magyk to the Wizard Tower's defenses. Septimus and Marcellus, however, took no comfort at all.
Marcellus drew Septimus away from the others. "I assume you know what that orange flash means, Apprentice?" he asked.
"The SafeShield is in distress," Septimus said. He shook his head in disbelief. "That's not good."
"No, it's not," said Marcellus.
"How long do you think we've got until it . . . fails?" asked Septimus.
Marcellus shook his head. "I don't know. All we can do is make haste to Bleak Creek. I suggest you get some rest."
"No. I'll stay up. We still have to figure out exactly where in Bleak Creek the Portal is," said Septimus.
"Apprentice, you must sleep. You have a task ahead of you for which you will need all your powers. Simon and I will do the final calculations - no protests, please. He is proving a most able mathematician."
Septimus hated the thought of sleeping while Simon took his place at Marcellus's side. "But - "
"Septimus, this is for the good of the Castle, for the survival of the Wizard Tower. We must all do what we can - and what you can do now is sleep. Come away from the Tower, it does no good." Marcellus put his arm around Septimus's shoulders and tried to steer him toward the cabin.
Septimus resisted. "In a minute. I'll come in a minute."
"Very well, Apprentice. Do not be long." Marcellus left Septimus alone and went below.
Septimus longed for a glimpse of Marcia. He wanted to see her face at the window, to know that she was all right. "Nicko, do you have a telescope?" he asked.
Nicko did have a telescope. "Tower looks good, doesn't it?" he said, handing it to him. "I like the orange."
Septimus made no reply. He focused the telescope on the Wizard Tower and silently added his own Magnification. The top of the Tower that was peeping up over the Fog sprung into sharp focus. Septimus gasped. It seemed so close that he felt he could reach out and touch it. Eagerly he searched out Marcia's study window, which he thought should just be visible. It was. And not only was the study window visible but so was the unmistakable shape of Marcia's head and shoulders, silhouetted against the lighted window. It looked as though she was staring out the window straight at him. Feeling a little silly Septimus waved, but almost immediately Marcia turned away, and Septimus knew that she had not seen him at all. Feeling suddenly lonely, Septimus longed to talk to Marcia. He longed to tell her that there was still hope, to say "hold on as long as you can. Don't give up. Please don't give up."
Jenna's voice broke into his thoughts. "Let me have a look, Sep. Please. I want to see . . . well, I want to see if I can spot Dad anywhere."
Reluctant to let go of what felt like a link to the Wizard Tower, Septimus swung the telescope upward for a quick last glance at the Golden Pyramid. He gasped in surprise. Sitting on the flattened square at the very top of the pyramid was the unmistakable shape of Spit Fyre.
"What is it, Sep?" asked Jenna, worried.
Septimus handed her the telescope with a broad smile. "Spit Fyre. So that's why he never came. Somehow he's got inside the SafeShield. He's sitting on top of the Golden Pyramid."
"Wow. So he is," said Jenna. "Clever dragon. No one can get him there."
"For now," said Septimus. He went over to the hatch. "I'm going to get some sleep, Jen."
Jenna sat on the cabin roof, playing the telescope over the few visible windows in the Wizard Tower until Annie eventually rounded the bend and the Castle disappeared from sight. But she saw no sign of Silas.
The next morning the wintry sun rose to reveal an unfamiliar landscape. On either side of the river were empty fields dusted with frost and dotted with sparse trees stretched out to a range of blue hills on the horizon. The land seemed deserted, with not a farmhouse in sight.
The inside of Annie's cabin was warm but cramped. Nicko, Jenna, Rupert and Lucy were up on deck, leaving Sarah some space in the tiny galley to prepare a huge plate of scrambled eggs for breakfast. Marcellus and Simon were at the chart table with their set squares and protractors, making their final drawings from the almanac's coded coordinates of the Portal to the Darke Halls. Septimus was still asleep, tucked into a quarter berth, with only his tangled curls visible above his cloak and one of Sally's blankets. No one was in a hurry to wake him.
Eventually the mouthwatering smell of the eggs drifted into his dreams and Septimus opened his eyes blearily.
Simon looked up, his eyes red-rimmed with fatigue. "We've figured out where the Portal is," he said.
Septimus sat up, remembering with a sinking feeling what he was going to have to do that day. "Where?" he asked.
"Have some breakfast first, Apprentice," said Marcellus. "We'll discuss it afterward."
Septimus knew it was bad news. "No. Tell me now. I need to know. I need to . . . to get ready."
"Septimus, I'm so sorry," said Marcellus. "It's in the Bottomless Whirlpool."
Chapter 41 Bleak Creek
Bleak Creek was a dank and dismal place. Haunted by the ghost of the Vengeance, a Darke ship once berthed there, its waters lay deep and still, trapped between two rocky hillsides. A few stunted trees halfheartedly clung to the gaunt slopes but most had stopped bothering and had fallen into the water, where they lay rotting, providing a perfect breeding ground for the infamous Bleak Creek water snake - a nasty black squidge of venomous slime - and its equally lovely parasite, the Long White Leech. In the summer swarms of biting gnats patrolled the banks of the creek, but in the winter they were gone, thankfully. Their absence was more than compensated for by the tiny Jumping Log Beetles, which ventured onto the land once the water grew cold. Log Beetles could jump as high as six feet and would fasten their pincers into any flesh they could find and begin to chew. The only way to remove them was to snap their heads off and wait for the pincers to die. Some heads could keep chewing for days until they fell off.
Dotted among the sharp rocks that littered the hillsides were a few stone hovels built by ancient hermits, misfits and the odd person who had wanted a house by the water but had clearly suffered from a total lack of common sense. These piles of stones were deserted now, although Septimus knew that at least one was Possessed.
Not surprisingly Bleak Creek did not receive many visitors, although this was not necessarily due to its ghostly ship or even to the hostile wildlife and the pungent smell of decay that hung in the air. It was because its entrance was guarded by the notorious Bottomless Whirlpool.
Every Castle child knew the story of the Bottomless Whirlpool. How it was created during a great battle between two Wizards in ancient times; how it was said that each Wizard had stirred up the waters into a frenzy in an effort to drown the other; that they had circled one another, faster and faster, until they had both been sucked into the depths and were never seen again. Everyone knew that the whirlpool went down into the very center of the earth, and some believed that it went right out to the other side.
There were occasional day trips from the Castle to see the Bottomless Whirlpool. These were often a thirteenth-birthday present. After sailing into Bleak Creek to try and spot the Vengeance, the boats - full of new teens screaming with excitement - would circle the whirlpool. However, these trips were run by experienced skippers who knew the safe distance from the whirlpool and who could tell the early warning signs that a boat was being dragged toward it. It was only the biggest, heaviest ships - as the Vengeance had once been - that could pass close by.
Nicko knew for sure that Annie was not one of these. He also knew that he was not one of those skippers who understood the safe distance from the whirlpool, although he hoped that he could tell the signs that they were being dragged too close. And so, as the forbidding rocky outcrops that heralded the entrance to Bleak Creek came into view, Nicko began to feel nervous - but not as nervous as Septimus.
Septimus was sitting alone in the prow of the boat, just behind the bowsprit and its large red sail that billowed in the wintry wind. He had never - not even on the Do-or-Die Night Exercises in the Forest - felt so scared. He glanced down at a small sheet of paper covered with Marcellus's neat handwriting that set out some bullet-pointed questions and answers, which he was trying to fix in his head. They were not unlike the Young Army Pre-Exercise Pointers (or PEPs) that the boys had had to memorize and then chant before each expedition. This sense of deja vu added to Septimus's feeling of doom, but it also meant that he fell back into his old Young Army ways of focusing on survival - and nothing else. And so, as he sat behind the bowsprit, Septimus gazed out at the iron-gray water and chanted under his breath, learning the responses he must use when challenged by anything Darke.