By the time they reach DomDaniel’s lair high up in the old slate quarries of the Badlands, the Midwife’s baby is screaming and the Nurse has a terrible headache. DomDaniel is waiting to see his prize, which he takes to be Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son. The Apprentice that every Wizard and every Necromancer dreams of. The Apprentice who will give him the power to return him to the Castle and take back what is rightfully his.
He looks at the screaming baby with distaste. The screams make his head ache and his ears ring. It is a big baby for a newborn, thinks DomDaniel, and an ugly one too. He doesn’t like it very much. The Necromancer has an air of disappointment about him as he tells the Nurse to take the baby away.
The Nurse puts the baby in the waiting cot and goes to bed. She feels too ill to get up the next day, and no one bothers to feed the Midwife’s son until well into the next night. There is no Apprentice Supper for this Apprentice.
Aunt Zelda sat by the duck pond and smiled. The Apprentice is free of his Darke Master. Septimus Heap is alive, and has found his family. The Princess is safe. She remembered something Marcia often said: things do have a habit of working out. Eventually.