“Jeez.” Wolf Boy slid down to the floor with a bump.
Septimus grinned. “I suppose you’re the lost bowl,” he said.
“Swallowed by the python,” Jenna added.
Aunt Zelda looked up, shocked. “Swallowed by the python? Who?”
“It’s all right, Zelda, no one’s been swallowed by the python,” Wolf Boy said gently. “But it seems . . . wow, it’s so weird . . .” He grinned. “It seems I got two brothers. Just like me.”
“Oh, yes, so you have. I forgot.” Aunt Zelda smiled.
“You knew?” asked Septimus.
“I remember now. There were two boys at your fourteenth birthday party. They worked in a cave place . . . what was its name?”
“Gothyk Grotto,” Jenna supplied.
“That’s it, dear. I thought at the time, Wolf Boy, that your voices sounded so alike. But it slipped my mind.”
“Two more of me . . .” Wolf Boy was muttering.
Septimus could not stop smiling. “Yep, two more of you. Except they’ve got less hair. And they’re not so thin. And they are really pale compared to you.”
“That’s right,” said Aunt Zelda, pleased that she could at least remember this. “At the party—you were sitting opposite them, Wolf Boy dear.”
“Opposite?” said Wolf Boy, shocked.
“They’re really nice,” said Jenna.
“Yeah. Yeah . . .” Wolf Boy mumbled.
“You could do a lot worse,” said Septimus. He was an expert in long-lost brothers.
Wolf Boy shook his head. “Yeah. I know. I really liked them. Matt and, er, Marcus, yeah?”
“That’s right.”
Wolf Boy put his head in his hands. “It’s . . . it’s so horrible.”
Jenna glanced anxiously at Septimus. “What’s horrible?” she asked, putting her arm around Wolf Boy’s shoulders.
“It’s so horrible that I met my brothers and I had no idea. They could have been anyone. I should have recognized them,” he said, sounding upset. “But I didn’t. I didn’t.”
“How could you?” said Septimus. “You were only three months old when they took you away.”
“Took me away?”
“Your father was a Custodian Guard. He made a joke about the Supreme Custodian and they took his children away. You and your brothers.”
Aunt Zelda reached out and took Wolf Boy’s hand. No one said anything for some minutes.
At last Wolf Boy spoke. “You know, 412, it was bad what they did to us. Really, really bad.”
“Yes, it was,” said Septimus. “It was disgusting.”
Jenna picked up the two gold bowls and cradled them in her hand. “Sep,” she said. “I want to take these to Marcellus. We have to go. Now.”
Septimus sighed. He wanted to stay and talk to Wolf Boy. “But, Jen, I told you. Marcellus doesn’t have the Fyre going yet. It will be weeks before there is any chance of making another one.”