“Only Madam Marcia”—looking triumphant, Sally sat back and folded her arms—“that’s who.”
“What? How come you’ve been mixing with the ExtraOrdinary Wizard? Did she drop by for a cup of tea?”
“Almost. Terry Tarsal did. He had been up at the Wizard Tower delivering some really weird shoes that he had made for Madam Marcia. So when he had stopped moaning about her taste in shoes and how much he hated snakes, he said that he had overheard Marcia talking to one of the other Wizards. Endor, that little fat one, I think. Well, they said the Queen had been shot! By the Custodian Guards. One of their Assassins.”
Sarah could not believe what she was hearing.
“When?” she breathed.
“Well, this is the really awful thing,” whispered Sally excitedly. “They said she was shot on the day her baby was born. Six whole months ago, and we knew nothing about it. It’s terrible…terrible. And they shot Mr. Alther too. Dead. That’s how come Marcia took over…”
“Alther’s dead?” gasped Sarah. “I can’t believe it. I really can’t…We all thought he’d retired. Silas was his Apprentice years ago. He was lovely…”
“Was he?” asked Sally vaguely, eager to get on with the story. “Well, that’s not all, see. Because Terry reckoned that Marcia had rescued the Princess and had taken her away somewhere. Endor and Marcia were just chatting, really, wondering how she was getting along. But of course when they realized Terry was there with the shoes, they stopped. Marcia was very rude to him, he said. He felt a bit strange afterward, and he reckoned she’d done a Forget Spell on him, but he’d nipped behind a pillar when he saw her muttering and it didn’t take properly. He’s really upset about that as he can’t remember whether she paid him for the shoes or not.”
Sally Mullin paused to draw breath and have a large gulp of tea.
“That poor little Princess. God help the little one. I wonder where she is now. Probably wasting away in some dungeon somewhere. Not like your little angel over there…How is she doing?”
“Oh, she’s just fine,” said Sarah, who usually would have talked at length about Jenna’s snuffles and new tooth and how she could sit up and hold her own cup now. But just at that moment Sarah wanted to turn the attention away from Jenna—because Sarah had spent the last six months wondering who her baby really was, and now she knew.
Jenna was, thought Sarah, surely she must be…the baby Princess.
For once Sarah was glad to wave good-bye to Sally Mullin. She watched her bustle off down the corridor, and, as Sarah closed the door behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she rushed over to Jenna’s basket.
Sarah lifted Jenna up and held her in her arms. Jenna smiled at Sarah and reached out to grab her charm necklace.
“Well, little Princess,” murmured Sarah, “I always knew you were special, but I never dreamed you were our own Princess.” The baby’s dark violet eyes met Sarah’s gaze and she looked solemnly at Sarah as if to say, Well, now you know.
Sarah gently laid Jenna back in her baby basket. Her head was spinning and her hands shook as she poured herself another cup of tea. She found it hard to believe all that she had heard. The Queen was dead. And Alther too. Their Jenna was the heir to the Castle. The Princess. What was happening?
Sarah spent the rest of the afternoon torn between gazing at Jenna, Princess Jenna, and worrying about what would happen if anyone found out where she was. Where was Silas when she needed him?
Silas was enjoying a day’s fishing with the boys.
There was a small sandy beach in the bend of the river just along from The Ramblings. Silas was showing Nicko and Jo-Jo, the two youngest boys, how to tie their jam jars onto the end of a pole and dip them in the water. Jo-Jo had already caught three tiddlers, but Nicko kept dropping his and was getting upset.
Silas picked Nicko up and took him over to see Erik and Edd, the five-year-old twins. Erik was daydreaming happily and dangling his foot in the warm, clear water. Edd was poking at something under a stone with a stick. It was a huge water beetle. Nicko wailed and clung on tightly around Silas’s neck.
Sam, who was nearly seven, was a serious fisherman. He had been given a proper fishing rod for his last birthday, and there were two small silver fish laid out on a rock beside him. He was about to reel in another. Nicko squealed with excitement.
“Take him away, Dad. He’ll frighten the fish,” Sam said crossly.
Silas tiptoed off with Nicko and went to sit beside his oldest son, Simon. Simon had a fishing rod in one hand and a book in the other. It was Simon’s ambition to be the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and he was busy reading all of Silas’s old magic books. This one, Silas noticed, was called The Compleat Fish-Charmer.
Silas expected all his boys to be some kind of Wizard; it was in the family. Silas’s aunt was a renowned White Witch and both Silas’s father and uncle had been Shape-Shifters, which was a very specialized branch, and one that Silas hoped his boys would avoid, for successful Shape-Shifters became increasingly unstable as they grew older, sometimes unable to hold their own shape for more than a few minutes at a time. Silas’s father had eventually disappeared into the Forest as a tree, but no one knew which one. It was one of the reasons why Silas enjoyed his walks through the Forest. He would often address a remark to an untidy-looking tree in the hope that it might be his father.
Sarah Heap came from a Warlock and Wizard family. As a girl, Sarah had studied herbs and healing with Galen, the Physik Woman in the Forest, which was where she had met Silas one day. Silas had been out looking for his father. He was lost and unhappy, and Sarah took him back with her to see Galen. Galen had helped Silas to understand that his father, as a Shape-Shifter, would have chosen his final destination as a tree many years ago and would now be truly happy. And Silas too, for the first time in his life, realized he felt truly happy sitting next to Sarah by the Physik Woman’s fire.
When Sarah understood all she could about herbs and healing, she had said a fond good-bye to Galen and joined Silas in his room in The Ramblings. And there they had stayed ever since, squeezing in more and more children while Silas happily gave up his Apprenticeship and worked as a jobbing Ordinary Wizard to pay the bills. Sarah made herb tinctures at the kitchen table when she had a spare moment—which did not often happen.
That evening, as Silas and the boys made their way up the beach steps to go back to The Ramblings, a large and menacing Custodian Guard, dressed in black from head to toe, barred their way.
“Halt!” he barked. Nicko started to cry.
Silas stopped and told the boys to behave.
“Papers!” shouted the Guard. “Where are your papers?”