Very reluctantly Merrin pulled the little gold bottle from his pocket and handed it over. Aunt Zelda inspected it and saw with dismay that the seal had been broken. "You opened it," she said angrily.
For once Merrin looked guilty. "I thought it was scent," he said. "But it was horrible. I could have died."
"True," Aunt Zelda agreed, turning the empty - and much lighter - little gold bottle over and over in her hand. "Now, Merrin. This is important, and I do not want any lies, understand?"
Sulkily Merrin nodded.
"Did you tell the jinnee you were Septimus Heap?"
"Yeah, 'course I did. That is my name."
Aunt Zelda sighed. This was bad. "It is not your real name, Merrin," she said patiently. "It is not the name your mother gave you."
"It was the name I was called for ten years," he said. "I've had it longer than he has."
Despite her anger with him, Aunt Zelda had some sympathy for Merrin. What he said was true, he had been called Septimus Heap for the first ten years of his life. Aunt Zelda knew that Merrin had had a rough time, but it didn't give him license to terrorize little children and steal from them.
"That's enough of that, Merrin," she said sternly. "Now, I want you to tell me what you said when the jinnee asked you, 'What Do You Will, Oh Master?'"
"Yeah, well..."
"Well what?" Aunt Zelda tried not to imagine the kind of things that Merrin might have asked the jinnee to do.
"I told it to go away."
Aunt Zelda felt a surge of relief. "You did?"
"Yeah. It called me stupid, so I told it to go away."
"And did it?"
"Yeah. Then it locked me in, and I only just got out. It was horrible."
"Serves you right," Aunt Zelda said briskly. "Now, one last thing and then you can go."
"What now?"
"What does the jinnee look like?"
"Like a banana." Merrin laughed. "Like a stupid giant banana!" With that, he pulled free of Aunt Zelda and raced toward the Manuscriptorium.
Aunt Zelda let him go. "Well, I think that narrows the field," she muttered. She took hold of Barney Pot's hand. "Barney," she said, "would you like to help me look for a stupid giant banana?"
Barney grinned. "Ooh, yes please," he said.
Back at the Great Arch, Marcia was as near to speechless as she ever got.
"Simon Heap," she said icily. "Get out of here at once before I - "
"Marcia, please listen," said Simon. "This is important."
Whether it was because of the shock of the UnSealed Ice Tunnels and the lost Keye or a kind of desperate determination in Simon's eyes, Marcia said, "Very well. Tell me and then get out of here."
Simon hesitated. He desperately wanted to ask Marcia to give him back his Tracker Ball, Sleuth, so that he could send it after Lucy, but now that he was actually here, he knew that was an impossibility. If he wanted Marcia to listen to him he had to forget Sleuth.
"I heard something in the Port that I think you should know about," he began.
"Well?" Marcia tapped her foot impatiently.