says they're a load of old claptrap."
"Sep told me about Broda once," said Jenna. "She was a Keeper, wasn't she? Oh, I so miss Sep, he used to tell me so much stuff about all sorts of useless things ... and I used to tell him to stop going on like a dumb parrot ... and I wish I hadn't. I really do." Jenna sniffed and wiped her eyes. "It's just the dust," she mumbled, knowing that if someone said anything remotely comforting to her she would burst into tears.
"Ah, well. I expect Septimus was interested in Marcellus's Physik," said Alther. "It worried Marcia sick. She got jumpy every time he went near the Sealed section in the Library. I wonder where he found out about Broda?"
"Aunt Zelda told him," said Jenna.
"Did she now? Well, well ... and did she tell him about the stack of letters she found behind the fireplace when she was making the cat tunnel for Bert?"
Jenna shook her head. She was sure Septimus would have told her that.
"Well, those were the letters from Marcellus Pye to his wife, Broda."
"But Keepers aren't allowed to get married," said Jenna.
"Right," agreed Alther. "And this goes to show why."
"Why, Uncle Alther?"
"Because Broda told Marcellus all the Keeper's secrets. And when things got tough for Marcellus, she let him use the Queen's Way as a shortcut to the Port. He brought all sorts of Darke Alchemical stuff through there. There are still pockets of Darkenesse hanging around. You must always take care going through there, Princess."
Jenna nodded. She wasn't surprised. She always felt a little scared on the Queen's Way.
"So Marcellus told Broda that he'd put the Glass in this warehouse?" asked Nicko.
"No. He wrote and said he'd been swindled out of it. Apparently he had taken it through the Queen's Way, got it to the Port on a succession of stubborn donkeys and finally put it on a ship. He planned to take it to a small but powerful group of Alchemists up in the Lands of the Long Nights, but he was double-crossed by the ship's captain. As soon as Marcellus was out of the way, the captain sold the Glass to a certain Drago Mills - a merchant in the Port who was in the habit of buying a load of old tat without paying too much attention to where it had come from. Anyway, some months later Drago fell out with the Chief Customs Officer over a small matter of unpaid duty for another cargo and got the whole contents of his warehouse impounded for his trouble. No one, not even Marcellus, could get into the warehouse without the say-so of the Chief Customs Officer, whom Marcellus referred to as an Officiouse Tubbe of Malice, and the Officiouse Tubbe never did give the say-so."
"So this was Drago Mills's warehouse?" said Nicko.
"You've got it, Nicko. Warehouse Number Nine. Even more junk has been added over the years, of course, but at the core of it is Drago's hoard. And somewhere, hidden away under all this stuff, there is a Glass that should take you through Time - one hundred and sixty-nine days after Septimus arrived."
There was silence as Nicko, Jenna and Snorri took this in.
"We have to find it," said Jenna. "It must be here somewhere. Come on, Uncle Alther."
Alther groaned. "Give an old ghost a rest, Princess; I still feel like the inside of a carpet sweeper. Just a few more minutes and then I'll get back to it. Aha ... that dragon of yours is stirring. I'd see to it quickly if I were you. And you might want to take a shovel with you from that pile of old garden tools over there."
A pungent smell filled the air. "Oh, Spit Fyre!" Jenna protested.
Ten minutes later, a large pile of dragon droppings was steaming outside Warehouse Number Nine, and Spit Fyre was gulping his way through a barrel of sausages that Jenna had bought from a passing cart on its way to market. The dragon downed the last sausage, sucked up the contents of a bucket of water that Nicko had fetched and snorted, sending a great lump of dragon spit slamming into a pile of novelty fake brass candlesticks and melting the paint off them.
Spit Fyre was content - a fire stomach full of bones, a food stomach full of sausages. Now he just had to complete the Seek. With a purposeful air, the dragon thumped his tail down, sending a great cloud of