that it was not to the Marram Marshes.
Ephaniah Grebe took out a piece of paper and read Beetle's writing with some difficulty. "'The blue arched door, Top Turret, Echo End, The Ramblings,'" he read.
Stanley breathed a sigh of relief. "And the message is?"
"'Dear Mum,'" said Ephaniah, a little self-consciously. "'I have been called away on urgent business but will be back soon. There is some money hidden in the old jar in the window seat. Please don't worry. Love, Beetle xxx.'"
Stanley wrote the message in the Message Ledger with a happy flourish. He could remember that.
Short and sweet, that's how he liked them.
"It's urgent," said Ephaniah. "As soon as you can, please."
Stanley sighed. All the frustrations of his Message Rat days were coming back to him. It was always urgent in his experience. No one ever thought ahead. No one ever said, "I'd like to send a message in three days time, please. Just fit me in when it is most convenient for your schedule." But a customer was a customer, and at least it meant some money coming in. Stanley made a big show of flicking through the Pricing Schedules, even though he knew perfectly well that The Ramblings was in Price Zone One.
"Now, let me see...that will be one penny outward message. Two pence for the rat to wait for a reply.
Three pence for next-day reply collection. Terms are strictly cash, payment in advance."
"The message is sent on behalf of Princess Jenna," said Ephaniah Grebe. "I understand she has a special introductory offer - free messages for a year."
"Only for those messages originating from the Palace and placed in person," said Stanley briskly. "For all others normal rates apply. Now, is it outward only or return?"
Ephaniah Grebe left the East Gate Lookout Tower three pence poorer - he had also sent two other messages, one to Sarah Heap and one to Marcia Overstrand - but underneath his rat whiskers was a happy smile. Leaving his face unswaddled and his rat nose free to sniff the night air, he took the wide path that ran along the top of the Castle walls and walked slowly back to the Manuscriptorium. He enjoyed the feeling of his sensitive tail trailing behind him as it was meant to do, touching the cool stones and balancing his upright gait. Sometimes it was a relief to be true to his real rat nature.
As Ephaniah wandered along the Walls - as he sometimes did when the confines of the Manuscriptorium basement became too much for him - he gazed down at the roofs of the little houses tucked in tight against the old stones. He saw the candles in their attic windows burning bright into the night, and inside the tiny rooms with their sloping ceilings Ephaniah saw people - fully human people with no trace of rat in them - going about their business. Whether they were sewing by the fireside, clearing away a meager supper, feeding a baby or just fast asleep in a comfortable chair, all were unaware that outside their very windows a shy half man, half rat, was wandering by, looking at a life he might have had.
Ephaniah shook off his sad thoughts as a rat will shake off a well-aimed bucket of dirty water and strode briskly on. As the tinny chimes of midnight drifted up from the Drapers' Court clock he arrived at the top of the flight of steps that led down to the Manuscriptorium. He stopped and took a last look at the broad sweep of the Castle below him before he descended once more into his bright basement. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The moon was riding high in the sky, casting its cool, white light across the rooftops and sending long shadows down the streets far below. A myriad of pinpoint candlelights glittered across the vast expanse of the Castle, in a way that Ephaniah had never seen before. Puzzled, Ephaniah stood for a moment wondering why he could see so many candles - and then he realized. The bright, Magykal purple and golden lights that lit up the Wizard Tower every night were gone. It was as if the Tower were no longer there. But as Ephaniah stared into the darkness he could just about make out the outline of the Tower against the moonlit clouds.
But not a flicker of light came from it - the Wizard Tower was under Siege.
Chapter 28 THE QUESTING BOAT
M arcia was stumbling around the Wizard Tower, unable to