Septimus glanced at Marcia in surprise. That seemed a little drastic, he thought.
“Very well, Madam Marcia,” whispered Thomasinn. And then, “Shall I watch your backpack, Apprentice?”
“Oh—thank you.” Septimus shrugged off his backpack and it fell to the floor.
“Ouch!” gasped Thomasinn. “My foot!”
“Shhh!” shushed Marcia.
“Oh, gosh. I’m so sorry,” Septimus apologized.
“Really, Thomasinn, it’s only a little backpack,” said Marcia. “Come along, Septimus.”
Marcia held her hands out about an inch above the shimmering Seal, concentrating hard. Suddenly, she pushed her hands through and pulled them rapidly apart, unzipping the Seal as she did so, to reveal a narrow silver door.
Marcia pushed the door open and squeezed through, “Come on, Septimus. Quickly.”
Septimus slipped inside and Marcia closed the door with a soft ker-lunk. She pressed her hand onto its smooth surface and a temporary Seal flashed across like purple lightning. Then she took a lamp from a hook beside the door, Lit it and set off. Septimus followed. Lamp held high, Marcia walked along the sloping brick-lined tunnel that snaked down to the Sealed Cell, which was buried in the bedrock below the Wizard Tower. They walked quickly, the sound of their footsteps absorbed by the thin clouds of Magyk hanging around the tunnel. Every seven yards, Septimus saw a small door set into the tunnel wall, beyond which he knew was a chamber used for storing all manner of potentially troublesome objects. Septimus was excited. He knew how the Sealed Cell worked and he had even, in the first year of his Apprenticeship, made a small model of it, but he had never actually been to the end of the tunnel and seen it—let alone been inside.
The Sealed Cell was the most secure place in the Wizard Tower. It was used for imprisoning the most dangerous and powerful Magykal objects, entities, Spells and Charms. Its last occupant had been Septimus’s jinnee, Jim Knee, securely confined until he had agreed to do Marcia’s bidding. But now it was the Two-Faced Ring that languished behind the tiny door to the Sealed Cell at the very end of the tunnel.
For more effective use of the Sealing Magyk, this door was only three feet high and even narrower than the entrance door. Not all previous ExtraOrdinary Wizards had actually been able to fit through it—DomDaniel himself had once got stuck, much to his then-Apprentice’s amusement (a memory that Alther still cherished). What the door lacked in height and width, it made up for in thickness. It was, like the great doors into the Wizard Tower, made from solid silver, which shone through the misty purple haze of the Seal that encased the door.
Marcia placed her lamp on a small shelf beside the door; then she put her hand into the purple and with a deft flick of her wrist she broke the Seal. She took three small silver keys from her ExtraOrdinary Wizard belt and placed them in three keyholes: one at the top of the door, one at the foot and one in the middle. Marcia turned the middle key and Septimus heard three old-fashioned barrel locks rotate in unison. The door swung open with a small squeak.
Marcia lifted off the long pair of Protected forceps (known as the Bargepoles) that hung on a hook beside the door, picked up her lamp and squeezed through the narrow opening into the cell. Septimus quickly followed.
With the door closed the lamplight turned the dark space—which was lined in two-inch-thick solid silver—into a sparkling, shining jewel. But its brilliance did not disguise the fact that the Sealed Cell was tiny. Septimus felt sorry for Jim Knee, although it was, he supposed, better than the inside of a silver bottle. In fact, it felt not unlike being inside a very big silver bottle, for the shining walls were molded to the rounded contours of the end of the tunnel.
Set into the curved wall was a wide shelf, in the middle of which was the container that held the Two-Faced Ring: the Bound Box. It was a small black box made of layers of ebony interleaved with silver and secured with silver bands. Holding the Bargepoles in front of her, Marcia advanced upon the box rather as one might approach a small but deadly snake. Suddenly she gasped and said a very rude word. “Oops. Shouldn’t have said that. Look at this, Septimus.”
Septimus peered over Marcia’s shoulder. Erupting through the Bound Box like a nasty green boil was the Two-Faced Ring. Marcia pounced. Striking at the ring like a mongoose, she stabbed the Bargepoles into the boil-on-the-box and held them up triumphantly.
“Got it!”
At the end of Marcia’s forceps the Two-Faced Ring glittered angrily, its evil green faces glaring at them. Septimus looked away. He felt as though the faces could actually see him.
“I’m glad they’re not real,” he said with a shiver. The Sealed Cell’s peculiar echo whispered his words back to him.
Real real real.
Marcia flipped open the box and dropped the ring back in. Septimus imagined he could hear a stream of curses as the metal hit the wood. Marcia slammed the lid closed and began securing the bands around the box.
“They will be soon at this rate,” she said grimly. “Marcellus will have to get a move on.”
Move on move on move on.
Septimus was shocked. “You mean those two Wizards might actually come to life?”
Life life life.
Marcia put her fingers to her lips to shush him. She muttered a new Lock for the box. “Let’s go,” she said.
Go go go.
Septimus was more than happy to agree. He clambered out and waited for Marcia while she backed awkwardly out the narrow doorway, then slammed the door shut with a satisfying thunk and hung up the Bargepoles.
Back in the lobby, Marcia looked quite pale. “Madam Marcia, are you all right?” asked Thomasinn.
Marcia nodded. “Fine.” But her hands were trembling as she Sealed the door to the tunnel.
Marcia was angry with herself. She realized she had delayed opening the Great Chamber of Alchemie dangerously long. Like all Wizards, Marcia had sworn an oath at her induction to “abjure all things Alchemical” and she took it seriously. It had been a difficult decision to allow Marcellus to light the Fyre once more in order to DeNature the Two-Faced Ring, and even though she knew it was the only way to destroy the ring, the lighting of the Fyre frightened her and she had hesitated to begin. It was a huge step for a Wizard to take and before the Chamber was opened, Marcia had wanted to understand what she was doing. However, the more she tried to find out about the Fyre, the less she understood. Nothing quite made sense. So many documents were missing, so much seemed to have been altered and she had been left with an unsettling impression that something was missing—something big. But now, whatever her fears, Marcia knew she could wait no longer.
Septimus shouldered his backpack and walked across the Great Hall with Marcia. “Did you mean that about the two Wizards?” he asked. “Could they really come back to life?”
Marcia sighed. “It is a possibility, that is all. The Darke Domaine has theoretically given it the power, which is why we are keeping it so securely.”
“So . . . could it happen soon?”
“No, no, Septimus. These things take years.”
Septimus felt relieved. “Marcellus won’t take that long to get the Fyre going,” he said.
Hildegarde Pigeon—sub-Wizard, but soon to be an Ordinary Wizard—stepped out from the porters’ cupboard.
“Still on door duty, Hildegarde?” asked Marcia. “I thought you were up at Search and Rescue now.”
Hildegard smiled. “Next month, Madam Marcia. But I enjoy it here. I have a letter for you. Mr. Banda left it this morning.”
“Did he? Well, thank you, Hildegarde.” Septimus thought Marcia went a little pink.
Hildegarde Pigeon handed an impressive envelope with a red-and-gold border to Marcia. Septimus noticed Hildegarde’s delicate blue lace gloves. Hildegarde was self-conscious about her fingertips, which had been damaged when the Thing InHabiting her had chewed them. They reminded Septimus how destructive the Darke was—and how important it was to get rid of the Two-Faced Ring.
The huge silver doors to the Wizard Tower had swung open. Marcia was dallying on the top step, reading Milo’s note. Septimus was impatient to be off.
“Come on, Marcia,” he said.
“Yes, yes. In a moment.”
Septimus set off down the steps. Marcia put the letter carefully in her pocket and followed. “It shouldn’t take too long to open a dusty old door to a chamber,” she said.