A bored Thing slowly chewed the tops of its fingers, pulling at long bits of skin with its blackened teeth. It glared at its Master - a waste of space in the opinion of the Thing - and cursed its ill fortune at having been Engendered for such a fool. Its Master, blissfully unaware of the waves of loathing coming his way, was also busy chewing.
Merrin was leaning nonchalantly against the old clock tower opposite the Palace, eating a licorice snake, enjoying his first ever taste of a sweet. After his contretemps with Beetle in the Manuscriptorium, Merrin had wandered back through The Ramblings and had discovered Ma Custard's All-Day-All-Night Sweet Shop, tucked away on the far side of the Castle down Sugar Cone Cut beside the Old Dock. While the Thing and its sack of bones had loitered outside, creating an oppresive haze that put off other customers, Merrin had spent ages gazing at all the sweets. Ma Custard, who was used to people dithering for hours between lemon lumps and ferocious fizzes, had let him linger. Eventually Merrin had chosen the licorice snake because it reminded him of the black snake that Simon Heap kept, and Merrin had always wondered what snake tasted like.
Merrin savored his last sticky mouthful of licorice. He stared up at the windows that ran the length of the Palace - a long, low, mellow old building - and began to count them. It was then that the idea came to him. Why waste his money on renting a room? Just think how many licorice snakes he could buy with a whole week's rent. Anyway, he belonged in the Castle - it was his right to live anywhere he wanted. So there. And where better than the Palace? Merrin swallowed the snake's tail with a decisive gulp. Problem solved.
Merrin was good at finding ways into places - especially places he should not go. So it was easy for him to sneak unnoticed along the narrow high-walled alleyway that led around the outside of the Palace grounds to the small door in the wall of the Palace kitchen garden. The door was open as usual. Sarah Heap liked to leave it open so her friend Sally Mullin could drop by and have a midmorning chat before she got back to the lunchtime rush in her cafe.
Although Merrin planned to one day have the entire Palace at his disposal - just as DomDaniel's deputy, the Supreme Custodian, once had - for now things were, regrettably, a little different. Closely followed by the Thing, he slipped in through the open door and found himself in the kitchen garden.
Merrin liked the kitchen garden; it appealed to his sense of order. It was the one place where Sarah Heap was tidy. The garden was bounded on all sides by a high redbrick wall. It was neatly laid out with close-mown grass paths running between well-tended beds where Sarah was in the process of planting early lettuce, peas, beans and all kinds of vegetables that Merrin did not even recognize, let alone dream of eating. The paths all led to a large well in the center of the garden, where Sarah drew the water for her plants. At the far end of the garden was a low brick arch, which Merrin could see led into a covered way.
Keeping close to the wall, Merrin carefully walked the grass paths, resisting the urge to count the newly sewn lettuce seedlings. As he got near the arch, he could not believe his luck. At the end of the covered way was a half open door that led straight into the Palace. His new home beckoned.
It was then that Merrin felt something breathing down his neck. He had had the feeling of being followed for a while. He had felt it outside the Grateful Turbot, again when he had come out of the Manuscriptorium and particularly outside Ma Custard's - something had been Waiting for him, but every time he had turned around he had seen nothing. But now Merrin was sure. He spun around and caught the Thing unawares.
"Got you!" he yelled and then clapped his hand over his mouth in horror. Someone would hear.
Merrin and the Thing froze, staring at each other, listening for footsteps. None came.
"You stupid Thing, I told you to look for my cloak," hissed Merrin. "What are you doing here?"
"I am come to help you, Master," the Thing replied in a low, mournful whisper.
"Just you?" asked Merrin suspiciously.
"Just me, Master," replied the Thing dolefully.
Merrin felt relieved. "Well, you can wait outside. I'm not having you tiptoeing behind me in the Palace - ohcrumbswhydidyoubringthose?" Merrin had caught sight of the sack of bones.
"For yoooooou, Master," said the Thing in its low, insinuating voice.
Merrin stared at the Thing. He hated the way he could not quite see the Thing's expression; it made him think it was mocking him. But Merrin knew that, whatever the Thing might think, it had to obey him. "I don't want those disgusting bones," he told the Thing. "You can..." Merrin cast around for somewhere to put them. His eyes lighted on the well. "You can chuck them down the well."
The Thing looked horrified but all Merrin saw was a faint flash of red from the lizard eyes. Leaving the Thing staring at its precious sack of bones in disbelief, Merrin slipped through the arch and crept along the covered way. He flitted from pillar to pillar until he had reached the half open door. The door looked as if it could have a nasty squeak, so he squeezed through the gap into the cool, musty shade of the old building. And there he was - inside the Palace.
Not long after, Sarah Heap came into the garden through a small gate near the old kitchens. She still wore Jannit's battered sailor's boater. Sarah rather liked it, as it made her feel quite jaunty and carefree, which was something she had not felt for some time. But as she walked past the well on her way to her greenhouse to collect the seedlings for that day's planting, a horrible feeling of gloom came over her. She stopped in her tracks - something Darke was by the well.
Sarah Heap had not been interested in Magyk for many years. She had trained as a healer and thought she had left Magyk far behind her. But she still had the telltale Magykal green eyes and knew quite enough to do a See. So when, to her horror, Sarah Saw the Thing perched on the edge of her well - her beautiful clean, clear, pure well - with a sack of something Darke, all Sarah's Magyk came flooding back to her. She looked the Thing in the eye - as much as that was possible with its flickering, evasive eyes - and chanted very slowly:
"Pure and clean this well shall stay
Shielded from Darke for a year and a day."
The Thing glared angrily at Sarah, but there was nothing it could do. It heaved the sack of bones over its shoulder and sloped off. Sarah waited until the Thing had left the kitchen garden, then the awfulness of what she had seen suddenly overcame her and she ran, trembling, back inside to sit with Ethel.
The Thing waited until Sarah had disappeared into the Palace, then returned to the kitchen garden.
Unable now to put the bones where it had been instructed it chose instead the garden shed, where it carefully placed the sack among the piles of flowerpots and general garden clutter. Then the Thing loped up to the half-open door that led into the Palace and folded itself deep into a leafy bush to wait for its Master's eventual exit.
The Palace was not what Merrin had expected. It smelled funny - damp and old with musty cooking smells lurking in the corners. And as Merrin's eyes got used to the dimness, he could see it didn't look that great either. The plaster on the walls was cracked and crumbling and where he had brushed against it there was white dust all over his black cloak. Ahead of him was a seemingly endless stone-flagged corridor, known as the Long Walk. It was as wide as a small road, with a threadbare red carpet running along the middle. Warily, Merrin set off. Every few yards a door opened off the corridor and at first he stopped at each one, half expecting someone to come out. But now the Palace was occupied only by Sarah, Silas and Jenna Heap - and Maxie, the wolfhound. Employing staff did not come naturally to Sarah; she preferred to do things herself. That morning the few Palace servants Sarah had taken on were elsewhere - the Cook was in the kitchens chatting to the Cleaner, the WashingUp Boy was dozing in the pantry and the HouseKeeper had a bad cold and had stayed home.
Soon Merrin realized that the place was deserted and he became braver. He wandered along, poking at the strange array of objects displayed along the Long Walk. There were statues of all shapes and sizes - of animals, people and the kind of weird creatures that Merrin often had bad dreams about.
There were tall vases, stuffed tigers, an ancient chariot, petrified trees, shrunken heads, ships'
figureheads and all kinds of clutter. Hanging on the walls were ancient portraits of long-dead Queens and Princesses and as Merrin glanced up at them he was sure their eyes followed him. He half expected one of them to reach out, tap him on the shoulder and ask him what he was doing.
But they didn't. No one did.
After a while Merrin came across a tattered and faded red velvet curtain that was looped back, beyond which he could see a steep and narrow flight of stairs twisting up into darkness. This was more like it.
He wanted a room right at the top of the Palace - somewhere where he could hide away, make his plans and look down on all the comings and goings. Quickly Merrin slipped past the curtain. Soon he was tiptoeing up the creaky stairs, past damp and peeling wallpaper, pushing through long, looping cobwebs and once - to his horror - having his foot disappear through a patch of rotten wood into the empty space below.
At the top of the stairs Merrin negotiated a landing piled high with old empty chests, then up two more flights of stairs, until at last he reached the tangle of tiny attic rooms that ran the length of the Palace. This was where, back when the Palace had been full of servants and courtiers, the more important servants had lived, but now the rooms lay empty and forlorn, inhabited by only a few of the less sociable ghosts of governesses, ladies' maids and footmen. Most Palace ghosts preferred the lower floors, where there was a chance to meet old friends, talk about how things were so much better in the old days and maybe catch a glimpse of the Living Princess if they were lucky.
Merrin chose one of the governess's rooms at the front. It was small, but there was a bed, a table, a small closet and a fireplace that still bore the dusty remains of the last fire in the grate. The room had a mournful atmosphere, helped along by the faded rose-covered wallpaper, but it suited Merrin, who noticed neither.
Merrin, however, did not suit the occupant of the room. The governess, who was wearing the long gray dress with a red stripe around the hem that all governesses to the Princesses used to wear, leaped to her feet. With a look of horror she watched Merrin walking around her precious, private space as if he owned the place. Twice he nearly Passed Through her foot - which was not surprising as she wore the long, pointy shoes fashionable in her Time. By the time Merrin had sat down on her bed, testing the springs by bouncing like a naughty three-year-old, the governess was in great distress. With a rush of freezing air, she fled from the room, leaving him wondering why the door had suddenly slammed shut.
Merrin took off his backpack and one by one he laid his precious possessions on the small table underneath the little dormer window in descending order of size. He then changed his mind and laid them out alphabetically and - finally - in order of importance. It took a while but eventually from left to right there was:
1 dog-eared book titled: The Darke Index by T.F.F. (Deceased) 1 small, square ebony box inscribed Sleuth
1 Magog claw
1 bottle of flies (mostly dead)
Small tub of Wurm Slime
1 pair of pajamas
1 toothbrush
1 bar of soap
Everything in order, Merrin rubbed the grime from the inside of the little window in his attic room and peered out through the smeared circle. It was a great view - all the way down the old Ceremonial Way. The Ceremonial Way was deserted, as usual, but to the left he could see the Wizard Way, the wind sending the cloaks and hats flapping and flying of those who were scurrying along trying to stay in the shelter of the low, yellow stone buildings. And almost at the end of the Way, on the left, Merrin could just make out the purple door of the Manuscriptorium. And outside the door was that Septimus Heap boy - the bright green Apprentice tunic gave him away.
Merrin could hardly believe that a chance to continue the Darkening had happened so soon - and so easily. Quickly he opened The Darke Index, found the page and began the next stage of Darkening the Destiny of AnOther. He fixed Septimus in his gaze and positioned his thumb so that the left-hand face of the ring was looking out the window. Then he began to chant a long, slow incantation under his breath. Merrin saw Septimus stop, look back and then glance down at his shoe as if he had stepped in something. Merrin chuckled to himself. That Septimus Heap boy had no idea what was going on - no idea at all. Merrin was getting good at this Darke stuff. And he was going to get a lot better.
An amazing feeling of power suddenly swept over Merrin and he laughed out loud. He was the Possessor of the Two-Faced Ring - he was indestructible. For the first time in his life he felt important.
But what, right then, felt best of all was the fact that he had his own place, and no one knew where to find him. No one could come and drag him from his bed and demand that he learn his lessons or eat up his cabbage sandwich. He could stay in bed all day if he wanted to. In fact, he might just lie down for a bit now. He had not slept well at the Grateful Turbot; the bed had been lumpy and he had heard the sound of someone else breathing in the room. And the night before that he had hardly slept at all.
Merrin yawned. There was a letter he was planning to write, but he'd do it later. He lay down on the governess's equally lumpy bed and fell fast asleep.
Merrin woke groggy and in a panic, unsure of the time. He looked out of the window. There was a large clock on the tower above the clock repair shop at the end of Wizard Way, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was all right. He had half an hour until his interview. Quickly, he stuffed The Darke Index into his pocket, strode across the little room and pulled at the door. It was jammed. Merrin pulled again, harder. It was stuck fast.
Twenty-five minutes later and in a total panic, Merrin desperately gave one last, enormous heave on the door. It flew open and sent him hurtling back across the room. Bruised, he picked himself up and rushed out.
Not caring who heard or saw him, Merrin flew down the stairs. He was determined not to mess up this chance. He would get there on time, whatever it took. And whoever got in his way had better look out.
