Physik (Septimus Heap #3) 0

Later that afternoon, Jenna sat wrapped in a damp bedspread on Princess Esmeralda's lumpy bed. Beside her were the remains of a large pie, crusty bread, cheese, apples, cake and milk that the Knight of the Day, true to his word, had the Cooke bring to her. She had lit the small candle beside the bed, and as she sat warming her hands over the feeble candle flame, she heard a faint knocking on the wooden paneling of the room. The sound came and went in bursts, sometimes frenzied, sometimes weary and despairing. The hairs on the back of Jenna's neck rose: It was the little Princesses and they were still alive.

Jenna knew she shouldn't, but somehow she could not help but put her ear to the panel where the knocking was coming from. To her dismay she was sure she could hear the faint snuffling, hiccupping sounds of exhausted sobbing - children's sobbing. It was too much. Jenna ran to the door and hammered loudly with her fists, calling out, "Sir Hereward, Sir Hereward! They're here. I can hear them - we've got to get them out! Oh, Sir Hereward, please, find someone to help!"

To Jenna's surprise, the ghost Passed Through the bedroom doors. Sir Hereward did notPass Through doors for many people, but sometimes it had to be done. He stood next to Jenna, shaking his head to get rid of the unpleasant sensation of being full of wood.

"Princess," said the knight, leaning on his sword and regarding Jenna with a puzzled air, "forgive my confusion but it seemeth to my poor brain that though thou art most assuredly a Royal Princess, thou art not the poor Princess Esmeralda, e'en though thou hast her looks to a strange degree."

Jenna nodded. She knew she could trust Sir Hereward but she was not sure if he would understand what she was about to tell him. "I am Princess Jenna," she said very quietly, just in case anyone was listening. "I have come from a Time in the future..." She trailed off, unsure if Sir Hereward would understand what she meant.

The old knight was quicker than Jenna expected. "Ah, so thy speech is that from times yet to come," Sir Hereward mused. " 'Tis a strange sound to be sure, so quick and sharp to the eare, like the rattling of a bird's beake upon the bars of its cage. What a cacophony must sound through your Palace, Princess Jenna."

Jenna was about to say that her Palace was quiet and empty compared with this one when the knocking inside the wall started up again. "Th-there it is," she whispered.

" 'Tis the poor baby Princesses, Princess Jenna." Sir Hereward sighed mournfully.

"But we have to get them out before they suffocate," said Jenna, frustrated by Sir Hereward's lack of action.

"They are already suffocated," murmured Sir Hereward, staring at his rusty feet.

"But - "

" 'Tis their UnQuiet Spirits that you do hear, Princess. As indeed didst poor Esmeralda. Perchance, if I had known the true nature of our Queen ... I might have saved the Babes."

"But they were her daughters!" said Jenna. "How could she..."

"Methinks it was for the very reason that they were her daughters," said Sir Hereward gravely. "I didst hear something most strange ... but I dare not believe it to be so." The ghost shook his head as if to clear the thought away.

"What? What don't you believe?" asked Jenna. And then realizing that the way she spoke must sound almost rude to the knight, she added a little self-consciously, "Pray, tell me, if you will, Sir Hereward, what it is thou darest not believe."

Sir Hereward smiled. "Why," he said, "now thou seemest e'en more like Princess Esmeralda." Jenna was not sure if this was a particularly good - or safe - thing to seem like, but she took it as a compliment.

"It is said the Queen doth seek eternal life upon this Earth. That, indeed, she is close enough to it that she desireth no heirs, for she will hold the Queenship forever more." Sir Hereward heaved a sigh. "So it seemeth that throughout eternity our Queen will ever be Queen Etheldredda."

"No, she won't!" cried Jenna.

Sir Hereward looked at Jenna with a faint ray of hope in his eyes. "Will she not, fair Jenna? Methinks to make certain of such a thing, thou must escape thy many-times-great-grand-mama," he said, "for thou art no safer here than the little Princesses and poore Esmeralda were. I am but a ghost but even a ghost may Cause a lock to open." Sir Hereward placed his only hand with its battered and rusty gauntlet on the door. After some minutes, and a great deal of huffing and puffing from the old ghost, Jenna heard the lock click open.

"Thou art free, fair Jenna. Fare thee well. I trust we will meet again."

"We will, Sir Hereward," said Jenna.

Jenna was free, but she knew she would never truly be free until she found Septimus. She decided to head for Wizard Way; there was a saying in the Castle that if you stood under the Great Arch long enough, all who lived in the Castle would pass by. It was as good a place as any to start looking, and the sooner she got there the better. With a wave to Sir Hereward - who raised his arm in a respectful salute - she set off.

The Palace corridors were bright and busy, much to Jenna's surprise. She was used to the night being dark. In her Palace the night was lit only by a few candles, for Sarah Heap found it hard to leave her frugal habits behind. The candles were placed at long enough intervals from one another to provide plenty of deep shadows in which a fugitive Princess could hide. But this Palace was a different matter; Bertie Smalls, the Royal CandleTrimmer saw to that. Bertie, a tall thin man, waxen pale with a mop of flame-red hair, patrolled the nighttime corridors with great dedication. It was a matter of honor for Bertie that not one candle ever went out under his guardianship.

Although Jenna was tempted to take one of the myriad shortcuts and servants' passageways through the Palace, she decided it would be too risky, for a Princess would never dream of using them and she would quickly be noticed. Jenna decided that she would have to brazen it out; after all, who was to know that Queen Etheldredda had made a prisoner of her? And so, head held high, hoping that people would assume that Princess Esmeralda had a perfect right to walk the Palace corridors, Jenna set off.

She made good progress, and was even beginning to enjoy people curtseying and bowing to her and the excited whispers that followed in her wake, when she had the misfortune to see the Knight of the Day coming toward her. The good-natured knight smiled and bowed, and then to his horror remembered that he had been told to keep Princess Esmeralda locked in her room. With a sudden vision of his head stuck on the North Gate gatepost, the Knight of the Day stepped in front of Jenna to bar her way.

"Prithee, Princess Esmeralda, allow me to escort thee to your Chamber before thy deare Mama doth - "

"Sorry," muttered Jenna, "I've got to go." She ducked under the Knight of the Day's outstretched arm and ran.

Faced with what he was sure was a straight choice between letting Jenna go and keeping his head, the Knight of the Day chose his head. He chased after her, shouting out to passing servants and officials for help. Soon Jenna was being pursued by a long and ever-growing line of servants. Now was the time to use those shortcuts. Jenna ped behind a thick brocade curtain, which still hung, although in tatters, in her own Palace. She dashed down a short flight of steps, along a three-cornered passageway, threw herself inside a small doorway and stopped by a flight of spiral steps to catch her breath and listen for her pursuers. The great clattering of feet along the three-cornered passageway told her she had not escaped them.

Jenna knew what she had to do. She rushed up the steps, her legs burning with the effort, and hurtled across the small landing at the top, all the while fumbling to unclip the large emerald and gold key from her belt. Behind her, the thud of heavy boots on the steps made her hand tremble as she placed her key in the central keyhole of the emerald and gold door to the Queen's Room. Her pursuers arrived just in time to see the Princess apparently walk through a solid wall. A great cry of amazement came from the overcrowded landing.