Marcia bristled.
Larry was treading on dangerous ground, but he clearly did not care. “Get out of my yard!” he yelled. “Or do I have to come over and drag you out?” Larry—or possibly his ladder—wobbled with indignation.
“If you value your safety,” Marcia said icily, “I suggest you do no such thing.”
“Are you threatening me?” Larry demanded. “Because if you are I—”
There was a loud crack of splitting wood and Larry was gone.
“Never trust a ladder,” said Marcia. “Now, let’s get on. I dread to think how close they are.”
One hundred and eighty seconds later the old privy hut had taken on a very different appearance. It was covered with a glowing skin of purple light, which was slowly hardening, like a chrysalis. Septimus watched, enthralled—he had never seen a real Encapsulation. It was a tough piece of Magyk to get right. Septimus had practiced on a few small objects but the Capsules either collapsed like a burst balloon or ended up lumpy like an old potato. But Marcia’s was perfect. It covered the hut evenly and smoothly, and as it hardened it began to lose its purple sheen and turn a delicate blue. Soon the color would leave it and a transparent glasslike substance would cover the entire structure, forming a barrier so impenetrable that not even a ghost would be able to get through.
But until all color was gone, the Capsule could be breached. It was an anxious time. Just in case, Marcia stationed Septimus around the back of the little hut, and she watched the front.
Suddenly a gasp came from behind the hut. “There’s something . . . coming through . . .”
A flash of fear shot through Marcia. She raced around to Septimus in time to see a tall purple ghost pushing itself through the hardening Capsule.
Marcia was extremely relieved. “It’s an old ExtraOrdinary,” she murmured. “How very . . . extraordinary.”
An elegant figure emerged, his cropped gray hair banded by an old-fashioned ExtraOrdinary Wizard headband, his thin features and sharp, beaky nose giving the impression of a gaunt bird of prey.
“Oh,” said Septimus. “It’s Julius Pike!”
“That,” said Marcia, “is extremely good timing.”
As Julius Pike Composed himself after the unpleasant Passing Through of the back of the hut—wondering why someone had decided to put the door on the other side from where it always had been—the Capsule lost its last tint of blue and became completely clear. Marcia smiled. Nothing was going to get out of there now.
Julius bowed to Marcia in the old-fashioned formal style. “ExtraOrdinary,” he said. “Forgive my intrusion in your most excellent Magyk. I am sorry to have interrupted your tutorial.”
“No apologies necessary, I assure you,” said Marcia.
It was a tradition among ExtraOrdinary Wizards that whenever they met an ExtraOrdinary Wizard ghost for the first time (Gatherings did not count) the Living must introduce themselves and, bizarrely, inquire after the health of the ghost. With the immediate threat lifted, Marcia proceeded to introduce herself and then Septimus.
The ghost of Julius Pike stopped her. “No need, ExtraOrdinary, for Septimus and I have met before. In another Time—my Living Time.” The ghost smiled sympathetically at Septimus. “I am very glad to see you safe here, Apprentice. I would like to say that when we met before I was not aware of what had happened to you. I merely assumed you were yet another mildly deranged Alchemie Apprentice.” The ghost turned to Marcia. “Marcellus Pye was, at that time, my very good friend, but even then there were things he did that I could not endorse.”
“Indeed?” said Marcia.
“Kidnapping a boy from another Time was one of them.”
“Quite,” said Marcia. Every word the ghost spoke made her like him more. Marcia remembered her manners. “I trust you are well?” she inquired.
Julius gave the standard reply: “As well as any ghost may be.” The ghost continued, “I have come to warn you”—like everyone who spoke of the Ring Wizards, he dropped his voice to a whisper—“that two most Darke and foul Wizards are, at this very moment, on their way to the Castle through the Bolt. It is extremely fortuitous that you have chosen this very place for your Capsule tutorial.”
“It’s not one little bit fortuitous,” said Marcia. “It is totally deliberate.”
“Ah. So you know. So it is your scorpion following them?”
“It’s mine, actually,” said Septimus.
“Well, well.” Julius was impressed. He turned to Marcia. “ExtraOrdinary, these Darke Wizards are from the Two-Faced Ring, which I know of old. In the early hours of the morning I Felt them heading for the Castle. I have come to warn you.”
