Read Online Septimus Heap 3 - Physik by Angie Sage - Free Book Online Page A

thick patch of sticky Moat weed. In moments, the tendrils of the weed were wrapped around him, and Septimus felt his remaining strength drain away. A dark mist fell in front of his eyes, and Septimus began to lose consciousness; yet, as he did so, he had the strangest sensation of an ice-cold grip on his arm, pulling him up ... up ... up through a dark tunnel toward a bright light.
    “Ouch, Sep—that hurt!” Jenna's voice reached Septimus from the other end of the tunnel. Coughing, spluttering, Septimus gulped frantically for breath.
    “Oh, stop making such a fuss, boy,” an irritable ghostly voice snapped. “Here, Granddaughter, take him now, for I have no wish to be Passed Through yet again—it is most unpleasant. No manners, young Apprentices nowadays.”
    “Sep, Sep, you're okay now,” Jenna's voice whispered in his ear, and Septimus felt as if she was guiding him through the darkness and—at last—into the light.
    “Aaaah!” Septimus suddenly sat bolt upright and took the deepest breath he had ever taken in his life. And then he took another, and another, and another.
    “Sep, Sep, are you okay?” Jenna thumped him on the back. "Can you breathe now?
    Can you?"
    “Aah ... aah ... aah...” Septimus grabbed a few more lungfuls.
    “It's okay, Sep. You're safe here.”
    “Ah...” Septimus focused his eyes and looked around. He was sitting on the floor of a small sitting room at the back of the Palace. It was a cozy room; a fire was burning in the grate and a mass of thick candles burned brightly on the mantel, their wax dripping steadily onto the hearth. The room had once been a favorite of Queen Etheldredda's, who would sit there every afternoon and take a small glass of mead and read morality tales. It was now Sarah Heap's sitting room, where she too sat in the afternoon, except she would drink herb tea and read romantic novels lent to her by her good friend Sally Mullin. Queen Etheldredda did not approve of Sarah Heap's taste in furnishings and she most definitely did not approve of romantic novels. As for the general clutter and untidiness that pervaded the sitting room, Queen Etheldredda considered it a disgrace, but there was little she could do about it yet, for ghosts must put up with the bad habits of the living.
    Queen Etheldredda wore her usual disapproving expression as she looked at the sodden Septimus. He sat in a puddle of muddy Moat water, steaming beside the fire and giving off a dank Moat-water smell. The ghost sat on the only chair that remained in the room from her time as Queen; it was an uncomfortable wooden chair with a straight back that Sarah had been meaning to throw out. Silas had left the remains of a bacon sandwich on it a few days earlier, and Queen Etheldredda was now perched precariously on top of it.
    “I trust you have learned your lesson, young man,” Queen Etheldredda said, fixing Septimus with a severe stare.
    Septimus coughed up some tendrils of slimy Moat weed and spat them out on the rug.
    “Punctuality is a virtue,” pronounced Queen Etheldredda. "Lateness is a vice.
    Farewell." Still remaining in the sitting position, Queen Etheldredda rose a few feet up from the chair. She glanced at the bacon sandwich with a look of horror, and then floated away through the ceiling. Her feet, clad in richly embroidered, extremely pointy shoes, hovered above Jenna and Septimus for two or three moments until, slowly, they faded away.
    “Do you think she's gone now?” Jenna whispered to Septimus after a safe interval had passed. Septimus stood up to get a better look at the ceiling, but the floor came up to meet him with a crash and he found himself lying on Sarah Heap's favorite rag rug. Jenna looked concerned. “You'd better stay here tonight. I'll send a Message Rat over to tell Marcia.”
    Septimus groaned. Marcia. He had forgotten about Marcia until now. “Perhaps you'd better not wake her up, Jen. Anyway you'll be lucky to get a Message Rat. Best tell her in the