Authors: Angie Sage
PathFinder (38 page)
As autumn turned to winter, the final PathFinder house was rebuilt and Tod knew at last what she wanted to do. One day, Tod brought two invitations to the village – one for the Sarn family and one for Dan. They read:
The Wizard Tower
On MidWinter Feast Day
The ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Septimus Heap,
Invites You to the Apprentice Supper
In Honour of His Apprentice,
Alice TodHunter Moon.
Dan put the invitation in pride of place on the shelf above the fire. He turned to Tod with tears in his eyes. “Your mother would have been so proud,” he said.
It was after the Apprentice Supper, when Tod, Ferdie and Oskar were on Snake Slipway looking out over the frozen Moat, that Tod said, “We mustn’t let it happen again. Not to our village. Not here. Not
anywhere
.”
Oskar and Ferdie knew exactly what Tod meant. “But it might,” Ferdie said. “That sorcerer has the Egg now.”
“I know,” Tod said. “Which is why we are going to get it back.”
“But how?” Ferdie and Oskar said together.
Tod gazed up at the moon, imagining that somewhere in the world the moon might be looking down on the Egg of the Orm right then. “I don’t know,” she said. “We’ll do it somehow. And whatever we do, we’ll do it together. Us three.”
Oskar grinned. “Tribe of Three,” he said, holding up the first three fingers on his right hand. “PathFinder sign.”
Tod and Ferdie did the same. “Tribe of Three.”
“Cool,” said Oskar, who had already picked up Castle slang.
Tod was right about the moon. That moment, in a distant land, it was shining down on an ancient frozen quay – deserted apart from a figure carrying a large, egg-shaped, blue silk sack. As the snow swirled, the figure watched a beautiful ship with
Tristan
emblazoned on its prow sail towards him. Far above him hovered a green dragon, watching him as it had done for many long weeks. Oraton-Marr looked up. “Go
away
, will you!” he screamed.
“Get lost!”
But just as the dragon had taken no notice of a young Queen shouting at him, he took no notice of a
Darke
old sorcerer, either. The dragon had an Orm Egg to look out for. Orms were family. And family was what mattered, whether you were a dragon, an Orm or just a funny little human being.
Angie Sage
is the bestselling author of the delightfully witty
Araminta Spook
series and the masterful
Septimus Heap
books. She lives in a fifteenth-century house in Somerset and has two grown-up daughters.
Featuring
Septimus Heap
(in reading order)
Magyk
Flyte
Physik
Queste
Syren
Darke
Fyre
The Magykal Papers
Featuring
Araminta Spook
My Haunted House
The Sword in the Grotto
Frognapped
Vampire Brat
Ghostsitters
Gargoyle Hall
Look out for more titles coming soon!
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in October 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the USA in October 2014 by HarperCollins Children’s Books,
a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © Angie Sage 2014
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781408858165
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