Colin Well: The Wizard

Chapter 2―At Knight

        The following morning, Colin followed the same routine. The only exception was getting breakfast. Once the bread stand was set up and Barnaby had left, Colin sat and waited for customers. All the people milling around made Colin dizzy, mostly because he was so tired from last night.
        Colin had sold seven loaves of bread when something caught his eye and washed away the fatigue. Standing on the harbor front was a man in purple. Around his neck, he wore a golden amulet and his belt glinted in the sun. His curly straw-colored hair was a mess and his green eyes were extremely distinguishable among the crowd of people. Colin knew exactly who he was. This man was the ExtraOrdinary Wizard of the Castle. He lived in the top of The Wizard Tower. Colin had read about the ExtraOrdinary position in one of the few books he kept in his chest at home. He recognized the amulet immediately and he'd heard about the current Wizard―Septimus Heap.
        Septimus hurried over to the Harbor and Dock Pie Shop and went in. After a few minutes he came back out with two pies. He sat down on a bench by the docks and began eating one of the pies. Suddenly a woman with dark hair appeared. Colin couldn't understand what they were saying over the chatter of Port people, but he understood that it was important. The woman finished off the other pie and surprising Colin, Septimus pointed to his bread stand and got up. The woman followed him over and when he reached the stand Septimus said, "Hello!"
        "Uh. . .Oh, hi. What do you need?" Colin asked politely.
        "Are you Colin?" the woman asked.
        "Please, Marcia. Let me do the talking," Septimus addressed the woman.
        "I was only trying to help, Septimus," responded Marcia.
        "Anyways. Are you?" Septimus turned to Colin. He nodded in awe that the ExtraOrdinary Wizard knew who he was, "Good. Jenna, The Queen, told me your story. She said you were running from men?" Colin nodded a second time, "Okay. Do you know anything about the ship they were from? The Knight?"
        "No. I was only on the deck for a few seconds," Colin explained.
        "Okay. Thank you. We'll be off now," Septimus said, and he turned around, walking away.
        Colin sat for a few hours, waiting for Eliza to come. Near sunset, Barnaby came back. They packed everything into the bread cart and wheeled it back to their house. Colin began to worry. Eliza always keeps her promise and if she can't she tells you so. After dinner, when Colin went to his room, he had a plan. After his step-dad went to sleep, he was going to sneak out again. Near midnight, Colin opened his bedroom door. He peered down the hallway into the kitchen. Barnaby wasn't at the table, but he could hear loud snoring coming from his room. Colin suppressed a laugh. His step-father sounded like a pig. He pulled the front door open slowly and stepped out onto the front steps.
        Colin was wearing his cloak again. This time, he set out the opposite direction from last night towards Eliza's house. The wind grew cold and a light snow began to fall by the time he had reached her house. He looked up at her window and saw that a candle was sitting in it. Without making any noise, Colin stepped into the side alley under her window. Her window was on the second floor, so he was going to have to climb. Nailed up against their house was a trellis. Vines and creepers had grown all over it, but Colin grabbed it and began to climb. A few times he slipped and almost fell, but finally he reached her window. The candle was still burning, so Colin presumed Eliza was in there. He knocked on the window quietly. The candle was blown out and he saw a figure in the window but he couldn't tell if it was Eliza. Whoever it was opened the window. Eliza's pale face appeared in front of the window.
        "Colin!" she whispered loudly almost making him fall, "What are you doing here?"
        "You didn't come to the bread stand today. I thought something happened," Colin said.
        "Oh. No, my parents found out about me sneaking out last night," said Eliza.
        "I'm sorry. So you can't leave?" asked Colin. She shook her head and sighed.
        "My window is supposed to be locked but I kind of. . .unlocked it." she held up her lock pick.
        Colin laughed quietly, "Okay I was just wondering. Anyways, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard came to see me today."
        "What?" Eliza responded loudly.
        "Shh. Yeah, he wanted to know about the ship from last night. Apparently it's called the Knight," Colin explained, "Queen Jenna told him."
        "Oh. Well, I'd love to investigate, but if my parents found out about me leaving again. . ."
        "Exactly. That's why I'm going back to the Knight tonight."
        "No! We almost died last night. Are you crazy?"
        "I'll be back to tell you all about it. Septimus Heap, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard needed information about it. If I see him again, I'll tell him"
        "Colin, you can't. You just can't."
        "I'm going whether you want me to or not."
        "I can't change your mind, but I can help you. Take this," Eliza handed a small blue rock with black dots. Colin felt something coming from it, but he couldn't describe it, "It's an UnSeen Charm. It'll help you be invisible if you try. Here take this and read over it very carefully."
        Eliza explained how to do the UnSeen. The paper was the incantation. Ten minutes later, Colin was climbing back down the trellis. His feet hit the ground and he looked up at Eliza. He had tried the UnSeen a few times in front of Eliza and it had worked. He waved at her as she closed the window and put the candle back. She lit the candle and moved away from the window. From this moment on, Colin knew he was on his own.
        About thirty minutes later, he reached the end of the long dock. Colin looked up at the black Knight. He read the UnSeen incantation and felt himself become invisible. He focused on it and only that. He found the rope ladder and began climbing. Once he reached the top he hopped on the deck and steadied his senses. Colin looked around. There was no one on the deck but he could hear a soft chatter below deck. He tiptoed over to the captain's cabin, walking by the throne, and tried the door. Luckily, it was unlocked and he went inside. The inside was warm and small. At the back were four long windows that reached to the floor. In the middle of the room was a table covered in papers and maps. On the right wall was a huge painting of another ship with blood red sails. It had a ram and the front and was oddly menacing. On the left wall was a model ship but its sails were broken off. They were set aside on the table it was on.
        Colin walked to the table in the middle of the room and looked at a few of the papers. One was a map of The Port and one was of the Castle. He sifted through the papers and found drawings of people. One of the men had curly hair with braids in it and looked similar to Septimus Heap. Then there was a drawing of Septimus Heap and one of Queen Jenna. And one of Marcia, the woman with Septimus. And a drawing of a man with black hair with the words Chief Hermetic Scribe at the bottom. Once Colin got to looking, all of the drawings had words at the bottom.
        Suddenly, behind him he heard a rattle. Colin looked over in the corner below the model ship and saw a trapdoor. The rattling stopped and everything was quiet except for the soft murmur of people below. He walked over to the trapdoor and gripped the handle. Colin pulled on it and it swung open, revealing stairs that led down into darkness. And he also saw what was rattling it. A fat rat had been pushing on it with its tiny paws. Colin took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.
        The smell of fish and rum overcame him and he almost had to hold his nose. The stairs led deeper into the boat. Colin looked at the walls and realized with a fright that they were covered with slime and moss.
        "Gross," he mumbled as he continued farther into the ship. Ahead of him he saw a landing. Finally he stopped at the landing to catch his breath. Farther down the stairs Colin saw a man was coming. Colin didn't see any other choice so he ducked off the landing onto what looked like a hallway. Hoping that the man wouldn't come this way, but realizing that the only other option was up (which there was no one up there), he held his breath in the shadows. Colin didn't trust his UnSeen Charm enough to walk right in front of someone. The man stopped and turned on the floor Colin was on. He passed so close that Colin could smell the strong stench of fish coming off of him. When the man disappeared through a door at the end of the hallway, Colin let out his breath.
        He listened and realized that the sound of voices was coming from the door that the man had passed through. Colin came out of the shadows and began tiptoeing to the door the man had went through. He pressed his ear against the door and listened.
        "Gregory. You didn't bring any more rum. . ." a drunken voice trailed off.
        "No. I didn't know I was supposed to," another voice right by the door said. Colin presumed that this was the man that had just entered the room.
        "Well, go get some then." another man mumbled.
        Colin didn't find this the least bit interesting so he set off back down the hallway to the stairs. Once he was going down again, he started to wonder who the person was that sat on the throne. The next landing came, and Colin heard a louder chatter. At the very end of the hallway, voices drifted out of the room. He walked to the door, examining it. Above his head was a hole in the door. He stood on his tiptoes and looked in. Surrounding a round table were seven people, all looking conpletely different. One had a beard and looked like powerful, and another had bright orange clothes.
        "They don't know we're coming, Hulu, I've told you," the man with the beard said to the one in orange in a gruff voice, "Those meddling kids didn't see anything last night."
        "You do not know that, Phillip," the man in orange squeaked in a high pitch voice.
        "That's 'Captain' or 'Your Majesty' to you," Phillip said. So this was the man who sat at the throne. Colin thought hard.
        "Like I said, we attack the Castle in precisely one week. There will be no stalling or waiting," The Captain explained.
        "My reinforcements will be here exactly the same day!" exclaimed a woman wrapped in furs.
        "Great, thank you Ida, that has already been presumed because, if you've forgotten, which forgetting is something you are very good at, all reinforcements are coming from the same place." The Captain addressed a large man to his left, "What about you?"
        "My people are readying, and, like you said, they're coming from the same place," the man―whose name was Viktor―said in an accent that Colin had never heard before.
        The rest of the people were addressed by The Captain and they all agreed on their reinforcements coming on the same day. Finally, The Captain nodded and said, "A rein of terror will be brought forth upon all the citizens who live in the Castle. The Wizard Tower and The Palace will be ours!"
        Everyone around the table cheered and Colin stepped back in horror. He had to tell Eliza immediately. He had a plan. Colin ran up the stairs attracting the attention of the drunk men on the first floor. But Colin didn't care. He had to tell Septimus Heap. Colin was going to the Castle.
        Colin launched himself down the rope ladder, missing the last few steps, and slamming into the dock below. He got up, rushing off along the long dock, back to his house. His concentration had broken on his UnSeen so Colin wasn't invisible anymore. The snow had stopped falling now. At the end of the dock, Colin tripped and skinned his knuckle, but he kept going. At last, when he reached his house, he stopped to catch his breath. Silently, he opened the front door and slipped inside. The everlasting smell of bread in the house filled his nose. Colin stopped outside his step-father's room and listened hard. Barnaby was still asleep. Colin pulled open his own bedroom door and went inside. At his bed, he sat down and pulled out his chest. In one of the deep pockets in his jacket, he withdrew a key. With a steady hand, Colin unlocked his chest and looked inside. On the right were all of his clothes stacked up in a neat pile. On the left were two books stacked, one on top of the other. Beside those was Colin's knapsack. He brought it out and untied the flap. His hand moving swiftly, he put all of his clothes into the knapsack. After it was tied and tidy, he stood up, locking the chest, and pushing it back under his bed.
        Colin slipped back out of his room ad ran into the kitchen. The chandelier was still lit, casting shadows along the walls. There, he grabbed three loaves of bread and stuffed them into his knapsack. Now it was full. Colin tiptoed back to his step-father's room and listened again. He was still snoring. As quietly as he could, Colin gently opened the door and looked into the darkness. After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he went into the room. Barnaby had his hand hanging off the side of the bed and his face was in the pillow. Now came the hard part. Colin had to find the money box. He checked under the bed, in the drawers, on shelves, but he couldn't find it. Finally, he saw it. In the mattress, there was a lump under Barnaby. Colin knelt down and looked under the mattress. There, in a leather hide bag, was the money. Careful not to wake his step-father, Colin reached his hand under the mattress and grasped the money pouch. In a quick movement, he pulled out the money pouch. But he didn't do it gently enough. Suddenly, Barnaby sat up, his head facing the opposite wall. Colin slipped under the bed and he could feel his step-father looking in the direction he was standing in moments before. After a few more seconds, he felt his step-father lay down and the snoring resumed.
        Colin took his chance and ran out of the room. Colin stopped in the hallway to make sure the mo ey was in the pouch. Luckily, it was. After he was outside, he set off towards Eliza's house at a jog. When he reached it, he climbed up the trellis again and knocked on her window. After five minutes of knocks, Eliza opened the window.
        "Colin it's almost three o'clock in the morning," mumbled Eliza sleepily, "I was asleep."
        "I went on the Knight and I found out something awful," Colin replied. He told her about the drawings and maps in the captain's cabin. Then he explained the wretched conversation the seven people had about ambushing the Castle.
        "I need you to come with me to the Castle," Colin said as snow began to fall again.
        "W―what?"
        "It's in grave danger, we have to tell Septimus Heap!" Colin responded frantically.
        "Colin is this really what you want? I'll help if you need it," said Eliza.
        "Yes. And thank you. Are you coming with me though?"
        "Of course. I'm not staying here with Andrew." Eliza turned to go back into her room.
        "I'll be waiting at the bottom," Colin said.
        Eliza nodded and Colin jumped back down the trellis. Very soon, Eliza was standing beside him with her cloak on over her coat.
        "I left a note. I packed some clothes, too. I brought a map, because you obviously didn't," she smiled, "I'm ready," Eliza whispered.
        And with that, the two set off in the direction of the Castle.