Angie Sage_Septimus Heap_05 by Syren

Author:Syren
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Angie Sage, Septimus Heap, Syren, Created by pisces_abhi @ ebookdownloadsforfree.blogspot.com
ISBN: 9780606153942
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Published: 2009-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

27

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

T he following morning a long way from the Wizard Tower a black boat with dark red sails approached the CattRokk Lighthouse. It went unnoticed by anyone except the lighthouse keeper, who watched it with a sense of dread.

“We’re nearly there. You can come out now.” Jakey Fry’s head appeared like a bizarre lightbulb dangling from the hatch above. A brilliant strip of sunlight glanced down like a dagger, and Lucy Gringe and Wolf Boy blinked. They had not seen sunlight for what felt like years, though it was actually a little over three days. They had, it is true, seen some light in the form of the candle that Jakey Fry had brought down each evening when he came to give them their meager supper of fish—oh, how Lucy hated fish—and to play cards with them, but only according to the Jakey Fry Rule Book, which basically meant that whatever happened, Jakey Fry won.

“Hurry up! Pa says now,” hissed Jakey. “Get yer stuff together and make it sharp.”

“We don’t have any stuff,” said Lucy, who had a tendency to get picky when irritable.

“Well, make it sharp then.”

A bellow came from the deck, and Jakey’s head disappeared. Lucy and Wolf Boy heard him call, “Aye, Pa, they’re coming. Aye, right now. Pronto!” He stuck his head down once more. He looked scared. “Get up that ladder or we’ll all be fer it.”

As the Marauder pitched and rolled in the waves, Lucy and Wolf Boy stumbled up the ladder and crawled onto the deck. They breathed in the fresh sea air in wonder—how was it possible that air could smell so good? And the light—how could it possibly be so bright? Lucy shaded her eyes and looked around, trying to get her bearings. She gasped.

Rearing into the brilliant blue sky was a massive black column of a lighthouse, which seemed to grow from the rocks like an enormous tree trunk. Its foundation was rock, which gradually gave way to huge chunks of pitted granite covered in thick tar and encrusted with barnacles. As the lighthouse rose toward the sky, the granite was replaced by tar-covered bricks. Lucy, who was always fascinated by how things were made, wondered how anyone could possibly have built such a huge tower with the sea forever crashing about them. But it was the very top of the lighthouse that fascinated Lucy the most: It looked like the head of a cat. There were two brick-built triangles that looked to Lucy like ears and, strangest of all, there were two almond-shaped windows for eyes; from these came two beams of light so bright that Lucy could actually see them in the sunlight.

With a stomach-churning lurch, the Marauder dropped into a trough of a wave, the sun was blotted out by the lighthouse and a chill shadow fell across them. Next the swell took them so high that Lucy was looking straight at the seaweed-covered base of the lighthouse. Then the Marauder dropped like a stone into a trough of boiling water—and all the time the boat was rolling from side to side.

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