Shapeshifting Magyk

7: Trail Lost

        "For goodness' sake, get this wretched boat moving, Nicko," snapped Marcia.
        Nicko looked hurt. "Someone's got to paddle it, then," muttered Nicko. "And it would help if I could see where we're going."
        With some effort, and a consequent increase in snappiness, Marcia cleared a tunnel through the Fog. Silas kept quiet. He knew that Marcia was having to use a huge amount of Magyk energy and skill, and he felt a grudging respect for her. There was no way Silas would ever dare attempt a Projection, let alone keep a massive Fog going at the same time. He had to hand it to her - she was pretty good.
        Silas left Marcia to her Magyk and paddled Muriel through the thick white cocoon of the Fog tunnel while Nicko carefully steered the boat toward the bright starry sky at the end of the tunnel. Soon Nicko felt the bottom of the boat scraping along rough sand, and Muriel bumped up against a thick tuft of sedge grass.
        They had reached the safety of the Marram Marshes.
        Marcia breathed a sigh of relief and let the Fog disperse. Everyone relaxed, except for Jenna. Jenna, who had not been the only girl in a family of six boys without learning a thing or two, had Boy 412 facedown on the deck in an armlock. The small kitten prowled nearby hissing quietly.
        "Let him go, Jen," said Nicko.
        "Why?" demanded Jenna.
        "He's only a silly boy."
        "But he nearly got us all killed. We saved his life when he was buried in the snow and he betrayed us," Jenna said angrily.
        Boy 412 was silent. Buried in the snow? Saved his life? All he remembered was falling asleep outside the WizardTower and then waking up a prisoner in Marcia's rooms along with Lily.
        "Let him go, Jenna," said Silas. "He doesn't understand what's going on."
        "All right," said Jenna, a little reluctantly releasing Boy 412 from the armlock. "But I think he's a pig."
        Boy 412 sat up slowly, rubbing his arm. He didn't like the way everyone was glaring him. And he didn't like the way the Princess girl called him a pig, especially after she had been so nice to him before. Boy 412 huddled by himself as far away from Jenna as he could get and tried to work things out in his head. It wasn't easy. Nothing made sense. He tried to remember what they told him in the Young Army. Facts. There are only facts. Good facts. Bad facts. So:
        Fact One. Kidnapped: BAD.
        Fact Two. Uniform stolen: BAD.
        Fact Three. Lily was with him: BAD/GOOD.
        Fact Four. Pushed down rubbish chute: BAD. Really BAD.
        Fact Five. Shoved into cold smelly boat: BAD.
        Fact Six. Not killed by Wizards (yet): GOOD.
        Fact Seven. Probably going to be killed by Wizards soon: BAD.
        Boy 412 counted up the GOODs and the BADs. As usual, the BADs outnumbered the GOODs, which didn't surprise him.
        Nicko and Jenna clambered out of Muriel and scrambled up the grassy bank beside the small sandy beach on which Muriel now lay with her sails hanging loose. Nicko wanted a rest from being in charge of the boat. He took his responsibilities as skipper very seriously, and while he was actually in Muriel he felt that if anything went wrong, it was somehow his fault. Jenna was pleased to be on dry land again, or rather slightly damp land - the grass she sat down on had a soggy, squashy feel to it, as though it was growing on a big piece of wet sponge, and it was covered in a light dusting of snow.
        With Jenna at a safe distance, Boy 412 dared to look up, and he saw something that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
        Magyk. Powerful Magyk.
        Boy 412 stared at Marcia. Although no one else seemed to have noticed, he could see the haze of Magyk energy that surrounded her. It glowed a shimmering purple, flickering across the surface of her ExtraOrdinary Wizard cloak and giving her dark curly hair a deep purple shine. Marcia's brilliant green eyes glittered as she gazed into infinity, observing a silent film that only she could see. Despite his Young Army anti-Wizard training, Boy 412 found himself awestruck in the presence of Magyk. He had seen small forms of Magyk, but Lily's seemed incredibly tiny in the face of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard.
"They're coming back!" she yelled.
Marcia jumped, lost the Projection completely and, far away at the Port, leiruM and her crew disappeared forever.
"We've got to hide the boat," said Nicko, jumping up and running along the grassy bank, followed by Jenna.
Silas shoved Maxie out of the boat and told him to go and lie down. Then he helped Marcia out, and Boy 412 scrambled after her once he grabbed the kitten.
Marcia sat on the grassy bank of Deppen Ditch, determined to keep her purple python shoes dry for as long as she possibly could. Everyone else, including, to Jenna's surprise and Lily's dismay, Boy 412, waded into the shallow water and pushed Muriel clear of the sand so that she was floating again. Then Nicko grabbed a rope and pulled Muriel along the Deppen Ditch until she rounded a corner and could no longer be seen from the river. The tide was falling now, and Muriel floated low in the Ditch, her short mast hidden by the steeply rising banks.
The sound of the Hunter screaming at the oarsmen drifted across the water, and Marcia stuck her head up over the top of tne Ditch to see what was going on. She had never seen anything quite like it. The Hunter was standing very precariously in the back of the bullet boat wildly waving one arm in the air. He kept up a nonstop barrage of insults directed at the oarsmen, who had by now lost all sense of rhythm and were letting the bullet boat zigzag across the water.
"I shouldn't do this," said Marcia. "I really shouldn't. It's petty and vindictive and it demeans the power of Magyk, but I don't care."
Jenna, Nicko, Boy 412 and Lily, who was catching a ride, rushed to the top of the Ditch to see what Marcia was about to do. As they watched, Marcia pointed her finger at the Hunter and muttered, "Dive!"
For a split second the Hunter felt odd, as though he was about to do something very stupid - which he was. For some reason he could not understand, he raised his arms elegantly above his head and carefully pointed his hands toward the water. Then he slowly bent his knees and dived neatly out of the bullet boat, performing a skillful somersault before he landed perfectly in the freezing cold water.
Reluctantly, and rather unnecessarily slowly, the oarsmen rowed back and helped the gasping Hunter into the boat. "You really shouldn't have done that, sir," said Oarsman Number Ten. "Not in this weather."
The Hunter could not reply.
The bullet boat began its long, cold journey to the Castle while the Hunter huddled in the stern, nursing his broken finger and contemplating the ruins of his Hunt. And his reputation.
"Serves him right," said Marcia. "Horrible little man."
"Not entirely professional," a familiar voice boomed from the bottom of the Ditch, "but completely understandable, my dear. In my younger days I would have been tempted myself."
"Alther!" gasped Marcia, turning a little pink.