The Apprentice Supper

It had not been easy to bring the Apprentice back. But Aunt Zelda had done it. Her own Drastic Drops and Urgent Ungent had had some effect, but not for long; soon the Apprentice had begun to slip away again. It was then that she had decided there was only one thing for it: Vigor Volts.

The Vigor Volts were a bit of a gamble, as Aunt Zelda had modified the potion from a Darke recipe she had found in the attic when she had moved in. She had no idea how the Darke part of it would work, but something told her that maybe this was what was needed. A touch of Darkenesse. With some trepidation, Aunt Zelda had unscrewed the lid. A brilliant blue-white light shot out from the tiny brown glass bottle and almost blinded her. Aunt Zelda waited until the spots had disappeared from her eyes, then carefully dropped a tiny amount of the electric blue gel onto the Apprentice's tongue. She crossed her fingers, something a White Witch does not do lightly, and held her breath. For a minute. Suddenly the Apprentice had sat up, looked at her with eyes open so wide that she could see almost nothing but white, taken a huge, sighing intake of breath and then lain down in the straw, curled up and gone to sleep.

The Vigor Volts had worked, but Aunt Zelda knew there was something she had to do before he could fully recover. She had to Release him from the clutches of his Master. And so she had sat by the duck pond and, as the sun set and the deep orange full moon rose low on the broad horizon of the Marram Marshes, Aunt Zelda did her own bit of scrying. There were one or two things she wanted to know.

Night had fallen and the moon was high in the sky. Aunt Zelda walked home slowly, leaving the Apprentice in a deep sleep. She knew he would need to sleep for many days before he could be moved from the duckhouse. Aunt Zelda also knew he would be with her for a while longer. It was time that she had another stray to look after, now that Boy 412 had recovered so well.

Her blue eyes glittering in the dark, Aunt Zelda picked her way along the Mott path, engrossed by the images she had seen in the duck pond, trying to understand their meaning. So preoccupied was she that she did not look up until she had almost reached the landing stage in front of the cottage. She was not pleased by the sight that met her.

The Mott, thought Aunt Zelda irritably, was a mess. There were just too many boats cluttering up the place. As if the Hunter's rancid canoe and the tatty old Muriel Two weren't bad enough, there was now, parked on the other side of the bridge, a decrepit old fishing boat that contained an equally decrepit old ghost.

Aunt Zelda marched over to the ghost and spoke to him very loudly and very slowly, in the voice she always used when addressing ghosts. Particularly old ones. The old ghost was remarkably polite to Aunt Zelda, considering she had just woken him up with a very rude question.

"No, Madam," he said graciously. "I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm not one of those awful old sailors off that evil ship. I am, or I suppose I should, strictly speaking, say that I was, Alther Mella, ExtraOrdinary Wizard. At your service, Madam."

"Really?" said Aunt Zelda. "You don't look a bit like I expected."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Alther graciously. "Excuse my rudeness in not alighting from my boat to greet you, but I have to stay in my dear old boat Molly, otherwise I will be Returned. But it is a pleasure to meet you, Madam. I take it you are Zelda Heap."

"Zelda!" Silas called out from the cottage.

Aunt Zelda looked up at the cottage, puzzled. All the lanterns and candles were blazing, and it seemed to be full of people.

"Silas?" she yelled. "What are you doing here?"

"Stay there," he shouted. "Don't come in. We'll be out in a minute!" He disappeared into the cottage, and Aunt Zelda heard him say, "No, Marcia, I've told her to stay outside. Anyway, I'm sure Zelda wouldn't dream of interfering. No, I don't know if there are any more cabbages. Why do you want ten cabbages anyway?"

Aunt Zelda turned to Alther, who was lounging comfortably in the prow of the fishing boat. "Why can't I go in?" she demanded. "What's going on? How did Silas get here?"

"It's a long story, Zelda," said the ghost.

"You may as well tell me," said Aunt Zelda, "as I don't suppose anyone else will bother to. They seem too busy raiding my entire stock of cabbages."

"Well," said Alther, "I was in DomDaniel's rooms one day attending to some, er, business, when the Hunter came and told him he had found out where you all were. I knew you were safe while the Big Freeze lasted, but when the Big Thaw arrived I thought you would be in trouble. I was right. As soon as the thaw came, DomDaniel shot off to Bleak Creek and picked up that ghastly ship of his, ready to bring the Hunter down here. I arranged for my dear friend Alice at the Port to have a ship ready and waiting to take you all somewhere safe. Silas insisted that all the Heaps had to go, so I offered him Molly to travel in down to the Port. Jannit Maarten had her laid up at the boatyard, but Silas got her in the water. Jannit wasn't very happy about the state Molly was in, but we couldn't wait around for any repairs. We stopped off at the Forest and picked up Sarah; she was very upset because none of the boys would come. We set off without them, and we were making good time until we had a small technical problem - a large technical problem, actually. Silas put his foot through the bottom of the boat. While we were repairing it we got overtaken by the Vengeance. Lucky not to be spotted, really. Sarah was in a terrible state about that - she thought all was lost. And then, to crown it all, we got caught up in the Storm and swept onto the marshes. Not one of my most enjoyable trips in Molly. But here we are, and while we were just messing about in a boat, you seem to have dealt with everything most satisfactorily yourselves."

"Apart from the mud," muttered Aunt Zelda.

"Indeed," agreed Alther. "But in my experience Darke Magyk always leaves some kind of dirt behind. It could be worse.

Aunt Zelda did not reply. She was somewhat distracted by the din coming from the cottage. Suddenly there was a loud crash followed by raised voices. "Alther, what is going on in there?" demanded Aunt Zelda. "I'm only gone for a few hours, then I come back to find some kind of party going on and I'm not even allowed back into my own home. Marcia has gone too far this time if you ask me."

"It's an Apprentice Supper," said Alther. "For the Young Army lad. He's just become Marcia's Apprentice."

"Really? That's wonderful news," said Aunt Zelda, brightening. "Perfect news in fact. But you know, I always hoped he would."

"Did you?" said Alther, beginning to warm to Aunt Zelda. "I always did too."

"Still," sighed Aunt Zelda, "I could have done without this supper lark. I had a nice quiet bean and eel stew planned for tonight."

"Got to have the Apprentice Supper tonight, Zelda," Alther said. "It must be held on the day the Apprentice accepts a Wizard's offer. Otherwise the contract between the Wizard and the Apprentice is void. And you can't make the contract again - you only get one chance. No supper, no contract, no Apprentice."

"Oh, I know," said Aunt Zelda airily.

"When Marcia was Apprenticed to me," said Alther nostalgically, "I remember we had quite a night. We had all the Wizards there, and there were a lot more in those days too. That supper was something we talked about for years afterward. We had it in the Hall of the WizardTower - you ever been there, Zelda?"

Aunt Zelda shook her head. The Wizard Tower was somewhere she would have liked to have visited, but when Silas was briefly Alther's Apprentice she had been too busy taking over as Keeper of the Dragon Boat from the previous White Witch, Betty Crackle, who had let things go somewhat.

"Ah, well, let's hope you get to see it one day. It is a wonderful place," he said, remembering the luxury and Magyk that had surrounded them all then. A little different, thought Alther, from a makeshift party beside a fishing boat.

"Well, I have every hope that Marcia will be going back very soon," said Aunt Zelda. "Now that we seem to have got rid of that awful DomDaniel man."

"I was Apprenticed to that awful DomDaniel man, you know," Alther continued, "and all I got for my Apprentice Supper was a cheese sandwich. I can tell you, Zelda, I regretted eating that cheese sandwich more than anything else I had ever done in my life. It bound me to that man for years and years."

"Until you pushed him off the WizardTower." Aunt Zelda chuckled.

"I didn't push him. He jumped," protested Alther. Yet again. And not, he suspected, for the last time.

"Well, good for you, whatever happened," said Aunt Z,elda, distracted by the babble of excited voices coming from the open doors and windows of the cottage.

Above the hubbub came Marcia's unmistakable bossy tones: "No, let Sarah take that one, Silas. You'll only drop it."

"Well, put it down, then, if it's that hot."

"Mind my shoes, will you? And get that dog off for goodness' sake."

"Wretched duck. Always under my feet. Eurgh, is that duck poo I've just trodden on?"

And finally: "And now I'd like my Apprentice to lead the way, please."

Boy 412 came out the door, holding a lantern. He was followed by Silas and Simon, who were carrying the table and chairs, then Sarah and Jenna with an assortment of plates, glasses, bottles, and Nicko who had a basket piled high with ten cabbages. He had no idea why he had a basket of cabbages, and he was not going to ask either. He had already trodden on Marcia's brand-new purple python shoes (there was no way she would be wearing galoshes to her Apprentice's Supper), and was keeping out of her way.

Marcia followed, carefully stepping over the mud, carrying the blue leather Apprentice Diary she had Made for Boy 412.

As the party emerged from the cottage, the last of the clouds cleared away and the moon rode high in the sky, casting a silver light over the procession as it made its way to the landing stage. Silas and Simon set the table down next to Alther's boat, Molly, and put a large white cloth over it, then Marcia directed how everything should be set out. Nicko had to put the basket of cabbages in the middle of the table just where Marcia told him to.

Marcia clapped her hands for silence. "This is," she said, "an important evening for all of us, and I would like to welcome my Apprentice."

Everyone clapped politely.

"I'm not one for long speeches," Marcia continued.

"That's not how I remember it," Alther whispered to Aunt Zelda, who was sitting next to him in the boat so that he did not feel left out of the party.

She nudged him companionably, forgetting for a moment that he was a ghost, and her arm went right through him and her elbow hit Molly's mast. "Ouch!" Aunt Zelda yelped. "Oh, sorry, Marcia. Do go on."

"Thank you, Z,elda, I will. I just want to say that I have spent ten years looking for an Apprentice, and although I have met many Hopefuls, I have never found what I was looking for, until now."

Marcia turned to Boy 412 and smiled. "So, thank you for agreeing to be my Apprentice for the next seven years and a day. Thank you very much. It's going to be a wonderful time for us both."

Boy 412, who was sitting next to Marcia, blushed bright red as Marcia handed him his Apprentice Diary. He held the diary tightly with his clammy hands, leaving two slightly grubby handprints on the porous blue leather, which would never come off and would always remind him of the evening that changed his life forever.Nicko," said Marcia, "hand the cabbages out, will you?"

Nicko looked at Marcia with the same expression he used for Maxie when he had done something particularly silly. But he said nothing. He picked up the basket of cabbages and walked around the table and started handing them out.

"Er, thank you, Nicko," said Silas as he took the proffered cabbage and held it awkwardly in his hands, wondering quite what to do with it.

"No!" snapped Marcia. "Don't give it to them. Put the cabbages on the plates."

Nicko gave Marcia another Maxie look (this time it was the I-wish-you-hadn't-pooed-there look), then quickly dumped a cabbage on each plate.

When everyone, including Maxie, had a cabbage, Marcia raised her hands for silence.

"This is a suit-yourself supper. Each cabbage is Primed to willingly Transform itself into whatever you would most like to eat. Just place your hand on the cabbage and decide what you would like."

There was an excited buzz as everyone decided what they were going to have and Transformed their cabbages.

"It's a criminal waste of good cabbages," Aunt Zelda whispered to Alther. "I shall just have cabbage casserole."

"Now that you have all decided," said Marcia loudly over the hubbub, "there is one last thing to be said."

"Get a move on, Marcia!" Silas called out. "My fish pie's getting cold."

Marcia gave Silas a withering look. "It is traditional," she continued, "that in return for the seven years and a day of his life that the Apprentice offers the Wizard, the Wizard offers something to the Apprentice." Marcia turned to Boy 412, who was sitting almost hidden behind a huge plate of eel stew and dumplings just like Aunt Zelda always made.

"What would you like from me?" Marcia asked him. "Ask me anything you like. I will do my best to give it to you."

Boy 412 gazed at his plate. Then he looked at all the people gathered around him and thought how different his life had become since he had met them. He felt so happy that there was really nothing else he wanted. Except for one thing.

One big, impossible thing that he was almost too scared to think about.

"Anything you like," Marcia said softly. "Anything you want at all."

Boy 412 gulped.

"I want," he said quietly, "to know who I am."