The Magykal Papers (7 page)

THE
H
EAP
F
AMILY
T
REE

The Supreme Custodian’s Journal

Property of the Supreme Custodian
My Journal

7:00
P.M
. M
ONDAY

My feet are freezing. This Palace is a miserable dump. Every winter I forget how awful the Big Freeze is. Only ray of sunshine in my life is young Simon Heap. He’s not a bad lad to talk to. Silly boy. Why he wants to be loyal to a bunch of useless Wizards, I have no idea, but I have a feeling it won’t be for too much longer. I am definitely getting somewhere. Indeed, it is high time I got over to the Ladies’ Washroom to see how he’s getting on. I’ll bring him one of those pies I had for lunch.

10:00
P.M
. M
ONDAY

There was frost in the washroom; blasted fire has gone out and no coal left. But we had a nice chat, and young Heap ate the pie. He is mellowing. A week ago he wouldn’t have touched it. I think he will tell me what I need to know any day now. Felt sorry leaving him alone. Would have offered him a blanket but wasn’t quite sure how I could explain that to DD if he found out. Young Heap very morose. It can’t be too comfortable chained to a freezing-cold radiator.

5:00
P.M
. T
UESDAY

Oh I feel quite ill. This afternoon got summoned by DD to the Wizard Tower. Had to walk all the way up to the top, as the stairs have ground to a halt, clogged up with a plague of DARKE cockroaches coated in Magog slime. Whole place smells disgusting and is, frankly, quite creepy nowadays with all that DARKE stuff flitting around and that ghastly wailing all the time. Say what you like about old Overstrand (and many people do), but at least she kept the Wizard Tower running properly and it smelled nice.

Of course the old toad refused to believe I am doing my best to get the information out of young Heap. I told him you catch more flies with honey, and he just laughed and said
he
catches flies with a flyswatter and I should try
that
with young Heap. Then one of those awful Magogs slid up to me, clicking its claws and breathing down my neck, while DD said that if I don’t get the whereabouts of the Queenling soon he’ll have me CONSUMED. Told me exactly how he would do it.
Twice
. I feel sick thinking about it. Oh no, another knock on the door. I feel quite weak.

6:00
P.M
. T
UESDAY

Thank goodness it wasn’t another summons to the Tower—it was Gerald. I do enjoy calling him Gerald. He hates it, of course. “I am the
Hunter
,” he said, very sniffily. Gerald gets on my nerves. He breezes in and stomps around like he owns the place. You’d never know that
he’s
the one who lost the Trail, that he can’t even track a bunch of smelly Wizards. Ha! I am surrounded by fools. I shall go and see young Heap again. I have a little plan, which I think might work. I am slowly bringing him to his senses through my charm and charisma. Mother was not right about
that
. I have great personal magnetism. I can see it in the way people avoid looking at me. It is all just
too
much for them.

1:00
A.M
. W
EDNESDAY

It has been an interesting evening. I took a nice hot drink of chocolate along with me to the Ladies’ Washroom, and young Heap and I had our little chat. It was freezing, but I was fine, as I took my nice new ermine stole with me. Heap’s teeth chattered, but I resisted lighting the fire—I just thought, flyswatter,
flyswatter
. Anyway, I played my trump card—I “offered” Heap the possibility of an Apprenticeship to our new ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Of course, he doesn’t know it’s not mine to offer, but that is beside the point. It worked. He told me the Queenling has gone to stay with her aunt in the Marram Marshes. I went straight around to the barracks to see Gerald. Gerald not pleased at being woken. Said the information was of no use to him at all. But I suspected something. I am no fool, whatever Mother may say. I waited outside Gerald’s window and I saw him get out his maps of the Marshes. Ha! I know what he’s up to—he’s going to take the credit himself. I’ll go and see DD first thing tomorrow and I’ll scrap
that
little plan. Oh yes.

10:00
A.M
. W
EDNESDAY

Just returned from the Wizard Tower. Got there as soon as I could, but it takes so long to dress in the mornings. I do think appearance is so important, and especially when striding purposefully along Wizard Way one has to create a good impression. As it turned out, it’s a good thing I was a little late. Gerald had gotten there first and I heard all about it from that peaky-looking Apprentice that DD keeps out on the landing. DD threw Gerald out! Literally! Called him a bumbling fool and
much
worse. Oh joy. This has quite made my day.

2:00
A.M
. T
HURSDAY

My nerves will not take
any
more. Summoned to the Wizard Tower at midnight. Was convinced I was going to be CONSUMED. But all the disgusting old fraud wanted to do was to show me some tacky blue amulet thing around his fat, sweaty neck. Got it off old Overstrand apparently. Well, good for him, although I can’t say that it suits him; he looks better in black. Anyway, that at least means my plan has worked—at last—and she’s in Dungeon Number One now. Rather her than me. I left feeling a little more secure about the CONSUMED threat, but until we get the Message Rat I will not rest easy.

S
ATURDAY

Well, well, they’ve got the rat. Rat has been taken away for questioning, but seeing as it has had its Confidential status withdrawn that should not be a problem.

S
UNDAY

Wretched rat proving difficult. Have had it shoved in a cage and put under the floor. It will come to its senses soon enough—I hope. Am very jumpy today. Locked myself in the bathroom in case DD’s guards came for me.

M
ONDAY

Gerald looking very smug. Came up and whispered that he doesn’t need any kind of rat—Heap or otherwise—he
knows
where the old witch is and as soon as the thaw sets in they’ll be off. When I asked him which old witch, he just smiled and tapped the side of his nose in his usual I-know-something-that-you-don’t kind of way. Just like all the kids used to do when I was at school…except I showed
them
. Now I know
everything
.

2:00
P.M
. W
EDNESDAY

Ungrateful little tick has gone! Escaped. Found the door wide open. Should never have unchained him; I am far too nice for my own good. Mother always said that—no, actually, come to think of it, Mother never did say I was too nice…Have set the guards after him. He’ll regret this.

L
INDA
L
ANE

L
INDA
L
ANE
was born in the Port. She was an only child and her parents moved to the Castle when she was seven. They found a couple of rooms in the Ramblings near the rooftop gardens and sent Linda to the Orange Elementary School.

Linda was a pretty child with long blond hair and blue eyes. She easily made friends, but she did not keep them. She would quickly make a best friend, and then as soon as she had found out all her friend’s secrets, she would dump her and move on to another friend, who became the recipient for those secrets—and in return told her own. Linda worked her way around the class in this fashion until at last everyone realized what was going on. And that was the end of any friends for Linda Lane.

Linda became a lonely child. She had nothing to do but hang around trying to overhear conversations. She even got into the habit of doing that with her family, and one day she caused her own mother to be arrested and thrown into a dungeon. Linda had overheard a disparaging remark that her mother had whispered to her father about the Supreme Custodian. Linda was by then a keen member of the Custodian Youth, who met in the Palace stables every week. At Tell-Tale-Time Linda proudly related what she had heard. She won a much-coveted Tell-Tale badge and when she got home that night her mother was gone. Her father saw the badge and guessed what had happened, but he was too scared to confront his own daughter.

Linda’s father was relieved when she moved out. She did not tell him that she had been recruited into the spy network and given her own rooms in the Ramblings, but he guessed that something of the sort had happened. Linda’s father finally got his wife out of the dungeon by selling everything he had. They fled to the Port and never saw Linda again.

Linda was a successful spy. And when some gossip about how the Heaps’ daughter looked very unlike Silas Heap reached her ears, she went with her information to the Supreme Custodian. She immediately was given a room along the corridor from the Heaps and also a crash course in herbs and healing so that she could gain Sarah’s confidence. Linda soon inveigled her way into the Heap household. She put her drawing skills to use and sketched all the children and sent copies of the sketches to the Supreme Custodian. And when she discovered Jenna’s date of birth, she went triumphantly to him with the news. He was convinced that Jenna was the lost Princess and the trap was set.

For her own protection and as a reward for finding the Princess, Linda was given a new name and some of the best rooms in the Ramblings, overlooking the river. But she did not enjoy them for long. Some months later she was recognized by one of her past victims, and one night as she sat drinking the very pleasant wine that the Supreme Custodian had sent over, she was pushed off her balcony and into the river, where she drowned.

Linda Lane was not seen again until the night she
Appeared
on the ghostly barge of Queen Etheldredda, where once again she proved useful to someone who was after Jenna.