by Angie Sage
Chapter 12 Jillie Djinn
"Miss Djinn!" gasped Jenna, taken aback at the unexpected sight of the Scribe's indigo robes with their impressive gold flashes. How did Jillie Djinn know where she had been? And how come the Scribe knew where the Queen's Room was? Even Marcia did not know that.
"Your Majesty. " Jillie Djinn sounded a little breathless. She inclined her head respectfully, her new silk robes rustling as she moved.
"Please don't call me that," Jenna said angrily. "Call me Jenna. Just Jenna. I am not Queen yet. And I don't ever want to be either. You just end up being a horrible person doing horrible things to everyone. It's awful. "
Jillie Djinn looked at Jenna with a concerned expression and was not sure how to reply. The Chief Hermetic Scribe had no children and, apart from a very solemn and precocious TempleScribe in a Far Country some years ago, Jenna was the first girl of eleven that Jillie had spoken to since she herself was eleven. Miss Djinn had devoted her life to her career and had spent years traveling in the Far Countries learning the arcane secrets of the many and varied worlds of knowledge. She had also spent some years researching the hidden secrets of the Castle, which she was pleased to see had not been wasted.
"Jenna," Jillie Djinn corrected herself, "Madam Marcia wishes to see you. Her Apprentice is missing and she fears the worst. " Jillie Djinn's gaze alighted on Septimus's boots, which hung by their laces from Jenna's right hand. "I assume that I am right that something of that nature has occurred?"
Puzzled, Jenna nodded. She wondered how Marcia could possibly already know what had happened. And then she sniffed. And sniffed again. A strange smell of dragon poo was in the air. Jillie Djinn sniffed too. She scraped her right shoe - a neat black lace-up - vigorously on the floor, inspected the sole, then scraped it again.
"Would I be right also, Princess, if I were to say that there is a Glass in the Queen's Room?" Jillie Djinn's bright green eyes fastened onto Jenna expectantly. Jillie had many theories about many things and she was excited to think that one of them might be working out right now.
Jenna did not answer, but she did not need to. The Chief Hermetic Scribe was not the best person in the Castle at reading people's expressions, but there was no mistaking the look of astonishment on Jenna's face.
"You may not be aware, Princess Jenna, but I have made an extensive study of Alchemical Glasses - extensive - and we actually have a specimen in the Hermetic Chamber. This morning, I saw a disturbance in that Glass. I made haste to the WizardTower to report the disturbance, which we are duty-bound to do by our Charter, and I met Madam Overstrand leaving in a distressed state. I have drawn my own conclusions and now respectfully ask if you will consent to accompany me to the Manuscriptorium," said the Scribe, as if addressing a lecture hall of particularly slow scholars. "I have also asked Marcia Overstrand to meet us there. "
Marcia was about the last person Jenna wanted to see just then, as she knew she would have to tell her that she had caused Septimus's disappearance. But Jillie Djinn's mention of another Glass in the Manuscriptorium had raised her hopes. Could it be possible that the old man in the Glass was just one of those weird old scribes from their spooky Spell Vault that Septimus used to talk about? Maybe he had just pulled Septimus through to the Manuscriptorium? Maybe Sep was waiting for her there right now, and then he'd spend the rest of the day telling her all about it until she was completely fed up? Maybe. . .
Anxious now to get to the Manuscriptorium, Jenna followed the bustling, bright-eyed Scribe down the narrow winding steps. Wolf Boy, who had been hanging around in the shadows, blending into the background like the Forest creature that he was at heart, joined them, causing Jillie to jump in surprise. At the foot of the steps, Jillie scraped her shoe once more and then took the side door out of the turret.
"I must say," said Jillie self-importantly as she strode along the path around the back of the turret, "it is most gratifying when a theory is proved right. I had narrowed the whereabouts of the Queen's Room down to two positions. The first was down there - " Jillie Djinn waved her hand toward the old summer house by the riverbank, whose octagonal golden roof was just visible above the early-morning river mist. "Of course, Princess Jenna, I knew that your key would open both, but nothing else about the summer house made sense, although I did wonder whether its legend of the Black Fiend had been put about by the various Queens to keep people away. But naturally, by looking at all the facts and giving them due consideration, I chose the right place. Most interesting. "
"Interesting?" muttered Jenna under her breath, wondering if Septimus's disappearance was no more than a perting academic exercise for the Scribe.
With Wolf Boy and Jenna in tow, Jillie Djinn rounded the base of the turret and emerged at the front of the Palace. She set off across the lawns toward the Gate, and as their feet made dark footprints in the dew, the Chief Hermetic Scribe continued to expound on various pet theories, for Jillie had a captive audience and she was not about to waste it. Her audience was not, however, appreciative; Jenna was too preoccupied with worrying about Septimus to listen and Wolf Boy gave up after the first sentence. The way that Jillie Djinn talked made his head ache.
Despite her diminutive size, Jillie kept up a fast pace and they were soon rushing along Wizard Way, which was beginning to stir. Wizard Way was one of the oldest streets in the Castle. It was a broad, straight avenue lined with beautiful silver torch posts. It ran from the Palace Gates at one end to the Great Arch of the WizardTower at the other. The houses and shops were built from the oldest yellow limestone from quarries emptied long ago. They were weathered and crooked but had a friendly feeling to them that Jenna loved. The Way was lined with countless small shops and printers, selling all manner of printed papers, inks, books, pamphlets and pens, plus an assortment of spectacles and headache pills for those who had spent far too long reading in dark corners.
As the shopkeepers and printers peered through their misty windows and decided against putting out their wares in the damp air, the first thing they saw was the Chief Hermetic Scribe striding down the Way, accompanied by an odd-looking boy with tangled hair and the Princess, who was carrying an old pair of boots.
Two-thirds down the Way, the trio stopped outside a small purple-painted shop with its window stacked so high with papers and books that it was impossible to see inside. On the door was the number 13, and over the window was the inscription: Magykal MANUSCRIPTORIUM AND SPELL CHECKERS INCORPORATED. Jillie Djinn, her ample figure almost filling the narrow doorway, regarded Jenna and Wolf Boy with a solemn air.
"The Hermetic Chamber is not to be entered by anyone who has not been inducted into the tenets of the Manuscriptorium," she informed them ponderously. "However, in these difficult circumstances I will make an exception for the Princess, but the Princess only. Indeed there is a possibility of precedence as I have reason to believe that some of the more ancient Queens have been admitted to the Chamber. " With that, the door to the Manuscriptorium opened with a little ping and Jillie Djinn stepped inside.
"What did she say?" Wolf Boy asked Jenna.
"She said you can't come in," said Jenna.
"Oh. "
"Well, not into the Hermetic Chamber anyway. "
"The what?"
"The Hermetic Chamber. I don't know what it is, but Sep told me a bit about it. He's been in there. "
"Maybe he's there now," said Wolf Boy, brightening.
"Well, I - I suppose he could be," said Jenna, hardly daring to hope.
"You go in and have a look. I'll wait outside like she said, and I'll see you and 412 in a minute. How about that?"
Jenna grinned. "Sounds good," she said, and she followed Jillie Djinn inside.
