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The Appointht the Apprentice escaped through the cat tunnel

Bert, who still had all the instincts of a cat, liked to go wandering at night, and Aunt Zelda would leave the door on a one-way Char to come in Not even Bert Aunt Zelda was very careful about stray Brownies and Marsh Wraiths

So, when everyone except for the Apprentice had fallen asleep and Bert had decided to go out for the night, the Apprentice thought that he would follow her It was a tight squeeze, but the Apprentice, as as thin as a snake and twice as wriggly, worh the narrow space As he did so, the Darke Magyk which clung to his robes DisEnchanted the cat tunnel Soon his flustered face eht air

Bert met him with a sharp peck on the nose, but the Apprentice was not deterred He wasstuck in the cat tunnel, with his feet still inside the house and his head on the outside, than he was of Bert He had a feeling that no one would be in nored the angry duck and, with a huge effort, wriggled free

The Apprentice e, closely pursued by Bert, who tried to grab his collar again, but this tirily, he swatted her away, sending her crashing to the ground and badly bruising a wing

The Magog was lying full length in the canoe, sleeping while it digested all fifty-six Shield Bugs The Apprentice warily stepped over it To his relief the creature did not stir - digestion was so sliht in the back of the Apprentice&039;s throat, but he picked up the sli out toward thechannels that crisscrossed the Marram Marshes and would take hie behind and traveled into the wide an to feel a little uneasy With the Magog sleeping, the Apprentice felt horribly unprotected and he re stories he had heard about the ht He paddled the canoe as quietly as he was able to, afraid of disturbing so thatthatto be disturbed All around hihttiround shrieking of a pack of Brownies as they pulled an unsuspecting Marsh Cat down into the Quake Ooze And then there was a nasty scrabbling and squelching noise as two large Water Nixies tried to clamp their sucker pads onto the bottom of the canoe and chew their way into it, but they slipped off soon enough thanks to the re&039;s slime

Sometime after the Water Nixies had dropped off, a Marsh Moaner appeared Although it was only a save off a dank smell that reminded the Apprentice of the burrow in DomDaniel&039;s hideout The Marsh Moaner sat itself down behind the Apprentice and started tunelessly singing thethe Apprentice had ever heard The tune whirled around and around inside his head - "Weerrghh-derr&039;waaaaah-doooooooooWeerrghh-derr-waaaah-doooooooooWeerrghh-derr-waaaah-dooooooooo" - until the Apprentice felt he o mad

He tried to bat the Moaner aith his paddle, but it went straight through the wailing scrap of mist, unbalanced the canoe and nearly sent the Apprentice tu out into the dark water And still the awful tune went on, a little ly now that the Moaner knew it had the Apprentice&039;s attention: "Weerrghh-derr-waaaah-doooooooooWeerghh-derr-waaaah-doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

"Stop it!" yelled the Apprentice, unable to stand the noise a ers into his ears and started singing in a voice loud enough to shut out the ghastly tune "I&039;, I&039;," the Apprentice chanted at the top of his lungs while the triuht&039;s work It usually took the Marsh Moanerwreck, but tonight it had struck lucky Mission completed, the Marsh Moaner flattened out into a thin sheet of ht contentedly hanging above its favorite bog

The Apprentice paddled doggedly on, no longer caring about the succession of Marsh Wraiths, Bogle Bugs and a very te array of Marshfire that danced about his canoe for hours By then the Apprentice did not

As the sun rose over the far reaches of the Marram Marshes, the Apprentice realized he had become hopelessly lost He was in the middle of a featureless expanse of marshland that all looked the sa what else to do, and it was ht stretch of water that looked as though it actually went soy morass Exhausted, the Apprentice turned into as the upper reaches of the Deppen Ditch and slowly headed toward the river His discovery of the giant Marsh Python, lurking at the bottohten itself out, hardly even bothered the Apprentice He was far too tired to care He was also very determined He had an appoint towould be sorry They would all be sorry Particularly the duck

That e, no one could believe that the Apprentice had h the cat tunnel

"I&039;d have thought his head was too big to fit through it," Jenna said scornfully

Nicko went out to search the island, but he was soon back again "The Hunter&039;s canoe is gone," he said, "and that was a fast boat He&039;ll be far away by now"

"We&039;ve got to stop hierous a boy like the Apprentice could be, "before he tells anyone where we are, which he will do as soon as he can"

And so Jenna, Nicko and Boy 412 took Muriel Two and set off in pursuit of the Apprentice As the pale spring sun rose over the Marra shadows across the h the maze of cuts and ditches She traveled slow and steady, far too slow for Nicko, who kne quickly the Hunter&039;s canoe must have covered the san of the sleek black canoe, half expecting to see it upturned in a Brownie Quake Ooze or drifting e apart fro that only momentarily raised his hopes

They stopped for a while to eat sooat cheese and sardine sandwiches beside the Marsh Moaners&039; bog But they were left in peace as the Moaners were long gone, evaporated in the war sun

It was early afternoon and a gray drizzle had set in when, at last, they paddled into the Deppen Ditch The Marsh Python lay dozing in the ish water of the recently turned inconored Muriel Two,for the fresh influx of fish that the rising tide would bring The tide was very low, and the canoe sat well below the steep banks that rose up on either side of them, so it was not until they rounded the very last bend of the Deppen Ditch that Jenna, Nicko and Boy 412 saas waiting for the

A shocked silence fell in the Muriel Two canoe Just a short paddle away, the Vengeance lay quietly at anchor in the early afternoon drizzle, still and steady in the middle of the river&039;s deepwater channel The ht: its bow rose up like the steep side of a cliff, and with its tattered black sails furled, its two tall ainst the overcast sky An oppressive silence surrounded the ship in the gray light No seagulls dared wheel around hoping for scraps S the river saw the ship and hurried quietly along the shalloaters by the riverbank, o near the notorious Vengeance A heavy black cloud had for a dark shadow over the entire ship, and fro with a line of three black stars fluttered o to tell him whose ship it was No other ship had ever been painted with the strong black tar that DomDaniel used, and no other ship could have been surrounded by such a estured frantically to Jenna and Boy 412 to paddle backward, and a moment later Muriel Tas safely hidden behind the last bend of Deppen Ditch

"What is it?" whispered Jenna

"It&039;s the Vengeance," whispered Nicko "Do for the Apprentice I bet that&039;s where the little toad has gone Pass lass, Jen"

Nicko put the telescope to his eye and saw exactly what he had feared There in the deep shadows cast by the steep black sides of the hull was the Hunter&039;s canoe It lay bobbing in the water, eeance, tied to the foot of a long rope ladder that led up to the ship&039;s deck The Apprentice had kept his appointment

"It&039;s too late," said Nicko "He&039;s there Oh, yuck, what&039;s that? Oh, disgusting That Thing&039;s just slipped out froet up a rope ladder It&039;s like soruesome monkey" Nicko shuddered

"Can you see the Apprentice?" whispered Jenna

Nicko swept the eyeglass up the rope ladder He nodded Sure enough, the Apprentice had al down in horror at the rapidly cli had reached the Apprentice and scuttled over hi a trail of vivid yellow slime across the back of his robes The Apprentice seerip on the ladder, but he struggled up the last few rungs and collapsed on the deck, where he lay unnoticed for soht Nicko

They decided to take a closer look at the Vengeance on foot They tied Muriel Two to a rock and walked along to the beach where they had had the ht of their escape froot a shock Someone was already there She stopped dead and ducked back behind an old tree trunk Boy 412 and Nicko bumped into her

"What is it?" whispered Nicko

"There&039;s someone on the beach," whispered Jenna "Maybe it&039;s souard"

Nicko peered around the tree trunk "It&039;s not someone from the ship" He smiled

"How do you know?" asked Jenna "It could be"

"Because it&039;s Alther"

Alther Mella was sitting on the beach, staring mournfully out into the drizzle He had been there for days, hoping that soe would turn up He needed to talk to theently

"Alther?" whispered Jenna

"Princess!" Alther&039;s careworn face lit up He wafted over to Jenna and enfolded her in a warrown since I last saw you"

Jenna put her fingers to her lips "Shhh, they ht hear us, Alther," she said

Alther looked surprised He wasn&039;t used to Jenna telling him what to do

"They can&039;t hear me" He chuckled "Not unless I want them to And they can&039;t hear you either - I&039;ve put up a Screa"

"Oh, Alther," said Jenna "It is so lovely to see you Isn&039;t it, Nicko?"

Nicko had a big grin on his face "It&039;s great," he said

Alther gave Boy 412 a quizzical look "Here&039;s so Army lads are always so painfully thin It&039;s nice to see you&039;ve filled out a bit "

Boy 412 blushed