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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 soun 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 so told her that maybe this as needed A touch of Darkenesse With some trepidation, Aunt Zelda had unscrewed the lid A brilliant blue-white light shot out frolass bottle and almost blinded her Aunt Zelda waited until the spots had disappeared from her eyes, then carefully dropped a tiny aue She crossed her fingers, sohtly, 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 al 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 so 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 Marra There were one or two things she wanted to know

Night had fallen and the h in the sky Aunt Zelda walked ho the Apprentice in a deep sleep She kneould need to sleep for many days before he could be moved from the duckhouse Aunt Zelda also kneould 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 i to understand theirSo preoccupied was she that she did not look up until she had ale She was not pleased by the sight that ht Aunt Zelda irritably, was aup the place As if the Hunter&039;s rancid canoe and the tatty old Muriel Teren&039;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 host 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 re she had just woken him up with a very rude question

"No, Madaraciously "I&039;m sorry to disappoint you I&039;m not one of those awful old sailors off that evil ship I a, say that I was, Alther Mella, ExtraOrdinary Wizard At your service, Madam"

"Really?" said Aunt Zelda "You don&039;t look a bit like I expected"

"I&039;ll take that as a coraciously "Excuse reet 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 froe, 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&039;t come in We&039;ll be out in a e, and Aunt Zelda heard him say, "No, Marcia, I&039;ve told her to stay outside Anyway, I&039; No, I don&039;t know if there are any es anyway?"

Aunt Zelda turned to Alther, as lounging coo in?" she deet here?"

"It&039;s a long story, Zelda," said the ghost

"You may as well tell me," said Aunt Zelda, "as I don&039;t suppose anyone else will bother to They seees"

"Well," said Alther, "I was in Do 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 cahastly 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 soo, 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&039;t very happy about the state Molly was in, but we couldn&039;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 coood tie technical probleh the bottoot 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 ere justabout in a boat, you see most satisfactorily yourselves"

"Apart froreed Alther "But in yk always leaves some kind of dirt behind It could be worse

Aunt Zelda did not reply She was soe Suddenly there was a loud crash followed by raised voices "Alther, what is going on in there?" deone for a few hours, then I co on and I&039;one too far this time if you ask me"

"It&039;s an Apprentice Supper," said Alther "For the Young Army lad He&039;s just become Marcia&039;s Apprentice"

"Really? That&039;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 warhed 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&039;s offer Otherwise the contract between the Wizard and the Apprentice is void And you can&039;t et one chance No supper, no contract, no Apprentice"

"Oh, I know," said Aunt Zelda airily

"When Marcia was Apprenticed to ht We had all the Wizards there, and there were a lotwe 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 Toas somewhere she would have liked to have visited, but when Silas was briefly Alther&039;s Apprentice she had been too busy taking over as Keeper of the Dragon Boat fros go soet to see it one day It is a wonderful place," he said, reyk that had surrounded theht Alther, fro boat

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

"I was Apprenticed to that awful Doot for my Apprentice Supper was a cheese sandwich I can tell you, Zelda, I regretted eating that cheese sandwichelse 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&039;t push hiain And not, he suspected, for the last tiood for you, whatever happened," said Aunt Z,elda, distracted by the babble of excited voices coe