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I t took the coure into the hut He lay on the floor taking up the entire space between the bunks, a great bulky e rat-, the fur on his tail sticking out like a bottlebrush and shot out of the hut Jenna did not even notice

"Oh, this is awful," she said tearfully, dropping to her knees beside the rat-nored him And he couldn&039;t even shout to tell us he was there - freezing to death Oh, Sep, we&039;ve probably killed hiht Marcia had taught him to Listen for the Sound of Human Heartbeat and he could hear only Jenna&039;s and Beetle&039;s - both beating fast But, thought Septioing onceworked for the sound of rat-huht to ask at the time

Jenna looked at Ephaniah in dislasses and his eyes were closed, the long dark lashes stuck together with flecks of ice His small amount of visible human skin was bluish-white and his sparse, short brown hair was caked with snow and plastered to his skull, which was surprisingly huht to unwind the cloth fro - or at the very least put her hand on him to check for the rise and fall of his chest - but she found herself very reluctant to touch the rat-ht that maybe it was the nearness of his bulk, which was suddenly overwheleness When Ephaniah was conscious his huh, and Jenna hardly noticed the rat in the man - but now she found it hard to see thein the doorway staring at Ephaniah

"Do you think he&039;s still alive?" she half whispered

Beetle nodded slowly "Yeah" he said,his timepiece from hand to hand - a nervous habit he had when he orried He thought he saw the rat-

The fire in the stove was blazing now Stea froan to fill the hut

"Hedown at Ephaniah "That must have been what I saw"

"You saw him?" asked Jenna "Why didn&039;t you say?"

"WellI wasn&039;t sure"

"Poor Ephaniah," said Jenna "He&039;d be cahts"

"Yeah Well, it wasn&039;t just that I didn&039;t want to say because it feltDarke"

"Ephaniah felt Darke?"

Septied "Well, I - "

Beetle had been staring at Ephaniah intently Now he spoke "Sep"

There was so in Beetle&039;s voice that sent a chill down Septimus&039;s spine "What?" he whispered

Silently, Beetle pointed to his own left little finger and crossed the first and second fingers of his left hand - the sign scribes used for the Darke Now Septilanced at Septimus "Get out," hehorribly loud in the silence

No one replied The next moment Septimus was beside her and before she knew it she was on her feet being propelled out of the doorway and over the pile of snow

"But - " Jenna protested to no avail

"Shh!" hissed Septimus "You&039;ll wake it"

"Wake what?"

Silent and fast, Beetle closed the hut door Jenna watched as Septiht before, and ave a thun and scrarabbed by Septih it were on fire with Ullr bounding behind

They headed down the valley, leaping over the snow and dodging through the trees like a trio of terrified deer To their right a steep cliff reared up through the treetops and when they reached the base of the cliff, they stopped to catch their breath They looked back up the valley, searching out the hut, which - if it had not been for the lazily rising wood sh the trees - would have been almost impossible to see

"It&039;s okay," said Beetle "I can&039;t see it Of course itbehind the trees, but I don&039;t think so"

"It?" asked Jenna "What do youus? Are you crazy?"

"I mean Ephaniah," said Beetle "Except it&039;s not"

"Not what?" asked Jenna

"It&039;s not Ephaniah," said Beetle "It&039;s a Thing"

"A Thing?"

"Yep The one froot me fired and took my job"

"No No, I don&039;t believe it It&039;s Ephaniah"

Septilanced back up the valley anxiously "Coet soain, following the steady doard slope of the valley, keeping into the shadows of the cliff face Every step that took the Ephaniah At last she could stand it no more "Stop," she said in a deliberately Princessy voice "I&039;o back"

Septimus and Beetle stopped "But, Jen," they both protested

Jenna pulled her wolverine cloak around her as if it were a royal mantle and stubbornly stuck out her chin - just as her mother had done on the rare occasions her advisers had dared to disagree with her

"Either you two tell ht back to the hut Now," she told the to have toat the door stopped after I did an Anti-Darke Incantation And that only affects Darke stuff It wouldn&039;t have stopped the real Ephaniah"

"Maybe that was coincidence Maybe he was getting exhausted or his hands were too frozen"

Jenna stah the snow in frustration How could Septimus be so sure?

"No, Jen," said Septimus very definitely "Beetle, tell Jen what you saw"

Beetle sat down on a snow-covered log - his legs ached after the unaccusto"

"What do you et your pin"

"What was?"

"The kid shrunk one of his precious licorice snakes and gave it to the Thing as part of a Contract"

"A Contract? Beetle, what are you talking about?"

Beetle found it hard to explain things to Jenna - the way she looked at hiht But he had to try He took a deep breath and began