Magyk

The Heaps name the baby girl Jenna. Sarah’s best friend, Sally Mullin, runs a tea shop that serves as a hub for local gossip. Six months after Silas found Jenna, Sally tells Sarah that the Queen and Alther Mella, the previous ExtraOrdinary Wizard, were assassinated by the Custodian Guards. According to Sally, the murders took place on the day of the Princess’s birth. Sally suspects that Marcia smuggled the baby to safety, and Sarah realizes that Jenna is the Princess.

Silas goes fishing in the river with his sons, Nicko, Jo-Jo, Erik, Edd, Sam, and Simon. Magic runs in both Silas’s and Sarah’s families, and he hopes that their sons will be Wizards. On their way home, a Custodian Guard declares that they need papers to come to the beach and calls them “Wizard scum” (17). Wizards cannot conceal their identities because people’s eyes turn green when they take Magyk classes. Sarah and Silas are alarmed by the changes taking place in the Castle, but they decide to stay in the Ramblings. For nine-and-a-half years, they avoid drawing attention and continue the boys’ Magyk education at home.

Years later, the Custodians ban Magyk. On the night before Jenna’s 10th birthday, the Supreme Custodian orders an Assassin to kill Jenna and the rest of the Heap family, having determined that she is the Princess. The Supreme Custodian serves DomDaniel, an “ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard turned Necromancer” who lives in the Badlands and ordered the Queen’s assassination (26). The murdered ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Alther Mella, is now a ghost and has devoted the past decade to protecting the Princess. He warns Marcia that the Supreme Custodian has sent an Assassin to the Heaps’ home.

Marcia puts on the Akhu Amulet, a powerful artifact that marks her as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard and leaves the Wizard Tower. She notices a 10-year-old Sentry outside the tower, and the boy professes pride in being part of the Young Army. Marcia used to live in the Ramblings before she became Alther Mella’s Apprentice, and she’s shocked by how dreary and dirty the building has become since the Queen’s death. As she makes her way to the Heaps’ home, citizens part before her in respectful awe.

Marcia tells the Heaps that the Princess is no longer safe with them, but Silas demands that the ExtraOrdinary Wizard explain what befell 10 years ago. She relates how an Assassin burst into the Throne Room and shot Alther and the Queen with silver bullets. Marcia cast a spell of protection that caused the Assassin’s next bullet to rebound and strike his leg, and she fled with the Princess to the Wizard Tower. She didn’t want anyone to see her bring the child to the Heaps, so she left her in the Forest where Silas could find her instead. Marcia gives Jenna a golden circlet that used to belong to the Queen. Alther confirms Marcia’s story. He tells the Heaps to move somewhere safe, and he urges Jenna to go with Marcia to the Wizard Tower: “Only she can give you the protection you will need” (55). The girl dons the circlet and reluctantly agrees.

Marcia brings Jenna to the Wizard Tower, a silver structure with purple windows and a golden Pyramid on top. They find the 10-year-old Sentry nearly frozen to death, and Marcia saves him by chanting a spell: “Quicken, Youngling. Quicken” (60).

Accompanied by Jenna, Marcia brings the boy to her chambers. She tosses his wet uniform down the rubbish chute, conjures warm pajamas for him, and lets him sleep on her sofa. Later that afternoon, Silas, Nicko, and the Heaps’ wolfhound come to Marcia’s rooms. The Sentry awakens for a moment and identifies himself as Boy 412. Silas tells Marcia that they’re going to stay in the Forest with Galen and gives Jenna her birthday present, a living pet rock that she names Petroc Trelawney. Alther warns everyone that the Assassin is in the tower, but they don’t have time to take precautions before she bursts into the room. Boy 412 thinks that the Assassin has come to arrest him for consorting with Wizards, and she strikes him to the floor when he approaches her to turn himself in. The Assassin points a silver pistol at Jenna, and Marcia uses a spell to throw the woman aside. The ExtraOrdinary Wizard hurries everyone into the rubbish chute.

The chute takes Marcia, Silas, Jenna, Nicko, Boy 412, and Maxie the wolfhound out of the Wizard Tower, under the Custodian Council Chambers, through the Palace’s basement, and to the Riverside Amenity Rubbish Dump. Boy 412 suspects that the strange events he’s found himself in are one of the Young Army’s deadly tests.

Sally’s customers look out the cafe’s window and laugh at the incongruous sight of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard “covered in rubbish and dancing like a madwoman on top of the municipal rubbish dump” (84). At first, Sally thinks Silas is eloping with Marcia, but she resolves to help after the situation has been explained. She gives the group fresh clothes, and Boy 412 grows fond of the “bright red beanie hat” that Silas picks out for him (90). Sally also gives the group her boat, Muriel. Nicko loves sailing and guides the boat toward Marram Marshes, where Silas’s Aunt Zelda lives.

Less than 10 minutes later, the Hunter leads his Pack to the rubbish dump in pursuit of Jenna, Marcia, and the others. He doesn’t see a trail, but he smiles triumphantly when he spies Sally’s frightened face peering out her cafe’s window.

The Hunter bursts into the cafe, tells Sally that he’s looking for “a small and dangerous group of terrorists” (103), and threatens to burn down the establishment with her and her customers inside unless she reveals where her friends are. She kicks his leg and calls him a bully. One of the customers, a Northern Trader, saw the group sail downstream in a boat with red sails and gives this information to the Hunter. The Hunter lets Sally’s customers leave but sets fire to the cafe with her inside. A young Apprentice Wizard loyal to DomDaniel serves as Advisor to the Hunter. The Apprentice considers the search for the Princess a sacred mission that will usher in his master’s return. The Hunter, the Apprentice, and the Pack pursue Muriel in a swift bullet boat equipped with a searchlight and a prow-mounted firearm.