Author Note: I'm praying that nobody notices my slight plagerism, if they do, I hope I'm not sued... This chapter is WEIRD, OK... Weird as Hell. It also sees the return of an old friend... Have fun reading people...

Chapter 25

Trevor Mason was not completely sure what he was supposed to do, he was not an Alchemist and he had no intention of ever becoming one. He asked Marcellus Pye to dictate to him what to do, Marcellus promised to try his best but even he had never attempted to raise the dead before. It was a physical impossibility. Until now.

It took Septimus a while to compose himself enough to be able to sustain any kind of magyk. Eventually he managed it and soon the corridor was bathed in an odd coloured light, Marcia, as the witness, would have sworn that the room contained every colour in the spectrum at once, but then other things started happening. Trevor virtually stitched Jenna's ghost back onto her body with magyk and the room went white and then black and then there was nothingness for a second followed by bright flashes of multicoloured light. When Marcia regained her vision Trevor, Septimus and Jenna had vanished.

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Hettie Icadden went frantic when she heard that Trevor had disappeared. She accused Marcia of killing him and attempted to kill her with a knife that she had pick-pocketed off of Nicko. She stabbed Marcia in the stomach before she was restrained by Nicko and Marcellus.

Trevor, Septimus and Jenna had not actually disappeared; they were still in that same corridor and still in the same time. They didn't know it and neither did the others. They were in a very dark room. Jenna was alive again but she had a dreadful headache and her limbs ached from where her body had gone into rigor mortis and come out again.

"Where the Hell is this?" asked Septimus agitatedly. "What did we do this time?"

"Nothing. Jesus Christ, what about Hettie? We have to get back…"

YOU ARE NOT TO LEAVE HERE YET sounded a strange voice somewhere nearby. Septimus and Trevor adopted defensive positions back to back in front of Jenna.

"When can we leave?" asked Trevor angrily.

YOU CANNOT RAISE THE DEAD. THERE MUST BE A DEATH TO RESTORE THE BALANCE.

"What balance?"

FOR A LIFE TO RETURN THEN A LIFE MUST END, THOSE ARE THE RULES

"Says who?"

EVERYTHING. THESE LAWS ARE MORE SET THAN STONE

"We aren't about to condemn anybody else. Where the Hell is this?"

STILL IN THE PALACE OF THE CASTLE. YOU SHALL NOT LEAVE UNTIL SOMEONE DIES IN HER PLACE. THIS IS THE KINGDOM OF DEATH; NOBODY LEAVES HERE WITHOUT PAYING THEIR TOLL…

"There must be hundreds of people dying right now! Why can't they count…? I've lost my fair share of people already… My mother is dead!"

YOU DID NOT KNOW YOUR MOTHER, TREVOR MASON

"How the Hell do you know who I am?" Trevor demanded angrily.

Jenna sunk to her knees behind them, her head bowed. "This is all my fault," she whispered.

"No it isn't!" said Septimus urgently. "Have you got this, Trevor?"

Trevor nodded and Septimus moved towards Jenna cautiously, it felt so strange seeing her breathe again. "It isn't your fault, Jen, it's more my fault than anyone else's. I'm so sorry that I lost my temper with you… We'll get out of here without anyone having to die, I promise you… Jen, this is really out of place, but I love you and I always have since I met you, even when I didn't know you were my sister. I've tried to treat you like my other brothers do but it's so hard, I didn't grow up with you so I can't see you as a sister like them… I love you, Jenna."

Jenna looked up in amazement but said nothing in response. It made Trevor miss Hettie terribly and also made him more determined to leave.

"So, if anybody dies then we can go?" he asked. "Even if one of us dies, all of us can go, even the dead body…"

THAT WOULD BE WITHIN THE BOUNDARY OF THE RULES

"Fair enough. I, Trevor Mason, offer up my own life in the pursuit of freedom."

Simon Heap was gathering up a band of men to help him in his sadistically minded plot to take over the Castle. He went through all of the Outlying Villages in an attempt to find anybody that Marcia Overstrand had managed to annoy, it wasn't very hard to find. But one of these people was the one person that he didn't want to find. Merrin Meredith.

Merrin had been his apprentice for a few years and had then betrayed him in the pursuit of his own power. Simon would have killed Merrin where he stood except for the fact that Simon could clearly see the Two-Faced Ring stuck on his thumb, Simon knew what that ring would do for it's wearer and any violence would be plain pointless. Its previous owner DomDaniel had managed to 'survive' long after death because of it. Simon wasn't going to take any chances and decided that recruiting Merrin was probably the most sensible thing to do.

Merrin Meredith had been kicked out of his job in the Manuscriptorium after a hex from the ExtraOrdinary Wizard had caused him to make a few too many mistakes for Jillie Djinn's, the Chief Hermetic Scribe, liking, thus Beetle had been given his old job back. Merrin was more annoyed at the Castle occupants than ever and accepted Simon's offer, taking great care to make sure that Simon saw as much of the Two-Faced Ring as possible. Merrin hated Septimus Heap as much as Simon, he himself had been known as Septimus Heap for the first ten years of his life during Septimus' time in the Young Army and now he was out for revenge for his ex-master DomDaniel.

Simon and Merrin made a plan to attack in little more than a week and now this plan involved many more deaths than Trevor and Simon had previously planned for. The future of the Castle was looking bleaker than ever, only both of the seventh sons had any chance of saving the entire population from their grim and inevitable fate.