Physik
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| Physik | |
| Author | Angie Sage |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Mark Zug |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Septimus Heap (Book 3) |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publication date | March 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) not suitable for parents |
| Pages | 544 pp (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-7475-8761-3 (UK Paperback) |
| Preceded by | Flyte |
| Followed by | Queste |
Physik is the third book in the Septimus Heap series written by Angie Sage. It is the sequel to Flyte. The novel was released on March 28, 2007. The sequel of Physik is Queste.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The story begins with Silas Heap and Gringe the Gatekeeper unsealing a room in the attic of Jenna’s palace, looking for a place to hide Silas’s new set of Counters. The portrait of Queen Etheldredda "The Awful" is inside. Unknowingly her spirit is freed.
Meanwhile, a girl named Snorri Snorrelssen and her cat, Ullr, arrives in Port with the intention of becoming a trader. All is set until she finds out that there will be no trading this year. An unexplained Sickennesse is spreading rapidly around the Castle.
Jenna, the Queen-to-be, is greeted one night by Queen Etheldredda. She is called “granddaughter” by the Queen. Jenna immediately recognizes that there is something strange about her, and figures out the Queen has a past of murdering her daughters because of a power obsesion. Septimus Heap, Apprentice to Marcia Overstrand, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, is up late, reading works of Marcellus Pye, the last Alchemist. Marcia catches him and tells him to stop reading that load of “drivel”. As Septimus has his Prediction Practical the next morning, she sends him to bed.
Late in the night Alther Mella, former ExtraOrdinary Wizard arrives and invites Septimus to meet Queen Etheldredda who wishes to speak to him. He immediately regrets it, once the Queen tells Septimus to meet Marcellus Pye, who is in fact rumored to still be alive. Alther tells Septimus to go back to the Wizard Tower.
Septimus, full of curiosity, decides to go to Snake Slipway, where Marcellus is supposed to be. There, he meets Lucy who is in love with Simon, his oldest brother, it figures that she wanted to find him so she escaped home. When he was leaving he sees a fire under the water and is entranced. Etheldredda is there invisible, and shoves Septimus into the water. She pulls him out, instating a Reclaime. (Which means that she saved his life and within twenty-four hours can Reverse it if she pleases.)
Septimus wakes in a room in the Palace with Jenna and Etheldredda. Jenna brings Septimus up to speed with the events. She goes out to find him some new clothes and meets Etheldredda in the hall. Etheldredda tells Jenna to take Septimus into the Queen’s Robing Room and to look into a Glass inside. She says if Jenna does not do this, she will Reverse the Reclaime, and Septimus will drown at midnight.
Jenna, fearing for Septimus, takes him to the room and instructs him to look into the Glass. Septimus tells her he shouldn’t, as it could be dangerous. Jenna then spills what Etheldredda told her. Septimus decides to look into the Glass.
He sees an extremely old man, who then grabs Septimus into the Glass. Jenna, who tried to pull Septimus back out is left holding his boots.
Septimus falls out of the Glass and discovers that he is in a place called the Old Way, which is by the Docks. The old man says that he is the 530-year-old Marcellus Pye. He grabs Septimus and sends him into the Doors of Time, 500 years into the Past, to meet the thirty-year-old Marcellus Pye.
Sometime before Septimus vanished, Marcia realized that he was in grave danger. She UnSealed a shelf in the Wizard Tower and found the I, Marcellus, written by Marcellus Pye himself. Inside there is a letter written by Marcellus’s Apprentice to Marcia. The Apprentice is Septimus Heap.
Jenna enlists the help of Wolf Boy, who was Septimus’s best friend in the Young Army, and Nicko, Septimus’s and Jenna’s brother. They decide to do a Seek with Septimus’ dragon, Spit Fyre. After a wild ride, Spit Fyre grows hungry and lands on the boat of Snorri Snorrelson. Snorri decides to join them on their quest for Septimus, as she likes Nicko. They go to the house of Alice Nettles, who was Alther’s girlfriend before he was killed. There they find another Glass. Jenna falls in and is followed by Nicko, Snorri and Ullr, Snorri’s cat.
Jenna arrives and is immediately mistaken for the missing Princess Esmeralda, who apparently drowned earlier. As she tried to escape the guards, all bent on finding her and returning her to her mother, who is none other than the Queen Etheldredda, Jenna found the real Esmeralda hiding from her mother in the Marram Marshes with the keeper who is Marcellus Pye's wife.. Jenna leaves her in peace, and runs off before being caught and forced to attend a banquet to celebrate her return. During the banquet, Jenna finds Septimus Heap, who has lived in this Time for one hundred and sixty-nine days.
Septimus had become the Apprentice to Marcellus and had become used to the idea that he would never get back to his Time. Septimus had decided to try out his escape plan when Marcellus allowed him to go to the Festival. Septimus met Hugo Tenderfoot, a Scribe. They both went to the Palace. Septimus’s plan was to sneak into the Queen’s Robing Room and jump into the Glass. To avoid detection from Marcellus, Septimus and Hugo disguised themselves as Palace Servants where Septimus then met Jenna once again.
Septimus, Hugo and Jenna escaped the Palace and ran into Nicko, Snorri and Ullr. Jenna and Nicko showed Septimus the Glass they had gotten, but to no avail, for after they had jumped in, Spit Fyre had smashed it. Septimus guides them down the river to the Great Chamber of Alchemie. Jenna realizes that Septimus has changed.
Once there, they hide in the closet as Marcellus and Etheldredda have just arrived. The Queen’s Aie-Aie starts crying which scares Ullr who bolts out of the closet. Snorri follows which reveals Septimus, Jenna and Nicko.
The Queen drinks the Tincture which granted immortality. However, the tincture was not complete. She drags Jenna away thinking of her as being Esmeralda, whom she planned on killing so she could rule forever. As she struggled to free herself, Queen Etheldredda falls into the River where she drowned. This would not have been a problem if the tincture was correct, but she was reduced to naught but a substantial spirit, which is like a ghost but unlike a ghost she has a physical shape as she would as a human.
Jenna returned to the Chamber with Nicko and Septimus. Septimus made a deal with Marcellus to make another Tincture, the next day, in their Time. In exchange, he, Jenna and Nicko could go free. The Glass was cracking which meant there wasn’t much time left. At the last second, Nicko pulled away to find Snorri. Septimus and Jenna were forced to leave Nicko behind.
Jenna and Septimus arrive in their own Time to find Marcia who had been trying to calculate when she could find Septimus. She is very happy until Jenna and Septimus tell her of Nicko.
Ullr, separated from her master by 500 years, allows Snorri to see through Ullr's eyes, into the present Time. Snorri, alone in the past, does not pay attention to the past, and keeps her mind focused upon the Time that Jenna and Septimus are in.
Septimus has figured out how to cure the Sickenesse and does so (turns out that the Aie-Aie has caused the disease, not the rats). Queen Eltheldreda has meanwhile gotten the named bullet and pistol from Aunt Zelda, and tries to shoot Jenna at the river bank. Alice Nettles intervenes and is killed by the named bullet, IP, both for the "Infant Princess" and for Iona Pot, also now known as Alice Nettles. In the end, Marcia creates a bonefire out of Spit Fyre’s fire, meanwhile Queen Etheldreda tries to push Jenna to the bonefire to her death, but then Snorri, not alone anymore decides to do something that she had never did, she summoned a ghost, that ghost was in fact Olaf snorreslen (Snorri's father) who stops queen Etheldreda from killing Jenna, so the bonefire burns the Queen’s portrait. Queen Etheldredda is vanquished. Then, Snorri frees Ullr and she said:"Go with Jenna until I return".
The book ends with Septimus telling Marcia that he is “going fishing”, which he told Marcellus Pye he would do when he delivered the Tincture.
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Heaps
- Septimus Heap: Once again, the main protagonist in the story. Near the beginning of the story he unwillingly becomes the apprentice of an Alchemist named Marcellus Pye. He is also the creator of the cure for the Sicknesse.
- Jenna Heap: Also knows as the Queenling. She was mistaken for Princess Esmeralda 500 years ago.
- Nicko Heap: Septimus' older brother. He stayed behind to find Snorri 500 years in the past.
- Silas & Sarah Heap: Septimus' parents, Silas was an Ordinary Wizard at the Wizard tower
[edit] Other Characters
- Snorri Snorrelssen: A fourteen year old Spirit-Seer that is a Northern Trader, her father Olaf Snorrelssen is always in The Hole in the Wall. At the end of the book she was 500 years ago in the past.
- Ullr: Snorri's cat, also a Spirit-Seer, at night transforms into a panther, otherwise known as NightUllr.
- The RatStranglers: A group of villagers that daily go out to kill rats because they believed they carried the Sicknesse. They tried to destroy the dragon boat because they also thought that it also carried the Sicknesse but before they could Jenna sealed it with SpitFyre's Fyre.
- Marcellus Pye: An ancient alchemist from 500 years ago, is still alive in Septimus's Time but older, so much older. His mother is Queen Etheldredda and he is terrified of her.
- Sir Hereward: A ghost in both Times and helped Jenna and Septimus escape the castle from 500 years ago.
- Queen Etheldredda: Jenna's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great (And then some) grandmother. She is a cruel and evil tyrant with a history of filicide. Her attempt at eternal life cause her to be trapped in between both life and death, leaving her in a form of half-life.
- Princess Esmeralda: The daughter of Queen Etheldredda, who regarded her as a threat rather than as a daughter.
- The Aie-Aie: A horrible little creature with a ratty face, sharp claws and a long snake's tail. It's bite caused Sicknesse. It only has one tooth while rats (supposedly the cause of the sicknesse) have many teeth.
- Stanley: An ex-message rat who now is in the secret rat service.
- Dawnie: Stanley's Wife
- Alther: Ex-Extraordinary Wizard for The Wizard Tower and the Heap brothers'(and Jenna's) honorary Uncle
