Reading journal: Queste

(I've already read this book before but only once so I'm rereading it.)
Queste is the fourth book of the Septimus Heap series. The series itself is about a young boy, Septimus Heap, who is the seventh son of a seventh son, believed to have great magical power. His adventures range from trying to protect Princess Jenna (who is his step sister. Septimus's dad found Jenna on his way back from the forest the day Septimus was pronounced "dead" in order to take him and Apprentice him to DomDaniel, the evilest Darke Wizard.)

In Queste, he has just come back from the past as being sent back in time through a looking glass, plotted by the ghost of Queen Etheldredda to make her the eternal ruler of the Castle. Jenna, Nicko (his brother), and Snorri Snorrelssen (a young Northern Trader girl who came to find the ghost of her father and become a trader herself) go back in time to find Septimus and save him but when it's time to return, Nicko and Snorri are left behind and the glass from which they came shattered from the pressure of Time.

So far, as I've only read the first 6 1/2 chapters, Merrin, a boy thought to be Septimus Heap (the Matron Midwife who took Septimus accidentally had her baby taken away from her, instead of Septimus, where he would become part of the Young Army for the first ten years of his life), has just left The Observatory, the hideout up in the Badlands that Simon Heap, Septimus's eldest brother turned bad because he wanted the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Apprenticeship and it was given to Septimus not him, so he turned to the Darke side, now owns. Merrin takes the Two-Faced Ring, a ring that belonged to DomDaniel, in order to "Darken the Destiny of AnOther", i.e. Septimus, for "stealing his name".

It was funny to read about him putting on the ring because it got so tight that his thumb became blue and purple. Serves him right, that does. Then he goes off and eventually he reaches the Castle. But it's night and the drawbridge is up. So he stays at the Grateful Turbot, an inn filled with ghosts who either have perished from the yearly Big Freeze, had an accident on the river or the One Way Bridge, or anything else. He goes in and meets Olaf Snorrelssen, Snorri's father, who has Appeared, as a ghost to the Living for the first time, and offers him accompanyment to the Castle. It's funny of Angie Sage, the author, described Olaf's preparation for his first Appearance. His head was gone, he had a hole where his stomach was, and on the way back to the Grateful Turbot, he half-Appeared, like showing some stuff but not others, making him look like some demented victim of a massacre or torture session.

Now, Merrin is at Number Thirteen, Wizard Way, Magykal Manusciptorium and Spell Checkers, which is like the human printing press/copy machine of the Castle, applying for a job as a Scribe, a copier. Beetle, the boy who is in charge of the place until Jillie Djinn, the Cheif Scribe, returns. I haven't read past the starting of the application, aka Stating his Name, but I bet it's going to be good, him trying to be dark and all.