Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (Children of the Red King, Book 7) (5 page)

And then Charlie recounted some of his adventures with those other friends, the endowed, the descendants of the Red King, like himself. Emma, who could fly; Billy, who understood animals; Lysander, who could call up his spirit ancestors; Tancred, the storm-maker; Gabriel, the clairvoyant. "And there's Olivia." Charlie gave a chuckle. "She's an illusionist, but the Bloors don't know about her. She's kind of our secret weapon."

"So this ancient man, Ezekiel Bloor, keeps you prisoner in his academy for the... ?" The giant looked at Charlie questioningly.

"Gifted, I suppose you'd call it," said Charlie. "And we're not really prisoners."

"But under his control."

"Sometimes we disobey."

"Good! Good!" cried Otus, clapping his hands. He glanced up at the window. "Darkness has come. The dog can be rescued."

"Runner Bean!" Charlie had almost forgotten poor Runner Bean while he'd been talking to the giant.

Otus led the way down the tower. He held the candle in an iron dish. It smelled like burning fat and cast huge, leaping shadows on the stone walls. When they reached the outer door, the giant stopped and listened. Charlie waited beside him, scarcely able to breathe.

Otus had barely opened the door before Charlie rushed out. He was met by such an overpowering blackness, he felt he might have been blinded. And through the terrible dark came the winds, first from one side, then another, driving him against the wall of the tower, dragging his legs, howling in his head.

"RUNNER!" Charlie screamed into the wind.

He waited for an answering bark. But nothing could be heard above the winds.

"Best return, boy," called Otus. "He has been taken."

"No!" Charlie ran blindly forward. Suddenly, he was falling. He landed with a groan on the hard, rocky ground. Putting out a hand, he felt a damp wall. Something scurried over his fingers and he screamed again.

There came a deep, throaty bark, and even in his dangerous position, Charlie felt a surge of joy. "Runner!" he called.

The giant's voice drifted above the wind. "Cursed giant, that I am. I should have warned you of the pits. Where are you, boy?"

"Here!" cried Charlie. He heard the thud of boots. A giant hand touched his, and then he was being hauled up the side of the pit. As he reached the top, a shaft of weak, ragged moonlight showed him a large yellow dog, perched on the rim. "Runner!" he shouted.

Runner Bean barked delightedly as the giant bundled boy and dog toward the tower. "Hush, dog!" he said, pushing them both through the door.

Charlie grabbed the excited dog's collar while Otus closed the door and drew two heavy bolts across it.

"Faith, that dog will have us all in chains before night has passed," the giant muttered.

"Did someone hear us?" Charlie stroked Runner Bean's head, calming him down.

"I fear my neighbor," Otus admitted, as he went up the stone staircase. "His tower is close, and he is not a kind man."

Now that Runner Bean had found Charlie, he seemed reluctant to climb the shadowy steps. Charlie had to coax him up with strokes and promises of bones, though he had no idea if any would be found once they reached the giant's room.

The giant had thought ahead. By the time Charlie had enticed the nervous dog to the top of the stairs, Otus had fished two bones out of the cooking pot. Flinging them across the floor, he chuckled, "Chew on those, brave dog."

"I don't think he feels very brave," Charlie remarked as he watched Runner Bean, ravenously gnawing the bones.

"Charlie, you must flee from here," Otus said gravely. "We cannot hope to hide that dog. Soon my neighbor will alert Oddthumb and his crew. You will hear the horn, and then you must be gone."

"But how?" Charlie gazed around the giant's room. "I can't," he said in a strangled voice. "I don't know how I got here. When I travel I have a wand ..."

"A wand?" The giant's eyes widened. "Truly, you are a magician, then?"

"No, no." Charlie shook his head. "It's just something that I inherited from my other ancestor, a Welsh wizard. It'd take too long to explain."

Too long, indeed, for at that moment the eerie sound of a wailing horn echoed around the giant's tower.

"Oh, mercy, what's to be done?" The giant strode around and around, clenching his fists and glaring at the high window. "I shall defend you with my last breath, Charlie. But I am only one. I cannot prevail. Oddthumb will take you. Oh, poor boy, what is to become of you?"

The giant's mournful voice was too much for Runner Bean. He leaped up with a dreadful howl - and something astonishing happened. From inside one of the dog's ears, a white moth fluttered out. She came to rest on Charlie's arm.

"Claerwen," breathed Charlie. "My wand."

"In my day, we called such things moths," said the baffled giant.

"Yes, yes. She is a moth, but she was once a wand," Charlie told the giant. "Mr. Yewbeam, Otus - we can go now. Thank you, thank you..."

"Then go," said Otus, "for I can hear troll feet. Swiftly, swiftly, Charlie Bone."

"Maybe I could take you with me, Otus?"

The giant sadly shook his head. "An impossibility. Go now, Charlie."

Charlie flung his arm around Runner Bean. "I'll come back, Otus. I promise. I'll find a way to get you out of Badlock." Gazing at the moth, he cried, "Claerwen, take me home."

The room around him began to jerk and jolt. Defying gravity, the table, chair, and bed tumbled sideways, then became airborne. Charlie was treading air. Now he was upside down. His ears were bombarded with a thousand sounds. He felt Runner's coarse hair melting under his fingers and tried to grip it tighter, but something or someone was trying to tear the dog from his grasp. And then his hand was empty and he was whirling away.

Charlie caught one last glimpse of his ancestor's kind, incredulous face before he was thrust through time, through a sparkling, shifting web of sounds, smells, and sensations.

He landed with a light bump on the cold cellar floor of number nine Filbert Street. The painting of Badlock stood against the wall behind him. Giving it one brief glance, Charlie ran to the steps and climbed up to the hall. He could hear voices arguing above him.

"Mercy on us!" yelled Maisie, jumping out of her chair. "Charlie's back!"

There was a sudden silence in the living room. Uncle Paton stepped out, followed by Fidelio, Benjamin, and Olivia.

"Charlie!" cried Benjamin. "Have you got Runner?"

Charlie still felt unsteady. Grasping the railing for support, he said, "Bit of a problem there, Ben."

CHAPTER 4

GREEN VAPOR

“Charlie Bone, I hate you!"

Benjamin's sudden explosion was so out of character, Charlie could only stare at his friend in astonishment.

"You're always doing it," yelled Benjamin. "You're always losing my dog. That time he nearly drowned, and that other time when the enchanter came and..."

"Benjamin Brown," roared Uncle Paton, "control yourself."

Benjamin's mouth closed in a grim pout. His usually pale face had turned an angry red and his eyes were filled with tears.

Charlie stared miserably at his feet. "I'm sorry, but I tried to bring Runner back with me, I really did."

"You saw him?" Benjamin almost choked on his words. "How come you got out and he couldn't? He's trapped in that awful place... and... and ..."

Uncle Paton put a hand on Benjamin's shoulder and gently propelled him toward the kitchen. "Come and sit down, all of you. We need to discuss things carefully."

A voice called from the living room, "Oh, what a to-do!"

"I suppose this is some devilish plan of yours, Grizelda," Uncle Paton retorted.

"Mine?" came the plaintive cry. "I know nothing whatever about it. That painting was all wrapped up. How did I know Charlie would start prying?"

"You knew all right," muttered Uncle Paton. Having gotten everyone into the kitchen, he slammed the door.

"I'll make some sandwiches," said Maisie in her soothing, matter-of-fact voice.

Everyone sat at the kitchen table while Maisie started slicing bread. Uncle Paton paced up and down, pinching his chin and scratching his head.

"Charlie, aren't you going to tell us what happened?" Olivia demanded.

Charlie looked at Benjamin, sitting hunched at the end of the table. "OK... if you all want to know."

"Of course we do," said Fidelio. "That's why we're here."

"It was weird," Charlie began, with another glance in Benjamin's direction. "I was just standing there, looking at the painting, when I felt myself being kind of dragged toward it. It was all wrapped up, but I heard a sound coming from it - the wind."

"The wind?" Uncle Paton stopped pacing and came to sit at the table.

"Go on," urged Olivia.

"So I unwrapped the painting, just a bit, and then suddenly I was there. I hardly traveled at all. It was as if the painting reached out and sucked me in." Charlie looked around at the expectant faces; even Benjamin was staring at him.

"Yes," Uncle Paton prompted, "and then?"

"And then I met a giant."

"A GIANT!" everyone exclaimed, including Maisie, who squeaked as well, having accidentally slammed her fingers in the fridge.

"A sort of giant," Charlie amended. He went on to tell them about Oddthumb and the troll army, about the squirras and blancavamps, the black fortress on the mountain, and finally, how Runner Bean had arrived, with Charlie's moth hidden in his ear.

Not once during Charlie's long account did anyone say a word, and when he came to the end, such a deep silence had fallen in the room that no one seemed inclined to break it until Benjamin said, very softly, "What will happen to Runner if the trolls want his fur?"

Before anyone dared to make a guess, Maisie put a huge plate of sandwiches on the table, saying, "Have some food, kids."

"I hope that applies to me, too," said Uncle Paton, reaching for a sandwich with apple and walnut clearly visible along one side. "Charlie," he continued, "you told us that you saw a black fortress in Badlock."

"In the distance," Charlie spoke through a mouthful of cheese and pickle. "The enchanter's fortress. Just looking at it gave me the creeps."

"Hmm." Uncle Paton smoothed back a long lock of black hair that he had almost eaten with the sandwich. "It occurs to me that Harken the Enchanter is at work again."

"He can't be," Fidelio argued. "Charlie and the others got rid of him when they chanted that spell around the king's tree."

"He MUST have gone," cried Olivia, jumping up and down in her seat, "because Charlie's mother was saved and... and his father woke up and... and Joshua's mother, the witch, has vanished."

"And he doesn't live in Kingdom's Department Store anymore," Benjamin assured them, "because Mom and Dad met the new owner when they were on a shoplifting case there, and they said he was quite normal, except for being overweight, in Mom's opinion, anyway."

"Nevertheless." Uncle Paton turned to Charlie. "Is there still a shadow in the king's portrait?"

Charlie confessed that there was. The portrait hung in the King's room at Bloor's Academy, and Charlie had often tried to enter it, but a dark shadow behind the king always prevented Charlie from meeting his famous ancestor.

"I rest my case," said Uncle Paton.

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean, Mr. Yewbeam?"

Uncle Paton sighed. "It means, my dear Olivia, that if there is a shadow in the king's portrait, a shadow remains in our lives; it's very faint," he added, observing the children's anxious faces, "but it's a shadow, nevertheless. It seems to me that someone is still communicating with Harken the Enchanter, hence the arrival of that painting and the unusual manner of Charlie's journey into Badlock."

Uncle Paton found the five pairs of eyes trained expectantly upon him rather disconcerting. Realizing that he would have to come up with something better, he said, "But who, or what, or why ... I can't yet fathom. Unless ..." He scratched his chin. "Unless someone is using the mirror."

"The Mirror of Amoret was cracked," Charlie said slowly, "when Joshua stole it from me."

"Perhaps it's been fixed," Benjamin suggested as he tried to wish away the awful vision of his starved dog, chained to a block of stone, while Oddthumb, the troll, approached with a large pair of shears.

The Mirror of Amoret had not been fixed. Mrs. Tilpin, formerly Miss Chrystal, might have been a witch, but she had her limitations. She had tried every spell she could find in
The Collected Charms and Enchantments of Steffania Sugwash
(a book she had inherited from her uncle, the notorious Silas Sugwash), all to no avail. So she had decided to enroll some of the endowed students of Bloor's Academy in a small weekend class, where she hoped their special powers could be combined to fix the precious, but sadly damaged, Mirror of Amoret.

With Manfred Bloor's assistance, Mrs. Tilpin had managed to hide herself away in the basement of Bloor's Academy. Here she lived with her son, Joshua, who resented every moment spent in the two damp and dingy rooms, while his mother chanted and hummed and burned herbs in iron bowls and sometimes made him dance horrible dances with her. But she was his mother, and he didn't blame her. He blamed Charlie Bone, who had caused his mother to reveal herself. Charlie, who had stolen the Mirror of Amoret and made Joshua break it.

Not many children would choose to spend their Saturday afternoons in a dank basement room at Bloor's Academy, but Dorcas Loom and the Branko twins, Idith and Inez, were great admirers of Fairy Tilpin (as they liked to call her). This description might once have applied, but not since Mrs. Tilpin had been communicating with Harken the Enchanter. Joshua was, of course, in attendance, but the last member of the group, Dagbert Endless, was less enthusiastic. While the others leaned over Mrs. Tilpin's table, listening with rapt attention, Dagbert preferred to pace in the shadows. Occasionally, he would glance at the little group with a slightly superior expression on his face. This annoyed Mrs. Tilpin, but she never once criticized Dagbert, for she knew that he was the most powerful of all the children, and if she were to bring Harken the Enchanter back into the world, then Dagbert would be an invaluable ally.

Today, Mrs. Tilpin was feeling especially optimistic. The children were ready to proceed. She put
The Collected Charms and Enchantments of Steffania Sugwash
into a cabinet and locked the door with the small silver key that she kept in her pocket.

"Aww! Aren't you going to tell us about Steffania today?" One of the Branko twins sent a spindly chair teetering across the room.

"Petulance will get you nowhere," admonished Mrs. Tilpin. "Who did it?"

"I did," said the twin who was responsible.

"Yes, but which twin are you?"

"Can't you tell, Mrs. "I.?" The voice came from the shadows beside a looming cabinet. "And I thought you knew everything."

Mrs. Tilpin decided to ignore Dagbert. "If you don't tell me which twin you are, then the lesson is over."

The Branko twins, sitting close to each other, stared at Mrs. Tilpin from under their deep black bangs. Their round, porcelain-white faces showed not a trace of emotion, but then one of them suddenly cried, "Inez, Fairy Tilpin. I'm Inez."

"No, you're not, you're Idith," said Dagbert.

This time he had gone too far. "Dagbert Endless, if you don't stop sabotaging my class, I shall have no alternative but to dismiss you."

"OK." Dagbert strode toward the dilapidated planks of wood that served as a door to the so-called classroom.

"Stop!" Mrs. Tilpin commanded.

Dagbert reached the door and glanced back.

Mrs. Tilpin eyed the sullen-looking boy with distaste. He smelled of fish, his face had a greenish hue, and his lank hair reminded her of seaweed. But she needed him.

"I didn't say you WERE dismissed," said Mrs. Tilpin in a slightly wheedling tone. "I'm sure we can get along if we try a little harder. There's something I wanted to show you, in particular, Dagbert."

"Why Dagbert?" asked Joshua.

"Well, all of you," said his mother, and with a dramatic flourish, she reached under the table and produced a gleaming, jewel-framed mirror. Holding it out so that each one of them received an almost blinding flash from its shining surface, she announced, "The Mirror of Amoret."

"It's cracked," Dagbert observed.

"Exactly." Mrs. Tilpin smiled.

"What do you mean, 'exactly'?" asked Dorcas Loom in her monotonous voice.

Mrs. Tilpin wasn't completely without feeling. She felt sorry for Dorcas, with her large pink face and drab, overly permed hair. "Well dear, the reason I'm showing you the mirror is because it's cracked. I thought if we combined our considerable powers, then we might, just might, be able to fix it." She laid the mirror on the table, noting with satisfaction that Dagbert had moved closer.

The three girls leaned eagerly over the table and peered into the silvery glass. Expecting to find themselves reflected in the mirror, they were surprised to see a mist of subtle colors swirling over the surface.

"It's like water," said Inez.

Dagbert stepped closer and looked over Joshua's shoulder.

"Why can't we see ourselves?" asked Dorcas.

"Because you are not there," murmured the witch.

Dagbert directed a skeptical look at her. "We're here," he stated, "so we should be there." He pointed at the mirror.

"Ah. But this is the Mirror of Amoret," said Mrs. Tilpin. "I can see that you don't know the story, Dagbert. I shall enlighten you. Nine hundred years ago, the Red King, whom we in this room acknowledge to be our ancestor, had ..."

"Not the only ancestor," Dagbert pointed out.

"Shhh!" hissed everyone.

Mrs. Tilpin continued as though the interruption had not happened. "Had ten children. Lilith, his eldest daughter, married Harken the Enchanter, and I am descended from their union."

"Phew!" Dagbert whistled.

"Amoret, the king's youngest daughter, married a" - Mrs. Tilpin waved her white fingers in the air - "a giant, I believe."

Dagbert whistled again, but everyone ignored him.

"The king made a mirror for Amoret, a mirror that enabled her to travel. She had only to look into this mirror and think of the person she wished to see, and there she would be, beside them."

At this point Joshua took up the story that by now he knew only too well. "But Amoret died and Count Harken inherited the mirror."

"Really? Inherited the mirror, did he?" Dagbert gave a very slight snort of disbelief.

Mrs. Tilpin's gray eyes flashed. "Yes! Inherited!"

"I wish you wouldn't keep interrupting, Dagbert," Idith complained. "It spoils it for the rest of us."

"SO sorry!" Dagbert shrugged and walked away.

"Wait!" commanded Mrs. Tilpin. "I brought Harken back with this." She grabbed the mirror and held it up.

"But Charlie Bone got it, and we had a fight and I broke it," said Joshua. "And then he found a spell to send the enchanter back into Badlock."

"And there he stays until the mirror can be fixed," continued Mrs. Tilpin. "But we can do it, can't we, children? You and I together, so that Harken can walk among us once again."

They gazed up at the sallow-skinned, beetle-browed woman, who had once been so blond and pleasant-looking. Her hair was now lank and colorless, her eyes ringed with black shadows, even her lips had shrunk to a thin purple line.
Is this what happened when you gave in
to
witchery?
wondered the girls.

Dagbert Endless moved restlessly toward the makeshift door. "I drown people," he said. "Don't see how I can fix glass."

"Look!" ordered Mrs. Tilpin, desperately waving the mirror. "Be surprised, Dagbert Endless. Be awed, wonder-struck, amazed."

Dagbert obliged her with a cursory glance at the jewel-framed mirror. And then he looked again. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. For there, among the constantly shifting shapes and colors, a figure was forming. First a bright emerald tunic, then an olive-skinned, but oddly featureless, face appeared beneath a cloud of golden brown hair. Gradually, in the oval of the face, two dark green eyes emerged; they seemed to be staring directly at Dagbert, and under their fierce, compelling gaze, he found himself moving toward the mirror.

But Mrs. Tilpin's moment of triumph was stolen by an earsplitting crash. The rotten wood of the door suddenly gave way and a small white-haired boy fell into the room. He lay facedown on the shattered panels, and everyone stared at him in astonished silence, until Mrs. Tilpin found her voice.