Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Children of the Red King, Book 5) (4 page)

"That's not as bad as losing your dog," whined Gwyneth Howells, a moaner if ever there was one.

"Losing a cat's worse than losing a dog," argued a small girl in a cape that was two sizes too large for her.

Fidelio Gunn was tuning his violin, oblivious to the conversation going on around him.

"Fido, what about your cat? Pudding, isn't it?" Charlie sat on the bench beside his friend.

"Pudding? What about her?" Fidelio bent over his violin and tightened a string. "She's fine. Deaf as a post, of course."

"You must've heard what's been going on. Everyone's pet has . . ." Charlie paused, struck by a sudden thought. "Of course, your cat's deaf." He pictured Fidelio's house, crammed with musical children, strumming and drumming, singing and thumping. Gunn House positively rocked with sound - but surely, not at midnight.

"Did anything special happen in your house on Saturday night?" Charlie asked.

Yeah." Fidelio hummed a note. "Felix has his band over. They were in the cellar but they still made a lot of noise. Dad kicked them out around one a.m."

"That explains it," said Charlie. "Pudding wouldn't have felt a thing." He stood up, aware that the coat-room was now empty. "Come on, we'll be late for assembly."

At first break, an atmosphere of gloom lay over the playing field. Charlie was surprised by the number of children who kept a pet of some sort. He passed little knots of dejected owners discussing their lost animals: dogs, cats, rabbits, even iguanas, snakes, and bush babies. Where had they gone, and why? Would they come back, and when?

Charlie had no doubt that the finger of suspicion would eventually fall on the Children of the Red King. They were usually blamed for unusual happenings.

Miss Chrystal, the violin teacher, gave Charlie a cheery wave from the door. "Are you all right, Charlie?" she called. "You look lost."

"I was just looking for Fidelio, Miss Chrystal," said Charlie.

"Ah. He's waiting for a music lesson. I'm late." Miss Chrystal popped back inside.

Charlie envied Fidelio. He had the youngest and prettiest music teacher in the school. Charlie had old Mr. Paltry with his bad temper and smoker's cough.

"Hi, Charlie!"

Charlie turned to see Tancred and Lysander walking around the field together. Tancred beckoned to him. When Charlie ran up to them, Lysander's usual, welcoming smile was absent. He stared moodily into the distance, as if Charlie wasn't even there.

"Hey, it was great, you standing up to Manfred like that," Charlie said encouragingly.

Still no smile. Yeah." Lysander stared grimly ahead.

"His parrot's gone," Tancred explained. "You know - Homer."

"All the animals have gone," said Charlie. "They went during the snowstorm on Saturday. But we'll get them back, I know we will."

Tancred said quickly, "About the snow, Charlie. It was me. I brought it, but I swear I had nothing to do with the animals."

"You!"
said Charlie. "No wonder. I thought there was something weird about that stuff."

Tancred looked slightly offended. "I thought I did a pretty good job, actually."

"But why snow?" asked Charlie.

"The Flame cats made me do it." Tancred ran a hand through his spiky yellow hair. "I'm not sure why."

"They came to see me, too," said Charlie, almost to himself. "Maybe they were trying to stop something from being found, and the snow helped, for a while, but in the end someone got to an object that connects our world to a kind of - ancient spirit." Charlie drew a breath. The two older boys were staring at him with a mixture of fascination and disbelief.

"Go on," said Lysander.

"Well, when that happened, the earth shuddered. At least that's what Rembrandt told Billy. The animals felt the shudder and they were all so frightened, they fled."

"Where to?" Lysander demanded. "My parrot's gone and I want him back. I need him."

Charlie gave a defeated shrug. "Rembrandt said they all went across the river. He came back, but now he can't remember how he got to - wherever they all went."

"Useless rat," Lysander grunted.

Charlie was disappointed to find a tough character like Lysander so dependent on a parrot. He was about to defend Rembrandt when the horn sounded for the end of break and the boys headed back toward the school.

As a crowd of children filed through the garden door, Charlie was astonished to see a familiar figure walking among them. It was Benjamin's mother, Mrs. Brown.

"That's your friend's mom, Charlie," Tancred observed. "Is Benjamin coming to Bloor's?"

Charlie shook his head. "No. He would have said. What's she doing here?"

"She's a private investigator, so she's probably investigating," said Lysander. "Hey, maybe she's come to find out about the disappearing animals. They probably think it's one of us." He gave a bitter laugh.

Mrs. Brown suddenly looked over her shoulder and met Charlie's gaze. She quickly turned away and stepped through the door.

"She's acting like she doesn't know me," said Charlie incredulously.

"You're under suspicion, Charlie Bone," said Tancred with a mocking grin. "See you later, animal evaporator." He flew after Lysander, who was already several strides ahead.

"What . . .?" Charlie stood with his mouth open.

Tancred was joking, of course, but it was no joke to have your oldest friend's mother deliberately avoiding you.

"I can always count on you to be last." Asa Pike, the head prefect, smirked at Charlie from inside the hall. "I'm going to lock this door in ten sec -"

"NO!" Charlie leaped over the step and skidded to a halt beside Asa.

"Did you have a nice Christmas holiday?" There was a sneer behind Asa's every remark.

Charlie chose to ignore the sneer and replied, "Great, thanks. And you?"

Asa's weaselly face twitched. He tucked a greasy strand of orange hair behind his ear and said, "Of course. Get moving or you'll be late for class."

Charlie hastened across the hall, leaving Asa to lock the door. There was something unusual about the prefect's behavior. He had seemed nervous and ill at ease, Asa was the oldest student in the school and should have been head boy, but having failed all of last year's exams, he had been passed over for Riley Burns, a bossy know-it-all and champion athlete.

Could Asa's humiliation have accounted for his nervousness? Charlie wasn't sure. And then a thought struck him. When dusk fell, Asa had been known to change his shape; he could become a long-snouted, crooked-backed, wolfish creature. Perhaps, like other animals, he too had felt the earth shudder. Charlie decided to observe the prefect during homework, when they would sit at the same table in the King's room.

That evening, Charlie was the first person through the black doors of the King's room. He looked around the high-ceilinged, circular room, its curved walls lined with shelves of leather-bound books. There was space for only one picture; a huge gilt-framed painting of the Red King.

Charlie liked to sit where he could see the painting, and as he arranged his books on the large round table, the other endowed children began to arrive.

First came Joshua Tilpin, a small boy with a mousy face, big ears, and crooked teeth. As usual he wore a dusting of chalk, paper, leaves, and twigs; Joshua was magnetic in more ways than one. Next came the telekinetic twins, Idith and Inez, and then Billy Raven made a furtive entrance. Sidling toward Charlie, he Whispered, "I've got something to tell you."

But Charlie barely heard him. He was staring at the king's portrait. He knew it so well. He had gazed so often at the dark face, its features blurred by cracks in the ancient paint. The king wore a slim, gold crown and a red cloak, its deep folds darkened and stained with age. Charlie had longed to enter the painting and walk in the distant world of the Red King, but something always prevented him. A dark shadow stood behind the king, a mysterious figure that blocked Charlie's every attempt to reach his ancestor. But now -

Charlie's eyes widened. Dizzy with shock, he gripped the back of his chair. The shadow had moved. Only slightly, but Charlie knew the painting so well that it was obvious to him. Once the shadow had been a hazy shape standing behind the king. Now it appeared to be larger and more defined, as though it had taken a step forward.

"The shadow," he breathed.

Leaning close to him, Billy said softly, "I was going to tell you."

A WITCH WITH TWO SHADOWS

Billy Raven, are you talking?" Manfred Bloor strode into the room. He was carrying a large black briefcase, brand-new by the look of it.

"Er, not really. I was just sort of asking Charlie to move a book." Billy's red eyes blinked nervously.

"Silence is golden, remember that, Billy." Manfred settled himself on the opposite side of the table.

"Yes, Man - sir." Just in time, Billy remembered that Manfred must now be called sir.

Gradually, the King's room filled up. Lysander was the last one in. He closed the door with a backward kick, causing Manfred to shout, "For Pete's sake, can't you behave normally, Lysander Sage?"

"Depends on what you mean by normal, Lysander said airily. "I mean, none of us in here are normal, are we? Not even you."

Thrown off guard, Manfred stared at Lysander with an expression of horror. But quickly regaining his composure, he snarled, "I've had enough of your cheek, Sage. That remark will cost you. Now sit down and shut up."

Shrugging his shoulders, Lysander sat beside Tancred and, watched by the rest of the room, arranged his books on the table.

The oppressive atmosphere in the King's room grew steadily worse. To Charlie, the children sitting on either side of Manfred seemed especially smug tonight. They kept darting secretive looks at one another, and then glaring across the table at Charlie and his friends.

Dorcas Loom had once been a round and rosy, perpetually smiling girl. Now she was a heavyset, glowering twelve-year-old, with matted blond hair and an unhealthy indoor pallor. She sat between the identical Branko twins, Idith and Inez, the black-haired, doll-faced children who only smiled when someone was in trouble.

One of the twins (who knows which) was watching Charlie now, as his gaze slid up to the Red King's portrait. He couldn't concentrate on his work at all. The changed position of the sinister shadow in the painting filled his thoughts. How had it happened? And why? Manfred had told him that the shadow was Borlath, the king's oldest son and a brutal tyrant. But Charlie's instincts told him that this was not true. Who, then, was the shadow?

"Bone! Do your work!" Manfred's voice brought Charlie back to earth.

"I w-was," he stuttered.

"No, you weren't. You were staring at that painting again. You're always doing it. Well, give it up, Charlie Bone, because that's one picture you're never, ever going to enter. Understand?"

"If you say so." Charlie bent over his work. He had resisted the urge to mention the shadow, although he longed to know how the others would react. Apart from Billy, had any of them even noticed that the shadow had moved?

As soon as homework was over, Charlie gathered up his books and quickly followed Billy out of the room.

"Did you see the shadow?" he asked Billy, as the smaller boy hurried down the hallway. "Is that what you wanted to tell me?"

"I'm not very observant," Billy said warily. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What are they waiting for?"

Looking back, Charlie saw Gabriel, Emma, Tancred, and Lysander standing outside the King's room.

"Did you see that?" Emma called to Charlie.

"What?" said Charlie, irritated by the distraction and desperate to find out more from Billy.

"Asa came and locked the door as soon as we left the room," Emma told him.

"And the others are still in there," added Gabriel. "What are they up to?"

"Who cares." Lysander strolled away from them.

"I care." Tancred's cape billowed out and a strong breeze whistled through everyone's hair. "What are they doing? I want to know." He put his ear to the door, and it suddenly opened, causing him to fall forward, straight into Asa Pike.

"Get lost, spy!" hissed Asa, pushing Tancred backward.

With a yell of rage, Tancred stumbled back, lost his balance, and sat down hard on his bottom.

"And that goes for all of you." Asa glared down the hallway. "Unless you want detention." He slammed the door and locked it loudly from the inside.

Tancred got to his feet and was about to approach the King's room again, when Emma put a hand on his arm. "Don't, Tanc," she said. "It's not worth it."

Charlie could see that Tancred was just itching to bang on those tall black doors, but something in Emma's quiet voice stopped him. "OK. You're right, Em. I'm just playing into their hands."

Emma helped Tancred gather the books and pens he'd dropped, and with a pile of homework tucked under his arms, the storm boy joined the group making its way to the dormitories. When they had crossed the landing above the hall, the two older boys left the others and mounted a staircase to the upper floors. A little farther on, Emma began to climb a second staircase to the girls' dormitories.

Night, Em. See you -" Charlie broke off.

"What is it?" Emma looked over her shoulder.

The hallway was very dim, and the doors leading off it were hardly discernible, but Charlie knew what he had seen. "Mr. Brown," he whispered. "Benjamin's dad. He went into one of those storage rooms. He was following us. I'm sure he was."

"Weird," said Emma. "But we can't do anything about it now." She yawned. "I'm off. Night, boys." She disappeared up into the shadows of the next floor.

Charlie and Billy continued down the long gloomy hall to the dormitory they had shared the previous term. Lists had been pinned to the doors and they soon found that they would be together again.

Gabriel was already in the dormitory. He was sitting on one of the beds, sniffing the air. "There's a funny smell in here," he said.

"Smell or not, we're the first ones here, so we get first choice of a bed." Charlie consulted his watch. "Hey, Manfred let us out early."

"So that he could have his secret talks with Asa and company, no doubt," Gabriel suggested. He went into the bathroom and gave a shout of surprise. "Uurgh! What a stink. It's that dog again."

"Oh, poor Blessed, I forgot him." As Billy ran to the bathroom, he almost tripped over the short, fat dog that came waddling out as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.

"What's he doing here?" Gabriel exclaimed. "How come he didn't disappear with the rest of the animals?"

"I was going to tell you." Billy patted the old dog's head. "He came in when I was unpacking my bag, and I kind of, accidentally, shut him in the bathroom when I went to the King's room for homework."

"That doesn't explain how he avoided the great animal exodus," said Gabriel as he returned to the bathroom.

"He's old," Charlie pointed out. "A lot of the old ones couldn't make it, or didn't feel the shudder, or whatever it was."

Billy heaved Blessed onto the bed he had chosen for himself. "Actually, he did feel the shudder," he told Charlie. "But he was with Cook and she made him stay where he was. When it was all over, he crept out and saw something that made him very, very scared. Didn't it, Blessed?"

The old dog gave several low grunts and made himself comfortable on Billy's pillow. Charlie sat on the end of the bed next to Billy's. He didn't understand how Billy could tolerate the terrible smell that Blessed must leave on his pillow, let alone the dirt, hairs, and probably fleas.

"Well, what did he see?" Charlie asked Billy.

The small albino boy lowered his voice. "He saw a witch with two shadows."

"What!" cried Charlie.

Gabriel sprang out of the bathroom. "What happened?"

Charlie repeated what Billy had told him.

"What do you mean, 'a witch'?" Alarm spread across Gabriel's long face, making him look like a startled rabbit. "How did Blessed know it was a witch?"

"That's my word for it," Billy admitted. "Blessed's word was more like devil-woman."

"Devil-woman." The hairs on the back of Charlie's neck prickled like a bramble bush. "That's worse."

"And what's all this stuff about two shadows?" asked Gabriel, hoping to calm himself with a rational explanation. "Do you think he was seeing double? I mean, he's a pretty ancient dog, isn't he?"

"His eyesight's just as good as mine." Billy adjusted his round-framed glasses and spoke to Blessed in a whining sort of mumble.

Blessed gave a worried howl, then rolled onto his back and emitted a series of staccato-like barks.

"Definitely two shadows," said Billy, when the old dog's voice had subsided. "Because one of them turned into something else while the devil-woman's shadow stayed with her."

"What did it turn into?" asked Gabriel and Charlie in unison.

"For a dog, he described it very well," Billy said appreciatively. "He was in the hall, behind that old chest. The woman came down the main staircase with these two shadows spread across the flagstones in front of her. And when they reached the main doors this - other one - kind of, stood up. First it was gray, like a cloud of dust, and then it was green with golden patterns on it."

Billy glanced at Blessed and lowered his voice. "He said it was a nightgown, but I think he means that it was a long kind of medieval robe." He gave Blessed a friendly grin. "It's not his fault. I mean, he's never seen a medieval robe. I mean I've only ever seen pictures of . . .

"Could you please go on about the shadow?" begged Charlie.

"Sorry. But dogs' feelings are important." Billy gave a light cough. "Anyway, he said that it had a man's face and brown hair, almost to its shoulders, and its shoes were long and pointed, and -"

The door suddenly burst open and a crowd of boys streamed into the room.

"Uuurgh! Not that smelly old dog again," said the first boy, a large, chunky character who had earned the name "Bragger" Braine.

Blessed gave a whine of dismay, tumbled off the bed, and padded through the door as fast as he could.

"It's disgusting," grumbled Bragger, making for the bed farthest from Billy's. "That dog has the most evil smell in the world."

"I can think of worse," said Fidelio, putting his bag on the bed Charlie had saved for him.

"Mommy's given me some air freshener," Rupe Small, a diminutive first-year, piped up. "It'll soon smell better in here, Bragger." He produced an enormous pink can and proceeded to spray the room with an even worse scent than Old Dog.

"It's called Sweet Petal," Rupe called happily, while eleven boys dived onto their beds and covered their faces with pillows, pajamas, and anything they could lay their hands on.

Choking cries of "Stop that!" "It's worse!" "Give it up!" "Someone strangle him!" came from the victims, while Rupe blithely filled the dormitory with the suffocating scent of Sweet Petal.

Nothing, it seemed, could stop the determined sprayer, until a series of earsplitting screams issued from the floor above. Caught in mid-puff, Rupe stood with his mouth agape while boys flung themselves off their beds and filed past him.

Charlie was the first to reach the girls' floor. He stood at the top of the stairs, rocking on his feet - perilously close to a backward tumble - while Gabriel, propping him up with both hands, peered around him into the hallway beyond.

"OH MY GOD!" screeched Gabriel, collapsing onto the line of boys standing behind him.

Oblivious to the yells of pain and anger below, Charlie stared incredulously at the creature in front of him. A greenish-gray alligator of gigantic proportions blocked the entire hall. It blinked its yellow eyes and opened a cavernous mouth, crammed with more evil-looking, razor-sharp teeth than Charlie had ever seen, even in horror movies.

The floor behind the monster was littered with prostrate figures in various items of nightwear, while the terrified faces of girls who hadn't yet fainted, kept peering out of their rooms, screaming and withdrawing. The passage echoed with the drumbeats of hastily slammed doors.

All at once, the giant creature gave a throaty bellow and came charging at Charlie. Clinging to the stair rail, but unable to move, Charlie screamed so loudly the creature actually stopped in its tracks.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Charlie recognized the voice of his great-aunt Lucretia, the matron. Knowing how much she disliked him, he doubted if she would come to his rescue, but to his amazement, the monster began to dematerialize. Beginning with its tail, invisibility slid up its warty back and over its gnarled head until it was completely swallowed in nothingness.

By the time Lucretia Yewbeam had climbed over the injured boys and reached Charlie, the hall was empty, except, of course, for the unconscious girls.

Taking in the dreadful scene before her, the matron cried, "CHARLIE BONE, WHAT, IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT'S GOOD, HAVE YOU DONE?"

"Me?" croaked Charlie. "Nothing."

"Do you call that 'nothing'?" The matron pointed at the fallen girls, some of whom were now regaining consciousness.

"I didn't do
that,"
said Charlie.

"He did," said a sly voice.

Dorcas Loom had emerged from one of the dormitories. "He made an alligator. Well, that is to say, he created the illusion of one."

"I didn't," cried Charlie. "You know I didn't. I got here minutes after you all started screaming."

"That doesn't mean you didn't do it," said Dorcas.

"Go to the headmaster this instant." The matron glowered down at Charlie.

"Why?" asked Charlie, genuinely surprised.

"To explain what you've done."

"But . . ." Charlie looked up at the cold face looming over him. They were all the same; his grandmother and his three great-aunts. They would always be against him. To argue would be useless.

He was about to go down the stairs when a voice rang out, "He didn't do it, Matron. Honestly. I know, he didn't."

Charlie turned to see Olivia Vertigo bouncing along the hallway. She was wearing the most incredible pair of pajamas. They were black velvet, embroidered with huge, golden flowers, and exactly matched her black-and-gold-striped hair.

"Mind your own business, Olivia," barked the matron.

"But it is my business," Olivia protested. "Dorcas is lying. Charlie's innocent."

"Innocent, my foot." The matron gave Olivia a violent shove. "Get to bed."

"Thanks for trying, Liv," said Charlie. "By the way, you look fantastic."