Children of the Red King Book 07 Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock, Page 6

  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."

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  "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."

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  "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

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  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

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  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

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  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 TheCollected 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?"

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  "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.

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  "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.

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  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.

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

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  "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."

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

  "Billy Raven!" she screamed. "Spy!"

  "Snoop!" cried Joshua.

  "Eavesdropping snitch!" said Dorcas.

  "Sneak!" shouted the twins.

  "How did you find us, Billy?" asked Dagbert, who had shaken himself free of the dark green gaze.

  Billy Raven got to his feet, a little awkwardly, and adjusted his glasses. "I was looking for the dog," he said.

  "That scabby old Blessed," snorted Joshua.

  Mrs. Tilpin laid her mirror very gently on the table and walked over to Billy. "Why are you not staying with Charlie Bone?" she asked in a cold voice.

  "He forgot to ask me," sniffed Billy, picking a splinter out of his palm.

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  "FORGOT," said Mrs. Tilpin. "That's not very nice. I thought he was your friend."

  "He is," Billy mumbled, "but sometimes he's busy."

  "Aww!" said Dorcas. "Poor Billy."

  Billy chewed his lip and darted a furtive look at the table. A vaporous green cloud was rising from the mirror and curling up toward the damp ceiling. Everyone turned to watch it, mouths open and eyes wide.

  "What's that?" Billy whispered.

  Mrs. Tilpin clasped her hands with a look of ecstasy. "That, Billy Raven, is a message from my ancestor. It seems that you have disappointed him."

  "Me?" The chill that ran down Billy's spine had nothing to do with the temperature in Mrs. Tilpin's room. The sight of the green vapor terrified him so much, he even failed to hear the snap of wood as someone stepped over the broken door.

  Suddenly, Billy's shoulders were grabbed from behind and the small boy gasped with shock.

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  "What are you doing here?" Manfred Bloor swung Billy around to face him. "Why aren't you staying with Charlie Bone?"

  Billy looked into the cruel black eyes gazing down at him. He had always been mortally afraid of Manfred Bloor; with his bony face and narrow shoulders, he looked more like an old man than a boy of nineteen. His long hair, tied in a ponytail, was already streaked with gray, and his tight black sweater only emphasized his scrawny frame.

  "Well?" snarled Manfred.

  "He ... he didn't ask," faltered Billy.

  "Didn't ask. That's no excuse." Manfred glanced disdainfully at the children seated around the table. Then he noticed Dagbert and he gave a brief half-smile.

  All that remained of the green vapor was a thin cloud that clung to the brick ceiling like a mildewy cobweb. Manfred didn't appear to have seen it. "Scram, kids!" he barked. "I want a private word with Mrs. Tilpin."

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  With a chorus of "Yes, Manfred," Dorcas, the twins, and Joshua gathered up their books and made for the door. Dagbert said nothing, but he followed the others as they stepped over the splintered planks. And then he looked back briefly and murmured. "She wants to let an enchanter loose on the world, what d'you think of that, Manfred?"

  "I think it's an excellent idea," Manfred replied, with another of his sinister smiles.

  "Really?" Dagbert raised his eyebrows and stepped into the dark hallway.

  "You too," said Manfred, addressing the white-haired boy who seemed to be in a trance.

  Billy shook himself. He looked around the room, as though he had no idea how he got there, and then walked slowly through the doorway.

  "Tell Mr. Weedon to come and fix the door you broke," Mrs. Tilpin called after him.

  "Yes," said Billy weakly.

  Manfred lifted two of the wooden boards and laid them across the drafty gap. Rubbing his hands

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  free of dust, he came and sat at the table. "Very satisfactory," he said, his wide grin revealing a row of long yellow teeth.

  "You're very pleased with yourself," Mrs. Tilpin remarked.

  "Oh, I am. Didn't you notice?"

  "Notice?" Mrs. Tilpin appeared to be more interested in her mirror than anything Manfred had to say.

  "It's coming back!" Manfred gripped the edge of the table and leaned forward. "My endowment, Titania. Remember, you said it would return if I was patient. "Relax," you said. "Try it out occasionally, but don't force it." Well, I've just hypnotized Billy Raven. Didn't you notice?"

  "I suppose so." Mrs. Tilpin frowned into her mirror. "He's not happy," she mumbled.

  "When those leopards attacked me, I thought I was done for, but
it's quite the reverse. I'm stronger than ever." Manfred spread out his long, thin arms.

  "I expect it was anger," said Mrs. Tilpin, without

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  taking her eyes from the mirror. "Anger and fear, both powerful agents. They can channel the forces that lie dormant within us."

  "Is that so?" Manfred frowned at the mirror. "What's going on, Titania?"

  Her gaze still held by the mirror, Mrs. Tilpin said, "He was expecting Billy Raven. And I haven't given you permission to use my first name."

  Manfred shrugged. "Apologies, Fairy Tilpin, but it suits you so well."

  Mrs. Tilpin grimaced. She had never known how to accept a compliment. "I feel it when he's angry, right here." She jabbed her stomach. "He expected Billy today. When Eustacia Yewbeam took the painting, she assured me that the boy would be with Charlie."

  "What's the hurry? We'll make sure the kid sees the painting next Saturday. He'll start talking to the dog and Harken will have him."

  "The dog might not last a week," Mrs. Tilpin said sullenly. "Trolls eat dogs, you know."

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  "Poor doggie."

  Mrs. Tilpin stamped her foot. "Don't be smart. Have you forgotten the enchanter is doing this for you? He has promised to hold the boy until that wretched will is found and destroyed. What do you imagine will happen if Lyell Bone returns and remembers where the will is kept? The game will be up, Manfred Bloor. Billy Raven inherits everything, remember. This house, the ancient castle, even the treasures hidden under old Ezekiel's bed."

  Manfred lost his smile and a look of icy cunning came across his face. Mrs. Tilpin found herself holding the mirror tight to her chest, as though the green figure swirling in the glass could protect her from the boy's deadly stare.

  "Lyell Bone will never return," said Manfred. "We'll see to that."

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  CHAPTER 5

  THE PETS' CAFEIS CLOSED

  Long after his friends had left, Charlie still wandered the house. Up and down the stairs, in and out of his room, and down into the cellar, where he would stare at Runner Bean's image, at the strands of white hairs in his yellow beard, his shiny black nose, and the reproachful brown eyes that gazed into Charlie's.