by Jenny Nimmo
"Please." Mr. Onimous nodded eagerly.
"We brought our son to this kingdom fifteen years ago. Merromals don't travel well, but we, Mr. Pike and I, decided that we must see more of the great world that we all live in. I expect you're wondering how we came by our education. ..." She looked around the table, but no one would admit that such an idea had crossed their minds. Mrs. Pike smiled. "Well, I'll tell you. It was books. Cafall took his father's great book of legends when he left the castle. Since then we have collected more legends, more words. We have printers, yes, really. We have libraries, many of them. When Merromals travel, they always come home with more books, more subjects, more words, more ideas. We are a very educated people, although sometimes our children find schoolwork hard. It was like this for Asa."
Charlie remembered that Asa had failed his last exams. He waited for Mrs. Pike to continue, but she was intent on eating at that moment. She had stuffed the rest of the cake into her mouth and was chewing heartily.
"More cake, Mrs. Pike?" Mrs. Onimous hastily cut extra slices and pushed the plate across the table. "Come on, Charlie, Olivia, eat up. There's plenty more."
Charlie was glad that Mrs. Onimous had been the first to speak, and by doing so broke the spell. He took a slice of cake, waited for Mrs. Pike to swallow, and then asked, "Why did you send Asa to Bloor's Academy, Mrs. Pike?"
She looked at him in surprise. "Where else would he go? It's where the Red King lived, where other endowed children go. Not that you'd call Asa's affliction an endowment, exactly. But we felt he would fit in, and he did, for a while. Manfred Bloor took him under his wing, and life was quite good for Asa... and then ..." Her voice trailed away.
"And then he changed sides," Olivia put in. "He helped Charlie to get his father back."
"The Bloors will never forgive Asa, will they?" Charlie said sadly.
Mrs. Pike patted Charlie's hand. "He did the right thing. It's not your fault, Charlie Bone. We were proud of our Asa for helping you against the Bloors. But we didn't expect their wrath to be so terrible. If Manfred hadn't been injured like that..." She glanced up at the three cats.
"I know," said Mr. Onimous, following her gaze. "It's hard to believe they could do that to a person."
"They were leopards once," Charlie said defensively. "What do you expect?"
Everyone looked up at the three bright tails, and Leo, the orange cat, woke up, almost as though he felt their eyes on him. He stretched and yawned, and then regarded the scene below with haughty golden eyes.
"I can't feel sorry for Manfred," said Charlie. "He put my father in a trance so deep, he would never have woken up if it hadn't been for the cats."
"We know, dear," said Mrs. Onimous.
There was a question that Charlie had been wanting to ask Mrs. Pike. Now seemed the right time. "Were you in our empty house, Mrs. Pike, a week ago? I thought I saw you in the street outside, when my uncle, er, when the streetlight kind of exploded."
Mrs. Pike turned to look at Charlie. She seemed a little fearful. Her mouth twitched and her hands began to tremble. "In your house?" she whispered.
"The place that used to be our house," Charlie amended. "I don't live there at the moment, but when my parents come back from their vacation, and the builders have repaired it... oh, please. I'm sorry."
Charlie couldn't continue because Mrs. Pike appeared to be very distressed. She had covered her face with her hands and was shaking quite violently.
Mrs. Onimous put an arm around the troubled woman. "There, there, dear. Charlie meant no harm, I'm sure."
"I'm really sorry," Charlie said in an undertone. "I didn't mean to upset anyone."
Mr. Onimous took a handful of tissues from a box on the dresser and offered them to Mrs. Pike. She grabbed the tissues, dabbed her eyes, rubbed her cheeks, and loudly blew her nose. When all this was done, she stopped shaking, squared her shoulders, and said in a firm voice, "I can't deny it. You deserve the truth, Charlie Bone."
Charlie was taken aback by Mrs. Pike's sudden, forthright manner. "Thank you," he murmured.
There was an expectant hush while Mrs. Pike dabbed her nose again and cleared her throat. Unfortunately, the silence was broken by Olivia.
Unable to bear the strain any longer, she begged, "What is the truth, Mrs. Pike?"
Mrs. Pike flashed a reproving glance at her. "I'm coming to it," she barked.
Olivia smiled self-consciously and sank back into her chair.
Raising her voice several notches, Mrs. Pike announced, "We were blackmailed."
Everyone looked startled, but before a word could be said, Mrs. Pike continued. "It was that man Weedon who caught poor Asa. He took him away and locked him up in the dark. When our boy didn't come home we went to the academy, very late so no one would see us. The Bloors told us we'd get our boy back if we found something they wanted: a box, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They reckoned it was in your old house, Charlie. We were to search every inch of it, and not return until we'd found the box. No box, no boy, they said." Mrs. Pike swallowed hard and blew her nose again.
Charlie waited for her to resume her story, but when this didn't happen, he asked, "Did you find the box?"
"Not a sign of it." Mrs. Pike sighed. "It isn't in that house, I'd swear to it. The old man, Ezekiel, said he knew that Lyell Bone, your father, had hidden it, Charlie. But when Lyell was under that terrible spell he forgot all about it. They could never make him tell them where it was. But now he's better, they're afraid he's suddenly going to remember where he put it."
"He never mentioned a mother-of-pearl box to me," said Charlie. "I wonder what's in it?"
"It must be very valuable," said Olivia excitedly.
"Something of the utmost importance," declared Mrs. Onimous.
Her husband added thoughtfully, "A matter of life and death. Oh, dear. Oh, my word."
"What is it, Orvil?" his wife demanded. "You look so grim."
Mr. Onimous grinned unconvincingly. "I just had a silly thought, but it's nothing."
Charlie realized he must have had the same thought as Mr. Onimous. "It isn't silly," he said. "You think they'll want to stop my father from coming back, don't you? In case he finds the box before they do."
"It did cross my mind," Mr. Onimous admitted.
Charlie got to his feet, angry and defiant. "If they think they can get at my father again, they're wrong. He's thousands of miles away."
"Of course he is, Charlie," Mrs. Onimous said calmly. "He's quite safe."
"I'll tell him about the box as soon as he comes back," Charlie went on, "and we'll find it together."
"What can be in it?" said Olivia. "I can hardly wait to find out. Couldn't you look for it now, Charlie? I'll help."
"Lyell might have given the box to someone else," Mr. Onimous suggested.
The room went quiet as they all thought about this. Olivia had just begun to say, "But who ..." when they heard Norton Cross open the cafe door and say, "Blow me down!"
"Goodness, it's time to open the cafe!" Mrs. Onimous ran around the table and through the beaded curtain. She gave a cry of surprise and appeared a second later with Benjamin Brown. At his side walked a very wet-looking dog.
"Ben!" cried Olivia and Charlie.
"I thought he'd drowned." Olivia jumped up and hugged the bedraggled dog.
Benjamin smiled at everyone. "Someone saved him. Look." He pulled from his pocket a long scarlet feather. "I found this under Runner's collar. It's a kind of message, isn't it?"
"The knight," said Charlie slowly.
"What knight is this?" asked Mr. Onimous.
While Mrs. Onimous rubbed Runner Bean with a towel, Olivia described the knight they had seen standing in the mist at the end of the bridge. "At first I couldn't believe my eyes," she said, "but Charlie saw him, too. He wore a red cloak and a silver helmet with red feathers floating from the top."
"The Red Knight," Mr. Onimous scratched his chin.
"Are you going to tell us who he was?" asked Mrs. On
imous.
"No one knows for sure." Mr. Onimous's bright eyes blinked several times before he said, "It was believed that the knight and the Red King were one and the same."
12
LYSANDER AND LAUREN
The Red King!" Charlie felt an overwhelming surge of hope. "Of course. Who else could stop the river from drowning us? And who else could have saved Runner Bean?"
Olivia looked dubious. "The king is just a tree, Charlie. We saw him. He'll be a tree forever now."
"We don't know that for certain." Charlie looked at Mr. Onimous. "Do we, Mr. Onimous?"
The small man spread his hands. "Who knows, Charlie? In this city anything is possible. Now I must attend to my cafe. Mrs. Pike, you stay here, and we'll get you settled later." He rushed out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of dog biscuits and bowls of bird seed.
Mrs. Pike had been listening to them all with a frown that grew deeper every moment. Mention of the Red King brought her no relief. "I am beyond saving," she said sadly. "The Bloors want me dead for sure. I failed to find the box, and knowing about it has sealed my fate. I wasn't to tell a soul. They'll guess that I've told you. They wanted to drown ME, Charlie, not you or your friends."
"It was just the river, Mrs. Pike," Olivia said emphatically. "No one was trying to drown you. I mean, who would have seen us so early in the morning, in all that fog?"
Mrs. Pike couldn't be consoled. "If Asa's alive, they'll try and turn him again. He's a changer, after all." She made a soft, grunting noise and Runner Bean backed into a corner with a growl. "Dear me, the dog's afraid of me, and I've never harmed an animal in my life."
"He's not afraid, he's just confused," said Benjamin, trying to sound polite.
The sound of barking came from the cafe; this was followed by several catcalls, a low whinny, and a voice that kept repeating, "Dog ahoy! Dog ahoy!"
There was no mistaking the familiar call. It had to be Lysander's parrot, Homer. Charlie, Benjamin, and Olivia said good-bye to Mrs. Pike, Charlie promising that whatever happened, Asa would be rescued.
"And you'll be quite safe here, Mrs. Pike." Olivia gave the forlorn woman's arm a squeeze. "They're brilliant, the Onimouses."
The three children trooped out of the kitchen, emerging behind the counter in the cafe. Standing on the other side of the counter were Lysander and a very pretty girl with a parrot on her shoulder. Lysander's parrot was sitting on his head.
"Hi, everyone," said Lysander. "This is Lauren, oh, and Cassandra."
"I'm Lauren; she's Cassandra," said the girl, tapping the parrot's foot. "Are you going to sit with us?"
It seemed a very good idea. The other three walked around the counter and joined the line.
"You owe me a chocolate fudge," Olivia reminded Charlie.
"You deserve two," said Charlie, checking his pocket for the right money.
The Pets' Cafe was remarkably busy. Perhaps on gloomy days, pets needed to socialize as much as their owners. Before they could reach the only empty table, the five children had to jump over cats and rabbits, squeeze past a giant dog and a miniature pony, and duck under a low-flying owl.
"Phew!" Lysander dropped into a chair and wiped a hand across his brow. "What a crowd. This place is becoming almost too popular. Homer's favorite foods have already sold out." He passed a chunk of cake up to his parrot. "Try that, Homer."
Homer took the cake in his beak, placed it under one foot, and pecked at it very daintily.
"What a great place," Lauren declared, gazing around the cafe. "I wish you'd brought me here before, Lysander."
Charlie had been trying to place the girl. She was so pretty, with her dark, wavy hair and dimpled cheeks, he was sure he would have noticed her at Bloor's. "You don't go to our school, do you?" he said.
Lysander laughed. "No fear of that. She goes to a nice, normal school, don't you, Lauren?"
"Actually, you go to my school," Benjamin said shyly. "But I don't suppose you would have noticed me."
"Hang on." Lauren studied Benjamin closely. Yes, of course. You're Benjamin Brown. Your parents are famous detectives, aren't they?"
"Well, not really famous." Benjamin blushed and leaned down to give Runner Bean a second beef treat.
Lysander wanted to know what Charlie and his friends were doing in the Onimouses' kitchen.
"It's a long story," Charlie said uncertainly. He knew Lysander could be trusted but wasn't so sure about Lauren.
There was no stopping Olivia, however. Hardly pausing to draw breath, she recounted almost every moment of their near-disastrous morning, from the time they reached the wilderness until Benjamin appeared with Runner Bean and the red feather.
While Lysander remained silently pensive, Lauren praised Olivia for her excellent storytelling.
"Not that I think it's a story," Lauren told Olivia.
"But it's so incredible. I mean, I know you guys at Bloor's are very, well... interesting to say the least but, hey" - she lowered her voice - "a not-quite-human person right here, in the kitchen?"
"As a matter of fact, she is human," Charlie said gravely. "Look, you mustn't tell anyone about all this, Lauren. It's very secret, very private."
"He's right," said Lysander as though waking from a dream. "Lauren, you must promise never to repeat a word of what you've heard here today, even to your best friend."
Lauren stared at him reproachfully. "Lysander Sage, YOU are my best friend. And I promise never, ever to tell a soul."
Lauren looked so earnest, it was impossible to doubt her. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief. "Have you got any ideas, Lysander?" he asked.
Lysander passed another piece of cake up to Homer. "You said Mr. Onimous might know where Asa has been taken. We'll have to wait until he tells us. And then we'll bring Tancred in."
"Tancred?" Olivia scowled. "What can he do?"
"Tancred will be essential, and so will your moth, Charlie." Lysander glanced at the white moth resting just above Charlie's left ear. "She saved your lives today, and I'm sure she will again."
"And the Red Knight," Benjamin said quietly. "He saved us, too."
"Indeed, the Red Knight," Lysander agreed.
It was decided that they should all meet up again the following afternoon. Lysander would try and persuade Tancred to come to the cafe, but he wasn't hopeful. Tracy Morsell didn't like animals, and Tancred was reluctant to be out of her company for more than a minute.
Olivia remarked that she found this really silly. Lysander shrugged and grinned at his girlfriend.
When Lysander and Lauren left the cafe, their parrots' heads bobbed up and down in time with each other, as though they too were dating.
"I used to think Lysander was so cool," Olivia said sadly.
Benjamin and Charlie set off for Filbert Street, while Olivia made her way up to Ingledew's bookstore. She had almost reached Cathedral Close when she saw a familiar figure dart up Piminy Street. Anyone else might have registered the appearance and passed on. Not Olivia.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Where are you going, Dagbert Endless?"
Several pedestrians looked at Dagbert, who froze in his tracks and slowly turned to face Olivia.
"Hi!" yelled Olivia. "Do you live up there?"
Dagbert stared at her. The expression in his blue-green eyes was so chilly it made Olivia's skin prickle.
"OK," she said, annoyed with her voice for sounding so shaky. "Who cares where you live?" She continued into the square and entered Ingledew's bookstore.
13
THE STREET OF MAGICIANS
Miss Ingledew had two customers, both interested in the same rare book. She smiled at Olivia and pointed to the curtain that screened off her living room.
Olivia found Emma at her aunt's desk, writing a list of titles in a large black book. She brightened visibly when she saw Olivia. "I was worried about you, Liv, going into that wilderness when it was still practically dark."
"You'd have been more worried if you'd been there," Olivia said cheerfully.
When the front door had been locked, Emma's aunt poured three glasses of sparkling cider and passed them around. Miss Ingledew was one of the few people Emma and her friends could trust, and as soon as Olivia had gulped down her cider, she hiccupped three times and then launched into an account of her adventure in the wilderness.
Olivia had a tendency to embellish the facts a little more every time she repeated them, but, to be fair, her story was more or less accurate.
When Olivia had finished, Miss Ingledew knocked back her cider and exclaimed, "Good grief, Olivia. The trouble you children get yourselves into. I seriously hope you won't return to that wilderness. Anything could happen."
"We definitely won't cross the iron bridge again," Olivia said evasively. "By the way, I saw one of the new boys running up Piminy Street. Dagbert-the-drowner. I know this sounds weird, but Charlie thinks he might have had something to do with the water rising so fast."
"It doesn't sound weird, Olivia. We all know what can happen in this place." Miss Ingledew poured herself another glass of cider. "I don't like Piminy Street. Too much happened there, in the past."
"Tell us, Auntie," said Emma.
Miss Ingledew looked at her watch. "I ought to open the store again soon. I don't want to miss another sale."
"But what happened on Piminy Street? Tell us, please," begged Olivia.
Miss Ingledew regarded her empty glass. She picked up the bottle of sparkling cider and put it down again. "It's the oldest street in the city," she said with a tiny shiver. "The great fire of the eighteenth century never touched it. Some said it was because so many magicians lived there. People like Feromel, the blacksmith, and Melmott, the stonemason. There was also a cobbler who made heart-stopping shoes, and several others whose talents I can't remember. They were usually at each other's throats, but the fire brought them together, just for a day, and their combined efforts were enough to ward off the flames. They've all gone now, of course."
