Charlie Bone And The Red Knight (Children Of The Red King)

by Jenny Nimmo

  But where to look?

  Charlie had an idea, but he had to wait until lessons were over before he could find out if he was right. Fidelio had orchestra practice, but he offered to give it up to help his friend. Charlie insisted that it was only a hunch, and one pair of eyes was enough to find someone.

  "So where are you going?" asked Fidelio.

  "The Music Tower," Charlie told him.

  It was called the Music Tower because once Charlie's father had taught piano in the room at the very top. To reach it, Charlie had to go down the same dark hallway that led to the ballroom. The

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  Music Tower was out of bounds now and Charlie had to choose the right moment to make a dash for the small door into the hallway. He waited in the blue coatroom while shoes were changed and wet capes shaken out.

  "You OK, Charlie?" Gabriel asked.

  Charlie nodded. "I'm going to look for Dagbert," he whispered.

  "Want any help?"

  "Not yet."

  "OK." Gabriel left the coatroom murmuring to himself, "But I'm going to make sure you're not alone."

  Gabriel was the last person to leave the coatroom. When he had gone, Charlie peeped into the hall. It appeared to be deserted, so he made a dash for the tower door. Twisting the heavy bronze handle, he pulled open the door and slipped into the hallway. At that very moment Dorcas Loom left the green coatroom. She screwed up her eyes and stared at the closing door. If she was not mistaken,

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  she had just seen Charlie Bone going into the Music Tower. Someone would have to be informed.

  Unaware that he'd been spotted, Charlie hurried down the hall. When he came to the ballroom doors he stopped and noted that the heavy bolt at the top had been drawn back. He put his ear to the door. A faint sound reached him: the swish and splash of water, the boom of giant waves rising and falling. And then another sound. A curious humming. Lord Grimwald was humming to the tune of his own drowning seas. Charlie stepped away from the door as though he'd been stung. He clenched his fists, powerless to stop the awful events that Lord Grimwald had set in motion. As he turned to run up the hallway, a figure appeared in the small circular room at the end.

  "Dagbert." Charlie spoke in a hoarse whisper. "Where have you been?"

  "Thinking," Dagbert replied. "I've got to stop him." He came toward Charlie, holding the sea-gold charms

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  in both hands as though he was afraid that he might drop them.

  "How will you do it?" asked Charlie. "The curse, Dagbert -- your father will try and overwhelm you."

  "Yes," Dagbert agreed. "But I have to make an attempt. No one else can stop him, and your parents will drown, Charlie."

  "They may have drowned already," said Charlie. He was surprised to find that he wanted to give Dagbert a chance to avoid the confrontation with Lord Grimwald.

  But Dagbert was determined. "You saved my sea-gold charms and they will stop him. My mother would have wanted it."

  The boys stood, side by side, facing the ballroom doors.

  "I'm coming with you," said Charlie as Dagbert pushed open one of the tall doors.

  Charlie had expected to see a sphere of rolling water, but the sight of the huge globe took his breath away. The glass panels had been removed and the

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  unbridled waves now swept out in gigantic arcs that splashed against the high ceiling.

  Lord Grimwald was standing with his back to the boys but turned as soon as they entered. He seemed to be expecting them. "Dagbert," he said. "Welcome. I see you have brought a friend."

  Dagbert remained silent. He approached the globe, the charms still held firmly in both hands. Charlie followed, wondering what Dagbert would do.

  Lord Grimwald stared at his son's hands and his eyes narrowed. "Give me the charms," he commanded. His voice was soft, but his face was as hard as stone.

  Dagbert clasped the charms tighter. He stepped toward the globe, and Charlie followed. Sea spray flew in their faces and soaked their hair.

  "Give them to me!" Lord Grimwald's mouth was clenched in a terrible smile. He held out his hand.

  Dagbert shook his head.

  "Don't come any closer," his father warned. "If you harm the globe, it will destroy you."

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  All at once Charlie knew what Dagert intended to do. He would throw the golden charms into the sea. Would this calm the giant waves all over the world? Without his mother's protection, Dagbert would die.

  "Give them to me," Lord Grimwald demanded, seizing his son's clasped hands.

  "No!" cried Dagbert. He fell to his knees, his body hunched over the precious charms.

  Snarling with fury, the Lord of the Oceans raised his arm, and a wall of water curled out from the globe. With an angry roar it rose to the ceiling and then began to fall. Charlie found himself enclosed in a tunnel of thundering black water. He fell to his knees beside Dagbert and waited for the roaring wave to crush them. Just before it smothered them, the sound of drums broke through the boom of water. And then Charlie was beaten down by the weight of the wave. He couldn't breathe, his lungs were bursting. He closed his eyes, his head full of shrieking sounds.

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  And then the weight of water was gone and he opened his eyes. He was lying in a pool of water with Dagbert's blue fist only inches from his face. A golden fish floated through Dagbert's fingers, and Charlie grabbed it before it could be washed away. Black boots splashed toward him. One came down hard on Charlie's hand.

  "Ahhh!" Charlie heard his muffled scream through the thunder of drums. The boot lifted from his fingers and Charlie rolled onto his back, still clutching the fish. Dagbert lay beside him; his eyes were closed, his face blue and lifeless. His hands were empty.

  "Dagbert!" Charlie screamed, shaking the limp arm.

  Dagbert didn't move.

  The drumbeats grew louder. Faster. Deeper. They filled the air with their threatening rhythm. Charlie sat up and rubbed his eyes. Lord Grimwald stood a few feet in front of him. His back was toward Charlie, his arms spread wide.

  The blue sea light had been replaced by the red

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  and gold of leaping flames. Charlie rose shakily to his feet. Now he could see them: Lysander's spirit ancestors. Tall, dark figures lined the walls. There was not an inch of space between them. Gold adorned their necks and arms, their robes were white, their belts colored like rainbows. Each man held a spear in one hand, a flaming torch in the other.

  The drumming came from figures on the stage. Standing two rows deep, they beat their drums with feverish intensity, making the chandelier crystals chime like a thousand tiny bells.

  Lysander moved so fast around the great room that Charlie could catch only a glimpse of his dark face and flashing eyes. The graceful whirl of his arms caused his cape to move through the air like a spinning green circle.

  Charlie stepped away from the Sea Globe. Now he could see Lord Grimwald's face. It was gray with fury and terror. He lurched from side to side, his arms outstretched protectively, as he backed toward his precious globe.

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  The lines of warriors began to advance. Closer and closer to the globe. Charlie could feel the heat of their torches. Clouds of steam rose from the globe, and the spirits moved closer still. For a moment Charlie panicked. He didn't know where to go. They were almost upon him, their dark, impassive faces only inches away. And then they were flowing around either side of him, and he could taste the fire and smell the pungent scent of their robes.

  They encircled the globe. Closer and closer. Their ranks were four men deep now as the circle became small. And still Lysander whirled, and still the drums beat.

  Charlie could no longer see Lord Grimwald. He was trapped in the circle of warriors. They were so densely packed, their torches had become a ring of fire. There was a sudden, awful scream as the Lord of the Oceans was forced into the very seas that he had used to drown so many.

  The scream became a gurgle, the gurgle
a

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  desperate thrashing, as the Sea Globe churned and boiled and swallowed its master.

  Above the rows of spears and torches, Charlie could see the top of the globe. The blue water had turned a dull gray; it was now more steam than water. The patches of brown land were cracking and shrinking. Slowly the globe began to sink. Charlie dropped to his knees, desperate to see what became of it. Through the lines of white robes he glimpsed steaming oceans and scorching land. The Sea Globe was dwindling, sinking, and boiling away.

  Minutes after Lord Grimwald's scream, the spirit ancestors still held their lines, and then, slowly, they began to move back. Once more Charlie felt them drift past him. The flames of their long torches were dying now, their white robes fading into clouds of steam. Charlie couldn't say when the drums stopped or when the warriors vanished, because he was staring at the Sea Globe, or rather at the space it had occupied. There was nothing there -- except...

  A small glass sphere, slightly larger than a tennis ball,

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  rocked gently to and fro in a pool of water. Dagbert lay beside it.

  Charlie felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up into Lysander's grave face. "You finished it," Charlie said, hardly able to believe what he had seen.

  "There was no other way," said Lysander. He nodded at Dagbert. "But perhaps it was too late for him."

  Charlie got up and ran over to Dagbert. His face looked utterly lifeless. And then, suddenly, his eyelids fluttered and his strange arctic eyes stared up at Charlie. "Am I alive?" he croaked.

  "YOU are," Charlie said, helping Dagbert to his feet. He pressed the golden fish into his palm and then, seeing the crabs and the sea urchin floating at the edge of the pool, he scooped them up and gave them to Dagbert, saying, "You're safe now."

  Dagbert thrust them into his pocket and then stood swaying slightly as he gazed around the ballroom. "Where is it?" he said, turning a full circle and looking down at the water around his feet. "Where's the Sea Globe?"

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  Lysander picked up the small blue-green sphere. He shook it free of water and handed it to Dagbert. "I think you'll find that this is it," he said.

  Dagbert looked utterly bemused. He stared at the tiny globe and then at Lysander. "How did it... ?" he breathed, and then, "Where's my father?"

  "The globe swallowed him," said Charlie in a matter-of-fact voice. There didn't seem to be any other way to tell a boy that he was holding his father in his hand.

  Dagbert grimaced. "Then he's... ?" He looked at the globe.

  "In there," said Charlie.

  Dagbert shook the globe and turned it upside down, as though he half expected a tiny version of his father to drop into the puddle. Sparkling sea spray trickled slowly from the top to the bottom, but nothing fell out of the sphere.

  "It's quite pretty," Charlie remarked. "Like one of those snowstorms in a glass snow globe."

  "A sea storm," Dagbert murmured.

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  Lysander took Dagbert by the shoulder and nudged him toward the doors. "You can't stay here, Dagbert," he warned. "The Bloors will be furious that Lord Grimwald and his globe have gone. We'll get you out, but then it's up to you."

  "Where will I go?" Dagbert asked desperately. "I don't know anyone in the city. I have no family."

  Where could Dagbert go? Lysander and Charlie realized that he wouldn't be safe in the fish shop where he stayed on weekends. The Pets' Cafe was closed and he couldn't go to Charlie's house while Grandma Bone was there.

  "I know!" cried Charlie. "The Kettle Shop. It's only a few doors up from the fish shop where you've been staying."

  Lysander looked doubtful. "It's on Piminy Street, Charlie. A nest of vipers, if I may say so."

  "I know, I know, but Mrs. Kettle is very strong," Charlie argued. "She's withstood them all so far. And I can't think of anywhere else right now."

  For a moment Lysander looked thoughtful.

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  He stroked his chin in a manner reminiscent of his father, Judge Sage, when he was passing judgment. But whatever objection had passed through Lysander's mind, he quickly banished it and agreed with Charlie. "Tell her you've come from us," he said. "Show her the globe."

  "Tell her..." Charlie hesitated. "Say "Matilda" and she'll know you're with us now."

  Lysander gave Charlie a questioning look and Dagbert said, "Who's Matilda?"

  "Never mind," said Charlie, going pink. "Just say it."

  "OK."

  They took Dagbert down the hallway and across to the garden door. There was no one about and they realized that the bell for dinner must have rung. The entire school was in the underground dining hall.

  "How shall I get out?" Dagbert looked utterly exhausted. Pale and frightened, he stepped into the garden and looked back at Charlie.

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  Charlie told him where to climb the wall. He hoped the twisted vines of ivy would still show signs of his own speedy clambering.

  "Hurry, Dagbert," urged Lysander.

  They watched Dagbert run toward the trees, and then Lysander closed the door.

  As they hastened across the main hall, someone came out of the side hall leading to the ballroom.

  "Very impressive, Lysander Sage," Manfred said through clenched teeth. His whole frame shook with fury, fury at his own cowardice, for he'd been unable to screw up enough courage to face Lysander's spirit ancestors.

  "You're too late," Manfred went on, enraged by Lysander's look of disdain. "Charlie's parents will never come home now." And he gave Charlie a terrible smile.

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  14. A PERPLEXING POSTCARD

  Charlie watched Manfred step back into the side hall and swiftly close the door.

  "It can't be true, Sander. Can it?" said Charlie.

  Lysander put an arm around his shoulders. "You mustn't let yourself believe it, Charlie. There's no proof. Your parents might have been safe on shore when the storm blew up."

  "Yes," said Charlie desperately. His head was spinning. He wanted to run home to Maisie and Uncle Paton. But would they know the truth?

  When Lysander steered him down the corridor of portraits, he suddenly remembered the danger they were in. Someone was going to have to pay for the Sea Globe's destruction and the end of Lord Grimwald.

  Lysander, sensing what Charlie was thinking, said calmly, "Don't worry. You've done nothing wrong,

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  Charlie. I destroyed the globe, and the Bloors can't touch me. They're too afraid of my ancestors."

  No one seemed to notice their late arrival in the dining hall. The staff sat at a table on a raised platform at the end of the hall. From here they could keep an eye on the tables below them. But today they were all too keen on their dinners to notice Lysander and Charlie slip stealthily in.

  Charlie quickly cast an eye over the three tables running the length of the hall. On the left, blue-caped music students chattered over their stew. No one looked in his direction until Fidelio gave him a wave. As he made his way over to Fidelio, Charlie noticed Olivia sitting at the center table, with a Branko twin on either side of her. Lysander went to the art table, where Emma was sitting several places away from Dorcas and Joshua, whose left hand was all bandaged up.

  "What happened, Charlie?" Fidelio asked in a low voice as Charlie squeezed onto the bench beside him.

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  "Tell you later," said Charlie, and then whispered into his friend's ear, "Lysander destroyed the Sea Globe -- and Lord Grimwald!"

  "WHAT?" Fidelio stared at Charlie in disbelief.

  At that moment, Weedon appeared through one of the doors behind the staff table. He moved quickly to Dr. Bloor's side and, bending over his shoulder, said a few words. Dr. Bloor leaped up, pushing over his heavy chair so that it fell on the floor with a loud bang.

  The other teachers stared at him, and all the children watched the staff table expectantly. Dr. Bloor rushed out, followed by Weedon. An excited shouting and chattering exploded in the air.
Prefects hushed and shushed in vain. Eventually, Dr. Saltweather stood up and clapped his hands. The hall fell silent. Dr. Saltweather commanded a great deal of respect. "Calm yourselves!" he bellowed. "Just because the headmaster has left the room, it doesn't mean that you can squeal like animals. Lower your voices, please."

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  There was a moment's hush and then the chatter was resumed on a quieter note.

  Gabriel, sitting opposite Charlie, leaned over the table and asked, "Lysander found you, then, Charlie? What happened?"

  "Thanks for telling Lysander, Gabe. He saved my life, and Dagbert's."

  "Dagbert's?" Gabriel frowned.

  "Let's talk later," said Fidelio in a warning voice. Several children were already looking at Charlie.

  Gabriel glanced at the inquisitive faces and said, "OK."

  After dinner, Charlie headed for the blue coat-room, with Fidelio and Gabriel following close behind. They had five minutes before they would be expected to start their homework. Almost without pausing for breath, Charlie told his friends what had happened in the ballroom.

  For a moment they were too stunned to speak, and then Gabriel said slowly, "When I told Lysander you were going to the Music Tower I never imagined ...

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  I mean I just knew he was the only one who could help you."

  "Weedon must have told Dr. Bloor," said Fidelio. "No wonder he rushed out."

  "Manfred saw it all," Charlie told them.

  His friends frowned at him, and Fidelio said, "Didn't he try and stop it?"

  "Stop Lysander?" Charlie found that the cold chill of Manfred's words had suddenly lifted and he felt irrationally cheerful. "Nothing can stop Lysander."