Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Children of the Red King)

by Jenny Nimmo

  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 mousey 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 towards 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 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 storm, ‘For pete’s sake, can’t you behave normally, Lysander Sage?’

  ‘Depends what you mean by normal,’ Lysander said airly. ‘I mean none of us in here is normal, are we? Not even you.’

  Thrown offguard, 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 each other, 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 heavy-set, glowering twelve year old, with matted blonde 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 along the passage. ‘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 the group.

  ‘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, which suddenly opened, causing him to fall forward, straight into Asa Pike.

  ‘Shove off, spy!’ hissed Asa, pushing Tancred backwards.

  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 passage. ‘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 to 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 further 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 passage was very dim, and the doors leading off it hardly discernable, but Charlie knew what he had seen. ‘Mr Brown,’ he whispered. ‘Benjamin’s dad. He went into one of those store 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 passage 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 co, 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 its stubby legs could carry it.

  ‘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 homework.’

  ‘That do
esn’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 on to 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 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 d’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. ‘D’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 spectacles and spoke to Blessed in a whining sort of mumble.

  Blessed gave a worried howl, then rolled on to 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 grey, 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 dressing gown, 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 furthest 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.

  ‘Mummy’s given me some air-freshener,’ Rupe Small, a diminutive first-former 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 on to their beds and covered their faces with pillows, pyjamas 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 ear-splitting screams issued from the floor above. Caught in mid-puff, Rupe stood with his mouth agape while boys flung themselves off their beds and piled past him.

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

  ‘OH, GRIEF! OH, MUM!’ screeched Gabriel, collapsing on to 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-grey alligator of gigantic proportions blocked the entire passage. It blinked its yellow eyes and opened a cavernous mouth, crammed with more evil-looking razor-sharp teeth than Charlie had even 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 recognised 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 de-materialise. 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 passage 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 never,’ cried Charlie. ‘You know I didn’t. I got here minutes after you all started screaming.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean that 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 sang out, ‘He didn’t do it, Matron. Honestly. I know he didn’t.’

  Charlie turned to see Olivia Vertigo bouncing along the passage. She was wearing the most incredible pair of pyjamas. 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 was 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.’

  ‘I told you to see Dr Bloor
,’ shrieked the matron. ‘Now, GO!’ She grabbed Charlie’s shoulder and sent him stumbling down the stairs.

  Fidelio was waiting outside the dormitory. ‘Good luck,’ he called.

  Charlie grinned. ‘Dr Bloor doesn’t scare me.’

  They could hear the matron marching along the passage above them, barking out orders and hauling whimpering girls to their feet.

  ‘Poor things!’ Charlie muttered as he left the noises behind him. When he came to the main staircase he heard a light footstep below him and looked down. The hall appeared to be deserted. Charlie began to descend. He was halfway down when he saw a figure dart into the blue cloakroom. Mr Brown, if Charlie was not mistaken.

  Did Benjamin know that his parents were working at Bloor’s? Charlie wondered. He had reached the small door that led to the Bloors’ apartment in the west wing. A single, dim light showed the way to the base of the west tower. From here a spiral staircase climbed to the turret, but at the first floor, Charlie turned through an arch into a thickly carpeted corridor.

  It was only now that he began to hear his own heartbeat thumping in his chest. He hated this part of the academy. For all its comparative warmth and comfort it made him feel like a trespasser. He began to wonder how he could prove his innocence without revealing the identity of the true culprit. For that must remain a secret at all costs.

  Olivia had discovered her endowment the previous term. Only Charlie, Fidelio and Emma knew about it, and they decided to keep it a secret. The fewer the people who knew about it, the better. Olivia had promised to use her gift only in the most desperate circumstances, so what had possessed her to conjure up an alligator, right outside the girls’ dormitories?

  Charlie had reached the lofty oak-panelled door of Dr Bloor’s study. He knocked tentatively.

  ‘Enter!’ Dr Bloor’s frosty voice came from within the room.

  Charlie entered and stood just inside the door. His heart sank when he saw old Ezekiel sitting by the fire in his wheelchair. He looked even older than his one hundred and one years, with his skull-like face and sparse white hair.