“The rug!” She snatched it up. Sure enough, she spotted something gleaming between the floorboards. She tugged the scissors from their hiding place and waved them triumphantly at Smell.
“But they’re no good, Luce. Too thin. Them blades would snap easily!”
“We have to get out of here!” Lucy stamped her foot in frustration. Then had another idea.
“That door opens outwards because the room’s so small. I’ve got my winter boots on. Nice and heavy. Perfect for kicking in locks,” she told Smell.
And that’s exactly what she did.
Lucy and Smell raced down the stairs and then towards the Room of Curiosities, although in fact Lucy stumbled rather than raced; it was hard to run with her hands manacled. When they reached the east-wing corridor, it was deserted. Everyone was downstairs, and enjoying themselves hugely, judging by the noise. Shouting to raise the alarm was useless. No one would be able to hear above the din of the celebrating magicians.
“Smell, get help!” Lucy whispered.
“Can’t leave you! Too dangerous!”
“You have to! Go!”
Smell turned round and shot off. By now Valentina, once more disguised as Lord Grave, had unlocked the door to the Room of Curiosities. Lucy rushed at her, raising her hands and aiming the manacles at Valentina’s head, hoping that the blow would knock her out. But Lucy was hasty and scared and only managed to graze one of Valentina’s ears. Valentina swiftly shoved Lucy to one side, unbalancing her. Lucy tottered and just managed not to fall over. Meanwhile, Valentina barged inside the Room of Curiosities. She began to close the door behind her, but Lucy hurled herself at it. There was a tussle as Valentina and Lucy heaved in opposing directions.
“I haven’t got time for this!” Valentina shrieked. She’d lost her usual confident manner and sounded panic-stricken. Suddenly she stopped trying to press the door closed. As Lucy was still pushing hard to open it, the abrupt lack of resistance caused her to go flying over the threshold. She landed painfully hard on the pink marble floor and it took her a few seconds to recover.
The Room of Curiosities was, as its name suggested, full of strange objects. Each stood on a plinth and was covered by a glass dome. Valentina was lifting one of these domes. Underneath was a figure made out of twigs, about ten centimetres tall. Lucy had briefly seen this figure once before. It was human-like in that it had two arms and two legs, a body and a head. But, as she cautiously moved closer, Lucy realised it looked much less human than she had thought. Its arms were very long, as were its fingers. Jagged spikes ran along its back. Its eyes were completely black and two miniscule black horns stuck out of its head. Its mouth was half open as if it was snarling, displaying tiny pointed teeth.
Valentina gingerly lifted the figure from its plinth and placed it in the palm of her hand. Just as she did so, all the clocks in the house started to strike midnight. Valentina began reciting:
“One hundred years have passed
Since you were summoned last
From this remnant of you
I summon you anew.”
Valentina finished speaking just before the last chimes of midnight rang out. Lucy froze in horror as she finally realised what was happening. A hundred years ago, Hester Coin had broken all magical laws and called up a demon. Now Valentina was repeating that fearsome crime and a demon was once again about to be unleashed on the world.
All the oil lamps on the wall sizzled and then snuffed themselves out, plunging the Room of Curiosities into darkness. The only illumination came from the stick man that Valentina still held in the palm of her hand. It pulsed with white light at first, but with each pulsation the light grew more and more orange until finally it was blood red.
The stick man must have felt as hot as it looked, because Valentina suddenly dropped it and blew on her palm. She gasped in dismay as the stick man hit the floor and shattered. Lucy gasped too, but in triumph.
However, triumph soon turned to fear. The strewn pieces, which glowed like embers, began to move. They scuttled like fiery insects towards each other, forming a small heap. The heap smouldered and then did something that should have been impossible. It began to melt the pink marble, until there was crackling hole in the middle of the floor.
A moment later, two hands appeared, clutching the smoking sides of the hole. The hands were lizard-like, with grey scaly skin, long-fingered and ending in curved red claws.
When the demon had finished heaving itself out of the inky blackness of the opening, it clicked its fingers and all the lamps in the Room of Curiosities sputtered back into life. Fixing its black-eyed gaze on Lucy and Valentina, the demon grimaced, as though in pain. It had double rows of pointed teeth, like a shark.
“Oh yes,” said the demon, stretching its leathery wings and groaning. “Just rouse me any old how. Don’t worry about what sort of effect it could have on me. I suppose I have to ask: which of you summoned me?”
“I’m your summoner,” Valentina said in a casual voice. But in the flickering light from the lamps, Lucy could see there were tiny beads of sweat clustered on Valentina’s forehead. She was obviously as petrified by the demon as Lucy was.
“Dare I ask what happened to my last summoner?”
“Dead.”
“I thought as much,” the demon said in a gloomy voice. “That’s the trouble with humans. So fragile. How long have I been here?” The demon’s black eyes glinted in the lamplight as it examined its surroundings. It had a very thorough look around. In fact, its head swivelled a full three hundred and sixty degrees, its neck crackling as it did so. Lucy began to feel rather nauseous.
“A h-hundred years,” Valentina said.
Lucy expected the demon to express shock at this revelation, but it simply sighed. “No wonder I feel so exhausted. No chance of a proper rest. I suppose it could be worse. I was captured once and imprisoned for a thousand years. And I was made to stay awake all that time. It was such a horrible bore. I really do have the worst luck, you know.”
“Um,” said Valentina.
“So I suppose I should be thankful for small mercies,” the demon said. Its black-eyed gaze rested on Lucy, who smiled nervously. “Oh no. Are you the cheerful type? One of those tiresome humans who believe in finding three things to be joyous about before breaking their fast?”
Lucy swallowed. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Wise child.” The demon fixed its stare on Valentina again. “So, summoner. Who are you, girl?”
Valentina instinctively fingered her face, as though to check her Lord Grave mask was still there.
“Yes, I can see through your disguise. What’s the reason for it? There’s something of Constance Grave about that moustache. Are you related?”
Valentina made a disgusted face. “No. I’m not one of them. I’m a Coin. My name’s Valentina.”
Lucy gasped. She’d been right! The person trying to break into the Room of Curiosities was a relative of Hester Coin.
The demon sniggered at this revelation. “How unfortunate. There’s no such thing as a lucky Coin in my experience. And your companion?”
“A nobody. She works for Lord Grave.”
“So why exactly have you summoned me, dear Miss Coin? What tedious task do you have in mind?” The demon folded its scaly arms and tilted its head.
“I’ve read all the papers my great-grandmother wrote about you. Well, all the ones that my father didn’t destroy.”
“Do you understand what I can do?”
“Some of it, I think. You can kill people?”
“Certainly.”
“How?”
“Your great-grandmother’s papers didn’t tell you that?”
“No. That part was missing. All I know is that she summoned a demon. That she wanted the power the demon could give her.”
Valentina and the demon were eyeing each other intently. Lucy, who was standing slightly behind Valentina, began to slowly back away, in the direction of the door.
“And now yo
u’ve summoned me. I suppose you want world domination?” The demon sighed. “I can warn you now, that sort of thing never ends well.”
“No. I don’t want to rule the world. But I don’t want to be poor and helpless any longer, either. I want to take power and money from Lord Grave and his stuck-up friends.”
“Power and money.” The demon sighed again. “Humans are so predictable and dull.”
Lucy was at the door now. She turned and grabbed the handle in both her manacled hands and managed to push it down. There was a faint click. Lucy glanced over her shoulder. Valentina hadn’t noticed anything. She was too busy being needled by the demon’s attitude.
“When you’ve been an orphan most of your life, ordered around, taken to places you don’t want to go, forced to live in poverty, you might want to have a bit of power,” she snapped.
“Fair point,” Lucy heard the demon reply as she slid out of the door.
Lucy hurtled along the corridor and down the stairs. In her haste, and unable to use her arms for balance, she fell down the last few steps, bashing her knee painfully when she landed. She scrambled back on to her feet and then barged into the ballroom where the party was now in full swing. People were standing around, drinking champagne, chatting and laughing. There was no sign of concern or panic – the guests were still blissfully unaware that there was a demon in the house. Smell was nowhere to be seen. Had something bad happened to him while he was trying to raise the alarm?
Lucy stood on tiptoes and craned her neck, hoping to spot one of MAAM. To her frustration, the only member she could see was Beguildy Beguildy. He was fawning over a young woman who kept glancing over her shoulder as he spoke. Lucy began elbowing her way through the mass of magicians towards him.
“Beguildy!” she yelled.
Beguildy turned. When he glimpsed Lucy he rolled his eyes and turned back to his companion. Unfortunately for him, she’d seized the chance to lose herself in the crowd. Lucy fought her way through the last few people standing between her and Beguildy.
“Well, thanks very much for the interruption,” Beguildy snapped.
“Lord Grave’s not Lord Grave and he’s got a demon,” Lucy blurted out.
This prompted a further bout of eye-rolling from Beguildy. “My dear Lucy, have you been at the rum punch? What’s happened to your face?”
“Don’t start! This is really serious! Can you get these things off me?” Lucy held out her hands so that Beguildy could see the manacles. In the same instant, the ballroom doors slammed shut with such force the chandeliers swayed. Everyone, including Lucy, turned towards the doors to see why they had closed so violently. To her frustration, she was unable to see above the heads of the crowd.
“What’s happening?” she asked Beguildy.
But Beguildy didn’t reply. His eyes were wide and his mouth half open. The ball-goers started to shout. Some of them screamed.
“Grave! What have you done?”
“Unlock these doors!”
“Look out! Look out! Get away from it!”
The crowd began to part, revealing Valentina, still disguised as Lord Grave. Smirking, she strode towards the stage with the demon beside her. They reached the steps at the side of the stage and began to climb them. The circus folk who were carrying away the last of the set shrank back in horror.
“Leave it all. Get off. Get off!” Diamond O’Brien yelled. “It’s not safe!”
The circus folk instantly obeyed, dropping a box, which seemed to have been sawn into two, and leaped off the stage. One of them, a young man, landed awkwardly and cried out in pain. Two of his circus mates dragged him into the crowd, which surged backwards. Everyone wanted to be as far away from the stage as possible. Lucy almost lost her footing in the upheaval, but Beguildy grabbed her shirt collar and pulled her upright.
“Stop pushing!” shouted someone near the ballroom door. “You’re crushing us!”
“Why doesn’t somebody do something?” Lucy cried in despair at the chaos erupting. The ballroom was full of powerful magicians. Surely one of them could stop Valentina and the demon?
Beguildy Beguildy looked down at Lucy. His face was ashen. “Grave has a demon. It could kill us all in a second.”
“It’s not Lord Grave, it’s—ow!” Needle-like pain prickled up her back. It was Smell, scrambling up on to her shoulder.
“Where have you been? You should have warned MAAM what was happening!” Lucy cried.
“The Vonk imposter got ’old of me. Locked me in a cupboard. Only just managed to get out. Nipped in through the doors just as they were closing. Nearly lost another bit of me tail! Cripes, look at that!”
Up on the stage, the demon was capering back and forth. There were more gasps from the audience. Valentina had once again begun the macabre task of peeling off her mask. The crowd cried out in fear.
“It’s not Lord Grave!”
“Who is that? Is this some sort of joke?”
As before, Lord Grave melted away to be replaced by Valentina in her lace blouse and purple velvet pinafore dress.
“But she’s just a girl!” someone cried.
Valentina gazed around the ballroom, smiling at the uproar and terror she was causing.
“I’m not just a girl,” she said. “I’m a girl with a demon.”
“Look at you all,” Valentina continued. “You’re disgusting. All this drink. All this food. Lots of jolly entertainment. All to celebrate the death of a young woman.”
The crowd muttered unhappily.
“I want to tell you a little tale. It’s not very pretty,” Valentina continued, pointing her finger at the astonished magicians. “When Lord Grave’s great-grandmother oh-so-bravely killed Hester Coin, two children were left without a mother. No one in the magical community wanted to help them, even though they hadn’t done anything to hurt anyone. They were ignored by everyone. Forbidden from ever using magic.”
“But what has any of that got to do with you?” said someone in the crowd.
“One of those children was my grandfather. He never got over what happened and he died when my father was just a baby. My father was ostracised too. We lived in hovel after hovel until my parents died of cholera and I was left all alone. I was only four. But I was lucky. Lord Grave stepped in to help. He took me to Hard Times Hall. I’m sure he would have put me up here in his own home –” Valentina gazed around the vast expanse of the ballroom – “but I can see space is a bit tight.”
As she listened to Valentina’s story, Lucy couldn’t help feeling sorry for the girl. After all, Lucy knew what it was like to be very poor. And although she wasn’t an orphan, her parents had been hopeless at caring for her. She’d had to look after herself and them a lot of the time and it really had been hard and lonely. She’d often longed to have the sort of parents who would tuck you up in bed with a cup of hot milk instead of gambling all night and sleeping all day. With a sudden pang, Lucy realised that she might die tonight, and never see her parents again. Despite all their faults, she loved them dearly.
“I’m going to do to everything you did to my family, take away your homes and your money. You’re all going to vanish. Then me and all the other kids at Hard Times Hall will steal all that you own for ourselves. We’ll never be poor or homeless again,” Valentina continued.
“You stupid child!” Beguildy Beguildy shouted. “How are you going to do that? If you kill us all, don’t you think people will notice we’ve gone?”
Valentina grinned, picked up her Lord Grave mask and waved it. “I’m going to make one of these masks for every magician in this room. You’ll all be impersonated. No one will ever realise you’ve disappeared.”
“I don’t get it,” Smell said in Lucy’s ear. “What does she need the demon for, then?”
“Protection? If she didn’t have the demon I bet anyone in this room could overpower her. We’d stop her in a second,” Lucy replied.
Up on the stage, now that she’d finished lecturing the crowd, Valentina called, “Dem
on! Come to me!”
The demon stopped its capering and in one bound was at Valentina’s side.
“What is it, my mistress?” it said, in a booming voice that echoed around the ballroom. It clasped its scarlet-clawed hands together in a humble manner, which Lucy suspected was far from genuine, but Valentina didn’t seem to think so as she glared triumphantly around. Then she whispered something into the demon’s cat-like ear.
“You’re sure about this?” the demon rumbled in a surprised voice.
“Just do it. You can do it? The papers I found said you could, that it would make you even more powerful.”
“Certainly, o mistress.”
The demon moved to the front of the stage, facing the horrified magicians. It raised its scaly arms. Bolts of light began to crackle between its hands. The demon grasped these bolts in its fists and threw them up to the domed ceiling. The bolts grew and multiplied until they covered the whole ceiling in a crackling net. Then they grew down the walls, like some kind of electric vine, before snaking across the polished floor. Magician after magician was struck on the feet by the slithering lightning. Each of them screamed once before slumping to the ground. It all happened so fast, and there was so much confusion and panic, that no one could get out of the way. One of the bolts hit Lucy’s boots and she shrieked in agony. Burning pain ran up her body towards her head. Then everything went dark.
When Lucy opened her eyes, she found she was lying on her back. Everyone else around her was still unconscious, even Smell, who was draped limply across her chest.
The lightning the demon had conjured up was still crackling and buzzing wildly around the room. Lucy risked tilting her head slightly in the direction of the ballroom entrance. There were bodies piled up round it, as though people had been fighting to get out just before being struck down. The doors were open now, and Lucy could see the lightning spreading beyond the ballroom, out into the rest of Grave Hall. She thought of Mrs Crawley, who would be down in the kitchen. Would the lightning strike her as well? And what about the animals in the wildlife park, and Mr Gomel?
Goodly and Grave in a Case of Bad Magic Page 11
