by Jenny Nimmo
"Can we just come in and talk to Tancred?" begged Lysander.
"Not a chance," said Mr. Torsson, planting himself firmly inside the porch. "It's too dangerous. You'll just have to come back another time. Be careful on the way back. There's something out there."
" What . . .?" Gabriel began.
His next words were drowned by a furious crack of thunder, and they all found themselves ducking. Something hit the ground with a heavy thud right behind them.
Runner Bean howled hysterically and Benjamin shouted, "W . . . w . . . what was that?"
"A hammer," said Mr. Torsson. He disappeared into the house and they heard the rattle of locks and bolts behind the door.
"Well, that's that, I guess," sighed Lysander. "Let's go back through the woods. There'll be more shelter under the trees."
They raced to the woods but Runner Bean, barking with excitement, began to dig at the ground.
"What's the matter with him?" said Charlie.
"He's found the hammer," said Benjamin breathlessly "Runner, here, boy Leave it. Now! It's not a bone!"
The woods were full of thorny bushes and brambles that scratched their faces and tore their clothes. And there was something else: a feeling of being watched.
"I don't like this," muttered Lysander. "Let's try and get back to the lane."
The lane couldn't be found. They fanned out, calling to one another as they searched. "Not this way!" Can't see it." "Help, we're lost!" "Must be this way.” "Not here."
All at once, Charlie found himself alone. It had become very dark. Thunder still grumbled in the distance, but the trees were eerily still. And then he saw the terrible eyes: twin pools of light, moving closer through the undergrowth. With a yell of terror, Charlie turned and threw himself at a tangle of bushes.
"Help!" he shouted. "Help! Where are you all?"
He could hear barking, but it was difficult to tell where it came from. "Runner!" he shouted. "Runner Bean, here, boy!"
There was a deep snarl behind him and Charlie hurled himself away from it. He tore through the woods, banging into trees, tripping, falling, scrambling on his knees, until he saw a pale strip of road. He crawled onto it and looked up to see four boys staring at him in horror.
"Charlie! You look a real mess," Fidelio exclaimed.
"You don't look so good yourself" said Charlie. “How did you find the road?"
"We'd still be in the woods if it wasn't for Runner," said Gabriel. "What happened to you, Charlie? We called and called."
"Didn't hear," said Charlie. He got to his feet and shook the twigs out of his hair. "There was something in there. An animal."
"I know we heard it," said Lysander grimly "Whatever it was, it didn't want us in those woods. Let's get away from here."
They staggered back to Gabriel's house and found the inside of the ramshackle building surprisingly warm and comfortable. When the boys had cleaned themselves at the kitchen sink, they fell into their chairs and gazed at mounds of roast beef mashed potatoes, and vegetables, not knowing where to start.
"Charlie, your mom was on the telephone," said Mrs. Silk. "1 told her you'd gone for a walk with your friends, and would be coming back here for your tea.”
"Thanks, Mrs. Silk!" Charlie wondered if his mother had gotten his note. He wouldn't put it past Grandma Bone to have hidden it.
Gabriel had three sisters who squeezed themselves in between the boys and kept up an endless stream of chatter. The boys were too exhausted to join in. Lysander hardly said a word throughout the meal.
"Not a very promising start to the new term, is it?” said Mrs. Silk. "What with Gabriel's glove and all." She was a neat, pretty woman with round blue eyes and brown curly hair; not a bit like Gabriel.
It wasn't easy having an endowed child in the family but Mrs. Silk did her best. She had no idea where Gabriel's strange talent (if you could call it that) came from. She and her husband were always arguing about which side of the family was responsible for it. She had a strong suspicion that it came from the Silks, some of whom were peculiar to say the least, Gabriel could never wear secondhand clothes, and as they were not a rich family Mrs. Silk often had to buy secondhand things for the girls. They found this very unfair.
After tea Gabriel took his friends to see his famous gerbils, and then as it began to get late, Mrs. Silk drove everyone to their own front doors in a battered Land Rover. "Hope your mom wasn't worried," she called as Charlie climbed the steps of number nine.
Maisie met him in the hall.
"The Yewbeams are here," she muttered. "I'm off to watch my TV Good luck, Charlie!"
CHAPTER 9
SKARPO THE SORCEROR
Grandma Bone's three sisters were usually entertained in the tidy room across the hall, but today here they were, sitting around the table and swamping the normally cozy room with their dreadful dark clothes and sour faces.
They had draped their black coats across the chairs and dumped their large black bags on the dresser. There was a half-eaten cake, oozing cream, on the table and the room smelled of stale pastries and old lavender.
Charlie tried to make the best of things. "Hello, aunties," he said cheerfully "What a surprise!"
"I'm surprised your mother lets you stay out so late," said Aunt Lucretia. "Where've you been?"
"Where's Mom?" said Charlie, looking around.
"Where's Mom? Where's my mommy?" said Aunt Eustacia in a silly voice.
Charlie looked at the cake. No one offered him a slice.
"Your mother is out," said Grandma Bone.
"Where?"
" earie me, we are in a state about our mommy aren’t we?" cooed Venetia, the youngest and most deadly of the sisters.
"I'm not in a state," said Charlie indignantly "It's just :hat I'm surprised she's not here."
"She's gone to the theater," said Grandma Bone. "She had two free tickets to see Divine Drums. Naturally she wanted to take you, but you weren't here, were you?"
"She didn't say anything about tickets to me," said Charlie. "Where did they come from?"
"We don't know everything about your mom, do we?" said Aunt Eustacia. "She probably got them from her boyfriend."
"She hasn't got a boyfriend," said Charlie.
"How do you know?" said Aunt Venetia, patting her hair, which was coiled above her head like a black serpent. "She's still a young woman."
"She doesn't need a boyfriend," said Charlie, "because my dad's still alive."
Icy silence descended on the kitchen. The four sisters stiffened. Their mouths tightened into grim dark lines.
Grandma Bone said, "Why do you persist in this nonsense, boy? Your father died. We had a funeral."
"But there was no body" said Charlie. He turned to leave but all four sisters shouted, "STOP!"
Taken by surprise, Charlie did stop.
"You haven't told us about Henry" said Grandma Bone.
"There's nothing to tell," said Charlie.
"You're a very stupid boy," said Matron Lucretia. " Do you think we don't know about the Time Twister? Do you think we haven't heard how Ezekiel Bloor sent his little cousin Henry spinning away through, time. And now he has ended up at the academy a few years too late for his own good."
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" cackled Aunt Eustacia nastily.
"It's not a joke," said Charlie angrily "How would you like it?"
"Got you!" snapped Grandma Bone. “Admit you've seen him!"
Charlie stamped his foot. "I won't admit nothing."
"Anything," screamed Aunt Lucretia. "Grammar, boy! You won't admit anything!"
"Oh, yes, he will!" Grandma Bone leaped to her feet. "Where is he?" she screeched. "We'll find him eventually, you know. But if he doesn't come out soon, old Ezekiel's going to be in such a mood he'll send him back to the Ice Age."
"He can't," said Charlie. "Not without the Time Twister."
"You have no idea what Ezekiel can do," said Aunt Venetia in her dangerous, silky tone. "Some of it's too horrible for words. Why won'
t you tell us where this wretched Henry is hiding? He doesn't deserve your loyalty. He's just a nuisance. Why can't you be a good boy for a change? I would hate for Ezekiel to hurt you, my pet."
Charlie had no idea what to say to this. Aunt Venetia always managed to catch him off-guard by being nice. Luckily the door opened and Uncle Paton looked in.
"What was all that noise?" said Paton. "I can't hear myself think."
"Thoughts are supposed to be silent," said Eustacia with a giggle.
"Don't be silly" said Paton. "Be so good as to turn down the volume. My work has reached a very critical stage. I can't have my concentration ruined by a gaggle of screeching geese."
"Screeching?" screeched Aunt Lucretia.
In a more reasonable tone, Grandma Bone said, "We're interrogating Charlie about something of vital importance."
"Well, I need him for something more important," said Paton. "Come along, Charlie!"
Charlie sprang gratefully toward his uncle, but Grandma Bone hadn't finished.
"The boy stays here," she said, "until we've got the truth out of him."
Uncle Paton sighed. He directed his gaze toward the lamp hanging over the table.
"Paton!" said Grandma Bone sharply. “You wouldn't dare."
"I would," said Paton.
The next moment there was a small explosion, the four sisters leaped away from the table as a shower of broken glass fell from the lamp and settled on the cake.
"Come on, Charlie," said Paton.
Charlie quickly followed his uncle out of the kitchen, while Grandma Bone and the aunts, twittering like birds, jumped about, looking for dishcloths, picking glass off the cake, and dusting down their clothes.
"Thanks for getting me out of there, Uncle Paton," said Charlie, as he closed Paton's door behind him.
"Not at all, not at all. I really do need you, Charlie." Paton seemed very excited about something. "I've been experimenting. Look!"
He took a book from his desk, opened it, and began to read. Still reading, he walked to the switch by the door and turned on the light that hung in the center of the room.
Expecting the light to shatter, Charlie ducked. But nothing happened.
"I thought that you took all the lightbulbs out of your room," said Charlie.
"So I did, so I did," Paton murmured, still intent on his reading, "but I've put one back."
"So what's going on?" said Charlie.
"Turn the light off dear boy" said Paton. "I can't talk and concentrate on my book at the same time."
Mystified, Charlie turned off the light. His uncle's room was once again bathed in the soft glow from the oil lamp on his desk.
"So, Charlie, are you surprised the lightbulb didn't break?" asked Paton.
"Well, yes," said Charlie, "but then you don't always break them, do you? Not if you're, kind of relaxed."
"Exactly." Paton gave a sigh of satisfaction. "When my mind's switched off" he laughed, "if you'll excuse the pun. When my thoughts are elsewhere, as it were, I'm less prone to accidents of the electrical kind. So — I decided if I read a very engrossing book while in the presence of an electrified lightbulb, the bulb might not shatter."
"I see," Charlie said slowly "That's very interesting, Uncle Paton."
"More than interesting, dear boy It worked. It's a darn miracle." Paton beamed with triumph. "I can go out in daylight if I'm reading a book. I can walk past lighted shop windows. I can walk near traffic lights without breaking them. Perhaps, I can even enter a coffee shop — if I'm reading."
Charlie could see drawbacks in his uncle's plan. It would be dangerous for Paton to wander through the city streets, not seeing where he was going. "It could be a bit chancy," he said. "You might get run over."
"That's where you come in, Charlie. If you were with me, you could see the pitfalls. I thought tomorrow we might take a walk in the direction of the cathedral, just to test my theory"
"I take it that you mean in the direction of Ingledew's Books," said Charlie.
His uncle went pink, especially around the ears. He gave a small cough and said, "I can't deny it. Miss Ingledew has been much in my thoughts. I feel that were she to see me, walking about in daylight, she wouldn't think me such a freak."
"She doesn't think you're a freak, Uncle. It's just that trying to be a mom to Emma is using up all her energy."
Paton gave a huge sigh and shook his head. "No. Charlie. She's wary of me, and who could blame her.”
"OK. Tomorrow we'll take a walk to Ingledew's,” said Charlie, a little reluctant to be drawn away from the things on his mind.
"Thank you, Charlie!"
The telephone in the hall began to ring.
"I wonder if that's for me," muttered Charlie.
"Better find out," said Paton. “You can bet that my sisters won't pass on any messages."
Charlie went out to the landing and looked down into the hall. He was just in time to see Grandma Bone pick up the receiver, and shout, "He's not here!" and bang it down again.
"Was that for me?" asked Charlie.
Grandma Bone glared up at him. "Of course not," she said. "Who do you think you are?"
"I live here," said Charlie, "and it's just possible my friends might want to talk to me."
"Ha!" snorted Grandma Bone.
The Yewbeam aunts emerged from the kitchen. They were still brushing down their coats and patting their heads.
"There's a bit," cried Venetia, grabbing a lock of Eustacia's gray hair.
Eustacia yelled, "Get it out! Get it out!"
Unfortunately Aunt Lucretia looked up and saw Charlie smiling. "You can wipe that grin off your face," she said. "We haven't finished with you, yet."
The three sisters trooped out through the front door and then stood on the step, whispering to Grandma Bone.
The telephone rang again and this time Charlie swooped down the stairs and picked up the receiver before Grandma Bone could get to it.
"Hi. Is that you, Charlie?" It was Gabriel.
"Yes," said Charlie cautiously.
“A nasty voice told me you weren't there, but I didn't believe her."
"My grandma," said Charlie.
Grandma Bone closed the front door and stood watching Charlie.
"Is she there?" asked Gabriel.
"Yes," said Charlie, turning his back on Grandma Bone.
"Look, Charlie. I found something in the lane outside our house. Several things actually I think you ought to see them."
"Where shall we meet?" asked Charlie.
"Mom's delivering some stuff to the Pets' Café tomorrow afternoon," said Gabriel. "Meet me there."
Charlie had never heard of the Pets' Café. "Where's that?"
" Frog Street," said Gabriel. "Between Mud Lane and Water Street. Just behind the cathedral."
This was good news. "I'm going there with my uncle," said Charlie. "Can I bring him?"
"Sure. Is it your glass-breaking uncle? He's brilliant."
"It is."
"Great. Got to go now See you tomorrow about three o'clock. Ouch! Gerbil bit me. Bye!"
There was a loud clunk. It sounded as if Gabriel had dropped the phone.
When Charlie looked around, Grandma Bone had gone. He peeped into the kitchen. She wasn't there so Charlie made himself a quick snack and sat down. The table had been cleared of broken glass but something lay where the cake had been — a small picture, placed face down. Charlie guessed that it had been left there on purpose and, knowing his aunts, he was sure that it was a trick. But what sort of trick? He concentrated on his food, refusing to look at the picture.
And then he began to wonder if it really was a trick. Gradually Charlie's gaze was drawn to the dark panel at the back of the picture. It looked very old; the wood was cracked and covered with tiny worm holes, the screws were rusty and the string had broken.
Charlie took a breath and flipped the frame over. He saw a small painting of a room. But what kind of room? He couldn't resist taking in the details.
Charlie found himself staring at the skull. He tried to look away from it, but he couldn't. He began to hear sounds; a low chanting in a strange language, the scraping of chalk on stone, the rustle of heavy robes. And then, suddenly the man turned his head and looked at Charlie, looked right into his eyes.
Charlie gasped and quickly whipped the painting over. Out in the street a car door slammed and he heard his mother's voice. A man spoke and his mother laughed. She rarely laughed. What had the man said, and who was he?
When Mrs. Bone walked into the kitchen, Charlie could still see the yellow eyes of the man in the black robe, fixing him with a glare of triumph.
"Charlie, are you all right?" said Amy Bone. "You look very pale."
"I, er . . ." Charlie touched the back of the painting. He found that he couldn't explain what had happened to him, so he asked, "Where were you?" There was a nasty whine in his voice that he couldn't help.
"I've been to see Divine Drums. I wanted you to come with us, but you weren't here. Charlie?"
"Us?" said Charlie, sounding even more sulky "Who's us?"
"Bob Davies and myself." Mrs. Bone smiled encouragingly. "He got three tickets and you were supposed to have come. I couldn't disappoint him when I found you weren't here, could I?"
"Who's this Bob Davies?" asked Charlie, hating the whine in his voice.
"Charlie, what's come over you?" Mrs. Bone pulled out a chair and sat beside him. "Bob's just a friend, a very nice man who wanted to take us to the theater. Why are you so grumpy?"
Charlie was ashamed. He said, "I'm sorry Mom. I . . . something happened to me, just now The aunts left that." He nodded at the painting, not wanting even to touch it.
