by Jenny Nimmo
Charlie banged on the window and shouted, “Help! Mr. Onimous, come quickly. PLEASE!”
Mrs. Pike gave a small moan and sank to the ground.
“Mr. Onimous, come quickly!” cried Charlie again. “There’s been an accident.”
The door opened very suddenly and a large man wearing a yellow sweater stood glaring down at them. “You know we don’t open until half past ten,” he bellowed.
Norton Cross was the doorman, or bouncer, as Charlie liked to call him. It was Norton’s duty to prevent anyone without a pet from entering the premises.
“This is an emergency, Mr. Cross!” wailed Olivia.
Norton folded his arms across his chest. “Where are your pets?”
Charlie had no answer.
“I suppose you call a moth a pet,” said Norton.
“Ummm …,” Charlie began.
“There’s one on your head,” said Norton.
“Ah, yes. My pet,” Charlie agreed.
“And yours?” Norton asked Olivia.
“You’re wasting time,” Olivia said angrily. “I haven’t actually got …”
At this point there was a moan from the ground. Mrs. Pike raised herself on all fours and crawled forward. She looked up at Norton. He stared back, lost for words.
“You’d better come in,” he said at last.
Olivia and Charlie helped Mrs. Pike to her feet and heaved her into the café. Breathing heavily, she allowed herself to be steered through the café, around the counter, and into the kitchen.
“Visitors,” Norton announced as he held back the curtain behind the counter.
The Onimouses’ cozy kitchen never failed to lift Charlie’s spirits. It was here that the three famous cats resided, when they were not out on an important errand of their own. Not for nothing were they called the Flames. Today, all three were asleep on top of a cupboard, their thick bright tails hanging over the side like upside-down question marks. One was yellow, one orange, and the third a coppery red.
Mr. Onimous could almost have been an animal himself. Very small, round, and hairy, with sharp bright teeth and long pointed nails, he reminded Charlie of a cuddly kind of rodent. As for his wife, Onoria, she was in every way the exact opposite of her husband. She was six feet tall with thin, wispy hair and the longest nose you’re ever likely to see on a human being.
When a not-quite-human-looking person hobbled into their kitchen, the Onimouses didn’t blink an eye. To them, she was just another poor creature, obviously in need of their help.
“Sit down, my dear.” Mrs. Onimous pulled out a chair for their visitor.
Mrs. Pike sank into it with a sigh and laid her head on the table.
“What troubles have we here?” asked Mr. Onimous.
Olivia said, “This is Mrs. Pike. She’s twisted her ankle. But we need to use your phone, Mr. Onimous. It’s urgent. Runner Bean may have drowned and Benjamin’s gone looking for him.”
“The river has risen,” Charlie added. “It’s as high as the bridge. Benjamin could drown, too! And I think maybe I should go back and look for him.”
“You just wait here, Charlie Bone. Heaven, help us!” Mrs. Onimous ran to the telephone in the café.
Charlie and Olivia could hear her gabbing away in a rather high voice, while they stood waiting uneasily on either side of Mrs. Pike.
In less than a minute, Mrs. Onimous was back. She looked annoyed. “The police say they’ve had no reports of a high river. In fact, Officer Singh says he noticed it was particularly low when he came across the bridge this morning. And if a boy is looking for his dog, that’s his business. His parents must report him missing if anything is to be done about it.”
“The river WAS up,” Olivia said angrily. “It washed right over my feet. My boots are still wet. I saw it … unless …”
“Dagbert-the-drowner,” Charlie said quietly.
Olivia stared at him. Dagbert, she mouthed.
“Kids, take off your shoes and put them by the stove,” said Mr. Onimous, “and then sit down and tell me about this poor lady.” He nodded at Mrs. Pike.
Charlie and Olivia pulled off their wet shoes and socks and placed them by the stove. But when Charlie sat down he found he was incapable of giving the Onimouses a clear explanation about what had happened. He was too concerned about Benjamin. So it was Olivia who launched into a lengthy account of Asa’s imprisonment, the hunting party, and the shooting of Mr. Pike.
“Murder!” cried Mrs. Onimous. “Just because people are” — she glanced at Mrs. Pike’s coarse, reddish-colored hair — “outsiders, it’s no excuse. Whatever we are, whoever we are, murder is murder.”
“I agree,” said Olivia. “But I don’t think Mrs. Pike wants to bring an action, or whatever you call it. I don’t think she wants to be seen, if you get me.”
Mr. Onimous gently touched Mrs. Pike’s shoulder. “You’re with friends now, dear. We’ll do what we can for you. There’s a nice cozy room above the café. You can stay as long as you like. We’ll find that son of yours, if he’s still …”
Mrs. Onimous looked hard at her husband and vigorously shook her head.
“I expect they’ve hidden him somewhere dark and …” Mr. Onimous frowned and put his hand over his mouth, as though struck by a sudden thought. “By golly … I wonder?”
“Do you think you know where he is?” asked Charlie.
“Tell us,” cried Olivia.
“Can’t, kids. Got to ponder it a bit.” Mr. Onimous sat down and stroked his furry chin.
His words had had an effect on Mrs. Pike. She lifted her head and gazed around at them, her yellow eyes full of hope. “He can be saved, my Asa?”
“He can, my dear,” Mr. Onimous said confidently. “Now, can you tell us a little about yourself, and how you came to this city? Forgive me, but it seems that you are very much a stranger here.”
“I am.” Mrs. Pike clasped her hands together and said, “I would like some water, please.”
“What am I thinking of?” Mrs. Onimous leaped to put the kettle on. “You shall have herbal tea, my dear, a good restorative drink. And seedcake perhaps, with juicy raisins and revitalizing spices.”
“I thoroughly recommend it,” said Mr. Onimous, fetching a glass from the cupboard. “But first some water.”
“And frozen peas for the ankle?” Olivia suggested.
“Frozen peas it is. I see you know a thing or two, Olivia.” Mr. Onimous set a glass of water before Mrs. Pike and then delved into the freezer for a bag of peas.
While Mrs. Pike was being attended to, Charlie stood up. Benjamin was still very much on his mind. Someone should be looking for him. But when Charlie made for the door, Mrs. Pike began to speak, and her soft, husky voice drew him back. Before he knew it, he was sitting down again and listening to an incredible story.
Words poured out of Mrs. Pike as though she’d been holding them back for years, waiting for the time when she could talk about her family, and the extraordinary place that she’d come from. “We live in what you might call enchanted places, forests moving with the secret currents in the air. They say that Cafall the Changer began it all. He was one of the Red King’s sons. A wicked one. But Cafall was changeable, you see. All of a sudden goodness would come over him. It was in one of these righteous moods that he took flight from the castle. Evil was growing there, and he could take no more. So he sailed away and found, by chance, the land of the Merromals. Merromals are people like me.” Mrs. Pike’s heavy brow lifted slightly and she gave a wry smile. “Not all Merromals look like me and Mr. Pike. A mutual attraction drew us together.
“Well, Cafall took a Merromal wife, and they had a son, and that’s when the changing began. Their child was a boy by day and a beast at dusk. And so it went on, through the generations.”
Mrs. Pike took several noisy sips of herbal tea. It was obvious that she had more to say and her rapt audience remained silent, waiting for her to continue. Charlie politely dropped his gaze when her huge teeth bit into the se
edcake, but Olivia couldn’t stop her nose from wrinkling.
“It’s very gratifying to be so carefully listened to.” Mrs. Pike brushed a few crumbs from her chin and continued. “I will tell you about my family.”
“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 café door and say, “Blow me down!”
“Goodness, it’s time to open the café!” 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 k
night,” 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. Onimous.
“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.”
“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 café. 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.”
