Charlie Bone and the Shadow (The Children of the Red King, Book 7) Part 3 pptx

"I don't think he feels very brave," Charlie re- marked as he watched Runner Bean, raven- ously gnawing the bones. "Charlie, you must flee from here," Otus said gravely. "We cannot hope to hide that dog. Soon my neighbor will alert Oddthumb and his crew. You will hear the horn, and then you must be gone." "But how?" Charlie gazed around the giant's room. "I can't," he said in a strangled voice. "I don't know how I got here. When I travel I have a wand " "A wand?" The giant's eyes widened. "Truly, you are a magician, then?" "No, no." Charlie shook his head. "It's just something that I inherited from my other an- cestor, a Welsh wizard. It'd take too long to explain." Too long, indeed, for at that moment the eerie 113/557 71 sound of a wailing horn echoed around the giant's tower. "Oh, mercy, what's to be done?" The giant strode around and around, clenching his fists and glaring at the high window. "I shall de- fend you with my last breath, Charlie. But I am only one. I cannot prevail. Oddthumb will take you. Oh, poor boy, what is to be- come of you?" The giant's mournful voice was too much for Runner Bean. He leaped up with a dreadful howl - and something astonishing happened. From inside one of the dog's ears, a white moth fluttered out. She came to rest on Charlie's arm. "Claerwen," breathed Charlie. "My wand." "In my day, we called such things moths," said the baffled giant. 114/557 "Yes, yes. She is a moth, but she was once a wand," Charlie told the giant. "Mr. Yewbeam, Otus - we can go now. Thank you, thank you " "Then go," said Otus, "for I can hear troll feet. Swiftly, swiftly, Charlie Bone." 72 "Maybe I could take you with me, Otus?" The giant sadly shook his head. "An im- possibility. Go now, Charlie." Charlie flung his arm around Runner Bean. "I'll come back, Otus. I promise. I'll find a way to get you out of Badlock." Gazing at the moth, he cried, "Claerwen, take me home." The room around him began to jerk and jolt. Defying gravity, the table, chair, and bed tumbled sideways, then became airborne. Charlie was treading air. Now he was upside down. His ears were bombarded with a thou- sand sounds. He felt Runner's coarse hair 115/557 melting under his fingers and tried to grip it tighter, but something or someone was try- ing to tear the dog from his grasp. And then his hand was empty and he was whirling away. Charlie caught one last glimpse of his ancestor's kind, incredulous face before he was thrust through time, through a spark- ling, shifting web of sounds, smells, and sensations. 73 He landed with a light bump on the cold cel- lar floor of number nine Filbert Street. The painting of Badlock stood against the wall behind him. Giving it one brief glance, Charlie ran to the steps and climbed up to the hall. He could hear voices arguing above him. "Mercy on us!" yelled Maisie, jumping out of her chair. "Charlie's back!" 116/557 There was a sudden silence in the living room. Uncle Paton stepped out, followed by Fidelio, Benjamin, and Olivia. "Charlie!" cried Benjamin. "Have you got Runner?" Charlie still felt unsteady. Grasping the rail- ing for support, he said, "Bit of a problem there, Ben." 74 CHAPTER 4 GREEN VAPOR Charlie Bone, I hate you!" Benjamin's sudden explosion was so out of character, Charlie could only stare at his friend in astonishment. "You're always doing it," yelled Benjamin. "You're always losing my dog. That time he nearly drowned, and that other time when the enchanter came and " 117/557 "Benjamin Brown," roared Uncle Paton, "control yourself." Benjamin's mouth closed in a grim pout. His usually pale face had turned an angry red and his eyes were filled with tears. Charlie stared miserably at his feet. "I'm sorry, but I tried to bring Runner back with me, I really did." "You saw him?" Benjamin almost choked on his words. "How come you got out and he couldn't? He's trapped in that awful place and and " 75 Uncle Paton put a hand on Benjamin's shoulder and gently propelled him toward the kitchen. "Come and sit down, all of you. We need to discuss things carefully." A voice called from the living room, "Oh, what a to-do!" 118/557 "I suppose this is some devilish plan of yours, Grizelda," Uncle Paton retorted. "Mine?" came the plaintive cry. "I know nothing whatever about it. That painting was all wrapped up. How did I know Charlie would start prying?" "You knew all right," muttered Uncle Paton. Having gotten everyone into the kitchen, he slammed the door. "I'll make some sandwiches," said Maisie in her soothing, matter-of-fact voice. Everyone sat at the kitchen table while Mais- ie started slicing bread. Uncle Paton paced up and down, pinching his chin and scratch- ing his head. "Charlie, aren't you going to tell us what happened?" Olivia demanded. 76 119/557 Charlie looked at Benjamin, sitting hunched at the end of the table. "OK if you all want to know." "Of course we do," said Fidelio. "That's why we're here." "It was weird," Charlie began, with another glance in Benjamin's direction. "I was just standing there, looking at the painting, when I felt myself being kind of dragged toward it. It was all wrapped up, but I heard a sound coming from it - the wind." "The wind?" Uncle Paton stopped pacing and came to sit at the table. "Go on," urged Olivia. "So I unwrapped the painting, just a bit, and then suddenly I was there. I hardly traveled at all. It was as if the painting reached out and sucked me in." Charlie looked around at the expectant faces; even Benjamin was star- ing at him. 120/557 "Yes," Uncle Paton prompted, "and then?" "And then I met a giant." "A GIANT!" everyone exclaimed, including Maisie, 77 who squeaked as well, having accidentally slammed her fingers in the fridge. "A sort of giant," Charlie amended. He went on to tell them about Oddthumb and the troll army, about the squirras and blancavamps, the black fortress on the mountain, and fi- nally, how Runner Bean had arrived, with Charlie's moth hidden in his ear. Not once during Charlie's long account did anyone say a word, and when he came to the end, such a deep silence had fallen in the room that no one seemed inclined to break it until Benjamin said, very softly, "What will happen to Runner if the trolls want his fur?" 121/557 Before anyone dared to make a guess, Maisie put a huge plate of sandwiches on the table, saying, "Have some food, kids." "I hope that applies to me, too," said Uncle Paton, reaching for a sandwich with apple and walnut clearly visible along one side. "Charlie," he continued, "you told us that you saw a black fortress in Badlock." 78 "In the distance," Charlie spoke through a mouthful of cheese and pickle. "The enchanter's fortress. Just looking at it gave me the creeps." "Hmm." Uncle Paton smoothed back a long lock of black hair that he had almost eaten with the sandwich. "It occurs to me that Harken the Enchanter is at work again." "He can't be," Fidelio argued. "Charlie and the others got rid of him when they chanted that spell around the king's tree." 122/557 [...]... Joshua gathered up their books and made for the door Dagbert said nothing, but he followed the others as they stepped over the splintered planks And then he looked back briefly and murmured "She wants to let an enchanter loose on the world, what d'you think of that, Manfred?" "I think it's an excellent idea," Manfred replied, with another of his sinister smiles "Really?" Dagbert raised his eyebrows and. .. Bean out of there?" "I hope you've done your homework," said Grandma Bone "School tomorrow." She turned the door handle "PLEASE, Grandma!" begged Charlie Without another word his grandmother opened the front door and swept out, leaving the wind to slam the door behind her "Thanks, Grandma!" Charlie muttered He had only taken a few steps back to the cellar when the doorbell rang Had Grandma Bone forgotten...1 23/ 557 "He MUST have gone," cried Olivia, jumping up and down in her seat, "because Charlie' s mother was saved and and his father woke up and and Joshua's mother, the witch, has vanished." "And he doesn't live in Kingdom's Department Store anymore," Benjamin assured them, "because Mom and Dad met the new owner when they were on a shoplifting case there, and they said he was quite... stare 145/557 "Lyell Bone will never return," said Manfred "We'll see to that." 96 CHAPTER 5 THE PETS' CAFEIS CLOSED Long after his friends had left, Charlie still wandered the house Up and down the stairs, in and out of his room, and down into the cellar, where he would stare at Runner Bean's image, at the strands of white hairs in his yellow beard, his shiny black nose, and the reproachful brown... Olivia, that if there is a shadow in the king's portrait, a shadow remains in our lives; it's very faint," he added, observing the children' s anxious faces, "but it's a shadow, nevertheless It seems to me that someone is still communicating with Harken the Enchanter, hence the arrival of that painting and the unusual manner of Charlie' s journey into Badlock." Uncle Paton found the five pairs of eyes trained... of us." "SO sorry!" Dagbert shrugged and walked away "Wait!" commanded Mrs Tilpin "I brought Harken back with this." She grabbed the mirror and held it up "But Charlie Bone got it, and we had a fight and I broke it," said Joshua "And then he found a spell to send the enchanter back into Badlock." "And there he stays until the mirror can be fixed," continued Mrs Tilpin "But we can do it, can't we, children? ... the dark hallway "You too," said Manfred, addressing the white-haired boy who seemed to be in a trance 141/557 Billy shook himself He looked around the room, as though he had no idea how he got there, and then walked slowly through the doorway "Tell Mr Weedon to come and fix the door you broke," Mrs Tilpin called after him "Yes," said Billy weakly Manfred lifted two of the wooden boards and laid them... and dingy rooms, while his mother chanted and hummed and burned herbs in iron bowls and sometimes made him dance horrible dances with her But she was his mother, and he didn't blame her He blamed Charlie Bone, who had caused his mother to reveal herself Charlie, who had stolen the Mirror of Amoret and made Joshua break it 127/557 Not many children would choose to spend their Saturday afternoons in... except for being overweight, in Mom's opinion, anyway." 79 "Nevertheless." Uncle Paton turned to Charlie "Is there still a shadow in the king's portrait?" Charlie confessed that there was The portrait hung in the King's room at Bloor's Academy, and Charlie had often tried to enter it, but a dark shadow behind the king 124/557 always prevented Charlie from meeting his famous ancestor "I rest my case," said... Manfred glanced disdainfully at the children seated around the table Then he noticed Dagbert and he gave a brief half-smile All that remained of the green vapor was a thin cloud that clung to the brick ceiling like 140/557 a mildewy cobweb Manfred didn't appear to have seen it "Scram, kids!" he barked "I want a private word with Mrs Tilpin." 92 With a chorus of "Yes, Manfred," Dorcas, the twins, and . fridge. "A sort of giant," Charlie amended. He went on to tell them about Oddthumb and the troll army, about the squirras and blancavamps, the black fortress on the mountain, and fi- nally,. "because Charlie& apos;s mother was saved and and his father woke up and and Joshua's mother, the witch, has vanished." " ;And he doesn't live in Kingdom's Depart- ment Store anymore,". spark- ling, shifting web of sounds, smells, and sensations. 73 He landed with a light bump on the cold cel- lar floor of number nine Filbert Street. The painting of Badlock stood against the wall behind