Midnight for Charlie Bone (Children Of The Red King, Book 1) (15 page)

CHAPTER 15

A RINGING, CHANTING, SHINING KNIGHT

            It was a real joy to get up on Sunday morning, knowing that Grandma Bone would still be asleep. Charlie leaped out of bed and went down to eat a huge breakfast with Maisie and his mother.

            "I expect you've had a lot of nasty breakfasts lately haven't you, Charlie dear?" asked Maisie.

            "Five," said Charlie. He told them he was going to be spending some time with Benjamin and to make up for it, he would wash up his breakfast things. His mother wouldn't hear of it. "You go and have a good time while you can," she said, cheerfully waving him away.

            Benjamin looked worried when he let Charlie in. "I've had a letter from my parents," he said.

            "I thought they lived here," said Charlie.

            "So did I. But they must have left early this morning. I sort of remember Mom coming in to give me a kiss when it was still dark. When I woke up I found the letter on my pillow" Benjamin led Charlie into the kitchen where Runner Bean was finishing off his cornflakes.

            "Can I read it?" asked Charlie.

            Benjamin handed him the letter. It had obviously been written in haste because the writing rushed across the page in big, looping scrawls. It said:

           
Our dear Benjamin,

           
As you know, we are private detectives. Just lately we have both been working on the same case. The case of the missing window cleaner. It has taken up all out time and quite exhausted us, and we are so sorry, dear Benjamin, that we’ve had to leave you all on your own so often. We will make up for it when we come home.

            This brings us to the reason for our letter. The strange case of the missing window cleaner has just taken an exciting turn. We’ve received information that he may be trapped in a cave in Scotland, so we are going up there right now, before he disappears again.

            Lots of love,

            Mom and Dad

            P.S A nice-lady from social services is coming to look after you until we get back

            "I don't like the part about the nice lady,” said Charlie, when he had finished the letter. "People have different ideas about nice."

            “As long as she's nice to Runner, I don't mind," said Benjamin. The two boys decided to go to Ingledew's immediately Benjamin had taken the precaution of copying the tape twice, in case Manfred turned up to search them, or something equally horrible. He had also pushed a large suitcase into the cellar and dropped a rug over it, so that anyone searching for Dr. Tolly's case would be temporarily fooled.

            "You have been busy,” said Charlie admiringly.

            With Runner Bean leading the way they set off for the bookshop. Being Sunday they found it closed, of course, but after several knocks and a few shouts, Miss Ingledew opened the door. She was wearing a long green bathrobe and looked a bit down in the dumps.

            "What do you want?" she asked. "It's Sunday morning, for goodness sake."

            "I'm sorry Miss Ingledew,” said Charlie. He told her about the tape they'd found in the metal dog. "It's meant for you," he said, "so we brought it for you. It'll tell you everything about your niece. She's in the academy and we think we can wake her up."

            "Wake her up? What are you talking about? You'd better come in, both of you." She glanced at Runner Bean. "He doesn't eat books, does he?"

            "Never," said Benjamin.

            They followed Miss Ingledew through the curtains and into her cozy book-lined living room, Runner Bean taking great care not to knock over the little towers of books scattered on the floor.

            Miss Ingledew put the tape into a dusty-looking tape recorder and motioned the boys to sit. They squeezed themselves into the only empty armchair - the others being full of books and papers, while Miss Ingledew perched on the edge of her desk. She pressed play and Dr. Tolly's voice rumbled out into the room.

            The boys watched Miss Ingledew's face as she listened. Several times she shook her head, and often she wiped her eyes. Now and again she exclaimed, "Oh no," and when the tape finally ended, she murmured, "I remember that day so well. A very strange thing happened-I should have guessed."

            "What sort of strange thing?" asked Charlie.

            "Cats," said Miss Ingledew.

            "Cats?" Charlie sat up.

            "I don't know where they came from, but the day little Emma was due to leave they suddenly appeared in my kitchen. They caused a fire by knocking a dishcloth onto the gas burner. It took a while to put it out. Their coats were very bright -red, orange, and yellow-and they kept circling the baby as if they were trying to protect her. They gave Dr. Tolly a nasty scratch on his face when he finally lifted the baby away."

            "One of them is in the photo," Charlie said.

            "I daresay it is," said Miss Ingledew. "They were everywhere. But when Emma left, they vanished." She rubbed her forehead. "So poor little Emma is asleep. This is all so extraordinary!"

            "She's hypnotized," said Charlie. "Manfred did it to me. Only he's done it much worse to her. But it's wearing off Miss Ingledew I heard them talking about your niece, and Manfred said he was getting fed up because he had to keep 'putting her under' So it won't take much to wake her up, and we think we've got the thing that'll do it."

            "But who is she, Charlie?"

            "We think she's a girl called Emilia Moon," said Charlie. "She has fair hair and her eyes are very blue and sort of dreamy. She doesn't say much, but she's very good at drawing."

            "Nancy,” murmured Miss Ingledew. "She sounds just like my sister, Nancy. Oh, I wish I could see her."

            "Leave it to us, Miss Ingledew,” said Charlie, jumping up. "We'll find a way to wake her up, and then she can come and live with you." Miss Ingledew gasped. "Is that possible? Perhaps she's happy where she is, living with the Moon people."

            "She doesn't look very happy,” said Charlie. "She probably doesn't even know she can fly."

            "That's something, isn't it?" Benjamin remarked. "I wish I could fly."

            "I think it's very unlikely that Emma can fly Dr. Tolly certainly never mentioned it before." Miss Ingledew pushed herself off the desk. "I can't thank you enough, Charlie, and you, Benjamin," she said. "You've given me hope. Let me know as soon as you need me, won't you?"

            "You bet," said Charlie. He had just glimpsed a tiny bit of glass shining in her hair and wondered how he could bring up the subject of the unfortunate glass popping. He had to do it, for his uncle's sake. But Runner Bean was barking excitedly and they were already through the curtains and heading for the door.

            Charlie stopped suddenly cleared his throat and said, “About my uncle, Miss Ingledew"

            She went very red. "I'd rather not talk about that," she said.

            "But it was an accident."

            “Accident? It was most embarrassing."

            "I mean the lightbulbs, Miss Ingledew My uncle couldn't help himself."

            "Lightbulbs?" She didn't understand. "Your uncle walked out on me. Well, ran out, to be precise. Anyone would have thought I was an ogress."

            "Not at all. Quite the opposite. It was because he thought you were beautiful that it happened."

            Seeing Miss Ingledew's puzzled expression, Charlie plunged straight in and told her the truth about his uncle's peculiar gift. She stared at Charlie, first in disbelief, and then horror. Finally a sort of alarm crossed her face. "I see," she muttered. "How unusual."

            "He'd really like to see you again," Charlie went on hopefully.

            "Hm," said Miss Ingledew. “I'm feeling sort of tired now, boys." She opened the door and they dutifully stepped out. The door was closed very firmly behind them.

            "I didn't know your uncle did that kind of thing," said Benjamin.

            "Don't tell anyone," said Charlie. "Perhaps I shouldn't have told Miss Ingledew, but Uncle Paton is desperate to see her again, so I thought it would be best to tell the truth."

            "If you ask me, it's scared her off," said Benjamin cheerfully. “Next stop Fidelio's. Come on. I've got a map of where he lives." Benjamin and Runner Bean raced ahead while Charlie jogged along behind, feeling bad about Miss Ingledew and his uncle. It seemed that he had made the situation even worse.

            Fidelio's house was quite a sight or, to be more precise, a sound. It was a large and, luckily detached old house sitting in the middle of a cobbled square. The only garden to speak of was some wispy grass that surrounded the house inside a low brick wall. As Benjamin and Charlie approached, the noise coming from inside the house was so great that they saw the oak beams, supporting the porch, tremble, and two slates slid down the roof and smashed on the brick path. The noise was made up of many instruments: violins, cellos, a flute, a harp, and a piano could be heard. A brass plaque on the door told them that the place was called Gunn House. Many guns, they thought, as a drumroll echoed out of a lower window.

            Charlie wondered how the people inside were going to hear the doorbell. He soon found out. When he pressed the bell, a loud recorded voice boomed, "door! door! door!"

            The two boys jumped backward and Runner Bean gave a long howl of fright. Seconds later Fidelio opened the door and Charlie and Benjamin found themselves stepping into a sort of hive of music. Children rushed up and down the stairs, in and out of rooms, carrying sheets of music and a variety of instruments.

            "Is this... I mean, are they all your family?" Charlie asked in amazement.

            "Most of them," said Fidelio. "There are ten of us including Mom and Dad. But some of our musical friends have come by My oldest brother, Felix, is starting a rock band."

            A large bearded man crossed the landing at the top of the stairs and Fidelio called out, "This is Benjamin, and this is Charlie, Dad!" Mr. Gunn beamed down at them and sang out, "Benjamin and-Charlie, eating barley welcome both of you, however early." He gave a booming laugh and disappeared into a room that was full of violin sounds.

            "Sorry about that," said Fidelio. "Dad likes to turn everything into a song. I've put the case in a room at the top of the house. Come on." He led his friends and a quaking Runner Bean up the stairs and past doors that shook with sound. The rock-band room caused Runner Bean to whine so pitifully Benjamin had to cover the dog's ears with his hands. Whenever they passed a child with the same bright hair and freckles as Fidelio, he would say. “This is Benjamin and this is Charlie," and the two boys would be welcomed with beaming smiles and a "Hi!" or "Hello!" or sometimes a "How ya doin?" At last they reached a door at the very top of the house and Fidelio showed them into a room full to bursting with music cases of various sizes. "Our instrument cemetery,” said Fidelio. "It's where we keep everything that's broken and might one day be fixed." He pulled the long xylophone case into the light, snapped it open, and lifted out Dr. Tolly's metal case.

            "Shall we open it?" he asked, setting the case on the floor. Suddenly Charlie wasn't sure. He couldn't wait to find out what was in the case and yet he was a little afraid. Uncle Paton had suggested he should be there, to help if something went wrong. But what could go wrong in such a friendly noisy house? No one would hear the sounds that Dr. Tolly had arranged, and if they did, they would think nothing of it.

            "OK," said Charlie.

            "You do it, Charlie," said Benjamin.

            Charlie stepped forward and knelt beside the case. He could see the letters quite clearly now: Tolly Twelve BELLS. He touched the first "T," gently but firmly Next came the "O," and now Charlie found that he could hardly stop himself. It was easy really One by one he pressed the letters and, as he came to the last one, an "S," a light tap came from inside the lid.

            Charlie quickly stood up and took a few steps back.

            With a loud crack, the lid swung back and a figure began to rise out of the case.

            It was certainly not what Charlie had expected. He had imagined Dr. Tolly's ancestor to be an old man, dressed in velvet. The) figure that rose out of the case was a knight. Its arms and legs were encased in shining chain mail, and on its head it wore a flat-topped hood, also of chain mail. There was a small opening for the face, but only the eyes and nose could be seen. It was an eerie, awesome sight, this tall shining figure, rising up like a fast-growing flower. Most awesome of all was the gleaming sword held in the knight's right hand.

            When the figure had achieved its full height it suddenly raised the sword, and three boys and a dog jumped back with yelps, screams, and furious barks. And then they were silent, for somewhere inside the knight, a bell began to ring. One, two, three... on it went, and while the bell rang out, a chorus of deep male voices chanted an ancient-sounding hymn.

            "It's Latin," whispered Fidelio. "I've heard them practicing in the cathedral."

            All at once, Charlie understood what Dr. Tolly had done. He had used the sounds that swam around little Emma Tolly just at the moment when she was hypnotized-or spellbound. Dr. Tolly believed these sounds would wake his daughter, and even if she couldn't remember who she was, she would at least be aware that something had happened to her.

            The bell inside the shining knight tolled for the twelfth time. The knight lowered his sword and began to sink back into the case. It was strange to watch how he dropped and dwindled, bending his head and subsiding until he lay in his silk-lined bed, no bigger now than the length of his gleaming sword.