Midnight for Charlie Bone (Children Of The Red King, Book 1) (9 page)

            "What about the man at the end - the tall man?"

            "Oh, Mr. Pilgrim." Fidelio grimaced. "He teaches piano, but hardly anyone goes to him. He's too weird."

            "Weird?"

            "He never says anything. You don't know if you've done well or not. My father taught me to play the piano. He teaches in a normal school. I'd better go now I'm late."

            So, Fidelio's father taught in a normal school. What did that make Bloor's? Very interesting, Charlie thought. He watched his new friend fly across the hall to another door, and then went in to face Mr. Paltry-Winds.

            Mr. Paltry didn't like endowed children. He made this very clear to Charlie. Endowed children were a waste of his time. They had their own uncommon talents, but they were of no use to anyone, as far as Mr. Paltry could see.

            At the end of an uncomfortable and unproductive lesson, Charlie was told to leave his cape in the coat-room and to go into the garden for a run.

            "Where's the garden?" Charlie asked.

            He thought this was a reasonable question, but Mr. Paltry seemed to find it very annoying. "Where do you think?" he snapped. Luckily Charlie found Fidelio in the coatroom. "Everyone has to have a run after the first lesson," he told Charlie. "Come with me." The garden was hardly what Charlie would have called a garden. There was no end to it as far as he could see. There were no walls or fences either. The back of the academy overlooked a huge field where children ran or jogged in twos and threes and, sometimes, alone. A deep wood surrounded the field and, in the distance, a gray reddish-colored wall could be seen, disappearing into the trees. Fidelio told Charlie that this was the ruin.

            "Hundreds of years ago it was a huge castle," he said. "But now it's just a ruin. Most of the roof has fallen in, but there are still some creepy passages and weird statues and crumbly steps. The trees have grown all around it and even inside it, and that makes it even more spooky."

            "Have you been in there?" Charlie nodded at the sinister-looking wall.

            "Have I?" Fidelio gave a grim smile. "Every winter, at the end of November, we have to play the ruin game. Everyone has to go in, whether they want to or not. Two years ago a girl went in and never came out." Fidelio had begun to run around the field and Charlie, pacing beside him, asked, "Didn't they find the girl, then?"

            "Never," said Fidelio. He lowered his voice. “And they say it's happened before. Capes were found, but never a... a..."

            "Body?" suggested Charlie.

            Fidelio nodded. "They just disappeared."

            Charlie glanced at the distant dark hedge and shuddered. After a fifteen-minute run, the sound of a hunting horn rang out across the field, and the children began to troop back into the building.

            "You've had your worst lesson," Fidelio told Charlie. "Nothing will be as bad as Mr. Paltry It's English next, and I'll be in the same class, but first our capes. We're only allowed to take them off for games or running."

            When Charlie got to the coatroom, his cape had disappeared. The only one left hanging on the hooks was a tatty garment with jagged tears in one corner.

            "Put it on, Charlie," Fidelio advised. "It's better than nothing. Someone must have taken yours by mistake."

            Charlie wouldn't wear the tattered cape. "It's not mine, and someone might come looking for it."

            Fidelio looked anxious. "Go on, Charlie. Please wear it or there'll be trouble."

            But Charlie wouldn't. He didn't realize what sort of trouble Fidelio meant. If he had, he might have done as his friend asked. The English teacher, Mr. Carp, was a broad, red-faced man. As soon as Charlie walked in without his cape, Mr. Carp's small eyes fixed themselves on him. What, he wanted to know, was Charlie thinking of? Where was "the essential garment"?

            "If you mean my cape, sir, I can't find it," said unsuspecting Charlie. Mr. Carp carried a cane. He brought it down-whack-across his desk. "Out, boy!" he screamed.

            "But, sir," said Fidelio. "It's not his fault."

            "Shut up, Gunn!" shouted Mr. Carp. For a big man he had a very high voice. "You," he pointed his cane at Charlie. "Out this minute!" Unwilling to cause any more trouble, Charlie left the room as quickly as he could. Once he was outside the classroom, however, he didn't know where to go. So he just stood by the wall and stared down the long hall to the great doors that led to the outside world. The stone hall was freezing cold and the thought of spending the night at Bloor's Academy was becoming less and less appealing.

            Just when Charlie thought the English lesson might be ending and Fidelio could come and help him search for his missing cape, someone came out of a door farther down the hall. It was Asa Pike.

            The red-haired boy gave Charlie a slow, malicious smile and walked up to him.

            "Well, if it isn't Charlie Bone," snickered Asa. "I see you've transgressed on your very first day."

            "Trans what?" said Charlie.

            "Did I ask you to speak?" Asa stopped smiling. "Where's your cape, Bone?"

            "I don't know"

            "Come and see the head boy." Asa locked his hand around the back of Charlie's neck and pushed him down the hall. Charlie saw that they were heading for a door marked PREFECTS.

            Asa opened the door and pushed Charlie inside.

            There were several older boys in the room, lounging in armchairs and sofas. Some of them glanced up at Charlie and then went back to their books or their conversations.

            Beneath a window at the end of the room, there was a long desk, and behind the desk sat Manfred Bloor in a purple cape. There were two chairs on the other side of the desk. In one of them sat the girl with purple hair, swinging her feet. Asa pushed Charlie into the other chair. Olivia grinned at him.

            "No cape," Asa announced.

            Charlie quickly looked away from Manfred's stare. He didn't want to be hypnotized again.

            Manfred said, "Has no one told you the rules, Charlie Bone?"

            "No." Charlie looked over Manfred's head.

            "They're sent to pupils before they come here. Didn't you get any?"

            "No." Charlie stared through the window behind Manfred. "They were probably sent to my grandmother and she forgot to give them to me." It was quite likely that Grandma Bone had deliberately withheld the rules, thought Charlie, just to get him into trouble.

            Manfred opened a red file box , extracted a piece of paper, and handed it to Charlie. "The rules. Study them. Learn them, Bone." He turned his attention to Olivia.

            “As for you, Olivia Vertigo, it seems that you can't learn. I'm giving you both detention on Friday night. Your parents will be informed. They can collect you on Saturday."

            "You can't do that," said Charlie, leaping up. "It's my first week. My mom'U..."

            "Mom?" said Manfred scornfully.

            "Mom?" repeated Asa. "We don't talk about moms in here."

            "Moms don't exist in here!" Manfred added darkly.

CHAPTER 9

THE RED KINGS ROOM

            Olivia and Charlie were marched to the door and thrust out into the hall.

            "Now what?" asked Charlie glumly.

            "Let's go to a coatroom where we can talk," whispered Olivia. Charlie followed her down the hall and through a door beneath two golden masks, one smiling and the other sad.

            The purple coatroom was far more interesting than the blue coatroom. It was full of strange costumes: hats with feathers, helmets, top hats, flowers, and masks hung from the walls; and the floor was littered with boots and shoes of every size and description.

            Olivia kicked off her purple shoes and stepped into a pair of plain-looking pumps. "Do you think these will do?" she asked Charlie. Charlie shrugged.

            "Don't look so gloomy It's not that bad. I'm always getting detention. I go exploring. I've already learned some very interesting things about this place."

            "But what if I don't find my cape? I'll keep getting detention."

            "I think I know who's got it," Olivia told him. "I went into your coatroom to look for my backpack -the one you kindly rescued for me. It was break and the only person in there was this boy with a long face and droopy hair. He jumped when I went in, and he looked guilty and kind of secretive. He was holding a blue cape."

            "Do you know his name?" asked Charlie.

            "Gabriel something-or-other," said Olivia. "If he's swapped capes you'd better wear his until you can prove the other one is yours."

            "Thanks, Olivia!" Charlie began to feel more optimistic. "I'll do that right now"

            "See you at dinner," she called as Charlie dashed across the hall into the blue coatroom.

            When Fidelio came out of the English class, he found Charlie wearing a very tattered blue cape.

            "Glad you've come to your senses," whispered Fidelio. "Follow me to the blue cafeteria."

            Charlie followed. The blue cafeteria was at the end of several long passages and Charlie tried to memorize his way by studying the paintings on the walls. It was important to know where food could be found. Most of the paintings were portraits of stern-looking men and women. They seemed to reach back through the ages, their clothes reflecting the centuries they had lived in. He began to recognize names: Raven, Silk,Yew-beam, Pike, and Bloor. History had never been Charlie's strong point, but he was sure these portraits were leading back to an age when people drew on walls.

            At last they entered a big, steamy room that smelled of boiled cabbage. While they were in line for their food, Charlie told Fidelio about Olivia's visit to the blue coatroom.

            "There was this boy looking guilty and holding a cape," said Charlie.

            "Olivia said his name was Gabriel something-or-other."

            "Gabriel Silk," said Fidelio. "He does piano. I think he's endowed. He's certainly very odd."

            "Odd?" asked Charlie.

            Fidelio nodded at the lunch line. "That's him at the end." Charlie saw a tall boy with a long face and droopy mouse-colored hair. Everything about him looked loose and gangly even his hands.

            "He seems happier than usual," said Fidelio. "Oooops! Now he doesn't." Gabriel had dropped the pile of books he was trying to carry under one arm, and was having great difficulty balancing his plate while he retrieved them.

            "I wonder if that's my cape," said Charlie. "Mom sewed my initials in the back. She used green thread because she couldn't find any white."

            "We'll try to get a look at it tonight," said Fidelio. "He probably won't take it off until then."

            A plate containing something brown and green was shoved into Charlie's hands, and he followed Fidelio to an empty table. After a few mouthfuls, Charlie noticed that Fidelio seemed to be enjoying the rather disgusting cabbage and leaving the brown stuff.

            "Vegetarian," explained Fidelio. "They never give us a meal we can eat. I expect you'd like my hash,"

            "Is that what it is? I wouldn't mind a bit. You can have my cabbage." Just as they were swapping hash for cabbage Miss Chrystal -who taught strings -walked past their table.

            "You know that's not allowed," she said with a smile. Charlie had the impression that Miss Chrystal wasn't a very serious person. The smell of cabbage was momentarily drowned by her delicious flowery perfume.

            "Sorry Miss Chrystal," said Fidelio, grinning broadly. “This is Charlie Bone; he's new today."

            "Hello, Charlie," said Miss Chrystal. "If I can be of any help, Fidelio knows where to find me." She bestowed another beaming smile on Fidelio and drifted away It was good to know that there was at least one friendly teacher in the academy.

            The rest of the day passed without any more unpleasant incidents. Charlie followed Fidelio from room to room, out to the cafeteria for tea, and then into the field for a last run before dark. But as the lights began to come on in the great, gray building, and a night sky filled the windows, he found himself thinking of home. And when they passed through the hall on their way to dinner, he pictured the cozy kitchen at number nine and a plate of Maisie's special spaghetti. He turned to look at the tall, solid doors that led to the outside world.

            "It's no good, Charlie," whispered Fidelio. "They won't open until Friday I've tried them."

            "Were you homesick at first?" asked Charlie.

            "Yes, but it didn't last. Friday comes soon."

            "I'm not going home on Friday I've got detention," said Charlie gloomily.

            "Manfred gave it to me."

            "I don't believe it!" Fidelio was clearly shocked. "On your first day Manfred's certainly got it in for you." Seeing Charlie's forlorn expression, he added quickly. “You're in for a surprise. We're about to meet the whole school. And the dining hall is quite something, I can tell you." Fidelio was right. They walked together down the same echoing passages toward the blue cafeteria, and then farther. Now they were descending, very gradually into a huge underground cavern, and Charlie noticed that children in green capes and others in purple were joining them. The crowd of children pressed toward a flight of steps, and then down and down into another long passage, this one leading to a vast hall.

            "We're under the city,” said Fidelio. "This is the oldest part of the building. It's where the Red King's descendants are supposed to have kept their prisoners."

            The Red King again. "Who was the Red King?" asked Charlie. Fidelio shrugged. "He built the ruined castle, that's all I know I think he was OK but they say that some of his children were a really bad group. Come on, we'll be late."

            On either side of three extremely long tables, benches were filling up with children. Blue capes on the left, purple in the center, and green on the right. A prefect at each end was serving soup from a big steel container. Others were doling out hunks of bread. At the end of the hall, on a raised dais, the academy staff sat around a fourth table, the High Table, Fidelio told Charlie. At last Charlie got his first glimpse of Dr. Bloor. He wore a black cape like the staff who taught subjects other than the three arts, but there was no mistaking him. He sat at the head of the High Table and he kept looking around at the mass of chattering children. He was a wide, powerfully built man with iron-gray hair and a straight, well-clipped mustache. Under heavy dark brows, Dr. Bloor's small black eyes scanned the three long tables and Charlie, almost bewitched, found himself following the big man's gaze until, eventually their eyes met.

            Dr. Bloor stood up. He walked off the dais and began to move down the aisle between the blue and purple tables. He never took his eyes off Charlie.

            "What's the matter?" Fidelio nudged Charlie. "Don't you like the soup?" Charlie couldn't answer. Dr. Bloor had reached him.

            "Charles Bone!" It was the same chilling voice that had come leaking out of the newspaper. “A pleasure to have you here."

            Charlie murmured feebly that he was glad to be at Bloor's, but he was hardly aware of what he was saying. Instinctively he was searching the broad face looming above him, and, to his astonishment, he found that photographs were not the limit of his endowment. Fear added another dimension. It allowed him to read faces. Charlie found that he knew, without question, who had taken Dr. Tolly's baby.

            Maisie always said that a face told you a lot about a person. This one was beginning to tell Charlie more than he wanted to know Quickly and deliberately he closed his mind against it.

            “Are you all right?" Fidelio asked Charlie. “You look as if you've seen a ghost."

            Charlie watched Dr. Bloor's broad back receding.

            He stopped again and spoke to a girl in a green cape. She had long, pale hair and when she looked up, frowning, Charlie noticed that her wide blue eyes seemed confused and fearful.

            "Charlie!" Fidelio nudged him. "What is it?"

            "Who's that girl?" asked Charlie. "The one Dr. Bloor's talking to."

            "Emilia Moon," said Fidelio. "She does art. She's quite good at it. Egg and chips are on the way up, so you'd better finish your soup or you won't get any That's the rule."

            Charlie slurped up the last of his soup, just as a plate of egg and chips reached him. He passed the empty bowl down the line to the end of the table where Billy Raven was stacking them up.

            Emilia hadn't touched her soup. She was frowning at it as if she couldn't understand how it got there. Charlie felt he should warn her about the egg and chips, but she was too far away.

            "Do we get pudding?" he asked Fidelio hopefully.

            "You're joking. We get an apple if we're lucky,” said Fidelio. "Or a pear." They were lucky A pear arrived in front of Charlie soon after the egg and chips.

            When dinner was over and the last plates were being stacked, Dr. Bloor came to the front of the dais and clapped his hands. There was instant silence.

            "I have an announcement to make," the doctor said solemnly. “A new boy has arrived to join the endowed. Charles Bone, stand up." Feeling very hot, Charlie stood up. As three hundred pairs of eyes turned in his direction, his knees began to knock against each other.

            "Charlie!" Dr. Bloor spoke his name as if it were a bad mistake. "After supper we have two hours of homework. Endowed children work in the King's room." He paused for several seconds, staring around at the silent and motionless crowd of children. And then, in a thunderous tone that made Charlie jump, he commanded, "Disperse!"

            "Where's the King's room?" Charlie asked desperately as Fidelio leaped up from the bench.

            "Follow Gabriel," Fidelio advised, "or Billy Raven - he's easy to spot. I've got to go now, Charlie. We have to be in our classrooms in three minutes. See you tonight!"

            Fidelio was swept away on a tide of colored capes as children surged toward the end of the dining hall. Charlie searched frantically for Billy Raven's white head. But the tiny albino was hidden in the mass of jostling children. At last Charlie spotted him. He was weaving his way very expertly between the others, and it took Charlie some time to catch up with him.

            "Hi!" said Charlie, grabbing the end of Billy's cape. "Can I come with you? I don't know where the King's room is."

            "Not many people do," said Billy grinning. "It'll take you a while to remember the way but I'll be your guide as long as you want." Charlie barely had time to murmur his thanks before Billy was off. First to the lockers to pick up books and pens, and then back across the hall, down a passage, turning a corner and leaping up a staircase. At last they arrived at a pair of tall black-painted doors. Billy pushed one of the doors and they stepped into a strange circular room. Ten children sat at a round table. Manfred and Asa were there; Gabriel Silk sat between Emilia Moon and a plump, curly-haired girl who looked so normal it was hard to believe she was one of the endowed. A large, muscular girl contrasted strangely with the small, slight girl sitting next to her. Beside them, a dark girl with a long, sharp nose stared disdainfully at Charlie, and he felt his heart sinking. How much time would he have to spend with this unfriendly-looking bunch? He wished Fidelio and Olivia were part of the group.

            Two boys sat with their backs to the door and one looked back as Charlie came in. He had chiseled, African features and the warmest smile Charlie had seen for a long time.

            "This is Charlie!" said Billy Raven.

            "Hi, Charlie, I'm Lysander," said the dark boy with the big smile. Some of the girls introduced themselves. Dorcas was plump and cheerful, Beth very large. Bindi was tiny and Zelda had the long nose. Emilia Moon didn't even lift her head.

            Charlie's relief at seeing a few friendly faces was short-lived.

            "Sit down, Charlie Bone. And be quiet!" Manfred nodded at an empty chair on the other side of Emilia Moon. Billy sat beside Lysander. As Charlie fumbled with his books, wondering where to start, he felt Manfred's coal-black eyes on him. He wanted to take a better look around the room, but dared not glance up until he was sure Manfred's dangerous stare was directed back at his book. When at last Charlie managed to take a quick look at his surroundings, he found someone else watching him, or rather goggling at him - the only person in the room whose face he hadn't seen.

            The boy was older than Charlie, maybe twelve or thirteen. He had round startled eyes and his yellow hair stood up stiffly as though an electric current had passed through it. Charlie frowned, hoping the boy would look away but he didn't. In fact Charlie's fierce expression only seemed to intrigue him. In the end it was Charlie who had to look away Instead of starting his homework, his gaze slid up to the wall behind the yellow-haired boy And there he was, the Red King. He stared out from a gold-framed painting, which must have been very old. The paint had cracked and faded so badly that the features on the long, dark face were blurred and misty except for the eyes - black and magnetic. The cloak he wore was a rich, velvety red and the slim crown on his dark hair had a mysterious golden sparkle.