Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors by Jenny Nimmo Read Free Book Online Page B

she'd kept her audition a secret.
    Somehow, Charlie managed to keep out of trouble for t he rest of the week, and when Friday arrived, he found that he wasn't dreading his extra night in school as much as he expected. He went down to the main hall to wish Olivia good luck before she left, but she didn't thank him.
    "I wish you hadn't told so many people," she grumbled. "It's bad luck." And she strode away without a backward glance.
    "She's nervous," Emma explained. "Sorry about your detention, Charlie. We'll meet on Sunday shall we?"
    "Pets' Café at two o'clock," said Charlie.
    "You're on." Emma dashed after Olivia, her long blond pigtails bouncing against her cape.
    A familiar smell assailed Charlie when he walked into the dormitory and he wasn't surprised to see Cook's dog, Blessed, sitting at the foot of Billy's bed. Today the old dog looked even more depressed than usual. Charlie assumed this was due to his old age and bad health (Blessed was extremely fat), but Billy quickly set him straight.
    "He's upset," said Billy who was trying to pack a battered- looking suitcase. "Partly because I'm being adopted, but mostly because he saw a terrible thing happen."
    "Oh?" Charlie sank onto the bed next to Billy's. "What did he see?"
    Billy glanced at Blessed, who gave a small grunting sort of whine.
    "It's difficult to explain. I keep thinking I've got it wrong and he means something different, but then he says, ‘True! True! Horse fly through wall.'"
    "What?" Charlie raised his eyebrows.
    Billy slopped packing and sat on his bed. "He says he was at the top of the house in a long, long room. Manfred was there, and old Mr. Ezekiel, and your three great-aunts, Charlie. He says there were things on a table: fur and metal things and — very very old bones."
    Charlie's scalp tingled. "What sort of bones?"
    "Horse bones."
    Blessed gave a sudden, throaty growl.
    “He said that the bones turned into a horse." Billy spoke very slowly, as though he were waiting for Charlie to stop him. But Charlie just listened, open-mouthed
    “Two of your great-aunts did things to the stuff on the table," Billy went on, “and Mr. Ezekiel had a can that made sparks. There was a bang and a lot of smoke, and a horse jumped off the table and crashed through the wall."
    "What the heck are they up to? I didn't know my aunts could do stuff like that."
    "There were three of them, remember. Manfred and Mr. Ezekiel as well. Maybe that made their power stronger." Billy frowned and shook his head. "It must have been the horse that I saw in the sky"
    Charlie realized that this strange spell explained a great deal: the pictures on Manfred's desk, for instance; the ghostly presence in the garden; and the hoofbeats Charlie had heard in the courtyard. "But what's the purpose of it all?" he muttered.
    Billy shrugged. "Maybe we'll never know."
    "Oh, I think we will. In fact, you can bet your life on it."
    "If I could see the horse, I could talk to it," said Billy.
    "Maybe you could talk to it anyway" Charlie suggested.
    Billy stared at Charlie through the thick round lenses of his glasses. "Yes," he said thoughtfully He jumped down from the bed and resumed his packing. The small pile of clothes laid out on the bed only half- filled the large suitcase.
    "I haven't got any more. That's it." Billy closed the suitcase and heaved it onto the floor.
    "Nothing else?" Charlie was concerned. Where were Billy's toys, books, games, sneakers, and weekend clothes? At home, the closet in Charlie's room was packed with stuff. Was this all that Billy owned in the world?
    "There is something else." Billy pulled a plastic bag from his bedside dresser and emptied it on the bed. Along with the five small books that Cook had given him, there was a deck of cards, a small one-eared bear, and something wrapped in yellowing tissue paper.
    "The Bloors usually give me food for presents," said Billy carefully unfolding the tissue paper, "so most of my possessions have been eaten." He gave a