Charlie Bone's power takes on a new dimension at Bloors Academy in CHARLIE BONE AND THE CASTLE OF MIRRORS . There is a new cast of characters, including Mr. Pilgrims replacement, Tantalus Ebony and the mysterious new student Joshua Tilpin, who appears to be magnetic. Billy has adopted by a mysterious couple and is locked up in an odd place called The Passing House. Meanwhile, Charlie and Olivia discover the secret of the Castle of Mirrors, and along with Uncle Paton, they must free Billy before it is too late.
Olivia frowned. She got up and looked out of the window "I could go over the wall," she said.
Before she had time to change her mind, the others coaxed her downstairs and out into the garden. Olivia and Charlie climbed the wall while Emma, Fidelio, and Runner Bean waited in the Vertigos' garden.
Charlie knocked on Alice's backdoor but there was no response. He looked through the windows; all the downstairs rooms appeared to be empty. Olivia went to the front of the house and pulled the bell chain. No one answered the door. She noticed the FOR SALE sign by the gate and ran back to Charlie.
"She's gone!" cried Olivia. "Now I'll never know"
"Hold on, Liv, she can't have gone." Charlie was peering through a window at the side of the house. "I can see two suitcases in the living room. And a raincoat on the back of a chair."
"So she's somewhere in the city but where?" Olivia now seemed desperate to find Alice Angel. She ran back to the wall with Charlie in tow, and they both climbed back to the other side.
"Well?" said Fidelio, while Runner Bean barked enthusiastically
"Not there," said Charlie.
"How are we going lo find her?" Olivia wrung her hands dramatically.
"The shop's been closed, so she won't be there," said Charlie.
"We'll have to scour the city," said Fidelio.
"It's too big," Charlie objected. "We could search for days and never find her."
"I think I c an help," said Emma quietly "What does this Alice Angel look like?"
They all stared at Emma, and Olivia said, "She has a lot of white hair and a beautiful face."
Charlie made an inspired guess. "She might be carrying some flowers, white ones."
"I've got the picture," said Emma. "Now, do you mind going indoors, all of you. Because I don't like doing what I'm going to do in public." She looked at her bandaged lingers. "I think Joshua got Tancred to injure my fingers on purpose."
"So that you couldn't fly." Olivia looked concerned. "Don't hurt yourself, Em. If it's too painful just don't. You might fall."
Emma waved them away "It'll be OK."
They trooped indoors and stood by the French windows, trying not to look into the backyard but finding it impossible not to take the occasional peek. Emma was hidden by the shrubbery, and it was only when a small brown bird flew up into the apple tree that they knew she was on her way. They watched the bird soar in the sky and said, "There she goes. If anyone can find Alice Angel, it's Emma Tolly."
************************************
Emma's wing tips gave her trouble to begin with. She hovered uncertainly over Filbert Street but finally regained her balance when she sailed into a cloud above the cathedral. Taking advantage of the warm autumn temperature, she drifted across the city her sharp bird eyes taking in every detail of the busy citizens striding, ambling, and running below her. She even flew above Bloor's Academy and the castle ruin. She saw Billy Raven walking across the ground with Blessed at his heels and would have liked to stop and talk to him, but time was precious.
The bird, Emma, was about to fly away from the ruin when she saw something that caused her to lose her concentration, and she began to drop toward the earth.
Deep in the ruin, tall ivy-covered walls surrounded a green and secret courtyard. In the center stood a tree with red-gold leaves. A sound came from the tree, music of a kind that Emma had never heard. Alighting on a wall, she saw a white horse grazing beneath the tree. Emma had no doubt that the tree and the horse belonged together and that they were a part of a world that was altogether different from her own.
The horse looked up when it saw the bird. "Child," it said. "My child."
"I fly," said Emma.
"May fortune fly with you," said the horse. A surge of hope carried Emma into the sky. Her wings no longer ached and she felt profoundly happy. With renewed energy she continued to search the city, until she came to the park at the end of Filbert Street. Below her, a white-haired woman sat alone on a bench. Her head was bent over a bouquet of white flowers on her lap.
Emma gave a sharp cry and the woman looked up. She had a beautiful but sad face. Emma wheeled around and flew back to Olivia's garden. Her three friends were still gathered around the window when she ran up the path, a girl again, crying, "I've found her. I've found her. She's in the park."
Four children and a dog raced down to the park, through the gates, and across the grass to the bench where Alice Angel sat alone. When she saw Olivia, Alice's sad face broke into a smile. "Olivia, have you come to say good-bye?"
"I've come to say I'm sorry" Olivia blurted. "I'm sorry for everything, for not believing, and for your friend who's gone."
Alice brought the white flowers up to her face and breathed in their scent. "I wanted to put these on his grave, but of course, he doesn't have one. Poor Christopher."
"I'm sorry, so sorry," cried Olivia, almost beside herself with remorse.
"You've come to see me. It's not too late." Alice stood up. And you, Charlie, was it you who brought her here?"
"It was all of us," said Charlie. "My friend Fidelio" Fidelio made a bow "but mostly it was Emma. She found you."
Ah!" Alice gave Emma a knowing look, then she carefully placed the flowers on the bench and turned to Olivia. "So you're ready to accept your inheritance?"
"I suppose I am," said Olivia.
And who would you like to see what you can do?" asked Alice.
"My friends, of course," Olivia replied.
"No one else?" Alice said gravely "You can choose whom to show your revelations."
"Can I?" Olivia's eager face began to look serious. She regarded a cyclist whizzing around the cycle path, two boys playing football, and a woman walking her dog. "Well, right now I only want my friends and you to see what I can do oh, and Runner Bean, of course."
"Very well! Think of something, anything. Think very very hard. See it in your mind, every facet of it."
"Hang on, I'm not going to turn into what I see, am I?" Olivia asked.
"No," replied Alice.
"OK. Here goes." A frown of concentration creased Olivia's brow, and then the familiar, mischievous gleam came into her eyes. Everyone stood very still, even Runner Bean, who seemed to have grasped the gravity of the situation. After a minute of total silence, Alice said, "Now, Olivia, look over your shoulder!"
Olivia looked. Everyone followed her gaze. In the middle of the park a huge murky cloud appeared. Gradually it assumed an indistinct, wobbly shape.
"No," said Alice. "You haven't quite got it, Olivia. Relax! You're trying too hard."
Olivia smiled and half-closed her eyes. The wobbly shape hardened into something horribly real.
Fidelio yelled first, and then Runner Bean gave a terrifying, primeval howl. Charlie's mouth dropped open but he was too scared to make a sound. He knew that what he was seeing wasn't real, but it looked real, it smelled real, and it sounded real. A huge dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus rex by the look of it, stood a few paces away from them. Its vast mouth was open, its breath horrendous, and its bloodcurdling roar a sound you only hear in nightmares.
