Jenny Nimmo - Midnight for Charlie Bone

MIDNIGHT FOR CHARLIE BONECHILDREN OF THE RED KINGBOOK JENNY NIMMOORCHARD BOOKSAN IMPRINT OF SCHOLASTIC INC.NEW YORKi Text copyright 2002 by Jenny Nimmo First published in 2002 in Great Britain by Egmont Books Ltd.All rights reserved. Published by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. ORCHARD BOOKS and design are registered trademarks of Watts Publishing Group, Ltd., used under license. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Orchard Books, Scholastic Inc., Permissions Department, 557 Broadway New York, NY 10012.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN 0-439-47429- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 03 04 05 06 Printed in the U.S.A. 23 First Scholastic edition, March Cover illustration 2002 by Chris Sheeban The text type was set in 11-pt. Diotima Roman. The display type was set in Latino-Rumba. Book design by Marijka Kostiwii Another onefor Myfanwy,with love-J. N.iiiiv CONTENTSPROLOGUE VIII

CHARLIE HEARS VOICES THE YEWBEAM AUNTS THE FLAME CATS THE INVENTOR'S CASE TRAPPED IN THE DARK A RUINED SCHOOL BREAK HYPNOTIZED! BREAKING THE RULES THE RED KING'S ROOM SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET CLUES AT LAST MIND GAMES THE INVENTOR'S TALE BILLY'S DARK BARGAIN A RINGING, CHANTING, SHINING KNIGHT 2 WAR THE INVENTOR'S DAUGHTER THE RED KING INTO THE RUIN THE BATTLE OF THE ENDOWED THE LONGEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR v
PROLOGUE
Long, long ago a king arrived in the North. They called him the Red King because he wore a scarlet cloak and his shield was emblazoned with a burning sun. It was said that he came out of Africa. This king was also a marvelous magician and each of his ten children inherited a small part of his power. But when the king's wife died, five of his children turned to wickedness and the other five, seeking to escape the corruption that surrounded their evil siblings, left their father's castle forever. Brokenhearted, the Red King vanished into the vi forests that covered the kingdoms of the North. He did not go alone, however, for he was followed by his three faithful cats -leopards to be precise. We must never forget the cats!

The manifold and fabulous powers of the Red King were passed down
through his descendants, often turning up quite unexpectedly in someone who had no idea where they came from. This is what happened to Charlie Bone and to some of the children he met behind the grim, gray walls of Bloor's Academy
vii
CHARLIE HEARS VOICES
On a Thursday afternoon, just after tea, Charlie Bone saw smoke. He happened to be looking out of his window when a dark cloud lifted above the autumn trees. The wind blew it south and it moved through the sky like a great, floating whale.
Somewhere, on the other side of the city there was a fire. Charlie could hear a fire engine racing toward it. He had no idea that in mysterious and unexpected ways he was connected to it and would soon be drawn to the place where it had begun.
Charlie slept well, got up the next morning, and went to school. After school, Charlie and his friend, Benjamin Brown, walked home together, as usual. The cloud of smoke had gone, but the sky was stormy and dark. A fierce wind sent red and gold leaves racing down Filbert Street. Benjamin crossed the road to number twelve, while Charlie stopped at number nine. Most of the
people who lived at number nine complained about the large chestnut tree in front of it -how dark it made their rooms, how damp and creaky it was, and how it would probably fall on the roof one day and kill them all in their beds. Needless to say no one at number nine did anything about it. Complaining to one another was as far as they went. They were that sort of family Or, rather, those sorts of families. As Charlie ran up the steps to his front door, the tree sighed and rained a handful of chestnuts on his head. Luckily his thick, wiry hair softened the blows. Thick hair had its uses, though not many Charlie was always being told to smarten himself up, an impossible task for someone with hair like a hedge.
"Hello, grandmas!" Charlie called as he stepped into the hall. There were two grandmas at number nine: Grandma Jones was Charlie's mother's mother, and Grandma Bone was Charlie's father's mother. Grandma Jones was round and cheerful and bossy while Grandma Bone spoke only to complain. She rarely smiled and nothing made her laugh. Her hair was thick and white, and she wore long, stiff dresses in shades of black, gray or brown (never pink, which was Maisie's favorite color). Grandma Jones liked to be called Maisie, but Charlie wouldn't have dared to call Grandma Bone by her first name, which was Grizelda. She liked to remind people that, before she had married Mr. Bone, she had been a Yewbeam. The Yewbeams were an ancient family their history littered with artistic

people and others who had more unusual talents, such as hypnotism,
mindreading, and be witchery
Charlie knew he had disappointed Grandma Bone by being ordinary Even worse, in her eyes, he was quite happy to be ordinary When Charlie came home from school, it was always Maisie who gave him a wet kiss on his cheek and pushed something to eat under his nose. Today Maisie
had a large bump on her forehead. "Silly chestnut," she told Charlie. Grandma Bone was always sitting in a rocker by the stove, criticizing Maisie's cooking or the state of Charlie's hair. Today the rocker was empty That was the first unusual thing.
It was Benjamin's tenth birthday on Saturday and Charlie had decided to make him a birthday card instead of buying one. He'd taken a photo of Benjamin's dog, Runner Bean, smiling or, to be more precise, showing his long, incredibly yellow teeth.
Charlie had asked his mother to get the photo enlarged at Kwik Foto on her way home from work. He intended to draw a balloon saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY, benjamin! above Runner Bean's head. The second unusual thing was about to happen. At five minutes past four, Charlie's mother came in with a box of overripe apples and rhubarb. "They'll make a lovely cobbler," she said, dumping the box beside Charlie's plate and kissing his shaggy head. Amy Bone worked part-time in a greengrocer's shop, so there was always plenty of fruit and vegetables at number nine. Charlie leaned away from the rotting fruit. "Have you got my photo, Mom?" he asked.
Amy Bone poked around in her shopping bag and found a large orange envelope. She put it on the other side of Charlie's plate. Charlie opened the envelope and revealed -not Runner Bean. Nothing like Runner Bean.
It was at this moment that Grandma Bone appeared. She hovered in the doorway fingering her neck, touching her silver-white hair, and pulling at her stiff black skirt. She looked somehow as though she were on the brink of fulfilling her destiny And in a way she was, though, at sixty-five, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a bit late. The photograph that Charlie now held showed a man holding a baby The man sat on an upright chair. He had thinning, grayish hair and a long, mournful face. His crumpled suit was black and his thick pebble glasses gave his pale gray eyes a lost marblelike stare.

Instead of pushing the photograph back into the envelope, Charlie
continued to gaze at it. In fact, he couldn't tear his eyes away from it. He began to feel dizzy and his ears were filled with mysterious sounds, like the hiss and swish of voices on the radio when you can't pinpoint the right frequency
"Oh," he said. "Um, what... ?" His own voice seemed far away trapped behind a kind of fog.
"What's wrong, Charlie?" asked his mother. "Is something happening?" Grandma Bone crept forward. ?Aunt Eustacia rang me. She had one of her premonitions. Are you a proper Yewbeam, after all?"

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