Jenny Nimmo - Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf

‘Or nothing,’ Dagbert answered for him. ‘You’re powerless, Charlie Bone. So you might as well make the best of things.’

Charlie was thinking, He’s seen off three of my friends. But there’s always Tancred and Lysander. He stared at Dagbert, but whatever the fish boy was, he didn’t appear to be a mind-reader.

After supper, while the other children went to their classrooms, Charlie led Dagbert up to the King’s Room.

‘What is the King’s Room?’ asked Dagbert as they climbed the narrow staircase at the far end of the building.

‘It’s where the Red King’s portrait hangs. All endowed children have to do their homework there. Because we’re the Red King’s descendants.’

‘So now I’ll get to meet the rest of you.’ Dagbert leapt ahead of Charlie. By the time Charlie reached the tall black doors of the King’s Room, Dagbert was already inside. Charlie found him gazing at the shelves of books that lined the curving walls.

‘A round room,’ Dagbert observed with satisfaction, ‘and a round table. How Arthurian.’

Four children came in: Joshua Tilpin, Dorcas Loom and the twins, Inez and Idith.

‘Now let me see,’ Dagbert stared at Joshua. ‘Magnetism?’

Joshua beamed.

‘Good, good.’ Dagbert turned to Dorcas, who was setting her books in order on the table. ‘And you can bewitch clothing?’

‘How can you tell?’ asked Dorcas, a large girl with a puffy face and tangled yellow hair.

‘I can’t,’ Dagbert admitted. ‘Someone told me.’

‘And we are telekinetic,’ one of the twins announced. No one could tell them apart. They both had pale, doll-like faces and shiny black hair. Their fringes ended in a sharp line just above their eyes – dark eyes that never showed a trace of emotion. ‘Who are you?’ the same twin asked.

‘I am a boy whose name is as endless as the ocean.’ Dagbert smiled at them. ‘My name is Dagbert.’

The twins gaped at him. Neither of them asked any more questions.

Charlie felt uncomfortable, alone in the room with four children who had made no secret of being his enemies, and a fifth who certainly couldn’t be described as a friend. He heaved a sigh of relief when Tancred and Lysander appeared.

Tancred was in a particularly boisterous mood; his green cape billowed round him like a cloud, his blond hair stood up in spikes and books kept fluttering out of his hands. As he placed his homework on the table a gust of wind whistled round the room, carrying loose paper into the air and rolling pens and pencils across the round table.

‘For goodness’ sake, can’t you learn to control yourself, Tancred Torsson?’ Dorcas grumbled as she bent to retrieve a book.

Before Tancred could reply, Dagbert cried, ‘A storm boy! Good to meet you. I’m Dagbert Endless.’ He walked over to the two older boys and shook their hands. ‘And you must be Lysander Sage, the spirit-caller.’

Lysander, the African, gave Dagbert a cool smile.

Dagbert ignored the last three children to arrive. Avoiding Charlie, Emma took a seat close to Tancred, and Gabriel sat on his other side. Only Billy chose to sit beside Charlie. For this he received one of the new boy’s chilly stares.

There should have been a twelfth member of the group, but Asa Pike had not been seen for several weeks. Charlie found that he missed the weedy sixth-former with his wispy red hair and the wolfish yellow eyes that gave away his terrible endowment.

Lysander was now the oldest member of the endowed, and so he had been put in charge of the homework room. He had inherited a natural air of authority from his father, the famous Judge Sage. Joshua, Dorcas and the twins might try to test Lysander’s position, but they were a little in awe of the tall African and, so far, no one had openly defied him.

‘Where’s our number twelve?’ asked Dagbert. ‘I was told there was a wolf boy.’

‘Was,’ said Lysander quietly. ‘He’s no longer with us. Get on with your work, now.’

Dagbert meekly opened one of his books and began to read.

Charlie couldn’t concentrate. He gazed up at the Red King’s portrait and then at the clock on the wall. When Manfred had presided over the King’s Room he would command Charlie to look away from the painting and concentrate on his homework. Charlie had always longed to travel into the painting to talk to the king, but it was impossible. Behind the king stood Harken the Enchanter, a shadowy figure who blocked Charlie’s every attempt to reach his ancestor.

Once the shadow had escaped, but now he was trapped again – an angry, brooding presence whom Charlie could almost feel watching him. But I don’t need to reach the king any more, he told the shadow silently, because I’ve found my father and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Someone else was watching Charlie. Dagbert’s aquamarine eyes were fixed on him. Charlie quickly dropped his gaze and tried to concentrate on his homework.

At eight o’clock everyone closed their books and began to file out of the King’s Room.

Before Dagbert could catch up with them, Charlie whispered to Billy, ‘Want to come home with me at the weekend?’

‘Yes, please,’ said Billy. ‘I’ve got so much to –’

‘Hey! Wait for me!’ Dagbert’s voice came ringing after them. ‘You’re supposed to show me the dorms, Charlie Bone.’

‘I thought Matron would have shown you,’ said Charlie.

‘She did, but I’ve forgotten.’ Dagbert grinned and came up to Charlie in his peculiar lurching and pitching motion.

Billy Raven crept away.

‘That boy gives me the creeps,’ Dagbert remarked as he watched the retreating albino.

‘You probably do the same to him,’ said Charlie.

‘Why?’ Dagbert looked genuinely surprised.

Charlie hurried on without answering. He wondered where Dagbert would be sleeping. Every bed in his own dormitory was occupied. So there was no danger of the new boy moving in. Or was there? Ahead of him, he could see Gabriel Silk standing in the passage. He looked distraught. Charlie called out to him, but he turned away and went through a door further down the passage.

‘What’s going on?’ Charlie walked into his dormitory, Dagbert dogging his steps.

Fidelio was sitting on the bed next to Charlie’s. ‘They’ve moved Gabriel,’ he said. ‘Poor old Gabe. It’s not fair. They’ve put him in with Damian Smerk.’

Charlie gasped. ‘His worst enemy!’

Dagbert made his way over to the bed that had once been Gabriel’s.

‘Now we know the reason for Gabriel’s banishment,’ Fidelio muttered, turning his head in Dagbert’s direction.

Charlie lowered his voice. ‘I’m supposed to be looking after him. I guess that’s why Matron put him in here.’

Other boys began to arrive: three first-formers and five second-formers led by Bragger Braine and his devoted slave Rupe Small. Dagbert ignored them. This was surprising, considering that he had gone out of his way to make friends with most of the endowed. Perhaps he considered these ordinary boys not worth the effort, thought Charlie.

Bragger Braine stopped at the end of Dagbert’s bed and commanded the new boy to introduce himself. Dagbert continued to transfer clothes from his bag into the cabinet beside his bed.

‘I’m talking to you, boy,’ Bragger shouted, his wide pug-like face reddening.

‘Answer!’ squeaked Rupe Small.

‘Answer, answer, answer!’ chimed the others.

Charlie suddenly realised he would have to defend the new boy. ‘Leave him alone,’ he said.

‘Who asked you, Charlie Bone?’ snarled the beefy third-former.

‘I’m responsible for him,’ Charlie said in a reasonable tone. ‘His name is Dagbert Endless.’

‘I suppose he’s one of you peculiar “endowed” people,’ Rupe piped up with a giggle.