Jenny Nimmo - Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors

First published in Great Britain 2005 by Egmont UK Limited

This edition published 2010

by Egmont UK Limited

239 Kensington High Street

London W8 6SA

Text copyright © 2005 Jenny Nimmo

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

ISBN 978 1 4052 2465 9

eBook ISBN 978 1 7803 1205 7

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Egmont is passionate about helping to preserve the world’s remaining ancient forests. We only use paper from legal and sustainable forest sources, so we know where every single tree comes from that goes into every paper that makes up every book.

This book is made from paper certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), an organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of forest resources. For more information on the FSC, please visit www.fsc.org. To learn more about Egmont’s sustainable paper policy, please visit www.egmont.co.uk/ethical.

For David, who led me to the castle, with love.

Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright First published in Great Britain 2005 by Egmont UK Limited This edition published 2010 by Egmont UK Limited 239 Kensington High Street London W8 6SA Text copyright © 2005 Jenny Nimmo The moral rights of the author have been asserted ISBN 978 1 4052 2465 9 eBook ISBN 978 1 7803 1205 7 www.egmont.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Egmont is passionate about helping to preserve the world’s remaining ancient forests. We only use paper from legal and sustainable forest sources, so we know where every single tree comes from that goes into every paper that makes up every book. This book is made from paper certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), an organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of forest resources. For more information on the FSC, please visit www.fsc.org . To learn more about Egmont’s sustainable paper policy, please visit www.egmont.co.uk/ethical . For David, who led me to the castle, with love.

Dedication For David, who led me to the castle, with love.

The endowed children The children of the Red King, called the endowed Manfred Bloor Son of the headmaster of Bloor’s Academy. A hypnotiser. He is descended from Borlath, eldest son of the Red King. Borlath was a brutal and sadistic tyrant. Asa Pike A were-beast. He is descended from a tribe who lived in the Northern forests and kept strange beasts. Asa can change shape at dusk. Billy Raven Billy can communicate with animals. One of his ancestors conversed with ravens that sat on a gibbet where dead men hung. For this talent he was banished from his village. Lysander Sage Descended from an African wise man. He can call up his spirit ancestors. Tancred Torsson A storm-bringer. His Scandinavian ancestor was named after the thunder god, Thor. Tancred can bring rain, wind, thunder and lightning. Gabriel Silk Gabriel can feel scenes and emotions through the clothes of others. He comes from a line of psychics. Emma Tolly Emma can fly. Her surname derives from the Spanish swordsman from Toledo, whose daughter married the Red King. He is therefore an ancestor to all the endowed children. Charlie Bone Charlie can travel into photographs and paintings. He is descended from the Yewbeams, a family with many magical endowments. Dorcas Loom Dorcas can bewitch items of clothing. Her ancestor, Lola Defarge, knitted a shrivelling shawl whilst enjoying the execution of the Queen of France in 1793. Idith and Inez Branko Telekinetic twins, distantly related to Zelda Dobinsky, who has left Bloor’s Academy. Joshua Tilpin Joshua has magnetism. His origins are, at present, a mystery. Even the Bloors are unsure where he lives. He arrived at their doors alone and introduced himself. His fees are paid through a private bank. The endowed are all descended from the ten children of the Red King; a magician-king who left Africa in the twelfth century, accompanied by three leopards.

Prologue Prologue The Red King and his queen were riding by the sea. It was that time of year when the wind carries a hint of frost. Evening clouds had begun to appear and where the sun could find a way through the gathering dusk, it struck the sea in bands of startling light. The king and queen urged their horses home but, all at once, the queen reined in her mount and, in absolute stillness, stared out across the water. The king, following her gaze, beheld an island of astounding beauty. Caught in shafts of sunlight it sparkled with a thousand shades of blue. ‘Oh,’ sighed the queen, in a voice of dread. ‘What is it, my heart?’ asked the king. In the matter of their children the queen’s intuition was greater than the king’s, and when she saw the island of a thousand blues, it was as if an icy hand had clutched her heart. ‘The children.’ Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. The king asked his wife which of their nine children concerned her, but the queen couldn’t say. Yet when they returned to the Red Castle and she saw her two sons, Borlath and Amadis, the queen had a terrible forboding. She saw black smoke rising from the blue island, and flames turning the earth to ash. She saw a castle of shining glass appear in a snowstorm, and when her soul’s eye travelled over the glass walls, she saw a boy with hair the colour of snow climb from a well and close his eyes against the death that lay all about him. ‘We must never let our children see that island,’ she told the king. ‘We must never let them tread on that blue, enchanted earth.’ The king made a promise. But in less than a year the queen would be dead, and he, bowed down with grief, would leave the castle and his children. The queen died nine days after giving birth to her tenth child, a girl she named Amoret. A girl whom no one could protect.

1. A fatal sneeze

2. The phantom horse

3. The boy with paper in his hair

4. Detention for Charlie

5. Billy’s oath

6. Alice Angel

7. The Book of Amadis

8. The white moth

9. A man trapped in glass

10. The jailbird

11. The Passing House

12. Breaking the force-field

13. The battle of oaths and spirits

14. Children of the Queen

15. The enchanted cape

16. The wall of history

17. The black yew

18. Losing the balance

19. Olivia’s talent

20. The warrior

21. The captives’ story

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The children of the Red King, called the endowed