Charlie Bone And The Red Knight (Children Of The Red King, Book 8) Read Online Free PDF Page B

tonight." Paton handed Tancred a mug of tea.
    "Thanks, Mr. Yewbeam!" Tancred clutched the warm mug. "But you saw them, too," he added anxiously. "You know I didn't imagine it."
    "What did you see?" Emma demanded as she reached for her tea. "What's been going on?" She turned to Tancred. "And, come to that, why are you here, in the middle of the night?"
    Tancred explained that he had come to warn the Onimouses that Norton Cross, their doorman, could no longer be trusted. He went on to describe the extraordinary events that had followed: the foreign swordsman who seemed to have stepped from the past, the sword that fought on its own, and the mounted knight in his scarlet cloak. "If the knight hadn't turned up, I'd have been done for," Tancred finished dramatically.
    Emma's gray eyes widened. "Oh, Tancred!"
    Tancred glanced at her anxious face and smiled. "Funny thing is, I recognized the swordsman. I'm sure I've seen him in the school, in a painting, that is."
    "You have." Paton lowered himself into an armchair by the fire. "I saw him once and have never forgotten it. He is one of Mrs. Tilpin's forebears. I imagine it was she who brought the man into our world."
    "With the help of a mirror that does not belong to her, no doubt," Miss Ingledew remarked crisply.
    "Charlie's mirror?" asked Emma.
    "Indeed." Paton's dark eyes glinted. "The Mirror of Amoret."
    "But who is this mysterious swordsman?" begged Emma.
    "Ashkelan Kapaldi," Paton told her. "A swordsman of renown and a magician of sorts. Though, as far as I can tell, it was only his sword that he could bend to his will and set to killing, all on its own. He was active during the English Civil War. How do I know this?" He waved a hand at a bookcase in the corner. It contained ancient, dusty books bound in peeling leather, their yellowed leaves covered in mysterious, faded writing. Tancred had taken a look at one of them and understood hardly a word.
    "He seemed to recognize me," Tancred said thoughtfully, "that swordsman. I felt that he knew I was endowed."
    "It's something we have in common," Paton remarked. "I can often recognize one of the Red King's descendants. Most of us have a way of knowing one another. Isn't it the same for you, Tancred?"
    Tancred wasn't sure. He certainly wouldn't have known that pretty Miss Chrystal, the former music teacher, was, in fact, a witch of the very darkest nature. He slowly shook his head. "I didn't know about Mrs. Tilpin."
    "No," Paton agreed. "She was a tricky one."
    Emma slipped off the sofa and knelt in front of the fire again, flicking out strands of her damp hair to dry them. "Why has it all gotten so ominous?" She looked at Paton as though he must hold the answer.
    Paton was in no hurry to reply. He sipped his tea and then stared into his mug, apparently having forgotten Emma's question. He hadn't forgotten, however.
    "Convergence," he said at last. "Two things have occurred in these last few months. Charlie's father has reappeared. And Titania Tilpin has become the witch she was destined to be. I believe she is the conduit, the channel, if you like, between the present and the distant past, the world of her ancestor, Count Harken of Badlock. And it is Titania who is drawing Harken's minions back into our city. Some of them are present-day villains, descendants of Harken; others are, for now, mere shadows, whispers, rustlings, echoes. But if Titania and Harken have their way, these shadowy phantoms will soon take on form and substance, and then our lives, if we manage to hold on to them, will be changed forever."
    Paton's dreadful prophecy shocked everyone into a long silence. Eventually, Emma, scrambling onto the sofa again, said shakily, "Billy Raven is there, in Harken's world, so Charlie says."
    "I'm sure it's true," Paton said. "And I'm equally sure that Charlie will try to rescue him."
    "And what about Charlie's father?" asked Tancred.
    "Ah, Lyell." Paton's frown lifted and he actually managed to smile. "My recent travels have