Charlie Bone and the Time Twister (Children of the Red King, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

book launched itself across the room and caught Tancred in the back just as he whirled toward the door.
    " Owww!" roared Tancred.
    Six children burst into wild laughter, while five looked on in horror.
    Tancred didn't notice the sympathetic faces. He was only aware of the mocking laughter. Wind rushed furiously around the room as the stormy boy swept through the door, leaving it banging violently against the wall.
    Charlie couldn't stop himself. "Wait!" he cried, leaping after Tancred.
    “And where do you think you're going, Bone?" said Manfred.
    "I've left my pens in the coatroom," lied Charlie.
    A scrawny red-haired boy looked up and sneered, “Always forgetting things, aren't you, Bone?"
    "Not always, Asa." Charlie was scared of Asa Pike. He was Manfred's sidekick and had a very nasty talent for changing his shape.
    "Close the door," said Asa, as Charlie stepped outside.
    Charlie pulled the door shut behind him. The passage outside was deserted. Charlie decided to try the hall.
    As he descended the wide staircase a blast of arctic air almost rocked him off his feet. He stepped down into the stone-slated hall and stood very still. Something was happening to his eyes. He was seeing things that should not be there. A cloud of sparkling particles swirled in the very center of the long room. Was it an ice storm?
    Gradually the pale fragments grew more vivid. Now they were forming a blurred shape, blue with a touch of black beneath it. Before Charlie's astonished gaze, a figure in a blue hooded cape was materializing.
    Charlie had no doubt that he was seeing a ghost. But when the figure turned to face him, he found, to his horror, that he was looking at . . . himself.

CHAPTER 3
HIDING HENRY.
    It was the other Charlie who spoke first.
    "What a joke," said the boy. "I haven't traveled very far at all."
    He had such a normal sort of voice Charlie was reassured. This wasn't a ghost. But if not a ghost, what was it? Clearing his throat, he asked, "Where have you come from, exactly?"
    "Here," said the boy "Just now I was here, but," he shaded his eyes with his hand and gazed up at the row of electric lights illuminating the hall. "It wasn't like this. How did it get so bright?"
    "Electricity" said Charlie. He was beginning to recognize the boy “Are you . . .?" he began. "I mean have you . . . well, the thing is, I've seen you in a photo. Are you Henry Yewbeam?"
    "That's me," said Henry beaming. "I think I've seen you, too. Somewhere. Who are you?"
    "I'm your . . . erm . . . sort of cousin, Charlie Bone."
    "No! This is very good news. A cousin, well, well." Henry marched over and shook Charlie's hand. "Very glad to meet you, Charlie Bone."
    "The news isn't that good," said Charlie. "What was the date when you . . . just now?"
    "January 12, 1916," said Henry "I always know the date."
    "I'm afraid it isn't that now"
    "No?" Henry's smile began to fade. "So . . .?"
    "You're almost ninety years ahead of where you were," said Charlie.
    Henry's mouth opened but no words came out. Instead there was a sharp ping as something dropped out of his hand and hit the floor.
    Charlie saw a large glass marble rolling across the hall. "Wow!" he exclaimed, but before he could pick it up, Henry shouted, "Careful, Charlie. Don't look at it."
    "Why?"
    "It's what brought me here."
    Charlie stood back from the shining glass marble. "You mean it brought you through time?"
    Henry nodded. "It's a Time Twister. My mom told me about it, but I'd never seen it until just now 1 should have guessed what it was. I knew Zeke would try and punish me."
    "Zeke?"
    "My cousin, Ezekiel Bloor." Henry suddenly grinned. "I say he's probably dead by now." And then a sad and solemn expression crossed his face. "They're probably all dead: Mother, Father, even my brother, James. There's no one left."
    "There's me," said Charlie, "and I think your brother is . . ."
    At that moment a dreadful howl came from the stairs above them. The boys looked up to see a squat, ugly-looking dog