Emma stopped and looked at Dorcas, who added, "What's eating you?"
And suddenly Emma knew that Olivia had been bewitched by that sparkling vest.
Because that's what Dorcas could do; it was what Charlie's great-aunt Venetia prided herself on. Both could make bewitching garments.
Emma ran to the bathroom. Olivia was brushing her hair in the mirror. She had taken off the vest to put on her pajamas, and now the sparkling vest lay on a chair. Seizing her chance, Emma made a grab for it.
"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Olivia's long nails dug into the back of Emma's hand. For a moment Emma resisted. She clung to the vest, but Olivia, raising her hairbrush, brought it down, crack, across Emma's knuckles.
Emma let go with a cry, and Olivia pulled the vest on over her pajamas.
"Don't ever do that again," she said.
Emma followed Olivia back into the dormitory. She watched her friend get into bed, still wearing the vest. It scratched and tinkled against the covers, and Emma shuddered. "Night, Liv!" she murmured.
Without replying, Olivia turned over and closed her eyes.
After lights out Charlie and Fidelio went to the bathroom, where they could talk in peace. Fidelio might not have been endowed, but he was Charlie's loyal friend and always would be. Sitting crossed-legged beside Charlie on the bathroom floor, he listened with mounting horror to the account of his best friend's grim weekend.
"I haven't heard about anyone being murdered," whispered Fidelio. "Poor old Mr. Bittermouse."
"It was probably in all the papers this morning," said Charlie. "But the swordsman will be back in his portrait before anyone can catch him."
"Do you think... ," began Fidelio.
The bathroom door opened and Dagbert Endless looked in. Charlie noticed that he was shaking and wondered if they would soon be engulfed in one of Dagbert's underwater illusions.
Dagbert stepped into the bathroom, closed the door softly behind him, and came to sit beside Charlie. There was a long silence while Charlie and Fidelio tried to think what to say. The whiff of fish that usually hung about Dagbert had been replaced by the tang of seaweed; it was a raw, melancholy scent.
After several silent seconds had elapsed, Dagbert said, "I'm sorry."
Charlie turned to look at him. In the faint light from the window, Dagbert appeared to be a bluish green.
"Are you saying that you're sorry about Tancred?" asked Fidelio.
Dagbert nodded. "About Tancred and about the things my father is going to do.
He's brought his Sea Globe here and means to drown your parents with it, Charlie."
Charlie said, "I know."
"You do?" Dagbert seemed surprised. "I... I'm sorry. If I could stop him I would, but I'm not strong enough yet.
And if I tried without the seven sea-gold charms, the globe would swallow me.
My father's often warned me that would happen."
"And if you had the charms?" asked Fidelio. "Could you destroy the Sea Globe then?"
Dagbert shrugged, and then he said, "I'm not like THEM, you know. I'm not with Manfred and Joshua and the Bloors."
"I didn't think you were," said Charlie quietly.
"Sometimes I can't help doing what I do," Dagbert continued in a desperate voice. "I just find myself getting angry or scared, and the world turns to water all around me."
"Look, Dagbert," Charlie said. "I happen to know that Joshua is going to try and find your sea-gold charms, wherever you've hidden them. I'll do everything I can to stop him, but I might not be able to."
"They're... ," Dagbert began.
"Don't tell me," said Charlie sharply. "Manfred might try and get it out of me."
"OK."
Fidelio suggested that they should go to bed before they froze to death. The bathrooms in Bloor's Academy were the coldest rooms in the building.
Charlie woke up feeling that it was going to be a rather difficult day. One look at Dagbert's troubled face reminded him that he would have to watch Joshua Tilpin's every move. It wouldn't be easy. Joshua was in the first year, Charlie in the second. Joshua took art, not music. He ate in a different cafeteria, changed his shoes in a different coatroom, and had assembly with another group. Charlie could only hope that Dagbert had hidden the charms outside.
Dagbert had done just that. Joshua made his move during the first break. He had been practicing with some of his mother's jewelry and was now fairly confident that he could attract gold. But where to start? He had to have some hint of where the sea-gold charms might be.
In the end it was Dagbert who gave the game away. He was lost without the charms and so anxious about their safety, he began to gravitate toward them.
Snow lying on the field had been turned to a muddy slush by three hundred pairs of feet. But there were still some children who could not give up a last attempt at making snowballs. Joshua and the Branko twins were among them. But while he collected handfuls of slopping ice, Joshua was watching Dagbert out of the corner of his eye.
Charlie was kicking a soccer ball about with Emma and Fidelio. Emma looked depressed. Olivia was nowhere to be seen. Charlie made a half turn to see if Joshua was still with the Branko twins and found that he wasn't. So where was he?
"Where's Joshua?" Charlie shouted.
Fidelio pointed to a small figure walking stealthily up to the castle.
"OK. I'm off," said Charlie.
"I'll come with you," Fidelio offered.
Charlie shook his head. "Better not. It'll look too obvious."
"What's going on?" Emma asked irritably.
Fidelio mouthed, Tell you in a minute.
Trying to look casual but putting on speed whenever he thought no one was looking, Charlie hurried after Joshua. He saw him disappear under the great red arch, waited a few seconds, and then dashed after him. Joshua had vanished again. Charlie found himself staring at the five small arches set into a stone wall, all of them leading into the ruin. Charlie had tried each one before. He knew that the central arch led straight into the castle while beyond the others, four long tunnels twisted their way into the more obscure parts of the ruin. But which route had Dagbert and Joshua taken?
A scream came echoing up the tunnel on the far left. Charlie groaned. Dagbert had chosen the most difficult way in. There was nothing for it but to follow him.
As Charlie plunged into the tunnel, there was another scream, this one more terrible than the last. It was a scream of terror and despair.
Slipping and sliding down the wet, musty tunnel, Charlie groped desperately for the wall to steady himself, but the bricks were slimy with mildew, and Charlie slithered on, now falling to his knees, now on all fours. He emerged at last on a snow-covered bank. Tall trees on either side of him sighed in a wind that had suddenly blown up, filled with the scent of the sea.
Below Charlie, in a patch of muddy snow, Dagbert and Joshua were fighting around a large black rock. Lying on its smooth surface were the seven sea-gold charms. Dagbert must have hidden them beneath the rock, Charlie realized, but Joshua had drawn them out of their hiding place.
Charlie slid down the bank. As he reached the bottom, Joshua suddenly gave Dagbert a shove and he fell back into the snow.
"Mine!" cried Joshua, holding up his hand, and the golden charms floated over to him. He closed his fist over them and began to run up the bank.
"No, you don't!" Charlie shouted, grabbing Joshua's ankle.
Down he came, with a yell of pain.
"Drop those charms, Joshua Tilpin," said Charlie, clinging to Joshua.
"They're not yours."
"And they're not yours, either," screamed Joshua. "Get off me, Charlie Bone."
He kicked out with his other foot, catching Charlie on the nose. Blood poured into Charlie's mouth and he let go of Joshua's ankle.
Dagbert rushed at Joshua and seized his hands. He tore at the puny fingers and pried them open, but the charms stuck to Joshua's palms like barnacles.