And then the weight of water was gone and he opened his eyes. He was lying in a pool of water with Dagbert's blue fist only inches from his face. A golden fish floated through Dagbert's fingers, and Charlie grabbed it before it
could be washed away. Black boots splashed toward him. One came down hard on Charlie's hand.
"Ahhh!" Charlie heard his muffled scream through the thunder of drums. The boot lifted from his fingers and Charlie rolled onto his back, still clutching the fish. Dagbert lay beside him; his eyes were closed, his face blue and lifeless. His hands were empty.
"Dagbert!" Charlie screamed, shaking the limp arm.
Dagbert didn't move.
The drumbeats grew louder. Faster. Deeper. They filled the air with their threatening rhythm. Charlie sat up and rubbed his eyes. Lord Grimwald stood a few feet in front of him. His back was toward Charlie, his arms spread wide.
The blue sea light had been replaced by the red and gold of leaping flames.
Charlie rose shakily to his feet. Now he could see them: Lysander's spirit ancestors. Tall, dark figures lined the walls. There was not an inch of space between them. Gold adorned their necks and arms, their robes were white, their belts colored like rainbows. Each man held a spear in one hand, a flaming torch in the other.
The drumming came from figures on the stage. Standing two rows deep, they beat their drums with feverish intensity, making the chandelier crystals chime like a thousand tiny bells.
Lysander moved so fast around the great room that Charlie could catch only a glimpse of his dark face and flashing eyes. The graceful whirl of his arms caused his cape to move through the air like a spinning green circle.
Charlie stepped away from the Sea Globe. Now he could see Lord Grimwald's face. It was gray with fury and terror. He lurched from side to side, his arms outstretched protectively, as he backed toward his precious globe.
The lines of warriors began to advance. Closer and closer to the globe.
Charlie could feel the heat of their torches. Clouds of steam rose from the globe, and the spirits moved closer still. For a moment Charlie panicked. He didn't know where to go. They were almost upon him, their dark, impassive faces only inches away. And then they were flowing around either side of him, and he could taste the fire and smell the pungent scent of their robes.
They encircled the globe. Closer and closer. Their ranks were four men deep now as the circle became small. And still Lysander whirled, and still the drums beat.
Charlie could no longer see Lord Grimwald. He was trapped in the circle of warriors. They were so densely packed, their torches had become a ring of fire. There was a sudden, awful scream as the Lord of the Oceans was forced into the very seas that he had used to drown so many.
The scream became a gurgle, the gurgle a desperate thrashing, as the Sea Globe churned and boiled and swallowed its master.
Above the rows of spears and torches, Charlie could see the top of the globe.
The blue water had turned a dull gray; it was now more steam than water. The patches of brown land were cracking and shrinking. Slowly the globe began to sink. Charlie dropped to his knees, desperate to see what became of it.
Through the lines of white robes he glimpsed steaming oceans and scorching land. The Sea Globe was dwindling, sinking, and boiling away.
Minutes after Lord Grimwald's scream, the spirit ancestors still held their lines, and then, slowly, they began to move back. Once more Charlie felt them drift past him. The flames of their long torches were dying now, their white
robes fading into clouds of steam. Charlie couldn't say when the drums stopped or when the warriors vanished, because he was staring at the Sea Globe, or rather at the space it had occupied. There was nothing there—
except...
A small glass sphere, slightly larger than a tennis ball, rocked gently to and fro in a pool of water. Dagbert lay beside it.
Charlie felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up into Lysander's grave face. "You finished it," Charlie said, hardly able to believe what he had seen.
"There was no other way," said Lysander. He nodded at Dagbert. "But perhaps it was too late for him."
Charlie got up and ran over to Dagbert. His face looked utterly lifeless. And then, suddenly, his eyelids fluttered and his strange arctic eyes stared up at Charlie. "Am I alive?" he croaked.
"YOU are," Charlie said, helping Dagbert to his feet. He pressed the golden fish into his palm and then, seeing the crabs and the sea urchin floating at the edge of the pool, he scooped them up and gave them to Dagbert, saying,
"You're safe now."
Dagbert thrust them into his pocket and then stood swaying slightly as he gazed around the ballroom. "Where is it?" he said, turning a full circle and looking down at the water around his feet. "Where's the Sea Globe?"
Lysander picked up the small blue-green sphere. He shook it free of water and handed it to Dagbert. "I think you'll find that this is it," he said.
Dagbert looked utterly bemused. He stared at the tiny globe and then at Lysander. "How did it... ?" he breathed, and then, "Where's my father?"
"The globe swallowed him," said Charlie in a matter-of-fact voice. There didn't seem to be any other way to tell a boy that he was holding his father in his hand.
Dagbert grimaced. "Then he's... ?" He looked at the globe.
"In there," said Charlie.
Dagbert shook the globe and turned it upside down, as though he half expected a tiny version of his father to drop into the puddle. Sparkling sea spray trickled slowly from the top to the bottom, but nothing fell out of the sphere.
"It's quite pretty," Charlie remarked. "Like one of those snowstorms in a glass snow globe."
"A sea storm," Dagbert murmured.
Lysander took Dagbert by the shoulder and nudged him toward the doors. "You can't stay here, Dagbert," he warned. "The Bloors will be furious that Lord Grimwald and his globe have gone. We'll get you out, but then it's up to you."
"Where will I go?" Dagbert asked desperately. "I don't know anyone in the city. I have no family."
Where could Dagbert go? Lysander and Charlie realized that he wouldn't be safe in the fish shop where he stayed on weekends. The Pets' Cafe was closed and he couldn't go to Charlie's house while Grandma Bone was there.
"I know!" cried Charlie. "The Kettle Shop. It's only a few doors up from the fish shop where you've been staying."
Lysander looked doubtful. "It's on Piminy Street, Charlie. A nest of vipers, if I may say so."
"I know, I know, but Mrs. Kettle is very strong," Charlie argued. "She's withstood them all so far. And I can't think of anywhere else right now."
For a moment Lysander looked thoughtful.
He stroked his chin in a manner reminiscent of his father, Judge Sage, when he was passing judgment. But whatever objection had passed through Lysander's mind, he quickly banished it and agreed with Charlie. "Tell her you've come from us," he said. "Show her the globe."
"Tell her..." Charlie hesitated. "Say "Matilda" and she'll know you're with us now."
Lysander gave Charlie a questioning look and Dagbert said, "Who's Matilda?"
"Never mind," said Charlie, going pink. "Just say it."
"OK."
They took Dagbert down the hallway and across to the garden door. There was no one about and they realized that the bell for dinner must have rung. The entire school was in the underground dining hall.
"How shall I get out?" Dagbert looked utterly exhausted. Pale and frightened, he stepped into the garden and looked back at Charlie.
Charlie told him where to climb the wall. He hoped the twisted vines of ivy would still show signs of his own speedy clambering.
"Hurry, Dagbert," urged Lysander.
They watched Dagbert run toward the trees, and then Lysander closed the door.
As they hastened across the main hall, someone came out of the side hall leading to the ballroom.
"Very impressive, Lysander Sage," Manfred said through clenched teeth. His whole frame shook with fury, fury at his own cowardice, for he'd been unable to screw up enough courage to face Lysander's spirit ancestors.