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"You OK, Charlie?" asked Tancred, taking the seat beside him.

"Yes," said Charlie confidently. "I'm great." He looked across at Manfred, who had dropped into a chair. His head lolled forward as though he were asleep.117Dorcas and the twins clustered around the talents master. Joshua tapped his shoulder and Manfred lifted

his head. He clutched the edge of the table and pulled himself to his feet. "Get started on your homework," he said. His speech was thick and slurred. Avoiding Charlie's eye, Manfred limped out of the room.

Dorcas, Joshua, and the twins took their usual places opposite Charlie. A few moments later, Emma, Lysander, and Gabriel arrived and sat beside one another, beyond Tancred.

Billy rushed in and headed straight for the empty place on Charlie's right. The small boy seemed nervous and even more disorganized than usual. Books kept falling out of his grasp, his glasses slipped off his nose, and reaching for them, his chair tipped sideways and he fell onto the floor.

Charlie had no doubt that the Branko twins were responsible. They often tormented Billy with their kinetic powers. He was an easy victim. Dorcas and Joshua began to snicker.118"Pathetic!" Lysander glared at the twins. "Is that how you get your kicks?

Tormenting people who can't defend themselves? Try it on me, Idith. Come on, Inez, knock MY chair over."

The twins lowered their eyes and opened their books. The ghostly African warriors that Lysander could call up were not something that they wanted to contest.

Dagbert Endless came in late. He sat alone, halfway between each group. "Where's the talents master?" he asked.

"He got sick," said Dorcas, "when Charlie Bone was with him."

"Is that so?" Dagbert looked at Charlie with interest.119CHAPTER 6

THE POISONED NET

T he long, cold dormitory with its single dim light had become so familiar to Charlie that he almost felt at home. But tonight he found it impossible to sleep. On one side of him, Fidelio hummed in his dreams, and on the other, Billy Raven twisted and moaned in a tangle of bed covers.

"Billy, are you awake?" Charlie whispered.

Billy stopped moving and sat up. "I'm worried about Rembrandt," he said. "Who's going to look after him?"

"You heard Olivia. She said Mrs. Onimous wasn't injured. She'll be back at the Pets' Cafe right now, I bet."

"But Mr. Onimous? He ... he must be..." Billy's voice trailed off.

"We'll ask Cook about it in the morning," said Charlie. "She'll know." He closed his eyes and turned over,120and then he found himself asking, "Do you want to come home with me next weekend?"

"Of course I do," said Billy.

"That's settled, then."

Fidelio had drifted out of his musical dream and slumbered peacefully. Billy lay quiet and still, at last, and Charlie should have found it easy to sleep. But another problem had presented itself.

Why was Manfred so eager for Billy to visit Charlie's home? Did it have something to do with the painting of Badlock? Charlie realized he had told Billy nothing about the painting. Billy's concern for his rat had put it out of Charlie's mind.

The soft light of his white moth flickered above Charlie, and he was glad she had followed him to school. As he watched Claerwen loop and swing through the darkness, he began to feel drowsy, but as he finally fell asleep, a voice in his head seemed to be warning him: Don't let Billy go into Badlock.

From a bed at the end of Charlie's row, Dagbert Endless followed the white moth's dance across the121ceiling. He put his hand under his pillow and brought out a small golden fish and five tiny golden crabs. Clutching them in his fist, he murmured, "Sea gold," and a smile crept into his face.

The bare walls of the dormitory were bathed in blue-green colors, veined with rippling silver light. As the watery shades washed above him, Dagbert thought of his mother. She had given him the sea-gold creatures a month before her death. She had found the gold in wrecks so deep they had been declared forever lost. But not to her. For Dagbert's mother was a merwoman, as much at home in the sea as in the castle her husband had built for her. She made the gold into rings and bracelets and golden chains. But the five crabs and the fish were special charms to give her gifted son a power that would exceed his father's.

There was also a golden sea urchin somewhere in Tancred Torsson's possession. The storm boy had stolen it to weaken Dagbert's power.

When Dagbert was five years old, his mother had been caught in a net and crushed to death beneath a122ton of fish, creatures she had always considered her friends.

Dagbert let the sea-gold charms trickle between his fingers. The loss of his sea urchin angered him. Its theft was a slur on his mother's memory. But watching Charlie Bone's moth had given him an idea. Manfred Bloor wanted that white moth; without her Charlie Bone couldn't travel. But if Dagbert caught the moth, he would be helping himself as well. Tancred would surely return the charm in exchange for Charlie's moth.Dorcas Loom will make me a net. She's clever with her fingers. We'll soon see who's the strongest, thought Dagbert.

The following day Charlie found an opportunity to tell Billy about Runner Bean.

He watched Billy wander up to the top of the field and began to follow him. Billy often wandered up to the ruined castle in the woods. He felt safe behind the massive red stone walls, with the open sky for a roof and the comforting sense that the Red King and his queen might still be close.123Charlie found Billy sitting on a stone seat between two of the five arches that led deeper into the castle. The white-haired boy was staring at a huge flagstone that was cracked down the center and bordered with fresh earth. When Charlie approached, Billy said, "That is where Mrs. Tilpin found the mirror, isn't it?"

Charlie looked at the stone. "Yes. Where the shadow buried it."

"D'you think she'll try to use it again to bring the shadow back?"

"Yes, I do." Charlie sat beside Billy. "There's something you've got to know, Billy."

"Oh?" Billy's claret-colored eyes widened with anticipation. "Have you been picture-traveling again?"

"How did you guess?"

"You look like you have. I didn't notice before; I was thinking about Rembrandt so much.

I still haven't seen Cook."

"Your rat's going to be OK," said Charlie. "Look, Billy, you've got to know everything that happened124last weekend, and I might not get another chance to tell you before Friday."

"I want to know," said Billy.

So Charlie told Billy everything: from the moment he heard the wind sighing out of the painting, to the appearance of Runner Bean in Badlock. Billy shuffled and gasped; he pulled his hood up and hunched himself down, as though he were trying to block out Charlie's words yet was desperate to hear more. When Charlie described how he had

escaped from the painting with Claerwen's help, Billy gave a sigh of relief and said,

"That's alright, then. But you'd better not go near that painting again, Charlie."

"It's not all right," said Charlie. "I couldn't get Runner Bean out. He's stuck in that awful place, and none of us knows how to..."

"Can you see him?" asked Billy.

"Yes. It's horrible. He's howling."

"Maybe I can, kind of, connect with him," Billy suggested.125Charlie hesitated. "It might be dangerous for you, Billy."

Billy was silent for a while. He swung his legs and looked through the great arch to where distant figures could be seen running over the field. "Benjamin must be upset," he said.

"He is," Charlie admitted. "I don't think he'll talk to me until I've rescued his dog."

Billy looked thoughtful. "I can still come home with you, Charlie, can't I? Even if I don't look at the painting?"

"Of course you can."

As they left the ruins, Charlie's moth fluttered out of his pocket and settled on his shoulder.

"We'll be OK if your moth's with us," Billy said with a grin.

Charlie didn't reply. Claerwen had saved him from Badlock, but she hadn't managed to do the same for Runner Bean.