Read Online Floods 7 by Colin Thompson - Free Book Online Page A

began and then stopped.
    The door opened wide to reveal a thin, ashen-faced man who bore a strange resemblance to Valla– which is to say, he bore a strange resemblance to a long-dead corpse.
    â€˜Dog?’ said the man.

    â€˜Yes, her dog,’ said Mordonna.
    â€˜Oh my Lord,’ said the man. ‘You are Mildred Flambard, the last witch to die here under the merciful hands of the Knights Intolerant. How can this be?’
    â€˜As you can see,’ said Mildred, ‘I am no longer dead.’
    â€˜I, I, I …’ said the man.
    â€˜You, you, you,’ said Mildred. ‘You are Standpipe the butler and you took as much delight in my suffering as I shall in yours.’
    â€˜No, please,’ said Standpipe. ‘Hear my words, words I dared not speak those many years ago.’
    â€˜Go on.’
    â€˜I do not believe there is such a thing as witches, nor did I then,’ said Standpipe. ‘But to have said as much to the Knights Intolerant would have been to sign my own death warrant.’
    â€˜So why were you so cruel?’ said Mildred.
    â€˜Erm, no, listen,’ Standpipe begged, ‘I am a nice person. I am kind to animals. Have I not kept your dog alive these past two hundred years?’
    â€˜I don’t know, have you? We haven’t seen him.’
    â€˜Can you not hear him howl?’
    â€˜That could be a recording,’ said Winchflat.
    â€˜Recorders weren’t invented two hundred years ago,’ said Standpipe.
    â€˜Well, maybe the dog died only a few years ago,’ said Betty. ‘And happy dogs don’t howl. Only sad ones do that.’
    â€˜Or else you invented the very first sound recorder a long time before anyone else,’ said Merlinmary.
    â€˜Or you have invented a brilliant time machine sound recorder that can capture noises from times gone by,’ said Winchflat.
    â€˜Or the dog is still alive,’ Standpipe whimpered.
    He seemed to shrink to half his size, a small pathetic creature with a runny nose and mould inhis hair. He moved his head slowly from side to side, staring open-mouthed at the Floods.
    â€˜Oh my Lord,’ he cried. ‘I was wrong. There are real witches and wizards and Mildred Flambard was not the last of them and you are all wizards and I –’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Mordonna. ‘Now go and fetch the dog before I turn you into a toad.’
    â€˜I can’t,’ said Standpipe.
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜It hates me. Although I have fed and watered it for the past two hundred years, it hates me with all its heart and if I ever go too near, it tries to tear me apart.’
    â€˜All the more reason to send you to fetch it,’ said Mildred.
    â€˜I’ll fetch it,’ said Winchflat.
    â€˜It might be a trap,’ said Mordonna.
    â€˜It’ll be OK,’ said Winchflat. ‘Besides, there’s something down there that I need to check on.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You’ll see.’
    He left the room and went down to the cellars. Almost immediately, the mournful howling stopped and was replaced by happy yelps.
    â€˜He never did that for me,’ said Standpipe. ‘Not once in two hundred years.’
    â€˜Well, look at you,’ said Mordonna. ‘You’re a disgrace to whatever species it is you belong to. Who on earth would be happy to see you?’
    â€˜I expect his mother was,’ said Betty, who was the kindest one of the Floods.
    â€˜She wasn’t, actually,’ said Standpipe. ‘She put me out with the garbage when I was three. I sat by the kerb in the garbage bin for a week because the garbage men refused to take me. When they came back a week later she gave them ten dollars and then they took me.’
    â€˜That’s terrible,’ said Betty.
    â€˜Did they give her any change?’ sniggered Merlinmary.
    â€˜Yes, nine dollars,’ said Standpipe. ‘How did you know?’
    â€˜What did they do