Read Online Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Diana Wynne Jones
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them.”
Tonino sighed. “They do feel awfully old,” he agreed. “But they feel new, too. We shall have to help them instead. Make them hide from Master Spiderman.”
He tried to catch the old, stunted leaf, but it fluttered away from his fingers, frantically. This seemed to alarm the rest. They all fluttered and trembled and moved in a glowing group to safety behind the tin jug.
“Leave off! You’re frightening them!” Cat said. As he said it, he heard a sort of scuffling from behind him, at the end of the room. He and Tonino both whipped around to look.
There, glowing faintly among the draped cobwebs, another leaf-shaped thing, a big one, was struggling among the clinging, dusty threads. It was struggling even more frantically than the stunted leaf had struggled to get away from Tonino, but every flap and wriggle only brought it further into the midst of the tangled webs and lower and lower toward the black canister.
“This is the dead enchanter!” Tonino said. “Oh, quickly! Help it!”
Cat got up slowly. He was rather afraid of the thing. It was like the times when a bird gets into your bedroom—a panic that was desperately catching—but when he saw the thing suddenly turn into a bean and plummet toward the black canister, he raced to the end of the room and pushed his hands nervously into the gray tangled shrouds of cobweb. He was just in time to deflect it with the edge of his left hand. The bean pinged against the canister and bounced out onto the floor. Cat scooped it up. The instant it was in his hand, the bean split and grew and became a bigger, brighter, and more pointed leaf shape than any of the others. Cat carried it, whirring between his hands, and deposited it carefully beside the rest, where it lay beside the others as part of a transparent, pulsing, living group, shining under the lamp. Like a shoal of fish, Cat thought.
“He’s coming!” gasped Tonino. “Make them escape!”
Cat heard the door at the top of the steps opening. He flapped his hands at the cluster of leaf shapes. “Shoo!” he whispered. “Hide somewhere!” All the leaf shapes flinched from his hands but, maddeningly, they all stayed where they were, hovering behind the tin jug.
“Oh, go !” Tonino implored them as Master Spiderman came storming down the steps. But they would not move.
“What are you boys playing at?” Master Spiderman demanded. He went hurrying through the room toward the draped cobwebs. “According to my star chart, Gabriel de Witt died nearly twenty minutes ago. His soul must have arrived here by now. Why have you not knocked on the door? Are you too busy feeding your faces to notice? Is that it?”
He stormed past the lamp and the workbench without looking at them. All the leaf shapes flinched as the angry gust of his passing hit them. Then, to Cat’s extreme relief, the big new leaf shape lifted one side of itself in a sort of beckoning gesture and slid quietly over the edge of the bench into the shadows underneath it. The others turned themselves and flitted after it, like a row of flatfish diving, with the old, stunted one hastening after in last place. Cat and Tonino turned their eyes sideways to make sure they were hidden and then looked quickly back at Master Spiderman. He was hurling cobwebs right and left in order to get at the black canister.
He snatched it up. He shook it. He turned around, clutching it to his chest, in such amazement and despair that Cat almost felt sorry for him. “It’s empty!” he said. His face was the face of the saddest monkey in the most unkind zoo in any world. “Empty!” he repeated. “All gone—all the souls I have collected are gone! The souls of seven nine-lifed enchanters are missing, and the new one is not here! My lifetime’s work! What has gone wrong?” As he asked this, the grief in his face hardened suddenly to anger and suspicion. “What have you boys done?”
Cat had been prepared to feel very frightened when Master Spiderman
Tonino sighed. “They do feel awfully old,” he agreed. “But they feel new, too. We shall have to help them instead. Make them hide from Master Spiderman.”
He tried to catch the old, stunted leaf, but it fluttered away from his fingers, frantically. This seemed to alarm the rest. They all fluttered and trembled and moved in a glowing group to safety behind the tin jug.
“Leave off! You’re frightening them!” Cat said. As he said it, he heard a sort of scuffling from behind him, at the end of the room. He and Tonino both whipped around to look.
There, glowing faintly among the draped cobwebs, another leaf-shaped thing, a big one, was struggling among the clinging, dusty threads. It was struggling even more frantically than the stunted leaf had struggled to get away from Tonino, but every flap and wriggle only brought it further into the midst of the tangled webs and lower and lower toward the black canister.
“This is the dead enchanter!” Tonino said. “Oh, quickly! Help it!”
Cat got up slowly. He was rather afraid of the thing. It was like the times when a bird gets into your bedroom—a panic that was desperately catching—but when he saw the thing suddenly turn into a bean and plummet toward the black canister, he raced to the end of the room and pushed his hands nervously into the gray tangled shrouds of cobweb. He was just in time to deflect it with the edge of his left hand. The bean pinged against the canister and bounced out onto the floor. Cat scooped it up. The instant it was in his hand, the bean split and grew and became a bigger, brighter, and more pointed leaf shape than any of the others. Cat carried it, whirring between his hands, and deposited it carefully beside the rest, where it lay beside the others as part of a transparent, pulsing, living group, shining under the lamp. Like a shoal of fish, Cat thought.
“He’s coming!” gasped Tonino. “Make them escape!”
Cat heard the door at the top of the steps opening. He flapped his hands at the cluster of leaf shapes. “Shoo!” he whispered. “Hide somewhere!” All the leaf shapes flinched from his hands but, maddeningly, they all stayed where they were, hovering behind the tin jug.
“Oh, go !” Tonino implored them as Master Spiderman came storming down the steps. But they would not move.
“What are you boys playing at?” Master Spiderman demanded. He went hurrying through the room toward the draped cobwebs. “According to my star chart, Gabriel de Witt died nearly twenty minutes ago. His soul must have arrived here by now. Why have you not knocked on the door? Are you too busy feeding your faces to notice? Is that it?”
He stormed past the lamp and the workbench without looking at them. All the leaf shapes flinched as the angry gust of his passing hit them. Then, to Cat’s extreme relief, the big new leaf shape lifted one side of itself in a sort of beckoning gesture and slid quietly over the edge of the bench into the shadows underneath it. The others turned themselves and flitted after it, like a row of flatfish diving, with the old, stunted one hastening after in last place. Cat and Tonino turned their eyes sideways to make sure they were hidden and then looked quickly back at Master Spiderman. He was hurling cobwebs right and left in order to get at the black canister.
He snatched it up. He shook it. He turned around, clutching it to his chest, in such amazement and despair that Cat almost felt sorry for him. “It’s empty!” he said. His face was the face of the saddest monkey in the most unkind zoo in any world. “Empty!” he repeated. “All gone—all the souls I have collected are gone! The souls of seven nine-lifed enchanters are missing, and the new one is not here! My lifetime’s work! What has gone wrong?” As he asked this, the grief in his face hardened suddenly to anger and suspicion. “What have you boys done?”
Cat had been prepared to feel very frightened when Master Spiderman
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