Charlie Charlie and the Amazing Gladys by B.G. Hilton

Author:B.G. Hilton [Hilton, B.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Odyssey Books

“What have you done!” Gruffydd cried. “Oh, Gladys, what have you done?”

“You’re bloody welcome,” Gladys said.

“Thank you for coming to rescue me,” Gruffydd said, struggling to regain his composure. “It is more than I deserve, I know. But you might have waited a quarter hour longer!”

“Gratitude!” Gladys said, rolling her eyes.

“She was about tell me why I was kidnapped!”

“Would you rather know why you were kidnapped,” Gladys said, “or would you rather be rescued?”

He knew that she was right to be annoyed, though the knowledge irritated him. He would have preferred to be shouting at her, even though he was in the wrong. He missed his alcoholic fog. “I am glad you’re not at the Imperial. They’ll be sending someone after the wand, if they haven’t already.”

“You mean this?” Gladys asked, taking the wand from her handbag.

The shock of seeing it here seized Gruffydd by the gut and twisted. “Gladys, love!” he wailed. “They want the wand. The rat-men want it! You have brought it right to them. What have you done?”

“No pleasing some people,” Gladys said. “Come on, let’s go!”

Gruffydd picked up a stick from the floor and flung it at Gladys. Gladys flinched at the act, then flinched again when the stick hit the invisible barrier. It rebounded hard, narrowly missing him.

“How did you do that?” Gladys’s friend asked, helping the rat-woman to her feet. He was a well-built young man, and nearly handsome. In some ways, “nearly handsome” is worse than homely. It is disappointment.

Gladys poked at the air ahead of her. She moved forward until her fingertips struck the smooth, unyielding barrier.

“It goes all the way around,” Gruffydd said.

“How the bloody hell are we going to get you out?”

“If I knew that, Gladys,” Gruffydd replied with exaggerated patience, “then I’d be out of here already, wouldn’t I?”

“Ethertron,” the rat-woman mumbled.

“How do you do, Ethertron?” Gladys’s friend said. “I’m Charlie.”

“Ethertron. Wand!”

“The wand!” Gladys exclaimed.

“What about the blessed wand?”

“I know how to get you out,” Gladys said. “The same way I get across a stage in an eye-blink.”

“Are you going to show me how the trick is done?” Charlie asked, delighted.

“If you like,” Gladys said, waving the wand. In a fraction of a moment, Charlie vanished, reappearing about ten feet away, his eyes wide.

“Not mirrors, then,” he said. “Where was I?”

“Best not to think about it,” Gladys said.

She turned to Gruffydd, a question in her eyes. Gruffydd nodded, stood upright, and adjusted the hang of his smock.

“We’ve never tried this through an obstacle,” Gladys said, an uncertain note entering her voice.

“Only one way to know if it will work, lass,” Gruffydd replied. He stood like a man facing a firing squad. “I’ve been around this invisible cell a hundred times. That wand is my only chance.”

Gruffydd’s eye was caught by the movement of the rat-woman’s head, which shook as she watched Gladys. She bit her finger with oversized teeth and buried her face in Charlie’s shoulder.

“Hang on!” Charlie said.

Gladys waved the wand at Gruffydd. The invisible barrier turned pale white and rang louder than a church bell.

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