Diana Wynne Jones - Chrestomanci 00 by Mixed Magics

Author:Mixed Magics
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-09-08T19:54:06+00:00

Page 36

The old soul timorously descended again as Cat and Tonino set off to help it. Master Spiderman pelted back to catch it. But he skid-ded to a stop when the ward doors clapped open, and an awesome voice asked, "And what, pray, is the meaning of this?"

It was the Mother Superior. It did not take the hugeness of her starched headdress, the severity of her dark blue habit, the large sil-ver cross hanging from her waist, or even her six feet of height to tell you who and what she was. It was obvious. Such was the power of her personality that as she advanced down the ward, nearly all the babies stopped crying.

The big soul that had been Gabriel de Witt hastily plunged from near the ceiling and was just in time to vanish into the only baby still crying. The mothers who were sitting up all hurriedly lay down again, and the one who had picked her baby up guiltily popped it back into its cradle and lay down, too. Cat and Tonino, feeling as guilty as the rest, stood still and tried to look as if they were visiting a new little brother or sister. Master Spiderman's flat mouth hung open as if the Mother Superior had cast a spell on him. But Cat did not think it was magic. As the Mother Superior's cold eye passed over him, he knew it was pure personality. He wanted to sink into the floor.

"I do not," said the Mother Superior to Master Spiderman, "wish to know what you are doing here, my good man. I want you simply to take your butterfly net and your filthy street urchins, and leave. Now."

"Very good, ma'am." Master Spiderman cringed. His hairy mon-key face twisted with guilt. For an instant it seemed as if he were going to do as he was told and go away. But the stunted and bewil-dered old soul, which had been hovering miserably up near the ceil-ing, suddenly decided that the Mother Superior was the one to keep it safe. It came down in a fluttering spiral and landed on her great white headdress, where it nestled, frail and quivering, upon the high-est starched point. Master Spiderman stared at it urgently, with round monkey eyes.

"Off you go," said the Mother Superior, "my good man."

Master Spiderman's face bunched up. "I'll have this one at least," Cat heard him mutter. He made one of his throwing gestures. "Freeze," he said.

The Mother Superior promptly became as stiff and still as a statue. Most of the babies started to cry again.

"Good," said Master Spiderman. "I never did hold with nuns. Nasty religious creatures." He stood on tiptoe to swat the roosting old soul into his net. But the Mother Superior's headdress was just too high for him. It flapped and rattled as he hit it, and the Mother Superior herself swayed about, and the soul, instead of being swatted into the net, was shot off sideways into the cradle that contained the twins.

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