The Library Machine_The Extraordinary Journeys of Clockwork Charlie) by Dave Butler

Author:Dave Butler [Butler, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

A thick wash of rain hit Charlie in the face.

He raised his hands over his head in surrender, and the others followed suit.

Gnat threw herself underneath a broad green leaf, dodging the rain. Before Charlie could say anything about the men with swords helping her get inside, the rain striking him stopped and was replaced by a heavy drumming sound.

He looked up and saw a glass ceiling in the form of overlapping blades. They all sprouted out of the top of a large pole in the center of the garden, and as the rain fell, they unfolded downward, creating a shelter from the storm.

The men with swords wore their hair wrapped in navy-blue scarves, and on their feet they had long black shoes, decorated with gold stitching. A thin man with large hands and a thick mustache was speaking. After a few initial words, the Babel Card sorted out his speech for Charlie. “The rajah wishes to see you.”

“I understand,” Charlie and Thomas said at the same time.

“The rajah wants to see us,” Charlie added as an aside to his friends.

“What’s a rajah?” Bob asked. She stood at the far side of the group from Ollie, and her arms were crossed over her chest. She didn’t look angry, Charlie thought, but confused and…sad.

“A king or a prince,” Charlie said.

“Right.” Ollie straightened his peacoat and brushed raindrops off his hat. “That’s just who we want to see.”

“You are English,” the man with big hands said, switching to English himself. “Are you company men?”

Charlie remembered the stories his bap had told him, about the traders and soldiers of the East India Company. Sometimes it seemed as if those men were allies, friends, and trading partners with the princes of India, but sometimes it seemed—though Bap had never been one to dwell on unpleasant details—as if the relationship were darker than that.

Charlie had always identified with the company men. Suddenly, he wasn’t so sure.

More to the point, he wasn’t sure it was safe to be English here.

“We’re from all over,” he said. “Gnat’s a fairy. Thomas is Welsh. Meneer Doktor Professor Ingenieur Jan Wijmoor…I think he’s Dutch, but he lives in Germany.”

“I am a kobold,” Wijmoor added. He seemed to have regained his composure a little. “Of the Marburger Syndikat, of course in Germany.”

“I’m English!” Ollie jerked a thumb at his own chest.

“Might as well own it,” Bob added slowly. “So am I.”

“I am the captain of the rajah’s bodyguard,” the big-handed man said. “Follow me now, please.”

The captain went first, followed by Charlie and his friends, and then finally by the rest of the bodyguards, who never put their swords away. As they left the garden, Charlie heard a sudden rustling sound in the thick fronds to his right.

He thought of the presence he had felt, as if one more person than planned had come through the Library Machine with them. But he looked, and saw nothing.

“The garden is lovely,” he said to the captain.

“It is called the Bibighar Garden,” the captain said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.