The Midnight Chimes by Paula Harrison

Author:Paula Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2016-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

Something Unexpected Lands on the Grimdean Lawn

n icy wind was pulling the last leaves off the trees as I walked to Grimdean House the next morning. The shops in town had started putting up Christmas decorations in their windows. I knew Mr Cryptorum was back as soon as I heard his deep voice complaining to Miss Smiting. “So many children! I’d forgotten how loud they are. And where’s Eye? You can hardly blame her for hiding from this commotion.”

Mrs Lovell announced in assembly that the damage to Ashbrook School was worse than everyone had expected. “It looks as if something gnawed the roots and caused the trees to fall down,” she explained. “Although I don’t know of any creature that could do that! But the building still needs a lot of repair work so we could be at Grimdean House for many weeks yet.”

None of the kids seemed bothered by this. In a strange sort of way, being at Grimdean had started to feel normal. The assembly finished with “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” played on the recorder by two girls in Nora’s class.

Annie had been going on about the recorder at home. Miss Mason had offered to give lessons to some of the little kids and they all went to a recorder group on Monday lunchtimes. The squeaky sounds drifted down the corridors, driving everyone mad. Annie had pestered Mum and Dad until they gave in and paid for the recorder lessons, and now she wanted to put on “concerts” in the living room all the time. Still, that was the least of my problems.

I was desperate to know what that wish trapped in the glass case was all about.

“I’m going to ask Cryptorum,” I said to Aiden as we ran outside for Bat Club after school. “And I’ll ask him why he’s been gone so long too.”

Aiden zipped up his jacket. “Don’t! You’ll only make him mad.”

Nora was already down by the shed helping Cryptorum take out equipment ready for our training session.

Cryptorum leant a bow against the shed wall. “We’ll start with a reminder of the basics,” he said to us. “Swords then bows.”

“Um . . . sir?” I said. “Can I ask you something?”

“What’s that?” Cryptorum dumped a quiver of arrows on the ground.

I went cold. I’d forgotten how fierce he looked. His eyebrows seemed even thicker than before. “Er . . . I just wondered what monsters you found while you were away.”

“There’s no time for that.” Cryptorum gave a frostblade to each of us. Aiden had taken our torchblades back so he could check how they were working. “Right, show me your defence position.”

I gripped my blade tightly. Why did he have to keep everything a secret? We were Chimes too. “But we’ll be facing monsters soon, won’t we? So we need to know what’s out there.”

“That depends on how much progress you make.” Cryptorum fixed me with a glare. “I’m not letting you run around Wendleton if you don’t know what you’re doing. Now show me your defence position.

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.