Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Calcifer is Very Active

Calcifer's orange eyes turned to Sophie. "Do you still need me to guard here?" he asked her. "Or is it enough for the two of you?" Sophie looked worriedly at the group of well-dressed, chattering people. "I don't think anyone is going to make a move now," she said. "But you have to come back quickly. I have a bad feeling. I don't trust that purple-eyed guy at all. And that disgusting prince." "Okay. Must be soon," crackled Calcifer. "Get up, Miss Charmin. I'm going to sit on your hands." Charmain stood up, thinking he was going to be burned—or at least scorched.Not wanting to let her go, Morgan waved a yellow block at her and yelled "Green, green, green!"

"Hush!" said Sophie and Winky in unison, and the fat nurse added, "Master Morgan, don't bark, especially in front of the king." "It's yellow," said Charmain, waiting for all who looked at them to turn away.She came to realize that none of the dignitaries knew that Calcifer was on fire, and that Calcifer wanted to keep it a secret. When everyone lost interest and turned to continue chatting, Calcifer jumped out of the fire and landed lightly on Charmain's tense fingers like a plate of cake.He hadn't hurt Charmain at all.In fact, Charmain could barely feel his weight.

"Smart," Charmain said. "Pretend to carry me," Calcifer replied, "and walk out of the room." Charmain walked towards the door, holding the fake plate with his fingers bent.To her relief, Prince Ludvik had already walked away, but the king was walking towards her instead.He smiled and nodded to Charmain. "Take some cake, I see," he said. "Isn't it delicious? I don't know why there are so many rocking horses here. Do you know?" Charmain shook his head, and the king turned away, still smiling. "Why?" Charmain asked. "Why are there so many Trojan horses?"

"It's the guard," said the plate of cake. "Open the door, let's go out." Charmain released one hand from the fake plate, opened the door, and slipped into the damp, echoing corridor. "But who to protect? Why?" she asked, closing the door as softly as she could. "Morgan," said the plate of cake. "Sophie received an anonymous note this morning. It said: 'Stop the investigation and leave Upper Norland, or your child will be in danger.' We can't go though, and Sophie has promised the princess that she will stay here until We'll find out what happened to the money. Tomorrow we'll pretend to leave—"

Calcifer's words were interrupted by a high-pitched bark.Waif rushed from the corner and threw himself happily on Charmain's ankle.Calcifer jumped up, regained his original form, and fell like a blue tear on Charmain's shoulder.Charmain picked up Waif. "How did you—" she asked, dodging Waif's tongue.She suddenly realized that Waif was not wet at all. "Oh, Calcifer, she must have taken a short cut from the house! Can you take us to the meeting hall? We can go back there." "That's easy." Calcifer flew forward like a blue comet, faster than Charmain could keep up.He turned a few turns and flew into a hallway that smelled like the kitchen.Soon, Charmain found herself leaning against the conference hall, holding Waif in her arms, and Calcifer floating on her shoulders, and she tried to remember how to go from here."Here," Calcifer said, and dashed forward, meandering in front of her.Charmain followed him as best he could, and found himself in the corridor where the bedrooms stood.Sunlight streamed in from the window of Uncle William's study.Peter rushed up to them, looking pale and anxious.

"Oh, good dog, Waif!" he said. "I asked her to find you. Come and see!" He turned and ran across the corridor, pointing tremblingly out the window. On the meadows at the top of the mountain, the heavy rain gradually died down, and the big black cloud that seemed to be about to dissolve was obviously going to rain more rain on the town below.The rainbow erected on the mountain looks so bright under the dark clouds, but it is very hazy on the grass.The wet grass glistened in the sun, making Charmain dizzy and unable to see where Peter was pointing. "It's Lubbock," Peter said hoarsely. "Right?"

Lubbock was in the middle of the grass, so tall with a purple body.It bent slightly, listening to a ground elf who jumped up and down, pointed at the rainbow, and apparently yelled at Lubbock. "That's Lubbock, yes," said Charmain tremblingly. "That's Rollo." As she spoke, she saw Lubbock laughing, rolling its insect compound eyes toward the rainbow.It took a few steps back carefully, and the hazy rainbow seemed to fall behind its pair of insect feet.It bent down and took out a small clay pot from the grass.Rollo was still jumping up and down. "The pot of gold must be at the end of the rainbow!" Peter said in amazement.

They saw Lubbock hand the jar to Rollo, who took it with both hands.That must be heavy.Rollo stopped jumping and started swaying from side to side, holding his head up and laughing happily.He turned and staggered to leave.He didn't see Lubbock sticking out its long purple spines slyly behind him.He also didn't seem to notice that the stab had gone into his back.He sank into the grass and disappeared, still clutching the jar and laughing.Lubbock started laughing too, standing in the middle of the grass waving his insect arms. "It just spawned on Rollo," Charmain said softly, "and he didn't notice!" She felt very uncomfortable.The same thing almost happened to her.Peter looked terrified, and even Waif was shaking. "You know what," she said, "I think Lubbock might have promised Rollo a pot of gold to start a fight between the goblins and Uncle William."

"I suppose it must be," said Peter. "Before you came, I heard Rollo yelling that he wanted his pay." He opened the window and listened, Charmain thought.The idiot. "I'm declaring war," Calcifer said.He became very faint, very dim.He said in a slightly trembling hiss, "I'm going to beat that Lubbock, or I'm too unworthy of the life Sophie gave me. Wait." He floated stiffly in the air, and on his orange eyes. "Are you a fire demon?" Peter asked. "I've never seen—" "Quiet," Calcifer said. "I'm concentrating. Must be safe."

There was a slight rumbling sound from somewhere.Then something floated overhead, and out of the window behind him, which Charmain at first thought was a thundercloud.A huge black tower-like shadow appeared on the grass, and it quickly approached the happy Lubbock.Lubbock looked back to see the shadow falling on it, froze for a moment, and then began to run away.At this time, a castle appeared behind the shadow. It was a tall castle made of huge black stones, with towers on all four corners.They saw that the huge stones were shaking, trembling and rubbing against each other.It followed Lubbock closely and ran faster than Lubbock.

Lubbock ducked.The castle turned around behind it and continued to pursue.Lubbock stretched out his downy wings, trying to run faster, and strode toward the rocks at the end of the meadow.It ran behind the rock, turned around, and ran in another direction, which was the direction of the window.It must have wanted the castle to hit the rocks.But Castle turned effortlessly and caught up even faster.A puff of black smoke rose from the towers of the castle and drifted away in front of the increasingly blurred rainbow.Lubbock rolled one of its many eyes as it ran, then lowered its insect head and lunged forward, fluttering antennae and flapping wings, zigzagging along the edge of the cliff.The wings were already covered in purple spots, but it didn't seem to be able to use them to fly.Charmain understood why it hadn't jumped off the cliff with her: because it couldn't fly back.Instead of jumping off the cliff and fleeing, Lubbock has been running, trying to lure the castle to follow him, and accidentally falls. Castle did follow Lubbock all the way.It continued to smoke, chasing quickly over the edge of the cliff, and seemed to be perfectly balanced even though it was halfway out of the cliff.With a cry of despair, Lubbock changed direction again, heading for the middle of the grass.It resorted to a last trick, making its body smaller.It shrank into a purple insect and hid itself among the flowers and grass. The castle soon followed there too.It jerked and stopped where Lubbock disappeared.Flames began to emerge from below it, first yellow, then orange, then fiery red, and finally white steam, so bright it was blinding.Flames and smoke rose from all sides of it, mingling with the black smoke rising from the tower.The grass was filled with a searing black mist.After what seemed hours, but perhaps only minutes, the castle emerged from the smoke indistinctly, like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud.From behind the enchanted windows they could all hear the violent burning. "All right," Calcifer said. "I think it's over." He turned to Charmain, and she noticed that his eyes were a strange silvery glow now. "Can you open the window? I'm going to make sure." Charmain undid the lock, opened the window, and the castle lifted itself and moved aside.All the smoke gathered into a huge black gas, which drifted away into the valley beyond the cliff.Calcifer floated into the grass, and the castle stood still, except for a few wisps of smoke from the tower, and a square of scorched earth beside it.A terrible smell wafted in from the window. "Eh!" said Charmain. "what is that?" "Baked lubbock, I think," Peter replied. They watched Calcifer float to the scorched ground.There, he became a blue light, spinning back and forth across the charred ground until he had examined every tiny patch of land. His eyes were back to their old orange color as he floated back. "Okay," he said happily. "Destroyed." A lot of flowers had been wiped out, too, Charmain thought, but it didn't seem very polite to say that.What matters is that Lubbock was wiped out, really wiped out. "The flowers will bloom again next year," Calcifer told her. "What do you want me for? This Lubbock?" "No. Lubbock's egg," said Peter and Charmain in unison.They mentioned the elves and what the elves said. "Take me to see it," Calcifer said. They headed to the kitchen together, except Waif, who wailed and refused to follow.Through the kitchen window, Charmain could see the sunlit courtyard, where the clotheslines were still dripping with pink, white, and red clothes.Peter obviously didn't take them in.She was curious about what he had been doing during this time. The glass box was still on the table, and the egg was still inside, but the box had sunk into the table, and only half was exposed. "How did it do that?" Charmain asked. "Because of the magic in the egg?" Peter looked a little shy. "Not quite," he said. "That's because I put a safety spell on it. I saw Rollo talking to Lubbock when I went to the study for another spell." Sure enough, he was guessed right!Charmain thought.This idiot always thinks he knows it all! "The elves' spells are quite enough," said Calcifer, floating to the glass case buried in the table. "But he said it was dangerous!" protested Peter. "You're making it more dangerous," Calcifer said. "Both of you stay away. Don't touch this box now. Do any of you know where there's a solid rock in here? I'll kill the eggs." Peter tried to look relaxed.Charmain remembered that when she fell off the cliff, she almost hit the big rock, from which she started flying.She tried to describe to Calcifer the location of that cliff. "Under the cliff. I get it," Calcifer said. "Which one of you will help me open the back door, and then back away." Peter hurried to open the door.Charmain could feel that he was ashamed of what he had done to the glass box.But that didn't stop him from doing another stupid thing, she thought.May he learn his lesson! Calcifer hovered over the glass box for a moment, then flew towards the door.Halfway through the flight, he seemed to stop, twitching, trembling for a moment, then suddenly doubled in size like a giant blue tadpole, and then rushed straight forward again, through the colorful clothes.The glass box made a loose friction sound, and then there was a sound like a plank being thrown, and Calcifer flew out.The glass case containing the eggs floated over the yard, and then followed Calcifer's little blue tear-shaped body away.Peter and Charmain went to the door and watched the glass box fly over the green hillsides and towards Lubbock's meadows until it was out of sight. "Oh!" said Charmain. "I forgot to tell him that Prince Ludvik is a Luborgin!" "Is he? Really?" said Peter, closing the door. "No wonder my mother left the country." Charmain had never had any interest in Peter's mother.She turned impatiently to see that the table was now level again.What a relief.She had been thinking about what to do with the square groove in the middle of the table. "What safety spell did you use?" she asked. "I'll tell you," said Peter. "I want to go see that castle again. Do you think we can open the window and jump out?" "No," Charmain said. "But Lubbock is dead," said Peter. "There's no danger there." Charmain felt strongly that Peter was asking for trouble. "How do you know there's only one Lubbock?" she asked. "It's in the encyclopedia," Peter retorted. "Lubbock survived alone." Arguing vehemently, they walked through the inner door and turned left into the corridor.Peter suddenly rushed to the window like no one else was there.Charmain ran after him, grabbing at his coat and trying to pull him back.Waif followed them, screaming in pain, and she wrapped Peter's feet, causing him to fall to the ground with his hands on the window.Charmain looked nervously at the grass outside the window, which was shining peacefully in the afterglow of the orange sunset, and the castle was still sitting on the edge of the scorched grass.It was the strangest building she had ever seen. A flash of light blinded them. After a while, there was another loud explosion, as strong as the flash.The floor under their feet trembled slightly, and the windows became a little blurred.Everything seemed to be shaking.From the crystal tears and blurred vision, Charmain seemed to see the whole castle shaking violently.Her hearing was so blurry that she was almost deaf, and she seemed to hear the sound of rocks colliding, breaking, and falling. Waif is so smart!she thought.If Peter had been outside just now, he might be dead by now. "What do you think that is?" Peter asked when they could hear the voice. "Of course it was Calcifer who killed Lubbock's eggs," Charmain said. "The rock he flew to was right under the grass." They blinked together, trying to get rid of the blue, gray, yellow vertigo flecks floating in their eyes.They stare at each other.It's hard to believe, but almost half the grass is gone.A large curving patch of grass, with a big bite out, disappeared from the green hillside.There must have been a huge landslide down there. "Well," said Peter. "Do you think he will destroy himself too?" Charmain said, "I hope not!" They waited and watched.They were able to hear voices gradually again, as usual, except for some slight hissing noises.The spots also gradually faded from their eyes.After a while, they both noticed that the castle was moving, looking sad and lost, across the grass and towards the rocks on the other side.They waited and watched until it flew off the rock and out of sight.Still no sign of Calcifer. "Maybe he's back in the kitchen," Peter said. They go back to the kitchen.They opened the back door and looked among the hanging clothes, but there was still no sign of the floating blue tear-shaped object.They went back to the living room and opened the front door.But the only blue outside is the hydrangea. "Does the Fire Demon die?" Peter asked. "I don't know," Charmain replied.As usual, she knew what she wanted to do when she was in trouble. "I'm going to find a book to read," she said.She sat on the nearest sofa, put on her glasses, and picked up "The Journey of a Sorcerer" from the floor.Peter sighed angrily and walked away. But it's useless.Charmain could not concentrate at all.She couldn't stop thinking about Sophie, and about Morgan.It was obvious that Calcifer was, very strangely, a member of Sophie's family. "That's even worse than losing you," she said to Waif, who came running and sat on her shoes.She wondered if she should run to the royal mansion and tell Sophie what had just happened.But now it was dark.Sophie was probably at a formal dinner, sitting across from Prince Luborg, with candles or something.She dared not, Charmain thought, break into the mansion again and disturb them.Besides, Sophie was already very concerned about the threats against Morgan.Charmain didn't want to worry her any more.Maybe Calcifer would show up tomorrow morning.After all, he is made of fire.However, that explosion seemed to be enough to blow anything to pieces.Charmain thought of the shards of blue flame scattered among the crumbling cliffs— Peter went back into the living room. "I know what we have to do," he said. "What?" Charmain asked anxiously. "We're going to tell on Rollo to the goblin," said Peter. Charmain stared.She took off her glasses to make her eyes look wider. "What's the relationship between the earth elves and Calcifer?" "It's okay," Peter replied confused. "But we can prove that Lubbock paid Rollo to cause trouble." Charmain wondered if he should jump up and smash The Wizard's Journey on his head.Damn the earth elves! "It's time for us to go," Peter advised, "don't wait until—" "In the morning," said Charmain firmly. "Let's talk about it in the morning, after we go to the rock to confirm Calcifer's situation." "But—" said Peter. "Because," said Charmain, thinking quickly of reasons, "Rolo is going to hide his pot of gold. He should have been present when you denounced him." To her surprise, Peter thought about it and agreed with her. "Let's clean Wizard Nolan's bedroom," he said, "in case they send him back tomorrow." "Go and clean it yourself," said Charmain—she thought, before I threw the book at you, or there might be vases after it!