Potions and Pageants Page 15

  The door behind Percy opened, and someone shoved Percy in the back. It was Bella, emerging from the toilets. She gave Percy a scathing look as if she knew Percy had been waiting for her, and strode over towards the other Bees.

  Eleanor, who was now within earshot of the headmistress and judge, waved Bella over. She had tried to do it furtively, but the urgency of her flapping hands had not escaped Nan’s sharp eyes.

  Getting wind that something was amiss, Nan hurried over to join the headmistress as well.

  Percy followed her, but disguised this by stopping near the drinks table and making a pretense of inspecting a glass of orange juice. She was thirsty, and since there was no ominous black cloud hovering around the juice today, she downed it.

  The Three Bees and Eleanor had all fallen silent in order to eavesdrop, which meant Percy was able to hear what was being said.

  “Is everything okay, headmistress?” she heard Nan say anxiously. “Judge Emma? Anything I can help with?”

  “Everything is in hand,” said the headmistress coolly.

  Judge Emma did not look happy. “I really think we need to discuss this matter immediately,” she said to Headmistress Glory.

  Head Judge Alice and Judge Georgie emerged from behind their screened area just in time to hear the headmistress say, “And we will. But not here.”

  “Emma!” said Head Judge Alice impatiently. “What’s the problem now?”

  “There is an urgent matter we all need to discuss with the headmistress and the pageant organizers immediately,” said Judge Emma. “I really must insist!”

  Percy’s sense for trouble was tingling, and she hoped they would discuss this urgent matter right here where she could listen in.

  “It’s time for the second half of the show to begin,” said Nan anxiously. “We are already five minutes late. The audience will be getting impatient.”

  “We mustn’t keep the audience waiting,” said Head Judge Alice firmly. “Whatever it is can wait until after the talent segment.”

  Judge Emma did not look happy about this, but she was unable to keep up her protests in the face of opposition from everyone else — the headmistress, the other two judges, and even Nan and Mrs Gooding were willing to wait.

  Percy sidled up to Judge Emma, and asked “Is there anything I can help with?”

  Judge Emma looked towards her hopefully, but then seeing Percy was only a student, she shook her head. The smile she gave Percy looked a little strained.

  “Nothing we can’t sort out later,” she said. “I enjoyed your answers to our questions earlier. Good luck with your talent!”

  As soon as she turned away, her smile faded. Now frowning, she hurried to follow the other two judges out onto the stage again, where they were greeted by applause from the audience.

  “What is going on?” said Percy to Nan.

  Nan shrugged. “Hopefully nothing that is going to delay us.” Consulting her clipboard, she hurried to the side of the stage to take a peek out at the audience.

  “Nanette?” called Headmistress Glory.

  Nan looked backwards with some alarm. “Yes, headmistress?" she squeaked.

  “Inform the girls they will need to stay behind for a short while after the show is over. We will be having a quick meeting and then will need to speak to them. Don’t let anyone go home.”

  “Yes, headmistress,” said Nan.

  Glory spotted Percy and frowned at her. “We’ll need you at the meeting too, Persephone.”

  “What meeting?” said Lucifer Darkwing, sauntering in through the backstage door nearby. Mrs Delancey followed him in.

  “What are you doing here?” Percy asked Lucifer in dismay.

  “I asked him to come,” said Octavia Smythe-Smith, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Percy had the feeling she had been lingering somewhere just out of sight and spying.

  “But I thought you had plans this evening?” protested Percy, glaring at him.

  Octavia looked from Percy to Lucifer. “Do you know each other?”

  “I was in the library earlier,” said Percy. “Not that it is any of your business.”

  “She spent the whole lunchbreak there in fact,” said Lucifer. “A most diligent student indeed. Her parents must be proud.” He gave Headmistress Glory an amused look.

  The headmistress glared back at him, and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

  Next to Lucifer, Mrs Delancey’s cheeks went pink, as if caught doing something she should not have been doing.

  Lucifer said airily, “Octavia here told me she is doing some sort of investigation for Councilor Strickt. He asked me to keep an eye on things, you know.”

  “Councilor Strickt?” said Mrs Delancey, frowning.

  “He’s a member of the school board,” said Headmistress Glory impatiently.

  “I thought I’d pop my head in and see what the fuss is all about,” said Lucifer. “Judge Emma invited me to come too, but I’d forgotten. Is she here?” He looked around hopefully.

  “She is working,” said Headmistress Glory tersely.

  Lucifer’s eyes had landed on all the jittery contestants. He rubbed his hands together in glee. “An excellent energy about this place, isn’t there? A cacophony of restrained sound. And such a delicious air of intensity and drive. These youngsters really do want to win, don’t they? It makes one think they might do almost anything…”

  The gleam in his eyes said that he thought this was a very intriguing possibility indeed. “I think I’ll take a little look around,” he said.

  His eyes landed on Percy and he seemed to notice what she was wearing for the first time. He must have approved of Gwendolyn’s stylish tunic dress, because his eyes lit up.

  “Well aren’t you looking fabulous, Miss Prince! You’ll knock those judges dead!”

  Headmistress Glory glared at them both. “Persephone! Isn’t your talent up first? You’d better hurry along.”

  “Yes, hurry along Persephone,” said Octavia, sidling up next to Lucifer as if she considered the new librarian her property.

  Percy wanted to tell her to shut up, but she couldn’t do so in front of the headmistress. The last thing she wanted was Octavia anywhere near Lucifer.

  But Percy could already hear the host boy, Arthur, out on the stage calling her name loudly. It was time for her to do her talent.

  She glared at Octavia as she left.

  So busy was she being annoyed at the idea of Octavia seeing Lucifer for what he was, or filling his head with tales of deliciously dastardly sabotage, that she went through the entirety of her tap routine and had finished before she even realized what it was she had been doing.

  To her relief the audience was clapping. And so was Felix in the front row, there for his spy job no doubt. She glared at him.

  She turned to the judges and waited. They were whispering amongst themselves. And then they held up their scorecards. Judge Emma awarded her an eight, which she held up with a strained smile, her eyes darting all over the stage as if she was looking for something. Clearly she was still anxious.

  The other two judges awarded Percy only two points each, Judge Georgie taking his lead from Head Judge Alice. This terrible score caused a murmur of consternation in the audience and then a ripple of laughter.

  Percy arched her eyebrows incredulously at Head Judge Alice. She knew that her tap dancing had not been that bad.

  The talent score was going to be added up at the end of the show with the scores from the first half of the pageant, which had not yet been announced. But having scored just twelve out of thirty, Percy knew she was as good as out of the competition.

  She bowed briefly at the judges, and then stalked off the side of the stage, where Shara Greyshale was waiting nervously for her turn.

  “Knock em dead,” she whispered.

  Shara flashed her a wobbly smile.

  Percy looked for Lucifer, but there was no sign of him or Octavia. Hopefully this meant that Octavia had found that no one was up to no g
ood. Percy felt relieved.

  Now that her part in the show was over, Percy plopped herself down on a seat backstage and entertained herself by watching all the other contestants trying to manage their nerves.

  Bella was taking up half of the rehearsal space with her acrobatic gymnastics routine and the swishing of her long ribbons. She kept demanding for other people to get out of her way.

  One by one each jittery girl went out onto the stage, and their two-minutes seemed to pass incredibly fast, and then they rushed back again, pale-faced, to whisper to their friends how terrible or wonderful they felt they had been.

  More of them came back looking horribly dejected by their scores than those who came back looking immensely elated.

  And all the time Nan rushed to and fro fetching things and checking her clipboard to make sure people were preparing to go out onto the stage on time.

  Seeing Percy idle, she forced her into action, entrusting to her the list of the order that the girls were due to perform their talents in.

  “Make sure that they are ready five minutes before they are due to go on. Okay?”

  Nan hurried off behind the judges’ area to fetch whatever it was the judges had asked for.

  Seeing Percy carrying the all-important clipboard, several girls lodged complaints about Bella taking up all the practice space. Bella refused to budge, so Percy told the others to go practice out on the corridor and assured them she would find them before their time slots.

  Bella’s strident commands to her faithful minions began to grate on Percy’s nerves. Although Blanche and Barbie were desperate to practice their flutes, Bella insisted that they watch her practice instead and tell her of any little mistakes she might be making.

  However, when Barbie did point one out — saying, “I think you were slightly out of rhythm towards the end there that time,” — Bella snapped, “I was not! If you’re going to be so blind, why are you bothering to help me in the first place?”

  Barbie looked horrified when Percy went over to tell her it would soon be her turn. She scurried away and put her flute to her lips, but by this stage was far too nervous to remember the notes and kept coming to a stop a few seconds into the melody.

  When she did get out onto the stage the tune came back to her, but she blew through it a little too quickly. Blanche went next, and she was awarded a few points more than Barbie, even though she too had rushed her piece.

  And finally Bella was called out onto the stage. The applause when she went out was as loud as the applause when she finished. She was the only person who achieved a score of three nines from the judges, but from the way she bowed and cheered and clapped for herself, she might as well have been awarded full scores.

  Finally the judges took a few minutes to whisper amongst themselves, during which Nan herself carried out trays of orange juice for them.

  The top ten contestants who would proceed to the next round were announced, and it was no surprise to anyone that Bella, Blanche and Barbie were amongst them, and that Percy and Shara were not.

  Even so, Percy and the other unlucky contestants had to go out onto stage and pretend to be gracious while thanking the judges and having their last moments in the limelight.

  Percy didn’t bother bowing to the audience this time. After all, they had laughed at her.

  Even in victory, Bella was unable to be nice. She made a point of shaking the hands of all who had failed to proceed to the next round and saying, “Better luck next time,” in a tone that made it clear she did not mean it.

  When she shook Percy’s hand she added in an almost inaudible undertone, “In your dreams, loser.”

  Percy trod on Bella’s foot as she walked away.

  Bella’s hiss of outrage was very satisfactory.

  There was a great clattering in the assembly hall as everyone in the audience stood up to leave. At the judges’ table, Head Judge Alice looked eager to exit also. But Judge Emma remained in her seat, blocking Alice in, and was insisting that Alice stay for the promised meeting with the headmistress.

  “I’ve got a car waiting for me and things to do this evening,” Head Judge Alice said huffily.

  “It will only take a few minutes,” said Judge Emma almost pleadingly.

  “I didn’t make you my assistant so that you could make more work for me, Emma,” said Head Judge Alice tartly.

  Judge Emma got a determined look on her face. “I really must insist that we speak now and in private before the final event on Friday.”

  She stood up fast to emphasize her point, smacking her hands down on the table. And then the oddest thing happened. There was a loud snap. Her foot seemed to give way under her. Her knees buckled, and she toppled backwards. As she came crashing down, her head smacked into the back of her chair with a resounding thud.

  It should have been nothing really. She should have got up and rubbed her head in chagrin. But she did not.

  Assistant Judge Emma Waters never got up again.

  13. The Lord Of Hell

  Judge Georgie Little crouched to check Judge Emma’s pulse. He stood up shakily and said in a horribly high-pitched voice, “She’s dead!”

  What followed was a tornado of activity. The audience members had not heard this pronouncement, but they realized something was wrong. Those still inside the assembly hall flocked towards the stage, and many of those who had left came rushing back in when they heard something bad had happened.

  The curtains were immediately dropped. Beyond it Percy could hear the audience huddled in large groups, talking amongst themselves, their mutterings creating a cacophony within the hall that got worse and worse until Headmistress Glory made an announcement that there had been an accident and could everyone please leave the hall quietly.

  No one left. They stayed where they were, determined to find out what was going on. Some of them even tried to climb up the stage stairs to peek behind the curtain, and received sharp admonishments from the headmistress, who resorted to posting teachers to guard the stage.

  Even so, word spread that Judge Emma was dead, and several people in the audience gave little screams of shock.

  The pageant competitors were all being herded by the teachers off the stage and into the backstage practice room. But a few of them had been close enough to hear Judge Georgie’s shocked outcry, and word spread that Judge Emma was dead.

  They were informed by the headmistress that the police were on their way, and everyone was required to stay in the room until the police said they were free to go.

  This mention of police led to a few of the girls beginning to weep and others to demand angrily for their parents, so the headmistress permitted all of their parents to join them backstage.

  Mrs Delancey hurried off and returned soon afterwards with the parents.

  While everyone else huddled with their families, Percy loitered in a corner by herself. She was tired and hungry and she wanted to go home.

  She was surprised that Octavia wasn’t in here lording it all up and asking people questions.

  Glancing through a window into the corridor Percy caught sight of Lucifer standing outside. He was a little way along the corridor, not near enough to see her wave at him. Anyway, he was busy staring through a doorway that had a view onto the back of the stage.

  There was a very odd expression on his face. A mix of hunger and intensity and astonishment, which alarmed Percy very much.

  She edged around a group of people, and slipped through a door into the corridor.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded when she reached him.

  He did not hear her. He was still busy staring through a window at where the dead body of Judge Emma lay. Percy did not follow his gaze. She did not want to see.

  She grabbed his arm to get his attention and he jumped, as if shocked by her sudden arrival. When he turned to her his face was full of anger. The look that a tiger might give you if you took away the carcass it had been feeding off. It was like he did not recognize her.

 
“Lucifer?” Percy squeaked. “Dad! It’s me!”

  Recognition came into his eyes and his expression cleared. He even looked a little guilty, as if she had caught him in the act of doing something he ought not be doing.

  He looked around and seemed glad that they were alone. Everyone else was in the backstage area or practice room. Other than a few teachers who were still on the stage.

  Lucifer wiped his hand over his face in a strange way, rather distractedly, as if he was thinking hard.

  “What is it?” Percy asked urgently, keeping her voice low because she did not want to attract any attention.

  “The oddest thing,” he murmured.

  “What?” she insisted.

  He shook his head vigorously, as if trying to shake his thoughts into order.

  “I don’t know,” he said in a dreamy voice.

  Percy gave a cry of shock. She had spotted something on his head that shouldn’t be there. Something very small peeking out from the dark hair above his temples.

  She pressed her fingers there, and gasped. She felt the sharp tips of two horns. Just two small tips. But they were definitely there, hidden by his hair.

  “When did that happen?” she gasped.

  He felt his own head, and seemed surprised and pleased to find them there.

  “This is wonderful,” he whispered.

  “No it is not!” she said. “Human beings don’t have horns, remember?”

  “They’re barely there. No one will notice.”

  But then he grabbed her shoulders and shook her excitedly.

  “Do you know what this means? It means that I’m coming back. The real me!”

  He began pacing. And then he froze and stared down at his hands. “I’m tingling. I’m tingling all over. I can feel it. I can feel the power. It’s coming back to me!”

  He stared at his hands with intense joy, as if they were the best things in the world.

  “This isn’t wonderful!” she said sharply.

  She was remembering what Headmistress Glory had said. That the stronger he got, the worst things would get, and the worse things got, the stronger he would get.

  She had thought it was just words. She hadn’t really considered that it might be real. And now it was happening, and it felt like the ground was sliding away from under her.