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heavy footsteps behind him made him look back, and he saw Dorcas Loom trudging slowly up the stairs. She was a plump girl with fair curly hair and a healthy complexion. Dorcas was a fervent admirer of Char lie 's great-aunt Venetia, and with her endowment, she could make clothes that had a deadly magic.
    "What are you staring at?" she said sullenly
    "A cat may look at a queen," replied Charlie.
    Dorcas gave a "Ha" of disgust, then continued to plod up the stairs.
    Charlie and his friends stepped into the strange, circular King's room, with its round table and curving, book-lined walls.
    Manfred was standing at the far side of the table, staring straight at the doors. Charlie's heart lurched, and then disappointment washed over him in a sickening wave as he saw a hunched figure sitting beside Manfred. It was Asa Pike, Manfred's devoted slave, the boy who could become a beast at dusk. He should have left school. Why was he still here? There were also three new children in the room. Joshua Tilpin was one of them.
    "Come on, come on," ordered Manfred impatiently "Stop crowding in the door. I have an important announcement to make."
    Charlie pulled himself together and walked around the table until he came to a place beside Tancred. From here, he could see the Red King's portrait: an old painting of a musty figure in a red cape and a slim gold crown. Gabriel, Billy and Emma followed Charlie, while Dorcas stomped in and closed the door with her foot.
    "Show some respect for my father's house!" barked Manfred.
    Dorcas scowled, but didn't dare to look Manfred in the eye. "Someone's sitting in my seat," she muttered.
    "Don't be stupid, Dorc," said Manfred.
    Asa snickered. “ ‘Dork.’ That's good."
    Manfred ignored him. "Just sit anywhere, girl, and hurry up about it."
    If Dorcas had wanted to sit on Manfred's other side, she was out of luck. Squeezed in between Manfred and Joshua Tilpin were two extraordinary-looking girls. They both had very shiny black hair, cut just below the ears, long bangs, and complexions that were so pale and smooth, they looked like porcelain.
    Twins, obviously, thought Charlie. If they're real. For the girls' faces were so blank, and their bodies so still, they could have been dolls.
    Dorcas shuffled around the table and put her books next to Joshua's. He gave her one of his beaming crooked-teeth smiles, and Dorcas actually smiled back.
    "Now that we're all here," said Manfred, glancing at Dorcas, "I want to explain a few things. First of all, you probably didn't expect to see me again. Well, you're stuck with me." No one made a sound except Asa, who snorted. "I'm now a teaching assistant," Manfred went on importantly "My job description is to supervise your homework, monitor your progress, supervise during exams, and help with any personal or work-related problems." He paused to take a breath, and Charlie wondered who on earth would want to ask the ex-head boy for help.
    "Now; for introductions." Manfred named everyone at the table until he came to the inscrutable girls beside him. “And these are the twins Inez and Idith Branko."
    As soon as their names were mentioned, the twins bent their heads and stared at the books in front of them. With alarming speed, the books flew across the table. One pile landed in Charlie's lap and the other in Tancred's.
    "Oh, no!" Tancred grunted. "Telekinesis." The sleeves of his cape ballooned out, his blond hair crackled, and a draft sent a shiver through the loose sheets of paper lying on the table.
    "I see that your summer vacation didn't improve your self-control, Tancred," said Manfred in a mocking tone.
    Tancred and Charlie stood up and handed the twins' books back across the table. The girls didn't say a word and their laces remained completely blank.
    Charlie couldn't resist remarking, "It's polite to say thank you."
    Idith and Inez remained silent, but one of them, who knows which, shot him a very nasty look.
    "Try and be pleasant to the new girls, Bone," said