Free The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie Page A

of this now and again.”
    “How? By almost killing him with a glass to the head? I can see what’s really going on, Vindictus. You are intimidated by the boy’s abilities. You see him as a threat to your crown.”
    Sharpe did not respond, choosing instead to fill his glass for a third time.
    Birdie stood up and leaned heavily on her cane as she limped to the door.
    “Goodnight, Vindictus. I hope to find you in better spirits tomorrow. A word of warning: the boy is too talented to waste. If you cannot work with him, then I will find someone who can.”
    She left without saying another word, and was escorted through the plush red-carpeted corridors of the theatre into a waiting carriage. As the horses carried her off through the warm Edinburgh night, Birdie turned the book over in her old hands, reading and re-reading the inscription on the cover:
The Wonders of Lucien Silver

CHAPTER 13
THE GOLDEN RULE
    Daniel followed Mr Silver back through the streets of Paris. He wasn’t entirely sure what Silver had done to the mugger in the alley – only that it had not been anything good. The look in Silver’s eyes told him not to ask. Not today.
    When they reached the Nowhere Emporium, Daniel’s spirits lifted the moment he saw Ellie. She sat with her feet on Mr Silver’s desk, flipping through the browning pages of a newspaper that might have been a hundred years old. When she looked up, her eyes flicked from her father to Daniel and back, and her face hardened and flushed.
    “Had a good time, have we?” she said.
    “Not really, no,” said Silver. He melted into his chair and reached into the desk, fetching a bottle of whisky and a glass. He poured a small amount, and sipped.
    Ellie ruffled his hair. “Papa…” she said, in a sickly sweet voice, “you know my birthday’s coming up? I want to talk to you about it.”
    Mr Silver’s eyes were shut. He was massaging his head.
    “Can it wait?”
    “But it’s my birthday,” said Ellie through gritted teeth.
    Silver opened one eye.
    “Your birthday?”
    She folded her arms. “Didn’t I just say that? It’s next month, remember? I’ve had a few ideas about the ball this year.”
    Silver reached into his pocket and brought out his
Book of Wonders,
stowing it away in the desk. “Ellie, I’ve had a rotten morning. Can we please talk about this tomorrow?”
    Ellie let her arms fall to her sides. “It’s always tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or next week. It’s always later. While you’re out and about with your new best friend,” she pointed to Daniel, “I’m stuck here every day. And you can’t even find five minutes to talk about my birthday! You don’t care about me. You never have.” She stormed towards the curtain and disappeared.
    A moment later, she poked her head back into the shop and added, “I hate you.”
    Then she was gone.
    Silver scrambled up, knocking over an inkwell on his desk. He went after Ellie, leaving ripples spreading through the velvet curtain, and black ink seeping across his desk.
    Daniel didn’t know what to do. He was more certain than ever that Ellie must hate him. And he could understand why. He had been brought to the Emporium to do what Ellie couldn’t: to learn about magic and Wonders and all the rest.
    He grabbed an old newspaper and began soaking up the spilled ink from Silver’s desk. As he worked, something caught his eye. One of the drawers in the desk was open a fraction. Daniel leaned to shut it, but a glint of light from within caused him to pause. Without knowing why, he opened the drawer. He felt a flutter in his chest.
    Inside the drawer was Mr Silver’s
Book of Wonders.
    In all the commotion with Ellie, Mr Silver hadn’t locked the drawer.
    Daniel stared at the book. Anticipation began to build inside him. Ever since he’d written his first Wonder, somethinghad been playing on his mind. It seemed to him that anything was possible, that there were no limits to what the stroke of a pen could achieve inside