Free The Bone Magician by F E Higgins

the coffin and laid it aside. Then, by means of a series of internal latches, he dropped each side of the coffin
     to rest flat on the table, exposing the box’s grisly contents.
    A hush descended on the room and we all leaned forward as one, our curiosity stronger than our fear, to see more clearly what it was before
     us. For there, in full view of this awestruck crowd, lay the arid brown bones of Madame de Bona.
    I watched, awash in a confusion of emotions, open-mouthed in amazement, as Benedict Pantagus began a series of actions that I
     recognized immediately as identical to those I had witnessed so recently in the Cella Moribundi. And I smelled again cinnamon and myrrh, anise and artemisia, as I waited with mounting excitement for the inevitable.
    The skeleton began to stir.
    A shudder went through the fleshless frame from skull to toe, rattling its bones. Its jaw hung open slightly and its grinning mouth emitted
     a whining groan, the like ofwhich I had only imagined in my nightmares but had never thought to hear. The crowd gasped and shrank away from the vile unearthly creature before them. There was a shrill cry at the back of
     the room and a young lady collapsed. Such was the entrancement of the people that she was left to come to on her own on the flo or.
    If, as Mr Pantagus claimed, the skeleton had been a lady, little remained to indicate this except perhaps to the eye of an expert . She rose slowly, like a ship on the swell of a wave, and came forward until she was sitting bolt upright. She placed her hands on the coffin sides for support, her long bony fingers clicking on the wood. Finally she opened her
     surprisingly toothy jaws fully in what appeared to be a yawn.
    Mr Pantagus had our full attention as his deep and sonorous voice resonated in the tense atmosphere .
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the revitalized bones of Madame Celestine de Bona .’
    We took this as our cue to applaud, doing so loudly and with an unfettered enthusiasm. Mr Pantagus’s beard twitched and I believe he
     smiled briefly.
    ‘My thanks,’ he said graciously and he gave a shallow bow. ‘Now let us move quickly on to our real
     purpose. Madame de Bona, alive and well as she appears, will not be with us for long . As you are aware, your sixpence allows one question. Perhaps you wish to know the fate of a loved one who has also passed over to the
     other side . Or maybe you have a question about yourself. Whatever the problem, Madame de Bona will attempt to provide the answer.’
    The people murmured to one another, too nervous to speak directly to this strange Bone Magician and his skeleton friend .
    ‘Surely you are not shy?’ he asked, almost playfully. ‘Please, consider the feelings of Madame de Bona. When she was
     alive she was one of the world’s greatest sooth sayers. Do not deny her the pleasure of doing the same from beyond the grave .’
    His entreaty seemed to work and a young man shuffled forward. His cheeks were flushed . ‘Is it true
     that she, Madame de Bona, can foretell the future?’
    A revitalized body is blessed with foresight, indeed,’‘ replied Mr Pantagus. ‘Have you a question for her?’
    ‘Tell me,Madame de Bona,’ he said nervously, ‘will I ever fall in love?’
    The silence was so thick it could have been split in two with an axe. Madame de Bona cocked her head to one side and it was easy to imagine
     that if there had been eyeballs in those sockets, they would have been rolled towards heaven in contemplation. She leaned ever so slightly in the young man’s direction and replied in a voice that surely came only from the underworld,
     ‘Yes.’
    This single word excited the crowd greatly. I cannot deny that I too was quite moved, and the lad was pulled back roughly before he had a
     chance to say another word (I would have asked ‘when?’) by a large rotund man who went right up to the platform and put out his hand.
    ‘Madame,’ he began breathlessly, but before he