Free Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief by Gabrielle Kent Page A

the rest of the room’s contents as they waited. Inside a long, soft roll of leather, Alfie found more weapons: two beautifully made wooden bows inlaid with a delicate silver pattern.
    â€œThey’re beautiful,” said Amy, lifting one of them and pulling back the string with difficulty. “Do you know how to shoot?”
    Alfie shook his head. “Granny tried to teach me but I’m always twanging the inside of my elbow. These are going straight to Madeleine and Robin.”
    â€œHow very kind of you,” said Miss Reynard. “Just make sure they never bring them to school – even without arrows!” There was a scrambling noise on the stairs and Alfie’s dad burst into the room, panting. He was holding a heavy book.
    â€œ I was right!” he laughed. “It wasn’t DL, it was LD. Look!” He flipped rapidly through the pages of the book and, below a sketch, he pointed to the two letters entwined in the same way. Alfie suddenly understood. It was his dad’s favourite book. They had pored over its pictures together many times. They were by his dad’s favourite artist and inventor. He stared wide-eyed at his dad as they both started to laugh in amazement.
    â€œWhat?” said Amy. “Who’s LD?”
    Miss Reynard was a bit quicker on the uptake as she showed Amy the book cover.
    â€œNo.
Way
!” said Amy. “
Leonardo da Vinci
?”
    â€œIt has to be,” Alfie’s dad flipped to a page featuring diagrams of a mechanical lion. “He presented this to the king of France in 1515. It walked on its own and its chest opened to reveal a bunch of lilies.”
    â€œHe built several clockwork devices before this,” said Miss Reynard, sounding just as excited herself. “One was a robotic knight in armour that could move its arms and sit down.” Alfie noticed his dad gaze at Miss Reynard as though this was the most wonderful thing she could have said. Alfie felt a little spark of jealousy, but it vanished under the waves of his dad’s almost delirious happiness at the little bird created by da Vinci himself.
    â€œHow Orin ended up with a castle of such wonders is completely beyond me,” said Miss Reynard. “If only we could speak to him. What adventures he must have had!”
    â€œIf only there was a way,” smiled Alfie.

Beltane
    The twins came up to the castle early the following day. Madeleine cried out with delight as Alfie presented her with one of the bows he had found in the eastern tower. She nocked an arrow and drew back the string in one fluid movement.
    â€œOur bows are competition quality, but
these
! These are amazing!”
    â€œThank you
so
much, Alfie,” said Robin, examining his gift. “Are you
sure
you want to give these to us?”
    â€œShhh!” Madeleine clutched her bow close to her chest. “If he wants it back, he’ll have to fight me for it.”
    â€œ No need for that,” said Alfie quickly. “I’m no good with those things anyway.” Granny had been training the twins in archery since they were very young, but even so, they had an almost unnatural talent for it.
    Everyone was very excited about the Beltane celebration that was taking place that evening. Alfie’s dad had gone down to the village to help Granny set up stands. He hadn’t seemed to want to leave the little bird that had been constructed by his hero. Alfie had moved it down to the Great Hall so that every visitor to the castle could see it, which resulted in his dad’s cornflakes turning to mush in his bowl as he admired it over breakfast.
    There was plenty of time before they had to get ready for the festival, so Alfie decided to show the twins the discoveries of the night before.
    â€œHey, Ash,” said Amy as they passed the butler emerging from his room. “We’re going up the eastern tower. Alfie found the way in. Fancy joining us?”
    â€œI’ll give