While reading the Children of the Red King series, I’ve noticed that the flame cats show a surprising amount of interest in waking Lyell up. They also know a lot more about his situation than they let on.
For instance:
* They orchestrated Charlie discovering his endowment so that he could be sent to Bloors Academy and wake up Emma Tolly and eventually also Lyell. (Sure they never mentioned Lyell but come on, why else would they need Charlie’s help? They could’ve asked any good endowed kid to help Emma Tolly. They specifically mentioned that they needed Charlie’s help.)
* They were in Bloor’s Academy on the day Manfred beat Emilia and they set fire to his room via the music tower. The conversation Mr Onimous has with Charlie also implies that they’ve been in the Academy multiple times. So they would’ve seen Mr Pilgrim and recognised him.
* Over a year later, they warned Charlie to watch his mother, because they foresaw Count Harken’s appearance and knew that the Bloors would use Harken to make Amy forget about Lyell, which would stop Lyell from coming back.
(Which is very interesting, because it suggests that the cats knew about Amy and Lyell’s strange bond and how it was keeping Lyell alive. They also seemed to know that seeing Charlie regularly in the Academy would help Lyell wake up or not go deeper into his trance.)
* And finally they were so furious at Manfred for stopping Charlie from waking Lyell up that they attacked him.
So based on all of this, the Flames were very interested in Lyell—enough to maul Manfred Bloor when he tried to stop Lyell from waking up.
But why so much interest?
Here’s what I I think (spoilers for books 6, 7 and 8 below the cut):
The Flames had to have foreseen that Count Harken would try and take over the city one day. However the Red King is now a tree and incapable of confronting and stopping Harken.
In Red Knight, Miss Ingledew tells Cook, Olivia and Emma that according to her books, they stand a chance against Harken if one of the Red King’s descendants is brave enough to face the enchanter’s army.
I think that the flame cats knew about this piece of information, and began searching for a person who would be willing to stand up to the enchanter and his army when the time came. And they eventually found Lyell.
The cats saw Lyell’s qualities and his similarities to the Red King and decided that he would be the right person to face the enchanter. However, the Emma Tolly abduction happened and Lyell was hypnotised for ten long years, until Hidden King happened and he was woken up via the Red King’s Tears.
What’s interesting to note is that Lyell only ingested a minuscule amount of the tears because Manfred knocked the glass bottle out of Charlie’s hands and got rid of the tears that way. What would have happened if he’d drunk a mouthful, half or the entire bottle of tears? How would it have affected him? Also interesting to note that the cats seemed to want him to drink the bottle of tears and they were furious at Manfred for destroying the bottle.
After Lyell woke up, the cats approached him and told him that Harken was going to return and asked for his help to stop him. Lyell agreed, which led to him becoming the Red Knight in books 6, 7 and 8.
So, in summary, the cats would’ve known that the city would have a chance at being saved if a descendant of the Red King is brave enough to face the enchanter’s army. Their interest in waking Lyell up may have been because they wanted or needed him to be the one to face the enchanter and his army.
He reads Dr Bloor’s face during his first school dinner in book 1 and immediately knows who abducted Emma Tolly.
He hears the thoughts of Billy’s father and mother when Billy shows him the old photo of his parents in book 1.
He can play mind games:
He mentally fights back against Manfred’s hypnotism multiple times during the series.
Clairvoyance (clear seeing):
He has visions of the boat his parents are supposed to be on. He can also see his father in his mind’s eye.
· “The silence lasted only a few seconds, but in that time so many thoughts swept through Charlie’s head that he began to feel dizzy. In his mind’s eye he saw Billy wandering endlessly through the enchanter’s forest; and he saw a wooden box, inlaid with mother of pearl; a box that held a secret which could change the lives of everyone he knew.”
· ‘We know you have a gift, Charlie,’ his grandmother snorted angrily. ‘We know you can see your father in your mind’s eye if you think hard enough.’
Clairsentience (clear feeling):
He senses when Amy is bewitched by Harken.
· A stab of pain made Charlie wince.
'What's up? Eaten too fast?' joked Fidelio.
They were sitting in the cafeteria after lunch. Everyone else had left, except for Billy, who was at that very moment furtively handing Rembrandt to Cook.
'I think my mom would call it indigestion,' said Charlie, rubbing his chest. But he wasn't sure what it was. And he didn't know why, when the pain had gone, he felt as if something precious had been lost.
* Has a foreboding feeling when he, Emma and Paton are walking through Barnaby Bittermouse’s house. He was able to sense that something horrible had happened before he, Paton and Emma discovered that Barnaby Bittermouse had been murdered.
“A tingle of foreboding ran down Charlie’s spine. Something had happened in this house. Was there a ghost in this place, or was it worse than that?” […] “ ‘Third time lucky,’ said Uncle Paton, and Charlie’s stomach gave a lurch. He found that he wanted to cry out, to stop the door from being opened, to make them all go downstairs again, without knowing what was in that third room.”
The Welsh magician blood in Amy and Charlie may give them some sort of magical ability or link to Lyell.
Evidence:
Charlie can physically sense when Amy is bewitched by Harken (he describes it as feeling like something precious has been lost).
The Yewbeams claim that Charlie can see his father in his mind’s eye if he thinks hard enough about him.
Charlie and Amy’s thoughts and memories of Lyell keep Lyell from fading away when he’s hypnotised. (Paton and Bart Bloor also remember Lyell, but they aren’t said to keep Lyell alive/support him like Amy and Charlie do. Since Amy and Charlie have the blood of a welsh magician, it’s possible that the ‘their thoughts keep Lyell alive’ thing is specific to their Welsh magician bloodline.)
How are they connected? One way bond? Amy and Charlie are shown affecting Lyell but not vice versa.
Amy and Charlie may both have the ability but Lyell does not, as he is not of Mathonwy’s bloodline.
“Fourteen years ago I was the happiest girl in the world. I was in love and I thought the man I loved returned my feelings. But he rejected me and married another.”
It’s possible that Miss Chrystal proposed to Lyell, not the other way around. She and Lyell could’ve been in a steady relationship and at a certain point Miss Chrystal popped the question thinking that Lyell would accept. But Lyell rejected her instead. Possibly he thought he loved her but then realised suddenly that he actually didn’t want to spend the rest of his life with her.
