"And just what am I supposed to read out of his books for you?" Mo's voice sounded bitter. "A few monsters, a couple of human horrors to suit the present company?" He nodded in Basta's direction.
"For heaven's sake, Mortimer, don't put ideas into his head!" whispered Elinor, with a nervous glance at Capricorn.
But Capricorn merely flicked some ash off his pants and smiled. "No, thank you, Silvertongue, " he said. "I have enough men, and as for the monsters, well, perhaps we'll get around to them later. For the time being we're doing very well with Basta's trained dogs and the local snakes. They make excellent and deadly presents. No, Silvertongue, all I want today as a test of your skill is gold. I have such an appetite for money! My men do their best to squeeze all that can be squeezed out of this part of the country. " At these words from Capricorn, Basta lovingly stroked his knife. "But it's never enough for all the wonderful things that can be bought in this infinitely wide world of yours. A world of so many pages, Silvertongue, so very many pages, and I want to write my name on every one of them."
"In what kind of letters?" inquired Mo. "Is Basta going to scratch them into the paper with his knife?"
"Oh, Basta can't write, " replied Capricorn calmly. "None of my men can either read or write. I've forbidden them to learn. But I got one of my maidservants to teach me how to read. And when there's something to be written the reader does it. So, you see, my dear Silvertongue, I can make my mark on your world. "
The church door opened as if Cockerell had just been waiting for this cue. The man he ushered in had his head hunched between his shoulders and looked neither right nor left as he followed Cockerell. He was small and thin and couldn't be any older than Mo, but his back was bent like an old man's, and his arms and legs moved awkwardly, as if he didn't quite know what to do with them. He kept nervously adjusting his glasses. The frame was held together over the bridge of his nose with sticky tape, as if it had often been broken. He was clutching a number of books to his chest with his left arm as if they offered some protection from the stares turned on him from all sides and the sinister place to which he had been brought.
When the two men eventually reached the foot of the steps, Cockerell dug an elbow into his companion's ribs, and the man bowed so hurriedly that two of the books fell to the floor.
He was quick to snatch them up and bowed to Capricorn asecond time.
"We've been waiting for you, Darius!" said Capricorn. "I trust you've found what I wanted. "
"Oh yes, yes!" stammered Darius, casting an almost reverent glance at Mo. "Is that him?"
"Yes. Show him the books you've chosen."
Darius nodded and bowed again, this time to Mo. "These – these are all stories with treasure in them, " he stammered. "Finding them wasn't as easy as I had expected, " he added, with the faintest note of reproach in his voice. "After all, there aren't so many books in this village. And however often I ask no one brings me anymore, or if they do the books are useless. But never mind that – here they are. I think you'll be happy with my choice, anyway. " He knelt down on the floor in front of Mo and began setting out the books side by side, so Mo could read the titles.
The very first one alarmed Meggie. Treasure Island. She looked uneasily at Mo. Not that one, she thought. Not that book, Mo. But Mo had already picked up another book: Tales From the Thousand and One Nights.
"I think this will do, " he said. "There's sure to be plenty of gold in those stories. But I'm warning you again, I don't know what will happen. Because it never does happen when I want it to. I know you all think I'm a magician, but I'm not. The magic comes out of the books themselves, and I have no more idea than you or any of your men how it works."
Capricorn leaned back in his chair, looking expressionlessly at Mo. "How many more times are you going to tell me that, Silvertongue?" he asked in bored tones. "You can say so as often as you like, but I don't believe it. In the world on which we finally slammed the door today I frequently mingled with magicians, wizards, and witches, and I very often had to deal with their obstinacy. I know that Basta has given you a graphic account of the way we used to break their will. But in your case, and now that your daughter is here as our guest, I'm sure such painful methods will not be necessary. " With these words, Capricorn looked pointedly at Basta.
Mo tried to hold on to Meggie, but Basta moved faster. Pulling her toward him, he quickly put an arm around her neck and held her in a headlock.
"From now on, Silvertongue, " continued Capricorn, his voice still sounding as indifferent as if he were talking about the weather, "from now on, Basta will be your daughter's personal shadow. This will provide her with reliable protection from snakes and fierce dogs but not, of course, from Basta himself, who will be kind to her only as long as I say so. And that in turn will depend on whether I am pleased with your services. Have I made myself clear?"
Mo looked first at him and then at Meggie. She did her best to look unafraid, so that he would think there was no need to worry about her – after all she had always been a better liar than he was. But this time he saw through the lie. He knew her fear was as great as the fear she saw in his own eyes.
Perhaps all this is just a story, too, thought Meggie desperately. And any moment someone will close the book because it's so horrible and scary, and Mo and I will be back at home and I'll make him a coffee. She closed her eyes very tight, as if that would make her thoughts come true, but when she peered through her lashes Basta was still standing behind her, and Flatnose was rubbing his squashed nostrils and turning his doglike gaze on Capricorn.
"Very well, " said Mo wearily into the silence. "I'll read aloud to you. But Meggie and Elinor can't stay in here. "
Meggie knew exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking of her mother and wondering who might disappear this time.
"Nonsense. Of course they stay here. " Capricorn's voice was no longer careless. "And you'd better get started before the book there in your hand falls to dust. "
Mo closed his eyes for a moment. "Very well, but tell Basta to put his knife away, " he said hoarsely. "If he hurts a hair on Meggie or Elinor's heads I promise you I'll read the plague out of a book to infect you and your men."
Cockerell looked at Mo in alarm, and a shadow passed over even Basta's face, but Capricorn just laughed.
"Let me remind you, Silvertongue, that you're speaking of a contagious disease, " he said. "And it doesn't stop short at little girls. So never mind the empty threats, just start reading. Now. At once. And I want to hear something out of that book first!"
He pointed to the book that Mo had just laid aside.
Treasure Island.
18. TREASURE ISLAND
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentle men having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island… I take up