She snuggled her face against Mo's shoulder once more. Perhaps I should walk again, she thought. He's been carrying me for so long. But then she nodded off to sleep still perched on his back.
21. BASTA
This grove, that was now so peaceful, must then have rung with cries, I thought; and even with the thought I could believe I heard it ringing still.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
Meggie woke up when Mo stopped. The path had brought them almost to the crest of the hill. It was still dark, but the night was growing paler as if lifting her skirts a little way off to let the new morning appear.
"We must take a breather, Dustfinger, " Meggie heard Mo saying. "The boy can hardly keep up, Elinor's feet must need a rest, and if you ask me this wouldn't be a bad place for one."
"What feet?" asked Elinor, sinking to the ground with a groan. "You mean those poor sore objects attached to my legs?"
"That's what I mean, " said Mo as he pulled her up again. "But they must go just a little farther. We'll rest up there. "
A good fifty meters to their left, at the very top of the hill, there was a house, if you could call it that, huddled among the olive trees. Meggie slipped off Mo's back before they climbed up to it. The walls looked as if someone had piled up a number of stones in a hurry, the roof had collapsed, and where there must once have been a door only a black hole now gaped.
Mo had to bend low to make his way in. Broken shingles from the roof covered the floor, there was an empty sack in a corner, some broken earthenware shards, perhaps from a dish or a plate, and a few bones gnawed clean. Mo sighed.
"Not a very comfortable place, Meggie, " he said. "But try imagining you're hiding out with the Lost Boys, or…"
"Or in Huckleberry Finn's tub. " Meggie looked around. "I think I'd rather sleep outside, all the same. "
Elinor came in. The accommodation didn't seem to appeal much to her either.
Mo gave Meggie a kiss and went back to the door. "Believe me, it'll be safer in here, " he said.
Meggie looked at him in concern. "Where are you going? You have to get some sleep, too. "
"Oh, I'm not tired. " His face gave away his lie. "Go to sleep now, all right?" Then he went out again.
Elinor pushed the broken shingles aside with her foot. "Come on, " she said, taking off her jacket and spreading it on the floor. "Let's try to make ourselves comfortable together. Your father's right, we must just imagine we're somewhere else. Why are adventures so much more fun when you read about them?" she murmured, stretching out on the floor.
Cautiously, Meggie lay down beside her. "At least it isn't raining, " remarked Elinor, looking at the collapsed roof. "And We have the stars above us, even if they're fading. Perhaps I ought to have a few holes knocked in my own roof at home. "
With an impatient nod, she told Meggie to lay her head on her arm. "In case any spiders try crawling into your ears while you're asleep, " she said, closing her eyes. "Oh Lord, " Meggie heard her add in a murmur, "I'll have to buy a new pair of feet, I really will. There's no hope for these. " With that she was asleep.
But Meggie lay with her eyes wide open, listening to the sounds outside. She heard Mo talking quietly to Dustfinger, but she couldn't make out the words. Once she thought she heard Basta's name. The boy Farid had stayed outside, too, but he made no sound.
Elinor began snoring after only a few minutes, but hard as Meggie tried she couldn't get to sleep, so she got up quietly and slipped outside. Mo was awake, sitting with his back against a tree, watching the morning light drive the night from the sky above the surrounding hills. Dustfinger was sitting a little farther off. He raised his head only briefly when Meggie came out of the hut. Was he thinking of the fairies and the goblins? Farid lay beside him, curled up like a dog, and Gwin was sitting at his feet eating something Meggie quickly turned her head away.
Dawn was breaking over the hills, casting light on summit after summit. Meggie saw houses in the distance, scattered like toys on the green slopes. The sea must lie somewhere beyond them. She put her head on Mo's lap and looked up at his face.
"They won't find us here, will they?" she asked.
"No, of course not!" he said, but his face wasn't half as carefree as his voice. "Why aren't you asleep in there with Elinor?"
"She snores, " murmured Meggie.
Mo smiled. Then, frowning, he looked down the hillside to the place where the path lay, hidden by rockroses, brambles, and thorns.
Dustfinger never took his eyes off the path, either. The sight of the two men on watch made Meggie feel better, and soon she was sleeping as deeply as Farid – as if the ground outside the tumbledown house were covered with downy feathers instead of thorns.
When Mo shook her awake, at first she thought it had all been just a bad dream – but his hand was over her mouth. He was holding a finger to his lips in warning. Meggie heard the rustle of grass and the barking of a dog. Mo pulled her to her feet and pushed her and Farid into the shelter of the dark hovel. Elinor was still snoring. She looked like a young girl with the light of dawn on her face, but as soon as Mo had woken her all her weariness, anxiety, and fear came rushing back.
Mo and Dustfinger stationed themselves by the doorway, one to the left and the other to the right, their backs pressed to the wall. Men's voices broke the quiet of the morning. Meggie thought she could hear the dogs sniffing and wished she could dissolve into thin air, odorless and invisible air. Farid stood beside her, his eyes wide. Meggie noticed for the first time that they were almost black. She had never seen such dark eyes, and his lashes were as long as a girl's.
Elinor was leaning against the wall opposite, biting her lips nervously. Dustfinger made a sign to Mo, and before Meggie realized what their plan was they made their way out. The olive trees where they took cover were stunted, with matted branches hanging almost to the ground, as if the weight of their leaves was too much for them. A child could easily have hidden behind them, but did they provide enough shelter for two grown men?
Meggie peered out of the doorway. Her heart was beating so fast that it almost suffocated her. Outside, the sun was rising higher and higher. Daylight crept into every valley, beneath every tree, and suddenly Meggie wished for the night again. Mo was kneeling down so his head couldn't be seen above the tangled branches. Dustfinger was pressed hard against a crooked tree trunk, and there, terrifyingly close, twenty paces at most away from the two of them, was Basta. He was making his way up the slope through thistles and knee-high grass.
"They'll have reached the valley by now!" Meggie heard a rough voice call, and next moment Flatnose appeared beside Basta. They had brought two vicious-looking dogs with them. Meggie saw the dogs' broad skulls pushing through the grass and heard them snuffling.
"What, with two children and that fat woman?" Basta shook his head and looked around. Farid peered past Meggie – and flinched back as if something had bitten him when he saw the two men.
"Basta?" Soundlessly, Elinor's lips formed his name. Meggie nodded, and Elinor went even paler than she was already.
"Damn it, Basta, how much longer are you going to trudge around here?" Flatnose's voice echoed a long way in the silence that lay over the hills. "The snakes will soon be waking up, and I'm hungry. Let's just say they fell into the valley with the car. We'll give it another push and no one will find out! The snakes will probably get them anyway. And if not, then they'll lose their way, starve, get sunstroke – oh, who cares what happens? But anyway we'll never see them again."