"Dead and buried. How interesting. " Fenoglio sat Paula on his lap. "Did you hear that, Paula? This young man believes all books were written in the distant past by dead people who picked up the stories from heaven knows where. Plucked straight from the air, maybe?" Paula couldn't help giggling. It had grown very quiet in the cupboard. Pippo was probably listening at the door, holding his breath.
"What's so funny about that?" Basta reared up like a snake when someone has trodden on its tail. Fenoglio ignored him. Smiling, he looked down at his hands – as if remembering the day when they had begun to write Basta's story. Then he looked straight at him.
"You always wear long sleeves, don't you?" he said. "Should I tell you why?"
Basta narrowed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. "Damn it all, why is it taking that idiot so long to find a book?"
Fenoglio looked at him, his arms folded. "Easy: He can't read!" he said quietly. "You can't read either – unless you've learned by now? None of Capricorn's men can read, anymore than Capricorn himself can. "
Basta drove the knife so far into the surface of the table that he had difficulty pulling it out again. "Of course he can read. What are you going on about?" He leaned threateningly over the table. "I don't like the way you talk, old man. Why don't I carve a few more wrinkles in your face?"
Fenoglio smiled. Perhaps he thought Basta couldn't hurt him because he, Fenoglio, had made him up. Meggie wasn't so sure of that. "You wear long sleeves, " Fenoglio continued very slowly, as if giving Basta time to take in every single word, "because your master likes playing with fire. You burned both arms right up to the shoulders when you obeyed his orders and set fire to the house of a man who had dared to refuse his daughter to Capricorn. Ever since then, someone else has set the fire and you confine yourself to playing games with knives. "
Basta jumped up so suddenly that Paula slid off Fenoglio's lap and hid under the table. "Like to make yourself out to be clever, do you?" he growled, holding his knife under Fenoglio's chin. "When all you've done is read the wretched book. Well?"
Fenoglio looked him in the eye. The knife under his chin didn't seem to scare him half as much as it did Meggie. "Oh, I know all about you, Basta, " he said. "I know you'd give your life for Capricorn any day, and you're always hungry for his praise. I know you were younger than Meggie when his men picked you up, and ever since you've loved him like a father. But shall I tell you something? Capricorn thinks you're stupid and despises you for it. He despises you all, his devoted black-clad sons, although it's his own doing that you're still so ignorant. And he wouldn't hesitate to set the police on to any one of you if it was to his advantage. Are you quite clear about that?"
"Hold your filthy tongue, old man!" Basta's knife came alarmingly close to Fenoglio's face and, for a moment, Meggie thought he would slit his nose. "You don't know anything about Capricorn. Only what you read in the stupid book. I think I ought to cut your throat – now!"
"Wait!"
Basta whirled around to look at Meggie. "And you keep out of this! I'll deal with you later, you little toad," he said.
Fenoglio's hands were pressed to his own throat. He was staring blankly at Basta, having at last realized he was by no means safe from the man's knife.
"But you can't kill him. Really you can't!" cried Meggie, "If you do -"
Basta's thumb stroked the blade of his knife. "If I do, then what?"
Desperately, Meggie searched for the right words. What should she say? Oh, what? "Because… because Capricorn would die, too, " she managed. "Yes. That's it. You'd all die, you and Flatnose and Capricorn. If you kill this old man you'll all die, because he made you up. "
Basta's lips twisted in a scornful smile, but he lowered his knife and, for a moment, Meggie even thought she saw a hint of fear in his eyes.
Fenoglio cast her a relieved glance.
Basta stepped back, examined the blade of his knife closely as if he had discovered a mark on it, then rubbed it clean on the hem of his black jacket. "I don't believe a word of it!" he said. "But this is such a weird story, I think Capricorn might like to hear it, too. So, " he added, giving the shiny blade a lastpoish before snapping the knife shut and putting it back in his belt, "we won't take only the book and the girl, we'll take you, too, old man. "
Meggie heard Fenoglio draw in a sharp breath. She herself was so scared she wasn't sure if her heart was beating at all. Take them away. Basta was going to take them away. No, she thought, oh please, no!
"Take us away where?" asked Fenoglio.
"Ask the girl here!" Basta pointed mockingly at Meggie. "She and her father have had the honor of being our guests already. Bed and board thrown in."
"But this is nonsense!" cried Fenoglio. "I thought it was the book you wanted."
"Then you thought wrong. We didn't even know there was supposed to be another copy. No, we were just sent to bring Silvertongue back. Capricorn doesn't like his guests to leave without saying good-bye, and Silvertongue's a very special guest, isn't that right, sweetheart?" Basta winked at Meggie. "But he isn't here, and I have better things to do than hang around waiting for him. So I'll take his daughter – and he'll come chasing after her of his own accord." Basta went up to Meggie and pushed her hair back behind her ears. "She makes pretty bait, wouldn't you say?" he asked. "Oh yes, old man, take it from me: If we have this little creature we'll have her father, too. He'll come like a dancing bear led by a ring in his nose. "
Meggie struck his hand aside, trembling with fury.
"Don't you do that again!" Basta whispered in her ear.
Meggie was glad that Flatnose came trudging downstairs at this moment. He appeared in the kitchen doorway, breathless and with several books under his arm. "Here!" he said, dumping them on the table. "They all begin with this single upright stroke followed by the three up-and-down lines. Just the way you drew it. " He put a stained piece of paper down beside the books. The letters I and N were clumsily traced on it, and it looked as if the hand that set them down had found the task very difficult.
Basta spread the books out on the table and pushed them apart from one another with his knife. "These are no good," he said, pushing two off the table so that they landed on the floor with crumpled pages. "Nor are these." Two more landed on the floor, and finally Basta swept the rest off the table, too. "Are you quite sure there isn't another one beginning like that?" he asked Flatnose angrily.
"Yes, I'm sure!"
"You'd better not be wrong. Because I do assure you, you'll be the one to pay for it, not me!"
Flatnose cast a worried look over the books at his feet.
"Oh, and another little change of plan: We're taking him with us as well." Basta pointed his knife at Fenoglio. "So he can tell the boss his amazing stories. Very entertaining they are, too, believe you me. And just in case he's hidden a book somewhere – well, we'll have plenty of time to ask him about that once we get back. You keep your eye on the old man and I'll watch the girl."
Flatnose nodded and hauled Fenoglio up from his chair. But Basta reached for Meggie's arm. Back to Capricorn – she had to bite her lips to stop herself from bursting into tears as Basta dragged her to Fenoglio's kitchen door. No. Basta wouldn't see her weep, she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. At least they haven't got Mo, she thought. And suddenly there was only one thought in her head: Suppose he crossed their path before they left the village? Suppose he came to meet them on his way back with Elinor?
All at once she couldn't wait to get away, but Flatnose had paused in the doorway. "What about the little girl and that crybaby in the cupboard?" he asked.