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them — he whines, he's sly, and he bites." One of the dogs lay down in the grass and licked its

paws. Angrily, Basta kicked it in the ribs and hauled it to its feet. "You can go back to the village if

you like!" he spat at Flatnose. "But I'm going to get that fire-eater and cut off all his fingers one

by one. Then we'll see how cleverly he can juggle. I always said he couldn't be trusted, but the

boss thought his little tricks with fire were so entertaining."

"OK, OK. Everyone knows you can't stand him." Flatnose sounded bored. "But he may have

nothing to do with the disappearance of that bunch. You know he's always come and gone as he

pleased. Maybe he'll turn up again tomorrow knowing nothing about it."

"Yeah, right," growled Basta. He walked on. Every step brought him closer to the trees behind

which Mo and Dustfinger were hiding. "And Silvertongue stole the fat woman's car key from

under my pillow, did he? No. This time no excuses will do Dustfinger any good. Because he took

something else, too — something of mine."

Involuntarily, Dustfinger put his hand to his belt, as if he were afraid that Basta's knife could call

out to its master. One °f the dogs raised its head and tugged Basta on toward the trees.

"He's found something!" Basta lowered his voice. "The stupid creature's picked up a scent!"

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Ten more paces, perhaps fewer, and he would be among the trees. What were they going to do?

What on earth were they going to do?"

Flatnose was trudging along after Basta with a skeptical expression on his face. "They've

probably scented a wild boar," Meggie heard him say. "You want to be careful; they can run you

right down. Oh no, I think there's a snake there. One of those black snakes. You've got the

antidote in the car, right?"

He stood there perfectly still, rooted to the spot and staring down at the ground in front of his

feet. Basta took no notice of him. He followed the snuffling dog. A few more steps and Mo would

only have to reach out a hand to touch him. Basta unslung the shotgun from his shoulder,

stopped, and listened. The dogs pulled to the left and jumped up at one of the tree trunks,

barking.

Gwin was up there in the branches.

"What did I say?" called Flatnose. "They've scented a marten, that's all. Those brutes stink so

strong even I could pick up their smell!"

"That's no ordinary marten!" hissed Basta. "Don't you recognize him?" His eyes were fixed on

the ruined hovel.

Mo seized his opportunity. He sprang out from behind the tree, seized Basta, and tried to wrench

the gun from his hands.

"Get him! Get him, you brutes!" bellowed Basta, and obviously the dogs were willing to obey him

this time. They leaped up at Mo, baring their yellow teeth. Before Meggie could run to his aid,

Elinor seized her and held her tight no matter how hard she struggled, just as she had done

before back in her own house. But this time there was someone else to help Mo. Before the dogs

could sink their teeth into him, Dustfinger had grabbed their collars. Meggie thought they would

tear him apart when he dragged them off Mo, but instead they licked his hands, jumping up at

him like an old friend, and almost knocking him down.

But there was still Flatnose. Luckily, he wasn't too quick on the uptake. That saved them — for a

brief moment he simply stood there staring at Basta, who was still struggling in Mo's grip.

Meanwhile Dustfinger had hauled the dogs over to the nearest tree and was just winding their

leashes around the cracked bark when Flatnose came out of his daze.

"Let them go!" he bellowed, pointing his shotgun at Mo.

With a suppressed curse, Dustfinger let the dogs loose, but the stone Farid threw moved faster

than he did. It hit Flatnose in the middle of the forehead — an insignificant little stone, but the

huge man collapsed in the grass at Dustfinger's feet like a felled tree.

"Keep the dogs off me!" called Mo as Basta fought to get control of his gun. One of the dogs had

bitten Mo's sleeve. At least, Meggie hoped it was just his sleeve. Before Elinor could restrain her

again she ran to the big dog and seized its studded collar. The dog wouldn't let go, however hard

she pulled. She saw blood on Mo's arm, and she almost got hit on the head with the barrel of

Basta's shotgun. Dustfinger tried to call off the dogs, and at first they obeyed him, or at least they

let go of Mo, but then Basta succeeded in freeing himself. "Get him!" he shouted, and the dogs

stood there growling, not sure whether to obey Basta or Dustfinger.

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"Bloody brutes!" shouted Basta, pointing his shotgun at Mo's chest, but at that very moment

Elinor pressed the muzzle °f Flatnose's gun against his head. Her hands were shaking, and her

face was covered with red blotches as it always when she was worked up, but she looked more

than determined to use the gun.

"Drop the gun, Basta," she said, her voice unsteady. "And not another word to those dogs! I may

never have used a gun before but I'm sure I can manage to pull the trigger."

"Sit!" Dustfinger ordered the dogs. They looked uncertainly at Basta, but when he said nothing

they lay down in the grass and let Dustfinger tie them to the tree.

Blood was trickling from Mo's sleeve. Meggie felt herself turn faint at the sight of it. Dustfinger

bound up the wound with a red silk scarf that soaked up the blood. "It's not as bad' as it looks,"

he assured Meggie as she came closer, feeling weak at the knees.

"Got anything else in your backpack that we can use to tie him up?" asked Mo, nodding at the

still unconscious Flatnose.

"Our friend with the knife here will need some packaging, too," said Elinor. Basta glared at her

viciously. "Don't stare at me like that," she said, jamming the barrel of the gun into his chest. "I'm

sure a gun like this can do as much damage as a knife, and believe you me, that gives me some

very unpleasant ideas."

Basta twisted his mouth scornfully, but he never took his eyes off Elinor's forefinger, which was

still on the trigger.

There was a length of cord in Dustfinger's pack, strong if not particularly thick. "It won't be

enough for both of them,' Dustfinger said.

"Why do you want to tie them up?" inquired Farid. "Why not kill them? That's what they were

going to do to us!"

Meggie looked at him in horror, but Basta laughed. "Well, fancy that!" he mocked. "We could

have used that boy after all…but who says we were going to kill you? Capricorn wants you alive.

Dead men can't read aloud."

"Oh, really? And weren't you planning to cut off some of my fingers?" asked Dustfinger, tying the

cord around Flat-nose's legs.

Basta shrugged. "Since when does a man die of that?"

Elinor jabbed the barrel of the gun into his ribs so hard that he stumbled back. "Hear that? I

think the boy's right. Maybe we really ought to shoot these thugs."

But of course they didn't. They found a rope in the backpack that Flatnose had brought with him,

and it gave Dustfinger obvious pleasure to tie up Basta. Farid helped him. He clearly knew

something about tying up prisoners.

Then they put Basta and Flatnose in the ruined house. "Nice of us, right? The snakes won't find

you quite so soon," said Dustfinger as they carried Basta through the narrow doorway. "Of

course it'll get pretty hot in here around midday, but maybe someone will have found you by

then. We'll let the dogs go. If they have any sense they won't return to the village, but dogs don't

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often have much sense — so the whole gang will probably be out searching for you by this

afternoon at the latest."

Flatnose did not come around until he was lying beside Basta under the ruined roof. He rolled

his eyes furiously and went purple in the face, but neither he nor Basta could utter a sound

because Farid had gagged them both, again very expertly.

"Wait a minute," said Dustfinger, before they left the two men to their fate. "There's something

else — something I've always wanted to do." And to Meggie's horror he drew Basta's knife from

his belt and went over to the prisoners with it.

"What's the idea?" asked Mo, barring his way. Obviously the same thought had occurred to him

as it had to Meggie, but Dustfinger only laughed.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to cut a pattern in his face the way he decorated mine," he said. "I

only want to scare him a little."

And he had already bent down to cut through the leather thong that Basta wore around his neck.

It had a little bag closed with a red drawstring hanging from it. Dustfinger leaned over Basta and

swung the bag back and forth in front of his face. "I'm taking your luck, Basta!" he said softly,

straightening up. "Now there's nothing to protect you from the evil eye, and the ghosts and

demons, black cats, and all the other things you're afraid of."

Basta tried to kick out with his bound legs, but Dustfinger avoided him easily. "This is good-bye

forever, I hope, Basta!" he said. "And if our paths should ever cross again, then I'll have this." He

tied the leather thong around his own neck. "I expect there's a lock of your hair in it, right? No?

Well then, perhaps I'll take one. Doesn't burning someone's hair have a terrible effect on him?"

"That's enough!" said Mo, urging him away. "Let's get out of here. Who knows when Capricorn

will realize these two are missing. By the way, did I tell you that he didn't burn quite all the

books? There's one copy of Inkheart left."

Dustfinger stopped as suddenly as if a snake had bitten him.

"I thought I ought to tell you," said Mo. "Even if it does put stupid ideas into your head."

Dustfinger just nodded. Then without a word he walked on.

"Why don't we take their van?" suggested Elinor when Mo headed back to the path. "They must

have left it on the road.

"Too dangerous," said Dustfinger. "How do we know who might be waiting for us down there?

And going back to it would take us longer than going on to the nearest village. A van like that is

easily spotted, too. Do you want to set Capricorn on our trail?"

Elinor sighed. "It was just a thought," she murmured, massaging her aching ankles. Then she

followed Mo.

They kept to the path because the snakes were already moving through the tall grass. Once, a

thin black serpent wriggled over the yellow soil in front of them. Dustfinger pushed a stick

under its scaly body and threw it back into the thorn-bushes. Meggie had expected the snakes to

be bigger, but Elinor assured her that the smallest were the most dangerous. Elinor was limping,

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but she did her best not to hold up the others. Mo, too, was walking more slowly than usual. He

tried to hide it, but the dog bite obviously hurt.

Meggie walked close to him and kept looking anxiously at the red scarf Dustfinger had used to

bandage the wound. At last they came to a paved road. A truck with a load of rusty gas cylinders

was coming toward them. They were too tired to hide, and anyway it wasn't coming from the

direction of Capricorn's village. Meggie saw the surprised expression of the man at the wheel as

he passed them. They must have looked very disreputable in their dirty clothes, drenched with

sweat, and torn by all the thorn bushes.

Soon afterward they passed the first houses. There were more and more of them on the slopes

now, brightly colorwashed, with flowers growing outside their doors. Trudging on, they came to

the outskirts of a fairly large town. Meggie saw multistory buildings, palm trees with dusty

leaves, and, suddenly, still far away but shining silver in the sun, a glimpse of the sea.

"Heavens, I hope they'll let us into a bank," said Elinor. "We look as if we'd fallen among thieves."

"Well, so we have," said Mo.

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Chapter 22 – In Safety

The slow days drifted on, and each left behind a slightly lightened weight of

apprehension.

– Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

They did let Elinor into the bank, despite her torn stockings. Before that, however, she had

disappeared into the ladies' room of the first cafe they came to. Meggie never did find out exactly

where Elinor hid her valuables, but when she returned her face was washed, her hair not quite

as tangled, and she was triumphantly waving a gold credit card in the air. Then she ordered

breakfast for everyone.

It was an odd feeling to be suddenly sitting in a cafe having breakfast, watching perfectly

ordinary people outside in the street, going to work, shopping, or just standing around chatting.

Meggie could hardly believe they had spent just two nights and a day in Capricorn's village, and

that all this — the bustle of ordinary life going on outside the window — hadn't stood still the