第 45 页

"I didn't mean to do it!" whispered Meggie. "Really I didn't."

The fairy kept colliding with the window again and again.

"No!" Meggie hurried over to her. "You mustn't go out! You don't understand." It was a fairy, no

longer than your hand, but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell, exquisitely gowned in a

skeleton leaf.

"Someone's coming!" Fenoglio sat up in such a hurry he hit his head on the top bunk. He was

right. Out in the corridor footsteps were approaching: rapid, firm footsteps. Meggie retreated to

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the window. What did it mean? It was the middle of the night. Perhaps Mo's arrived, she thought,

Mo is here. Although she didn't want to feel glad of it, her heart leaped with joy.

"Hide her!" whispered Fenoglio. "Quick, hide her!"

Meggie looked at him, confused. Of course. The fairy. They mustn't find her. Meggie tried to catch

Tinker Bell, but the fairy slipped through her fingers and whirred up to the ceiling, where she

hovered like a light made of invisible glass.

The footsteps were very close now. "Call that keeping watch?" It was Basta's voice. Meggie heard

a hollow groan; he had probably woken the guard with a kick. "Unlock that door, and get a move

on. I don't have forever."

Someone put a key in the lock. "That's the wrong one, you dozy idiot! Capricorn wants to see the

girl, and I'll tell him why he's had to wait so long."

Meggie climbed up on her bed. The bunk swayed alarmingly as she stood on it. "Tinker Bell!" she

whispered. "Please! Come here!" But as she reached out her hand, the fairy flew back to the

window — and Basta opened the door.

"Hey, where did that come from?" he asked, standing in the doorway. "It's years since I saw one

of those fluttery things."

Meggie and Fenoglio said nothing — what was there to say?

"You needn't think you can wriggle out of telling me!" Basta took off his jacket and went slowly

over to the window holding the garment in his left hand. "You stand in the doorway in case it

gets away from me!" he told the guard. "And if you let it get past you I'll slice off your ears."

"Leave her alone!" Meggie slid hastily down from the bed again, but Basta moved faster. He

threw his jacket. Tinker Bell's light disappeared, snuffed out like a candle. There was a faint

twitching under the jacket as it fell to the floor. Basta picked it up carefully, holding it together

like a sack, went over to Meggie, and stopped in front of her. "Well, sweetheart, let's hear your

story," he said in a menacingly quiet voice. "Where did that fairy come from?"

"I don't know!" uttered Meggie without looking at him. "She — she was just suddenly here."

Basta looked at the guard. "Ever seen anything like a fairy in these parts?" he asked.

The guard raised the newspaper, to which a couple of dusty moth wings were still clinging, and

slapped the door frame with it, smiling broadly. "No, but if I did I'd know what to do about it!" he

said.

"You're right, those little creatures are as troublesome as midges. But they're supposed to bring

luck." Basta turned back to Meggie. "Now then, out with it! Where did she come from? I'm not

asking you again."

Meggie couldn't help it: Her eyes strayed to the book that Fenoglio had dropped. Basta followed

her glance and picked it up.

"Well, fancy that!" he murmured as he looked at the picture on the cover. The artist had

produced a good likeness of Tinker Bell. In real life she was a little paler and a little smaller than

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the picture suggested, but of course Basta still recognized her. He whistled softly through his

teeth, then held the book close to Meggie's face. "Don't try telling me the old man read her out of

this!" he said. "You did it. I'll bet my knife you did it. Did your father teach you how, or have you

just inherited the knack from him? Well, it comes to the same thing." He stuck the book in his

waistband and grasped Meggie's arm. "Come along, we're going to tell Capricorn about this. I

was really supposed to get you just to meet an old acquaintance, but I'm sure Capricorn will

have no objection to hearing such interesting news."

"Has my father come?" Meggie did not resist as he forced her out of the door.

Basta shook his head and looked ironically at her. "Him? No, he hasn't turned up yet," he said.

"Obviously he thinks more of his own skin than yours. I wouldn't be pleased with him if I were

you."

Meggie felt two emotions at once — disappointment as sharp as a prickle, and relief.

"I'll admit I'm rather disappointed in him," Basta continued. "I swore he'd come looking for you,

but I guess we don't need him anymore. Right?" He shook his jacket, and Meggie thought she

heard a quiet, desperate tinkling.

"Lock the old man in," Basta told the guard. "And if you're snoring again when I get back it will

be the worse for you!"

Then he hauled Meggie down the corridor.

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Chapter 39 – The Punishment for Traitors

"What about you?" inquired Lobosch. "You're not afraid, are you, Krabat?"

"More than you guess," said Krabat. "And not for myself alone."

– Otfried Preussler, The Satanic Mill

Meggie's shadow followed her like an evil spirit as she and Basta crossed the square outside the

church. The glaring floodlights made the moon look faded, it was not so bright inside the church.

Capricorn's statue, looking down on them in the gloom, was pale and half swallowed up by the

shadows. Between the columns it was as dark as if night had fled there to escape the floodlights.

Only the place where Capricorn sat, leaning back in his armchair with a contemptuous

expression and wrapped in a silk dressing gown that shimmered like peacock feathers, was

illuminated by a single lamp. The Magpie stood behind him, appearing little more than a

washed-out face above a black dress in the dim light. A fire was burning in one of the braziers at

the foot of the steps. The smoke stung Meggie's eyes, and the flickering firelight danced on the

red walls and columns as if the whole church were ablaze.

"Hang the rags outside his children's window as a final warning." Capricorn's voice echoed in

Meggie's ears, although he kept it lowered. "And soak them with gasoline until it's seeping out,"

he told Cockerell, who was standing at the foot of the steps with two other men. "When that

smell reaches the fool's nostrils first thing in the morning, perhaps he'll finally realize my

patience is at an end."

Cockerell received the order with a brief nod, turned on his heel, and signaled to the other two

to follow him. Their faces were blackened with soot, and each of the three wore a red rooster's

feather in his buttonhole. "Ah, Silvertongue's daughter!" growled Cockerell sarcastically as he

limped past Meggie. "Well, well, hasn't your father come for you yet? Doesn't seem very keen to

see you, does he?" The other two laughed, and Meggie couldn't help the hot blood rising to her

face.

"At last!" cried Capricorn as Basta stopped at the foot of the steps with his prisoner. "What kept

you so long?" Something like a smile passed over the Magpie's face. She had pushed out her

lower lip slightly, giving her thin face a look of great satisfaction, which troubled Meggie much

more than Capricorn's mother's usual dark looks.

"The guard couldn't find the right key," replied Basta irritably. "And then — well, I had to catch

something." The fairy began moving again as he held up his jacket, and its fabric bulged with her

frenzied attempts to struggle free.

"What's that?" Capricorn's voice sounded impatient. "Have you taken to catching bats these

days?"

Basta's lips quivered with annoyance, but he bit back his reply and, without a word, put his hand

under the black cloth. Suppressing a curse, he produced the fairy. "Devil take these flickery little

things!" he said angrily. "I'd forgotten how hard they can bite!"

One of Tinker Bell's wings was fluttering frantically; the other was held between Basta's fingers.

Meggie couldn't watch. She was terribly ashamed of herself for luring this fragile little creature

out of her book.

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Capricorn looked at the fairy with an expression of distaste. "Where did that come from? And

what kind is it? I never saw one with wings like that before."

Basta took Peter Pan out of his waistband and put the book down on the steps. "I think it comes

out of here," he said. "Look at the picture on the cover. There are more pictures of her inside.

And guess who read her out of it." He squeezed Tinker Bell so hard that she gulped silently for

air, while he laid his other hand on Meggie's shoulder. She tried to shake off his fingers, but

Basta merely tightened his grip.

"The girl?" Capricorn sounded incredulous.

"Yes, and it seems as though she's as good at it as her father. Look at this fairy." Basta grabbed

Tinker Bell's slender legs and dangled her up in the air. "Seems perfectly all right, doesn't she?

She can fly and scold and make tinkling sounds, all the things those stupid fairies do."

"Interesting. Yes, very interesting indeed." Capricorn rose from his chair, tightened the belt of

his dressing gown, and came down the steps. He stopped beside the book that Basta had put

down on them. "So it runs in the family!" he murmured as he bent to pick it up. Frowning, he

looked at the cover. "Peter Pan," he read. "Why, that's one of the books my old reader Darius

particularly liked. Yes, now I remember. He once read to me from it. The idea was to lure out one

of those pirates, but he failed miserably. He fetched a load of stinking fish and a rusty grappling

iron into my bedroom instead. Didn't we punish him by making him eat the fish?"

Basta laughed. "Yes, but he was even more upset that you had his books taken away. He must

have hidden this one."

"So he must have." Capricorn went over to Meggie, looking thoughtful. She would have liked to

bite his fingers when he put his hand under her chin, turning her face so that she had to look

straight into his lifeless eyes. "See how she looks at me, Basta?" he remarked mockingly. "Just as

obstinate as her father always was. Better save that look for him, sweetheart. You're very angry

with your father, I'm sure. But I couldn't care less where he is. Because from now on I have you,

my new, my wonderfully talented reader — whereas you, well, you must hate him for

abandoning you, right? Don't be ashamed of it. Hatred can be very inspiring. I never liked my

own father either."

Meggie turned her head aside when Capricorn finally let go of her chin. Her face was burning

with shame and fury, and she could still feel his fingers as if they had left marks on her skin.

"Did Basta tell you why he was to bring you here so late at night?"

"To meet someone." Meggie tried to make her voice sound bold and unafraid, but she didn't

succeed. The sobs in her throat would only let a whisper emerge.

"That's right!" Capricorn gave the Magpie a signal. She came down the steps and disappeared

into the dark beyond the columns. A little later there was a creaking sound above Meggie's head,

and when she looked up to the roof in alarm she saw something being lowered from the

darkness: a net, no, two nets such as she had seen in fishing boats. They stopped and hung there

about five meters above the floor, just over Meggie's head, and only then did she see human

figures caught in the coarse ropes — like birds entangled in the netting over a fruit tree. Meggie

was feeling dizzy just from looking up. What must it be like to be dangling up there, held only by

a few cords?

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"Well, don't you recognize your old friend?" Capricorn put his hands in his dressing-gown

pockets. Tinker Bell was still held in Basta's fingers like a broken doll. Her faint tinkling was the

only sound to be heard. "Yes, I see you do!" There was no mistaking the satisfaction in

Capricorn's voice. "That's what happens to filthy little traitors who steal keys and set prisoners

free."

Meggie refused to look at Capricorn. She had eyes only for Dustfinger.

"Hello, Meggie! You look rather pale!" he called down. He was trying very hard to sound

lighthearted, but Meggie heard the terror in his voice. She knew what voices meant. "I'm

supposed to give you love from your father! He'll come for you soon, he says, and he won't come

alone."

"You'll make a teller of fairy tales yet if you carry on like that, fire-eater!" Basta called up. "But