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With the light came two of Capricorn’sher aching back andcrossly when they heard the footsteps

They weren’t Basta’s footsteps One of the two iant had pressed his face flat with his thuoatee beard on his receding chin He kept fiddling with his shotgun, and glowered unpleasantly at the three of the them on the spot

‘Come on, then Get a ht of day, blinking Meggie tried to remember whether his voice was one of those she had heard in Elinor’s library, but she wasn’t sure Capricorn hadThe sky arched blue and cloudless above Capricorn’s village, and a couple of finches were twittering in a rose bush groild aer in the world but a hungry cat or two Mo took Meggie’s aret her shoes on first, and when the hly out because she didn’t h for hie at hihtened her lips and confined herself to hostile glances

Capricorn’s ie and Elinor back the way Basta had brought theht before The flat-faced ht up the rear, shotgun at the ready He dragged one leg as he walked, but nonetheless he kept urging them on, as if to prove that he could h he lie appeared curiously deserted, and not just because of the ht There was hardly anyone to be seen in the narrow alleys, only a few of the Black Jackets, as Meggie had secretly baptised theie only twice sao or running after their er, tortoiseshell, tabby cats, lying in the warm sun on top of walls, in doorways, on lintels It was deathly quiet a that went on seeuns didn’t hide They hung around together in gateways and at the corners of buildings, leaning lovingly on their weapons as they talked There were no flowers outside the houses, like the flowers Meggie had seen in the towns and villages all along the coast, instead roofs had fallen in and wild bushes were in bloolassless s Soie feel dizzy

When they reached the square outside the church, Meggie thought the two ain, but they passed it on their left and went straight to the big church door The tower of the church looked as if wind and weather had been wearing theunder the pointed roof, and scarcely a rown into a stunted tree that now clung to the sand-coloured stone

There were eyes painted on the church door, narrow red eyes, and ugly stone deht of a man stood on either side of the entrance, their teeth bared like savage dogs

‘Welco bow before opening the heavy door

‘Don’t do that, Cockerell!’ the flat-facedstones at his feet ‘It’s bad luck’

The hed and patted the fat belly of one of the stone figures ‘Oh, come on, Flatnose You’re al a stinking rabbit’s foot round your own neck too’

‘I like to be on the safe side,’ growled Flatnose ‘You hear strange tales’

‘Yes, and who made them up? We did, you fool’

‘Some of them date from before our tiie as the two ue can be dangerous here, believe me Basta is quick to draw his knife, and he’ll use it too’

‘Basta’s not the only one here with a knife, Silvertongue!’ said Cockerell, pushing Mo into the dark church Meggie hurried after hihtpale patches high up on the walls and colustone floor, but now there was only one colour in Capricorn’s church Everything was red The walls, the colu, were vermilion, the colour of raw ie felt as if she had stepped into the belly of some monster

In a corner near the entrance stood the statue of an angel A as broken off, and the black jacket of one of Capricorn’swhile someone had stuck a pair of fancy dress horns on its head, the kind children wear to parties Its halo was still there between theel had probably once stood on the stone plinth in front of the first coluaunt, waxen face seeie with a supercilious expression Whoever had carved it wasn’t very good at his trade; its features were painted like the face of a plastic doll, with oddly red lips and blue eyes that held none of the cold detachment the colourless eyes of the real Capricorn turned on the world But, to ht of its living model, and all who passed it had to tilt their head back to look up at its pale face

‘Is that allowed, Mo?’ asked Meggie quietly ‘Putting up a statue of yourself in a church?’

‘Oh, it’s a very old custom!’ Elinor whispered back ‘Statues in churches aren’t often the statues of saints Most saints couldn’t have paid the sculptor In the cathedral of--’

Cockerell prodded her in the back so roughly that she sturowled ‘And bow next ti to stand her ground, but Mo quickly o on ‘Who on earth can take this circus seriously?’ she said crossly

‘If you don’t keep your mouth shut,’ Mo told her in a whisper, ‘you’ll soon find out how seriously they take everything here’

Elinor looked at the scratch on his forehead, and said no ie had seen in other churches, just two long wooden tables with benches, one on each side of the nave There were dirty plates on thes, wooden boards where cheese rinds lay, knives, sausages, e all this away Without pausing in their work, they glanced up as Cockerell and Flatnose passed with their three captives Meggie thought they looked like birds hunching their heads down beneath their wings in case so froone too In its place there now stood a ns carved thickly into its legs and ar up to it were four shallow steps, carpeted in black Meggie wasn’t sure why she counted the on the top step just a few paces away froer, apparently lost in thought as he let Gwin run up and down his outstretched arm