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‘I don’t see any castle,’before Elinor spotted one ‘Sixteenth century,’ she announced as the ruined walls appeared on a rief and pain’ And as they passed between the strong and silent rock walls Elinor told the tale of a battle that had raged in this very place over six hundred years ago ‘To this day, if you dig a the stones you’ll still find bones and dented helmets’ She seemed to know a story about every church tower Soie wrinkled her brow in disbelief, and Elinor, without taking her eyes off the road, always responded, ‘No, really, that’s just what happened!’ She seemed to be particularly fond of bloodthirsty stories: tales of the beheading of unhappy lovers, or princes walled up alive ‘Yes, everything looks very peaceful now,’ she reie turned a little pale at one of these stories ‘But I can tell you there’s always a sad story so a few hundred years ago’

Meggie didn’t knoas so exciting about times when, if Elinor was to be believed, your only choice was between dying of the plague or getting slaughtered by invading soldiers But Elinor’s cheeks glowed pink with exciteht of some burnt-out old castle, and whenever she told tales of the warrior princes and greedy bishops who had once spread terror and death abroad in the veryon leam lit her usually chilly pebble eyes

‘My dear Elinor, you were obviously born into the wrong story,’ said Dustfinger at last These were the first words he had spoken since they set out

‘The wrong story? The wrong period, you ht so er ‘Anyway, you should get on ith Capricorn He likes the same kinds of stories as you’

‘Is that supposed to be an insult?’ asked Elinor, offended The comparison seemed to trouble her, for after that she kept quiet for al to distract her fro pictures they conjured up for her in every tunnel

Twilight was beginning to fall when the mountains drew back froreen hills, a sea as wide as another sky The sinking sun listen like the skin of a beautiful snake It was a long tiie had seen the sea, and then it had been a cold sea, slate-grey and pale from the wind This sea looked different, very different

It warie’s heart just to see it, but all too often it disappeared behind the tall, ugly buildings covering the narrow strip of land that lay between the water and the encroaching hills Sometimes, the hills reached all the way down to the sea, and in the light of the setting sun they looked as if they were giant waves that had rolled up on to the land

As they followed the winding coastal road Elinor began telling stories again: tales of the Romans who, she said, had built the road they were on, and how they feared the savage inhabitants of this narrow strip of land Meggie was only half listening Paled Giant agaves flowered a there with their long spiny leaves The light behind them turned pink and lemon-yellow as the sun sank further doards the sea, and dark blue trickled down fro into water It was so beautiful a sight that it alht the place where Capricorn lived would be quite different Beauty and fear h a sht as if a child had painted thee and pink, red and yellow A great many were yellow: pale yellow, brownish yellow, sandy yellow, dirty yellow, and they had green shutters and red-brown roofs Even the gathering twilight couldn’t drain thehtness

‘It doesn’t seeie, as they drove past another pink house

‘That’s because you keep looking to your left,’ said Dustfinger behind her ‘But there’s always a light side and a dark side Look to your right for a change’

Meggie did as he said At first she saw nothing but the brightly coloured houses there too They crowded close to the roadside, leaning against each other as if they were arm in arm But then the houses were suddenly left behind, and steep hills with the night already settling aer was right It looked sinister over there, and the few houses left see dusk

It quickly grew darker, for night falls fast in the south, and Meggie was glad that Elinor was driving along the well lit coastal road But all too soon Dustfinger told her to turn off along aaway frohtly coloured houses, and into the dark

The road wound further and further into the hills, going up and down as the slopes by the roadside grew steeper and steeper The light of the headlaorse, on vines run wild, and olive trees crouching like bent old men beside the road

Only twice did they hts of a village eer guided Elinor led away froht Several tihts fell on ruined houses, but Elinor didn’t know stories about any of them No princes had lived in those wretched hovels, no red-robed bishops, only farmers and labourers whose stories no one had written down, and now they were lost, buried under wild thy the right way?’ asked Elinor in a muted voice, as if the world around her were too quiet for anyone to speak out loud ‘Where on earth do we find a village in this God-forsaken wilderness? We’ve probably taken at least trong turnings already’

But Dustfinger only shook his head ‘We’re going the right way,’ he replied ‘Once we’re over that hill you’ll be able to see the houses’

‘I certainly hope so!’ muttered Elinor ‘I can hardly make out the road Heavens above, I had no idea anywhere in the world was still so dark Couldn’t you have told ain I don’t even knoe have enough fuel to make it back to the coast’

‘So whose car is this?’ Dustfinger snapped back ‘Mine? I told you I don’t know the first thing about cars Now, keep your eyes on the road We’ll be coe?’ Elinor drove round the next bend and suddenly staht across the road, lit by two builders’ lamps, was a metal barrier It looked rusty, as if it had stood there for years

‘There!’ said Elinor, clapping her hands on the steering wheel ‘We have gone the wrong way I told you so’

‘No, we haven’t’ Dustfinger took Gwin off his shoulder and got out of the car He looked round, listening intently as he approached the barrier, then dragged it over to the side of the road

Elinor’s look of disbelief alht out of histo drive down a closed road in this darkness, does he?’