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‘I’ll tell you tolio ‘That’s a promise’

‘No! Tell htfully ‘It’s not a story for this hour of the night You’ll have bad dreaie repeated

Fenoglio sighed ‘Oh dear I know that look frorandchildren,’ he said ‘Very well, then’ He helped her up to her bunk, put Mo’s sweater under her head and pulled the blanket up to her chin ‘I’ll tell it to you the way I wrote it in Inkheart,’ he said quietly ‘I know that passage almost by heart I was very proud of it at the ti the words into the night ‘But one being was feared even more than Capricorn’s men He was known as the Shadow, and he appeared only when Capricorn called hirey as the ashes into which fire turns all that it devours He leaped fro up froht death He rose up at histhe air like a dog on the trail, waiting to be shown his victilio swept a hand over his forehead and looked at theIt was so the words to o ‘They say,’ he continued at last, ‘that Capricorn had the Shadow made from his victims’ ashes by a troll, or by the dwarves who know all that fire and smoke can do No one was certain, for it was said that Capricorn had those who had brought the Shadow to life killed afterwards But everyone knew one thing: the Shadoas immortal and invulnerable, and as pitiless as his ie, her heart beating fast, gazed out at the night

‘Yes, Meggie,’ Fenoglio said at last in a low voice ‘I think Capricorn wants you to fetch him the Shadow And God have mercy on us if you succeed There are many monsters in this world, most of them human and all of them mortal I would not like to have an i fear and terror here for all time Your father had an idea when he came to see me – I’ve already mentioned it to you, and it may be our only chance, but I just don’t knoill work yet I et some sleep now When did you say this is to happen – the day after toie nodded ‘As soon as dusk falls,’ she whispered

Fenoglio passed a weary hand over his face ‘Don’t worry about the woman,’ he said ‘You may not want to hear this, but I don’t think she can possibly be your mother, much as you may wish she were How could she have coie buried her face in Mo’s sweater ‘The stupid h Capricorn said so: he read her back out of Inkheart and she lost her voice co out of the book She’s back, I’m sure she is, and Mo doesn’t know! He thinks she’s still stuck in the story’

‘Well, if you’re right, then I wish she really were still there,’the blanket up over her shoulders again with a sigh ‘I still think you’re wrong, but believe what you like! And now go to sleep’

But of course Meggie couldn’t sleep She lay there with her face to the wall, listening to her own heart Fear and joyinto each other Whenever she closed her eyes she saw the nets and the two faces there aer’s and the other face, blurred as an old photograph Hard as she tried to see it ain

Daas breaking outside by the tihtrew especially fast in the grey ti an eternity out of seconds One-eyed ogres and giant spiders stole into Meggie’s sleep, hounds of hell, witches who ate children, all the bugbears she had ever met in stories They crept out of the box that Mo had es of her favourite books Even the iven her before she knew the alphabet They danced through Meggie’s drea, baring their pointed little teeth There was the Cheshire Cat she had always been so afraid of, and here ca a picture of theer would be crunched between those fangs like crispbread But just as one of the as saucers, a new figure carey and faceless, seized the Wild Thing and tore it into scraps of paper

‘Meggie!’

The ie’s face Fenoglio was standing beside her bed ‘You were dreaie sat up The old ht and he had several nerinkles ‘Where’s lio?’ she asked ‘Oh, why doesn’t he come?’

41

Farid

Ali Baba … was surprised to see a well-lighted and spacious chamber … filled with all sorts of provisions, rich bales of silks, eold and silver ingots in great heaps, and ht of all these riches es by robbers, who had succeeded one another