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At last, they stopped outside a door It was made of different wood frorain like a tiger’s coat that shie of red under the naked electric bulbs that lit the cellars

‘And let ie before he knocked on the door, ‘if you’re as i you in one of those nets in the church until you’re so hungry you’ll be gnawing at the ropes Coirl’s cuddly toy’ His pepperie’s face She would never again be able to eat anything se enough to hold a dance in The walls were red, like the walls in the church, but you couldn’t see old fraether on the walls like a crowd in a space too sold like the photos but ie could see that whoever had painted it was no more skilled at his trade than the sculptor who had carved the statue in the church Capricorn’s features in the picture were rounder and softer than in real life, and his curiously fee fruit below the nose, which was a little too short and broad It was only his eyes that the painter had caught perfectly As cold as they were in the flesh, they looked down on Meggie like the eyes of ahe is about to slit open to see what it looks like inside No face, she had learned in Capricorn’s village, is as terrifying as a face without pity

The Magpie sat, curiously rigid, in a green velvet armchair directly below her son’s portrait She looked unaccusto down – like a constantly busy wo to stop, but whose body forced her to rest Meggie saw that the old woed forpie pulled her skirt well down over those knees

‘Have you told her what she’s here for?’ She found standing up difficult Meggie watched her support herself with one hand on a little table, her lips pressed together Basta seemed to enjoy her frailty; a spie looked at hilance Iie over Basta prodded her in the back when she didn’t ’ With slow but firpie walked over to a chest of drawers that looked s Two lamps stood on it, their shades patterned with flowery tendrils Between them was a wooden casket, decorated all the way round with a pattern of tiny holes When the Magpie opened its lid Meggie flinched back Two snakes, thin as lizards and not ie’s lower arm, lay in the casket

‘I always keep et too sleepy,’ explained the Magpie, opening the top drawer of the chest and taking out a glove It was made of stout black leather, and was so stiff that she had difficulty forcing her gnarled hand into it ‘Your friend Dustfinger played a nasty trick on poor Resa when he asked her to look for that book,’ she continued, reaching into the box and grasping one of the snakes firmly behind its flat head

‘Co snake out to hi in him felt revulsion, but he came closer and took the creature He held the scaly body well away from him as it wound and twisted in the air

‘As you see, Basta doesn’t care for pie, with a smile ‘He never did, not that thatbut his knife He also believes that snakes bring bad luck, which of course is pure nonsense’ Mortola handed Basta the second snake Meggie saw the viper’s tiny poison fangs when it opened its mouth For a moment, she almost felt sorry for Basta

‘Well, don’t you think this is a good hiding-place?’ asked the Magpie, reaching into the casket yet again This tiie would have knohat book it was even if she hadn’t recognised the coloured jacket ‘I’ve often kept valuables in this casket,’ continued the Magpie ‘No one knows about it and its contents apart froh and low for this book – she’s a brave creature – but she didn’t get as far as my casket As it happens, she likes snakes I’ve never h she’s been bitten now and then, isn’t that so, Basta?’ The Magpie took off her glove and looked scornfully at him ‘Basta likes to use snakes to scare women who reject his advances It didn’t ith Resa How did it go exactly – didn’t she finally put the snake outside your door, Basta?’

Basta did not reply The snakes were still twisting and turning in his hands One of them had wound its tail around his arpie ordered ‘But be careful not to hurt them’ Then she returned to her ar to the footstool beside her

Meggie obeyed Surreptitiously, she looked around her Mortola’s room reminded her of a fairy-tale treasure chest filled to the briolden candlesticks, too s, pictures, vases, china ornapie looked at her sly In her plain black dress she sat there like a cuckoo that has forced its way into another bird’s nest ‘A fine room for a domestic servant, don’t you think?’ she said with satisfaction ‘Capricorn kno to value me’

‘But he still h you’re his ht and slipped quickly back between your lips

The Magpie looked at her with such hatred that Meggie alers on her throat But Mortola just sat there, her birdlike eyes looking fixedly at Meggie ‘Who told you that? The old sorcerer?’

Meggie claether and looked at Basta He probably hadn’t heard a word; he was just putting the second snake back in the casket Did he know Capricorn’s little secret? Before she could wonder about that any more Mortola put the book on her lap

‘A word about this to anyone here, or indeed anywhere else,’ hissed the Magpie, ‘and I personally shall prepare your next meal A little extract of monkshood, a few shoots of yew or perhaps a couple of hemlock seeds in the sauce, how do you fancy that? I can assure you you’d find it a hard ie stared at the book on her lap When Capricorn held it up in the church she hadn’t been able to make out the picture on the jacket Now she had a chance to see it at close quarters There was a landscape in the background that looked like a slightly different version of the hills surrounding Capricorn’s village But the foreground showed a heart, a black heart surrounded by red flapie

Meggie obeyed She opened the book at the page beginning with the N and the horned o was it since she had stood in Elinor’s library looking at the sae? An eternity, a whole lifetime?