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All went perfectly quiet A few feet scraped uneasily on the red clinkers of the old football field – then, suddenly, Meggie heard so like the sound of a clock, yet not quite the sa a clock: tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick
The sound was co the cars parked behind the wire fence with their dazzling headlights on Meggie couldn’t help it – she looked round, in spite of the Magpie and all the suspicious eyes turned on her She could have kicked herself for being so stupid Suppose they had seen it too – the thin figure rising aain But no one see
‘A very fine speech!’ said Capricorn slowly ‘But you’re not here to make funeral orations for dead traitors You’re here to read aloud, and I aie forced herself to look at Capricorn She ain Suppose that really had been Farid? Suppose she hadn’t i her suspiciously Perhaps she had heard it too, that soft, harainst someone’s teeth What did it mean, unless you knew the story of Captain Hook and his fear of the crocodile with the ticking clock inside it? The Magpie wouldn’t have read it, but Mo knew that Meggie would understand his signal He had woken her up often enough with that ticking sound, right beside her ear, so close that it tickled ‘Breakfast tiie!’ he used to whisper ‘The crocodile’s here!’
That was it Mo knew she would recognise the ticking that helped Peter Pan to go aboard Captain Hook’s ship and rescue Wendy He couldn’t have given her a better signal
Wendy, thought Meggie What had happened next? For a pie reie’s face with the flat of her hand
‘Start reading, will you, little witch!’ she hissed And so Meggie obeyed
Hastily, she rees where it lay Shesilly He didn’t knohat she and Fenoglio were planning
‘I’ me!’ she cried ‘Anyone! Is that understood?’ Oh please, let Mo understand, she thought, please!
A few of Capricorn’s rehed, but Capricorn himself leaned back and folded his arirl said!’ he called ‘Anyone who disturbs her will be given to the Shadoelcoers up her sleeve There they were, Fenoglio’s words She looked at the Magpie ‘Well, she’s disturbingso close behind pie Mortola’s face looked sour, as if he had told her to eat a bar of soap, but she took two or three reluctant steps back That would have to do
Meggie raised her hand and pushed the hair back frolio
He instantly launched into his perfor towards Capricorn before Cockerell could stop him ‘I can’t allow it! I am the author of this story, and I didn’t write it to be misused for purposes of violence and murder!’
Cockerell tried to put his hand over Fenoglio’s ers and side-stepped hiie would ever have expected of the old man
‘I invented you!’ he bellowed as Cockerell chased hi devil of a villain’ Then he ran off Cockerell didn’t catch up with Fenoglio until he reached the cage containing the prisoners, and in revenge for thefrom the benches he twisted the old lio let out a cry of pain Yet when Cockerell dragged hi quite pleased, because he knew he had given Meggie plenty of tiers had been shaking as she took the sheet of paper out of her sleeve, but no one noticed anything when she slipped it into the pages of the book Not even the Magpie
‘How the old man boasts!’ cried Capricorn ‘Do I look as if an old fellow like that invented hter The sotten Cockerell put his hand over Fenoglio’s ain, and I hope this will be the last ti! The prisoners have waited long enough for their executioner’
Silence fell again, and once ie bent over the book on her lap The letters seeie, come out and save us! Save us all: Elinor and er if he’s still alive, and save Basta too for all I care
Her tongue felt like a little ani its head against her teeth
‘Capricorn had an ‘And every one of thees They stank of cold s that reminds you of fire Whenever one of them passed by people closed their doors and hid under the stairs with their children They called theers and Bloodhounds; Capricorn’s ht they made their way into dreams and poisoned them But there was one as feared even ie felt as if her voice was growing stronger with every word she read It seerow until it filled the arena ‘Folk called him the Shadow’
Two lio’s words aiting ‘Look at this, Meggie!’ he had whispered when he showed her the sheet of paper ‘What an artist I a in the world better than words on the page? Magic signs, the voices of the dead, building blocks to make wonderful worlds better than this one, comforters, companions in loneliness Keepers of secrets, speakers of the truthall those glorious words’
Taste every word, Meggie, whispered Mo’s voice inside her, savour it on your tongue Do you taste the colours? Do you taste the wind and the night? The fear and the joy? And the love Taste the will come to life ‘Folk called him Capricorn’s Shadow’ How the sh hissed as it passed her lips, how darkly the sound of the ‘o’ formed in her mouth
‘He came only when Capricorn called hirey as the ash to which fire turns all that it devours He darted out of the earth as fast as flaers and even his breath brought death He rose before hishis way like a hound on the trail and waiting for his master to point to the victim It was said that Capricorn had commanded one of the trolls who understand the whole art of fire and smoke to create the Shadow from the ashes of his victims No one was sure, for it was also said that Capricorn had ordered those who called the Shadow to life to be killed All that everyone kneas that he was immortal, invulnerable and pitiless, like his master’