"Very well, " said Mo wearily into the silence. "I'll read aloud to you. But Meggie and Elinor can't stay in here. "
Meggie knew exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking of her mother and wondering who might disappear this time.
"Nonsense. Of course they stay here. " Capricorn's voice was no longer careless. "And you'd better get started before the book there in your hand falls to dust. "
Mo closed his eyes for a moment. "Very well, but tell Basta to put his knife away, " he said hoarsely. "If he hurts a hair on Meggie or Elinor's heads I promise you I'll read the plague out of a book to infect you and your men."
Cockerell looked at Mo in alarm, and a shadow passed over even Basta's face, but Capricorn just laughed.
"Let me remind you, Silvertongue, that you're speaking of a contagious disease, " he said. "And it doesn't stop short at little girls. So never mind the empty threats, just start reading. Now. At once. And I want to hear something out of that book first!"
He pointed to the book that Mo had just laid aside.
Treasure Island.
18. TREASURE ISLAND
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentle men having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island… I take up
my pen in the year of grace 17, and go back to the time
when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
And so Meggie heard her father read aloud, for the first time in nine years, in a drafty old church. Even many, many years later the smell of burnt paper would come back to her as soon as she opened one of the books from which he had read that awful morning.
It was chilly in Capricorn's church – Meggie was to remember that later, too – although the sun must have been hot outside and high in the sky by the time Mo began to read. He simply sat down on the floor where he was, legs crossed, one book on his lap and the others beside him. Meggie quickly knelt down close to him before Basta could catch hold of her.
"Here, get up these steps, all of you, " Capricorn told his men. "And take the woman with you, Flatnose. Only Basta stays where he is. "
Elinor resisted, but Flatnose merely seized a handful of her hair and hauled her along after him. Capricorn's men climbed the steps and sat at their master's feet, Elinor among them like a pigeon with ruffled feathers in the middle of a mob of marauding crows. The only person who looked equally out of place was the thin reader, Darius, who was sitting at the very end of the row of black-clad men and kept fiddling with his glasses.
Mo opened the book on his lap and began leafing through it, frowning, as if searching the pages for the gold he was to read out of it for Capricorn.
"Cockerell, you will cut out the tongue of anyone who utters the slightest sound while Silvertongue is reading, " said Capricorn, and Cockerell drew a knife from his belt and looked along the row of men as if already selecting his first victim. All was so deathly quiet inside the red church that Meggie thought she could hear Basta breathing behind her. But perhaps it was only the sound of her own fear.
Judging by their faces, Capricorn's men seemed to be feeling far from happy. They were looking at Mo with expressions of apprehension mingled with dislike. Meggie understood that only too well. Perhaps one of them would soon vanish into the book through which Mo was leafing so undecidedly. Had Capricorn told them that such a thing might happen? Did even he know it? What if she herself vanished as Mo obviously feared? Or Elinor?
"Meggie!" Mo whispered to her as if he had heard her thoughts. "Hold on to me tight any way you can." Meggie nodded and clutched his sweater. As if that would be any use!
"Yes, I think I've found the right place, " said Mo into the silence. He cast a last glance at Capricorn, looked at Elinor, cleared his throat – and began to read.
Everything disappeared: the red walls of the church, the faces of Capricorn's men, Capricorn himself sitting in his chair. There was nothing but Mo's voice and the pictures forming in their minds from the letters on the page, like the pattern of a carpet taking shape on a loom. If Meggie could have hated Capricorn anymore, she would have done so now. It was his fault that Mo had never once read aloud to her in all these years. To think of the magic he could have worked in her room with his voice, a voice that gave a different flavor to every word, made every sentence a melody! Even Cockerell had forgotten his knife and the tongues he was supposed to cut out and was listening with a faraway expression on his face. Flatnose was staring into space, enraptured, as if a pirate ship with all sails set were truly cruising in through one of the church windows. The other men were equally entranced.
There was not a sound to be heard but Mo's voice bringing the letters and words on the page to life.
Only one member of his audience seemed immune to the magic of it. Face expressionless, pale eyes fixed on Mo, Capricorn sat there waiting: waiting for the clink of coins amidst the harmony of the words, for chests of damp wood heavy with gold and silver.
Mo did not keep him waiting long. It happened as he was reading what Jim Hawkins – a boy not much older than
Meggie when he embarked on his terrifying adventure – saw in a dark cave:
… Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck – nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out.
The maidservants were cleaning the last crumbs off the tables when coins suddenly came rolling over the bare wood. The women stumbled back, dropping their wiping cloths and pressing their hands to their mouths as the coins tumbled and leaped about their feet. Gold, silver, and copper coins jingled over the flagstone floor, clinking as they gathered in heaps under the benches – more and more and more of them. Some rolled as far as the steps. Capricorn's men came to life, bent to pick up the glittering little things bouncing off their boots – but then snatched back their hands. None of them dared touch the magic money. For what else could it be? Gold made of paper and printer's ink – and the sound of a human voice.
When the shower of gold stopped, at the very moment Mo closed the book, Meggie saw there was a little sand among all the gleaming, glittering money. A few iridescent blue beetles scuttled away, and the head of an emerald-green lizard emerged from a heap of tiny coins. It stared around with fixed eyes, tongue flicking out of its sharp little mouth. Basta threw his knife at it, as if he could skewer not just the lizard but the cowardice that had seized them all. However, Meggie gave a warning cry, and the lizard darted away so fast that the tip of the blade struck the stones. Basta ran over to his knife, picked it up, and pointed it threateningly in Meggie's direction,
Capricorn rose from his chair, his face still as cold and blank as if nothing worth getting excited about had happened, and clapped his ringed hands graciously. "Not bad for a start, Silvertongue!" he said. "See that, Darius? That's what gold looks like – not the rusty, dented metal you've read out of books for me. But now you've heard how the thing is done I hope you'll have learned from it. Just in case I ever require your services again."
Darius did not reply. His eyes were fixed on Mo with such admiration in them that it wouldn't have surprised Meggie had he flung himself at her father's feet. When Mo straightened up, Darius approached him hesitantly.
Capricorn's men were still gazing at the gold as if they didn't know what to do next.
"What are you standing there for, gaping like a lot of sheep?" cried Capricorn. "Pick it up. Go on. "
&n
bsp; "That was wonderful!" Darius whispered to Mo, while Capricorn's men cautiously began shoveling the coins into bags and boxes. His eyes were gleaming behind his glasses like the eyes of a child who has just been given a much-wanted present. "I've read that book many times, " he said in a voice that shook, "but I never saw it all as vividly as I did today. And I didn't just see it… I smelled it, the salt and the tar and the musty odor of the whole accursed island…"
"Treasure Island! Heavens above, I was petrified!" Elinor appeared behind Darius, pushing him impatiently aside. Flatnose had obviously forgotten her for the moment. "He'll be here any minute, that's what I kept thinking. Long John Silver will be here, lashing out at us with his crutch. "
Mo just nodded, but Meggie could see the relief on his face. "Here, take it!" he told Darius, handing him the book. "I hope I never have to read out of it again. One shouldn't push one's luck. "
"You said his name not quite right every time, " Meggie whispered.
Mo tenderly stroked the bridge of her nose. "Ah, so you noticed, " he whispered back. "Yes, I thought that might help. Perhaps the savage old pirate won't feel we're calling to him then, I told myself, and he'll stay where he belongs. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Why do you think?" said Elinor, answering instead of Meggie. "Why is she looking so admiringly at her father? Because no one ever read aloud like that – even apart from the money. I saw it all, the sea and the island, as clear as if I could touch it, and I don't expect it was any different for your daughter. "
Mo had to smile. He kicked aside a few of the coins on the floor in front of him. One of Capricorn's men picked them up and surreptitiously pocketed them. As he did so, he looked at Mo as uneasily as if he feared a word from him might turn him into a frog or one of the beetles still crawling around among the coins.
"They're afraid of you, Mo!" whispered Meggie. She could see the trepidation even on Basta's face, although he was doing his best to hide it by assuming a particularly bored expression.
Only Capricorn seemed to be left cold by what had happened. Arms folded, he stood there watching his men pick up the last of the coins. "How much longer is this going to take?" he asked finally. "Leave the small change where it is and sit down again. And you, Silvertongue, open the next book!"
"The next book!" Elinor's voice almost cracked with indignation. "What on earth's the idea of that? The gold your men are shoveling up there is enough to last you at least two life times. We're going home now!"
She was about to turn around, but Flatnose, who had finally remembered he was meant to be guarding Elinor, seized her arm roughly. Mo looked up at Capricorn,
Basta, smiling unpleasantly, laid his hand on Meggie's shoulder. "Get on with it, Silvertongue!" he said. "You heard. There are still plenty of books here. "
Mo looked at Meggie for a long time before bending to pick up the book he had chosen first: Tales From the Thousand and One Nights.
"The book that goes on and on forever, " he murmured, opening it. "Did you know the Arabs say no one can read it right through to the end, Meggie?"
She shook her head as she sat down beside him on the cold flagstones. Basta let her, but he planted himself right behind her. Meggie didn't know much about The Thousand and One Nights except that it was really a book in many volumes. The copy that Darius had given Mo could only be a small selection. Were Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in it, and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp? Which story would Mo read?
Meggie thought she saw contradictory feelings on the faces of Capricorn's men: fear of what Mo might bring to life and, at the same time, a wish, a yearning almost, to once more he carried away by his voice, transported far away to a placewhere they could forget everything, even themselves.
There was no smell of salt and rum when Mo began reading this time. The air in Capricorn's church grew hot. Meggie's eyes began to burn, and when she rubbed them she found sand sticking to her knuckles. Once again, Capricorn's men listened to Mo's voice with bated breath, as if they were turned to stone. Capricorn alone seemed to feel nothing of the magic. But his eyes showed that even he was spellbound. They were fixed on Mo's face, as unmoving as the eyes of a snake. His red suit made his pupils look even more washed out, and his body seemed tense, like a dog scenting its prey. But this time Mo disappointed him.
The words offered up no riches, none of the treasure chests, pearls, and swords set with precious stones that Mo's voice conjured up, shining and sparkling, until Capricorn's men felt as if they could pluck them from the air. Something else slipped out of the pages, though, something breathing, a creature made of flesh and blood.
A boy was suddenly standing between the still smoldering braziers where Capricorn had burned the books. Meggie was the only one to notice him. All the others were too absorbed in the story. Even Mo didn't see him, far away as he was, somewhere in the sand and the wind as his eyes made their way through the labyrinth of letters.
The boy was some three or four years older than Meggie. The turban around his head was dirty, his eyes dark with fear in his brown face. He blinked and rubbed them as if he could wipe it all away – the wrong picture, the wrong place. He looked around the church as if he had never seen such a budding before, and how could he have? There wouldn't be any churches with spires in his story, or green hills like those he would see outside. The robe he wore went down to his brown feet, and in the dim light of the church it shone blue as a patch of the sky.
Meggie wondered: What will happen when they see him? He's certainly not what Capricorn was hoping for.
But Capricorn had already noticed the boy.
"Stop!" he commanded, so sharply that Mo broke off in mid-sentence and raised his head.
Abruptly, and rather unwillingly, Capricorn's men returned to reality. Cockerell was the first on his feet. "Hey, where did he come from?" he growled.
The boy ducked, looked around with a terrified expression, and ran for it, doubling back and forth like a rabbit. But he didn't get far. Three men immediately sprang forward and caught him at the feet of Capricorn's statue.
Mo put the book down on the flagstones beside him and buried his face in his hands.
"Hey, Fulvio's gone!" cried one of Capricorn's men. "Vanished into thin air!" They all stared at Mo. There it was again, the nervousness in their faces, but this time mingled not with admiration but with anger.
"Get rid of that boy, Silvertongue!" ordered Capricorn angrily. "I have more than enough of his kind. And bring Fulvio back. "
Mo took his hands away from his face and stood up.
"For the millionth time, I can't bring anyone back, " he said. "The fact that you don't believe me doesn't make that a lie. I can't do it. I can't decide who or what comes out of a hook, nor who goes into it. "
Meggie reached for Mo's hand. Some of Capricorn's men came closer, two of them holding the boy. They were pulling on his arms as if to tear him in half. Eyes wide with terror, the boy stared into their unfamiliar faces.
"Back to your places!" Capricorn ordered the angry men. A couple of them were already dangerously close to Mo. "Why all this fuss? Have you forgotten how stupidly Fulvio acted on the last job? We almost had the police down on us. So it's the right man to have gone. And who knows, perhaps this lad will turn out to have a talent for arson. All the same, I want to see pearls now. And gold and jewels. After all, they're what this story is all about, so let's have some!"
An uneasy murmuring rose among the men. Nonetheless, most of them returned to the steps and perched once more on the worn treads. Only three still stood in front of Mo, staring at him with intense hostility. One of them was Basta. "Very well, so we can dispense with Fulvio, " he said, never taking his eyes off Mo. "But who is this wretched wizard going to magic into thin air next time? I don't want to end up in some thrice-accursed desert story and find myself going around in a turban all of a sudden!" The men standing near him nodded in agreement and looked at Mo so darkly that Meggie almost stopped breathing.
"Basta,
I won't tell you again. " Capricorn's voice sounded menacingly calm. "Let him go on reading, all of you. And anyone whose teeth start chattering with fear had better go outside and help the women with the laundry."
Some of the men looked longingly at the church door, but none ventured to leave. Finally, even the two who had been standing beside Basta turned without a word and sat down with the others.
"You'll pay for Fulvio yet!" Basta whispered to Mo before he restationed himself behind Meggie again. Why couldn't he have disappeared? she thought.
The boy still hadn't uttered a sound.
"Lock him up. We'll see if he can be of any use to us later, " ordered Capricorn.
The boy did not resist as Flatnose led him away. Apparently numb, he stumbled along as if he were still expecting to wake up. When would he realize this dream was never going to end?
When the door closed behind the two of them Capricorn returned to his chair. "Go on reading, Silvertongue," he said. "We still have a long day ahead of us. "
But Mo looked at the books lying at his feet and shook his head. "No, " he said. "You saw. It happened again. I'm tired. Be content with what I've brought you from Treasure Island. Those coins are worth a fortune. I want to go home, and I never want to set eyes on you again. " His voice sounded rougher than usual, as if it had read too many words aloud.
Capricorn looked at Mo appraisingly before turning his eyes to the bags and chests his men had filled with coins. He seemed to be working out how long their contents would keep him in comfort.
"Yes, you're right, " he said at last. "We'll go on tomorrow. Otherwise we might find a stinking camel turning up here next, or another half-starved boy. "
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