Cornelia Funke - Inkheart

"Do it!" he said, to her surprise. "Read aloud to the old woman, but make it a condition that you can keep the tin soldier. Tell her anything you like – say you want to play with him because you're bored to death – and then ask for something else: some sheets of paper and a pencil. Say you want to draw pictures, understand? If she agrees we'll take it from there. "

Meggie didn't understand a word of this, but before she could ask Fenoglio what he was planning the door opened, and there was the Magpie herself.

Darius leaped to his feet so quickly at the sight of her that he pushed Meggie's plate off the table. "Oh, I'm sorry, so sorry!" he stammered, picking up the broken pieces in his bony fingers. He cut his thumb so deeply on the last piece that blood dripped to the wooden floorboards.

"Get up, you fool!" snapped Mortola. "Have you shown her what she's to read from?"

Darius nodded and looked unhappily at his bleeding thumb.

"Then get out. You can help the women in the kitchen. There are chickens to be plucked. "

Darius made a face, looking disgusted, but he bowed and disappeared into the corridor, but not without casting Meggie a last sympathetic glance.

"OK!" said the Magpie, waving to her impatiently. "Start reading – and put your mind to it."

Meggie read the tin soldier out of the story. It was as if he simply fell from the ceiling. "He dropped down three stories to the street and his bayonet stuck in the earth between two cobble stones. " The Magpie reached for him before Meggie could and stared at him as if he were just a painted toy, while he looked back at her with horror in his eyes. Then she put him in the pocket of her coarse-knit woolen jacket.

"Please can I have him?" stammered Meggie, just as the

Magpie reached the doorway. Fenoglio placed himself behind her as if to cover her back, but the Magpie just looked at Meggie with her sharp-nosed gaze. "I – I mean, there's nothing you'd want to do with him, " Meggie went on uncertainly, "and I'm so bored. Please. "

The Magpie looked at her, unmoved. "You can have him back when Capricorn has seen him, " she said, and then she was gone.

"The paper!" cried Fenoglio. "You forgot to ask for paper and pencil!"

"I'm sorry, " murmured Meggie. She hadn't forgotten, it was just that she didn't dare ask the Magpie for anything else.

"Ah, well, I'll just have to get it by other means, " said Fenoglio. "The only question is, how?"

Meggie went over to the window, rested her forehead on the pane, and looked down at the garden, where a couple of Capricorn's maids were busy tying up tomato plants. What would Mo say, she wondered, if he knew I can do it, too? "Who did you read out, Meggie? Poor Tinker Bell and the Steadfast Tin Soldier?"… "Yes," murmured Meggie, tracing an invisible M on the pane with her finger. Poor fairy, poor tin soldier, poor Dustfinger and – she thought again of the woman with the dark blond hair. "Resa," she whispered. TeResa. Teresa was her mother's name.

She was about to turn away from the window when out of the corner of her eye she saw something appearing above the sill outside – a small furry face. Meggie retreated in alarm. Do rats climb walls? Yes, but that wasn't a rat – the animal's muzzle wasn't pointed enough. She quickly ran back to the windowpane.

Gwin.

The marten was sitting on the narrow sill, looking in at her with sleepy eyes.

"Basta!" muttered Fenoglio behind her. "Yes, Basta will get me the paper. That's a good idea."

Meggie opened the window very slowly, so that Gwin wouldn't take fright and perhaps fall off the sill. Even a marten would break all his bones if he fell into the paved yard from this height. She put out her hand, still very slowly. Her fingers trembled as she stroked Gwin's back. Then she grabbed him before his little teeth could snap at her and quickly lifted him into the room. She looked anxiously down, but none of the maids had noticed anything. They were all bending over the vegetable patch, their clothes drenched with perspiration from the heat of the sun burning down on their backs.

There was a note under Gwin's collar. It was dirty and had been folded very small and tied in place with a piece of tape.

"Why are you opening the window? The air outside is even hotter than in here. We -" Fenoglio broke off and stared in amazement at the animal in Meggie's arms. She quickly put a warning finger to her lips. Then, holding the struggling Gwin tight, she removed the note from under his collar. The marten chattered crossly and snapped at her finger again. He didn't like being held too long and would even bite Dustfinger if he tried it.

"What have you got there – a rat?" Fenoglio came closer. Meggie let go of the marten, and Gwin immediately leaped back to the windowsill.

"A marten!" cried the astonished Fenoglio. "Where did that come from?" Meggie looked anxiously at the door, but obviously the guard outside had heard nothing. Fenoglio pressed his hand to his mouth and looked again at Gwin in such amazement that Meggie almost laughed. "He's got horns!" he whispered.

"Of course! That's the way you wrote him!" she whispered back.

Gwin was still sitting on the windowsill, blinking uncomfortably at the sun. He didn't like bright light and preferred to sleep through the day. So how had he got here?

Meggie put her head out of the window, but there were still only the maids down in the yard. Hastily, she moved back into the room and unfolded the note.

"A message?" Fenoglio leaned over her shoulder. "Is it from your father?"

Meggie nodded. She had recognized the writing at once, although it wasn't as steady as usual. Her heart began dancing inside her. She traced the letters with her eyes as longingly as if they were a path with Mo waiting for her at the end of it.

"What on earth does it say? I can't make out a word of it!" whispered Fenoglio.

Meggie smiled. "It's elvish writing!" she whispered. "Mo and I have been using it as our secret writing ever since I read The Lord of the Rings, but he's probably rather out of practice. He's made quite a lot of mistakes. "

"Well, what does it say?"

Meggie read it to him.

"Farid – who's he?"

"A boy. Mo read him out of The Thousand and One Nights, but that's another story. You saw him – when Dustfinger ran away from you Farid was with him." Meggie folded the note up again and looked out of the window once more. One of the maids had straightened up. She was brushing the earth off her hands and looking up at the high wall as if she dreamed of flying away over it. Who had brought Gwin here? Mo? Or had the marten found his way by himself? That was most unlikely. He certainly wouldn't be wandering around in broad daylight unless someone else had a hand in it.

Meggie hid the note in the sleeve of her dress. Gwin was still sitting on the windowsill. Sleepily, he stretched his neck and sniffed at the wall outside. Perhaps he could smell the pigeons who sometimes settled outside the window. "Feed him some bread so he won't run away!" Meggie whispered to Fenoglio, and then went over to the bed and got down her backpack. Where was that pencil? She was sure she had a pencil. Yes, there it was, although it was only a small stump. Now, what about paper? She took one of Darius's books out from under the mattress and carefully tore out one of the end papers. She had never done such a thing before – imagine tearing a page out of a book! – but now she had to. Kneeling on the floor, she began to write in the same curly script that Mo had used for his message. She knew the letters by heart: We're all right and I can do it, too, Mo! I read Tinker Bell out of her book, and when it gets dark tomorrow Capricorn wants me to bring the Shadow out of Inkheart to come and kill Dustfinger. She didn't mention Resa. Not a word to show that she thought she had seen her mother, and if Capricorn had his way that she, too, had only two days to live. A message like that wouldn't fit on a piece of paper no matter how large it was.