Inkspell [2] by Cornelia Funke
Author:Cornelia Funke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Inkheart, Inkspell, Created by pisces_abhi
ISBN: 9780545406314
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2005-01-02T06:00:00+00:00
Chapter 37 – Bloodstained Straw
Goblins burrowed in the earth, elves sang songs in the trees: Those were the obvious wonders of reading, but behind them lay the fundamental marvel that, in stories, words could command things to be.
– Francis Spufford, The Child That Books Built
Meggie had often felt frightened in the Wayless Wood with Farid, but it was different with Dustfinger. The trees seemed to rustle more loudly when he passed them, the bushes seemed to reach their branches out to him. Fairies settled on his backpack like butterflies on a flower, pulling his hair until he brushed them away, talking to them. Other creatures, too, appeared and disappeared, beings whose names Meggie didn't know either from Resa's stories or from any other source, some of them no more than a pair of eyes among the trees.
Dustfinger led them as purposefully as if he could see their road laid out like a red guideline before him. He never even stopped to rest, but took them on and on, uphill and downhill, going deeper into the forest every hour. Away from human beings. When at last he stopped, Meggie's legs were shaking with exhaustion. It must be late in the afternoon. Dustfinger passed his hand over the snapped twigs of a bush, bent down, examined the damp ground, and picked up a handful of berries that had been trodden underfoot.
"What's the matter?" asked Farid anxiously.
"Too many feet. And above all, too many boots."
Dustfinger swore quietly and began to go faster. Too many boots .. Meggie realized what he meant when the camp appeared among the trees. She saw tents that had been torn down, a trampled campfire ..
"You two stay here!" Dustfinger ordered, and this time they obeyed. They watched anxiously as he stepped out of the shelter of the trees, looked around, raised tent panels, reached his hand into cold ashes – and turned over two bodies lying motionless near the fireplace. Meggie was going to follow him when she saw the corpses, but Farid held her back. When Dustfinger disappeared into a cave and came out again, pale-faced, Meggie tore herself away and ran to him.
"Where are my parents? Are they in there?" She recoiled as her foot struck another dead body.
"No, there's no one left in there. But I found this." Dustfinger held out a strip of fabric. Resa had a dress with that pattern. The fabric was bloodstained. "Do you know it?" Meggie nodded.
"Then your parents really were here. The blood is probably your father's." Dustfinger passed a 189
hand over his face. "Perhaps someone got away – someone who can tell us what happened here.
I'll take a look around. Farid!"
Farid hurried to his side. Meggie was going to thrust her way past the two of them, but Dustfinger held her back. "Listen, Meggie!" he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "The fact that your parents aren't here is a good sign. It probably means they're still alive. There's a bed in the cave; I expect your mother was nursing your father there.
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