Inkspell

16. ONLY A LIE

Farid soon realized that Fenoglio was right. It had been stupid just to go off like that in the middle of the night. It was true that no robber leaped out at him from the darkness, and not even a fox crossed his path as he climbed the moonlit hill that the strolling players had pointed out to him, but which of the run-down farms lying among the black nocturnal trees was the right one? They all looked the same: a gray stone house, not much bigger than a hut, surrounded by olive trees, a well, sometimes a cowshed, a few narrow fields. Nothing stirred in the farmhouses. Their inhabitants were asleep, exhausted by hard work, and with every wall and every gate that he crept past Farid's hopes dwindled. Suddenly, and for the first time, he felt lost in this strange world, and he was about to curl up and go to sleep under a tree when he saw the fire.

It was burning brightly high up on the slope of the hill, red as

a hibiscus flower opening and then fading even as it unfurls. Farid quickened his pace and hurried up the slope, his gaze fixed on the place where he had seen the blossoming flames. Dustfinger! It shone among the trees again, sulfur yellow this time, bright as sunlight. It must be Dustfinger! Who else would make fire dance by night?

Farid went faster, so fast that he was soon struggling for breath. He came upon a path winding uphill, past the stumps of trees that had been felled only recently. The path was stony and wet with dew, but his bare feet were glad to be spared the prickly thyme for a while. There, another red flower blossoming in the darkness! Above him, a house emerged from the night. Beyond it the hill climbed on, terraced fields rose up the slope like steps, with stones piled up along their edges. The house itself looked as poor and plain as all the others. The path ended at a simple gateway and a wall of flat stones just high enough to reach Farid's chest. As he stood at the gate a goose went for him, flapping her wings and hissing like a snake, but Farid took no notice of her. He had found the man he was looking for.

Dustfinger was standing in the yard, making flowers of flame blossom in the air. They opened at a snap of his fingers, spread their fiery petals, faded, put out stems of burning gold, and burst into flower yet again. The fire seemed to come out of nowhere; Dustfinger had only to call it with his hands or his voice, he fanned the flames with nothing but his breath – no torches now, no bottle from which he filled his mouth – Farid could see none of the aids he had needed in the other world. He just stood there setting the night ablaze. More and more flowers swirled around him in their wild dance, spitting sparks at his feet like golden seed corn, until lie stood there bathed in liquid fire.

Farid had noticed often enough how peaceful Dustfinger's face became when he was playing with fire, but he had never seen him look so happy before. Just plain happy. The goose was still cackling, but Dustfinger seemed not to hear her. Only when Farid opened the gate did she scold so shrilly that he turned – and the fiery flowers went out as if night had crushed them in black fingers. The happiness in Dustfinger's face was extinguished, too.

At the door of the house, a woman stood up; she had probably been sitting on the doorstep. There was a boy there, too; Farid hadn't noticed him before. The boy's gaze followed Farid as he crossed the yard, but Dustfinger still hadn't moved from the spot where he was standing. He just looked at Farid as the sparks went out at his feet, leaving nothing but a faint red glow behind.

Farid sought that familiar face for any welcome, any hint of a smile, but it showed only bewilderment. At last Farid's courage failed him, and he just stood there, with his heart trembling in his breast as if it were freezing cold. "Farid?"

Dustfinger was coming toward him. The woman followed. She was very beautiful, but Farid ignored her. Dustfinger was wearing the clothes he always carried with him in the other world but had never worn. Black and red… Farid dared not look at him when he stopped a pace away. He just stood there with his head bent, staring at his toes. Perhaps Dustfinger had never meant to take him along at all, perhaps he'd fixed it from the start that Cheeseface wouldn't read those final sentences, and now he was angry because Farid had followed him from one world to another all the same… Would he beat him? He'd never beaten him yet, although he'd come close to it once when Farid accidentally set fire to Gwin's tail.

"How could I ever have believed that anything would stop you from chasing after me?" Farid felt Dustfinger's hand raise his chin, and when he looked up, he saw at last what he had been hoping for in Dustfinger's eyes: joy. "Where have you been hiding? I called you at least a dozen times, I looked for you… The fire-elves must have thought me crazy!" He was scrutinizing Farid's face anxiously, as if he wasn't sure whether there was some change in it. It was so good to feel his concern. Farid could have danced for joy, the way the fire had danced for Dustfinger just now.

"Well, you seem to be the same as ever!" said Dustfinger at last. "A skinny dark-eyed little devil. But wait – you're so quiet! It didn't cost you your voice, did it?"

Farid smiled. "No, I'm all right!" he said, glancing quickly at the woman, who was still standing behind Dustfinger. "But it wasn't Cheeseface who brought me here. He simply stopped reading the moment you were gone! Meggie read me here, using Cheeseface's words."

"Meggie? Silvertongue's daughter?"

"Yes, but what about you? You're all right, aren't you?"

Dustfinger's mouth twisted into the wry smile that Farid knew so well. "As you can see, the scars are still there. But there's no more damage done, if that's what you mean." He turned around and looked at the woman in a way that Farid didn't like at all.

Her hair was black, and her eyes were almost as dark as his own. She really was very beautiful, even if she was old – well, much older than Farid – but he didn't like her. He didn't like either her or the boy. After all, he hadn't followed Dustfinger to his own world just to share him.

The woman came up beside Dustfinger and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Who's this?" she asked, sizing up Farid in much the same way as he had looked at her. "One of your many secrets? A son I don't know about?"

Farid felt the blood rise to his face. Dustfinger's son. He liked the idea. Unobtrusively, he stole a look at the strange boy. Who was his father?

"My son?" Dustfinger affectionately caressed the woman's face. "What an idea! No, Farid's a fire-eater. He was my apprentice for a while, and now he thinks I can't manage without him. Indeed, he's so sure of it that he follows me everywhere, however far he has to go."

"Oh, stop it!" Farid's voice sounded angrier than he had intended. "I'm here to warn you! But I can go away again if you like."

"Take it easy!" Dustfinger held him firmly by the arm as he turned to go. "Heavens above, I forgot how quickly you take offense. Warn me? Warn me of what?"

"Basta."

The woman's hand flew to her mouth when he said that name – and Farid began to tell his story, describing everything that had happened since Dustfinger disappeared from that remote road in the mountains as if he had never existed. When he had finished, Dustfinger asked just one question. "So Basta has the book?"

Farid dug his toes into the hard earth and nodded. "Yes," he muttered ruefully. "He put his knife to my throat. What was I to do?"

"Basta?" The woman reached for Dustfinger's hand. "He's still alive, then?"

Dustfinger just nodded. Then he looked at Farid again. "Do you believe he's here now? Do you think Orpheus has read him here?"

Farid shrugged helplessly. "I don't know! When I got away from him he shouted after me that he'd be revenged on Silvertongue, too. But Silvertongue doesn't believe it, he says Basta was just in a rage…"

Dustfinger looked at the gate, which was still standing open. "Yes, Basta says a lot of things when he's in a rage," he murmured. Then he sighed and trod out a few sparks that were still glowing on the ground in front of him.

"Bad news," he said softly. "Nothing but bad news. All we need now is for you to have brought Gwin with you."

Thank heaven it was dark. Lies weren't nearly as easily spotted in the dark as by day. Farid did his best to sound as surprised as possible. "Gwin? Oh no! No, I didn't bring him with me. You said he was to stay there. And Meggie said so, too – she said I mustn't bring him."

"Clever girl!" Dustfinger's sigh of relief went to Farid's heart.

"You left the marten behind?" The woman shook her head, as if she couldn't believe it. "I always thought you loved that little monster more than any other living creature."

"Oh, you know my faithless heart!" replied Dustfinger, but his lighthearted tone of voice couldn't deceive even Farid. "Are you hungry?" he asked the boy. "How long have you been here?"

Farid cleared his throat; his lie about Gwin was like a splinter lodged in it. "For four days," he managed to say. "The strolling players gave us something to eat, but I'm still hungry, all the same…"

"Us?" Dustfinger's voice suddenly sounded distrustful.

"Silvertongue's daughter. Meggie. She came with me."

"She's here?" Dustfinger looked at him in astonishment. Then he groaned and pushed the hair back from his forehead. "Oh, how pleased her father will be! Not to mention her mother. Did you by any chance bring anyone else, too?"

Farid shook his head.

"Where is she now?"

"With the old man." Farid jerked his head back the way he had come. "He's living near the castle. We met him in the strolling players' camp. Meggie was very glad to see him. She was going to look for him, anyway, to get him to take her back. I think she's homesick…"

"What old man? Who the devil are you talking about now?"

"Well, that writer! The one with the face like a tortoise – you remember, you ran away from him back then in -"

"Yes, yes, all right!" Dustfinger put his hand over Farid's mouth as if he didn't want to hear another word, and stared toward the place where, somewhere in the darkness, the walls of Ombra lay hidden. "Heavens above, what next?" he murmured.

"Is that… is it more bad news?" Farid hardly dared to ask.

Dustfinger looked away, but all the same Farid had seen his smile. "Oh yes," he said. "I suppose there never was a boy who brought so much bad news all at once. And in the middle of the night, too. What do we do with bearers of bad tidings, Roxane?"

Roxane. So that was her name. For a moment Farid thought she would suggest sending him away. But then she shrugged. "We feed them, what else?" she said. "Even if this one doesn't look too starved."