Every time I open a book, a soul is awakened.
– Xi Chuan, “Books”, New Generation
I ought to have furnished my cellar more comfortably, thought Elinor, watching Darius pump up the air mattress he had found behind one of the storage shelves for her. But how could she have guessed that some dreadful day she’d have to sleep down here, while a bespectacled, moonfaced man sat up in her wonderful library with his slobbering dog, playing master of the house?
The wretched animal had almost eaten the fairy who had slipped out of Orpheus’s words. A blue fairy and a lark fluttering in panic against the windowpanes, that was all that had come out of the book – to replace four people! “Look at that!” Orpheus had triumphantly announced. “Two for four! There are fewer and fewer coming out, and one day I’ll manage not to let anything out of a book at all.” Conceited pig! As if anyone was interested in who or what came out of the book, when Resa and Mortimer had gone! And Mortola and Basta .. Quick, Elinor, think of something else!
If only she could have hoped that someone useful would soon come knocking on her front door!
But unfortunately, such a visitor was highly improbable. She had never had much to do with her neighbors, certainly not since Darius had taken over the care of her books and Mo, Resa, and Meggie had moved in. What more did she need in the way of company?
Her nose began to prickle ominously. That’s the wrong way to think, Elinor, she warned herself–
as if she’d been able to think of anything else these last few hours. They’re all right! she kept telling herself. You’d have sensed it if anything had happened to them. Wasn’t that what all the stories said? You felt it, like pang in your heart, when something happened to someone you loved?
Darius smiled hesitantly at her as his foot went tirelessly up and down on the pump. The air mattress already looked like a caterpillar, a huge, squashed caterpillar. How was she supposed to sleep on that thing? She’d roll off and land on the cold cement floor.
“Darius!” she said. “We must do something! We can’t simply let them shut us up here while Mortola .. ”
Oh God, how that old witch had looked at Mortimer. Don’t think about it, Elinor! Just don’t think about it! Or about Basta and his rifle. Or Meggie wandering through the Wayless Wood all alone.
I’m sure she’s alone! A giant will have stepped on that boy and crushed him by now. … It was a good thing Darius didn’t know the silly way her thoughts were getting all mixed up, making the tears start to come all the time. .
“Darius!” Elinor whispered, for the man built like a wardrobe would certainly be on guard outside the door. “Darius, it’s all up to you! You must read them back!”
Darius shook his head so vigorously that his glasses almost slipped off his nose. “No!” His voice was trembling like a leaf in the wind, and his foot began pumping again as if that stupid mattress were the most important thing in the world. Then, very suddenly, he stopped and hid his face in his hands. “You know what will happen!” Elinor heard him say in a stifled voice. “You know what will happen to them if I read while I’m afraid.”
Elinor sighed.
Yes, she knew. Distorted faces, stiff legs, a lost voice . . and of course he was afraid. Probably even more afraid than she was, for Darius had known Mortola and Basta considerably longer…
“Yes. Yes, I know. All right,” she murmured and began abstractedly straightening a few cans on the shelves – tomato sauce, ravioli (not a particularly nice brand), red kidney beans Mortimer loved red kidney beans. There it came again, that prickling in her nose.
“Very well!” she said, turning around resolutely. “Then that Orpheus will have to do it.” How composed and sure of herself she sounded! She was obviously a gifted actress, thought Elinor; she’d realized that before, back in Capricorn’s church when all had seemed lost .. indeed, now that she came to think of it, everything had seemed gloomier then, if anything.