Chapter 32: Explanations
I opened my eyes and saw Dustfinger kneeling on the ground, staring at his empty hands, the place I laid moments ago. There was no rip in my blouse where Basta's knife cut through it. I loud applause sounded through the church, echoing off the bare walls. I walked over to Dustfinger and grabbed ahold of his hands, partly to stop them from shaking and partly to tell him that I'm okay. His head snapped up at that. His eyes first were filled with intense joy, they then shifted to quivering fear, and turned to boiling anger.
"There's a time and a place, Dustfinger. Just let me explain everything." I whispered in his ear. Basta and Capricorn were standing a few feet away. Capricorn had a cruel smile painted on his face and was quietly chuckling, and Basta was roaring with hollow laughter. I helped Dustfinger up.
"It's always good to know that that fire eater is good for a few laughs." Basta arrogantly said, holding the stich in his side from laughing to hard.
"Am I laughing Basta?!" I snapped. He immediately stopped laughing, and the smile faded from Capricorn's face.
"Of course, it's no laughing matter." Capricorn lied.
"I don't even need to look at you to know that that was a lie." I spat in anger, and ushered Dustfinger out of the devil's chapel. I guided him up to our room and sat him down on the bed.
"Are you alright?! Are you still in pain?!" He immediately gushed.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Just breathe." I soothed.
"They have no right putting you through that! If only I could…" Dustfinger began to rant as he jumped up and began to quickly pace.
"No. I agree that morally that its wrong, but you can't judge them until you know the whole story. So stop pacing and sit your ass down!" I commanded, forgetting my temper. He stopped in his tracks, surprised that I had yelled at him.
"Please." I added.
"You're right. Can you please tell me what the heck is going on?" He asked as he sat back down. I spent the rest of the morning explaining everything to him. I told him about my parents, Lizzy, Eric, those nine short days on the boat, how I met Basta, about my impossible choice, Dane, everything.
"Damn, I had no idea, a kid your age, going through all that? I wouldn't have believed you if not for, you know, earlier." He realized.
"All the things you've told me, you have no idea how much I needed to hear those things." I vented.
"So you really are immortal, kid." He said in amazement.
"No, I'm not. Like you said last night, no one's perfect." I sighed.
"I did, didn't I?" He said.
"I have to leave tomorrow in the early morning." Dustfinger told me.
"I guess I should give an explanation of my own before I leave." He continued.
"What do you have so explain?" I asked.
"What you'd find out from reading the book." He answered.
"Okay." I said.
"I'd just rather you hear it from me and not those bastards." He began.
"Just tell me Dustfinger." I pleaded, beginning to become impatient. He sighed, as though even talking about his past was painful.
"Alright, but you won't believe me." He began.
"It was eight years ago. I was walking through the forest with the Motley Folk. We were a group of vagabonds traveling from town to town. There was Cloud-Dancer; he was a tightrope walker, and one of my good friends. There was Two-Fingers, he may have only had two fingers but he could play the flute better than any man who had ten. I was the best fire-eater out of all of us, well, the only fire-eater. I never counted Sootbird. He never learned the language of fire, it always bit him. It didn't help that he always drank before and after a performance. My wife, Roxan, was one too. She could dance and sing so well that many men asked for her hand after a single performance. Our ringleader was the Black Prince. He took that bear of his everywhere he went, he was a damn good knife thrower too." He began.
"We were ambushed by Capricorn and his men. Every one managed to get away, well, not me. Capricorn hated us; we were just vermin that needed to be exterminated. They kept me captive for a few days on the way to the Adderhead's castle. Then he decided that his boss would like it better if he just brought my head. So Basta dragged me in front of him and lifted me up by my neck. Capricorn wanted to give me some grand speech to tell me how worthless I am and…" Dustfinger trailed off.
"And what?" I asked wanting to know how he escaped death.
"And the next second we were in his house." He continued,
"Who's house? Wait, how did you get to this guy's house? Weren't you in the woods before?" I asked,
"I think that his real name is Mortimer but we dubbed him Silvertongue. And as for how we got in his house, well, he read us out." He replied.
"What?" I asked in total confusion. He got up, stood on the lower bunk, grabbed my pillow, and pulled out Inkheart. So he knew where it was all along.
He placed the book in my hand and said," Open it." I opened the book to a random page in the middle. It was the beginning of a new chapter and the first letter was an illustration. It was a large N, but there was a horned marten peeking through the second and third strokes of the letter. I turned back a few pages and scanned the page. "Dustfinger breathed a flame large enough to engulf a barn directly into the sky to delight his enchanted audience…" I read to myself. I flipped more pages and words jumped out at me from the pages. Roxane, Basta, Cloud-Dancer, Gwin, Flatnose, Cockerell, Capricorn, the Black Prince, they were all there. I looked at Dustfinger in disbelief. I now understood all of the odd comments and Dustfinger's harsh reaction upon seeing it.
"So this Silvertongue read you out of Inkheart?" I asked for confirmation.
"As crazy as it sounds, yes." He confirmed.
"What happened next Dustfinger?" I asked.
"I felt very weak and I assume that Basta and Capricorn felt the same. Basta dropped me and I ran over to the corner of the room where Silvertongue's daughter was sitting. Capricorn tried to pull out his sword but dropped it on the floor because he didn't have the strength to hold it. Silvertongue picked it up and started to wave it around. It was very clear that he had never touched a sword in his life. His daughter started to cry so I picked her up and tried to quiet her. At the moment they had forgotten me so I stayed hidden in the corner. They had some conversation and Silvertongue started to read again. That didn't work so Basta pulled out his knife to force him to try again, but he managed to force Capricorn and Basta out of the house. He ran back in the house and took his daughter back." He explained.
"What did he do to you?" I questioned.
"Nothing, I ran like hell." He stated in all seriousness.
"Wow." I said.
"Yeah. I starved for the next week. I had no idea how this world worked. It was too loud, too noisy, and too busy for me. It's still too noisy and loud for me. Anyway, I went back to beg him to send me back. He told me he couldn't. He told me that he lost his wife that night, she went in and we came out. I think his cats went in too… Either way, he didn't do it on purpose, and he couldn't reverse it. He gave me some advice on how to survive here and sent me away. I came back the next day, and he was gone." He finished.
"Do you believe that he could, you know, send you back?" I asked, feeling sorry for him.
"Oh I think he could. But he won't try. He's too afraid that he'll lose his daughter." He replied.
"Do you know where they are now?" I inquired.
"No, but I'm looking for him. That's the only reason I'm welcome in this village. Capricorn said that if I bring him Silvertongue he'll force him to send me home." He answered.
"Why would Capricorn want him?" I wondered aloud.
"Why wouldn't he want him? He could have anything he wanted, and all he would have to do was convince him to read. The reader he found to replace him is horrible. He read Cockerell and Flatnose out but he gave Cockerell his limp and made Flatnose's nose flatter, if that was possible." He snickered.
"You mean Darius?" I asked.
"Yeah, him. He's an odd ball if you ask me." He answered.
"Nah, he's just shy." I said thinking back to earlier that morning.
"I'm going to leave tomorrow to look for him. I'll probably leave around nine." He told me.
"I'll introduce you to a good friend I have here." He said as the door to the room opened. A serving woman walked in with a plate of food and loaf of bread.
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