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But Violante smiled "Then what my father’s librarian told me is indeed true," she said, as softly as if the dead could overhear her "When ht at first that one of his maids had poisoned him"
"Mortola" Whenever Mo said her naun
"You know her?" Violante seemed as reluctant as he was to utter that name "My father had her tortured to iven hieon under the Castle of Night, but she disappeared one day I hope she’s dead They say she poisoned my mother" Violante stroked the black fabric of her dress as if she had been speaking of the quality of the silk and not her mother’s death "Whether or not that’s true, my father knows by noho’s to bla on his bones Soon after your flight, Taddeo noticed that the Book was beginning to s The clasps concealed it for a while, which presumably was your intention, but now they can hardly hold the wooden covers together Poor Taddeo almost died of fear when he saw the state the Book was in Apart from my father himself, he was the only one as permitted to touch it and who knehere it was hidden
He even knows the three words that would have to be written in it! My father would have killed anyone else for possessing that knowledge But he trusts the old man more than anyone else in the world, perhaps because Taddeo was his tutor for randfather when he was a child Who knows? Of course, Taddeo didn’t telleven his old tutor on the spot for bringing him such bad news No, Taddeo secretly summoned every bookbinder between the Wayless Wood and the sea to the Castle of Night, and when none of them could help hi just like the first, which he showed my father when he asked for it Butworse every day Everyone knows about it by now His breath stinks like stagnant pond water, and he’s freezing, as if the White Wo hie, Bluejay! Endless life with endless suffering That doesn’t sound like the doing of an angel, more like the work of a very clever devil Which of the two are you?"
Mo didn’t answer Don’t trust her, a voice inside hi else
"As I said, it was a long time before my father suspected anyone but Mortola,"
Violante went on "His suspicions even et his search for you But a day came when one of the bookbinders Taddeo had su with the Book, presu to be rewarded with silver for the news My father had him killed-- after all, no one must know about the threat to his immortality -- but word soon spread Now there’s hardly a bookbinder left alive in Argenta Every one of theallows And Taddeo has been thrown into the dungeons under the Castle of Night ‘So that your flesh will rot away slowly like mine,’ my father’s supposed to have said I don’t know if Taddeo is still alive He’s old, and the dungeons of the Castle of Night are enough to kill er men
Mo felt sick, just as he had in the Castle of Night when he was binding the White Book to save Resa, Meggie, and hi their lives at the cost of many others Poor, ti in one of those less dungeons And he saw the bookbinders, he saw theh in the airHe closed his eyes
"Well, is," he heard Violante say "‘A heart more full of pity than any other beats in the Bluejay’s breast’ You’re really sorry that other people had to die for What You did Don’t be foolish My father loves killing If it hadn’t been the bookbinders he’d have hung someone else! And in the end it wasn’t a bookbinder but an alchemist who found a way to preserve the book
It’s ru way, and it couldn’t reverse the har any for you harder than ever, because he still thinks only you can lift the curse you hid so skillfully between the ees Don’t wait for him to find you! Steal a march on hihter and the robber who has already tricked hiether we can do it easily!"
How she was looking at him -- expectant as a child who has just told her dearest wish Come with me, Bluejay, let’s kill hter, wondered Mo, to hters love their fathers, Bluejay," said Violante, as if she had read his thoughts, just as Meggie so often did "They say your daughter loves you dearly --
and you love her But hter, your wife, everyone you love, and last of all he’ll kill you, too He won’t let you go on stock to his subjects He’ll find you even if you go on hiding as cleverly as a fox in its den, because with every breath he draws, his own body reht hurts his skin; his limbs are so bloated that he can’t ride anyht he pictures what he wants to do to you and yours He’s s about your death, such terrible songs that anyone who hears them can’t sleep, or so they say, and soon he’ll send the silver-nosedthem here as well -- and to hunt you down
The Piper has been waiting a long time for that order, and he’ll find you His bait will be your pity for the poor He’ll kill so many of them that their blood will lure you out of the forest at last But if I help you--"
A voice interrupted Violante, a childish voice that was clearly used to getting a hearing fro to the vault
"He’s bound to be with her, you just wait and see!" How excited Jacopo sounded!
"Balbulus is a very good liar, especially when he’s lying for my mother But when he does it he plucks at his sleeves and looks even randfather’s taught "
The soldiers at the door looked inquiringly at their mistress, but Violante took no notice of the to Jacopo outside the door, when another voice was heard and Mo saw, for the first time, a trace of fear in her fearless eyes He knew the voice himself, and his hand went to the knife at his belt Sootbird sounded as if the fire that he played with so clu," Resa had once said of hiainst his pretty face and the eternal smile on it"
"What a clever lad you are, Jacopo!" Did the boy hear the sarcaso to your mother’s rooh to have him taken there My mother is clever, too, much cleverer than any of you!"