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about him, she couldn't, not in the pale morning light. All the same, she didn't want him to go with them. Her face showed that very clearly, but neither of the two men took any notice of her.
    "Believe me, I couldn't keep the fact that I've seen you from them for very long," Dustfinger continued. "And anyway .. "— he hesitated before completing his sentence — "you still owe me, don't you?"
    Mo bowed his head. Meggie saw his hand closing more firmly around the open door of the van.
    "If you want to look at it like that," he said, "yes, I suppose I do still owe you."
    The relief was plain to see on Dustfinger's scarred face. He quickly hoisted his backpack over his shoulders and came over to the van with his bags.
    "Wait a minute!" cried Meggie as Mo moved to help him. "If he's coming with us then I want to know why we're running away. Who is this man called Capricorn?"
    Mo turned to her. "Meggie," he began in the tone she knew only too well: Meggie, don't be so silly, it meant. Come along now, Meggie.
    She opened the van door and jumped out.
    "Meggie, for heaven's sake! Get back in! We have to leave!"
    "I'm not getting back in until you tell me."
    Mo came toward her but Meggie slipped away and ran through the gate into the road.
    "Why won't you tell me?" she cried.
    The road was deserted, as if there were no other human beings in the world. A slight breeze had risen, caressing Meggie's face and rustling in the leaves of the lime tree that grew by the roadside. The sky was still wan and gray and refused to clear.
    "I want to know what's going on!" cried Meggie. "I want to know why we had to get up at five o'clock and why I don't have to go to school. I want to know if we're ever coming back, and I want to know who this Capricorn is!"
    When she spoke the name Mo looked around as if the man with the strange name, the man he and Dustfinger obviously feared so much, might step out of the empty barn just as suddenly as Dustfinger had emerged from behind the wall. But the yard was empty, and Meggie was too furious to feel frightened of someone when she knew nothing about him other than his name.
    "You've always told me everything!" she shouted at her father. "Always."
    But Mo was still silent. "Everyone has a few secrets, Meggie," he said at last. "Now, come along, do get in. We have to leave."
    Dustfinger looked first at Mo, then at Meggie with an expression of incredulity on his face. "You haven't told her?" Meggie heard him ask in a low voice.
    Mo shook his head.
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    "But you have to tell her something! It's dangerous for her not to know. She's not a baby anymore."
    "It's dangerous for her to know, too," said Mo. "And it wouldn't change anything."
    Meggie was still standing in the road.
    "I heard all that!" she cried. "What's dangerous? I'm not getting in until you tell me."
    Mo still said nothing.
    Dustfinger looked at him, uncertain for a moment, then put down his bags. "Very well," he said.
    "Then I'll tell her about Capricorn myself."
    He came slowly toward Meggie, who involuntarily stepped back.
    "You met him once," said Dustfinger. "It's a long time ago, you won't remember you were so little." He held his hand at knee height in the air. "How can I explain what he's like? If you were to see a cat eating a young bird I expect you'd cry, wouldn't you? Or try to help the bird.
    Capricorn would feed the bird to the cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart, and the little creature's screeching and struggling would be as sweet as honey to him."
    Meggie took another step backward, but Dustfinger kept advancing toward her.
    "I don't suppose you'd get any fun from terrifying people until their knees were so weak they could hardly stand?" he asked. "Nothing gives Capricorn more pleasure. And I don't suppose you think you can just help yourself to anything you want, never mind what or where. Capricorn does. Unfortunately, your father has something Capricorn has set his heart on."
    Meggie glanced at Mo, but he just stood