Inkheart

Elinor and Dustfinger inspect a map; Elinor demands to be shown where Mo is. Meggie reminds Dustfinger that he initially told Mo that Capricorn was in the north, when he is now suggesting that Capricorn is in the south. Dustfinger defensively explains that Capricorn has numerous hideouts, but he is evasive and won’t answer further questions.

Elinor hides Inkheart beneath the spare tire of Elinor’s car, warning Meggie not to tell Dustfinger where it is. The three set off.

They drive for hours. Meggie watches Dustfinger, who sometimes looks absent and sometimes looks very sad. Elinor talks occasionally about the ruins of castles they pass. They reach the ocean at sunset, and the distant dark mountains look sinister. Dustfinger tells Elinor to turn off the coastal road. They arrive at a barrier; Dustfinger gets out to open it. They cross a bridge and finally reach a collection of buildings. A man with a flashlight taps on Elinor’s window. He pushes a gun in Elinor’s face.

Dustfinger speaks up from the back and then gets out. He greets the man with familiarity. Meggie hears Dustfinger call the man Basta—he is one of the men who raided Elinor’s library. Elinor is suspicious over the way Basta treats Dustfinger like “an old friend” (119). Basta orders Elinor and Meggie out of the car. Basta approaches Meggie threateningly, but Elinor steps between them. Meggie retrieves the book from the boot of the car and they follow Basta down a dark path. They reach a square, which contains a big house with lit windows on the upper floor.

Basta leads the way inside. Capricorn is lounging in a chair in a red dressing gown, wearing “a red flower in the buttonhole of his jacket […] like a warning” (124). A woman is trimming his toenails. Meggie thinks his men, who are wearing black and holding guns, look like crows. Dustfinger explains that Mo didn’t know the books were switched and that Elinor is responsible. Capricorn asks why Dustfinger brought Elinor, given that he had asked for “the girl and the book” (127). Meggie realizes that Dustfinger has betrayed them.

At Capricorn’s signal, Basta pulls the book from Meggie. Meggie and Elinor are taken at gunpoint; they are told they are to be imprisoned.

Meggie and Elinor are taken to a small, dark room and locked inside. Meggie is overjoyed to find Mo inside. Mo is devastated and worried that she is there; he realizes that Capricorn will threaten her safety as a bargaining chip to make Mo do as he wants. Mo decides to tell Elinor and Meggie the whole story.

Mo explains that Meggie’s mother loved listening to him read aloud. One night, when Meggie was three years old, he was reading aloud from Inkheart when suddenly, Meggie’s mother, their two cats, and likely some other nearby animals, were sucked into the book. At the same time, Dustfinger, Gwin, Basta, and Capricorn appeared in Meggie’s parents’ tiny apartment. Mo picked up Capricorn’s sword to defend himself from the threatening men and managed to repel Basta and Capricorn out onto the street. Dustfinger also left but returned a week later begging for Mo to read him back into the story. Mo had already spent days trying to undo the magic by reading; he had accidentally sent the postman into the book and produced a glass man, who perished days later. Mo decided to never read aloud again and took Meggie to safety, where he hoped that Capricorn, Basta, and Dustfinger would never find them again.

Meggie asks whether her mother would like the world of Inkheart. Mo reflects that she would love the magic of the world but would hate all of the evil in it. Mo reveals that he has read other things from books before, but never anything living. Eventually, Meggie curls up against Mo on some straw to sleep. Mo encourages her to draw on memories of creatures sleeping from their favorite stories.

Two of Capricorn’s men, who call each other Cockerell and Flatnose, come to get the three visitors. They are led through Capricorn’s quiet village and taken to a church near Capricorn’s house, which one of the men calls “the devil’s house” (156). The inside of the church has been painted red. Mo tells Elinor and Meggie to stay quiet.

Basta instructs Dustfinger to light a fire. Capricorn arrives with many copies of Inkheart. He declares that the story and the world they came from are tedious and irritating. He wants to stay forever in the real world. Dustfinger is devastated: He brought Meggie and the copy of Inkheart because Capricorn promised that he would make Mo read Dustfinger back into the story. Dustfinger thought that he was bringing the only copy left; he burns his hands trying to save a copy from the fire.

Darius, the new reader that Capricorn found in Mo’s absence, arrives with many books. Capricorn has forbidden all of his other men from learning to read or write. Darius also has the ability to produce things from books, but he is less effective and reliable than Mo. Capricorn wants Mo to read him riches from stories, and he instructs Mo to read from Treasure Island.

Mo reads aloud and everyone silently listens, feeling completely transported to the world described in Treasure Island. Capricorn’s servants worry that they might be transported into the story. Mo instructs Meggie to hold onto him tightly, hoping that this might reduce the chance of her being sucked into the story.

As Mo reads about treasure, gold, silver, and copper coins appear in a pile of sand. Meggie notices that Mo intentionally says Long John Silver’s name slightly incorrectly as a strategy to try to avoid him being transported from the book.

Capricorn happily tells Mo to start reading the next book: Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. A boy in a turban, confused and dirty, suddenly appears from the story; one of Capricorn’s men, Fulvio, vanishes into the story in exchange. Capricorn asks Mo to bring Fulvio back, but Mo explains again that he can’t control the swaps that occur. Capricorn’s men are furious, especially Basta, who does not want to risk getting sucked into a book. Capricorn, however, waves off Fulvio’s loss—and any other risks—and warns Basta and the others not to intervene. He tells Mo that he will make him read more the next day and reveals that he has one last copy of Inkheart. Capricorn tells Mo he wants him to pull a friend out of the book.

Elinor angrily declares that they are being held illegally and that Capricorn and the others could go to jail for it. Capricorn implies that Basta should kill her. Meggie quickly reminds them that Elinor has an extensive knowledge of books and will therefore be useful for thinking of books containing treasure. Capricorn waves them off, and Meggie and the others are taken back to their room.

Mo, Meggie, and Elinor are brought more food into their cell. Elinor cries, remembering how close she came to Basta slitting her throat. Mo is despondent, believing that there is now no chance of reading his wife back out of Inkheart.

They hear a noise in the lock and Dustfinger opens the door. He is furious that Capricorn betrayed him and wants to help them escape, as well as get away himself. He has stolen Elinor’s keys from Basta, and he gives them back to her. Elinor is mistrustful, but Mo suggests that they have little choice. They retrieve the boy from Thousand and One Nights, Farid, who is in the cell next to theirs. Farid is fearful but agrees to come with them.

They sneak through the village and reach Elinor’s car. Dustfinger slashes the tires of the other cars in the lot; then, they drive away. Farid whispers to himself that he must be in a dream. A van starts to follow them in the distance.

The headlights of the pursuing van get closer to Elinor’s car. One of the tires on Elinor’s car blows out when they hit a pothole. They try to push the car over the edge of the steep embankment to hide it but cannot move it enough. They quickly travel on foot uphill, away from the car. They watch from behind vegetation as the van arrives; Basta and Flatnose get out. The two men see the car and decide to start looking down the slope first. Meggie’s group continues quietly uphill away from the men. They trudge through the dark woods, and when Meggie gets exhausted, Mo carries her.