Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death.
Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is maste...
"The Brotherhood commissioned art of this kind. They wanted to frighten people with this story. And there was a tradition that the Sleepers were demons."
"I've never seen anything like this," Carmen said.
"This picture would have been convincing three hundred years ago," Snapper said. "But the world has changed. It would only make the Brotherhood look silly these days, don't you think? Not long after this woodcut was produced a movement began within the Brotherhood to humanise Hattoism. They removed anything in their teachings that was contradictory or fantastical and demoted it to the Metaphorical Canon, where it would only be seen by Hattoist scholars. They abolished images like this, which is why they're so rare. You wouldn't believe me if I told you what it's worth." His eyes narrowed. "But you never saw it," he said, and whisked it away, returning it to the drawer and locking it.
"I never saw nothing," Mildew said. She was an old hand at not seeing things.
"We were wondering if you knew about another David Nassar," Carmen said. "That maybe died not so long ago. Or is still alive."
"There's no other David Nassar," Snapper said. "How could there be? Think about it. Who on earth would take such a name? What do you think the Brotherhood would do to that person?"
Ward decided to take a chance. "Didn't David Nassar own the Oliphant?"
Snapper reacted in a completely unexpected way to this. He burst out laughing. "Oh he did. Him, and everyone else."
Confused looks all round. Snapper gave them each a fatherly smile in turn.
"Allow me to explain. It was only after Hatto died that his cult really took off. His followers, the original Brothers, would arrive in a town, tell the story of Hatto, and build a temple. One would remain there as a missionary; the rest would move on to the next town.
"Now jump forward a couple of hundred years. A man becomes the town priest by virtue of his being descended from the original missionary who founded the temple. He has an old walking stick that has been passed down through the family. Why, Hatto was often described in the Biblia Magna as leaning upon a staff. Could this not be the same one? Yes, it must be. He becomes certain of it. Before you know it people are rushing in from all over the countryside to see the fabled Staff of Hatto and to be allowed to touch it and have some of its power and luck pass onto them.
"The temple in a neighbouring town hears of this. By some marvellous coincidence they find the silver bullet that took Hatto's life. Travelling merchants catch on. Soon there are dozens of walking sticks appearing all over the countryside, all purported to be the original Staff of Hatto. The market for relics explodes. And not only are sacred relics traded, but profane ones too. Which is where the Oliphant comes in: the fabled horn prophecied to wake the Sleepers at the End of Days. Why, I must have seen twenty Oliphants in my lifetime, each as unlikely as the next to be the original horn, assuming it ever existed – which it probably did not.
"And there you have it," he said, clapping his hands, "a history of the relic trade of the Middle Period. So your trip wasn't altogether wasted. For, as my Grandmere Avril Snapper would say, young people should be filled with knowledge like a goose is stuffed, making them fat with facts, to be spewed out involuntarily."
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It's time to spew some comments out involuntarily.
