I assume you're looking for the same thing I am. May I? [He and Miss Price exchange their halves of the book] This is quite a moment for both of us. [Starts reading from Miss Price's half] "Substitutiary locomtion, the lost miracle of the ancients..." And so on, and so forth. Ah, here we are! "The spell which creates this force is five mystic words. These words are..."
[reads from the Bookman's half]
"...engraved on the star that was always worn by the sorcerer Astoroth."
But where are the words of the spell? I assumed they'd be in your half of the manuscript.
But I thought they'd be in yours.
Isn't that old Astoroth? And there's his star. It's a pity it's so small you can't read the writing.
But why the animals?
Towards the end of his life, Astoroth kept animals in cages and searched for the spells that would make them more like humans. The legend is that finally the animals rebelled at the experiment, killed Astoroth, and stole many of his powers.
Including the star with the spell on it?
Possibly. They found a ship, sailed away, and were never heard of again. However, there's a final notation in my half of the book saying that, in the 17th century, a shipwrecked lascar was taken from the sea, half-mad with thirst and exposure to the sun. Before he died, he swore he had seen an island ruled by animals.
Where?
There is, I regret to say, no such island. I looked for it in every chart. The Isle of Naboombu does not exist.
