The Thief Lord (27 page)

"Your tortoises, of course!" Scipio wandered into Victor's office and sat down on one of the visitor's chairs. Victor went into the kitchen to fetch some lettuce for his pets.

"Weren't you surprised when I appeared so suddenly in front of Barbarossa's shop?" Scipio called after him. "You walked past me on the Accademia Bridge. Only you were so lost in your own thoughts that you didn't see me. So I decided to shadow you, just for the fun of it. Admit it, you didn't notice a thing. That proves what a first-rate detective I would be."

"It proves nothing," Victor grumbled as he squatted down next to the tortoises' box. "It only proves that you seem to think the job of a detective is jam-packed with all sorts of excitement. The truth is, it's mostly boring."

Victor flung the lettuce at his tortoises and stood up. "And anyway, I can't pay you much."

"Doesn't matter. I don't need much."

"You'll soon get bored."

"We'll see."

With a sigh Victor dropped into his desk chair. "I'm not having your name on the sign."

Scipio shrugged. "I'll need a new name anyway. You don't really think I'm going to run around Venice as Scipio Massimo?"

"Fine. Here's one last condition." Victor fished a mint out of his desk drawer and popped it into his mouth. "You will tell your father."

Scipio's face darkened. "What am I going to write to him?"

Victor shrugged. "That you're all right. That you're going to go traveling. That you'll look in on them in ten years or so. You'll think of something."

"Darn!" Scipio spluttered. "OK, I'll do it. If you teach me how to be a detective."

Sighing, Victor folded his hands behind his head. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather take over Barbarossa's shop?" he asked hopefully. "Ida and I are looking for someone. You would get half of the earnings. The other half you would have to send to Barbarossa in his new home. That's what we agreed."

Scipio wrinkled his nose at the prospect.

"What? Stand around in a shop all day and sell Barbarossa's junk? No, thanks! I like my idea much better. I'm going to be a detective, a famous detective, and you're going to help me become one."

What could Victor say? "Fine. Then you'll start tomorrow morning, while I'm off having breakfast with Ida."

53 And Then...

Half a year later, Victor did put Scipio's name on his door, although he put it in slightly smaller letters.

Nobody, not even Prosper, ever asked Scipio whether he regretted having gone on the merry-go-round. However, maybe the new name he had given himself, the one he put on Victor's door, already gave the answer: Scipio Fortunato, the fortunate one.

Just as he had promised Victor, Scipio wrote a postcard to his father. Signor Massimo never suspected that his son was living only a few alleys away from him in a flat that was hardly bigger than his own study, and where Scipio was happier than he had ever been in the Casa Massimo. Sometimes he visited Riccio and Mosca in their new hideout. He usually gave them some money, although they seemed to be coping quite well by themselves. They wouldn't tell Scipio how much was left of the counterfeit cash since, as Riccio put it, "You're a detective now, after all." Mosca had found work with a fisherman on the lagoon. Riccio, however -- well, Scipio suspected that he had gone back to pickpocketing.

Scipio saw Hornet, Prosper, and Bo more often. He and Victor visited Ida at least twice a week.

One night, as autumn approached again, Scipio and Prosper decided to go back to the Isola Segreta. Ida lent them her boat and this time Scipio found his way immediately. The island looked unchanged. The angels were still standing watch up on the wall. But this time there was no boat at the jetty and no dogs barked as Prosper and Scipio vaulted over the gate. They called out in vain for Renzo and Morosina in the stables and in the old house. Even the pigeons seemed to have disappeared. When the two had finally fought their way through the labyrinth of brambles and reached the clearing beyond, they found nothing but a small stone lion, almost hidden beneath the fallen autumn leaves.

Prosper and Scipio never found out whether Renzo and his sister disappeared the same night the merry-go-round was ruined. During the following years they would keep asking themselves if perhaps Renzo did find a way to repair the merry-go-round and if, somewhere, they were doing their rounds again: the lion, the merman, the mermaid, the sea horse, and the unicorn.

Anything else? Ah, yes -- Barbarossa...

Esther carried on believing for quite a while that he was the most wonderful child she had ever met -- until she caught him stuffing her most precious earrings into his pants pockets and then discovered in his room an entire collection of valuable items that had mysteriously disappeared. Tearfully Esther sent him off to an expensive boarding school where Ernesto became the terror of his teachers and fellow pupils. Dreadful things were said about him: that he forced other children to do his homework and to clean his shoes, that he even encouraged them to steal things, and that he had given himself a name that everyone had to call him.

It was "The Thief Lord."

Glossary

buonritorno
have a good return trip

pazienza
patience

signora/signore
Mrs.; Madam/Mr.; Sir

vietato Vingresso
no entry; no admission

Clara's Letter: The Story Behind
The Thief Lord

Back in 2001, I received a wonderful letter from a bilingual young book lover living in England. The letter was addressed to "The Editor who published
Harry Potter."
In it, eleven-year-old Clara Baganel George wrote that she wanted to know why her favorite German children's author wasn't published in English. Clara had just finished reading Cornelia Funke's
The Thief Lord
with her German mother. In her letter, Clara recounted the story in vivid detail and wrote an intriguing list of the novel's best "ingredients" for a very special and delicious book!

Barry Cunningham, Publisher, The Chicken House

Q&A with Cornelia Funke

Q:
Where did the idea for
The Thief Lord
come from?

A: I first had the idea for
The Thief Lord
when I was -- where else? -- in Venice! While I was there, I remembered how, as a child, I always wanted to be an adult. So I decided to write a story about a boy who so strongly longs to be a grown-up that he pretends to be one . . . and makes others believe he is! And Venice, of course, helped me to tell the story. In fact, I think of the city as a main character in the book.

Q:
Who is your favorite character in the novel?

A: Scipio is certainly the most dashing character. But, as a girl reading this book, I think I would have fallen in love with Prosper. And the other favorite character of mine is Victor.

Q:
How do you feel about
The Thief Lord
being made into a film?

A: I am excited about it. I have high hopes for it. But even if it doesn't quite live up to the book . . . there will still always be the original book for readers to return to.

future?