“Its pages rustled promisingly when she opened it. Meggie thought this first whisper sounded a little different from one book to another, depending on whether or not she already knew the story it was going to tell her.”

Meggie Folchart and Mo Folchart treat books with respectful reverence; they are a comfort in difficult times and a source of great joy. Meggie’s excitement at starting a book denotes her love of reading. Furthermore, her belief that the whisper of the pages differs from book to book illustrates her belief that books contain a certain magic.

“He had never ever sent her off to her room so brusquely. A foreboding, clammy and fearful, came into her heart as if, along with the visitor whose name was so strange yet somehow familiar, some menace had slipped into her life.”

Through indirect characterization, Meggie’s surprise at Mo’s brusqueness illustrates how patient and kind Mo usually is with her. His unusual behavior also indicates that something is wrong, which tells Meggie that her fears and suspicions are justified. Meggie’s sense of foreboding foreshadows the upheaval and chaos that Dustfinger’s arrival brings.

“‘I don’t suppose you’d get any fun from terrifying people until their knees were so weak they could hardly stand?’ he [Dustfinger] asked. ‘Nothing gives Capricorn more pleasure.’”

Capricorn conforms to the image of the hyperbolically cruel and evil overlord that commonly features in fantasy novels. Dustfinger’s explanation foreshadows the cruelty that Capricorn displays when Meggie finally meets him in person. Capricorn acts as a dramatic foil to Meggie, the static villain to her dynamic heroism.