They slept deeply that night, which was a good thing, since the day began early. Kairi went out to get her hair done up, and once properly curled and coiffed Riku and Sora escorted her to Howl's shop in her finery. Sophie was waiting up for her with walking stick in hand, which they hadn't been expecting. Her serviceable blue cotton dress had become silk overnight, and while it didn't compare to Kairi's, it was much more fitting for the court audience she was apparently now attending. Howl looked rather tired and was only sketchily dressed. Their arrival had interrupted some kind of wheedling argument between him and Sophie, who had lost, and her mouth was set in a sour line beneath the brim of her plain straw hat. "It's you and me, Kairi," she said testily. "I'm going as Howl's mother to try to talk them out of drafting him. He's too chicken to show up as himself."
Calcifer snickered from the fireplace, and Howl bristled. "I explained already it would jeopardize their mission if someone were to recognize me. I'll be close by. There'll be a car to pick you up in less than five minutes. I have to be out of sight by then," he huffed. He fished briefly around in his pocket and withdrew a silver ring set with a small round stone. Taking Kairi's left hand, he slipped it on her ring finger. The symbolism wasn't lost on her, but before she could object, he said: "Insurance. Keep it with you. It'll help if you find yourself in trouble. And good luck," he said, looking like he wanted to give her a goodbye kiss, too, but refrained. He grabbed a fat satchel by the door and swept out of the shop, dragging his dignity behind him.
"Phew," Markl said, from his perch on the kitchen table. "What did you say to him yesterday, Kairi? He was acting like a panicky hedgepig all night."
"I don't know," she lied, a tiny white one, since she sensed Howl would rather keep their conversation private. "Maybe he's nervous? From what I know about her, Madame Suliman sort of scares me."
"Hmmph," Sophie grumbled. "At least old witches are good for something—they don't get all flighty when they've got to talk to other old witches." She turned to Kairi. "We'd better not keep the driver waiting. You boys can stay here, if you like. I made some cake last night; it's in the cabinet. Howl wouldn't eat any of it. Help yourself."
"Thanks!" Sora said, and meant it.
"I'm heading out too, Sophie," Markl said. "I've got to sub in for Howl down at the docks. He's got at least three fishermen lined up to renew the charms on their trawlers, and leaving them hanging is baaaad for business."
"How would he manage without us, I ask you," Sophie muttered, and threw open the Kingsbury door.
"Good luck," Sora called out to them, and hoped they wouldn't be needing it.
-ooo-
A sleek black motorcar was idling at the corner when Kairi and Sophie stepped out of the door to the Pendragon shop. The driver, dressed in livery, stepped out to bow low and open the door for them. The ride was Sophie's first real taste of Kingsbury, and she shamelessly gasped and pointed at the elegant buildings and throngs of people like the old small-town woman she was. The driver was strictly formal in his replies to her torrent of questions, although Kairi sensed the pride in his grand city leaking out around the polite servant's mask.
The palace was at the center of the metropolis, with the streets radiating out from that central point, and it was nearly a straight shot from the Pendragon shop. The car stopped before a gated arch that stood at the entrance of a vast expanse of perfectly trimmed grass, rosebushes, and marble statuary. The driver greeted the guards in their stiff blue finery, and at their signal the gate rolled back under its own power. The road curved around the explosion of roses, and their chaffeur stopped at a wide white stair that could only belong to the palace proper. He opened the rear doors and bowed again, offering them both a hand out. Kairi took it, to be polite, and looked up at the steps. More soldiers in blue lined the balustrade, thereby preventing anyone who needed a sturdy handhold from actually using it. It was grand but not in the least friendly, not even the gardens, which hadn't a single flower free of thorns.
Sophie and Kairi were not the only guests. A palanquin bourn by two lanky men in ugly pink suits and opera masks arrived almost precisely when they did. Sophie sucked in a quick breath, her expression curdling with recognition and distaste. Kairi did too, but for a much more sinister reason—she realized with revulsion that the palanquin bearers were only man-shaped, and their hands and faces only rudimentary approximations in black slime. The one in front opened its mouth and licked its lips like a dog on a chain when a particularly juicy morsel had been dropped out of reach. She shuddered despite the warmth of the day and firmly told her straining heart not to summon her blade and strike them down as they strode. Her instruction turned out to be unnecessary, since at the base of the steps they convulsed in unison, dropped the palanquin, and proceeded to melt out of their hideous pink suits into little puddles on the paving stones. Kairi cocked an eyebrow.
"Sorry ma'am, vehicles are prohibited beyond this point. You must continue on foot!" one of the soldiers announced.
The palanquin rocked on its base, the occupant muttering curses in a voice like overripe apple. For a moment Kairi was afraid it would tip and stepped forward to help, cross the soldiers weren't doing so, but the door swung open and a booted foot extended to steady it. It was followed by a rotund leg and sea of black silk, mink, and pallid flesh, more than could possibly have been crammed into the small palanquin. The woman had been made up to perfection earlier in the day but now looked somewhat wilted, like forgotten lettuce. She sneered openly at Sophie, but wiped the nastiness from her features when she saw the jeweled tiara (another of Howl's gifts) ringing Kairi's temples. Kairi decided she disliked her immediately.
"Is that your new maid, my lady? I hope you don't let her help you too much with your wardrobe. She has no taste," the woman drawled. Sophie's mouth twitched and her cane trembled, as if she wanted to crack the obese gentlewoman across the shins with it.
Kairi wondered what passed for taste in anyone crazy enough to wear fur on such a pleasant spring day, even someone on the way to an audience in the palace. Kairi gave her a tight smile and favored her with the look Princess Jasmine gave to anyone who insulted her self-sufficiency. "It's Princess, thank you, and she isn't a maid. She's a companion. We have a joint audience with Madame Suliman at noon."
"I have the slot directly after, I suppose," she sniffed. "I imagine she has finally realized how much the war effort needs my talent." Kairi looked at her blankly. "Don't recognize me? Hmm. I am the Witch of the Waste!"
"She…she…" Sophie mumbled, like her lips were clamping themselves shut of their own volition. Finally, at a loss, she settled on: "called my old hat shop tacky," and spun about to begin stumping vigorously up the steps with her cane. Kairi walked quickly to catch up and offer Sophie her arm, who ignored it. Kairi took up two handfuls of her dress and followed her, pausing every so often to glance back at the Witch of the Waste. She was having a terrible time of the stairs, sweating and wheezing with every step. The ringlets in her hair had wriggled loose from the jeweled pins as the wind blew through them. She looked like a lump of wax melting under the sun, and although the nasty old hag deserved none of Kairi's sympathy, she was afraid she would give herself a stroke, and nasty old hag or not she didn't deserve that. Kairi ran lightly back down the steps and offered her hand. "Please, just take it," she said. The witch wrinkled her nose, but exhaustion won over pride.
"To bad I'm not younger, or I'd help you too!" Sophie taunted from higher up. She was first to the top, and grudgingly stopped to catch her breath while the other two caught up.
The ornate doors swung open before them. "Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden, Mistress Pendragon, and the Witch of the Waste!" the steward inside announced. Several pairs of eyes brushed over the trio. A few sniffs and pinched brows were bestowed on Sophie, in her plain blue dress and sensible boots, and rather a lot on the Witch, who now resembled a candle burned so long it had dribbled all over the stick. And it wasn't just her makeup that had run—her skin sagged around her eyes and mouth as if she'd aged twenty years in five minutes.
Kairi was shocked to see a few heads inclined deferentially in her direction as the tiara sparkled in the light of the electric lamps. She returned them with as regal a smile as she could manage and wished she had more practice walking gracefully in heels. A small blond pageboy appeared to politely shoo them through the right hallway out of the three that branched off of the entry hall. The rooms they passed were empty of courtiers and adorned with plainly priceless objects d' art, gilt mirrors, and oil portraits of long-dead aristocrats. The carpet was so thick it unsteadied Kairi's steps. The whole effect was like eating too much cake—delicious at first, but quickly cloying, and it made her wonder where they dredged up all the money for the confection.
"A chair!" the Witch shrieked suddenly. "It's mine, it's mine!" She peeled off and almost flowed into the seat at the center of a small room off to the side. The page shut the door and silently motioned for Kairi and Sophie to continue. When they were nearly to the end of the hall, there was a muffled pop from the direction they had come, the lights flickered, and a brief but vicious snarl seeped out from under the door. Kairi turned back to the source of the noise and found the page had slid in front of her, silent as a ghost on the carpets.
"Pay it no mind, your Highness. We're nearly there." Kairi wanted to go back, but she couldn't be late for this appointment. She didn't argue with him. He strode up to the double doors and swung one open for them.
The dimness of the hallway opened into a magnificent glass greenhouse. The heat and humidity would have been suffocating save for the glorious sunshine that poured in from all directions. It nourished a carefully tended profusion of plants, an aristocrat's ordered vision of what a jungle ought to be. Kairi had seen a few in her time and found it lacking. The birdsong was missing, for one, and so was the shielding shade of branches high overhead, and the feeling of soft loam underfoot, for the room was paved with a layer of well polished stones. The page motioned for them to wait at the beginning of the path between two man-high ferns while the current audience was wrapped up. The four fat men in dark suits quickly filed out another exit, and Kairi sensed it was their turn to step forward.
At the center of the room was a high-backed, padded chair set on two wheels, a writing table, a stool, and a few more of the blond pageboys almost identical to the first. In the wheelchair sat a stately older woman dressed all in crimson, with a heavy necklace of star sapphires laid over her shoulders, the pale stars burning within seeming to dance with the slight movement of her torso as she penned a last few notes on the paper before her. She smiled pleasantly when she had finished. "You must be tired, Mrs. Pendragon. Please, sit." Sophie did, and removed her hat and laid it on her lap. When she spoke she spared only the briefest of glances for Sophie, and the rest of the time her eyes were fixed on Kairi, like she was a cherished niece returning after a long absence abroad. "You don't know how welcome your visit is, Princess Kairi," Madame Suliman said, graciously inclining her head. "We received no news of Radiant Garden for so many years…I feared something terrible had befallen Ansem and his Apprentices."
Kairi forced herself not to fidget. She may have been a princess by birth, but never in her life had she really felt like royalty, in this gilded palace least of all. She had neither Aurora's ethereal grace or Jasmine's casual tones of command and felt adrift on a sea of half-recalled protocol instruction. She was starting to feel uncomfortably sticky in the heavy air of the greenhouse under all the silk and lace, and the high heel and narrowed toes of the boots she wore were almost torturous after eighteen years of wearing nothing but shoes with square toes and thick rubber treads. The royal title clattered discordinantly over her ears. No one addressed her by it, ever, as long as she could remember. Legally speaking it was no longer even accurate, since she had relinquished her figurative crown not long after taking up permanent residence Radiant Garden, and ended the royal line for good with a stroke of her pen on the newly drafted constitution. She hadn't been the one who led the battered survivors through ten years of hell and back out again, and it seemed only right to relinquish her power to the people that had.
Kairi spoke instead as a scion of a much older line, linked not by flesh and blood but shared destiny. "That's why I came to you, Madame Suliman. Something did." She paused. Kairi wasn't much of an orator. She thought for a moment on how best to phrase it, then decided it was best delivered unadorned. "They're all dead, Ansem too, and their kingdom…my kingdom…was destroyed."
Madame Suliman was well-schooled in courtly gesture, and all that betrayed her shock was a barely audible gasp and a tightening of her fist around the plain wooden staff she held in her hand. "You have my deepest sympathies, Princess Kairi," she said, and meant it. "His death was a great blow to scholarship worlds over. May I ask how you came to survive this disaster?"
"His first apprentice took me far away before it struck," she explained, but didn't feel the need to delve into how or why. "Not many others survived. I came to warn you, before the same thing happens here." She indulged in a quick glance beside her. Sophie had gone completely still.
"Before what, happens, Princess?" Madame Suliman asked, regarding her with a blandly pleasant and unreadable stare.
"He shared his research with you? About Heartless?"
"Yes," she said, inclining her head. "His apprentices and mine conferred on several occasions. Their work gave us the inspiration we needed to harness the Servants' power correctly."
"I see," Kairi said. This was it. She had to step forward over the misty precipice and hope there was something to catch her below. "Then you ought know he lost control of the laboratories. His test subjects devoured the hearts of his six Apprentices. They spread out from the castle to the streets of the capital, killing everyone in their path. When they finished, not a single heart was left to my world. Only a few thousand people escaped out of millions. The rest of my family wasn't among them.
"I know it seems like the Heartless are the best weapon you have against your enemies, but they're not. They're slipping through the hands of your witches and wizards right now, slinking through the Darkness and murdering your people. It doesn't matter how much of an advantage you think they'll give you. Eventually, you'll all lose—every man, woman, and child on this world."
Any warmth in the older woman's gaze was extinguished. Her features didn't rearrange themselves, but Kairi could feel the crust of killing ice spreading over their initial rapport. "If we hadn't mastered the Heartless Kingsbury would be ashes by now, and have a Strangian flag flying over the rotunda. I control them, Princess Kairi, and after thirteen years I still possess my heart, as do all of my colleagues at the Royal Academy, and my apprentices, save the last and the most foolish. Perhaps Ansem's error was not in the course of study he chose, but in the overestimation of his own skill."
Kairi's stomach tightened. "I didn't mean to disrepect…" she began, edging into desperation.
Madame Suliman cut her off with a wave of her hand. "My agents have informed me that you came here with two young men, one of whom was captured and admitted to possessing a Keyblade. Yes, Princess, I know what they are, don't gape like that, it's unbecoming of a young lady of refined blood."
Kairi snapped her lips shut and swallowed. Sora claimed the man interrogating him had been an ineffectual blowhard, but whatever information Sora had relinquished had sped to the palace. They hadn't planned for that kind of efficiency. Kairi couldn't deny it, so she chose to beg forgiveness. "He does, Madame Suliman, and I apologize for having to break him about of your prison, but no one was hurt and we didn't see any alternative. Time was of the essence."
"That you managed to engineer his escape is intriguing, but what he confessed about your mission and the duty of the Keyblade Master—moreso. Especially since the Heartless tell me I ought to have you all killed."
"Trusting them was what destroyed Radiant Garden, don't you understand!?" Kairi said, on the cusp of shouting at the infuriatingly unperturbable woman in front of her. She could feel any control she had over the situation boiling away under the dusty sunlight.
Madame Suliman pursed her lips. "Do you take me for an idiot? I don't trust their words. I trust their fear. They are terrified of the Keyblade and whoever holds it, since whoever holds it will destroy them or die trying. So tell me, Princess Kairi: if my wizards refuse to denounce them as servants, would that make you and your companions enemies of the crown of Ingary and subject to all penalties therein?"
Kairi's mouth went dry with fear, and at that moment realized she had never been in control. Madame Suliman's mind had been made up from the moment she laid out the story of Ansem's downfall. She was alone with a woman who was probably the most powerful sorceress in the realm, in the midst of the most densely peopled and well guarded stronghold of her enemy, and she hadn't even noticed. Her only ally was a white lipped ninety-year-old woman shaking ever so lightly beside her.
A sudden buzzing roar alighted outside, cramming the air too full of the noise of the mechanical dragonfly that was its source to give her answer a space. Madame Suliman appeared unconcerned whether her question went answered or not, and sat back in expectant silence while yet another of the ubiquitous pages opened a hidden catch on the glass walls of the greenhouse to admit the latest arrival. He a tall, solidly built man with a generous mustache, dressed in military formals and flying goggles, and strode with lengthy and confident steps to stand between her and Kairi. "Good morning, your Majesty," she greeted him pleasantly, with a deferential nod. It was a feathery thing to say, the tone much too light after she had all but condemned Kairi and her friends to death the breath before. Kairi wanted to run, but didn't know where.
"As you were," he said, waving aside the formality with a flicker of his hands. "Thought I'd drop by rather than sit through another dull war meeting," he said, and chuckled. It was a bubbly, almost boyish sound at odds with the badges of rank that lined his left breast pocket.
"What an honor," Madame Suliman said, looking amused.
"So, who are your guests?"
"Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden, and Wizard Howl's mother, Mrs. Pendragon, "
He turned on his heel to look her over. "Thank you for coming," he said, suddenly both serious and sincere. Sophie rose from the stool and curtsied as low as her stiff knees would allow. Kairi briefly considered trying too, but didn't know to begin and settled on bowing slightly and trying not to be obvious about scanning the room for potential escape routes. "You look a bit flushed, my dear," he said. "Would you be relieved to hear that I've decided to order all wizards under my command to destroy their Heartless servants? One doesn't need to pay them, feed them, barrack them, bury them, or any of those other awfully inconvenient things human soldiers require, but I've found their tendency to murder innocent citizens at random a bit too trying." He blinked once, and the brown of his eyed snapped into gray. Sophie let out a strangled cough.
"Suuuuuliman!" bellowed a masculine voice from deep in the greenery. It was a voice that led armies, and turned out to belong to a man that looked exactly like the one standing in front of her, down to every small detail but the eyes.
He did a double take at the scene spread out before him, and his only reaction upon meeting…himself was to laugh uproariously. "That's the best double you've made of me yet!" he exclaimed, and brandished the sheaf of papers he was clutching his fist in Madame Suliman's direction, "I've got a new battle plan…we're going to beat 'em to a pulp!" He then wheeled about, waving farewell to her with his handful of reports, and went back to his royal business.
"So nice to see you again, Howl," the witch said, once the real king had passed through the greenhouse doors and out of sight.
"Madame Suliman," he said, nodding in acknowledgement. "I kept my oath; I reported when summoned, and offered aid to my King in time of need." He put his hands Kairi's shoulders, pushing her forward. She looked back at him and saw the mustache had disappeared, and the green jacket hung loose around his lanky frame. "But if the last surviving heir to a shattered kingdom wasn't enough to convince you to stop, I doubt there's anything more I can give."
Madame Suliman laughed short and quick. "I think not." The stars within her necklace twinkled brighter. "You will fulfill your obligation to your country, Howl, with your humanity intact or not. I think your curse is already cracking it around the edges."
She continued regarding him impassively, and this time it was Sophie that spoke out, for the first time since entering the palace. "Now I understand why Howl was so concerned about coming here. And what happened to the Witch of the Waste? Eh? You lure sorcerers here, and if they don't agree to help with your horrible plans, you strip them of their free will and turn them into beasts!"
Madame Suliman did not answer Sophie's accusations, looking like it was beneath her, but tapped her staff once on the footrest of her chair. Like the ripples of a stone tossed into a pond the tip pierced the mundane wicker and revealed a circle of starry sky. Kairi could feel the magic prickling in the air and over her skin, a powerful spell building like a lightning strike, and gave up on diplomacy by throwing a spear of ice at the chair. She doubted it would be much of a threat, but might serve as some kind of distraction. Her target didn't even blink, and Kairi's amateurish attack struck an invisible wall three feet in front of Madame Suliman and boiled into vapor.
Kairi was conscious of a sudden distant roaring, and from the flagstones whitecaps roared into being before her eyes, sweeping away the greenhouse beneath a darkened stormy sea. She inhaled deeply and braced herself for the rush of freezing water. It crashed down on them, tearing at her hair and clothes, but after a few moments she realized she felt no burn of salt in her eyes and nose, and her feet were still planted solidly on the invisible floor—it was an illusion, terrifying at first but imperfect on closer inspection. Howl didn't shrink from it either. Madame Suliman curled her lip and abandoned that tactic, and the curtains of seawater drew back to reveal a sunset above the countryside—but the perspective was all wrong. Kairi looked down, and let out a little cry when she saw the hills and rivers far below the soles of her shoes.
The glints of Madame Suliman's sapphire necklace brightened more still, and as one the five-pointed stars separated from the stones that held them. They rose to what had once been the ceiling and was now a clouded sky, and fell again with the sound of gentle chimes blown by no earthly wind. When they struck the floor, they grew larger, shifting shape until they looked like sketches of a human body with delicately pointed limbs and sparking nimbus of light for a head.
The star-children began to dance. It was a simple, beguiling step that ringed them like a noose. They sang in soft voices in a language whose words Kairi didn't understand, but if felt, somehow, that she'd heard them before. The song settled into her ears and urged her to release her grip on Howl's jacket, release her fear, let go of the barriers she kept round herself. Madame Suliman's deadly threat seemed as distant as the clouds of rose and buttercream that veiled the sunset. It occurred to her, distantly, that the sun ought not to be setting, since she left Howl's house in the morning, and for that matter she shouldn't be looking down on a sunset either, but the struggling bursts of logic were smothered by the notes pillowing on her brain.
Howl cried out, an almost animal sound. The song of the stars was thrown into discord, their power spent on the spell of the music. The charm that wrapped them was torn away from inside the circle, and Kairi felt a sudden sickening wrongness beside her, like the breath of a hungry beast down her neck. The hand that gripped her shoulder contracted and became talons of vicious sharpness that bit into the fabric of her dress and the skin beneath. The air smelled suddenly of carrion. Wings unfurled above her head, tattered, black, and powerful. She chanced a look at Howl's face, twisted with rage and no longer truly his own. It was then that Kairi realized the spell's purpose. It wasn't meant to capture or confine them, but to release.
"Howl look out!" Sophie screamed, and Kairi caught a flash of red—Madame Suliman's staff—impale the space her belly had recently occupied. A sudden rush of air as those wings beat once against the stone and the canopy of dark sky was suddenly shattered, figuratively and literally, as the three of them hurtled through the illusion and the roof of the greenhouse in a shower of glass. They alighted onto the dragonfly hover Howl had arrived in, Sophie bouncing into the rear seat and Kairi the pilot's. He flipped a switch and it bounded into the air. Howl stood, bracing himself on the back of Kairi's seat with one careless hand on the wheel. It had reverted to a reassuringly human pink, and as rather pale, with long fingers and nails bitten to the quick. His shirtsleeves were in tatters. She looked up at him. He was grinning into the wind as if nothing had happened.
"Looks like you get to fly!" he said, and let go.
Kairi yelped and swooped in to grab the controls. It was an old wheel like the kind she'd seen on sailing ships, only much smaller, about the size of a saucer, and mounted on a bar that levered up and down to control the pitch. Riku was a much surer hand with flying contraptions of all stripes, but she had picked up a thing or two. She glanced behind her and caught sight of a squadron of soldiers on their hovers as they rose from the palace complex in pursuit. It looked like there were machine guns mounted on the noses. She pressed hard on the foot pedal she assumed was the accelerator hoping fervently they were more valuable alive than dead.
"Leave them to me," Howl said, noting her concern. "I can give you five minutes of invisibility. Use it well. You can find your way to the Castle with the ring—just summon Calcifer with your heart." There was a brief tearing sensation and he peeled off atop a mirror copy of their own craft, complete with Sophie gripping the back seat in terror.
Kairi leaned hard on the wheel shaft to get them some space above the snarls of power lines and laundry that crisscrossed the city streets. "Are you okay back there, Sophie?" she yelled, over the buzzing of the engines.
"Fine, fine! Now that nobody's likely to open fire on us, this is kind of fun!"
Kairi thought of Calcifer. A faint beam of red light appeared, aiming to her left, so faint she had to squint to make it out. She spun the wheel and took them in a wide arc to the right course.
They were safely on the way back, but how long would "safe" last once she was back on the ground? Once Madame Suliman's secret police began hunting the three of them in earnest? It wasn't Heartless, Nobodies, gods, ghosts, or demons that Kairi dreaded fighting the most, who left no corpses or regrets behind, but men acting of their own free will. Killing people was messy. Kairi had never done it, and although the Keyblade would just as readily cut through flesh and bone as the mysterious substance of the Heartless, the thought of doing so made her sick. But now she may not have much of a choice. She'd lost their best chance at simple, bloodless end to the Heartless on this world, if it had ever been there at all.
As they flew on, with Kairi stewing in her apprehension, the shaft of light flickered, blinking out and in again across its axis. She tried to banish visions of Sora or Riku captured and executed because of her missteps and concentrated on Calcifer's dancing flames against the hearthstones. It was a hard thing to do. The specters of her imagination wouldn't let her alone.
Twenty minutes in, the light had settled on a point behind her right shoulder, and she was forced to give up and set the glider down next to a patch of spinach. While Sophie looked on quizzically, Kairi twisted the ring around her finger once, then twice, tapped it, breathed on it, shook it, and cursed at it very quietly with the sort of language she did not like to make widely known that she knew. The sharp little beam of light flickered once like a magnet dragged round a compass, then snapped back to its previous point shining against her arm. "Sophie, I'm really sorry, but I think I broke it."
"What do you mean broke it?"
Kairi looked up at the sky to get her bearings. "That's north." She pointed, in the direction of the light. "The Waste is southwest of Kingsbury, right?"
"It is."
"Then the light's pointing back the way we came, not home. I'm sorry. Sora and Riku should be waiting for us back at the castle, so it should work anyway, but…it's just not. I can't concentrate well enough."
"Let me see it?" Sophie asked. Kairi pulled it off and handed it to her. It was snug on her own finger, and she didn't see how it could possibly have fit over Sophie's swollen knuckles, but it did. She squinted at it, and a strong, clear beam shot out immediately to spear the southwest point of the compass rose. Sophie shrugged. "If you let me steer, I promise I will do my best not to kill us."
Seeing no alternative, Kairi agreed. She briefly explained the controls and a few critical points of aviation and let Sophie take over. For someone of such advanced age she was a remarkably quick study, so Kairi settled back into the rear seat to pass the hours it would take to fly from Kingsbury to the Castle. She couldn't keep her mind on Calcifer, not when so many enigmas had unfolded themselves. Eventually her thoughts wandered away from idle and bloody speculation into the mystery of the exchange in the greenhouse.
If Howl was aNobody, like Riku had first suspected, what happened wasn't possible. Only a being with a heart could surrender it to Darkness, and it was not an event she could easily mistake. Sora had related what happened to Malificent when she had allowed the Darkness to consume her. Somehow Madame Suliman, whom Kairi suspected had uncovered secrets unknown to any sorcerer or mystic of the Known Worlds, had done the same to Howl against his will, or at least tried.
They spoke to each other with a familiarity that was tinged with bitterness, like old friends turned enemies…or an apprentice turned against his master. The illusions she cast were meant to unbalance him—the first to frighten him into doing something stupid on pure instinct, but the second more subtle. And it worked, but Kairi had no idea why. Somehow the vision of the stars had distracted him enough to allow her to cast her spell without realizing he was being entrapped.
And to tangle the thread of the mystery further, the childlike song and delicate tinkling the stars made as they hit the ground was wrenchingly familiar. Kairi had seen so many falling stars only once before in her life, and began there. The chain of memories that led back to that night was so long the links were rusted and snapped, but ever since Naminé had returned to her, it was possible to pull her past within reach of her present. She closed her eyes and traced the links, slowly, hand over hand, tuning out the rushing wind in her ears and the distant rumble of thunder.
The night began when she awoke in the clutches of a demon. The only things she remembered of him were his eyes, which glowed orange, and his rough hands, as he tossed her on the beach of a strange sea and disappeared in a column of black fire. He had left her under a sky so wide and terrifying that it might swallow her at any moment. She was miserable; exhausted, hungry, and utterly alone. The bay she hadn't yet come to know like the back of her hand was dark and forbidding. She curled up against the foreign scent of salt on the air and lay shivering and crying on the sand from fear rather than cold, watching the waves lap against the shore.
Suddenly one of the stars came loose from its moorings, flaring brighter than its fellows as it fell across the sky. It frightened her at first, and she shrank away, but as the star fell beneath the horizon and drowned, it cried out to her. The terrified voice knocked around the inside of her head without first passing through her ears, and when its cries stopped her heart spasmed in sympathy. It hurt inside like sliver of her own heart had been cut away. She realized it had been crying out for help—her help. More flared across the darkness above her, and she scrubbed away her tears and struggled into the tepid sea to try to catch them before they were extinguished. But she was too small and too tired; her chubby legs couldn't carry her fast enough through the waves to save even one. She pushed deeper and floundered, swallowing seawater. Her arms and eyes and heart all burned.
Then another voice called out to her, from behind, the direction of the land. It wasn't the ethereal cries of the stars, but a man's voice, cracking with alarm that the dark spot bobbing in the sea wasn't a piece of flotsam but a little girl. She was lifted from the water, still struggling wearily against the arms that held her, to reach again for the falling stars. Her rescuer was strong but not cruelly so, and when he'd waded back to shore she saw for the first time the man she quickly learned to call 'Daddy'.
Kairi remembered that desperation in the water, but never, until now, understood it. In a way, she and the falling stars were one; they were fragments of Radiant Garden's heart, the planet's heart, the very life of her world. That sound she heard in the greenhouse was the sound of a piece of a world's heart shattering against the unforgiving ground. Where Howl and Madame Suliman had heard it she couldn't begin to guess.
Her face felt suddenly wet, but the drops are too cold to be tears. "Burn and blast it," Sophie said from the pilot's seat, breaking Kairi's grasp on the memory. "We're flying into a raincloud. It'll ruin your dress, as if it hasn't seen enough action already."
