At breakfast next morning Calcifer hide low among the logs. Sophie decided to bring the Witch of the Waste down since over the past couple of day she did nothing wrong, Sophie deemed her as harmless. Wilbert and Sal however decided to get breakfast elsewhere, Wilbert could get a meal at the University and Sal would have numerous options, from the many eateries in Ankh-Morpork and the Canteens in either Pseudopolis Yards or the Cable Street Watch House or maybe make her own meal in the cottage outside Mad Stoat.
The Witch looked at Calcifer, only turning away when Sophie offered her the porridge. Calcifer flared. "Don't feed her!" he called in a whisper. "That's the Witch of the Waste!"
"Oh, she's all right," Sophie said gathering more porridge into the spoon.
"She keeps staring at me," Calcifer protested. "It's freaking me out,"
"What a pretty fire," the Witch mumbled. Calcifer ducked further into the logs.
Sophie could not help but feel sympathy for the Witch, uh, Miss Esty Throckmorton, without her powers she quite suddenly entered her second childhood, indeed possibly went through it and out the other end into a second infancy.
Footsteps came from the stairs and Howl, without any jacket came ran down seemingly recharged from the fight yesterday and overflowing with energy. He swung around the end of the bannister and walked up to the table.
"Howl," Sophie said somewhat worried. "Hello,"
"Good morning everyone," he smiled and put his hand on his hips.
Sophie nodded. "I'm glad you're all right,"
Wilbert and Sal came in from Ankh-Morpork. The Vice-Chancellor carried a copy of the Times, the front-page story talked about the magical fight yesterday. "Also," he mentioned sitting down, "the last of the representative have arrived, no doubt whatever happened yesterday is going to be discussed."
Howl meanwhile looked at the elderly Esty, who now glanced up at him. "The Witch of the Waste at my table?" he looked the Calcifer. "What possessed you to let her in my house, Calcifer?"
"I didn't let her in," Calcifer protested again. "Sophie crashed landed her plane into my face!"
Howl responded with a belly laughed and glanced at the hole in the wall. "I knew she would make a great pilot," he walked over to find Turnip-Head balancing on the Castle's tongue. "Looks like we have another addition to the family," he muttered before humming. "You've got quite a nasty spell on you too, huh? Seems everyone in this family's got problems,"
"Speak for yourself," Wilbert muttered, Sophie somewhat agreed, a lot of her problems were not her own fault. The Witch of the Waste contributed a comment from her own little world, "What a handsome man,"
Howl seemingly failing to hear, or just ignoring this turned around and addressed them, "So, we've got a lot of work to do. We're moving,"
"Moving?" Sophie asked. Markl added his own thoughts, "That's good," he said. "I'm sick of being stuck out here in the middle of nowhere," this caused some confusion in Sophie's mind, since she recalled Howl threatening to move the Castle a thousand miles away, could Markl have forgotten? Surely not since it would mean he could never see Martha anymore. Howl explained, "Suliman is hot on our trail, so we're going to have to hurry," he glanced back to Turnip-Head. "I'm afraid your spell is too strong for this move," he gave the scarecrow an apologetic smile. "You're going to have to stay behind,"
Markl and Wilbert helped with a few supplies. Sophie seeing this wondered if the shopping trip Howl sent Markl on the other day involved acquiring the equipment, such as the line marker machine and the white paint. Howl and Markl went out into the Waste while Wilbert and Sal finished measuring the inside of the Castle.
Sophie asked Wilbert as he passed, "Was this move the reason for all that activity over the last few days?" the Vice-Chancellor nodded. "Howl's got a new location to put the house in, we were measuring to see what needs to be edited so it will fit. We can't go back to Elm Street, not unless this room becomes a basement, maybe even a subbasement, Ankh-Morpork is built on Ankh-Morpork,"
As he walked away Sophie turned to Sal sitting down. "What did he mean, Ankh-Morpork is built of Ankh-Morpork?"
"Well," Sal brushed some dust off her sleeve. "You know how, aside from the Tump, the hill on the hub-turnwise side of the Ankh, the city is flat?" Sophie nodded. "Well, uh," Sal continued, "the River Ankh tends to, uh, flood, uh, sometimes. But instead of evacuating out of the slit filled basements the residents build an extra floor on the existing building brick up the way into the old basement and move up a floor, so the ground floor become the new basement,"
Over the last four thousand years, there are many unknown old basements, including an entire cave network below the ground made up of old streets and abandoned sewers, it has been continuously stated that anyone with a pickaxe and a good sense of direction could reach anywhere in Ankh-Morpork by knocking walls down in a straight line. Recently, the city's dwarf population has extended the underground regions to get around unimpeded.
"In fact," Sal finished, "it was those dwarfs who started the events which led up to the Koom Valley Accord,"
From outside Howl shouted, "All right Calcifer. Line her up," looking through the hole in the wall they could see the Castle slowly lumber over a magic circle drawn on the landscape. Howl and Markl returned inside and with Wilbert and Sal's help pushed the workbench table to the side of the living room. Put all the stools and chairs on top as well. Howl then ordered, "Everyone but me needs to keep off the floor." Sal helped the Witch onto the table as the other clambered onto it as well.
Howl took the notes made about the measurements and with a chalk drew out a symbol on the floor. A circle within an octagon, divided the circle in half and drew more symbols with the top half. He stood up and made sure he could stand comfortable within the bottom half of the circle. "There," he pocketed the chalk. "That should do it. Sit tight for a second," he walked over to the hearth. He took the shovel and lifted Calcifer out of the hearth. "Be gentle with me please," the fire demon whimpered. Howl carefully walked back to the circle.
"On my mark," Howl said holding Calcifer up slightly. He took a breath in, his hair and clothing moved and rippled by wind no one else felt. Howl raised his left arm to the side. The wind grew to be heard.
Calcifer burst into a roaring inferno. His flame turned into a light blue, with a sinister face, the noises he made. Sophie could tell his Calcifer screamed with delight, pain or both. Sal ducked and crotched behind Wilbert.
The room shook. The magic circle glowed. Sophie felt as if their piece of the world came loose, as evidence the living room started to squash and stretch, sickeningly. In the rumbled a new sound caught her attention. A legion of broken bricks and a new glass window jumped up and filled the hole in the wall, which quickly stretched and filled in with dark mahogany wooden skirting boards and became colourful with patterns. There came a load Pop! Part of the wall burst revealing a new room by the stairs. Space readjusted and new furniture filled the new areas, such as the cubby hole getting pushed back for another new room behind the stairs. Followed by a bed in the alcove and sofa in front the heath.
Finally, the spell died down. The room settled. Howl turned to everyone. "Moving's done," he said, he stepped out of the circle and walked to the have. "You can get down now,"
Wilbert looked about. "I didn't realise the new location would be this big," he slid off the table and lifted Sal down. "If, for some reason, we must move back to Ankh-Morpork the location would have to be somewhere on the Ankh side,"
Markl and Heen jumped down and ran about the place. Markl excitedly said, "This is great Master Howl, it's huge!"
Beside Sophie, the Witch smiled as Howl put Calcifer back on the hearth. "Oh, what a pretty fire," Sophie did not take much notice, instead she got down and worked to the new window. A bell rang, and she felt a sense of unsettling familiarity engulf her. The view out the window showed a town on the widdershins side of a river and faced directly towards the foot hills of the Ramtops. A shrill whistle blew, the room shook as a plume of black smoke covered the window. The 9:05. Sophie looked back slowly to the living room. "But this is…" she saw the well-known outlines of the old workroom. The castle room seemed to wriggle itself into place inside the parlour, pushing out here, pulling in there. The stairs for example now stopped at the door.
Howl's voice spoke up beside her. "I added another bathroom," he said opening the new door behind the stairs, showing Sophie the staff lavatory. He shut it adding, "Since our family keeps on growing," Sophie felt a little flustered at this last remark.
"Come over here Sophie!" Howl called. What now? Sophie wondered. So, Fanny sold the shop. I guess without me there to be exploited and make such wonderful hats business went down. She felt a little guilty now. The shop meant so much to her late Father and she abandoned it. She walked over the where Howl stood, by the stairs. "I added another bedroom," he opened the door. "Have a look,"
Sophie gasped. With the rearrangement she quite forgot the old layout. The new bedroom, a small alcove room in the back of the room. A work desk and a bed covered in gift-wrapped boxes and parcels. She walked cautiously in. Memories of the past filled her mind. Her life. Good and bad. As she came to remember she did like trimming and sewing the hats, but the dullness of it all, and the question of about if Fanny exploited her blackened them. Somehow, within this room, she a little more like her old, well, young self again.
She turned back to Howl, smiling in the doorway, hesitantly and asked, "Why'd you do this?"
Howl smirked. Behind him Sophie glimpsed Markl, Sal and the Witch playing. Howl replied, "So we'd have a room which suited you. Do you like it?"
Not sure what to think, why Howl would do this? The fact Fanny sold the shop in just over a fortnight sadden her. Of course, the question arose, what would she do? She defaulted to her excuse. Glancing back at the window she did not want to look at him as she replied, "Of course. It's prefect for a cleaning lady,"
"I got you some new clothes too," Howl added as she looked at the presents. "But you can open them later," he walked away but called back, "Come on Sophie! You at this!" Sophie still felt shocked and dismayed at all this. She left the hat shop to break the spell and possibly seek her fortune. Now she returned so suddenly, partly against her will, with neither. And now, instead of being an employee and eventual heir to her late Father's shop and trade, she acted as a mere cleaning lady for a wizard and would be carrying for the Witch who put her in this situation in the first place.
Deciding to humour Howl, maybe he did this as some cruel subtle joke as punishment for being so curious, or maybe he truly and sincerely took pity on her. She hobbled out of her old workroom, her new bedroom, and into the living room. The Witch stood at the window which used to look out to Porthaven. Presumably the house Wilbert bought back from Fourecks did have a front window and Howl adapted it to fit the Porthaven house.
Markl opened the front door and excitedly proclaimed, "All right! A courtyard," and he and Heen continued playing. Maybe Markl when he went on the supply errant found out about the shop, after all it meant he could see Martha every day now, this certainly explained his happiness at the news of the move. Howl reached the bottom of the steps and smiled as the two played. "That shop's ours too," he called as Markl and the dog-man ran in to explore it. Somewhere in the main shop build would be Sophie's old bedroom, she wondered if she should move the things she left in there to her new room.
As she approached Howl shut the day asking, "See that new colour on the dial?" the colour wheel in fact sported two new colours, replacing the blue and red of Porthaven and Kingsbury with yellow for Market Chipping and a pink. Howl turned the knob to the pink. "There's a new portal," he said. Bright sunlight streamed out of the window above the doorway. Howl opened the door and the house filled with the scent of sweet meadow. Sophie gasped. Howl looked back and smiled. "It's a present for you," he gestured out to the flower covered field. "Come see," he smoothed.
Slowly Sophie descended and stepped out. She gave a gasping sigh as she looked about astonished. A meadow nestled in the Ramtops. It partly resembled the marches up in Enlightenment Country. A small lake. Wild flowers grew, and bird chippered as fluffy white clouds floated leisurely over the scene. Howl took her hand and guided her further in. "Do you like it? It's my secret garden." Howl placed Sophie's hand on his elbow to act as the gentleman.
Sophie followed in a message of reassessment. "It's incredible," she mumbled. As they walked she realised this could not be out of pity, he did this to please her. Quite why, she couldn't fathom. Still she needed to understand the effort he put in. "Did you use your magic to make this?"
"Only a little," he replied. "Just to help the flowers grow," still more than enough in her mind. Sophie let the moment overtake her, forgot about her problems for a moment and simply enjoy herself, after all, Howl seemingly wanted her to. They reached a stream and Howl jump over and helped her leap across. She felt so full of energy now, all the pent-up vigour she held in from working in the hat shop alone, unable to release as an old woman, it all came out. For the second time today and since her rants against Madame Suliman and Mr Slant she felt truly like herself.
She skipped to the edge of the lake. The first time she skipped in years. She smiled and looked back at him. "This place is gorgeous Howl! It's like a dream,"
Soaking in the site it felt like her at the edge of Star Lake, only, she paused not quite sure how to put it.
"Sophie?" Howl asked. She slowly turned back to him style content, thankful for his present. "It all seems so familiar, yet I know I've never been her before," some slightly doubt formed in her first thoughts, but both her second and third stopped it from taking over. "I feel so at home," she quietly announced.
"Come with me," Howl soothed as he reached out his hand. Sophie complied to see more of Howl's gift to her gladly followed. "Kay," she took his hand and he hurried over the crest of a hill. As he stopped Sophie smiled at the sight at the bottom. "Look there," Howl said. A little weather-beaten cottage sat on a stone dock on the edge of the lake, with a waterwheel turned picturesquely. Sophie spoke her mind, "What a cute cottage,"
"That was my secret hideaway," Howl explained, "I spent a lot of time here by myself when I was young," Sophie looked up at him. "You were alone?" she asked. A little bit like me in the backroom of the hat stop, Sophie mused, maybe a lot of his actions weren't pity, but sympathy on equal ground.
Howl looked at her and continued, "My Uncle, who was a wizard gave me this place as my private study," Sophie then remembered Howl's sister Megan mentioning something about an uncle with great hopes for Howl. This all suddenly seemed a little too much, a bit like Howl wanted some sympathy. He did not seem to register Sophie's expression and carried on, "and now you can come here whenever you like," he started to move forward. Sophie however remained where she stood and reluctantly let her hand leave his. Howl noticed, he slowed to a stop as his expression turned to concern. "What's the matter?" he asked,
"It's," Sophie paused, she needed to be frank. "You're scaring me. I have this weird feeling that you're going to leave," Howl posture softened, it virtually confirmed it to her. "Howl," she pleaded. "Tell me what's going on. Please. I don't care if you're a monster," Howl smiled softly at heard open admission. He turned face her and slowly approached to looked at her levelly. "I'm just setting things up so that all of you can live comfortable lives Sophie," he turned to gaze at the meadow. "With all the flowers you've got in this valley you could easily open a flower shop. Right?" he finished and looked back at her hopefully. "I'm sure you'd be good at it."
While he said this, Sophie lowered her head. "So, you are going away," she said mournfully. She looked at him desperately. "Please Howl, I know I can be of help to you," she sighed and looked away. "Even though I'm not pretty," Wilbert said self-esteem would led to beauty, but right now, she did not feel any esteem, just worry. These past few minutes she did not have any problems, but now Howl's comments made them come back. "All I'm good at is cleaning,"
"Sophie?" Howl said quickly. "Sophie, you're beautiful," her second thought reacted so strongly she almost spook them out load. I bet you say that to all the girls. He did not address her desire to help him. This felt very old. Any remaining confidence drained away. She put on a brave face anyway. "Well, the nice thing about being old is you've got nothing much to lose,"
Howl's expression looked disappointed. But looking at him both as a woman and as a witch, Sophie couldn't read it. Suddenly he flinched and looked to his right. Sophie wanted to ask, but he held up a hand. She turned to her left to follow Howl's sightline.
Something emerged from the low clouds and a reflection bounced if. The multiple flapping wings made Sophie understand.
"What is that thing doing out here?" Howl asked, speaking for them both.
"A battleship?" Sophie asked for confirmation.
"Still looking for more cities to burn," Sophie watched it fly. With Howl's comment it made her wonder about the location. Somewhere in the upper Waste, the rough and ill-defined border between Ingary and Strangia. The gnarly ground served as the border markers since it made cross from one nation to another by foot or cart very hard to navigate. A border not because people weren't allowed to cross it, more they just couldn't. But then again, Howl mention about his uncle, maybe this is a valley in Llamedos. If so, she thought, whoever they are, they're violating another, neutral nation's airspace.
"It is the enemies or one of ours?" it made her sick even to make a distinction, she preferred to be on neither side. Howl agreed. "What difference does it make?" As Sophie continued watching Howl walked forward. Sophie turned around to again look where he did.
A small square building, like a stone outhouse stood in the middle of a flower dotted hill. Presumably where the Castle entrance would be. Another flying battleship clacked its flightpath over the hill and sailed almost directly passed them. Howl held her by her shoulder and kept her close to him as it drew level showing the golden and pink of Ingary. He growled, "Those stupid murderers."
On the bottom of the plane innumerable bombs hang waiting. Sophie sickened at the possible results of them. Howl thought so too, "We can't just let them fly off with all those bombs," he raised his hand and waved it at the battleship. The flapping wings jammed. Shouting and sirens sounded. Slowly the ship started to lose height.
Sophie felt a little whiplashed. Did Howl just do something seriously to the workings? "What's happening? What did you do?"
"Just messed with it," Howl smugly replied. "They won't crash though," Sophie notice right held the left, which she stared down, small black feather sprouted from it and his fingernails curled into long claws. "Oh," she gasped. "Howl!"
Howl ignored her. "Uh oh," he said looking at the battleship and grinned. "Here they come," Sophie gasped again and looked to the ship as well. From the back ejected a platoon of monsters. All identical ugly. Bulbus, wings like flippers. Eerily like the Witch of the Waste's henchmen, they wore masks and white top hats. Howl explained, "Those things are Suliman's henchmen," before she could react, he grabbed her. "Let's go!" and took off at an alarming pace. "Faster!" he called. "We need to take off!" Sophie watched with dread as he, more seamlessly than when Madame Suliman forced him to, transform into his bird form.
His feathery hands took hers and his wings flapped. Sophie still ran as he pulled her off the ground gasping in protest. She wailed as they soared over the lake. He turned in the air and flew straight of the entrance building. "All right," he called. "You're going in,"
"No!" she yelled. "Don't let go!" but he did. She flayed as the door came nearer. It opened for her and she tumbled into the steps. Immediately after the door changed to Market Chipping and a Markl rushed in. He stopped when he saw her. "Sophie?" he asked. "What happened?"
Sophie rubbed her back at the rough landing and groaned. "I'm too old to be treated like this!" she blurted out. She did not like flying. Well, she thought again. I did feel comfortable in the air when Howl and I leapt over the town on the fateful May Day, and I fairly enjoyed the broomstick rides with Sal. Maybe I just didn't like certain ways of flying. Certainly, going up didn't discourage me. But, what with this awkward end to Howl impromptu flight and the crash into the castle, it seems to be the various ways of coming down.
Sal helped Sophie up and she sat at the sofa by the hearth. The Witch fell asleep by the window and Calcifer looked annoyed.
A knock came on the door. Calcifer grumbled. "Garden door," Sophie dreaded. "It's not one Madame Suliman's henchmen?"
"No. It's a gremlin," this still caused Sophie some terror. Sal patted her shoulder. "Don't worry I'll take care of him," she went to the door. Sophie craned her neck to listen. The general gist of the conversation boiled down to how the gremlins would have sabotaged the warplanes but Howl got to them first. This made Sophie sigh. Howl could be so impulsive sometimes.
As the evening came Sophie retreated to her work/bedroom and examined the new clothes Howl brought her, starting with the ones on the bed. They all appeared to be for her, if she were still eighteen and young. This confused her. Maybe Howl bought them with Lettie or Miss Susan in mind instead of her. Still, whoever they ended up with, the clothing would need some touching up. However, knowing the unpredictability of her magic, she did not speak lest she accidentality caused a nightgown to come to life and start terrorizing Market Chipping, thinking it a ghost.
A knock rapped on the door. Sophie turned. It opened and Markl in his bed clothes with Heen at his heels hesitantly stepped in. "Uh," he whimpered. "Goodnight Sophie,"
"Goodnight Markl," the boy almost shut the door before looking back into to add, "Oh, don't worry about Master Howl, Sophie. Sometimes he likes to good away for days on end," Sophie put on a smile, she knew he meant well, but his words did little to encourage her. "Thank you, that's good to know,"
After waiting for Markl to fall asleep she went to help the Witch of the Waste, she kept calling Miss Throckmorton the Witch of the Waste, some names just stick. She put the blanket over the old woman and asked, "Need anything else?"
"No, I'm fine," Esty replied. Sophie patted the sheets. "Well, goodnight then," and walked slowly away. From behind her came a voice. "You're in love," Sophie stopped just at the currents and glanced back. The face like a silkworm looked back knowingly, Esty now resembled a distorted mirror image of Nanny Ogg. Since she no longer counted as a witch, Sophie did not look at her as a witch. However, she could still be a wise old woman. "Don't deny it," she said. "You've been sighing all day."
Sophie turned back and sighed again, she could do with some confidence, and she also could, not out load at least, admit it. Ever since Madame Suliman's comments she thought about it in the back of her mind, only now with little else to focus on, it come to forefront. She returned to the Witch's bedside and slumped with a more moaning sigh. Miss Throckmorton smiled. "Just as I thought," Sophie glanced at her. "Have you ever been in love before?"
"Of course, I have," Esty replied. "I'm still in love," this knocked Sophie back a little, she gasped. Howl really did a number on her. She explained, "Strapping young men are so difficult to deal with," she became very pleased with herself. "But their hearts I just adore," Sophie glared. She really did act like a distorted Nanny Ogg. Her comments about Wilbert and Mr Swivel on the approach to the Palace in Kingsbury, and then her absentminded remarks about Howl came back to her. Howl ended up breaking the hearts of young girls, so how many young men did the Witch mess with in her time? "You're terrible,"
"And they're so cute too," the Witch added.
A giggle sounded, and Sal walked up to the curtains. "This is like the arguments Magrat and Agnes got stuck witnessing between Granny and Nanny," Sophie could only imagine.
A siren sounded. Sophie got up. "What's that?"
"It's an air raid siren," the Witch hazarded. Sal joined Sophie at the window, as bells added to the warning. Sophie glanced back to the Witch. "Air raid?" She hoped Howl would not get caught in it, or any other while he made his way back.
"It's a long way off," the Witch said, and she grinned. "But you'd better not go outside tonight. I'm sure Suliman's henchmen are looking everywhere for this place," she glanced at Calcifer. "What a good fire," she commented. "He keeps this house so well hidden."
Sal nodded. "I can see he's necessary, but," she sighed. "I just get so nervous around fire. A little bit like most wizards' views on gods," she glanced at the window. "I think for the foreseeable future I'll stay in the cottage at Mad Stoat. I don't think I could survive the bombing."
Sophie glanced at Sal. Over the fortnight they knew each other she saw Sal get shaky and flinch at flames. She couldn't really blame her, childhood trauma. If children could be afraid of clowns and it carried on into adulthood the same thing would apply to having memories of being almost burned to death.
But one comment intrigued her. "What do you mean, most wizard and gods?" Sal glanced at the Witch. "I think we should leave Ms Throckmorton alone for the night," she nodded to the Witch and escorted Sophie to the other end of the room. Sal also pronounced Miss in the off-handed manner as Wilbert. Sophie guessed Sal still did not trust Esty, understandable, as a former Cackling witch she must have greatly marred the reputation of witches in Ingary.
"Generally," Sal began, "wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in furniture. They know they're there, they know they're there for a purpose, they'd agree that they have a place in a well organised universe, but they wouldn't see the point of believing, of going around saying 'O great table, without whom we are as naught'. Anyway, either the gods are there whether you believe or not, or exist only as a function of the belief, so either way you might as well ignore the whole business and, as it were, eat off your knees."
Sophie cringed slightly. "I hope you're quoting someone," Sal nodded, but her green eye showed some confusion. "I know it's a quote from somewhere, but I cannot figure out the precise where," Sophie nodded. "Now, don't take this the wrong way Sal, but, Wilbert has struck me as a very contradictory wizard…"
"Oh, it's alright, I know what you mean, I think Wilbert does it deliberately. Although, it might surprise you to know, the bread is just compulsory. Professor Ladislav Pelc, Prehumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy, wears a fake one in public,"
"So," Sophie continued, "after hearing that, I have to ask. Does Wilbert worship any kind of god?" Sal nodded. "We both do," she looked about for something. Her visible lip smirked, and her green eye rolled. "Oh, well," she cleared her through again. "You've seen that topper on Wilbert's staff, the winged unicorn?"
"Yes," Sophie replied. "Is that a religious symbol?"
"Only to us, we're the only two worshippers the creatures. It started out as just play, but we both figured a religion must start somewhere. So, it's kind of jokey,"
Sophie wanted to comment but having learned about gremlins and seen a couple now, she decided to remain quiet.
She gave a giggling sigh before continuing, "I've actually seen a Unicorn running around the forests of Lancre," she blushed slightly. "As a virgin I managed to subdue it and got a few strands from its mane. And Wilbert managed to use the hair to add to his staff. In the big knob. You wouldn't believe how unyielding it is,"
Sophie tried hard not to blush. She decided then and there to go to bed.
I felt quite proud writing this chapter in Sophie perspective.
How do you think I handled things?
Farewell from now dear readers.