In which Sophie blackens Howl?s name

Sophie was feeling decidedly queer again when theyreached the Palace. Its many golden domes dazzled her. The way to thefront entrance was up a huge flight of steps, with a soldier inscarlet standing every six steps. The poor boys must have been nearfainting in this heat, Sophie thought as she puffed her way dizzilypast them. At the top of the steps were archways, halls, corridors,lobbies, one after another. Sophie lost count of how many. At everyarchway a splendidly dressed person wearing white gloves?stillsomehow white in spite of the heat?inquired their business and thenled them on to the next personage in the next archway.

?Mrs. Pendragon to see the King!? the voice of eachechoed down the halls.

About halfway, Howl was politely detached and told to wait.Michael and Sophie went on being handed from person to person. Theywere taken upstairs, after which the splendid persons were dressed inblue instead of red, and handed on again until they came to ananteroom paneled in a hundred different-colored woods. There Michaelwas peeled off and made to wait too. Sophie, who by this time was notat all sure whether she was not having some strange dream, wasushered through huge double doors, and this time the echoing voicesaid, ?Your Majesty, here is Mrs. Pendragon to seeyou.?

And there was the King, not on a throne, but sitting in a rathersquare chair with only a little gold leaf on it, near the middle of alarge room, and dressed much more modestly than the persons whowaited on him. He was quite alone, like an ordinary person. True, hesat with one leg thrust out in a kingly sort of manner, and he washandsome in a plump, slightly vague way, but to Sophie he seemedquite youthful and just a touch too proud of being a king. She felthe ought, with that face, to have been more unsure of himself.

He said, ?Well, what does Wizard Howl?s mother want tosee me about??

And Sophie was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that she wasstanding talking to the King. It was, she thought dizzily, as if theman sitting there and the huge, important thing which was kingshipwere two separate things that just happened to occupy the same chair.And she found she had forgotten every word of the careful, delicatethings Howl had told her to say. But she had to say something.

?He sent me to tell you he?s not going to look foryour brother,? she said. ?Your Majesty.?

She stared at the King. The King stared back. It was adisaster.

?Are you sure?? asked the King. ?The Wizardseemed quite willing when I talked to him.?

The one thing Sophie had left in her head was that she was here toblacken Howl?s name, so she said, ?He lied about that. Hedidn?t want to annoy you. He?s a slitherer-outer, if youknow what I mean, Your Majesty.?

?And he hopes to slither out of finding my brotherJustin,? said the King. ?I see. Won?t you sit down,since I see you are not young, and tell me the Wizard?sreasons??

There was another plain chair rather a long way from the King.Sophie creaked herself down into it and sat with her hands propped onher stick like Mrs. Pentstemmon, hoping that would make her feelbetter. But her mind was still simply a roaring white blank ofstagefright. All she could think of to say was, ?Only a cowardwould send his old mother along to plead for him. You can see whathe?s like just from that, Your Majesty.?

?It is an unusual step,? the King said gravely.?But I told him that I?d make it worth his while if heagreed.?

?Oh, he doesn?t care about money,? Sophie said.?But he?s scared stiff of the Witch of the Waste, yousee. She put a curse on him and it?s just caught up withhim.?

?Then he has every reason to be scared,? the King saidwith a slight shiver. ?But tell me more, please, about theWizard.?

More about Howl? Sophie thought desperately. I have to blacken hisname! Her mind was such a blank that for a second it actually seemedto her that Howl had no faults at all. How stupid! ?Well,he?s fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,? shesaid. ?Half the time I think he doesn?t care what happensto anyone as long as he?s all right?but then I find outhow awfully kind he?s been to someone. Then I think he?skind just when it suits him?only then I find out he undercharges poorpeople. I don?t know, Your Majesty. He?s amess.?

?My impression,? said the King, ?was that Howlis an unprincipled, slippery rogue with a glib tongue and a clevermind. Would you agree??

?How well you put it!? Sophie said heartily.?But you left out how vain he is and?? She lookedsuspiciously at the King across the yards of carpet. He seemed sosurprisingly ready to help her blacken Howl?s name.

The King was smiling. It was the slightly uncertain smile thatwent with the person he was, rather than the king he ought to be.?Thank you, Mrs. Pendragon,? he said. ?Youroutspokenness has taken a great weight off my mind. The Wizard agreedto look for my brother so readily that I thought I had picked thewrong man after all. I feared he was someone who was either unable toresist showing off or would do anything for money. But you have shownme he is just the man I need.?

?Oh, confound it!? Sophie cried out. ?He sent meto tell you he wasn?t!?

?And so you did.? The King hitched his chair an inchtoward Sophie?s. ?Let me be equally outspoken now,?he said. ?Mrs. Pendragon, I need my brother back badly. It isnot just that I am fond of him and regret the quarrel we had. It isnot even that certain people are whispering that I did away with himmyself?which anyone who knows us both knows to be perfect nonsense.No, Mrs. Pendragon. The fact is, my brother Justin is a brilliantgeneral and, with High Norland and Strangia about to declare war onus, I can?t do without him. The Witch has threatened me too,you know. Now that all reports agree that Justin did indeed go intothe Waste, I am certain that the Witch meant me to be without himwhen I needed him most. I think she took Wizard Suliman as bait tofetch Justin. And it follows that I need a fairly clever andunscrupulous wizard to get him back.?

?Howl will just run away,? Sophie warned the King.

?No,? said the King. ?I don?t think hewill. The fact that he sent you tells me that. He did it to show mehe was too much of a coward to care what I thought of him,isn?t that right, Mrs. Pendragon??

Sophie nodded. She wished she could have remembered allHowl?s delicate remarks. The King would have understood themeven if she did not.

?Not the act of a vain man,? the King said. ?Butno one would do that except as a last resort, which shows me thatWizard Howl will do what I want if I make it clear to him that hislast resort has failed.?

?I think you may be?er?taking delicate hints thataren?t there, Your Majesty,? Sophie said.

?I think not.? The King smiled. His slightly vaguefeatures had all firmed up. He was sure he was right. ?TellWizard Howl, Mrs. Pendragon, that I am appointing him Royal Wizard asfrom now, with our Royal Command to find Prince Justin, alive ordead, before the year is out. You have our leave to gonow.?

He held out his hand to Sophie, just like Mrs. Pentstemmon, but alittle less royally. Sophie levered herself up, wondering if she wasmeant to kiss this hand or not. But since she felt more like raisingher stick and beating the King over the head with it, she shook theKing?s hand and gave a creaking little curtsy. It seemed to bethe right thing to do. The King gave her a friendly smile as shehobbled away to the double doors.

?Oh, curses!? she muttered to herself. It was not onlyexactly what Howl did not want. Howl would now move the castle athousand miles away. Lettie, Martha, and Michael would all bemiserable, and no doubt there would be torrents of green slime intothe bargain as well. ?It comes of being the eldest,? shemuttered while she was shoving the heavy doors open. ?You justcan?t win!?

And here was another thing which had gone wrong. In her annoyanceand disappointment, Sophie had somehow come out through the wrong setof double doors. This anteroom had mirrors all round it. In them shecould see her own little bent, hobbling shape in its fine gray dress,a great many people in blue Court dress, others in suits as fine asHowl?s, but no Michael. Michael of course was hanging about inthe anteroom paneled in a hundred kinds of wood.

?Oh, drat!? said Sophie.

One of the courtiers hastened up to her and bowed. ?MadamSorceress! Can I be of assistance??

He was an undersized young man, rather red-eyes. Sophie stared athim. ?Oh, good gracious!? she said. ?So the spellworked!?

?It did indeed,? said the small courtier a littleruefully. ?I disarmed him while he was sneezing and he is nowsuing me. But the important thing?? his face spread into ahappy smile??is that my dear Jane has come back to me! Now,what can I do for you? I feel responsible for yourhappiness.?

?I?m not sure that it mightn?t be the other wayround,? Sophie said. ?Are you by any chance the count ofCatterack??

?At your service,? said the small courtier,bowing.

Jane Farrier must be a good foot taller than he is! Sophiethought. It is all definitely my fault. ?Yes, you can help me,? she said, and explained about Michael.

The Count of Catterack assured her that Michael would be fetchedand brought down to the entrance hall to meet her. It was no troubleat all. He took Sophie to a gloved attendant himself and handed herover with much bowing and smiling. Sophie was handed to anotherattendant, then another, just as before, and eventually hobbled herway down to the stairs guarded by the soldiers.

Michael was not there. Neither was Howl, but that was a smallrelief to Sophie. She thought she might have guessed it would be likethis! The Count of Catterack was obviously a person who never got athing right, and she was another herself. It was probably lucky shehad even found the way out. By now she was so tired and hot anddejected that she decided not to wait for Michael. She wanted to sitdown in the fireside chair and tell Calcifer the mess she had made ofthings.

She hobbled down the grand staircase. She hobbled down a grandavenue. She stumped along another, where spires and towers and gildedroofs circled round in giddy profusion. And she realized it was worsethan she had thought. She was lost. She had absolutely no idea how tofind the disguised stable where the castle entrance was. She turnedup another handsome thoroughfare at random, but she did not recognizethat either. By now she did not even know the way back to the Palace.She tried asking people she met. Most of them seemed as hot and tiredas she was. ?Wizard Pendragon?? they said. ?Who ishe??

Sophie hobbled on hopelessly. She was near giving up and sittingon the next doorstep for the night, when she passed the end of thenarrow street where Mrs. Pentstemmon?s house was. Ah! shethought. I can go and ask the footman. He and Howl were so friendlythat he must know where Howl lives. So she turned down thestreet.

The Witch of the Waste was coming up it towards her.

How Sophie recognized the Witch would be hard to say. Her face wasdifferent. Her hair, instead of being orderly chestnut curls, was arippling mass of red, hanging almost to her waist, and she wasdressed in floating flutters of auburn and pale yellow. Very cool andlovely she looked. Sophie knew her at once. She almost stopped, butnot quite.

There?s no reason she should remember me, Sophie thought. Imust be just one of hundreds of people she?s enchanted. AndSophie stumped boldly on, thumping her stick on the cobbles andreminding herself, in case of trouble, that Mrs. Pentstemmon had saidthat same stick had become a powerful object.

That was another mistake. The Witch came floating up the littlestreet, smiling, twirling her parasol, followed by two sulky-lookingpage boys in orange velvet. When she came level with Sophie, shestopped, and tawny perfume filled Sophie?s nose. ?Why,it?s Miss Hatter!? the Witch said, laughing. ?Inever forget a face, particularly if I?ve made it myself! Whatare you doing here, dressed up all so fine? It you?re thinkingof calling on that Mrs. Pentstemmon, you can save yourself thetrouble. The old biddy?s dead.?

?Dead?? said Sophie. She had a silly impulse to add,But she was alive an hour ago! And she stopped herself, because deathis like that: people are alive until they die.

?Yes. Dead,? said the Witch. ?She refused totell me where someone was that I want to find. She said, ?Overmy dead body!? so I took her at her word.?

She?s looking for Howl! Sophie thought. Now what do Ido? If she had not been so very hot and tired, Sophie would have beenalmost too scared to think. For a witch who could kill Mrs.Pentstemmon would have no trouble with Sophie, stick or no stick. Andif she suspected for a moment that Sophie knew where Howl was, thatcould be the end of Sophie. Perhaps it was just as well Sophie couldnot remember where the castle entrance was.

?I don?t know who this person is that you?vekilled,? she said, ?but that makes you a wickedmurderess.?

But the Witch did seem to suspect anyway. She said, ?But Ithought you said you were going to call on Mrs.Pentstemmon??

?No,? said Sophie. ?It was you said that. Idon?t have to know her to call you wicked for killingher.?

?Then where were you going?? said the Witch.

Sophie was tempted to tell the Witch to mind her own business. Butthat was asking for trouble. So she said the only other thing shecould think of. ?I?m going to see the King,? shesaid.

The Witch laughed disbelievingly. ?But will the King see you ??

?Yes, of course,? Sophie declared, trembling withterror and anger. ?I made an appointment. I?m?going topetition him for better conditions for hatters. I keep going, yousee, even after what you did to me.?

?Then you?re going in the wrong direction,? saidthe Witch. ?The Palace is behind you.?

?Oh? Is it?? said Sophie. She did not have to pretendto be surprised. ?Then I must have got turned around.I?ve been a little vague about directions since you made melike this.?

The Witch laughed heartily and did not believe a word of it.?Then come with me,? she said, ?and I?ll showyou the way to the Palace.?

There seemed nothing Sophie could do but turn round and stumpbeside the Witch, with the two page boys trudging sullenly behindthem both. Anger and hopelessness settled over Sophie. She looked atthe Witch floating gracefully beside her and remembered Mrs.Pentstemmon had said the Witch was an old woman really. It?snot fair! Sophie thought, but there was nothing she could do aboutit.

?Why did you make me like this?? she demandedas they went up a grand thoroughfare with a fountain on top ofit.

?You were preventing me getting some information Ineeded,? the Witch said. ?I got it in the end, ofcourse.? Sophie was quite mystified by this. She was wonderingwhether it would do any good to say there must be some mistake, whenthe Witch added, ?Though I daresay you had no idea youwere,? and laughed, as if that was the funniest part of it.?Have you heard of a land called Wales?? she asked.

?No,? said Sophie. ?Is it under thesea??

The Witch found this funnier than ever. ?Not at themoment,? she said. ?It?s where Wizard Howl comesfrom. You know Wizard Howl, don?t you??

?Only by hearsay,? Sophie lied. ?He eatsgirls. He?s as wicked as you.? But she felt rather cold.It did not seem to be due to the fountain they were passing at thatmoment. Beyond the fountain, across a pink marble plaza, were thestone stairs with the Palace at the top.

?There you are. There?s the Palace,? said theWitch. ?Are you sure you can manage all thosestairs??

?None the better for you,? said Sophie. ?Make meyoung again and I?ll run up them, even in this heat.?

?That wouldn?t be half so funny,? said theWitch. ?Up you go. And if you do persuade the King to see you,remind him that his grandfather sent me to the Waste and I bear him agrudge for that.?

Sophie looked hopelessly up the long flight of stairs. At leastthere was nobody but soldiers on them. With the luck she was havingtoday, it would not surprise her to find Michael and Howl on theirway down. Since the Witch was obviously going to stand there and makesure she went up, Sophie had no choice but to climb them. Up shehobbled, past the sweating soldiers, all the way to the Palaceentrance again, hating the Witch more with every step. She turnedround, panting, at the top. The Witch was still there, a floatingrusset shape at the foot, with two small orange figures beside her,waiting to se her thrown out of the Palace.

?Drat her!? said Sophie. She hobbled over to theguards at the archway. Her bad luck held still. There was no sign ofMichael or Howl in the reaches beyond. She was forced to say to theguards, ?There was something I forgot to tell theKing.?

They remembered her. They let her inside, to be received by apersonage in white gloves. And before Sophie had collected her wits,the Palace machinery was in motion again and she was being handedfrom person to person, just like the first time, until she arrived atthe same double doors and the same person in blue was announcing,?Mrs. Pendragon to see you again, Your Majesty.?

It was like a bad dream, Sophie thought as she went into the samelarge room. She seemed to have no choice but to blacken Howl?sname again. The trouble was, what with all that had happened, andstagefright again into the bargain, her mid was blanker than ever.The King, this time, was standing at a large desk in one corner,rather anxiously moving flags about on a map. He looked up and saidpleasantly, ?They tell me there was something you forgot tosay.?

?Yes,? said Sophie. ?Howl says he?ll onlylook for Prince Justin if you promise him your daughter?s handin marriage.? What put that into my head? she thought.He?ll have us both executed!

The King gave her a concerned look. ?Mrs. Pendragon, youmust know that?s out of the question,? he said. ?Ican see you must be very worried about your son to suggest it, butyou can?t keep him tied to your apron strings forever, youknow, and my mind is made up. Please come and sit in this chair. Youseem tired.?

Sophie tottered to the low chair the King pointed to and sank intoit, wondering when the guards would arrive to arrest her.

The King looked vaguely around. ?My daughter was here justnow,? he said. To Sophie?s considerable surprise, he bentdown and looked under the desk. ?Valeria,? he called.?Vallie, come on out. This way, there?s a goodgirl.?

There was a shuffling noise. After a second, Princess Valeriashunted herself out from under the desk in sitting position, grinningbenignly. She had four teeth. But she was not old enough to havegrown a proper head of hair. All she had was a ring of wispy whitenessabove her ears. When she saw Sophie, she grinned wider yet andreached out with the hand she had just been sucking and took hold ofSophie?s dress. Sophie?s dress responded with a spreadingwet stain as the princess hauled herself to her feet on it. Staringup into Sophie?s face, Valeria addressed a friendly remark toher in what was clearly a private foreign language.

?Oh,? said Sophie, feeling an awful fool.

?I understand how a parent feels, Mrs. Pendragon,?said the King.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 94