Chapter 8 Chapter Eight: Sophie Flies from the Castle to Everywhere

To Sophie's relief, the next morning Calcifer was ablaze, bright and merry.If she hadn't had enough of Hal, she'd almost been touched by Hal's delight at seeing Calcifer. "I thought she was done with you, you old briquette," said Hal, kneeling by the hearth, his sleeves hanging down in the ashes. "I'm just tired," said Calcifer. "There seems to be some resistance in the castle. I've never let it run so fast." "Come on, don't let her make the same mistakes," Hal said.He stood up, brushing the dust off his gray-red coat gracefully. "You can work on that spell today, Mike. If there is someone from the king, just say I have some important personal business and I won't be back until tomorrow. I'm going to see Letty, but you don't have to tell him that." He picked up the guitar, Let the green sign of the handle turn down and open the door, and walk towards the wide cloudy hills.

The scarecrow appeared again.When Howl opened the door, it slammed onto its side, and Turnip Face hit his chest.The guitar made a nasty boom-bum.Sophie was startled, let out a slight scream, and collapsed into the chair.One arm of the scarecrow struggled to hold the door.Judging from Hal's spread feet, he was hit hard this time.There was no doubt that the thing was determined to enter the castle. Calcifer's blue face poked out of the fireplace.Mike stood motionless in the distance. "There's a Scarecrow!" they all said with one voice. "Ah, really? Don't tell me earlier!" Hal panted heavily.He raised his foot and kicked hard against the door frame.The scarecrow flew lumbering backwards and landed whizzing down on the heather a few yards away.As soon as it hit the ground, it bounced up and jumped towards the castle again.Hal hastily left the guitar at the door and jumped out to meet him. "Come on, friend," he said, holding out a hand. "Where it came from, go back." He walked forward slowly, with his hands stretched out.The Scarecrow drew back a little, hopping backwards slowly and cautiously.When Hal stopped, the scarecrow also stopped, with one foot planted in the heather, and his ragged arms kept gesticulating, like a fighter waiting for the start of the game.The rags dangling from its arms look like a crazy version of Howl's sleeves.

"You're not going, are you?" Hal said.The turnip head turns slowly from side to side.No. "I'm afraid you have to go," said Hal. "You've scared Sophie. She doesn't know what to do when she's scared. Besides, you've scared me too." Hal's arm moved slowly, as if Lift a heavy object up to head height.He yelled a strange word, half obscured by the sudden thunder.The scarecrow took off.He flew back and up, the rags fluttering, his arms twirling in protest, drifting away until it was a speck in the sky, lost in the clouds, and finally disappeared.

Howl lowered his arms and went back to the door, rubbing his face with the back of his hand. "I take my word back, Sophie," he gasped, "that thing is scary. It probably followed the castle all day yesterday. It has the most powerful magic I've ever encountered. That What the hell is it—was it left over from your previous family’s work?” Sophie let out a weak chuckle.Her heart ached again. Hal thought something was wrong with her.He hopped over the guitar into the room, took her by the elbow, and helped her sit down. "Relax!" What happened between Hal and Calcifer.Sophie felt it, because she was supported by Howl, and Calcifer was still leaning over the fireplace.Whatever it was, her heart returned to normal in an instant.Hal looked at Calcifer, shrugged, and turned to give Mike a bunch of instructions for Sophie to rest for the day.Then he picked up his guitar and finally left.

Sophie lay on her chair, pretending to be twice as miserable as she really was, and she had to get Howl out of sight.The tricky thing was that he was going to Fording too, but she walked much slower. When she arrived, he estimated that he had already started to return.The point is not to meet him halfway.She watched Mike unfurl his spell, scratching his head at it.She waited until he dragged the thick leather-bound book from the shelf, taking notes in flustered frustration.When he looked completely immersed, Sophie whispered a few times, "It's so stuffy in here!" Mike paid no attention. "Smothered," said Sophie, getting up and staggering to the door. "Fresh air." She opened the door and stepped out.Calcifer kindly stopped the castle.Sophie stepped onto the heather, looking around for direction.The mountain road to Upper Fordring is a sandy track through the heather, just downhill from the castle.Naturally, Calcifer wouldn't inconvenience Hal.Sophie walked down that road.She's a little sad.She will miss Mike and Calcifer.

She was almost on the sandy path when a call came from behind her.Mike chased her all the way down the slope, followed by the tall castle staggeringly behind him, and the four towers sprayed anxious smoke. "What are you doing?" she asked when Mike caught up.From the way he looked at her, Sophie knew he thought the scarecrow had terrified her head. "I'm fine," said Sophie angrily. "I'm just going to see my other sister—the granddaughter. She's also called Letty. Do you understand now?" "Where does she live?" Mike asked, as if he didn't think Sophie knew.

"Going to Fording." Sophie replied. "But that's ten miles away!" Mike said. "I promised Hal I'd let you rest. I couldn't let you go. I promised him I wouldn't let you out of my sight." When Sophie heard this, her face became ugly.Hal thinks she's useful now because he wants her to go to the king.Of course he didn't want her to leave the castle. "Hmph!" she snorted. "Besides," Mike continued to understand the situation a little bit, "Hal must have gone to Upper Fording as well." "I'm pretty sure he went," said Sophie.

"So you're worried about the girl, if she's your grandniece," Mike said, finally getting to the point. "I get it! But I can't let you go." "I'm going," Sophie said. "But if Hal sees you there, he's going to be pissed off," Mike continued, trying to settle the matter. "Because I promised him he'd be mad at both of us. You should rest." Then when Sophie was about to hit him, he yelled, "Wait a minute! There's a pair of seven-leaf boots in the broom cupboard!" He tugged at Sophie's bony old wrist and dragged her uphill to the waiting castle.In order not to be caught by Heather, she had to jump a few steps. "But," she gasped, "seven leagues is twenty-one miles! I'm almost at Port Sanctuary in two steps!"

"No, ten and a half miles in one step," Mike said, "just about right to Upper Fordring. If we each wear one and go together, then I can keep you out of my sight, and you don't have to work hard, we Will get there before Hal, so he won't even know we've been there. We'll be done!" Mike was delighted with the idea, and Sophie couldn't bear to refute it.She shrugged, hoping Mike had better find out before the two Letties exchanged looks again.This is more honest.But when Mike fetched the boots from the broom cupboard, Sophie was a little skeptical.She'd always thought they were two leather barrels that had somehow lost their handles and been crushed.

"You have to put on your shoes together." Mike explained while carrying two heavy bucket-shaped things to the door. "It's a prototype of the boots Hal made for the King's Army. We made them lighter and more like boots afterwards." He and Sophie sat in the doorway, putting on a boot each. "Before putting down your boots, face up Fording." Mike warned her.He and Sophie stood up with ordinary shoes on their feet and turned carefully to face Fording upwards. "Go ahead now," Mike said. Whoosh!The scenery flies backwards in an instant, until everything is just misty, the gray-green is the earth, and the blue-gray is the sky.The wind from the march ripped at Sophie's hair, pulled back every line of her face, and she thought half her face would be blown behind her ears by the time she got there.

The run ended abruptly as soon as it started.Everything is peaceful and the sky is clear.They were in a meadow in Upper Fordring, surrounded by knee-high buttercups.A cow stared at them not far away.Farther behind it, thatched huts dozed under the trees.Unfortunately, the bucket-shaped boots were so heavy that Sophie wobbled when she landed. "Don't put that foot down!" Mike yelled, it was too late. There was another swishing blur, and a stronger wind.When everything came to a standstill, Sophie found herself at the bottom of Fording Valley and almost ran into Fording Swamp. "Ah, damn it!" she said, turning cautiously and trying again. Whoosh!It was a blur.She was back on the grass at Upper Fordring, falling forward under the weight of her boots.She catches a glimpse of Mike swooping down to grab her— Whoosh!It was a blur. "Damn it!" Sophie lamented.She went up the mountain again.The crooked shadow of the castle wandered peacefully not far away.Calcifer was entertaining himself with blowing black smoke rings from one of the towers.When Sophie saw this, her shoe caught in the heather and fell forward again. Whoosh!Whoosh!This time Sophie arrived at the market square in Chipping Town and the lawn in front of a mansion in quick succession. "Damn it!" she cried. "Hate!" Only one word could be said anywhere.She hit the ground again due to her own momentum, so whoosh!Came to the field at the end of the valley.A huge red bull raised its ringed nose from the grass and lowered its horns in warning. "I gotta go, boy!" Sophie yelled, jumping wildly. Whoosh!Back to the mansion.Whoosh!To the market square!Whoosh!Another castle.She has touched the doorway.Whoosh!This is Upper Fording—but how to stop?Whoosh! "Ah, damn it!" cried Sophie, almost in Fordring Marsh again. This time she jumped very carefully, and dared to step on it after careful consideration.Whoosh!Unfortunately, the boot fell on a pile of cow dung, and she fell to the ground with a plop.Before Sophie could move, Mike jumped up and pulled the boot off her foot. "Thank you!" cried Sophie, breathlessly. "There seems to be no reason to stop!" As they walked across the lawn to Mrs. Fairfax's house, Sophie's heart was pounding, but only in the way a heart beats after a quick movement.She was very grateful to Hal and Calcifer for whatever they had done. "Good place," remarked Mike, hiding the boots in Mrs. Fairfax's hedge. Sophie thought so too.This is the biggest house in town.Black beams and white walls, thatched roof, Sophie remembers visiting as a child, walking through a garden full of flowers and buzzing with bees, and then onto the porch.Honeysuckle on the porch competed with a climbing white rose, as if competing to attract more bees.It was a fine, hot summer morning right here, in Oberfelding. Mrs. Fairfax answered the door herself.She was a buxom, lovely lady with coils of cream-colored hair, and one look at her made you think life was good.Sophie was a little bit jealous of Letty.Mrs Fairfax looked from Sophie to Mike.She had seen Sophie at seventeen a year ago, and there was no reason for her to recognize her now as a ninety-year-old woman. "Good morning." She greeted politely. Sophie sighed.Mike said, "This is Letty Highter's aunt. I'm taking her to see Letty." "Why, that's why it looks familiar!" called Mrs. Fairfax. "It looks like a family. Come in. Letty's going to be a little busy, and you'll have some muffin honey while you wait." She opened the front door wide.Suddenly a huge collie squeezed past Mrs Fairfax's skirt, darted between Sophie and Mike, and ran across the nearest flower bed, throwing the flowers upside down. "Ah, catch him!" gasped Mrs. Fairfax, running after her. "I don't want it to come out now!" The next moment ensued a frantic chase, with the collie scurrying about, whimpering in distress, while Mrs. Fairfax and Sophie ran after the dogs, jumping over flower beds, blocking each other's paths, and Mike and Running behind Sophie shouted, "Stop it! You're going to run sick!" and the collie started loping to the other side of the house.Mike realized that in order to stop Sophie, he had to stop the dog first.He slanted across the flower beds and sprinted after the dog to the other side of the house, grabbing him by the thick fur just as he was in the orchard. Sophie staggered to catch up with Mike, and seeing him pulling the dog back and acting strangely, Sophie thought he was uncomfortable at first.But he nodded frequently in the direction of the orchard, and she realized that he was trying to signal her something.She poked her head around the corner of the house, expecting to see a swarm of bees. Hal and Letty were there.They were in an apple grove with mossy trunks, apple blossoms in full bloom, and a row of beehives in the distance.Letty sat on a white garden bench.Howl knelt on the grass at her feet, holding her hand, noble and warm.Letty smiled affectionately at him.And the worst part, from Sophie's point of view, was that Letty wasn't like Martha at all.She is herself as beautiful as a fairy.She was wearing the same pink and white dress as the apple blossoms clustered above her head.Her lustrous dark curls fell to her shoulders, and there was love for Howl in her eyes. Sophie jerked her head back from the side of the house, watching in amazement as Mike clutched the wailing collie. "He must have used the Haste Charm," Mike said softly, equally astonished. Mrs Fairfax overtook them, panting and trying not to snap back a curl of creamy hair. "Bad dog!" she whispered ferociously to the collie. "If you dare to do it again, I will put a curse on you!" The shepherd dog blinked and lay down.Mrs Fairfax held out her fingers sharply. "Go back to the house! Stay in the house!" The collie broke free from Mike's hands, and ran to the other side of the house in desperation. "Thank you very much," Mrs. Fairfax said to Mike as they followed it. "He's been trying to bite Letty's visitors. Get in!" she yelled gravely from the front yard, where the collie seemed to want to enter the orchard from the road on the other side of the house.The dog gave her a sad look back, and crawled dejectedly across the porch into the house. "Perhaps the dog is right," said Sophie. "Mrs Fairfax, do you know who Letty's guest is?" Mrs Fairfax chuckled, "Wizard Pendragon, or Hal, or whatever he calls himself." She said, "But Letty and I pretend we don't know. He It amused me the first time it came up, calling itself Sylvester Oak, because I found out he forgot me, but I hadn't forgotten him, even though he had black hair as a schoolboy." Mrs. Elfax had clasped her hands over her breast, and stood erect.Sophie had seen it several times, which meant she was going to talk all day. "He was a close student of my former master. Mr. Fairfax liked to ask me to transport both of them to Kingsbury for a show from time to time when he was alive. If I was slow, I could take care of both. I Always drop by the elderly Mrs. Pentstemton. She loves to keep in touch with past students. She introduced us to this young Hal once. Ah, she is so proud of him. She also taught Surrey Wizard Mann, she said Hal was twice as good—” "But don't you know Hal's reputation?" Mike put in. Breaking into Mrs Fairfax's conversation was like breaking into a skipping rope.You have to watch your timing, and once you're in, you're in.Mrs. Fairfax turned her head slightly towards Mike. "The way I see it, most of it is bullshit," she said.Mike opened his mouth to say it wasn't, but he was already running into this non-stop skipping rope. "I said to Letty, 'This is your chance, honey.' I knew Hal could teach her twenty times more than I could -- and I don't mind telling you that Letty's talent is far greater than Me, she can cultivate to the level of a wasteland witch, of course it is in a good direction. Letty is a good girl, I like her very much. If Mrs. Pentstemton is still teaching, I will send Letty to go tomorrow. But she Not teaching. So I said, 'Letty, now Wizard Howl is after you, and it's not bad to fall in love with him, you can make him your teacher. You have a bright future.' I think Letty She didn't pay much attention at first, but she has been feeling better recently, and it seems to be going well today." Speaking of this, Mrs. Fairfax stopped and smiled kindly at Mike, and Sophie took advantage of the situation and broke into the skipping rope. "But I've been told Letty has another love," she said. "You're sorry," said Mrs. Fairfax.She lowered her voice. "There's nothing you can do about it," she murmured suggestively. "It's hard on any girl. I feel sorry for the lad too—" Sophie forced an "Oh?" in confusion. "—but that spell is amazingly strong. It's a pity," babbled Mrs. Fairfax. "I'll tell him I can't break any spells cast by the Witch of the Waste. Hal might be able to, but of course he can." Can't ask Hal, can you?" Mike has been watching the corner of the house nervously, for fear that Hal will come and find them.At this point he finally broke the skipping rope and said, "I think we'd better go." "Won't you come in and taste my honey?" asked Mrs. Fairfax. "I use it in almost every spell." She was off again, this time about the miraculous properties of honey.Mike and Sophie deliberately walked towards the gate, and Mrs. Fairfax followed them unknowingly, talking endlessly, and straightening the flowers and plants that had been broken by the dog while talking.Sophie was racking her brains for a way to figure out how Mrs. Fairfax knew Letty was Letty without making Mike feel bad.Mrs. Fairfax paused to catch her breath and straightened a large lupine tree. Sophie took the opportunity to say, "Mrs. Fairfax, shouldn't it be my grandniece Martha who came to you?" "Naughty girl!" Mrs. Fairfax shook her head, smiling, and settled the lupine. "As if I couldn't recognize my own honey spells! But then I said to them, 'I don't ask, I've always preferred to teach whoever wanted to. Only,' I told her,' I don't welcome pretense. You are who you are, or let it go.' It's all settled, as you can see. Won't you just sit down and ask her yourself?" "I think we should go," said Sophie. "We've got to go," Mike added, glancing nervously over the orchard again.He took the seven-leaf boot from the hedge and left one for Sophie by the gate. "I'll hold you tight this time," he said. Mrs. Fairfax looked over to see Sophie sticking a foot into the boot. "Seven mile boots," she said. "Believe it or not, I haven't seen one in ages. Very useful for a man your age, er, madam—I'd consider getting a pair at my age." .Then Letty got your magical talent from you, didn't you? It doesn't have to be in the family, but usually—" Mike took Sophie's arm and gave her a pull.The two boots fell to the ground at the same time, and the second half of Mrs. Fairfax's words disappeared in the whoosh and the gust of wind!Then Mike spread his legs and braked hard to avoid colliding with the castle.The door is open.Calcifer yelled from the house, "The door of Port Sanctuary! Someone knocked on the door after you left."