Howl did not go out that day, nor for the next fewdays. Sophie sat quietly in the chair by the hearth, keeping out ofhis way and thinking. She saw that, much as Howl deserved it, she hadbeen taking out her feelings on the castle when she was really angrywith the Witch of the Waste. And she was a little upset at thethought that she was here on false pretenses. Howl might thinkCalcifer liked her, but Sophie knew Calcifer had simply seized on achance to make a bargain with her. Sophie rather thought she had letCalcifer down.

This state of mind did not last. Sophie discovered a pile ofMichael’s clothes that needed mending. She fetched out thimble,scissors, and thread from her sewing pocket and set to work. By thatevening she was cheerful enough to join in Calcifer’s sillylittle song about saucepans.

“Happy in your work?” Howl said sarcastically.

“I need more to do,” Sophie said.

“My old suit needs mending, if you have to feel busy,”said Howl.

This seemed to mean that Howl was no longer annoyed. Sophie wasrelieved. She had been almost frightened that morning.

It was clear Howl had not yet caught the girl he was after. Sophielistened to Michael asking rather obvious questions about it, andHowl slithering neatly out of answering any of them. “He is aslitherer-outer,” Sophie murmured to a pair of Michael’ssocks. “Can’t face his own wickedness.” She watchedHowl being restlessly busy in order to hide his discontent. That wassomething Sophie understood rather well.

At the bench Howl worked a good deal harder and faster thanMichael, putting spells together in an expert but slapdash way. Fromthe look on Michael’s face, most of the spells were bothunusual and hard to do. But Howl would leave a spell midway and dashup to his bedroom to look after something hidden—and no doubtsinister—going on up there, and then shortly race out into the yardto tinker with a large spell out there. Sophie opened the door acrack and was rather amazed to see the elegant wizard kneeling in themud with his long sleeves tied behind his neck to keep them out ofthe way while he carefully heaved a tangle of greasy metal into aspecial framework of some kind.

That spell was for the King. Another overdressed and scentedmessenger arrived with a letter and a long, long speech in which hewondered if Howl could possibly spare time, no doubt invaluablyemployed in other ways, to bend his powerful and ingenious mind to asmall problem experienced by His Royal Majesty—to whit, how an armymight get its heavy wagons through a marsh and rough ground. Howl waswonderfully polite and long-winded in reply. He said no. But themessenger spoke for a further half-hour, at then end of which he andHowl bowed to one another and Howl agreed to do the spell.

“This is a bit ominous,” Howl said to Michael when themessenger had gone. “What did Suliman have to get himself lostin the Waste for? The King seems to think I’ll doinstead.”

“He wasn’t as inventive as you, by allaccounts,” Michael said.

“I’m too patient and polite,” Howl saidgloomily. “I should have overcharged him even more.”

Howl was equally patient and polite with customers from Porthaven,but, as Michael anxiously pointed out, the trouble was that Howl didnot charge these people enough. This was after Howl had listened foran hour to the reasons why a seaman’s wife could not pay him apenny yet, and then promised a sea captain a wind spell for almostnothing. Howl eluded Michael’s arguments by giving him a magiclesson.

Sophie sewed buttons on Michael’s shirts and listened toHowl going through a spell with Michael. “I know I’m slapdash,” he was saying, “butthere’s no need for you to copy me. Always read it rightthrough, carefully, first. The shape of it should tell you a lot,whether it’s self-fulfilling, or self-discovering, or simpleincantation, or mixed action and speech. When you’ve decidedthat, go through again and decide which bits mean what they say andwhich bits are put as a puzzle. You’re getting on to morepowerful kinds now. You’ll find every spell of power has atleast one deliberate mistake or mystery in it to prevent accidents.You have to spot those. Now take this spell…”

Listening to Michael’s halting replies to Howl’squestions, and watching Howl scribble remarks on the paper with astrange, everlasting quill pen, Sophie realized that she could learna lot too. It dawned on her that if Martha could discover the spellto swap herself and Lettie about at Mrs.Fairfax’s, then sheought to be able to do the same here. With a bit of luck, there mightbe no need to rely on Calcifer.

When Howl was satisfied that Michael had forgotten all about howmuch or how little he charged people in Porthaven, he took him outinto the yard to help with the King’s spell. Sophie creaked toher feet and hobbled to the bench. The spell was clear enough, butHowl’s scrawled remarks defeated her. “I’ve neverseen such writing!” she grumbled to the human skull.“Does he use a pen or a poker?” She sorted eagerlythrough every scrap of paper on the bench and examined the powdersand liquids in the crooked jars. “Yes, let’s admitit,” she told the skull. “I snoop. And I have my properreward. I can find out how to cure fowl pest and abate whoopingcough, raise a wind and remove hairs from the face. If Martha hadfound this lot, she’d still be at Mrs.Fairfax’s.”

Howl, it seemed to Sophie, went and examined all the things shehad moved when he came in from the yard. But that seemed to be onlyrestlessness. He seemed not to know what to do with himself afterthat. Sophie heard him roving up and down during the night. He wasonly an hour in the bathroom the next morning. He seemed not to beable to contain himself while Michael put on his best plum velvetsuit, ready to go to the Palace in Kingsbury, and the two of themwrapped the bulky spell up in golden paper. The spell must have beensurprisingly light for its size. Michael could carry it on his owneasily, with both his arms wrapped round it. Howl turned the knob overthe door red-down for him and sent him out into the street among thepainted houses.

“They’re expecting it,” Howl said. “Youshould only have to wait most of the morning. Tell them a child couldwork it. Show them. And when you come back, I’ll have a spellof power for you to get to work on. So long.”

He shut the door and roved around the room again. “My feetitch,” he said suddenly. “I’m going for a walk onthe hills. Tell Michael the spell I promised him is on the bench. Andhere’s for you to keep busy with.”

Sophie found a gray-and-scarlet suit, as fancy as theblue-and-silver one, dropped into her lap from nowhere. Howlmeanwhile picked up his guitar from its corner, turned the doorknobgreen-down, and stepped out among the scudding heather above MarketChipping.

“His feet itch!” grumbled Calcifer. There was a fogdown in Porthaven., Calcifer was low among his logs, moving uneasilythis way and that to avoid drips in the chimney. “How does hethink I feel, stuck in a damp grate like this?”

“Then you’ll have to give me a hint at least about howto break you contract,” Sophie said, shaking out thegray-and-scarlet suit. “Goodness, you’re a fine suit,even if you a bit worn! Built to pull in the girls, aren’tyou?”

“I have given you a hint!” Calcifer fizzed.

“Then you’ll have to give it to me again. Ididn’t catch it,” Sophie said as she laid the suit downand hobbled to the door.

“If I give you a hint and tell you it’s a hint, itwill be information, and I’m not allowed to give that,”Calcifer said. “Where are you going?”

“To do something I didn’t dare do until they were bothout,” Sophie said. She twisted the square knob over the dooruntil the black blob pointed downward. Then she opened the door.