And there was the falling star. Sophie could see it, a littlewhite descending flame shape a few yards beyond the dark movementsthat were Michael. The bright shape was coming down slowly now, andit looked as if Michael might catch it.

Sophie dragged her shoe out of the boot. “Come on,stick!” she crowed. “Get me there!” And she set offat top hobble, leaping across tussocks and staggering through pools,with her eyes on that little white light.

By the time she caught up, Michael was stalking the star with softsteps, both arms out to catch it. Sophie could see him outlinedagainst the star’s light. The star was drifting level withMichael’s hands and only a step or so beyond. It was lookingback at him nervously. How odd! Sophie thought. It was made of light,it lit up a white ring of grass and reeds and black pools roundMichael, and yet it had big, anxious eyes peering backward atMichael, and a small, pointed face.

Sophie’s arrival frightened it. It gave an erratic swoop andcried out in a shrill, crackling voice, “What is it?What do you want?”

Sophie tried to say to Michael, Do stop—it’s terrified! Butshe had no breath left to speak with.

“I only want to catch you,” Michael explained.“I won’t hurt you.”

“No! No!” the star crackled desperately.“That’s wrong! I’m supposed to die!”

“But I could save you if you’d let me catchyou,” Michael told it gently.

“No!” cried the star. “I’d ratherdie!” It dived away from Michael’s fingers. Michaelplunged for it, but it was too quick for him. It swooped for thenearest marsh pool, and the black water leaped into a blaze ofwhiteness for just an instant. Then there was a small, dying sizzle.When Sophie hobbled over, Michael was standing watching the lastlight fade out of a little round lump under the dark water.

“That was sad,” Sophie said.

Michael sighed. “Yes. My heart sort of went out to it.Let’s go home. I’m sick of this spell.”

It took them twenty minutes to find the boots. Sophie thought itwas a miracle they found them at all.

“You know,” Michael said, as they trudged dejectedlythrough the dark streets of Porthaven, “I can tell I’llnever be able to do this spell. It’s too advanced for me. Ishall have to ask Howl. I hate giving in, but at least I’ll getsome sense out of Howl now this Lettie Hatter’s given in tohim.”

This did not cheer Sophie up at all.

Howl must have come back while Sophie and Michaelwere out. He came out of the bathroom while Sophie was fryingbreakfast on Calcifer, and sat gracefully in the chair, groomed andglowing and smelling of honeysuckle.

“Dear Sophie,” he said. “Always busy. You werehard at work yesterday, weren’t you, in spite of my advice? Whyhave you made a jigsaw puzzle of my best suit? Just a friendlyinquiry, you know.”

“You jellied it the other day,” said Sophie.“I’m making it over.”

“I can do that,” said Howl. “I thought I showedyou. I can also make you a pair of seven-league boots of your own ifyou give me your size. Something practical in brown calf, perhaps.It’s amazing the way one can take a step ten and half mileslong and still always land in a cow pat.”

“It may have been a bull pat,” said Sophie. “Idaresay you found mud from the marshes on them too. A person my ageneeds a lot of exercise.”

“You were even busier than I realized, then,” saidHowl. “Because when I happened to tear my eyes fromLettie’s lovely face for an instant yesterday, I could havesworn I saw your long nose poking round the corner of thehouse.”

“Mrs. Fairfax is a family friend,” said Sophie.“How was I to know you would be there too?”

“You have an instinct, Sophie, that’s how,” saidhowl. “”Nothing is safe from you. If I were to court agirl who lived on an iceberg in the middle of an ocean, sooner orlater—probably sooner—I’d look up to see you swooping overheadon a broomstick. In fact, by now I’d be disappointed in you ifI didn’t see you.”

“Are you off to the iceberg today?” Sophie retorted.“From the look on Lettie’s face yesterday, there’snothing that need keep you there!”

“You wrong me, Sophie,” Howl said. He sounded deeplyinjured. Sophie looked suspiciously sideways. Beyond the red jewelswinging in Howl’s ear, his profile looked sad and noble.“Long years will pass before I leave Lettie,” he said.“And in fact I’m off to see the King again today.Satisfied, Mrs. Nose?”

Sophie was not sure she believed a word of this, though it wascertainly to Kingsbury, with the doorknob red-down, that Howldeparted after breakfast, waving Michael aside when Michael tried toconsult him about the perplexing spell. Michael, since he had nothingelse to do, left too. He said he might as well go toCesari’s.

Sophie was left alone. She still did not truly believe what Howlhad said about Lettie, but she had been wrong about him before, andshe had only Michael and Calcifer’s word for Howl’sbehavior, after all. She collected up all the little blue trianglesof cloth and began guiltily sewing them back into the silver fishingnet which was all that was left of the suit. When someone knocked atthe door, she started violently, thinking it was the scarecrowagain.

“Porthaven door,” Calcifer said, flickering a purplegrin at her.

That should be all right, then. Sophie hobbled over and opened it,blue-down. There was a cart horse outside. The young fellow of fiftywho was leading it wondered if Mrs. Witch had something which mightstop it casting shoes all the time.

“I’ll see,” said Sophie. She hobbled over to thegrate. “What shall I do?” she whispered.

“Yellow powder, fourth jar along on the second shelf,”Calcifer whispered back. “Those spells are mostly belief.Don’t look uncertain when you give it to him.”

So Sophie poured yellow powder into a square of paper as she hadseen Michael do, twisted it smartly, and hobbled to the door with it.“There you are, my boy,” she said. “That’llstick the shoes on harder than any hundred nails. Do you hear me,horse? You won’t need a smith for the next year. That’llbe a penny, thank you.”

It was quite a busy day. Sophie had to put down her sewing andsell, with Calcifer’s help, a spell to unblock drains, anotherto fetch goats, and something to make good beer. The only one thatgave her any trouble was the customer who pounded on the door inKingsbury. Sophie opened it red-down to find a richly dressed boy notmuch older than Michael, white-faced and sweating, wringing his handson the doorstep.

“Madam Sorceress, for pity’s sake!” he said.“I have to fight a duel at dawn tomorrow. Give me something tomake sure I win. I’ll pay any sum you ask!”

Sophie looked over her shoulder at Calcifer, and Calcifer madefaces back, meaning that there was no such thing ready-made.“That wouldn’t be right at all,” Sophie told theboy severely. “Besides, dueling is wrong.”

“Then just give me something that lets me have a fairchance!” the lad said desperately.

Sophie looked at him. He was very undersized and clearly in agreat state of fear. He had that hopeless look a person has who alwaysloses at everything. “I’ll see what I can do,”Sophie said. She hobbled over to the shelves and scanned the jars.The red one labeled CAYENNE looked the most likely. Sophie poured agenerous heap of it on a square of paper. She stood the human skullbeside it. “Because you must know more about this than Ido,” she muttered at it. The young man was leaning anxiouslyround the door to watch. Sophie took up a knife and made what shehoped would look like mystic passes over the heap of pepper.“You are to make a fair fight,” she mumbled. “Afair fight! Understand?” She screwed the paper up and hobbledto the door with it. “Throw this in the air when the duelstarts,” she told the undersized young man, “and it willgive you the same chance as the other man. After that, whether youwin or not depends on you.”