“If I was Fanny,” Sophie said, “I’dthreaten to faint. Put his head back on at once! He looks terriblelike that!”

“I disposed of both heads a month ago,” said theWitch. “I sold Wizard Suliman’s skull when I sold hisguitar. Prince Justin’s head is walking around somewhere withthe other leftover parts. This body is a perfect mixture of PrinceJustin and Wizard Suliman. It is waiting for Howl’s head, tomake it our perfect human. When we have Howl’s head, we shallhave the new King of Ingary, and I shall rule as Queen.”

“You’re mad!” Sophie said. “You’veno right to make jigsaws of people! And I shouldn’t thinkHowl’s head will do a thing you want. It’ll slither outsomehow.”

“Howl will do exactly as we say,” the Witch said witha sly, secretive smile. “We shall control his firedemon.”

Sophie realized she was very scared indeed. She knew she had madea mess of things now. “Where is Miss Angorian?” she said,waving her stick.

The Witch did not like Sophie to wave her stick. She steppedbackward. “I am very tired,” she said. “You peoplekeep spoiling my plans. First Wizard Suliman would not come near theWaste, so that I had to threaten Princess Valeria in order to makethe king order him out here. Then, when he came, he grew trees. Thenthe King would not let Prince Justin follow Suliman for months, andwhen he did follow, the silly fool went up north somewhere for somereason, and I had to use all my arts to get him here. Howl had causedme even more trouble. He got away once. I’ve had to use a curseto bring him in, and while I was finding out enough about him to laythe curse, you got into what was left of Suliman’s brainand caused me more trouble. And now when I bring you here, you waveyour stick and argue. I have worked very hard for this moment, and Iam not to be argued with.” She turned away and wandered offinto the murk.

Sophie stared after the tall white figure moving among the dimflames. I think her age has caught up with her! she thought.She’s crazy! I must get loose and rescue Miss Angorian from hersomehow! Remembering that the orange stuff had avoided her stick,just as the Witch had, Sophie reached back over her shoulders withher stick and wagged it back and forth where the sticky stuff met thepottery pillar. “Get out of it!” she said. “Let mego!” Her hair dragged painfully, but stringy orange bits beganto fly away sideways. Sophie wagged the stick harder.

She had worked her head and shoulders loose when there came a dullbooming sound. The pale flames wavered and the pillar behind Sophieshook. Then, with a crash like a thousand tea sets fallingdownstairs, a piece of the fortress wall blew out. Light blinded inthrough a long, jagged hole, and a figure came leaping in through theopening. Sophie turned eagerly, hoping it was Howl. But the blackoutline had only one leg. It was the scarecrow again.

The Witch gave a yowl of rage and rushed toward it with her fairpigtail flying and her bony arms stretched out. The scarecrow leapedat her. There was another violent bang and the two of them werewrapped in a magic cloud, like the cloud over Porthaven when Howl andthe Witch had fought. The cloud battered this way and that, fillingthe dusty air with shrieks and booms. Sophie’s hair frizzed.The cloud was only yards away, going this way and that among potterypillars. And the break in the wall was quite near too. As Sophie hadthought, the fortress was really not big. Every time the cloud movedacross the blinding white gap, she could see through it, and see thetwo skinny figures battling in its midst. She stared, and keptwagging her stick behind her back.

She was loose all except her legs when the cloud streamed acrossin front of the light one more time. Sophie saw another person leapthrough the gap behind it. This one had flying black sleeves. It wasHowl. Sophie could see the outline of him clearly, standing with armsfolded, watching the battle. For a moment it looked as if he wasgoing to let the Witch and the scarecrow get on with it. Then thelong sleeves flapped as Howl raised his arms. Above the screaming andbooming, Howl’s voice shouted one strange, long word, and along roll of thunder came with it. The scarecrow and the Witch bothjolted. Claps of sound rang round the pottery pillars, echo afterecho, and each echo carried some of the cloud of magic away with it.It vanished in wisps and swirled away in murky eddies. When it hadbecome the thinnest white haze, the tall figure with the pigtailbegan to totter. The Witch seemed to fold in on herself, thinner andwhiter than ever. Finally, as the haze faded clean away, she fell ina heap with a small clatter. As the million soft echoes died, Howland the scarecrow were left thoughtfully facing one another across apile of bones.

Good! thought Sophie. She slashed her legs free and went across tothe headless figure in the throne. It was getting on her nerves.

“No, my friend,” Howl said to the scarecrow. Thescarecrow had hopped right among the bones and was pushing them thisway and that with its leg. “No, you won’t find her hearthere. Her fire demon will have got that. I think it’s had theupper hand of her for a long time now. Sad, really.” As Sophietook off her shawl and arranged it decently across PrinceJustin’s headless shoulders, Howl said, “I think the restof what you were looking for is over here.” He walked towardthe throne, with the scarecrow hopping beside him.“Typical!” he said to Sophie. “I break my neck toget here, and I find you peacefully tidying up!”

Sophie looked up at him. As she had feared, the hardblack-and-white daylight coming through the broken wall showed herthat Howl had not bothered to shave or tidy his hair. His eyes werestill red-rimmed and his black sleeves were torn in several places.There was not much to choose between Howl and the scarecrow. Oh,dear! Sophie thought. He must love Miss Angorian very much. “Icame for Miss Angorian,” she explained.

“And I thought if I arranged for your family to visit you,it would keep you quiet for once!” Howl said disgustedly.“But no—”

Here the scarecrow hopped in front of Sophie. “I was sent byWizard Suliman,” it said in its mushy voice. “I wasguarding his bushes in the Waste when the Witch caught him. He castall of his magic that he could spare on me, and ordered me to come tohis rescue. But the Witch had taken him to pieces by then and thepieces were in various places. It has been a hard task. If you hadnot come and talked me to life again, I would have failed.”

It was answering the questions Sophie had asked it before theyboth rushed off.

“So when Prince Justin ordered finding spells, they musthave kept pointing to you,” she said. “Why wasthat?”

“To me or his skull,” said the scarecrow.“Between us, we are the best part of him.”

“And Percival is made of Wizard Suliman and PrinceJustin?” Sophie said. She was not sure Lettie was going to likethis.

The scarecrow nodded its craggy turnip face. “Both partstold me that the Witch and her fire demon were no longer together andI could defeat the Witch on her own,” it said. “I thankyou for giving me ten times my former speed.”

Howl waved it aside. “Bring that body with you to thecastle,” he said. “I’ll sort you out there. Sophieand I have to get back before that fire demon finds a way of gettinginside my defenses.” He took hold of Sophie’s skinnywrist. “Come on. Where are those seven-league boots?”

Sophie hung back. “But Miss Angorian—”

“Don’t you understand?” Howl said, dragging ather. “Miss Angorian is the fire demon. If it gets insidethe castle, then Calcifer’s had it and so have I!”

Sophie put both hands over her mouth. “I knewI’d made a mess of it!” she said. “It’s beenin twice already. But she—it went out.”

“Oh, lord!” groaned Howl. “Did it touchanything?”