The stick beating at her was on fire now. Its metal end wasglowing. Sophie realized it could not last much longer. Luckily, MissAngorian hated it so much that she seized hold of Michael and draggedhim in its way. The stick had been told no to hurt Michael. Ithovered, flaming. Martha dashed up and tried to pull Michael away.The stick had to avoid her too. Sophie had got it wrong as usual.

There was no time to waste.

“Calcifer,” Sophie said, “I shall have to breakyour contract. Will it kill you?”

“It would if anyone else broke it,” Calcifer saidhoarsely. “That’s why I asked you to do it. I could tellyou could talk life into things. Look what you did for the scarecrowand the skull.”

“Then have another thousand years!” Sophie said, andwilled it very hard as she said it, in case just talking was notenough. This had been worrying her very much. She took hold ofCalcifer and carefully nipped him off the black lump, just as shewould nip a dead bud off a stalk. Calcifer whirled loose and hoveredby her shoulder as a blue teardrop.

“I feel so light!” he said. Then it dawned on him whathad happened. “I’m free!” he shouted. He whirled tothe chimney and plunged up it, out of sight. “I’mfree!” Sophie heard him shout overhead faintly as he came outthrough the chimney pot of the hat shop.

Sophie turned to Howl with the almost-dead black lump, feelingdoubtful in spite of her hurry. She had to get this right, and shewas not sure how you did. “Well, here goes,” she said.Kneeling down beside Howl, she carefully put the black lump on hischest in the leftish sort of place she had felt hers when it troubledher, and pushed. “Go in,” she told it. “Get inthere and work!” And she pushed and pushed. The heart began tosink in, and to beat more strongly as it went. Sophie tried to ignorethe flames and scuffles by the door and keep up a steady, firmpressure. Her hair kept getting in her way. It fell across her facein reddish fair hanks, but she tried to ignore that too. Shepushed.

The heart went in. As soon as it had disappeared, Howl stirredabout. He gave a loud groan and rolled over onto his face.“Hell’s teeth!” he said. “I’ve got ahangover!”

“No, you hit your head on the floor,” Sophie said.

Howl rose up on his hands and knees with a scramble. “Ican’t stay,” he said. “I’ve got to rescuethat fool Sophie.”

“I’m here!” Sophie said, shaking his shoulder.“But so is Miss Angorian! Get up and do something about her!Quickly!”

The stick was almost entirely in flames by now. Martha’shair was frizzling. And it had dawned on Miss Angorian that thescarecrow would burn. She was maneuvering to get the hovering stickinto the doorway. As usual, Sophie thought, I didn’t think itthrough!

Howl only needed to take one look. He stood up in a hurry. He heldout one hand and spoke a sentence of words that lost themselves inclaps of thunder. Plaster fell from the ceiling. Everything trembled.But the stick vanished and Howl stepped back with a small, hard,black thing in his hand. It could have been a lump of cinder, exceptthat it was same shape as the thing Sophie had just pushed intoHowl’s chest. Miss Angorian whined like a wet fire and held outher arms imploringly.

“I’m afraid not,” Howl said. “You’vehad your time. By the look of this, you were trying to get a newheart too. You were going to take my heart and let Calcifer die,weren’t you?” He held the black thing between both palmsand pushed his hands together. The Witch’s old heart crumbledinto black sand, and soot, and nothing. Miss Angorian faded away asit crumbled. As Howl opened his hands empty, the doorway was empty ofMiss Angorian too.

Another thing happened as well. The moment Miss Angorian was gone,the scarecrow was no longer there either. If Sophie had cared tolook, she would have seen two tall men standing in the doorway,smiling at one another. The one with the craggy face had ginger hair.The one with a green uniform had vaguer features and a lace shawldraped round the shoulders of his uniform. But Howl turned to Sophiejust then. “Gray doesn’t really suit you,” he said.“I thought that when I first saw you.”

“Calcifer’s gone,” Sophie said. “I had tobreak your contract.”

Howl looked a little sad, but he said, “We were both hopingyou would. Neither of us wanted to end up like the Witch and MissAngorian. Would you call your hair ginger?”

“Red gold,” Sophie said. Not much had changed aboutHowl that she could see, now he had his heart back, except maybe thathis eyes seemed a deeper color—more like eyes and less like glassmarbles. “Unlike some people’s,” she said,“it’s natural.”

“I’ve never seen why people put such a value on thingsbeing natural,” Howl said, and Sophie knew then that he wasscarcely changed at all.

If Sophie had any attention to spare, she would have seen PrinceJustin and Wizard Suliman shaking hands and clapping one anotherdelightedly on the back. “I’d better get back to my royalbrother,” Prince Justin said. He walked up to Fanny, as themost likely person, and made her a deep, courtly bow. “Am Iaddressing the lady of this house?”

“Er—not really,” Fanny said, trying to hide her broombehind her back. “The lady of the house is Sophie.”

“Or will be shortly,” Mrs. Fairfax said, beamingbenevolently.

Howl said to Sophie, “I’ve been wondering all along ifyou would turn out to be that lovely girl I met on May Day. Why wereyou so scared then?”

If Sophie had been attending, she would have seen Wizard Sulimango up to Lettie. Now that he was himself, it was clear that WizardSuliman was at least a strong-minded as Lettie was. Lettie lookedquite nervous as Suliman loomed craggily over her. “It seemedto be the Prince’s memory I had of you and not my own atall,” he said.

“That’s quite all right,” Lettie said bravely.“It was a mistake.”

“But it wasn’t!” protested Wizard Suliman.“Would you let me take you on as a pupil at least?”Lettie went fiery red at this and did not seem to know what tosay.

That seemed to Sophie to be Lettie’s problem. She had herown. Howl said, “I think we ought to live happily everafter,” and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew living happilyever after with Howl would be a great deal more eventful than anystory made it sound, though she was determined to try. “Itshould be hair-raising,” added Howl.

“And you’ll exploit me,” Sophie said.

“And then you’ll cut up all my suits to teachme,” said Howl.

If Sophie or Howl had had any attention to spare, they might hadnoticed that Prince Justin, Wizard Suliman, and Mrs. Fairfax were alltrying to speak to Howl, and that Fanny, Martha, and Lettie were allplucking at Sophie’s sleeves, while Michael was dragging atHowl’s jacket.

“That was the neatest use of words of power I ever saw fromanyone,” Mrs. Fairfax said. “I wouldn’t have knownwhat to do with that creature. As I often say…”

“Sophie,” said Lettie, “I need youradvice.”

“Wizard Howl,” said Wizard Suliman, “I mustapologize for trying to bite you so often. In the normal way, Iwouldn’t dream of setting teeth in a fellowcountryman.”

“Sophie, I think this gentleman is a prince,” saidFanny.

“Sir,” said Prince Justin, “I believe I mustthank you for rescuing me from the Witch.”

“Sophie,” said Martha, “the spell’s offyou! Did you hear?”

But Sophie and Howl were holding one another’s hands andsmiling and smiling, quite unable to stop. “Don’t botherme now,” said Howl. “I only did it for themoney.”

“Liar!” said Sophie.

“I said,” Michael shouted, “that Calcifer’s come back!”

That did get Howl’s attention, and Sophie’s too. Theylooked at the grate, where, sure enough, the familiar blue face wasflickering among the logs.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Howl said.

“I don’t mind, as long as I can come and go,”Calcifer said. “Besides, it’s raining out there in MarketChipping.”