More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
One of her shoes came loose as she hoisted herself over the sill, and this will be important later,
One of her shoes came loose as she hoisted herself over the sill, and this will be important later,
Good-bye, shoe! September will miss you soon.
Good-bye, shoe! September will miss you soon.
The Green Wind frowned into his brambly beard. “All little girls are terrible,” he admitted finally, “but the Marquess, at least, has a very fine hat.”
The Green Wind frowned into his brambly beard. “All little girls are terrible,” he admitted finally, “but the Marquess, at least, has a very fine hat.”
“First, no iron of any kind is allowed.
“First, no iron of any kind is allowed.
Second, the practice of alchemy is forbidden to all except young ladies born on Tuesdays—” “I was born on a Tuesday!” “It is certainly possible that I knew that,” the Green Wind said with a wink.
Second, the practice of alchemy is forbidden to all except young ladies born on Tuesdays—” “I was born on a Tuesday!” “It is certainly possible that I knew that,” the Green Wind said with a wink.
“Third, aviary locomotion is permitted only by means of Leopard or licensed Ragwort Stalk.
“Third, aviary locomotion is permitted only by means of Leopard or licensed Ragwort Stalk.
Fourth, all traffic travels w...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Fourth, all traffic travels w...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Fifth, rubbish takeaway occurs on se...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Fifth, rubbish takeaway occurs on se...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Sixth, all changelings are required to wear ident...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Sixth, all changelings are required to wear ident...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Seventh, and most important, you may in no fashion cross the borders of the Worsted Wood, or you will either perish most painfully or be forced to sit through a very tediou...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Seventh, and most important, you may in no fashion cross the borders of the Worsted Wood, or you will either perish most painfully or be forced to sit through a very tediou...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Obviously, the eating or drinking of Fairy foodstuffs constitutes a binding contract to return at least once a year in accordance with seasonal myth cycles.”
“Obviously, the eating or drinking of Fairy foodstuffs constitutes a binding contract to return at least once a year in accordance with seasonal myth cycles.”
All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot.
All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot.
“The earth, my dear, is roughly trapezoidal, vaguely rhomboid, a bit of a tesseract, and altogether grumpy when its fur is stroked the wrong way! In short, it is a puzzle, my autumnal acquisition, like the interlocking silver rings your aunt Margaret brought back from Turkey when you were nine.”
“The earth, my dear, is roughly trapezoidal, vaguely rhomboid, a bit of a tesseract, and altogether grumpy when its fur is stroked the wrong way! In short, it is a puzzle, my autumnal acquisition, like the interlocking silver rings your aunt Margaret brought back from Turkey when you were nine.”
“We are going to unlock the earth and lock it up again, and when we have done it, we shall be in another ring, which is to say, Fairyland. It won’t be long now.”
“Who are they?” whispered September. “That’s Latitude, with the yellow belt, and Longitude, with the paisley cravat. We can’t get very far without them, so be polite.”
Today, we are the corners.” He gestured at the placid Latitude and Longitude. “They are the edges. And you, September”—he gently pulled a strand of September’s hair free of her brooch—“are the middle pieces, all funny shaped and stubborn.”
For, you see, when September and the Green Wind had gone through the puzzle of the world on their great cat, the jeweled key rose up and swooped in behind them, as quiet as you like.
September marveled at the heaps of oddities in the closet between worlds.
“That’s rather more than one question. Therefore, I think it’s only fair I give you rather more than one set of answers.” He cleared his throat dramatically. “One: Omaha is no place for anybody. Two: No, my schedule keeps me quite busy enough. Three: See above. Four: So that you will like me and not be afraid.”
There is a department in Fairyland entirely devoted to spiriting off young boys and girls (mostly orphans, but we have become more liberal in this late age), so that we may have a ready supply of a certain kind of story to tell when winter comes and there is nothing to do but drink fennel beer and peer at the hearth.
See how I lie to you and make you do things my way? That is so you will be ready to live in Fairyland, where this sort of thing is considered the height of manners.”
“In stories, when someone appears in a poof of green clouds and asks a girl to go away on an adventure, it’s because she’s special, because she’s smart and strong and can solve riddles and fight with swords and give really good speeches, and … I don’t know that I’m any of those things. I don’t even know that I’m as ill-tempered as all that.
“We came for you,” she growled. “Just you.” The big cat licked the child’s cheek roughly. September smiled, just a little. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the green jacket.
“You’re greenlist, and that means no-good scoundrel, and that means No Entry Allowed, Orders of the Marquess.”
We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say, lines on maps are silly.
“Because when humans come to Fairyland, we’re supposed to trick them and steal from them and whap them about the ears—but we’re also supposed hex them up so that they can see proper-like.
The Green Wind coughed politely. “The Persephone clause.” Betsy gave him a long look that plainly said, So that’s what’s afoot, you old bag of air?
“Temporary Visa Type: Pomegranate. Housing Allotment: None. Alien Registry Category: Human, Ravished, non-changeling. Size: Medium. Age: Twelve. Privileges: None, or As Many As You Can Catch. Anything to declare?”
Well, September thought, it’s all certainly very strange, but the Green Wind is not here to explain it anymore, and I can’t stay on the beach all day like a sunbather. A girl in want of a Leopard still has feet.
Plenty of people have warts and hooked noses and cruel smiles but are not witches at all. Hats change everything. September knew this with all her being, deep in the place where she knew her own name, that her mother would still love her even though she hadn’t waved good-bye.
Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else.
“Oh!” cried the young man. “A little deaf child! How sweet! We should adopt her and teach her to write symphonies. She’ll be all the rage in town. I’ll buy her a powdered wig and a tricorne!”
“My name is Hello,” she continued as if nothing had happened. “So you see the confusion. This is my sister Goodbye and our husband, Manythanks.”
all witches must keep up a certain level of deviance in their personal lives, or we should be expelled from the union.”
“No, dear,” said Hello, “a wairwulf.” She rolled her r a little, otherwise it seemed quite the same word to September. “It’s quite different. Twenty-seven days a month, my love is a fine wolf, with a great powerful jaw and a thumping tail. During the full moon, he becomes human, as he is now. My husband is the wolf, hers is the man.”
“Aren’t you … afraid of the wolf?” asked September, who secretly felt she might get over such a fear, if the wolf would love her and guard her and not get mud on the covers.
Be bold, thought September. An ill-tempered child should be bold.
