The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making Read Online Free PDF

waste of time for us both to go through the tiresome nonsense of courtship and blushing behind curtains and love potions and marriage. So we went through it once, together. We estimate that we saved each other two full years of living. And besides, all witches must keep up a certain level of deviance in their personal lives, or we should be expelled from the union.”
    Hello smiled as demurely as a witch can manage. “We chose Manythanks for his many virtues, and because, besides being a wonderful cook and a superb mathematician, he is also a wairwulf.”
    “Really? A real werewolf? And you turn into a wolf when the moon is full?”
    Manythanks grinned.
    “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.”
    “That doesn’t seem quite fair,” said September. “She gets a lot more husband.”
    “Oh, we agreed upon it long ago. I don’t like men to talk too much, and she doesn’t like them too much underfoot,” laughed Hello. Goodbye smiled at her husband with a deep fondness.
    “Aren’t you…afraid of the wolf?” asked September, who secretly felt she might get over such fear, if the wolf would love her and guard her and not get mud on the covers.
    “I’m quite civilized, I promise,” smiled Manythanks. “Wairwulves are cultured. We have choirs and charity races and rotary clubs. It’s when we’re human that you must take care.”
    “Now what is it you want, child? As you can see, we’re quite busy.” Goodbye sniffed deeply at the pot.
    Be bold , thought September. An ill-tempered child should be bold. “I…I hoped you might have something for me to eat. I’ve only just gotten here and…well, I’m not lost, because I haven’t any idea where to go that I might get lost on the way to.” Even to September that did not sound quite right. “I’d like to get lost, because then I’d know where I was going, you see. But the Green Wind wasn’t terribly clear about what to do once I got here, only what not to do, so getting lost would be making very good headway, all things considered. But I don’t know where I am and the beach was full of garbage and then it wasn’t--”
    “Fairy gold,” interrupted Manythanks. “It lays about waiting for a Fairy to pick it up on her way to the human world. You must have had some gnome ointment gobbed on you or you wouldn’t be able to see it at all. Some things any old ravished child can see. Some things are only meant for locals. ”
    “Yes, Betsy…she showed me Rupert, but then she threw that stuff at me, too.” September clutched her sceptre a little tighter.
    “She must have taken a shine to you. I assume Rupert was very terrible and frightening? A good scare will knock your eyeballs sideways enough to see a few brownies. But not enough for Fairy gold, and other things beside. Else playing tricks on tourists would not be half as fun.” The wairwulf sighed heavily. He had little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “But there’s rationing these days, and gnomestuff is precious. Have you got any left?” Manythanks peered at her eyes and sighed in disappointment. September did not like being examined so closely.
    “I’m very hungry, Sir Wulf,” she whispered hopefully. “Is that soup?”
    “Don’t you dare!” breathed Goodbye. “It’s our spell and you can’t have any.”
    September brightened a little. This was what she had come for: witches and spells and wairwulves. “What sort of spell?”
    All three looked at her as though she had asked what color a carrot is.
    “We’re witches ,” said Hello. Manythanks pointed meaningfully at his hat.
    “But witches do all kinds of spells--”
    “That’s sorceresses,” corrected Goodbye.
    “And