Kingsbury

[wizard_howell]

By the time Sophie and Angela get back not only is the wagon spell completed, but he's had time for a bath.

With powders.

And lotions.

And potions. In fact, he's been playing with his hair. Ever since Sophie described his natural hair to him as mud brown, he's been determined never to let it show that color again and now... now it's a lovely

Comments

[talkstohats]

Sophie wouldn't call shouting at the King fun, exactly.

At least, not where anyone else could hear her.

Still, after many, many months of interacting on a close basis with His Majesty Her Monarch, she has begun to see it as her citizen's duty to make sure his requests remain within the bounds of reason. It's for his own sake, really, that the people who can stand up to him remind him that on occasion they will. Someone's got to make sure his head doesn't swell to the size of the palace, after all. (As far as Sophie's concerned, the King's swelled head is not the same thing as Howl's swelled head in the least - Howl may be conceited, but he has more than enough natural ability in most things to back his arrogance up. In fact, that's often the most frustrating thing about him

[talkstohats]

There are many more things to see in Kingsbury than just the King's palace, and the King is apparently sufficiently cowed that he lets them keep Davis for transit, which means that they have plenty of time to go wherever they like. There's the national gardens ("Pretty,' says Sophie, 'but they can't hold a candle to what Howl's done with the Waste"); there's the memorial honoring the soldiers who fell in the last war with Strangia (Sophie and Howl look at each other, and decide to give that one a miss); and there's the Museum of Dangerous Magical Artifacts, which has very few artifacts and a good many brightly-colored wax tableaux of mythical moments in Ingarian history. Despite the expression of scorn on the coachman's face - or, perhaps, because of it - they eventually decide that this is where they will spend the next portion of the afternoon

[wizard_howell]

An entire afternoon enjoyed with his favorite lady of all time and one strongly in the running for next-favorite, and not a single spell demanded by the King: the day hasn't been squandered after all. After taking tea in a nearby and highly gilded shop where the three of them are treated with the requisite amounts of respect, awe, and fear -- to his credit, the only magic Howl works in the shop is charming their waitress into bringing extra sugar and cream and maybe, maybe folding a paper napkin into a small swan that darts through the air round the tea shop for a few minutes before disappearing in a puff of golden sparks -- it's time to return to the long-suffering Davis (who gets a most excellent orange scone pressed into his hand, almost as an afterthought) for the carriage ride home.

And here he'd almost thought to summon a wind to take them, but that would have been showing off and at any rate, Davis deserves to make the trip twice in one day. He's surly and obnoxious and people like that need to be killed with kindness