House of Many Ways (howl's Moving Castle, #3)

The third book in Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle series is set in High Norland, a small mountain kingdom where magic is commonplace but considered vulgar by respectable families. Charmain Baker, a bookish teenager raised in an extremely sheltered household, is volunteered by her bossy, wealthy Aunt Sempronia to look after the house of Great-Uncle William Norland, the Royal Wizard of High Norland. The old wizard has a mysterious growth, and the King has sent elves to carry him away for a cure. Charmain secretly welcomes the chance to escape her parents' suffocating respectability and writes to King Adolphus applying to work in the Royal Library.

Aunt Sempronia delivers Charmain to Great-Uncle William's small house outside town. Before the wizard can explain anything, a procession of elves puts him to sleep and carries him off, leaving behind a suitcase of instructions and a spoken-direction spell that answers questions aloud. Charmain finds the kitchen piled with dirty dishes and discovers Waif, a tiny white stray dog the wizard recently took in. The house bends space: Turning left or right through any door leads to entirely different rooms. In the wizard's study, Charmain opens The Boke of Palimpsest, a spell book that slyly flips its own pages. She attempts a flying spell but unknowingly performs incantations from several spells at once. Climbing out a window into a mountain meadow, she encounters a lubbock, a huge, dangerous, purple insectile creature. Charmain falls off the cliff, but her flying spell activates and carries her safely to the garden, where she meets Rollo, a kobold, one of the goblin-like magical beings who tend the grounds. Rollo demands permission to chop down the hydrangea bushes, and Charmain refuses.

Peter Regis, a boy about Charmain's age, arrives claiming to be Great-Uncle William's new apprentice. His mother is the Witch of Montalbino, a distant mountain domain. Peter is well-meaning but clumsy with magic. Together they learn from the wizard's encyclopedia that lubbocks lay eggs inside human hosts during breeding season. The offspring of a female host is a lubbockin, a creature with purple eyes that appears mostly human but is almost invariably evil. Meanwhile, Timminz, the kobold chieftain, demands the hydrangeas be destroyed because their non-blue blooms are indecent by kobold standards. Charmain refuses, recognizing Rollo's manipulation, and Timminz declares no kobold will work for them.

King Adolphus accepts Charmain's application to help in the Royal Library. At the Royal Mansion, the King privately asks her to watch for mentions of "treasury," "gold," and "elfgift," a mysterious hereditary gift connected to the royal family that no one can identify. Charmain discovers that the Mansion's famous golden roof is actually enchanted tin, created by a Wizard Melicot, and notices the Mansion has been selling paintings for decades, hinting at deep financial trouble. The Mansion's cook, Jamal, a man from the foreign Rajpuhti people, has an aggressive brown dog that Waif befriends.

Princess Hilda, the King's daughter, introduces Mrs. Sophie Pendragon, a close friend of the Princess from Ingary. Sophie arrives with her toddler son Morgan, a blue teardrop-shaped fire demon named Calcifer, and a small boy who calls himself Twinkle, Sophie's nephew. Twinkle speaks with an exaggerated lisp. Charmain overhears Sophie furiously addressing Twinkle as "Howl," though his true identity remains unclear. On a subsequent visit, Twinkle stages an emergency on the golden roof. Once Charmain follows him up, he drops his act and reveals himself as Wizard Howl Pendragon, from the neighboring kingdom of Ingary, in magical disguise. He, Sophie, and Calcifer have been hired to find the missing treasury gold and discover where the tax money keeps disappearing. Sophie casts a spell making relevant documents glow for Charmain alone. Charmain discovers a glowing family tree scroll filled with notes about elf ancestry, the Elfgift, and troubled descendants, and copies it for both the King and Sophie.

Meanwhile, Peter discovers a map in Great-Uncle William's suitcase revealing hundreds of magical rooms in the house. He accidentally travels back in time and meets a younger Great-Uncle William, who mentions that the house once belonged to Wizard Melicot and that royal gold might be hidden inside. An elf then delivers a glass box containing three lubbock eggs removed from Great-Uncle William during his cure, which only a fire demon can destroy. Peter and Charmain witness Rollo meeting the lubbock in the meadow. The lubbock pays Rollo for sabotaging the wizard's relationship with the kobolds, then secretly implants eggs in him. Calcifer declares war. Howl's moving castle, which Calcifer powers, pursues the lubbock and incinerates it. Calcifer then carries the glass box to the crags to destroy the eggs, and the resulting explosion blows away half the meadow. Calcifer does not return.

At the Mansion's tea party for Prince Ludovic, Charmain notices the Prince's eyes glow deep purple: He is a lubbockin. The King's steward also has mauve eyes. Charmain finds Calcifer alive. She and Peter also bring Rollo before Timminz, who arranges for elves to cure him. Timminz leads Charmain through underground passages to Castel Joie, the Prince's palace, where she watches sickly kobolds carry sacks of gold to Ludovic. The Prince remarks that the King has no money left, confirming he and his steward have been stealing all the kingdom's revenue.

Returning home, Charmain finds the Witch of Montalbino in the kitchen. The Witch reveals that Waif is an enchanting dog, a rare, highly magical creature that has adopted Charmain. She also explains that The Boke of Palimpsest only grants fire magic to trustworthy people. The lubbock killed Peter's father, and the Witch sent Peter to Great-Uncle William for safety.

Charmain rushes to the Mansion with her discoveries. During the gathering, Ludovic's companions reveal themselves as lubbockins. Twinkle lures them to the roof and transforms both into squids, which Jamal's dog devours. He then leads Charmain and Sophie through a magical door into the attic beneath the golden tiles, where piles of gold ingots hidden by Wizard Melicot centuries ago glow in the dark. Charmain carries a gold brick as evidence.

Downstairs, Ludovic grabs what he believes is Morgan from the King's arms. The figure pulls off the Prince's wig, revealing a smooth, bald, purple head. Through a coordinated deception, Howl has been disguised as the toddler while the real Morgan has been concealed within Twinkle's childish form. Ludovic finds himself holding the full-grown Wizard Howl, who punches him. Calcifer and Howl transform the Prince and the steward into rabbits, and Waif kills them both. Great-Uncle William arrives in a kobold-built sled chair, accompanied by the Witch and Timminz. Peter crashes through a wall, having independently confirmed the gold's location through divination.

The Witch reveals her full story: She is actually Princess Matilda, Princess Hilda's second cousin, whose husband was murdered by Ludovic as part of a campaign to kill rival heirs. Howl reveals that the Elfgift is Waif herself, an enchanting dog whose protective magical gift passes through inheritance. The old kings were always painted with such a dog. Great-Uncle William declares Charmain his apprentice, as she is now the Elfgift's guardian, the person responsible for helping Waif protect the country. Peter is revealed as the rightful Crown Prince, and Princess Hilda decrees he will live at the Mansion while continuing magic lessons. The gathering watches from the Mansion steps as Sophie, Howl, Morgan, and Calcifer depart in the moving castle, cheered by the citizens of High Norland.