"Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

Michael was so pleased with himself that Sophie did not have the heart to protest. She shrugged and
supposed Michael had better find out about the two Lettie's before they changed looks again. It was
more honest this way. But when Michael fetched the boots from the broom cupboard, Sophie began to
have doubts. Up to now she had thought they were two leather buckets that had somehow lost their
handles and then got a little squashed.
"You're supposed to put your foot in them, shoe and all," Michael explained as he carried the two
heavy, bucket-shaped things to the door. "These are the prototypes of the boots Howl made for the
King's army. We managed to get the later ones a bit lighter and more boot-shaped." He and Sophie sat
on the doorstep and each put one foot in a boot. "Point yourself toward Upper Folding before you put
the boot down," Michael warned her. He and Sophie stood up on the foot which was in an ordinary
shoe and carefully swung themselves round to face Upper Folding. "Now tread," said Michael.
Zip! The landscape instantly rushed past them so fast it was only a blur, a gray-green blur for the land
and a blue-gray blur for the sky. The wind of their going tore at Sophie's hair and dragged every wrinkly
in her face backward until she thought she would arrive with half her face behind each ear.
The rushing stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Everything was calm and sunny. They were knee-deep
in buttercups in the middle of Upper Folding village common. A cow nearby stared at them. Beyond it,
thatched cottages drowsed under trees. Unfortunately, the bucketlike boot was so heavy that Sophie
staggered as she landed.
"Don't put that foot down!" Michael yelled, too late.
There was another zipping blur and more rushing wind. When it stopped, Sophie found herself right
down the Folding Valley, almost into Marsh Folding. "Oh, drat!" she said, and hopped carefully round
on her shoe and tried again.
Zip! Blur. And she was back on Upper Folding green again, staggering forward with the weight of the
boot. She had a glimpse of Michael diving to catch her-
Zip! Blur. "Oh, bother!" wailed Sophie. She was up in the hills again. The crooked black shape of the
castle was drifting peacefully nearby. Calcifer was amusing himself blowing black smoke rings from
one turret. Sophie saw that much before her shoe caught in the heather and she stumbled forward again.
Zip! Zip! This time Sophie visited in rapid succession the Market Square of Market Chipping and the
front lawn of a very grand mansion. "Blow!" she cried. "Drat!" One word for each place. And she was
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off again with her own momentum and another Zip! right down at the end of that valley on a field
somewhere. A large red bull raised its ringed nose from the grass and thoughtfully lowered its horns.
"I'm just leaving, my good beast!" Sophie cried, hopping herself round frantically.
Zip! Back to the mansion. Zip! to Market Square. Zip! and there was the castle yet again. She was
getting the hang of it. Zip! Here was Upper Folding-but how did you stop? Zip!
"Oh, confound it!" Sophie cried, almost in Marsh Folding again.
This time she hopped round very carefully and trod with great deliberation. Zip! and fortunately the
boot landed in a cowpat and she sat down with a thump. Michael sprinted up before Sophie could move
and dragged the boot off her foot. "Thank you!" Sophie cried breathlessly. "There seemed no reason
why I should ever stop!"
Sophie's heart pounded a bit as they walked across the common to Mrs. Fairfax's house, but only in the
way heart's do when you have done a lot rather quickly. She felt very grateful for whatever Howl and
Calcifer had done.
"Nice place," Michael remarked as he hid the boots in Mrs. Fairfax's hedge.
Sophie agreed. The house was the biggest in the village. It was thatched, with white walls between the
black beams, and, and Sophie remembered from visits as a child, you walked up to the porch through a
garden crowded with flowers and humming with bees. Over the porch honeysuckle and a white
climbing rose were competing as to which could give most work to the bees. It was a perfect, hot
summer morning down here in Upper Folding.