Stardust Chapter 9

Which Deals Chiefly With the Events at Diggory's Dyke

• This place called Diggory's Dyke is a path leading between two green hills; anyone heading toward Wall has to pass through it.
• A little hut has been set up there, and the little old lady living inside it likes to chat with everyone who passes through. We know this because Septimus knows this. He's staked it out because he's pretty sure that she's the one who killed his brother.
• Should Septimus poison her? Roll a boulder down the hill? In the end, he decides to set her hut on fire, and stand outside the door with a weapon.
• Everything is going according to plan, until a snake bites him in the heel. Septimus thinks that he'll pry off his boot and siphon out the poisoned blood, but suddenly he's paralyzed. The witch emerges from her hut, which is not on fire anymore for some reason, and scolds him.
• Septimus joins the ghosts of his dead brothers, and when they all realize that none of them will be Lord of Stormhold, they vanish from this world.
• Madame Semele reaches the dyke, and the witch-queen questions her. Nope, she hasn't seen the star. Moving right along.
• When they arrive near the town of Wall, Madame Semele disenchants Tristran, who wasn't very happy to have spent however long as a mouse. Still, he hasn't been hurt or anything.
• Tristran gets a glimpse of Madame Semele's helper, who is now in human form. Something about her seems familiar…
• Now it's time to go home to Wall. Yvaine feels nervous, but she'll accompany Tristran no matter what. Tristran is excited, even though he starts to feel guilty about treating Yvaine like an object to hand over to Victoria in order to win her affection. Oh well, he'll sort it all out once they're there.