Stardust Chapter 10 Summary

Stardust

• Tristran walks toward the gap in the wall with Yvaine. He's all set to go through, but the two guys on guard duty, Wystan and Mr. Brown (his former employer) aren't having it and don't let him through. Apparently this kind of thing never, ever happens.
• Tristran gets annoyed, but Yvaine tells him not to start a fight with his people, so back toward the market they go. Tristran helps a lady who's arrived for the market set up her stall, while Yvaine sings to keep them entertained.
• When Tristran crashes out early (hard labor plus wine will do that to you), a dark-haired woman arrives and watches him sleep. She and Yvaine chat, and she lets Yvaine know that if she crosses into Wall, she'll become a cold hunk of dead star.
• The woman identifies herself as the bird in the caravan, and tells Yvaine that even if she's now bound to Tristran, she has a prior commitment. Hint: It's because of that stone she carries around with her. This weirds Yvaine out.
• Next day, Tristran is told to go down to the gap because people want to talk to him. His sister Louisa is waiting, and she's cross because everyone was worried about him. The vicar is there, too, wanting to hear about Tristran's travels, and Mr. Bromios is there to smooth everything over.
• They take Tristran to the inn, where Victoria is waiting to talk to him. She apologizes for sending him on that stupid quest, since she'd figured it was harmless, and she has been feeling guilty about the possibility of his death since he left.
• Oh, and there's a reason why she wouldn't kiss him that night: Mr. Monday had just asked her to marry him. To make things worse, Victoria feels honor-bound to keep her word to Tristran to give him anything he desires if he returns with the star, so she's delayed her wedding to Mr. Monday and been anxious this whole time.
• Tristran thinks this over, and tells her that she promised to give him whatever he desires, and his desire is for her to marry Mr. Monday, and to do it pronto, and to be very happy together. Victoria is obviously relieved.
• Dunstan is waiting to talk to his son, and together they go back to their farmhouse. Tristran asks his dad about the truth of his birth, and Dunstan fills him in on as much as he can. Then they have a nice family meal, though Tristran now knows that the woman he's always believed to be his mother is not.
• Back at Madame Semele's booth, her servant declares that this is the last market she shall ever attend. She holds up the thinning chain keeping her there, and says the conditions are almost fulfilled: She's only bound until the moon loses her daughter and two Mondays come together.
• In another part of the market, the star sits and waits for Tristran, and as she does, a chick strikes up a conversation with her. It's Victoria, and all she can talk about is the wedding. Yvaine is suddenly depressed and considers walking into Wall.
• Then it comes up that Victoria is not marrying Tristran after all, leaving Yvaine relieved. Finally, Tristran shows up a few hours later. He apologizes for leaving her alone, and she tells him why it's better that she didn't go with him to Wall.
• Tristran says that he was saying his goodbyes to his family, because he isn't coming back. Then they kiss for the first time. Ooh la la.
• The booth slave's chain dissolves, and she introduces herself as Lady Una, firstborn and only daughter of the eighty-first Lord of Stormhold. She demands an apology from Madame Semele, then she finds Tristran, calls him "my son," and tells him to ask for what the star carries.
• Now Tristran holds the topaz stone, the Power of Stormhold, making him the next Lord of Stormhold. So… that means he should probably go there and take over the throne, right?
• Yvaine excuses herself from this conversation, since it's clear that his mother has very definite ideas about how much pomp and circumstance they should arrive in.
• While Yvaine walks around, she sees a white-haired, practically blind, old woman. The woman says that she'd originally come to fetch Yvaine's heart, and she almost had it back at the mountain pass.
• Now, though, the heart is no longer Yvaine's own, since she gave it to another. Yvaine tells the old woman that she hopes her sisters won't be too hard on her, and kisses her on the cheek.
• Then Tristran and Yvaine walk off together, away from Wall, into the East.