Stardust

Tristran is exploring Faerie. He lies back and looks at the stars, beginning to dream of his home village. A stranger nearby asks Tristran to dream more quietly. When Tristran wakes, the stranger has made them both breakfast. He introduces himself as Charmed and, unknown to Tristran, is the same stranger who shared Dunstan’s barn the year Tristran was conceived. They walk through the forest together, and Tristran explains the nature of his journey.

Charmed expresses disdain for Victoria and her demands. He suggests keeping his knowledge of the star quiet, as “[t]here’s those as would be unhealthily interested in such information” (85). They discuss a nursery rhyme from Tristran’s childhood, which Charmed believes to be a powerful spell. Suddenly, they realize they’re lost and have walked into a trap; the trees around them are malevolent. Tristran is able to guide them back onto the path where they’re safe.

They continue forward, and Charmed stops Tristran to ask about his family. He verifies that Tristran is able to locate places in Faerie even if he’s never seen them. Tristran also knows the precise location of the star. Charmed wants to repay Tristran’s help by assisting him in his quest.

Meanwhile, the three living lords of Stormhold bring their father’s body to the Hall of Ancestors before spending the night in an inn. Each of them drink separate bottles of wine, fearing poisoning from each other. That night, a maid comes to Tertius’s room and seduces him. She offers him wine, and he immediately falls very ill.

The maid confesses she received the wine from Tertius’s brother. In the morning, Septimus has fled. Primus instructs the maid to accompany his brother’s body home. Elsewhere, a young boy named Brevis is taking a goat to sell at a market. The goat is old and cantankerous, and Brevis needs to find a buyer so he can feed himself and his mother. On his way, he meets the witch of the Lilim. She offers to buy the goat for an extraordinary amount. The witch then turns Brevis into a goat too, and the pair of them pull the witch’s chariot.

Charmed has taken Tristran’s torn clothes and gone off to find new ones. While Tristran waits, a cloud of pixies fly around him and sing taunting songs. Charmed brings back a new outfit, which is garish and unlike the clothes he is used to. Once he has them on, however, Tristran feels renewed. Charmed helps Tristran by giving him tools to take with him on his journey: a stubby candle that will help him travel long distances, and a special chain to capture the star. Tristran lights the candle and is able to cross great lengths with each step.

When he arrives in the glade, he meets Yvaine; she has been crying, and her leg was damaged in her fall. She hurls insults at him and wants to be left alone. Tristran begins to understand that the woman is the star. He uses the chain to link them together. Just as he prepares to return home, his candle burns out and leaves them stranded. Instead, Tristran goes to sleep.

In the morning, Tristran tends to Yvaine’s injury and tries to explain his actions: He is trying to win Victoria’s heart. Yvaine is unsympathetic. As they begin to travel, Yvaine shows him the Stormhold necklace that dropped her from the sky. They arrive at a clearing and discover a crown lying in the grass; suddenly, a lion and a unicorn arrive in the midst of a fight. The unicorn is badly injured, and Yvaine implores Tristran to help. He remembers a nursery rhyme about a lion and a unicorn “fighting for the crown” (123). He goes to the crown and brings it to the lion. The lion accepts it and leaves. Yvaine insists they stay with the unicorn.

Elsewhere, the witch-queen of the Lilim meets another witch named Madame Semele, who is sitting by a caravan with a chained bird—the same witch whose enslaved servant sold the glass snowdrop to Dunstan. Madame Semele pretends to be a helpless old woman, but the witch-queen recognizes her as her own kind.

The two witches sit down to eat together. As they converse, the witch-queen tells Madame Semele of her search for the star and is horrified to find she’s been fed an herb of truth. In response, the witch-queen curses Madame Semele to be unable to perceive the star in any way and to forget their meeting. Meanwhile, evading Septimus, Primus arrives in a port town called Scaithe’s Ebb and rents a room. He prepares to board a ship and makes sure everyone in town knows. When the day comes to sail, Septimus sneaks on after him; however, Primus has stayed on land and shaved his beard, travelling in the other direction.

As the unicorn has healed, Yvaine and Tristran begin riding its back so they can move more efficiently. As they arrive at a village, Tristran unchains himself from her so he can go get them supplies. He returns soon after with an armful of food, but Yvaine and the unicorn have gone. Around Faerie, the witch-queen is tracking the star, and Primus is using his runes to track her necklace.