Diana Wynne Jones’s Magic and Myths Collection

“Orion?” Uncle Jolyon boomed. “I put him back amongst the stars of course “ for keeps this time. Asterope’s up there too, as far away from him as she can be.”

“But why shouldn’t they get together?” Troy said.

“Because they dipleased me,” rumbled Uncle Joylon. “The man’s a womaniser.”

“So are you,” Troy pointed out.

“Exactly. And I don’t want any rivals,” Uncle Jolyon boomed. “You, my boy, are now going to spend eternity being punished for your cheek. I haven’t decided what to do to you yet, but I know you’ll never, ever get to build your city.”

While they talked, Hayley got her pocket unzipped and felt the star, tiny, warm and faintly fizzing, roll into the palm of her hand. Flute gently edged up on one side of her and Fiddle on the other. “When I say Now,” Flute murmured, in the faintest of whispers, “push it into him as high up as you can reach.”

Merope said loudly, “This is entirely unjust. I think we’ve all been punished enough.”

“I don’t,” Uncle Jolyon retorted. “You, my good woman, are going back where you were, and so are you, Sisyphus, only this time it will hurt. As for that Hayley— Where is Hayley?”

Hayley was so much smaller than everyone else and Uncle Jolyon now so huge that he evidently had trouble picking her out from among the crowd on the balcony. Flute grinned at Fiddle and Fiddle nodded at Flute, and they both obligingly seized Hayley and boosted her upwards towards Uncle Jolyon’s vast face. Hayley found herself travelling up what seemed half a mile of shirt front.

“Now!” said Flute.

Hayley put out her hand with the star in it and pressed it with all her strength into the middle of Uncle Jolyon’s bulging chest. It twinkled there for just a second and then seemed to dissolve into his enormous body.

Uncle Jolyon made a strange noise, like a very deep organ pipe, and began to spread. He spread and he spread, and grew fainter and more gaseous as he enlarged, and moved away backwards as he grew fainter. Stinging coldness came off him. After that he moved away so rapidly that Hayley could soon see that he had now become a globe, a vast, sulky, yellowish thing, that spread and backed away and spread as it receded, until it was a yellow disc, blotched and banded with dreary red. Then it was shining a circle, and finally it became a large bright star up in the sky.

“Ah,” said Harmony. “The planet Jupiter.”

“Yes,” said Flute. “He can’t do much harm to anyone as a planet.”

“Or only the usual sidereal influences,” Fiddle said. “And those are generally rather jolly.”

They both grinned at Hayley as they lowered her back to the balcony.

“We go now,” Martya announced. “I need my forest.”

The hut at once jolted into its goose-step stride and took them away through the industrial estate “ which now had a seedy, abandoned look “ and then, in remarkably few strides, out on to a mountainside scattered with pine trees. After a few more strides, it stopped in a level place where they could look down on the respectable grey town where Aunt Ellie lived.

Everybody except Martya climbed down the ladder. Hayley was last because she stopped to hug Martya. Martya once again looked extremely surprised, as if nobody else had ever wanted to hug her.

“I’ll come and visit you in the mythosphere,” Hayley called as she too climbed down. She ran over and took hold of both her parents’ hands. I can live with them now! she thought blissfully. No more Grandma. And, whenever I want to, I can go and be a comet.

“We shall be leaving now,” Flute said to her. “This phase is over, so my brother and I change places again.”

“I’ve always wondered when you did that,” Harmony said. “Is it often?”

“Whenever we complete a new strand in the mythosphere,” Fiddle told her. His sober dark suit, as he stood there, was slowly flushing green in the grey evening light. But his eyes still shone blue. Flute’s baggy green clothes were fading to a severe grey, although they remained baggy and his white hair still blew about on his shoulders.

Hayley thought, I’ll still be able to tell them apart in future. She watched the brothers smile at each other and then walk past one another, Fiddle striding to the left and Flute going to the right. A moment later, they were gone.

Everyone let the hut stride away too and began to walk, rather aimlessly, down the mountain.

“Where would you like the three of us to live?” Hayley’s father said to Merope. “I fancy going back to Greece myself.”

“Greece will have changed quite a lot since you were last there,” Merope said. “I don’t think you’ll be a king there any more. Let’s go to Cyprus again.” She shivered in the quiet evening air. “It’s just as warm as Greece there.”

“Oh, but!” Hayley cried out. “If we live abroad, how can I see Troy and Harmony?”

Troy laughed. “Don’t worry. You’ll always find me in the mythosphere. I shall be working on my city there and I’ll need you to design the gardens. And you’ll run into Harmony all the time. She goes everywhere.”

“All the same,” Harmony said, watching Merope shiver, “I think we should go home first. Mother will be fussing, and Merope needs a bath and some better clothes.”

“Oh, yes,” said Troy. “And we never even started on that chocolate cake.” He began to run downhill, but stopped at the next bend in the path, pointing downwards and laughing. When Hayley nosily ran along to see what was amusing him so, she found she could see down into the main street of the town. Strolling down the middle of it was the enormous Highlander, with Aunt Aster clinging lovingly to his arm.

“See that?” Troy said. “This is what happens now you’ve pinned Uncle Jolyon to the sky. We can all do what we want to do. At last!”

More Than a Story (#u96a28334-2f6d-550c-823d-2c51b8ac69e8)

Author’s Note (#ulink_72cbe29d-7ccd-56c5-9b87-a0ae60171805)

Golden Apples (#ulink_9b4c0e4d-f410-575b-863d-e812c8097007)

Mythosphere Match (#ulink_a295dff0-c8c5-50eb-b72d-db660fa48794)

The Solar System (#ulink_dfca25e8-7ba4-5ea4-93dc-2ad725c27b38)

Starry Night (#ulink_e643f890-34db-5c92-a908-a58d4c44012b)

The Western Zodiac (#ulink_3a6a1c66-c3ff-5285-baac-9363f2d7a6bb)

Know Yourself Game (#ulink_af08fe15-1442-5c41-8af4-b2b8be70775e)

If you like, you’ll love… (#ulink_af29382c-ce00-57c7-9e15-c16b8cb81b22)

Answers (#ulink_a3091869-2051-54ba-8e28-f98b78f26f5d)

More than a story © HarperCollins Children’s Books 2008

Author’s Note

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS

The aunts are THE PLEIADES, often known as The Seven Sisters, a star cluster in the general region of The Great Bear. It is possible to count seven of them only out of the corner of your eye. In Ancient Greece, The Pleiades seemed to mingle freely with both mortals and gods, and at least three of them had a love affair with Zeus (Jupiter), chief of the gods of both Greece and Ancient Rome. Uncle Jolyon is JUPITER.

The Pleiades are:

MAIA, whose son by Jupiter is MERCURY (Mercer), the messenger of the gods

ELECTRA, whose children by Jupiter are Harmonia (Harmony) and the man who built and founded the great city of Troy and became its first king

ALCYONE, known to astronomers as Beta Tauri, who seems to have been too lofty to have a love affair with anyone