“My warrior has returned,” Mrs. Phillips said, holding him at arm’s length.
“Do I look any different?” asked William.
“Perhaps a little wiser,” she said, cocking her head to one side. “But otherwise no different.”
“But don’t I look taller and stronger now that I have defeated the wizard?” He flexed the muscles in his right arm.
“Nonsense. You were always strong enough. You just didn’t believe it.”
They ate dinner together in the courtyard the way they had during the week of training. The table seemed larger and less welcoming without the knight.
“Sir Simon sent you his best wishes,” William told her.
“He’s a good man with a big heart, but he lacks imagination. My dear husband, Alfred, was the same way. He would attack one problem over and over again like a baby butting its head against the side of its crib. But that’s neither here nor there. I want you to tell me about your adventures.”
“Didn’t the tapestry show you?” William asked.
“Yes. I know the bare outlines. Now I want to hear the details.”
William told her the whole story, dragging out the scary parts and glossing over the moments when he’d made a mistake or his courage had failed him. When he was done, she sat back in her chair as if she’d just finished an enormous meal.
“Now you know the answer to all your own questions, William. A truly courageous person is the one who must first conquer fear within himself.” She stood up. “Come with me to view your booty.”
“What do you mean, my booty?” he asked as he followed her up the tower stairs. When she pushed open her bedroom door, he could see nothing different about the room. He stepped forward to examine the tapestry that stood in front of the fireplace, but her voice stopped him.
“Not that, William. Over in the corner behind you.”
He turned around, vaguely aware of a dark shape over his right shoulder. He had taken two more steps across the room before he realized what he was looking at. “It’s the wizard,” he cried. “In lead. So this is where Calendar sent him.”
“A few days ago, he appeared in my room out of nowhere. I looked up from my stitching and there he was. I knew from the tapestry that you’d triumphed, but I didn’t expect such an unwelcome visitor.”
William walked up and looked more closely at his old enemy’s face. It was frozen in the look of horror that the mirror had produced, the creases around his lips and eyes curled into gray metal, the mouth open in an anguished cry.
“He saw a locust in the mirror. It must have been horrible,” William said in a voice filled with awe. “I’m glad I broke the mirror. Nobody should have the power to look at the secrets inside another person.” He reached up to touch the wizard’s cheek.
“Don’t, William!” Mrs. Phillips cried. “Remember what your touch will do.”
He drew his hand back just in time. “I forgot,” he said, his voice shaky.
Mrs. Phillips took his arm and led him gently away.
They decided to spend one more night in the castle. The two of them secured the drawbridge and took a last stroll around the wall walk.
“I’m not quite ready to go back,” William said.
“I know what you mean,” Mrs. Phillips said. “The world out there doesn’t seem quite as important anymore, although I shall be glad to get a new jar of Marmite and take a brisk walk in the countryside instead of around and around the courtyard.”
“I had forgotten you’ve been cooped up in here a pretty long time.”
She stopped and looked at him. “Now, when I head down that path to the bus stop tomorrow afternoon, William, no funny business, right?”
“Right,” he said. “Although I do have this special token that makes people green from the roots of their hair right down to their toenails. Don’t you think your brother would like you to come home a whole new color?” He dodged away from the punch that she aimed at his shoulder.
The next morning they ate the last of the granola for breakfast and changed into their old clothes. They met downstairs in the courtyard and raised the portcullis together.
“You get the wooden doors, William,” said Mrs. Phillips. She was carrying her suitcase, the old blue raincoat, and the fire screen. She saw William looking at it.
“I know it will be clumsy, but I want a record of our adventures,” she said a bit sheepishly. “Have you got everything? Where’s Bear?”
“In my backpack. I wouldn’t leave him behind no matter what,” William said.
“Where shall we do it?”
“Just outside the castle, so we don’t damage anything when we grow. If we stood on the drawbridge, we’d break it.”
“You’re right. I’ve gotten awfully used to myself this size,” she said.
“Sure you don’t want to stay this way?” he asked.
“Yes, young William, I am very sure,” she replied with just a hint of Sir Simon in her voice. “Now, lower the drawbridge, my lord. We have business to attend to outside the castle.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
Arm in arm, they walked over the wooden planks for the last time. “Look back,” she said. “It will never look this way again.” William remembered the time he’d seen the castle when the Silver Knight first made him small. Every detail of the stonework and every line in the planking had suddenly stood out.
After a moment, she pulled open the leather pouch and he produced the necklace.
“Does it need to be back together?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Let’s try it that way first.”
They pressed the two halves of the token together and snapped the clasps on either side.
“I’ll do you first,” he said. “It’s only fair.”
Before she could object, he pointed the key side of the token at her and said the word “Janus.” Suddenly he was looking at the pattern of holes in the toes of her comfortable brown shoes. She knelt down and picked him up very carefully.
“Now I know how you felt,” he called out to her.
“I’m putting you down on the top stair where I can point it at you,” she said quietly. “Put the token in the palm of my hand.”
He dropped it carefully. He felt himself being lifted up again. It was an eerie sensation that reminded him of going up in an elevator, except this one had no sides. He glanced down at Mrs. Phillips’s palm.
“You have an enormous life line,” he called, and she smiled.
“Crawl off now, but be careful you don’t tumble over the edge.”
William stationed himself in the middle of the top step and waited. She was leaning over the castle.
“What are you doing?” he called.
She put the roof back down on top of the bedchambers. “Getting the wizard,” she replied as she slipped the lead figure into her pocket. “It’s not safe to leave him here with you. You might forget one day and pick him up.”
“Why don’t you just put me in the other pocket and take me to England with you?” he said.
“Oh, William, don’t tempt me,” she said. Her voice sounded gruff. “Are you ready to grow?”
He nodded. As she pointed, holding the token in between her thumb and her index finger, he closed his eyes again. Except for the slight sensation of air passing his face, he felt nothing.
“Open your eyes, William,” she said, and he knew the magic had worked for the last time.
Downstairs, the clock was striking four-fifteen. They stopped for a moment in the kitchen so that she could look around.
“Just when I left,” he said, nodding at the calendar by the refrigerator. “You know how careful Mom is about crossing off the days.” He glanced at her. “I’m sorry about the time you lost.”
“It makes me feel younger,” she said with a smile. “We’d better go. The bus should be coming soon.”
He took her suitcase, and they walked out the same path they had taken before.
“Do you still have the token?” he asked.
“Yes. The wizard’s in one pocket and the token’s in the other. I’ll drop them both off the side of the ship when I cross the Atlantic.”
“Want to see my floor routine for the meet? I could do it right here on the grass,” he said. “We have time before the bus comes.”
“Robert wouldn’t approve. The ground is so uneven.”
“Never mind, we won’t tell him,” William said.
“All right,” she said. “Do the one you used to knock over Alastor.”
So right there on the grass, he did a round-off, two back handsprings, with an Arabian front somersault.
“No spotting,” she cried as she burst into applause. “That’s all I ever was. Your spotter.”
He ran to her, and she put her arms around him one last time. “Goodbye,” he said into her rumpled dress. They both could hear the roar of the bus’s engines as it started up the last hill toward them. He hung on until the last minute, but in the end he was the first to take his arms away. She picked up her suitcase and climbed the bus steps without looking back. Long after the door had closed and the bus had grumbled away from the stop, he stood on the side of the road and waved.
When he went back into the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal, he noticed the note taped under the telephone. “William, Chicken with cashew nuts tonight. I’ll do the shopping. Love, Dad.”