Stardust: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Diggory’s Dyke is a huge cut in several hills revealing chalk deposits. Anyone traveling to Wall must pass through the Dyke, though few pay much attention to the structure made of sticks and twigs alongside the path. Septimus watches it from the top of the nearby hills for several days and watches the woman who lives there (Morwanneg) stop all travelers coming through the Dyke. This woman, he’s certain, killed Primus. Septimus prefers to poison people when possible, but this woman doesn’t seem to eat. Ultimately, he creeps to the house one dark night and lights a fire in the hut’s wall using paper from a poetry collection as tinder. Then he waits by the door with a club while his dead brothers watch. Primus is the only one unconvinced by Septimus’s plan.

The flames engulf the hut, and Septimus feels like he’s won. But then a small red snake bites his heel through his boot. As he sits down to take his boot off, he realizes his foot is numb—and then the fire goes out. Morwanneg appears behind Septimus, whose heart beats erratically, and scolds him for preying on a vulnerable old lady. She picks up the snake and puts it around her wrist. Septimus doesn’t die until dawn. Then his ghost says that none of his brothers will be Lord of Stormhold, and the dead brothers all disappear.

Madame Semele’s caravan drives through Diggory’s Dyke, and she asks the old woman—Morwanneg—what happened to her house. Morwanneg complains about kids these days playing pranks, and then she demands to know who’s traveling with Madame Semele. Madame Semele can’t help but answer, and she says she has her mules, a servant girl in bird form, and a man in a dormouse’s body. Morwanneg sends Madame Semele on, and Yvaine, sleeping in the caravan, has no idea how much danger she was in. Once the caravan is well past Diggory’s Dyke, the bird sings with glee, not stopping even when Madame Semele threatens it.

The caravan finally reaches the meadow outside Wall. People are setting up tents as Madame Semele pulls the dormouse out of its cage and touches its head with a glass daffodil. Tristran now sits before her, angry, though Madame Semele insists she kept up her end of the bargain. Yvaine joins Tristran, and they watch as Madame Semele turns the bird into a young woman who looks only a bit older than Tristran. Something about her seems familiar. Yvaine points to the chain binding the young woman to the caravan, and while Tristran agrees it’s terrible, he doesn’t think they can do anything to help.

Tristran and Yvaine head for the gap in the wall, Tristran explaining that they’ll visit his parents and then Victoria. But he realizes he hasn’t thought of either of them in a long time, and suddenly, it makes no sense to give the star to Victoria when he knows she’s “not a thing to be passed from hand to hand, but a true person in all respects and no kind of a thing at all.” Still, he loves Victoria. He decides to figure it out later, though he also realizes he doesn’t know anymore what color Victoria’s eyes are. Yvaine asks if Tristran is sure about this, and he assures her that while he’s nervous, it’ll be fine. Yvaine follows him to the gap.