Summary
Castle in The Air is "a companion to Howl's Moving Castle" which is only really apparent in the end when the characters Howl, Sophie, Wizard Solomon, the four year old Princes Victoria, and Sophie's sister Lettie come into play in what leads to the main climax. (Well Howl showed up pretty early but we didn't know it was him so it doesn't count, which I'll get to later.)
Castle in The Air is a story about Abdullah who is a carpet Merchant in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, far south of the Kingdom of Ingary, where Howl's Moving Castle takes place. One day Abdullah is approached by a man who sells him a magical flying carpet, which takes him to the night gardens of a princess named Flower-in-the-Night when he sleeps on it that coming nightfall. The two of them hit it off pretty well. However, Flower-in-the-Night at first mistakes him for a woman because other than her own father, she has not seen any men due to a prophecy from when she was born saying that (aside from him) she would marry the first man she meets. Abdullah promises to come again the next night with 189 pictures (drawn, they don't have cameras) of men of all likenesses. Due to this and a prophecy made on his birth his family in law from his father's first wife (Men can have as many wives as they want in his culture, women can only have one husband. I agree with Flower-in-the-Night. "The frown came back to Flower-in-the-Night's face. "How many husbands are women allowed?" she asked. "Only one!" Abdullah said, rather shocked. "That is extremely unfair." Flower-in-the-Night observed musingly.") it has been said that Abdullah will not carry out the family business after his father has died. Since he is dead and he is suddenly buying paintings, the pushy in-laws decide to try to make him marry two of his second cousins' nieces or something. I don't quite remember the relation. He refuses the two girls (who come into play later) and makes a hasty retreat.
The next night he falls asleep on the carpet again with all of the paintings of men and ends up traveling to Flower-in-the-Night's garden once more as promised. When she looks at all of the pictures she agrees that Abdullah is indeed male and prefers him to all 189 of the other men. After this they try to figure out how to work the magic carpet which needs a command word (more like snore....) when he tells it to go back to his booth to see if it works. It does, and he accidentally leaves her behind. The night after that they try to escape the garden, only to have Flower-in-the-Night captured by an evil (but not really) Djinn. It is then that he is seen by the guards of the palace (Flower-in-the-Night's dad is a Sultan of sorts) but he gets away. The next morning however being that the palace is only about five miles away he is captured and is to be sent to death after marrying Flower-in-the-Night once they find her as to get past the prophecy. Flower-in-the-Night's dad of course won't believe that a Djinn stole away his daughter and they search around the city for her instead. While he is in his cell in a high tower the dog of the stall keeper next to him fly's asleep on the carpet to him, apparently dreaming of when he gave him a bunch of food he didn't want to eat but took to be polite. Then he is able to escape, drop off the dog to where it needs to be, and fly's off into the desert where he comes across bandits and a genie.
He is captured by the bandits, he get away while they sleep with the genie bottle, and the carpet was slept on so it's out of the picture for now. The genie can only grant one wish a day so he wished for his chains to be removed. Then when the bandits or the Sultan's guards or someone is about to catch up to him he uses the wish for the next day to get sent to someone who will help him on his journey who is an old retired warrior who is traveling Ingary for fun. On their travels they come across Midnight and Whippersnapper, a black cat and her kitten. Midnight can turn into a jaguar for reasons explained soon which helps them escape guards again because at this point they are pretty much just fugitives. Once they get to Wizard Suliman's house (since the Moving Castle has been stollen by the Djinn and everyone in it has disappeared) Letty who is now Suliman's wife recognizes Midnight as Sophie and they turn her back, simultaneously turning back Whippersnapper into her and Howl's son Morgan back at the inn the with the soldier. She then explains that Howl had done a scrying spell to see why princesses were disappearing, and if Violate was in any danger when he saw that the Djinn was going to try and capture the house. Soon during a quarrel between him and Sophie about what to do the Djinn comes and Howl turns his pregnant wife into a cat and transport her somewhere near Kingsbury so she can be safe. They then hurry to the inn to find the bottle of genie, Morgan, and the soldier gone, but the carpet left behind. (Oh yeah they had gotten that back.) So Abdullah and Sophie order the carpet to go to where morgan and the Soldier are and it takes them into a castle in the sky, which is really just the moving castle blown up to absurd proportions, which disgusts Sophie. They sneak in and find about thirty princesses and a tantrum throwing Violet who had been captured when they were in the inn. The two Djinns, the bad one, and the good one who is the bad one's brother are there as well, but they don't notice. The good Djinn had his life taken away by his brother, so he pretty much has to do everything he's told to or die. the brother can't do this himself because he was made by a good Djinn, and a bad Djinn, so he's week and no female wants to marry him. This is why he's kidnapping Princesses to be his wives. Even the four year old. Eventually they get the Good one's life back, they all get sent back down to Kingsbury, Flower-in-the-Night sets the genie free and it's apparently Howl, Calcifer is called out and he turns out to be the flying carpet, and so on. Then Flower-in-the-Night and Abdullah get married and everything is back in order. Except for the princesses. They have to be taken back to their kingdoms. but that's okay, because new trade routes! Now for the Djinns. The bad one was offered the two sisters that Abdullah almost had to marry and accepted, making his exile on an island in who knows where better off. The brother however, sent himself into exile as well because he enjoyed doing the horrible things and did not see himself worthy of going back with the others of his kind.
That is Castle In The Air by Diana Wynne Jones, the follow up to Howl's Moving Castle, and before A House of Many Ways.
Castle in The Air is "a companion to Howl's Moving Castle" which is only really apparent in the end when the characters Howl, Sophie, Wizard Solomon, the four year old Princes Victoria, and Sophie's sister Lettie come into play in what leads to the main climax. (Well Howl showed up pretty early but we didn't know it was him so it doesn't count, which I'll get to later.)
Castle in The Air is a story about Abdullah who is a carpet Merchant in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, far south of the Kingdom of Ingary, where Howl's Moving Castle takes place. One day Abdullah is approached by a man who sells him a magical flying carpet, which takes him to the night gardens of a princess named Flower-in-the-Night when he sleeps on it that coming nightfall. The two of them hit it off pretty well. However, Flower-in-the-Night at first mistakes him for a woman because other than her own father, she has not seen any men due to a prophecy from when she was born saying that (aside from him) she would marry the first man she meets. Abdullah promises to come again the next night with 189 pictures (drawn, they don't have cameras) of men of all likenesses. Due to this and a prophecy made on his birth his family in law from his father's first wife (Men can have as many wives as they want in his culture, women can only have one husband. I agree with Flower-in-the-Night. "The frown came back to Flower-in-the-Night's face. "How many husbands are women allowed?" she asked. "Only one!" Abdullah said, rather shocked. "That is extremely unfair." Flower-in-the-Night observed musingly.") it has been said that Abdullah will not carry out the family business after his father has died. Since he is dead and he is suddenly buying paintings, the pushy in-laws decide to try to make him marry two of his second cousins' nieces or something. I don't quite remember the relation. He refuses the two girls (who come into play later) and makes a hasty retreat.
The next night he falls asleep on the carpet again with all of the paintings of men and ends up traveling to Flower-in-the-Night's garden once more as promised. When she looks at all of the pictures she agrees that Abdullah is indeed male and prefers him to all 189 of the other men. After this they try to figure out how to work the magic carpet which needs a command word (more like snore....) when he tells it to go back to his booth to see if it works. It does, and he accidentally leaves her behind. The night after that they try to escape the garden, only to have Flower-in-the-Night captured by an evil (but not really) Djinn. It is then that he is seen by the guards of the palace (Flower-in-the-Night's dad is a Sultan of sorts) but he gets away. The next morning however being that the palace is only about five miles away he is captured and is to be sent to death after marrying Flower-in-the-Night once they find her as to get past the prophecy. Flower-in-the-Night's dad of course won't believe that a Djinn stole away his daughter and they search around the city for her instead. While he is in his cell in a high tower the dog of the stall keeper next to him fly's asleep on the carpet to him, apparently dreaming of when he gave him a bunch of food he didn't want to eat but took to be polite. Then he is able to escape, drop off the dog to where it needs to be, and fly's off into the desert where he comes across bandits and a genie.
He is captured by the bandits, he get away while they sleep with the genie bottle, and the carpet was slept on so it's out of the picture for now. The genie can only grant one wish a day so he wished for his chains to be removed. Then when the bandits or the Sultan's guards or someone is about to catch up to him he uses the wish for the next day to get sent to someone who will help him on his journey who is an old retired warrior who is traveling Ingary for fun. On their travels they come across Midnight and Whippersnapper, a black cat and her kitten. Midnight can turn into a jaguar for reasons explained soon which helps them escape guards again because at this point they are pretty much just fugitives. Once they get to Wizard Suliman's house (since the Moving Castle has been stollen by the Djinn and everyone in it has disappeared) Letty who is now Suliman's wife recognizes Midnight as Sophie and they turn her back, simultaneously turning back Whippersnapper into her and Howl's son Morgan back at the inn the with the soldier. She then explains that Howl had done a scrying spell to see why princesses were disappearing, and if Violate was in any danger when he saw that the Djinn was going to try and capture the house. Soon during a quarrel between him and Sophie about what to do the Djinn comes and Howl turns his pregnant wife into a cat and transport her somewhere near Kingsbury so she can be safe. They then hurry to the inn to find the bottle of genie, Morgan, and the soldier gone, but the carpet left behind. (Oh yeah they had gotten that back.) So Abdullah and Sophie order the carpet to go to where morgan and the Soldier are and it takes them into a castle in the sky, which is really just the moving castle blown up to absurd proportions, which disgusts Sophie. They sneak in and find about thirty princesses and a tantrum throwing Violet who had been captured when they were in the inn. The two Djinns, the bad one, and the good one who is the bad one's brother are there as well, but they don't notice. The good Djinn had his life taken away by his brother, so he pretty much has to do everything he's told to or die. the brother can't do this himself because he was made by a good Djinn, and a bad Djinn, so he's week and no female wants to marry him. This is why he's kidnapping Princesses to be his wives. Even the four year old. Eventually they get the Good one's life back, they all get sent back down to Kingsbury, Flower-in-the-Night sets the genie free and it's apparently Howl, Calcifer is called out and he turns out to be the flying carpet, and so on. Then Flower-in-the-Night and Abdullah get married and everything is back in order. Except for the princesses. They have to be taken back to their kingdoms. but that's okay, because new trade routes! Now for the Djinns. The bad one was offered the two sisters that Abdullah almost had to marry and accepted, making his exile on an island in who knows where better off. The brother however, sent himself into exile as well because he enjoyed doing the horrible things and did not see himself worthy of going back with the others of his kind.
That is Castle In The Air by Diana Wynne Jones, the follow up to Howl's Moving Castle, and before A House of Many Ways.
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