A Hat Full Of Sky

space. In a way that was almost impossible to describe, they seemed to be more real than others around them. They just showed more. But if they didn’t want to be seen, they became amazingly hard to notice. They didn’t hide, they didn’t magically fade away, although it might seem like that; but if you had to describe the room afterward, you’d swear there hadn’t been a witch in it. They just seemed to let themselves get lost.
    “Ah yes, well done,” said Miss Tick. “I was wondering when you’d notice.”
    Ha! thought Tiffany.
    Miss Level got realer as she walked toward them. She was all in black, but clattered slightly as she walked because of all the black jewelry she wore, and she did have glasses, too, which struck Tiffany as odd for a witch. Miss Level reminded Tiffany of a happy hen. And she had two arms, the normal number.
    “Ah, Miss Tick,” she said. “And you must be Tiffany Aching.”
    Tiffany knew enough to bow; witches don’t curtsy (unless they want to embarrass Roland).
    “I’d just like to have a word with Miss Level, Tiffany, if you don’t mind,” said Miss Tick, meaningfully. “Senior witch business.”
    Ha! thought Tiffany again, because she liked the sound of it.
    “I’ll just go and have a look at a tree then, shall I?” she said with what she hoped was withering sarcasm.
    “I should use the bushes if I was you, dear,” Miss Level called after her. “I don’t like stopping once we’re airborne.”
    There were some holly bushes that made a decent screen, but after being talked to as though she was ten years old, Tiffany would rather have allowed her bladder to explode.
    I beat the Queen of the Fairies! she thought as she wandered into the woods. All right, I’m not sure how, because it’s all like a dream now, but I did do it!
    She was angry at being sent away like that. A little respect wouldn’t hurt, would it? That’s what the old witch Mistress Weatherwax had said, wasn’t it? “I show you respect, as you in turn will respect me .” Mistress Weatherwax, the witch who all the other witches secretly wanted to be like, had shown her respect , so you’d think the others could make a bit of effort in that department.
    She said: “See me.”
    …and stepped out of herself and walked away toward Miss Tick and Miss Level, in her invisible ghost body. She didn’t dare look down, in case she saw her feet weren’t there. When she turned and looked back at her solid body, she saw it standing demurely by the holly bushes, clearly too far away to be listening to anyone’s conversation.
    As Tiffany stealthily drew nearer, she heard Miss Tick say:
    “—but quite frighteningly precocious.”
    “Oh dear. I’ve never got on very well with clever people,” said Miss Level.
    “Oh, she’s a good child at heart,” said Miss Tick, which annoyed Tiffany rather more than “frighteningly precocious” had.
    “Of course, you know my situation,” said Miss Level, as the invisible Tiffany inched closer.
    “Yes, Miss Level, but your work does you great credit. That’s why Mistress Weatherwax suggested you.”
    “But I am afraid I’m getting a bit absentminded,” Miss Level worried. “It was terrible flying down here, because like a big silly I left my long-distance spectacles on my other nose….”
    Her other nose? thought Tiffany.
    Both witches froze, exactly at the same time.
    “I’m without an egg!” said Miss Tick.
    “I have a beetle in a matchbox against just such an emergency!” squeaked Miss Level.
    Their hands flew to their pockets and pulled out string and feathers and bits of colored cloth—
    They know I’m here! thought Tiffany, and whispered, “See me not!”
    She blinked and rocked on her heels as she arrived back in the patient little figure by the holly bushes. In the distance Miss Level was frantically making a shamble and Miss Tick was staring around the woods.
    “Tiffany, come here at once!” she shouted.
    “Yes, Miss Tick,” said Tiffany, trotting forward like a good girl.
    They spotted me somehow, she thought. Well, they are witches, after all, even if in my opinion they’re not very good ones—
    Then the pressure came. It seemed to squash the woods flat and filled it with the horrible feeling that something is standing right behind you. Tiffany sank to her knees with her hands over her ears and a pain like the worst earache squeezing her head.
    “Finished!” shouted Miss Level. She held up a shamble. It was quite different from