Talking To Dragons Page 10

  I knew I had to do something, because if I didn’t I was going to drop the sword. I yelled something and pushed. At least, pushing is the only way I can describe what I did. I wasn’t really thinking too clearly by then; I just wanted the lead to go back into the sword and quit hurting.

  I heard a wail from the fire-witch that kind of died out, and the pain stopped very suddenly. I noticed that the sword wasn’t glowing anymore, and then I fell over. It wasn’t that I felt particularly tired or weak; I just couldn’t stand up anymore. The last thing I remember thinking was that I had to hang on to the sword, no matter what.

  I woke up because something small and warm and rough was rubbing my chin. I opened my eyes. Nightwitch was sitting on the ground in front of me, licking my face. I was lying facedown on the moss; I could feel the Sword of the Sleeping King underneath me. It was very uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel like moving. I closed my eyes again.

  Nightwitch hissed and dug her claws into my shoulder. Kittens have surprisingly sharp claws; I opened my eyes again very quickly. The dragon was staring at me from beside Nightwitch. At least, its head was beside Nightwitch; the rest of it wouldn’t fit. It blinked at me.

  “Are you dead?” it asked.

  “No,” I said. I thought about saying something else, but I didn’t have the energy.

  “Oh.” The dragon sounded almost disappointed for a minute. Then it brightened. “I think that fire-witch is.”

  “That’s nice.” I had the feeling I should remember something, but I didn’t want to think hard enough to figure out what. Nightwitch hissed and dug her claws into me again. “Stop that!” I said, and I rolled onto my back to keep her from doing it again.

  “What?” said the dragon.

  “Nightwitch,” I said. Rolling over had taken all the energy I had; I didn’t want to talk anymore. I didn’t even want to think anymore. I wanted the dragon to just leave me alone, but I couldn’t say so without being rude, so I closed my eyes and started drifting off to sleep instead. Then Nightwitch jumped onto my chest and dug her claws in hard.

  I yelled and sat up. Nightwitch jumped down to the ground and ran off. I tried to see where she’d gone and saw Morwen’s bundle instead. Suddenly I realized that I was very hungry. I started to reach for the bundle, then remembered that I was still holding the sword. I also remembered the boiling lead, and I was almost afraid to look at my hands. I was sure that this time I’d burned both of them worse than when I’d picked up the wizard’s staff.

  I looked down. There wasn’t anything wrong with me— at least, not that I could see. I let go of the sword with one hand; it didn’t hurt. I heaved a sigh of relief and put the sword back in its sheath, then got out some of Morwen’s gingerbread and started eating. It was a good thing the food was right on top of the bundle; I didn’t have the strength to hunt for it.

  The dragon watched me for a few minutes with a puzzled expression. “You’re a very good magician,” it said finally. “Where did you learn that spell?”

  “Spell?” I was having a little trouble remembering the details of the fight. I wasn’t sure whether it was because it had hurt so badly or because I was too busy eating.

  “The one you shouted right before the witch went up in smoke,” the dragon said. “You said:

  ‘Power of water, wind, and earth,

  Turn the spell back to its birth.’“

  “Oh, that,” I said. I felt a little silly. “It’s just part of a rhyme Mother taught me when I was little. I don’t know why I said it.”

  “Your mother taught you? But that’s a dragon spell! Your mother couldn’t teach you dragon spells!”

  “You don’t know my mother,” I said. I’d eaten most of the gingerbread, and I was feeling much better. “She taught me two more lines to the rhyme,” I offered. “They go:

  ‘Raise the fire to free the lord

  By the power of wood and sword.’“

  The dragon looked at me suspiciously. “Where did your mother learn dragon spells?”

  “I’m afraid she didn’t tell me,” I said. I finished the gingerbread and looked around. “Where did Shiara...” My voice died in mid-sentence as I remembered exactly where Shiara had been when I saw her last. I didn’t want to look, but I had to. I took a deep breath and turned my head.

  Sometimes, when witches or wizards die, all their spells die with them. If the witch or wizard is skillful, sometimes the spells last. The fire-witch had been skillful. Shiara was still a statue.

  11

  I SAT THERE for a minute, staring at the statue and wondering what to do. Finally I looked at the dragon. “Do you know anything about magic?”

  “Of course I do!” the dragon said. “Everyone who lives in the Enchanted Forest knows about magic.”

  I sighed. “I mean, do you know anything about turning statues that used to be people back into people again? Because I don’t, and we have to figure out some way to fix Shiara.”

  “Oh.” The dragon looked doubtfully at the statue of Shiara. “We could take her to the Living Spring and drop her in,” it suggested. “That would bring her back to life.”

  “You know where the Living Spring is?” I said in surprise.

  “No,” said the dragon. “But I bet if we found it, it would work.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think we have time to look for it,” I said. “There are wizards looking for us, remember?”

  “Oh, that’s right,” the dragon said. “I keep forgetting. I don’t like to think about wizards.” It blinked. “What about your sword? You could say that spell again.”

  I nodded. I walked over to Shiara and pulled the Sword of the Sleeping King out of its sheath. I felt a little uncomfortable, partly because I hadn’t thought of using the sword and partly because the dragon spell was still just one of Mother’s nursery rhymes to me. The idea of standing in the middle of the Enchanted Forest holding a magic sword and reciting nursery rhymes made me feel very silly. I looked at the statue of Shiara again and decided I’d try it anyway. Slowly, I lowered the point so that it touched the statue’s shoulder and said:

  “Power of water, wind, and earth

  Turn the spell back to its birth.

  Raise the fire to free the lord

  By the power of wood and sword.”

  For a minute I thought nothing had happened; then three or four little tingles ran up my arm from the sword. I hadn’t even realized they were missing until they started again. When I finally did notice, I was relieved. I mean. Mother wouldn’t have been at all happy with me if I’d ruined the Sword of the Sleeping King somehow.

  Unfortunately, Shiara was still a statue. “I suppose we’re going to have to look for the Living Spring,” I said. “Unless you have some other ideas.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t,” the dragon said. “I’ve never been on an adventure before. How are we going to find the spring?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Half of the heroes who stopped at our cottage had been looking for the Living Spring, and I’d never heard of one of them finding it. I tried to think of someone who might know where the spring was. “Suz!” I said suddenly.

  “What?” the dragon said.

  “Suz is sort of a friend of mine,” I explained. “He says he knows everything that goes on in the Enchanted Forest; I’m sure he’d know where the Living Spring is. I wish he were here.”

  “You do?” said a squeaky voice by my right foot. “Yes, you really do! How intriguing. Why do you?”

  “Suz!” I said. I looked around until I saw him, then carefully sat down on the ground. “I’m awfully glad to see you. Do you know where the Living Spring is?”

  “The Living Spring?” Suz said. “Dear me! Why do you want to know?”

  “What’s that?” said the dragon, who had finally managed to find the source of the squeaky voice. “It looks like a little dragon.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. This is Suz; I was just telling you about him. He’s not a dragon; he’s a lizard.”

 
“A lizard of extremely good family,” Suz said. He frowned at the dragon, but the dragon didn’t seem to notice. Suz gave up and looked back at me. “Now, why do you want to know about the Living Spring?”

  “Because Shiara got turned into a statue by the fire-witch who lived in the invisible castle,” I said.

  “She did?” The lizard peered around until he saw the statue, then scurried over. He cocked his head briefly and stared upward, then ran up the grey stone in a spiral until he was sitting on one of the statue’s shoulders. “She really did! How exceedingly distressing. What are you going to do about it?”

  “We thought if we dropped the statue into the Living Spring, it would, well, fix Shiara,” I said. “But we don’t know where the spring is.”

  “You don’t? No, of course you don’t. It’s a secret.” Suz peered at me from Shiara’s shoulder. “I suppose you want me to tell you where it is.” He considered for a moment. “I couldn’t possibly do that, so you don’t need to bother asking.”

  “But Suz!” I said. “How else can we fix Shiara? I’ve tried everything we could think of, and nothing worked.”

  “That is extremely obvious,” the lizard said severely. He ran down the side of the statue and stopped right in front of me. “If anything had worked, she wouldn’t be a statue, and you wouldn’t be asking me silly questions,” he said, and did whatever the thing was that he did to balance on his tail. “People who are looking for things in the Enchanted Forest have to find them for themselves. You really ought to know that, you really ought.”

  “Well, what are we going to do about Shiara if you won’t tell us where the spring is?” I said.

  “My goodness gracious, you certainly are persistent,” Suz said. “Have you tried kissing her?”

  “Kissing her?” I said incredulously.

  “Kissing the statue,” Suz explained condescendingly. “It’s one of the standard cures for being made to sleep for years, or being turned into a frog or a statue or something else like that. Have you tried it?”

  I felt my face getting hot. “Um, well, no,” I said.

  “Well, then,” Suz said pointedly.

  I thought about it for a minute or two. I didn’t know whether Shiara would think much of my kissing her, but I didn’t really object, especially if it would break the spell. In fact, I sort of liked the idea. At that point, I stood up very quickly because my face was getting even hotter and I could feel Suz staring at me.

  I was standing right next to the statue, and as soon as I was all the way standing I leaned forward and kissed it. I didn’t want to take time to look before I did it, because I didn’t really want to think about it. First I felt cold stone, but it warmed up right away, and a second later Shiara jerked away and said, “Hey! Daystar, what on earth do you think you’re doing?”

  “It worked!” I said. I was awfully relieved. It would have been a lot of work to carry a statue around with us, and if we hadn’t gotten Shiara turned back into Shiara, we would have had to. Besides, having Shiara back felt good, even if she was glaring at me.

  “What worked?” Shiara demanded suspiciously. “And where did that witch go? She was here a minute ago.”

  “You were a statue,” the dragon informed her. “The fire-witch did it, but Daystar got rid of her. I’m very glad he did,” it added thoughtfully. “I didn’t like her. She wasn’t polite at all, and she.. .and she...” The dragon leaned forward and said in a loud whisper, “And she grew dragonsbane!”

  Shiara stared at the dragon, but before she could say anything there was a loud squeak from behind her, and Suz’s voice started shouting. “Help! Murder! Wild beasts and dangerous lunatics! Oh dear oh my help help goodness gracious help oh!”

  I turned around. Nightwitch had come out from wherever she’d been hiding, and apparently she’d managed to sneak up on Suz while I was, well, kissing Shiara. Suz was rolled into a tight golden ball, and Nightwitch was batting him back and forth between her paws in wide-eyed fascination. I didn’t think she’d ever played with a ball that yelled at her before, which would explain the interest.

  I bent over to pick up Nightwitch, but before I actually got hold of her the lizard uncurled very quickly, slapped his tail sharply against the kitten’s nose, and curled up tight again. He didn’t stop yelling the whole time. The kitten jerked her head back so fast that she sat down hard on her tail, and I grabbed her.

  “It’s all right now, Suz,” I said.

  The lizard poked his nose out of the ball. “You’re quite certain?” he said.

  “Yes, of course,” I said.

  Suz uncurled a little more. “This sort of thing is quite unsettling,” he said. “I do not approve at all. Dear me, no, not at all.”

  “I’m very sorry,” I said. “I’m afraid I didn’t know she was there.”

  “People who keep wild animals ought to know where they are so they don’t go around eating other people,” the lizard said. He uncurled the rest of the way and lay on the moss, peering reproachfully up at me.

  I bent down, and Suz scooted back a couple of feet. “You keep that, that beast away from me!”

  “Nightwitch isn’t a wild animal,” Shiara said indignantly. “She’s a kitten. And I don’t believe she meant to eat you; she just wanted to play.”

  “She’s too young to know better,” I said. Shiara glared at me, and I added hastily, “Nightwitch, I mean.”

  “She is?” The lizard squinted at Nightwitch from a safe distance. “Yes, I suppose she is,” he said reluctantly. “How unfortunate. I really do think I had better leave. Dear me, yes, I really must.”

  Suz nodded and headed off into the woods. “Suz, wait!” Shiara called.

  The lizard stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “What is it?”

  “I’m sorry Nightwitch scared you,” Shiara said.

  “You are?” Suz turned around and ran back to where Shiara was standing. He cocked his head at her, then did his tangled tail-balancing trick and stared up at her. “Why, you really are! How astonishing! How extraordinary! How extremely unexpected!”

  I was a little surprised myself, but I didn’t think it was quite that unusual. I didn’t mention it, though; I had a few other things I wanted to ask Suz as long as he was still around.

  “Suz?” The lizard turned his head and looked at me. “What’s the best way to get to the castle where Kazul lives from here?” I asked.

  “Why, it’s—” Suz paused. “Dear me, there seems to be an invisible castle in the way. How ridiculous. I’m afraid you’ll just have to go around.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” I said. “But thank you anyway.”

  “It’s quite all right. And I really must be going now, I really must. Good-bye.” Suz bowed politely, then did a quick backflip and scurried off into the woods.

  “And thank you for telling me how to change Shiara back!” I called.

  Suz didn’t answer. I turned back to find Shiara glaring at me again.

  “All right, Daystar, explain. What’s all this about statues and getting rid of witches?”

  “I already told you all that,” the dragon said in an injured tone. “Why do you want him to tell you again?”

  “Because I didn’t understand it when you told it,” Shiara said. She sounded a lot like Mother. “And I want to know what’s been going on.” She sat down on the ground and looked at me. “So explain.”

  I explained. Shiara let me talk until I started to explain how we’d finally turned her from a statue back into Shiara, but then she interrupted. “You don’t have to keep going,” she said. She gave me an odd look. “I remember that part.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry,” I offered. My face was getting hot again. “But no one could think of anything else, and it did work.”

  Shiara wasn’t paying much attention. “Daystar, did your sword burn your hands when Antorell tried to throw that spell at you?” she said suddenly.

  “No,” I said, relieved by the change of subject. “It didn’t do anything a
t all.”

  “It did too!” Shiara said. “It ate Antorell’s spell, or something, without doing anything to you. Why didn’t it do that to the fire-witch’s spell?”

  “Who’s Antorell?” asked the dragon.

  “The wizard you were sneezing at when we met,” I said. “He’s not very pleasant.”

  “Wizards aren’t,” the dragon said.

  “Daystar, this is important!” Shiara said. “Do you know why your sword didn’t do the same thing to the fire-witch that it did to Antorell?”

  “Maybe the sword works differently on wizards than it does on fire-witches,” I said. “I wish it would get rid of Antorell; then I could stop worrying about him.”

  Shiara said something else, but I missed it. All of a sudden I had the same itchy feeling I’d had earlier, as if someone were watching me. I looked over my shoulder, but there wasn’t anyone there. Just trees.

  “Daystar?” Shiara almost sounded worried.

  “I’m all right,” I said. “But can we get started and talk about this more somewhere else? We still have to get to see Kazul, and there’s an invisible castle in the way.”

  “Shouldn’t we do something about the people she turned into statues for her garden?” Shiara said, looking nervously at the clearing where the castle ought to be.

  “Why?” said the dragon in a puzzled tone.

  “Because it wouldn’t be right to just leave them here,” I said.

  No one seemed to like the idea of going into the castle. No one wanted to leave the fire-witch’s statue people there without trying to rescue them, either. We spent a little while trying to figure out how to get into the castle. Shiara wanted to climb over the wall, but I didn’t think that was a very good idea if we couldn’t see the wall or what was on the other side. Finally, she agreed to help me look for a door or a gate or something.

  We stretched our hands out in front of us and walked carefully toward the castle. It wasn’t there. We went a little farther; it still wasn’t there. We walked around the clearing for a while, while the dragon watched with interest. Eventually, we gave up.