Dealing With Dragons Page 16

  “What is all this?” said the escort dragon, landing carefully beside Woraug. The clearing was getting rather crowded.

  “A plot to cheat on the test to see who the next King of the Dragons will be,” Cimorene said. “Woraug was in it, and a lot of wizards.”

  “Are you all right?” Alianora asked the stone prince, who was just picking himself up. His stone was black in places from the dragon fire, but otherwise he seemed unhurt.

  “More or less,” the stone prince said. “But just look what that fire did to my clothes! And that dragon’s put a chip in my sleeve. What am I supposed to do about that? It’s not as if I can just change clothes when I get home, you know.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” the escort dragon told Cimorene. “No dragon would cooperate with wizards. I don’t see any wizards, either. I think you’re making it up.”

  “Of course you don’t see any wizards,” Cimorene said, feeling very cross. “We melted them.”

  “Melted them?”

  “Where do you think those staffs came from?” Cim­orene pointed at the wizards’ staffs lying across the scattered brown puddles.

  The dragon backed up a pace and sniffed experimentally.

  “It’s all quite true,” Morwen said, poking her head out of the bushes. “And we’ll be more than happy to explain the whole thing to your new King as soon as you have one. Provided, of course, that you take that maniac away before he burns the whole Enchanted Forest to the ground.” She gestured at Woraug. “Cimorene, I really must insist on getting a copy of that fireproofing spell. It will clearly be worth every minute of the months of hunting it will take me to find some hens’ teeth, and I may as well get started as soon as I can.”

  “Who’s that?” said the escort dragon. “Morwen? That does it! This is too much for me. I’m taking you all into custody until the trials are over and the King can sort it out. Come along.”

  “I assume that doesn’t apply to me,” Woraug rumbled. He winced as he spoke.

  “It certainly does,” the escort dragon said. “I said all, and I meant all. If I’d meant ‘all the humans,’ I’d have said ‘all the humans,’ or maybe ‘some of you’ or ‘you over there’ or ‘all you non-dragons’ or—”

  “Nonsense!” Woraug interrupted. “Don’t you know who I am?”

  “You’re the dragon who caused a ruckus just now for no reason I can see,” the escort dragon replied. “And it’s my duty and my job to take you into custody. When the trials are over, you can explain it to the King, and if I’ve done something wrong, well, I’ll take what I have coming. And if I haven’t, you’ll take yours. And—”

  “All right, all right,” Woraug said. “But I warn you, you’ll regret this.”

  “That’s as may be,” the escort dragon said with dignity. “Right now, though, you’re in custody along with the rest of these people, and you’d better not go snacking on any of them until things are sorted out. I saw what you did to the gray one.”

  “Did you?” said the stone prince. “Then what are you going to do about this chip in my sleeve?”

  “Tell it to the King,” the escort dragon advised. “Now, off we go, the lot of you.”

  Morwen came cautiously out of the bushes, brushing leaves from her already wet black robes. She stopped and peered at the escort dragon over the tops of her glasses. “This has not been a good day for anyone’s clothes,” she said severely. “I shall send the cleaning bill to your king.”

  “Whatever you want,” the escort dragon said impatiently. “Come on.”

  Scowling furiously, Woraug marched off into the forest. The stone prince and Alianora followed, talking in low voices. Morwen paused to pick up the wizards’ black rock and Cimorene’s pebble, then went on after them. Cimorene hesitated.

  “Go on,” said the escort dragon.

  “I will, but I think you ought to know that another batch of wizards is supposed to show up soon,” Cim­orene said. “Zemenar said something about a second shift. I don’t know what they can do without the stone they were using, but I’m sure they’ll try something.”

  “Wizards always do,” the escort dragon said with a sigh. He studied the wizards’ staffs that were lying around the clearing with a melancholy air. “All right, I’ll send someone back to keep an eye on things as soon as we get to the ford. Whatever was going on here, there certainly were wizards in it, and that’s enough for me.”

  “Good,” said Cimorene. “And thank you.” She smiled at the startled expression on the dragon’s face and started after the others.

  15

  In Which the Dragons Crown a New King, and Cimorene Gets a New Job

  THE WALK TO THE FORD OF WHISPERING SNAKES took longer than Cimorene expected. The trees of the Enchanted Forest grew close together in many places, forcing the dragons to take a zigzag path instead of heading straight up the bank of the river. Woraug, who was in the lead, seemed to be deliberately setting a slow pace. Cimorene was sure he was hoping that the second shift of wizards would arrive at the blackberry clearing before the dragons at the ford had been warned. She had no idea what would happen then, but she doubted that it would be good. The escort dragon was not interested in Cimorene’s worries, however, and he refused to speed things up, so the group ambled on.

  As they approached the ford at last, they heard cheering ahead of them. Woraug flinched visibly, and Alianora and the stone prince were startled out of their quiet conversation.

  “What’s that?” Alianora said.

  “Sounds to me as if we have a new King,” their escort said with great satisfaction. “That means I can get you lot off my hands right away. What a relief! I thought I was going to be stuck with you for hours.”

  Alianora looked faintly indignant at this unflattering opinion. Morwen was merely amused. Woraug’s wings sagged momentarily, but then he seemed to pull himself back together, and he continued on as confidently as ever. Cimorene’s concern deepened. What if Woraug managed to convince the new King that they were all lying?

  They reached the edge of the cheering crowd of dragons. “Who did it?” the escort dragon asked. “Who’s the new King?”

  “How should I know?” the other responded. “I can’t see a thing from way out here.”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” the escort dragon said. Then he raised his voice and shouted, “Make way! Coming through! Prisoners for the King! Make way!”

  The crowd of dragons parted reluctantly, and the escort dragon herded the group forward, still shouting. They made their way through the cheering dragons until they reached the edge of the river. “Stand away!” shouted someone in the crowd. “Stand away for the King!”

  The nearby dragons drew back, leaving Woraug, the escort dragon, and Cimorene and her friends standing by themselves on the trampled moss. As the dragons moved away, Cimorene caught sight of Kazul, lying comfortably beside the river. “Kazul!” Cimorene cried, and ran forward. “Are you all right?”

  A mottled dragon standing beside Kazul shifted and flicked his tail angrily at Cimorene. “You should say ‘Your Majesty,’” he said with a warning scowl.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Frax. She’s my princess,” Kazul said. “I’m quite all right, Cimorene. What are you doing here?”

  “You’re the new King of the Dragons?” Cimorene said in astonishment. “But—but when you left this morning, you could barely fly! How did you get Colin’s Stone all the way from here to the Vanishing Mountain?”

  “Colin’s Stone apparently does more than merely pick out the right King,” Kazul said. “The minute I picked it up, I felt fine.”

  “This is impossible!” Woraug said.

  “Are you accusing me of fraud?” Kazul asked mildly.

  “He’d better not,” Cimorene said. “He’s the one who was cheating, with the help of Zemenar and the rest of the wizards.”

  “Really,” Kazul said in tones of great interest.

  “It’s all nonsense,” Woraug declared. “The girl’s just trying to at
tract attention.”

  “Really,” Kazul said again, and smiled, displaying all her silver teeth.

  “Oh, come now, Kazul. Surely you won’t take a mere princess’s word over mine,” Woraug said.

  “That depends entirely on what she says. Tell us about it, Princess,” Kazul commanded.

  So Cimorene told them. She brought the stone prince forward to explain what he had overheard the wizards and Woraug discussing in the banquet hall, and she made Alianora tell everyone about melting wizards with wash water and lemon juice. She told about getting to the Ford of Whispering Snakes on the first feather and being unable to convince any of the dragons to listen to her. She told about going to Morwen’s house to find out where the wizards were, and about using the last feather to get to the wizards and melt them. She described Zemenar’s unexpected appearance and subsequent melting, and the way Morwen had broken the wizards’ spell, and she finished with an account of Woraug’s futile attack.

  “And then he landed”—Cimorene waved in the direction of the escort dragon—“and decided to bring us all back here. And I think somebody ought to go back to that clearing where the blackberries are before the next batch of wizards arrives. I don’t know what they’ll do when they find out what’s happened, but . . .”

  “Yes, I see,” said Kazul. She turned to a pale green dragon beside her. “Take five or six of the younger dragons—the ones who’ve been talking about starting a wizard-hunt—and go have a look at this blackberry clearing.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” said the pale dragon with a fierce grin.

  “Surely you don’t believe this!” Woraug said.

  Kazul stared at Woraug without saying anything, and the dragons around the edge of the circle rattled their scales.

  “Ah—Your Majesty,” Woraug added hastily.

  “Why should I disbelieve it?” Kazul said, still watching Woraug.

  “The whole thing is preposterous!” Woraug said. “How could wizards do anything to affect Colin’s Stone? Your Majesty.”

  Kazul looked at Cimorene.

  “I’m sorry, Kazul,” Cimorene said, shaking her head. “I know what the wizards were trying to do, but I don’t have the slightest idea how they were doing it.”

  “I believe I can explain that, Your Majesty,” Morwen said. She stepped forward, tossing and catching the wizards’ black rock casually in her right hand. “They were using this. I believe you’ll find that it comes from the Caves of Fire and Night. From the King’s Cave, in fact, where Colin’s Stone was found. And one of the properties of the Caves of Fire and Night is that you can use one piece to cast spells which affect similar pieces.”

  “Just the way that impossible book says!” Cimorene exclaimed.

  “DeMontmorency? Yes, I suppose he is fairly impossible,” Morwen said.

  “Is this sufficiently similar to Colin’s Stone that the wizards could have affected the stone through it?” Kazul asked.

  “Certainly, Your Majesty,” Morwen said.

  “This is—” Woraug began.

  “—ridiculous, impossible, and unbelievable,” Kazul said. “You’ve said that already. But I haven’t heard you say anything particularly convincing in support of that attitude.”

  “Oh, really, Your Majesty!” Woraug said. “Next you’ll be saying I poisoned King Tokoz!”

  “It doesn’t seem likely,” Kazul admitted, “since Tokoz was poisoned with dragonsbane, and dragons can’t get anywhere near the stuff without feeling the effects.”

  “What if Zemenar made a . . . a dragonsbane-proof packet for him to carry it in?” Cimorene said, thinking of the bag Antorell had been carrying when she and Alianora met him in the valley. “Something that would melt when he dropped it in the King’s coffee.”

  “I suppose it’s possible,” Kazul said. “But there’s no evidence at all that Zemenar did any such thing.”

  “What would it have looked like?” Alianora asked suddenly. “Would it have been something like a very large tea bag?”

  Everyone turned to look at Alianora. “I think that would have worked quite well, Princess,” Kazul said. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because Woraug had something like that with him when he went to see King Tokoz the night before the King was killed,” Alianora said. “I saw it.”

  An angry muttering ran through the crowd of dragons.

  “Lies!” Woraug snarled. “They’re all lies!”

  “Are they?” Kazul said coldly. “I don’t think so. You must have wanted to be King very badly indeed.”

  “I—” Woraug darted a glance around the circle of dragons. What he saw did not appear to reassure him. “No!”

  “Consorting with wizards, killing the King, and plotting to cheat in the trials with Colin’s Stone,” Kazul said as if Woraug had not spoken. “Hardly proper behavior for a dragon.”

  The crowd muttered agreement. Cimorene looked from Woraug to Kazul and back. Woraug appeared to be terrified of something, but Cimorene could not tell what it was. He crouched and seemed to shrink away from Kazul, drawing his wings in close and making himself as small as possible. Cimorene blinked. It was remarkable how much smaller Woraug could make himself look. In fact . . .

  “He’s shrinking!” Cimorene exclaimed.

  “No!” Woraug cried again, but it was much too late. He shrank faster and faster, his wings melting into ridges along his back and his claws retracting. He was barely as tall as Cimorene’s shoulder. Then, with a sudden shiver, he collapsed in on himself. A small rain of scales pattered to the ground. A moment later, an extremely warty toad with angry red eyes crawled clumsily out of the center of the pile.

  “Is that—is that Woraug?” Alianora asked in a hushed tone.

  The toad turned and glared at her, and she stepped back a pace. The stone prince put a protective arm around Alianora’s shoulders and glared back at the toad.

  “Behave, or I’ll step on you,” he said.

  “Yes, it’s Woraug,” Kazul said. She sounded almost sad. “That’s what happens when a dragon stops acting like a dragon.”

  The toad turned his glare in Kazul’s direction, then hopped off and disappeared among the stones along the riverbank.

  Alianora shuddered. Kazul studied her for a moment. “You were Woraug’s princess, weren’t you? I’m sorry about all this, but it couldn’t be helped. It won’t take long to find you another dragon.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about finding her another dragon,” Cimorene said. She had been watching Alianora and the stone prince, and an idea had occurred to her.

  “What? Why not?” said Kazul.

  “Because the stone prince fought with Woraug, and Woraug certainly didn’t win. Doesn’t that mean that he gets to rescue Woraug’s princess?”

  “I’m not sure the rules cover this situation at all,” Kazul said. “But it sounds reasonable enough, and under the circumstances I doubt that anyone will object. Unless of course she does.”

  “Oh!” said Alianora, and blushed a rosy red. “No, I don’t object at all!”

  “Are you sure?” the stone prince said anxiously. “You won’t mind waiting a while to marry me? I mean, if you’re willing to marry me? You needn’t, you know, if the idea doesn’t appeal to you.”

  “It appeals to me very much,” Alianora said, blushing redder than ever. “But why do you say that we have to wait?”

  The stone prince sighed. “I still have to find a king and do him a great service, and that’s bound to take a while.”

  “For a young man as intelligent as you seem to be, you’re remarkably foolish,” Morwen commented. “What on earth do you think you’ve just done?”

  An expression of astonishment spread across the prince’s face. “You mean the king I was supposed to serve is the King of the Dragons?”

  “Exactly,” Morwen said. “And I doubt that you could do her a greater service than saving the throne from Woraug’s plotting.”

  “That’s settled, then,” Kazul said. “Let’
s get the rest of the ceremonies finished and get back to the mountains. There’s a great deal of work to be done.”

  The dragons all bowed, and eddies of movement began in various sections of the crowd. Shortly, two dragons came forward carrying Colin’s Stone. It looked like a long black log about three times as thick as Cim­orene’s waist and twice as tall as she was. The dragons laid it in front of Kazul and backed away. Another dragon appeared, holding a large circlet made of iron, with six spikes poking upward at intervals around the rim. Kazul set her front feet on the black stone, and the dragon set the circlet on her head. The crowd of dragons began cheering again, and after a few minutes they began forming a line to congratulate their new King and present their coronation gifts. Other dragons set up large tubs of wine and platters of meat and cheese, which were quickly surrounded.

  In the middle of the presentations, the dragons Kazul had sent off to the blackberry clearing returned, and Kazul took a short break from accepting congratulations to hear what they had to say.

  “The wizards showed up before we’d been there more than ten minutes, Your Majesty,” said the pale green dragon who was the leader of the group. “Six of them, just like your princess said.”

  “They weren’t happy to see us,” the youngest dragon said smugly.

  “I would think not.” Kazul smiled. “What did you do with them?”

  “We chased five of them away,” the pale dragon reported. “I don’t think they’ll be back, either.”

  “Five?”

  The pale dragon shot a glance at the youngest of the group, who licked his lips and looked even more smug than before and said nothing. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “I see. Well, that’s more than enough evidence to confirm what Cimorene’s told us,” Kazul commented. She raised her voice. “The arrangement between the dragons and the Society of Wizards is hereby canceled. From now on, wizards will not be allowed anywhere near the Caves of Fire and Night, no matter what they say.” Then she went back to accepting presents and congratulations from her new subjects.