Patricia Wrede - Searching for Dragons

"Well, there's no sense in putting it off." He shrugged, took a last look back at his forest, and started walking.

Once he got used to the dry, dead, magicless feel of the mountains, Mendanbar actually enjoyed the walk. Much as he loved the Enchanted Forest , he had to admit that it was nice to see so much sky. Since dragons liked high places, the walk was mostly uphill, but that was fun, too. With no trees to block the view, Mendanbar could see for miles, and the higher he got, the more he could see. The hills in the Enchanted Forest tended to be either low, rolling bumps that you hardly noticed, or steep mounds that were usually home to something dangerous, or magical, or both. Most of the latter were made of something strange, too-jasper or polished coal or solid silver. There was even one made of glass somewhere along the southern edge of the forest.

Some king had built it in order to get rid of his daughter.

Daughter. King's daughter. Princess! Mendanbar's good mood vanished.

He'd forgotten about Kazul's princess.

"And I'll have to be particularly polite to her, no matter how irritating she is," he reminded himself gloomily. If she had as much influence as Zemenar hinted, she could make things very difficult if she took a dislike to him. He wondered why Kazul had kept her. The King of the Dragons didn't normally bother with a princess, or at least, Mendanbar had never before heard of one who did.

He came around a curve and saw the mouth of a cave in front of him.

There was a wide, flat, sandy space in front of the cave, big enough for several dragons to land at the same time, if they were careful about it. The mountain rose straight up behind the cave mouth. Set in the stone over the center of the opening was an outline of a spiky black crown.

As Mendanbar drew nearer, he saw a tarnished brass handle sticking out of a small hole beside the cave. The handle was level with his waist, and next to it was a sign that read: "WELCOME TO THE CAVE OF THE DRAGON KING. Pull handle to ring bell." On the line below, someone had added in neat letters printed in bright red paint, "ABSOLUTELY No wizards, sales-people, or rescuers. This means YOU."

Mendanbar stared at the sign for a minute and began to smile. No wonder Zemenar didn't like Kazul's princess. Well, he wasn't a wizard, he wasn't selling anything, and he certainly didn't want to rescue anybody. He gave the handle a pull.

Somewhere inside the cave, a bell rang. "Well, it's about time," said a woman's voice, and Mendanbar's heart sank. He heard footsteps coming toward the mouth of the cave, and the same voice continued, "I was hoping you'd get here before I left. The sink is-" The speaker came out of the cave, took a look at Mendanbar, and broke off in mid-sentence. "Oh, no, not another one," she said.

Mendanbar stared at her in utter bafflement. If this was a princess, she was like no princess he had ever seen, and he had seen dozens.

True, she had a small gold crown pinned into her hair, and she was very pretty-beautiful, in fact-but she was wearing a blue-and-white checked apron with large pockets. Mendanbar had never seen a princess in an apron before.

The dress under the apron was rust-colored and practical-looking, and she had the sleeves rolled up above her elbows. He had never seen a princess with her sleeves rolled up, either. Her jet black hair hung in plain braids almost to her knees, instead of making a cloud of curls around her face. Her eyes were black, too, and she was as tall as Mendanbar.

"Well?" she said in an exasperated tone. "Are you going to stand there like a lump, or are you going to tell me what you want? Although I think I already know."

"Excuse me," Mendanbar said. He pulled himself together and bowed uncertainly. "I think there's been some sort of mistake. I'm looking for Kazul, the King of the Dragons."

"I'll bet you are," the young woman muttered. "Well, you can't have her. I handle my own knights and princes."

"I beg your pardon?" Mendanbar said, blinking. He was beginning to think the mistake was his. This young woman didn't look like a princess (except for the crown), she didn't act like a princess, and she didn't talk like a princess. But if she wasn't a princess, what was she doing here?

"I handle my own knights," she repeated. "You see, I don't want to be rescued, and it would be silly for someone to get hurt fighting Kazul when I intend to stay here no matter what happens. Besides, Kazul has enough to do being King of the Dragons without people interrupting her to fight for no reason."

"You really are Kazul's princess"-what had Zemenar said her name was? Oh, yes – "Cimorene?"

"Yes, of course. Look, I haven't got time to argue about this, not today.

Could you please go away and come back in, oh, a week or so, when things are a little more settled? Or I can direct you to a more cooperative princess, if you'd rather not wait. Marchak has a very nice one just now, and he lives quite close by."

"No, I'm afraid not," Mendanbar said. He was beginning to think Willin had been right to say he should wait for a formal audience. "You see, I didn't come to rescue you, or anybody. I'm the King of the Enchanted Forest, and I really did come to talk to Kazul. And it's urgent. So-" "Oh, drat," said Cimorene. "Are you sure it can't wait? Kazul isn't here right now."

"I'll wait for her," Mendanbar said with polite firmness. "As I said, the matter is urgent."

Cimorene frowned suddenly. "Did you say you were the King of the Enchanted Forest?"

Mendanbar nodded. "My name is Mendanbar."

'Just why is it that you're so eager to see Kazul, Your Majesty?"

Cimorene said suspiciously.

"I ran across a… problem in the Enchanted Forest this morning," Mendanbar replied, choosing his words with care. "A witch named Morwen advised me to talk to the King of the Dragons about it."

"Morwen sent you?" Cimorene looked surprised, then thoughtful. "It must be all right, then. Come in and sit down, and I'll see if I can explain."

"As you wish, Princess," Mendanbar said, bowing.

'Just call me Cimorene," she said, leading Mendanbar into the cave.

She bent to pick up a lantern from the floor inside the entrance and added, "My official title now is Chief Cook and Librarian, so I've gotten out of the habit of being called 'Princess'."

"Chief Cook and Librarian?" Mendanbar said curiously. "How did that happen?"

"Kazul and I decided on it between us after she became King of the Dragons last year," Cimorene said. "You see, the King of the Dragons doesn't usually have a princess, and we didn't want the other dragons grumbling about Kazul breaking with tradition. I was hoping it would discourage the knights a bit, too."

"Oh?"

"Well, it doesn't sound particularly noble and knightly to say you've rescued the Chief Cook and Librarian, does it? And it has cut down on the number of interruptions. I used to get two or three knights a day, and now there's only about one a week. And the ones who do come are at least smart enough to figure out that I'm still a princess even if the dragons call me Chief Cook."

"Doesn't that make them harder to get rid of?."

"Not at all. The smart ones listen when I argue with them. The stupid ones think I'm kidding. I had to offer to fight a couple of them myself before I could get them to go away."

Mendanbar peered doubtfully at Cimorene in the dim lantern-light.

She didn't look as if she were joking. "You actually offered to fight a knight?"

"Four of them," Cimorene said, nodding. and a prince. It was the only way to convince them." She looked at Mendanbar uncertainly. "I'm sorry if I behaved badly to you at first, but I really did think you were here to rescue me. It's the crown." She pointed to the circlet on his head. "You wouldn't believe the trouble I've had with some of the princes. Being rude is the only way to get rid of them in a hurry, and sometimes even that doesn't work. Especially if they're particularly stupid."