Patricia Wrede - Searching for Dragons

Telemain looked at Kazul. Then he looked at Mendanbar. He frowned in concentration, and finally he said carefully, "The shield was a one-way spell. It soaked up everything that tried to get in from outside and used the energy to make itself stronger."

"Very good," Morwen said. "I was beginning to think you were hopeless."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," Telemain said A yowl of complaint made them all turn their heads. The cream-and-silver cat was standing at the edge of the wet, soapy, lemon-scented area where the wizards had melted, shaking his front paws one at a time and eying the water with extreme disfavor.

"Too bad," Morwen told the cat. "If you hadn't sneaked in and attracted their attention, Mendanbar might not have had to be quite so extravagant with the spray. You'll have to get across it by yourself.

Where's Chaos?"

The cat blinked disdainfully and began washing his right paw. Kazul snorted softly. "If you want a ride, climb up," she told the cat.

"But you'd better hurry, because I'm leaving now."

Kazul rose to her feet, shaking her wings. The cat looked up from his washing, then took two bounds and leaped from the top of a projecting rock. He disappeared behind Kazul's shoulder, and there was a brief sound of claws scraping against scales. Then the cat appeared on Kazul's back, riding comfortably between the dragon's wings and looking tremendously pleased with himself.

"Wait a minute," Mendanbar said as the dragon started toward the other end of the cave. "There may be more wizards out there."

"Good," said Kazul without slowing down at all. "Four days is a long time to spend inside a blank bubble, and I owe them one. Besides, I'm hungry."

"I should think so!" Cimorene said, following the dragon. "Didn't they give you anything to eat?"

"No, and I wouldn't have taken it if they had," Kazul said. Her voice became muffled as her head turned the corner at the far end of the cave.

"For all I knew, those mumble mumble could have mumble dragonsbane in everything. I mumble mumble end up like Tokoz."

"But if there are more wizards-," Mendanbar began, then gave up and hurried after Cimorene. Clearly, neither she nor Kazul was going to listen to him, and if there were more wizards outside it would be better if he-and his sword-were there to help.

There were, however, no wizards outside the cave. There was only an enormous stretch of barren land that looked as if it had been burned.

Morwen's long-haired tabby cat sat in the ashes several feet from the mouth of the cave, surveying the waste with evident disapproval.

"There you are," Morwen said to the cat as she joined Cimorene and Mendanbar by Kazul's left shoulder. "Any sign of more wizards?"

The cat meowed.

"Good," said Morwen. "Did any of the others get away?"

The cat made a growling noise.

"Very good," said Morwen. She turned to Mendanbar. "Can you keep them from interrupting us by accident?"

"I don't think so," Mendanbar said. "There isn't any magic here for me to work with." He was horrified at the extent of the destruction. How was he going to fix it?

"So this is how they did it," Telemain's voice said from behind Mendanbar. He sounded pleased, as if he had just solved a very difficult puzzle. "I'd been wondering."

"Did what?" Mendanbar asked.

"Established that shield spell," Telemain said. "The power involved was clearly several factors beyond the generating capacity of-" Kazul turned her head and looked at Telemain.

Telemain coughed. "There weren't enough wizards to have done it by themselves."

"Power," Mendanbar said, half to himself. "They sucked all the magic out of this whole area and put it in the shield. Where did it go when the shield disappeared?"

"Into your sword, of course," said Telemain, as if that were so obvious that everyone should have realized it without his saying anything.

"And the sword is linked to the forest," Mendanbar said. "And this is part of the forest, or should be. So…"

"So all you have to do is use the sword to put the magic back where it belongs," Cimorene finished.

"Theoretically, that should work fine," Telemain said, frowning. "But the practical applications aren't always that easy."

"Nonsense," said Cimorene. "That sword turned a whole patch of the Mountain of Morning into a bit of the Enchanted Forest when we were having all that trouble getting here. Mendanbar pulled it back into the sword then; all he has to do now is turn that spell around and push magic out. Try it, Mendanbar."

Slowly, Mendanbar lowered the tip of the sword until it touched the ashes. He couldn't feel anything at first. Then he realized that he was trying to reach outside himself for the threads of magic that always floated around him in the Enchanted Forest . And in this wasteland there were no threads.

He frowned. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the sword instead.

That felt more promising. He could sense power crackling along the length of the blade, lots of power, but he did not think it would be enough.

He stretched deeper, using his experience outside the Enchanted Forest to pull together every last bit of magic he could reach. It was still not enough.

"I don't think I can do it, Cimorene," he muttered.

"You can, too," Cimorene said, and put her hand on his shoulder encouragingly. "Try again."

As she touched his shoulder, Mendanbar felt it come-not just magic, not only power, but all the magic and power of the Enchanted Forest itself.

It washed over him, and as it did he saw patterns in it, patterns that were the threads he manipulated to work magic in the forest. And he saw how to shift the pattern just a little, filling it in with the power stolen from the forest and stored in the sword, to repair the damage the wizards had done. Without thinking, he did it.

He heard an astonished gasp from Cimorene, a snort from Kazul, a low whistle from Telemain, and a surprised noise from one of the cats.

"Well? said Morwen.

Mendanbar opened his eyes. A thick carpet of moss, greener than Kazul's scales, spread out in all directions from the cave mouth.

Massive oaks and beeches with cooper leaves stood so close together that it was hard to see more than a little way into the shadows below them, packing every part of what had been a burned-out waste moments before.

All around, Mendanbar could feel threads of magic hovering in the air, ready to use for more ordinary spells.

No one said anything for a long moment. Then Telemain tore his gaze away from the restored forest and turned to Mendanbar.

"Could you do that again, slowly, so I can analyze it?" he asked.

Despite Telemain's urging, Mendanbar refused to repeat the spell immediately, though he did offer to let the magician watch when he went to clean up the barren area near the Green Glass Pool. Then Telemain wanted to stay and investigate the melted wizards some more, but Morwen and Cimorene insisted that this was a bad idea, and eventually he gave in. He was inclined to be sulky about it until Morwen pointed out that he had fourteen more wizards' staffs to study, including one that had belonged to the Head Wizard. It cheered him up enormously.

"You're quite right," he told Morwen. "Those wizards will get themselves back together before long, and once they do, they'll come looking for their staffs. If I don't examine the staffs before then, I'll lose my chance. I can always melt another wizard later and study the disintegration process then." He hurried back into the cave, reappearing a moment later with his arms full of wizards' staffs.

"Be careful with those!" Mendanbar said as Telemain came out onto the moss-covered ground.