Patricia Wrede - Dealing with Dragons

"I'm beginning to think this wasn't such a good idea," the stone prince said.

"He may not be a princess, but he doesn't look edible, either," the blue-green dragon pointed out. "And these other two are definitely princesses.

You can't go eating them out of hand."

"Princesssessss," hissed the voice from under the rock.

"Oh, princesses," the olive-green dragon said. "No wonder they're so full of wild tales."

"It's me!" Cimorene said desperately. "If you don't believe us, take us to Kazul; she will."

"I can't do that!" the olive-green dragon said, shocked. "Kazul's third in line now, after Mazarin and Woraug. You can't talk to people who are that close to making their attempt with the stone. It would distract them."

"Woraug!" Alianora said. "Woraug's next in line?"

"Yes, he should be starting off any minute now," said the olive-green dragon. "Then comes Mazarin, and then Kazul. I don't expect it will take long, though. Nobody's carried the stone for more than a mile or two yet."

"But I'm Kazul's princess!" Cimorene said.

"I don't care who you are," the dragon replied crossly. "You can't talk to Kazul until she's done with her turn."

"That will be too late!" Cimorene cried. "You don't understand.

Woraug and the wizards-" "I've had enough of your wizards," the olive-green dragon said.

"You're a confounded nuisance, and you ought not to be pushing your way in here where you're not wanted. Go away!"

"Cimorene, what are we going to do?" Alianora said as the olive-green dragon turned and stalked determinedly away.

"At hero's school we were always taught that if you couldn't persuade anyone to help you with something, it meant that you were supposed to do it by yourself," the stone prince said diffidently. "And we are prepared." He lifted one of his buckets slightly.

"But we don't know where the wizards are." Alianora said. "We have to find them before we can stop them, and there isn't time."

"S-s-stop the wiz-z-zardsss," whispered the soft voice.

"That's the first sensible thing you've said since we got here," Cimorene said to the hissing whisper.

"Can't you just wish to be where the wizards are?" the stone prince asked Cimorene.

"No, you have to know where you're going, or the spell doesn't work," Cimorene said.

For a moment all three were glumly silent. Cimorene stared at the water, remembering how and where she had gotten the feathers. Suddenly she raised her head.

"We may not know where the wizards are, but I'll bet I know someone who can find out. Hold this for a minute."

Cimorene handed one of her buckets to Alianora, then dug out the packet of feathers. She pulled the second feather from the packet and grabbed Alianora's elbow. "Hold tight, everybody. I wish we were at Morwen's house," Cimorene said, and dropped the feather.

The scenery shifted abruptly, and they were standing on Morwen's porch.

The house was just as tidy-looking as Cimorene remembered, and the porch floor gleamed as if it had just been washed. A black and white cat, startled by their sudden appearance, fell off the porch railing.

Four others left off washing themselves to stare at Cimorene with unwinking green and yellow eyes.

"I need to talk to Morwen," Cimorene said to the cats. "It's an emergency."

A lean tiger-stripped cat rose and oozed through a crack in the door.

Cimorene unwound herself from Alianora and the stone prince and set her bucket on the porch floor. "I hope this works," she muttered to herself as Alianora and the prince placed their buckets beside hers.

The door of the cottage opened and Morwen stepped out. "What sort of emergency?" she asked. She studied Alianora and the stone prince for a moment, then peered at Cimorene over the tops of her glasses and added with some severity, "I hope you weren't referring to his predicament. He may well find it an inconvenience, but it certainly isn't an emergency. Not by my standards, anyway."

"No," said Cimorene, "I was talking about the wizards. They've poisoned the King of the Dragons, and now they're trying to interfere with Colin's Stone so that Woraug will be the new king. We have to stop them, but we don't know where they are, and Woraug's going to try to carry the stone any minute. Can you find them for us?"

Morwen blinked twice and shoved her glasses back into place with her forefinger. "I see," she said. "You're right. It's an emergency.

I'll do what I can. But if you don't tell me the whole story later, when there's a bit more time, I shal–shall turn you all into mice and give you to the cats. Wait here."

As she spoke, Morwen disappeared into the house. She reappeared a moment later, holding a small mirror and muttering over it.

Stone," she said, and breathed on the glass. She looked up. "Any wizard in particular?"

"Zemenar, the Head Wizard of the Society of Wizards," Cimorene said, wishing Morwen would go faster and knowing she couldn't.

"I should have guessed," Morwen said. She turned back to the mirror.

"Zemenar," she said, and breathed on the glass once more. Then she motioned to Cimorene to come and look.

Cimorene obeyed, and Alianora and the stone prince crowded closely behind her. The mirror showed a blurry, wavering picture of the Ford of Whispering Snakes. As Cimorene watched, the picture moved slowly along one bank of the river, past the waiting dragons and the immense trees of the Enchanted Forest and on down the river.

"Can't it go any faster?" Alianora whispered.

"There's no need to whisper, and no, it can't," Morwen said. "Not if you want to be sure of finding these wizards of yours on the first try, and it doesn't sound as if you have time to waste on mistakes."

The picture in the mirror continued to creep along the bank. Cimorene pulled the third and last feather out of her pocket and brushed it nervously across her fingers while she waited.

"What's that?" the stone prince said suddenly.

The mirror-picture stopped, then moved up the bank, away from the river toward a thicket of blackberry brambles. Cimorene saw the tip of a wooden staff poking up above the thicket. Tensely, she waited for the mirror to show the far side of the brambles.

"It's them? Alianora said. She sounded frightened and excited at the same time. "Oh, dear!"

Cimorene took a good look at the picture in the mirror. Five wizards were standing in an opening behind the blackberry thicket, leaning on their staffs and looking at the sky. Suddenly, one of the wizards pointed. The others peered upward, nodded, and raised their staffs.

"Get the buckets? Cimorene said. Cats scattered in all directions as the stone prince pounded across the porch behind Cimorene and Alianora.

"Hang on; here we go. I wish-" "Not without me you-" Morwen said, grabbing Cimorene's shoulder.

"-we were at the blackberry thicket where the wizards are," Cimorene said, and dropped the feather.

"-don't," Morwen finished as the porch winked out and was replaced by blackberries.

The five wizards were standing in an arc just in front of the bramble.

Each of them held his staff so that the lower end was about a foot above the ground, pointing at something hidden in the moss at their feet. An unpleasant yellow-green light dripped from the ends of the staffs, and the moss where the wizards were standing was brown and dead. The wizards' backs were toward Cimorene and her friends.

"Now!" Cimorene cried. As the wizards began to turn, she set one of her buckets on the ground and lifted the other in both hands. Taking careful aim, she flung the soapy water over a black-haired wizard in the center of the arc.

"Charge!" yelled the stone prince, and threw one of his buckets at the nearest wizard.