Patricia Wrede - Dealing with Dragons

"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.

"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."