Talking To Dragons

by Patricia C. Wrede

  We were standing on a narrow circle of wooden floor around the hole where the two staircases came through. Around the edge were six identical wooden doors. It looked even barer than the room below had when we arrived. “Well, he said to just go in,” Shiara said.

  Each of us picked a door and opened it. The rooms on the other side were identical; they looked very comfortable and not at all bare. They each had a bed, a table, a lighted lamp in a bracket on the wall, a padded chair, and a small set of drawers with a mirror above it. Shiara looked thoughtful. “I wonder if he keeps lights going in all these rooms?”

  “He might,” I said. “I mean, he is a magician. Does it matter?”

  Shiara glared at me and went into the room she’d picked, slamming the door behind her. I stood there for a moment, wondering whether to knock on the door and apologize. I decided not to; I didn’t even know what to apologize for. I decided to wait until morning to talk to Shiara, since by then she probably wouldn’t be mad anymore.

  I kept the Sword of the Sleeping King with me all night. It was a little uncomfortable sleeping that way, but I felt better knowing where it was. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Telemain; I was just getting more and more worried about the sword. Everyone I met seemed to know about it, or want to know about it, or something. I spent a lot of time thinking about it instead of sleeping.

  Telemain served breakfast the next morning on his magic table. He was very quiet while we were eating, but as soon as we finished he looked at me and said, “I have watched the Enchanted Forest all night, and there are some things you should know, but I do not wish to detain you against your will.”

  “What things?” Shiara demanded.

  Telemain smiled slightly. “I fear you will have some difficulty in reaching the castle,” he said. “I found no less than twelve wizards searching the area between it and you.”

  “Oh, great,” Shiara said disgustedly. “Just what we need: more wizards!”

  “I don’t think it’s very good,” the dragon said. “Why do you?”

  “I don’t,” Shiara said.

  “Then why did you say so?”

  “What can we do about them?” I asked Telemain.

  “I think you can avoid them if you go through the Caves of Chance,” Telemain replied.

  14

  WE ALL STARED. “Ha!” Shiara said finally. “The Caves of Chance are even more dangerous than the wizards!”

  “I don’t think so,” Telemain said. “I have been through them, and they’re not as bad as most people think. Furthermore, there is an entrance to the caves within half a day’s travel, and an exit that is very close to the castle. And once you are inside the caves, the wizards will not be able to find you.”

  “Why not?” Shiara said.

  “The Caves of Chance do not welcome wizards’ magic,” Telemain said.

  “Can you give us directions?” I said. Telemain nodded and pulled a large map out of his sleeve. I was extremely curious; I’d never seen a map of the Enchanted Forest before. Most people don’t bother to even try making maps, because things change so fast that an ordinary map is only good for a few days. This one must have been magic, because it seemed to be fairly accurate. At least, all the things Shiara and I had seen were in the right places.

  Telemain showed us where his tower was and where the castle was, and he pointed out the places where he’d found wizards. I didn’t ask how he knew they were there. Then he showed us where the entrance to the caves was. It really did look a lot closer and safer than trying to get by all those wizards. Even Shiara looked less doubtful.

  Then Telemain turned the map over, and on the back was a map of the Caves of Chance. He went over the routes from the entrance to the exit we wanted and what to do about some of the things we might run into inside. I was very interested; I knew that trolls are allergic to milk, but I hadn’t known that rock snakes like mirrors enough that they’ll stop squeezing someone in order to look at their reflections. He also told us to hold anything we really didn’t want to lose in one hand until we were out of the caves.

  When Telemain was satisfied that we knew our way as well as he could make us, he rolled the map up and put it back in his sleeve. We went outside to say good-bye.

  “When you meet Kazul, tell her I will be coming for the battle,” Telemain said. “She should be expecting you; I sent a spell to her last night to let her know that you’re on your way.”

  “I’ll remember,” I said. “And thank you again for your help.”

  “Yes,” said Shiara. I looked at her, a little surprised, but she was watching Telemain with an odd look on her face. “I think I ought to apologize to you,” she said finally. “I wasn’t very nice last night.”

  This time I really did stare, but she didn’t seem to notice. Telemain bowed. “Neither of us was blameless,” he said. “I shall forget it, if you will.”

  Shiara nodded and turned to me. “Let’s go, then.”

  I shut my mouth and picked up the bundle Morwen had given me. Shiara already had hers. We waved good-bye to Telemain and started off into the forest again.

  Nothing much happened all morning. Shiara and I were both nervous anyway, thinking of all those wizards ahead of us. The dragon didn’t seem bothered, though, and Nightwitch certainly wasn’t. We found the first few landmarks Telemain had told us about, and we were fairly close to the entrance to the Caves of Chance when the dragon stopped and demanded lunch.

  As soon as the dragon mentioned food, Shiara and I realized that we were hungry, too. We started looking for a good place to sit down and eat, and we found one almost immediately. It was a small clearing with a huge tree lying on the ground in the middle of it.

  The dragon wrapped itself around a medium-sized tree in front of us; it said it was much more comfortable than lying on the ground. Nightwitch wandered around investigating the interesting holes and crannies around the tree. Shiara and I sat down and started eating.

  “How much farther is it to the castle?” Shiara asked the dragon, handing it a slice of gingerbread.

  “Oh, not very far,” the dragon said. “About another day, if we weren’t going through the caves. I’ve never been in the caves, so I don’t know how long that will take.”

  “I thought you said this was a shortcut,” Shiara said.

  “It is a shortcut,” the dragon said in a hurt tone. “How was I supposed to know a fire-witch was going to get in the way? Not to mention an elf and a magician.”

  “Do you think Kazul will tell us anything about the sword when we get there?” I said. I was beginning to wonder; nobody else seemed willing to explain anything.

  “I’m sure she will,” the dragon said reassuringly. “That is, if you’re polite to her. Kazul is very particular about... about... ahh... ach.. “

  Shiara and I dropped our lunches and ducked hastily to either side. “Achoo!” said the dragon. A large spurt of flame shot across the clearing, just missing us, and the dragon’s tree shook. “Achoo! Oh, bother. Achoo!”

  “Daystar!” Shiara shouted. “Over here!”

  I ran around behind the dragon, who was now sneezing almost continuously. I pulled out my sword as I went. When my hand touched the hilt, I felt the same jangling that I’d gotten from Antorell earlier. Then I came around the tree, and even before Shiara pointed, I saw the wizards. There were two of them right in front of Shiara, leaning on their staffs and looking from Shiara to the dragon and back.

  “Hurry up,” one of them said nervously. “We don’t want this to get out of hand.

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait,” another voice said from behind him. The first wizard jumped, and Antorell stepped out of the bushes. “You see, I want him, too.”

  “Urn, can’t we discuss this somewhere else?” said the nervous wizard, eyeing the dragon.

  “Oh, you needn’t worry about that,” Antorell said, following his gaze. He smiled nastily. “I came prepared.” He held up his free hand so that alt of us could see the spray of spikey,
saw-edged purple leaves he was holding.

  “Dragonsbane,” he said unnecessarily.

  The other wizards relaxed a little. “Such forethought,” murmured the tall one. He exchanged glances with his companion, then bowed to Antorell. “Under the circumstances, we will be happy to split the reward with you.”

  “I am afraid that is out of the question,” Antorell said over the dragon’s sneezes. “The boy and his sword are mine.”

  “The boy!” said the nervous wizard. “But—” The tall one frowned at him, and he stopped.

  The tall wizard turned back to Antorell. “As you say, the boy is yours. I trust you have no objection if we take the girl?”

  Antorell frowned. He turned toward Shiara and stared at her for a minute, then shrugged. “She’s no use to me. Of course I have no objection.”

  I started moving very, very slowly toward Shiara, so that when the wizards starting throwing spells at us I could try and stop them with the sword. The wizards didn’t notice, and neither did Shiara. By the time the wizards finished deciding what to do with us, I was almost over to her. “It’s settled, then,” Antorell said. “We help each other. The girl first?”

  “Ah, why not start with the dragon?” the nervous wizard said.

  Antorell smiled condescendingly. “Very well.” He stepped forward and started muttering over the dragonsbane. Right away the dragon started yelling.

  “Yow!” it said. “Achoo! I hate wizards. Ouch! Achoo! Help!”

  “You stop that!” Shiara said to Antorell. The wizards ignored her, and Antorell kept mumbling.

  I started forward; if I could knock the dragonsbane out of Antorell’s hand, the spell would stop. I wasn’t sure whether it would be completely broken, but at least he wouldn’t be able to hurt the dragon anymore. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten about the other wizards. I didn’t even realize one of them had done something until my feet stuck to the ground and suddenly I couldn’t walk forward anymore. I almost lost my balance; it was very disconcerting. Antorell was still out of reach.

  I took a quick glance back over my shoulder. The dragon was sneezing much too hard now to be able to say anything at all. It was also starting to lose its hold on the tree; I could see its coils going slack. Here and there, its scales were turning pink around the edges. Even the tree was looking wilted.

  “Shiara!” I yelled. “Get the dragonsbane!” I didn’t think I could get loose in time, but the wizards wouldn’t be able to stop a fire-witch. I didn’t wait to see what she did. I leaned forward a little and tried to lay part of the Sword of the Sleeping King across my feet. It hadn’t helped Shiara when she was a statue, but this was a wizard’s spell, not a fire-witch’s spell, and Telemain had said the sword was meant to be used on wizards. Besides, I couldn’t think of anything else.

  It worked. I straightened up just in time to see a little tongue of flame shoot up from Antorell’s hand. Antorell yelled and dropped the dragonsbane, which was burning brightly. Before it even hit the ground, there was nothing left of the plant except ashes. I looked behind me. Shiara was standing with a surprised look on her face and one finger pointing at Antorell. The dragon was still sneezing, but the green was already starting to come back to its scales. I sighed in relief; I sort of liked the dragon.

  “This is the assistance you give us?” the tall wizard said to Antorell, who was brushing ashes off the front of his robe. “The dragon still lives!”

  “Did I say anything about killing it?” Antorell said. I got the feeling he was trying to sound haughty; he only managed to sound annoyed. “You need have no more fear of it; it will take some time to regain its strength, and by then we shall be finished. What next?”

  “The girl, I think,” said the tall wizard. “That is, if you’re sure you can handle her?”

  Antorell glared. “That is the least of my problems,” he said grandly.

  “Ha!” said Shiara loudly. I moved back over to her, holding the sword in front of me. The three wizards looked at us, then at each other. “Let us begin,” said the tall one.

  All three of them raised their staffs, but instead of pointing them directly at us, they brought them together, so that they made a kind of star about a foot from their ends. There was a bright flash as the three staffs touched, and I felt a shock from my sword. I jumped, and suddenly I realized that I could feel the forest. The magic of the forest, I mean; it was all around me, waiting. I felt almost as if the whole Enchanted Forest were watching me.

  Right in front of me, I could feel the wizards’ power growing and building. There was a kind of pattern in it that kept getting clearer and more complicated, and I knew I had to do something about it before the wizards finished. I stepped forward and swung the sword right through the middle of the pattern.

  I felt a huge jolt of power from the sword, but it didn’t hurt the way the fire-witch’s spell had; in fact, it didn’t hurt at all. The pattern collapsed in an invisible tangle. Antorell’s eyes started to narrow; the other two wizards just looked stunned. And then something exploded.

  I couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t that things had gone dark, and it wasn’t that the light had blinded me. It was more as if the whole world had suddenly become invisible, so there was nothing left to see. There was a rushing noise all around me, and I felt as if I were floating. I heard a chorus of voices cry, “All hail the Wielder of the Sword!” and then the noise and the voices vanished, and I was standing in the clearing with the Sword of the Sleeping King shining in my hand and three very surprised wizards in front of me.

  I stared at the wizards. The wizards stared at me. Antorell recovered first. “Enough of this!” he cried. He started to raise his staff, and right then the ground in front of him humped up a little bit. A second later, a tree shot up about twelve feet into the air. It reminded me of someone opening an umbrella very quickly. A moment later, it burst into bloom with a sound like a hundred little bells tinkling.

  Antorell looked even more surprised than before; then he scowled angrily and pointed his staff at me again. The tall wizard next to him grabbed his arm. “Wait, fool! Don’t you know what that sword is?”

  “What it is?” Antorell’s eyes sparked at the other wizard. “It is mine! I will have it!”

  “You will be dead, you mean,” the tall wizard said, but he let go of Antorell’s arm. “This is a matter for the whole Society of Wizards; there may still be time to stop him if we can bring them quickly enough.”

  “More wizards? Achooo! Oh, no you don’t! Achoo! Oh, drat, achoo!” said the dragon. It dove out from its tree, unwinding itself like a spool of string, very quickly. Its head shot past me, and I got a fleeting glimpse of green scales and golden eyes and a very, very red tongue. One of the wizards yelled, and the dragon sneezed again. I jumped forward just in time to see all three of the wizards vanish hastily. Antorell was in the middle; he looked a little white and he had one hand clutched around a dark, wet-looking spot on his other arm.

  I looked at the dragon. It snapped its teeth together twice, swallowed something, and sat back, looking very pleased with itself. “Wizards,” it announced, “taste much better than elves.”

  I swallowed hard and decided I didn’t really want to finish eating lunch. The dragon looked at Shiara. Shiara scowled.

  “Don’t you look at me like that!” she said. “I’m not a wizard, I’m a fire-witch.”

  The dragon looked thoroughly shocked. “But I wouldn’t eat you!” it said. “You’re my friend; it wouldn’t be polite at all!”

  Shiara looked suspiciously at the dragon, then nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you remembered,” she said.

  “I think we’d better get going,” I said. “Those wizards sounded like they were going to come back with more, and now they’re after both of us.”

  “Oh, terrific,” said Shiara. “Let’s go, then. Where’s Nightwitch?”

  “Mrow,” said a kitten-voice from somewhere above me.

  I looked up. Nightwitch was perched on a branch of
the tree that had sprouted up in the middle of the fight. She was washing her paws. She stopped and looked down at me for a second, then went back to washing.

  “Nightwitch, come down!” Shiara said. “Those wizards might come back any minute!”

  Nightwitch ignored her. The dragon came over and peered curiously at the tree. “Where did this come from?” it asked.

  “It grew,” I said. “I think you were sneezing when it happened.”

  “Kazul is going to be surprised about this!” the dragon said happily. “Two new trees in a couple of days!”

  “What are you talking about?” Shiara said. “It’s just a tree!”

  “No, it isn’t,” the dragon said in an offended tone. “It’s a new tree. And it’s the second new tree I’ve seen in two days, so it’s important. The other one hit me on the nose,” it added in an aggrieved tone.

  “You mean it’s been a long time since there were new trees?” I asked.

  The dragon nodded. “Kazul mentioned it once; she sounded worried about it. I think they’re a nuisance, popping up like that.”

  “But where do they come from?” Shiara said. “And why do they show up when we—” She stopped short, and we looked at each other.

  “Daystar,” said Shiara finally. “It’s the wizards.”

  “It can’t be,” I said. “What about the first one?”

  “What are you talking about?” said the dragon.

  “The trees,” Shiara said. “Both of them grew in places where a wizard tried to throw a spell at us. But there wasn’t any tree when the first wizard tried to drown us, so it can’t be wizards.”

  I looked down, trying to think, and saw the Sword of the Sleeping King in my hand. “It’s the sword!” I said. “It stopped Antorell’s spell the first time, and a little while later a tree sprouted. This time it stopped a bigger spell, and we got a bigger tree. It didn’t stop any spells when the first wizard made that water monster, so no new trees grew. It has to be the sword.”