Talking To Dragons

by Patricia C. Wrede

  “Daystar, what did you... I mean, how did you...” Shiara gave up and just stared at me.

  “I don’t know,” I said. I was at least as surprised as she was. “I’m not even sure what I did.”

  “What happened?” the little dragon asked. It looked around suspiciously. “Is that wizard dead?”

  “No, but he probably wishes he were,” Mother said. “Demons do not like surprise visitors.”

  “Oh, is that what Daystar did with him?” said Father’s voice from behind me. “I was wondering.”

  I jumped and turned around to see the King and Kazul standing there. The King was looking at Mother; Kazul was looking at the little dragon. “Where have you been?” Kazul said in a resigned voice.

  “I’ve been catching wizards!” the little dragon said proudly. “Well, one of them, anyway. He threw dragonsbane at me again and called a demon and Daystar got rid of both of them. I didn’t even get to eat him,” the dragon finished sadly.

  “I see,” Kazul said, shaking her head. “I think you’d better spend the rest of the day with me. It may, just possibly, keep you out of trouble.”

  “I don’t understand!” Shiara burst out. “How could Antorell do any magic without his staff? And how could Daystar do any magic at all? And what did Antorell have to do with the sword and everything?”

  The King smiled at Mother, then looked at Shiara and me. “As long as things seem to be quiet out here, why don’t we go inside? That way, we can be comfortable while I explain.”

  Shiara and I nodded. Father waved his hand, and the Enchanted Forest dissolved into mist around us.

  22

  WE APPEARED IN one of the rooms inside the castle, a small, cozy-looking place with lots of bookshelves. It was just as dusty as all the other rooms Shiara and I had been through, but when Father waved all the dust vanished. Mother muttered something about instant cleaning being no excuse for letting things get into such a state, and we all sat down. The King looked at us. “I believe this should begin with you, Cimorene,” he said. Mother looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded and started talking. Apparently, Mother really was a Princess. She was the youngest daughter of the ruler of a very large kingdom on the other side of the Mountains of Morning. It sounded like a nice place, unfortunately. Mother thought it was boring. So, when she was about sixteen, she ran away. She went straight to the Mountains of Morning, to the Pass of Silver Ice that the dragons guard, and demanded that the surprised dragons make her a prisoner. The dragons weren’t quite sure what to do, but finally Kazul agreed to take her. Although Kazul wasn’t King of the Dragons then, she was fairly important, and she and Mother got along very well. A couple of knights from her father’s court showed up after a while, but Mother told them in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to be rescued. The knights went away, and Mother stayed with the dragons.

  Mother spent a long time as Kazul’s Princess. After a while, Kazul started teaching her dragon magic, and Mother got very good at it. She made quite a few friends in the Enchanted Forest, too, because Kazul traveled a lot. And then the old King of the Dragons died, and all the dragons went to the Ford of Whispering Snakes to try and move Colin’s Stone, and Kazul was the one who did.

  That was how Mother met my father. The dragons had been friends of the rulers of the Enchanted Forest for centuries, so when he heard that the dragons had a new King, the King of the Enchanted Forest came to pay his respects. He also wanted to talk to Kazul about the Society of Wizards; they were getting a little out of hand, and he was trying to decide whether to use the sword on them.

  “The sword can do quite a few different things,” Father explained. “One of them is to drain off the power in a wizard’s staff gradually, over a period of time; another is to empty a staff of magic all at once. Most of the time, I used the sword to keep wizards from draining too much magic out of the Enchanted Forest, not to destroy their staffs completely, but the Society of Wizards was becoming a problem in spite of what I was doing with the sword.”

  “Then why didn’t you empty their staffs?” Shiara demanded. “It would have saved us an awful lot of trouble.”

  “It would have saved me some trouble, too,” Father said. “But I couldn’t destroy their magic completely like that without a very good reason. Which was why I went to talk to Kazul.”

  Mother and Kazul both liked Father very much, and he started visiting them more often. The wizards kept making problems, so he had lots of reasons. Finally, he and Mother decided to get married, but before they could even announce it, someone stole the sword.

  The King and Mother dropped everything else to find out who had it and where it was. It didn’t take long; evidently the sword does strange things when it’s taken outside the Enchanted Forest, so it wasn’t hard to locate. One of the wizards had it, of course, and he’d put it in a tower well away from the forest, with a lot of spells around it to keep the King from getting to it.

  That was when the argument started. Father and Mother both wanted to go steal the sword back, and neither of them wanted the other to go. Kazul was the one who settled it; she said that the wizards were expecting Father to try to get the sword back, but they weren’t expecting Mother. The King still objected. He said the sword might do something awful to Mother, because she wasn’t one of his family. Kazul told him that if that was all he was worrying about, he should many Mother right away, so she’d be a member of his family. Apparently, he still didn’t like the idea of Mother going off to steal the sword back, but he could see that he wasn’t going to be able to out-argue Mother and Kazul. So he and Mother got married.

  Kazul performed the ceremony, and a few days later Kazul and Mother flew off to the tower where the sword was. It took them nearly three days to get there. By the time they arrived, most of the wizards had left for the Enchanted Forest, but the sword was still there. The only wizard in the tower was Antorell.

  Mother knew Antorell fairly well. He was the son of Zemenar, the wizard who’d stolen the sword, and he’d been courting her for several years. Mother found out that he didn’t know what the sword was; he’d been left to watch it without being told anything, and he was very sulky about it. Mother managed to talk him into letting her inside the tower to see the sword, then she broke the last of the spells guarding it and took it. Right away, Antorell tried to kill her and take the sword himself; evidently, he’d let her into the tower because he knew she could break the last warding spell and he couldn’t. So Mother melted him.

  On their way back to the Enchanted Forest, Kazul and Mother were met by one of the dragons, who told them about the wizards’ attack on the castle. Kazul flew straight there, but by the time they arrived the battle was over, and the dragons had put their own shield up around the castle. Kazul sent some of the dragons out to look for the wizards who had gotten away, and then she and Mother had a long talk about what to do next.

  Both of them were sure that the wizards had put a spell on the King, and they were just as sure that the sword could break the spell. Unfortunately, the sword could only be used by one of the Kings of the Enchanted Forest or his children, and then only when the earth, air, and water of the Enchanted Forest and the fire of the sword itself had recognized the person holding it as a rightful heir of the sword. And the only way to be recognized was to go out in the Enchanted Forest and hope you would do the right things at the right times.

  Mother and Kazul spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to get the sword to work for someone besides the King, but they never did. Then Mother found out she was going to have a baby, and about that time Antorell found her. He blamed her for his father’s death, because she’d taken the sword, and he tried to kill her. Mother had to melt him again.

  After that. Mother decided that she’d better find somewhere to hide until I was old enough to use the sword. The wizards were hunting for the sword, but as long as it stayed inside the Enchanted Forest it was invisible to them. Mother, however, wasn’t, and she knew that if she stayed in
the Enchanted Forest, one of the wizards’ spells would find her eventually. On the other hand, she couldn’t take the sword out of the forest and still keep it hidden, any more than the wizards could.

  So Mother hid the sword inside the forest, then left and never went back until the day she gave the sword to me. She put up some good spells to keep Antorell from finding us, then waited. She taught me very carefully, without ever telling me anything about the sword or the King of the Enchanted Forest or the war with the wizards, so that I would have a chance of being recognized by the sword and reaching the castle without getting caught by one of the wizards’ spells.

  “I’m afraid it was rather hard on you, Daystar,” she said. “But we couldn’t think of anything else that had a chance of working.”

  “Well, I think we were lucky,” Shiara said.

  The King smiled at me. “Kings of the Enchanted Forest are supposed to be lucky.”

  Shiara blinked. “You weren’t very lucky, were you? What did those wizards do to you, anyway?”

  The King shook his head. “Zemenar made a bad mistake when he attacked the castle without bringing the sword with him. He and about ten others broke into the castle during the battle. I got a couple of them, but without the sword I was outnumbered a little too badly. They wanted to kill me, but they couldn’t do it inside the castle without the sword, and they couldn’t take me outside the castle because of the dragons. So Zemenar decided to put me in storage, in a manner of speaking, while he went back for the sword. The simulacrum was a decoy, in case someone managed to get into the castle while he was gone.”

  “But where were you for seventeen years?” Shiara said.

  “There are... places that can be reached through the proper doors, places that can’t be gotten into or out of except through such a door. Some of them are very large; some aren’t. Zemenar found one that suited him and put me in it, then hid the door. Without the sword or the key, I couldn’t get out until someone put the door back up.”

  “But I still don’t understand about Antorell. He acted as if he wanted to do something to Daystar a lot more than he wanted the sword.”

  “Antorell never knew what the sword was,” Mother said. “Zemenar and the Head Wizard were the only ones who knew the whole story, and after the way Antorell failed to guard the sword, the Head Wizard wouldn’t tell him anything.”

  “Ha!” said Shiara. “Served him right. But what did Daystar do to Antorell, anyway? And how? He never did anything like it before.”

  “He couldn’t do it before,” Father said. “The Kings of the Enchanted Forest can use the magic of the forest directly, but only after the sword has acknowledged them. Daystar wasn’t acknowledged until he put the sword into the fire.”

  “Oh.” Shiara sat back, looking thoughtful.

  There was a moment’s silence, then I thought of some thing else I wanted to ask about. “Mother,” I said, “do you know anything about fire-witches’ magic?”

  “Yes, of course,” she said. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Could you teach Shiara how to do things?” I said. “She helped me a lot, and I think she ought to have some sort of reward, and that’s why she came to the Enchanted Forest in the first place.”

  “I didn’t do very much,” Shiara objected. “You kept me from staying a statue, and I think you saved my life when the roof of the Caves of Chance fell in. You’re the one who deserves a reward.”

  “I think,” Mother broke in before I could answer Shiara, “that it is time you told us what you have been doing these past few days. I have a general idea, but I would like a few more details, and Mendanbar hasn’t heard anything about it yet.”

  I looked at Father, and he nodded, so Shiara and I went through our story again. I did most of the talking, with Shiara putting in a comment now and then when she thought I was leaving something out. I finished by explaining about Shiara’s magic. Both Mother and the King looked rather startled, and then the King began to smile.

  “A polite fire-witch,” he said thoughtfully. “Very unusual.”

  “I don’t want to have to be polite to people!” Shiara said angrily.

  “Why not?” I said. “You’re getting much better at it.”

  “Especially not to you.” Shiara said.

  “I can understand that,” Father said. “It’s his fault, after all.”

  “What?” said Shiara and I together.

  “It’s Daystar’s fault that you have to be polite,” Father repeated. “His and the sword’s. One of the things the sword does besides controlling wizards is unlocking people’s talents, particularly magical talents. When you met Day star, both of you touched the sword at the same time. You wanted to be able to use your magic and Daystar wanted you to be more polite; I think the sword did the best it could, under the circumstances.”

  “I knew it!” Shiara glared at me. “I said it sounded like something that stupid sword would do!”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know. But at least you can use your magic now, sometimes; isn’t that better than not being able to use it at all?”

  “No!” said Shiara. “It’s worse! I have to go home and be nice to people, and it probably won’t work most of the time because I have to mean it, and how can I mean it if I’m always thinking about being able to do magic? And it’s boring at home, and people will still keep expecting me to do things I can’t do. I don’t even know anyone who could teach me about magic even if I could get it to work all the time. I’ll never learn anything!”

  Little flickers of flame started running down Shiara’s cheeks. It took me a minute to realize that she was crying fire, and when I did, I didn’t know what to do about it.

  “That is quite enough of that,” Mother said while I was still thinking. Shiara looked up.

  “You don’t know what it’s like! It’s horrible.”

  “On the contrary, I know quite well what it’s like,” Mother said. “And the solution is quite obvious. In fact, it’s the same one I used.”

  “What?” Shiara blinked, and the flame-tears stopped running down her face. “What do you mean?”

  “You can become Kazul’s Princess,” Mother said. “She doesn’t have one at the moment. It would have a great many advantages on both sides. You will learn considerably more about magic, dragons, and the Enchanted Forest than you would anywhere else, and Kazul will get a Princess who can’t be accidentally roasted if one of the other dragons gets out of hand. And you’ll be living nearby, which will give Daystar and Mendanbar a chance to figure out how to reverse that ridiculous politeness spell.”

  “But I’m not a Princess!” Shiara said.

  “If Kazul says you are a Princess, then you are a Princess,” Mother said firmly. “Besides, it will be excellent experience for you later.”

  I opened my mouth to ask what Mother meant by that, and Shiara said, “But are you sure Kazul would be willing to do it?”

  “Kazul will have no objection whatever to training the next Queen of the Enchanted Forest,” Mother said calmly. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

  I closed my mouth very quickly and looked at the floor, feeling my face getting hot. I heard Shiara say, “Oh,” in a small voice, and then the King laughed.

  “Cimorene, I think you’re going a little fast,” he said, still chuckling. “If Shiara wants to go live with Kazul, I’m sure we can make the arrangements, but there’s no reason to hurry. She can stay here until she decides; there’s plenty of room. Now, if you don’t mind, I think we should go back outside; Kazul said something about a feast, and I haven’t had a good meal in seventeen years.”

  Mother didn’t object, so the King moved us all to the feast with another wave. Everyone was there: dwarves and dragons and elves and cats, and even a few wizards who had been on the King’s side. Morwen was there, too, but she spent quite a bit of time popping back to the castle to make sure Telemain wasn’t doing anything she disapproved of.

  Mother and the King sat at one en
d of a long table, and Kazul sat at the other. Shiara and I sat in the middle. The people in between us kept changing, and all of them wanted to hear about how the King and Mother had gotten married, and how Mother had stolen the sword back, and how Shiara and I had gotten into the castle and broken the spell on the King.

  “I’m getting tired of this,” Shiara whispered to me while some of the people next to us were changing seats. “Let’s go someplace else for a while, and let them tell each other about the stupid wizards. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “I don’t, either, but I don’t think we should leave,” I said.

  “You don’t? No, of course you don’t. How very tiresome,” said a squeaky voice from the ground by my left foot.

  “Suz!” I said, looking down. “Where did you come from?”

  “The forest, of course,” said the lizard. He ran up the leg of the table in a thin gold streak, then stopped and looked around nervously. “Is that—that kitten anywhere close by?”

  “No, she’s inside,” said Shiara. “I don’t think she likes the crowd. Why?”

  The lizard looked at her. “If you’d ever been jumped on by something four times as big as you are, and been rolled around until you were dizzy, not to mention bruised, you wouldn’t have to ask.” He balanced on his tail and peered over the edge of a bowl of nuts.

  “Would you like something to eat?” I said.

  “I believe I would,” said Suz. He made a very fast bouncing motion, and a moment later he was holding one of the nuts. “What are you going to do now that the wizards are gone?”

  “They aren’t all gone,” I said. “Some of them were on our side, and I think some of the others actually got away.”

  “They did?” Suz considered for a moment. “I suppose they did. How very annoying. But what are you going to do?” He looked from me to Shiara and back.

  “I’m going to be Kazul’s Princess,” Shiara said before I could answer.

  Suz fell over backward, just missing a silver bowl full of cranberry jelly. “Oh my gracious goodness my oh!” he squeaked. “However did that happen?”