"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." His smile was a little crooked. "I'm lucky that one doesn't need to eat in those places, or I wouldn't have lasted seventeen years."
"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, the Head Wizard, was the only one who knew the whole story, and after the way Antorell failed to guard the sword, the new 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 something else I wanted to ask about. "Mother, 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. "That's why she came to the Enchanted Forest in the first place. She helped me a lot, and I think she ought to have some sort of reward."
"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 asked. "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?" Shiara and I said 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 control wizards is unlock people's talents, particulary magical talents. When you met Daystar, both of you touched the sword at the same time. You wanted 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 was that stupid sword's FAULT!"
"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 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. "No one is going to argue with the King of the Dragons.
Besides, it will be excellent experience for you later."
I opened my mouth to ask what Mother meant by that, but Shiara asked, "But are you sure Kazul would be willing to do it?"
"Kazul will have no objection whatsoever 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, 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'd like to go back outside. Kazul was going to talk to Willin about a feast, and I haven't had a good meal in seventeen years. As a matter of fact, I haven't had any meals 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 end of a long table, and Kazul sat at the other. The elf Willin scurried up and down making sure everyone had enough to eat and plainly having a wonderful time. Shiara and I sat at the middle of the table, and the people sitting next to us kept changing. All of them wanted to hear about how Mother had stolen the sword back, and how Shiara and I had gotten into the castle and broken the spell.
"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'm tired of it, too, but I don't think we should leave," I said.
"You don't? No, of course you don't. How very irksome" 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." The lizard 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," Suz said. 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. "I thi
nk a few of them were on our side, and 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?"
"Mother suggested it," I said. I looked at Shiara. "But I thought you hadn't made up your mind yet."
"I just decided," Shiara said. "Home is boring, and this way I can learn things and maybe even stop having to be polite to get my magic to work."
I suspected Shiara was more interested in not having to be polite than she was in learning things, but I didn't say so. "I'm glad you're going to stay," I said instead.
"You are?" Suz said skeptically. He peered up at me. "Why, you really are! How amazing."
I didn't know what to say to that, but FORTUNATELY I didn't have time to think about it. Father and Mother and Kazul all stood up just then and everyone else got very quiet. Father looked around for a moment, smiled, and started speaking.
First he thanked everyone for coming to help with the wizards, and then he introduced Mother formally as "my wife, Cimorene." All the dragons and elves and other people shouted and applauded; the din was tremendous.
Then he introduced me, and I had to stand up and be clapped at.
After that, Kazul said that the dragons were pleased to be of assistance, and everyone sat down and started talking again. The whole thing didn't take very much time, which surprised me. I'd thought speeches at feasts were supposed to be longer.
Even with short speeches, the feast lasted longer than I expected.
Shiara left after a while, to go find Nightwitch and talk to the little dragon. I stayed at the table. I didn't have much choice; every time I tried to get up, someone new would pounce on me and start asking questions. I got very T ired of it, but I couldn't seem to get away.
I was glad when it was finally over.
The next few days were a little hectic, but then the elves and dragons who'd been in the battle went home and things started to settle down.
Morwen and Telemain were almost the last to leave, because of Telemain's shoulder.
Morwen had to stay to take care of it, and she wouldn't let Telemain go anywhere until he was well.
"It's simply ridiculous," Telemain grumbled at breakfast on the third morning after the battle. "I am quite capable of traveling with my arm in a sling."
"Yes, and the first time you ran across a slowstone or a pool of transformation water you'd take your arm out of the sling and start tinkering with it," Morwen said. "Which would not be good for that shoulder."
Telemain glared at her. "I disagree."
"Disagree all you like, but you're not leaving the castle for another two days," Morwen said. She picked up a basket of muffins, took one, and passed the rest to Mother.
"Two days!"
Mother raised an eyebrow. "Is our hospitality unwelcome?"
"No, of course not, but… Cimorene, I have a tremendous amount to do if I'm to be ready for the wedding in time."
I hadn't heard about any wedding being planned, but I was carefully not looking at Shiara anyway. Then Father looked up.
"Wedding?" he said.
Morwen smiled. "Telemain and I are getting married."
Shiara and Father and I all said, "What?" at the same time, but we were nearly drowned out by a chorus of startled meows from Morwen's cats
"Yes, married," Morwen said to one of them. "And it has nothing to do with you, so you may as well be quiet and accept it."
The cats made unhappy noises for another minute, until Morwen frowned at them. Then they all got up and went over to a corner of the room, where they sat muttering to each other with their tails twitching.
Morwen watched for a moment before she nodded and turned back to the table. "They'll get used to the idea."
"Um, congratulations to both of you," I said.
Father was looking at Mother. "Cimorene, did you know about this?"
"Not exactly," Mother said, and smiled.
"I see." Father shook his head. "Well, congratulations."
"Thank you," Telemain said. He started to reach for a plate of sausages with his bad arm, and Morwen stopped him.
Two days later, Morwen announced that Telemain's arm was well enough for him to travel. She promised to invite all of us to the wedding, even the dragons, and then she and Telemain left the castle, followed by a string of disapproving cats.
Shiara and Kazul were the last to leave. I was a little taken aback when I heard. I knew that Kazul lived in the Mountains of Morning, but it hadn't occurred to me that if Shiara was going to be Kazul's princess, she would have to live there, too. I didn't say anything about it, though. I felt too silly for not having realized it before.
Father and Mother and I went out to see them off. Mother gave Shiara some advice about princessing, and Father told her that if she was going to glare at dragons, she'd have to learn to glare politely. Then they both went to talk to Kazul. Shiara looked at me.
"I'm beginning to wonder whether I really want to do this or not," she said. "Does he really expect me to practice glaring at people?"
"No, just at dragons," I said. "If he wanted you to glare at everyone, he would have said so."
"Well, I think it's-Nightwitch!" Shiara bent to retrieve the kitten, who had been investigating one of Shiara's bundles a little too vigorously.
"Where did you get all of this, anyway?" I asked as she straightened up. There were three bundles in the heap Nightwitch had been climbing, and I knew Shiara hadn't had any of them when we'd arrived at the castle.
"Morwen gave me that one, and Cimorene gave me the others," Shiara said. "She said I would need them if I was going to live with Kazul.
I don't even know what's in all of them yet."
I couldn't think of anything to say because just then I realized how much I was going to miss having Shiara around. The Mountains of Morning weren't exactly close to the castle, and I didn't think Kazul would be interested in flying back and forth every day.
Shiara frowned. "What's the matter with you?"
"I was just wishing you were going to be living a little closer to the castle," I said.
"I don't see why. I'm going to have to come here a lot anyway, at least until you get that stupid politeness spell off of me so I can use my fire magic.
So what difference does it make? I'M the one who has to do all the traveling back and forth." Shiara looked toward Kazul. "I think they're ready to go.
Come on, Daystar."
She picked up one of the bundles and started walking. I didn't say anything, but I felt a lot happier than I had a few minutes earlier.
Getting rid of that spell didn't sound easy, and until it was gone Shiara would have to spend quite a bit of time at the castle. I was sure that if I had enough time, I could think of some reason for her to keep visiting after the spell was gone, and even if I couldn't, Mother would be able to. Smiling, I picked up the other two bundles and followed happily after.
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Talking to Dragons ef-4 Page 21