"It was the caves," Kazul said. "That was one of the reasons they're 'of night' as well as 'of fire."
"Only one of the reasons?" Cimorene said thoughtfully. "I don't like the sound of that."
"You'll be quite all right as long as you're with me," Kazul assured her.
"Very few things are willing to mess with a dragon, even in the dark.
And the periods of darkness don't last long. It's because the magic of these caves doesn't affect us as much as other people, or so I'm told."
"You mean that blackness is likely to come back?"
Kazul nodded.
"Then let's get as far as we can before it does," Cimorene said, and started across the cave.
There were four tunnels leading out of the opposite side of the glittering cavern. Kazul took the second from the left without hesitating an instant.
"Where do all these tunnels go?" Cimorene asked, glancing at the other three openings as she followed Kazul.
"The one on the right end leads to a chain of caverns," Kazul said over her shoulder. "The first few are quite ordinary, but then you come to one full of hot sulfur pools. Some of the older dragons bathe there.
They claim the water is good for rheumatism. Beyond that is a cave with molten silver dripping down the walls, and the chain ends at a deep chasm with a river of red-hot melted rock at the bottom."
"Doesn't sound very attractive," Cimorene commented.
"The dwarfsmiths find it very useful for forging magic swords," Kazul assured her. "The second tunnel on the right takes you into a maze.
The tunnels and caverns constantly shift around, so that no matter how carefully you mark your way, you always get lost."
"Even dragons?"
Kazul nodded. "Though I believe there was one prince who managed to find his way out with a magic ball of string."
"Oh, bother!" said Cimorene. The lights had gone out again, just as they emerged into a small cave.
"It's quite all right. This part's easy," Kazul said.
"Next time I'm going to bring a cane," Cimorene muttered. "Where do the other tunnels lead?"
"The one on the far left goes through a couple of caverns that are pretty, but not very interesting. We're always chasing knights and princes out of it, though. They come for flasks of water from the bottomless pool at the far end."
"What does it do?" Cimorene asked. "Ow!" She had just banged her right elbow against the wall of the cave in the dark.
"It casts a cloud of darkness for twenty miles around when it's poured on the ground," Kazul replied.
"How useful," Cimorene muttered balefully, rubbing her elbow.
"And this tunnel leads to the Enchanted Forest, by way of the King's Cave," Kazul finished.
"Oh, good. I was hoping to see that," Cimorene said. The King's Cave was the chamber where the first King of the Dragons had found Colin's Stone, and the Historia Dracorum had not described it anywhere near well enough to suit Cimorene. "And here's the light coming back, thank goodness.
Let's hurry before it goes again."
They went through three small caves and two more periods of blackness before they reached the King's Cave. Kazul pointed out various locations of interest, such as the wall of crystal with a chip in one corner where the Prince of the Ruby Throne had stolen a piece to make a magic ring and the jewel-studded cavern where the King of the Dragons met with people who needed impressing. There was one very eerie cave full of slabs of black rock. Most were standing on end, though a few had fallen over. Kazul said they were all enchanted princes.
"All of them?" Cimorene asked, appalled. There were at least forty of the stone slabs, and the cave was quite crowded.
Kazul shook her head. "No, the one on the end there is just an ordinary boulder."
"How did it happen?"
"The princes came to steal some of the Water of Healing from the well at the end of the cave," Kazul said. "There are two dippers by the well: one is tin, the other is solid gold and covered with jewels. The princes all tried to use the gold one, even though they'd been told that only the tin dipper would work. It's no more than they deserve."
Cimorene frowned, thinking of some of the princes she had known.
"Well, I won't deny that they probably behaved foolishly, but-" "Foolishly!" Kazul snorted. "Any reasonably well-educated prince ought to have sense enough to follow directions when he's on a quest, but all of these fellows were sure they knew better. If they'd simply done what they were told, they wouldn't be here."
"Still, turning them into slabs of stone forever seems a little extreme."
"Oh, they won't be stone forever," Kazul said. "Sooner or later someone will come along who has the sense not to improvise, and he'll succeed in getting the water. Then he'll use some of it to disenchant this lot, and the cave will be empty for a while until the next batch of young idiots starts arriving."
Cimorene felt better knowing that the princes would someday be freed, though she had sense enough not to try doing it herself. Since she had not been sent on a quest for the Water of Healing, it was highly unlikely that she would be able to disenchant the princes even if she succeeded in taking the water. And she knew enough about quests and enchantments and the obtaining of things with magical properties to know that she would probably get into a lot of trouble if she tried.
So she tucked the matter into the back of her mind and followed Kazul through the stone-filled cavern. She was careful not to step on any of the fallen slabs.
Just outside the entrance to the next cave, Kazul stopped. "This," she said, "is the King's Cave. We have to cross it as quickly as we can.
Don't stop in the middle, and don't say anything while we're inside.
Understand?
Good. Come on, then."
As soon as she stepped inside the cave, Cimorene understood the reason for Kazul's request for silence. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor were made of dark, shiny stone that multiplied and threw back echoes of even the smallest sound. The soft scraping of Kazul's scales against the floor sounded like thirty men sawing wood, and the tiny gasp Cimorene gave at the sight and sound of the cave was as loud as if she had shouted. Cimorene went on as quietly and carefully as she could.
Halfway across, she noticed the vibration. It began as a gentle and not unpleasant buzzing in her bones, unrelated to the loud and continually multiplying echoes of her passage, though it, too, grew stronger the farther into the cave she went. Kazul was in front of her now, and she saw the dragon's tail lash once, as if in pain or anger.
Suddenly she remembered Kazul's description of the aura that made it impossible for most dragons to carry Colin's Stone, and that this was the place where Colin's Stone had been found. No wonder Kazul was uncomfortable.
Cimorene found herself wishing she could stop and pay attention to the humming in her bones, but she remembered Kazul's directions and continued walking. She had nearly reached the exit when she saw a pebble about the size of her thumbnail, made of the same dark, shiny stone as the cavern walls. Kazul had said nothing about picking things up, so Cimorene veered a little to the right and scooped the pebble up as she passed. A moment later she was out of the cave.
"Phew!" said Kazul. "I'm glad that's over. From here on, it should be easy."
"Good," said Cimorene. She dropped the pebble into her pocket to look at it more closely later and followed Kazul down the narrow, winding tunnel.
8
In Which Cimorene and Kazul Pay a Call, and Cimorene Gets into a Fight
A few minutes later they came out of the Caves of Fire and Night into bright sunlight. Cimorene had to shade her eyes against the sudden glare.
As her eyes adjusted, she saw a large clearing around the mouth of the cave.
The ground was covered with short grass, so lush and dense that it made Cimorene think of green fur. Here and there a tiny flower twinkled among the blades of grass. At the edge of the clearing the forest began, but Cimorene could only make out the first row of trees. The
y were enormous, so large that they dwarfed even Kazul.
"Leave the lamp here," Kazul said. "There's no sense in carting it around the forest when we won't need it until we come back."
Cimorene set the lamp on the ground just inside the mouth of the cave.
"Now what?" she said.
"Now we go to Morwen's," Kazul said. "And we'll get there more quickly if you ride. If you climb up on that rock over there, you ought to be able to get on my back without too much trouble."
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Cimorene said, scrambling up onto the rock Kazul had indicated.
"I wouldn't have suggested it if I minded," Kazul said. "Right there will be fine. You can hang onto the spike in front of you and you won't foul my wings if I have to take off suddenly."
Cimorene did not like the implication that there were things in the Enchanted Forest that were nasty enough to make a dragon want to take off suddenly, but she did not say so. It was too late to back out, and she certainly wasn't going to wait at the mouth of the cave all alone while Kazul went off to visit Morwen. There was no reason to think that waiting would be any safer than going along.
As soon as Cimorene was settled, Kazul set off into the forest at a rapid pace. At first Cimorene had to concentrate on holding on, but after a while she began to get the hang of it. Soon she was able to look at some of the things they were passing. The trees were huge; Cimorene guessed that even if there were four of her, holding hands, she would not be able to reach all the way around one of the trunks.
The ground was carpeted with bright green moss that looked even thicker than the grass in the clearing.
Cimorene saw no flowers in it, but she spotted several bushes and a vine with three different colors of fruit.
Kazul changed course several times for no reason that Cimorene could see, but she did not like to distract the dragon by asking questions.
They passed a mansion guarded by a fence made of gold and a short tower without any windows or doors. Then Kazul splashed through a shallow stream and made a sharp turn. The trees thinned a little, and Kazul stopped in front of a neat gray house with a wide porch and a red roof.
Over the door was a black-and-gold sign in large block letters reading, "NONE OF THIS NONSENSE, PLEASE."
There were several cats of various sizes and colors perched on the porch railing or lying in the sun. As Cimorene dismounted, Kazul said to one of them, "Would you be good enough to tell Morwen that I'm here and would like to talk to her?"
The cat, a large gray torn, blinked its yellow eyes at Kazul. Then he jumped down from the porch rail and sauntered into the house, his tail held high as if to say, "I'm doing this as a particular favor, mind, and don't you forget it."
"He doesn't seem very impressed," Cimorene commented in some amusement.
"Why should he be?" Kazul said.
"Well, you're a dragon," Cimorene answered, a little taken aback.
"What difference does that make to a cat?"
Fortunately, Cimorene did not have to find an answer, for at that moment Morwen appeared in the doorway. She was wearing the same black robe she had worn when she visited Cimorene, or another one exactly like it, and she peered through her glasses with the air of someone studying an unexpected and rather peculiar puzzle.
"Good morning, Kazul," she said after a moment. "This is a surprise."
"Good," said Kazul. "If you aren't expecting us to be here, no one else is, either."
"That's the way of things, is it?" Morwen commented thoughtfully.
"How much of a hurry are you in?"
"Not much of one, as long as no one knows we're here," Kazul replied.
"Then Cimorene had better get down and have something to drink," Morwen said in a tone that forbade contradiction. "There's cider, or goat's milk, though if you want that, you'll have the cats after you, or I can put a kettle on for tea. Good gracious, what have you done to your hand?"
While Morwen had been talking, Cimorene had turned and slid carefully down Kazul's side. It was a long slide, and when her feet hit the ground, she had to put out a hand to keep from falling. Morwen's exclamation made her blink in surprise, and she looked down. The palm of her right hand was covered with blood from half a dozen deep slashes and as many scrapes.
"Oh, dear," Cimorene said. "It must have happened in the caves, when it was so dark. I didn't realize. It doesn't hurt at all."
"Hurting or not, it needs attention," Morwen said firmly. "Come inside, and I'll see to it while Kazul tells me why you're here.
You'll have to go around back this time," she added, turning to Kazul.
"The front steps won't take the weight. A gnome stole one of the supports, and I haven't had time to get it fixed yet. Pesky creatures-they're worse than mice."
"Don't the cats keep the mice away?" Cimorene asked, mildly puzzled.
"Yes, but they don't do a thing about gnomes, which is why gnomes are worse. Mind the step."
Kazul started walking while Morwen shooed Cimorene up the wooden steps and into the house. Several of the cats eyed Cimorene curiously as she passed, and a tortoiseshell kitten got up and followed her in.
The front door led into a large, airy room with an iron stove in one corner. There was a good deal of furniture, but everything except the table and the stove had at least one cat on top of it. Morwen frowned at a fat and fluffy Persian that was sitting on one of the chairs. The cat stood up, yawned, gave its front paws a cursory lick or two just to show that this was all his own idea, and jumped down onto the floor.
As Cimorene sat down in the vacated chair, there was a knock at the wooden door on the opposite side of the room.
"That'll be Kazul," Morwen said. She crossed to the door and opened it. "Come in. I'll get you some cider as soon as I've seen to Cimorene's hand."
Morwen's back door did not seem to get any larger, and Kazul certainly did not get any smaller, but when she put her head through the doorway, her scales did not even scrape the sides. The rest of her followed with no apparent difficulty, and somehow there was plenty of room in the kitchen even after she got inside.
Kazul settled down along the far wall, where she would be out of the way, and as soon as she stopped moving, six cats jumped onto various portions of her tail, back, and shoulders. Neither Kazul nor Morwen seemed to notice. Morwen took a small tin box from a shelf beside the stove and sat down at the table beside Cimorene. "Now, tell me what you're here for," she said, taking a roll of linen and two jars of ointment out of the box.
"Apart from my cider, I mean."
"Cimorene had some interesting visitors yesterday," Kazul said.
"If they were interesting, they can't have been knights," Morwen commented.
"They weren't," Kazul said. "They were wizards, and they went to a lot of trouble to get a look at my copy of the Historia Dracorum. The part that describes the Caves of Fire and Night."
"And you think that's why they've been sniffing around the Mountains of Morning for the past six months," Morwen said. "How did you find out what they were looking at? Or did they ask permission?"
"I don't think Zemenar would ask permission for anything even if he was sure he'd get it," Cimorene said. "He'd consider it beneath him. No, I saw him shut the book, and he was only a little further along from where I'd left my bookmark. Ow! That stings."
"Good," Morwen said. "It's supposed to." She closed the jar of salve she had been smearing on Cimorene's palm and began wrapping the injured hand in the linen bandage. "Did Zemenar get what he was after?"
"I don't think so," Cimorene said. "He said he wanted to come back for another visit, and I don't think he'd have done that if he'd found whatever he was looking for."
"That seems like a reasonable assumption," Morwen said. "Though wizards aren't always reasonable. There, that should take care of things.
Don't take the bandage off for at least four days, and if you're going to cook anything that has fennel in it, stir it left-handed."
"Zemenar's interest
in the Historia Dracorum isn't the only thing that points to his curiosity about the Caves of Fire and Night," Kazul said, and explained about the book that had been stolen. "There have been other incidents as well, and nearly all the wizards we've caught poking around have been somewhere in or near the caves. That's why no one thought much about it at first. Ever since King Tokoz made that agreement with the Society of Wizards, they've been claiming they're supposed to have more time in the caves than we're willing to give them. Everyone thought this was more of the same."
"Not everyone," Morwen said, giving Kazul a sharp look.
"I am widely considered to be unduly suspicious of everyone and everything," Kazul said in a dry tone. "Particularly wizards."
"And what do your suspicions make of this business?"
"I think Zemenar is trying to find out something about the Caves of Fire and Night," Kazul said. "Something he hasn't been able to learn from visiting the caves in person, hence his recent interest in histories that describe the caves, however briefly."
"And you're hoping I have something in my library that will help you figure out what it is," Morwen concluded.
"I don't hope," Kazul said. "I know. Unless someone has run off with your copy of DeMontmorency's A Journey Through the Caves of Fire and Night."
"If someone has, he'll regret it," Morwen said. "Wait here, and I'll check." She rose and went out. Through the doorway Cimorene could see a room full of tall, dark-stained shelves.
Cimorene blinked. "Isn't that the door you came in through?"
Kazul nodded. "Of course."
"I thought it led out into Morwen's yard."
"It leads wherever Morwen wants it to lead," Kazul said.
"I see," said Cimorene, wishing her father's court philosopher were there. He was very pompous and stuffy, particularly about magic, which he claimed was 90 percent trickery and the rest illusion. Cimorene had found him very trying. Dealing with Morwen's door would probably have given him a headache.
Morwen came back into the kitchen holding a thin red book. "Here it is. I'm sorry it took me so long to find it, but the nonfiction isn't organized as well as it should be yet."
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