There was a moment of astonished silence. "I thought it was witches who melt when you dump water over them," the stone prince said at last.
"It is, usually," Cimorene said. "What on earth did you put in that bucket, Alianora?"
'Just water and soap, and a little lemon juice to make it smell nicer," Alianora said.
"Um," said Cimorene, thinking hard. "I'll bet there's a simpler way of melting wizards, but we don't have time right now to figure out what it is.
How many buckets can you get hold of in a hurry?"
"Buckets?" Alianora said. "Two, counting this one. And I suppose I could borrow one from Hallanna; that's three."
"And I've got two in the kitchen, and I expect the iron kettle is big enough. That's six altogether; two for each of us. You will help, won't you?"
Cimorene added, turning to the stone prince.
"Of course," the prince assured her. "Help with what?"
"Stopping those wizards," Cimorene said. "We can't let them make Woraug the next King of the Dragons by trickery."
"I don't see how we can stop them," Alianora said. "We can't possibly get to the Ford of Whispering Snakes before the trials start, and even if we could, we don't know where the wizards will be hiding."
"If we tell the dragons that Woraug's trying to cheat, they'll stop the trials," Cimorene said with more confidence than she felt. "That will give us time to find the wizards. And I've got a way to get us to the ford. You go start collecting buckets. I'll meet you at your place after I get the things I'll need from Kazul's."
"What about…" Alianora gestured with distaste at the wet, messy lump of robes in the center of the puddle that was all that remained of Antorell.
"We'll clean it up when we get back," Cimorene said. "This is more important."
Alianora nodded, and the three left the banquet room. The stone prince decided to accompany Alianora since he was not a fast walker and Cimorene had farther to go. Cimorene left them when they reached the main tunnel and ran back to Kazul's cave. There she went straight to her room and opened the drawer where she kept odds and ends. In the back left-hand corner, carefully wrapped in a handkerchief, were the three black feathers she had taken from beneath the left wing of the bird she had killed in the Enchanted Forest. She shoved the whole packet into her pocket without bothering to unwrap it and went on to the kitchen to collect her buckets.
Then she hurried through the tunnels to Woraug's cave, where Alianora and the stone prince were waiting.
When Cimorene arrived, she found the stone prince pumping water to fill Alianora's third bucket while Alianora mixed soap and lemon juice into the second. Cimorene set her pots and pails next to the pump and went to help Alianora.
"Now what?" Alianora said when all the buckets were full of cleaning mixture.
Cimorene reached into her pocket and dug out the package. Gently, she unfolded the handkerchief and removed one of the feathers, noticing as she did that the package also contained the pebble she had picked up in the Caves of Fire and Night. "If we each take two buckets, can we still link elbows without spilling too much?" she asked.
Alianora and the stone prince looked at each other, shrugged, and picked up two buckets each. Cimorene took the last bucket and the iron pot, holding the handle of the pot with only three fingers so that she could keep a grip on the feather with her thumb and forefinger. A series of awkward maneuvers followed as Alianora and the stone prince tried to link elbows with Cimorene without losing their balance or dropping one of their buckets.
In the process, Cimorene's skirt got soaked.
"It's a good thing I'm not a wizard," Cimorene said. "Ready? Here we go." She twisted her hand toward the edge of the iron pot and let go of the black feather. "I wish we were at the Ford of Whispering Snakes," she said as the feather fell, and the room dissolved around them.
They materialized at the very edge of a river, on a flat, narrow rock that jutted out over the water, and Alianora immediately slipped on the wet stone. If the stone prince had not been so solid and heavy, all three of them would have fallen into the river. As it was, it took Cimorene and Alianora several seconds to regain their balance. When she was finally sure of her footing, Cimorene breathed a sigh of relief and quickly looked about her.
The Ford of Whispering Snakes was crowded. Dragons of all sizes and shades of green lined the banks of the river and filled the spaces beneath the towering trees of the Enchanted Forest. On the far bank, a pale dragon was poring over a parchment list that Cimorene thought she remembered seeing during one of the many errands she had run the previous night. All the dragons seemed to be talking at once, and none of them noticed Cimorene and her friends.
"Hello, dragons? Cimorene shouted, trying to make herself heard above the noise.
"Here, now! What's all this?" an olive-green dragon on the bank demanded, turning. "Someone's trying to sneak a look at the trials."
"S-s-s-sneakssss," hissed a soft but nonetheless clearly audible voice from somewhere near Cimorene's feet. Cimorene jumped and looked down, but though she craned her neck to see all around her, she could not find the second speaker.
"Get rid of them before Troum comes back with Colin's Stone," another dragon advised.
"We aren't trying to sneak in, and we don't care about watching the trials," Cimorene said, wishing she dared to look around for Kazul.
"We came to warn you about the wizards."
"Wiz-z-zardssss," the soft voice echoed.
"Wizards?" the olive-green dragon said skeptically. "There aren't any wizards here."
"No, but they've figured out some way of interfering with your choice of the next king," Cimorene said. "They're hiding somewhere. You have to put off the trials with Colin's Stone until we can find them and stop them. If you'll just tell Kazul we're here-" "Put off the trials?" the olive-green dragon interrupted. "Impossible! They've been under way for half an hour. We can't just stop in the middle.
Who are all you people, anyway?"
A flicker of motion caught Cimorene's eye, and she looked down just in time to see a thin red snake dart from one clump of weeds to the next.
"S-s-s-sneaksss," whispered the soft voice an instant later.
"S-s-sneaksss and wiz-z-zardsss."
"I wasn't asking you," the dragon said severely in the general direction of the snake. "And whatever they are, they certainly aren't wizards."
"They look like somebody's princesses to me," a blue-green dragon said.
"Pity, that. It would be so much simpler to eat them and get them out of the way."
"Are you sure?" said a third dragon. "The one on the end doesn't look like a princess."
"I'm beginning to think this wasn't such a good idea," the stone prince said.
"He may not be a princess, but he doesn't look edible, either," the blue-green dragon pointed out. "And these other two are definitely princesses.
You can't go eating them out of hand."
"Princesssessss," hissed the voice from under the rock.
"Oh, princesses," the olive-green dragon said. "No wonder they're so full of wild tales."
"It's me!" Cimorene said desperately. "If you don't believe us, take us to Kazul; she will."
"I can't do that!" the olive-green dragon said, shocked. "Kazul's third in line now, after Mazarin and Woraug. You can't talk to people who are that close to making their attempt with the stone. It would distract them."
"Woraug!" Alianora said. "Woraug's next in line?"
"Yes, he should be starting off any minute now," said the olive-green dragon. "Then comes Mazarin, and then Kazul. I don't expect it will take long, though. Nobody's carried the stone for more than a mile or two yet."
"But I'm Kazul's princess!" Cimorene said.
"I don't care who you are," the dragon replied crossly. "You can't talk to Kazul until she's done with her turn."
"That will be too late!" Cimorene cried. "You don't understand.
Woraug and the wizards-" "I've had enough of your wi
zards," the olive-green dragon said.
"You're a confounded nuisance, and you ought not to be pushing your way in here where you're not wanted. Go away!"
"Cimorene, what are we going to do?" Alianora said as the olive-green dragon turned and stalked determinedly away.
"At hero's school we were always taught that if you couldn't persuade anyone to help you with something, it meant that you were supposed to do it by yourself," the stone prince said diffidently. "And we are prepared." He lifted one of his buckets slightly.
"But we don't know where the wizards are." Alianora said. "We have to find them before we can stop them, and there isn't time."
"S-s-stop the wiz-z-zardsss," whispered the soft voice.
"That's the first sensible thing you've said since we got here," Cimorene said to the hissing whisper.
"Can't you just wish to be where the wizards are?" the stone prince asked Cimorene.
"No, you have to know where you're going, or the spell doesn't work," Cimorene said.
For a moment all three were glumly silent. Cimorene stared at the water, remembering how and where she had gotten the feathers. Suddenly she raised her head.
"We may not know where the wizards are, but I'll bet I know someone who can find out. Hold this for a minute."
Cimorene handed one of her buckets to Alianora, then dug out the packet of feathers. She pulled the second feather from the packet and grabbed Alianora's elbow. "Hold tight, everybody. I wish we were at Morwen's house," Cimorene said, and dropped the feather.
The scenery shifted abruptly, and they were standing on Morwen's porch.
The house was just as tidy-looking as Cimorene remembered, and the porch floor gleamed as if it had just been washed. A black and white cat, startled by their sudden appearance, fell off the porch railing.
Four others left off washing themselves to stare at Cimorene with unwinking green and yellow eyes.
"I need to talk to Morwen," Cimorene said to the cats. "It's an emergency."
A lean tiger-stripped cat rose and oozed through a crack in the door.
Cimorene unwound herself from Alianora and the stone prince and set her bucket on the porch floor. "I hope this works," she muttered to herself as Alianora and the prince placed their buckets beside hers.
14
In Which the Wizards Try to Make Trouble, and Cimorene Does Something about It
The door of the cottage opened and Morwen stepped out. "What sort of emergency?" she asked. She studied Alianora and the stone prince for a moment, then peered at Cimorene over the tops of her glasses and added with some severity, "I hope you weren't referring to his predicament. He may well find it an inconvenience, but it certainly isn't an emergency. Not by my standards, anyway."
"No," said Cimorene, "I was talking about the wizards. They've poisoned the King of the Dragons, and now they're trying to interfere with Colin's Stone so that Woraug will be the new king. We have to stop them, but we don't know where they are, and Woraug's going to try to carry the stone any minute. Can you find them for us?"
Morwen blinked twice and shoved her glasses back into place with her forefinger. "I see," she said. "You're right. It's an emergency.
I'll do what I can. But if you don't tell me the whole story later, when there's a bit more time, I shal–shall turn you all into mice and give you to the cats. Wait here."
As she spoke, Morwen disappeared into the house. She reappeared a moment later, holding a small mirror and muttering over it.
Stone," she said, and breathed on the glass. She looked up. "Any wizard in particular?"
"Zemenar, the Head Wizard of the Society of Wizards," Cimorene said, wishing Morwen would go faster and knowing she couldn't.
"I should have guessed," Morwen said. She turned back to the mirror.
"Zemenar," she said, and breathed on the glass once more. Then she motioned to Cimorene to come and look.
Cimorene obeyed, and Alianora and the stone prince crowded closely behind her. The mirror showed a blurry, wavering picture of the Ford of Whispering Snakes. As Cimorene watched, the picture moved slowly along one bank of the river, past the waiting dragons and the immense trees of the Enchanted Forest and on down the river.
"Can't it go any faster?" Alianora whispered.
"There's no need to whisper, and no, it can't," Morwen said. "Not if you want to be sure of finding these wizards of yours on the first try, and it doesn't sound as if you have time to waste on mistakes."
The picture in the mirror continued to creep along the bank. Cimorene pulled the third and last feather out of her pocket and brushed it nervously across her fingers while she waited.
"What's that?" the stone prince said suddenly.
The mirror-picture stopped, then moved up the bank, away from the river toward a thicket of blackberry brambles. Cimorene saw the tip of a wooden staff poking up above the thicket. Tensely, she waited for the mirror to show the far side of the brambles.
"It's them? Alianora said. She sounded frightened and excited at the same time. "Oh, dear!"
Cimorene took a good look at the picture in the mirror. Five wizards were standing in an opening behind the blackberry thicket, leaning on their staffs and looking at the sky. Suddenly, one of the wizards pointed. The others peered upward, nodded, and raised their staffs.
"Get the buckets? Cimorene said. Cats scattered in all directions as the stone prince pounded across the porch behind Cimorene and Alianora.
"Hang on; here we go. I wish-" "Not without me you-" Morwen said, grabbing Cimorene's shoulder.
"-we were at the blackberry thicket where the wizards are," Cimorene said, and dropped the feather.
"-don't," Morwen finished as the porch winked out and was replaced by blackberries.
The five wizards were standing in an arc just in front of the bramble.
Each of them held his staff so that the lower end was about a foot above the ground, pointing at something hidden in the moss at their feet. An unpleasant yellow-green light dripped from the ends of the staffs, and the moss where the wizards were standing was brown and dead. The wizards' backs were toward Cimorene and her friends.
"Now!" Cimorene cried. As the wizards began to turn, she set one of her buckets on the ground and lifted the other in both hands. Taking careful aim, she flung the soapy water over a black-haired wizard in the center of the arc.
"Charge!" yelled the stone prince, and threw one of his buckets at the nearest wizard.
"Take that, you cheats? said Alianora, dumping the first of her buckets over another.
"What-this is impossible!" said one of the wizards indignantly as he began to melt.
"Too bad," Cimorene said, throwing her second load of water at the next-to-last wizard.
"Watch where you're throwing that!" Morwen said to the stone prince, who had sloshed his second bucket over the fifth wizard with such enthusiasm that water sprayed in all directions.
"Sorry," the prince apologized. "Is that all of them?"
"It's all five of the ones we saw," Cimorene said cautiously.
"Then we did it!" Alianora said.
"Not quite," said Zemenar, stepping out of the bushes behind Morwen.
"You interrupted the spell, of course, but we were nearly finished anyway.
And as long as the stone remains enchanted, Woraug won't have any trouble getting it all the way to the Vanishing Mountain. Look." He pointed with his staff, and Cimorene saw three dragons, high in the air, flying steadily toward the mountains. One of them had a long black stone clutched in his claws, and the other two appeared to be escorting him at a careful distance.
"Woraug and the two judges," Cimorene murmured.
Zemenar nodded. "You might as well put that bucket down," he went on, turning to Alianora. "You can't throw it at me without melting your witch friend here. What's in it, by the way?"
"I don't see why we should tell you," Cimorene said as Alianora set the last of the six buckets down.
"Because I'm interested, Prin
cess," Zemenar said with an oily smile.
"And it will pass the time until the next shift gets here, and I can decide what to do with you."
"If you're that interested, why don't you take a closer look?" said the stone prince, picking up Alianora's bucket.
"Stay where you are!" Zemenar commanded. As he spoke, he raised his staff and sidestepped so that Morwen was between him and the stone prince.
"If you insist," said the prince. He shrugged, lifted the bucket, and flung the water over Morwen and Zemenar at the same time.
"What-no!" Zemenar cried in horror as he began to melt. "Not soapsuds! It's demeaning."
"There's a little lemon juice in it, too," Alianora offered.
Zemenar glared at her. He was less than half his normal height and shrinking as they watched, while a dark puddle spread out beneath him.
"Lemon juice! Bah! How dare you do such a thing? I'm the Head Wizard of the Society of Wizards!" His voice grew fainter and higher as he shrank.
"Interfering busybodies! Soapsuds! Of all the undignified tricks.
You'll be sorry for this! You can't melt a wizard forever, you know! You'll be sor…"
The wizard's voice ceased. All that remained of him was a pile of silk robes and a long wooden staff lying on some damp moss. Alianora and Cimorene stared for a moment, then Alianora turned to the stone prince.
"I'm glad he's gone," she said, "but how could you melt Morwen just to get at that wizard?"
"But I didn't," the stone prince said. "Look."
Cimorene and Alianora turned. Morwen seemed no shorter than usual, though she certainly looked very damp. She had taken off her glasses and was shaking water off them. "Don't just stand there," she said crossly to Cimorene. "Hand me a dry handkerchief."
"Just a minute," Cimorene said, checking her pockets. She found the handkerchief that had been wrapped around the magic feathers and handed it to Morwen. "Um, why didn't you melt?"
"Clean living," Morwen said as she began to dry her glasses on Cimorene's handkerchief.
"I thought as much," the stone prince said in a satisfied tone.
"Nobody who lives in a house as clean as yours could possibly melt in a bucket of soapsuds."
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