"Maybe I could help," Cimorene suggested. "After I give you Kazul's message, that is."
"Don't need help to put dents in things," Roxim said. "Comes to that, I don't really want it."
"I didn't mean help to throw things," Cimorene said patiently. "I meant help to find whatever you're looking for."
"Oh, that. Well, come in then."
Cimorene followed the dragon into a moderately large cave, similar to the one Kazul used as a living area. Roxim's cave, however, was full of clutter. Cimorene had to pick her way past bits of armor, one half of a pair of bookends, a box of tea, a pink scroll, three mismatched kitchen pots, a small wooden statue, a broken flute, and four partially burned candles.
Roxim walked straight over the mess as if it weren't there, squashing a mangy-looking stuffed pigeon and flattening a tin cup in passing. He dropped the shield on a pile of silk flowers and waved Cimorene to a seat on a large wooden chest near one wall. "Now, what's this message of Kazul's?"
"It's about the wizards," Cimorene said, settling gingerly onto the dusty surface of the chest. She made a mental note to find Roxim a nice princess as soon as she possibly could. "Alianora and I found one of them picking dragonsbane a few days ago, and Kazul thinks King Tokoz will listen to you if you tell him about it."
"So that's where they got it," Roxim said in tones of disgust. "Pity you didn't mention it sooner."
Cimorene got a sinking feeling. "What do you mean?"
"Somebody poisoned King Tokoz this morning," Roxim explained.
"Slipped some dragonsbane in his coffee. Fast-acting; nothing to be done.
Now we need a new king."
"That's awful!" Cimorene said. "Do you know who did it?"
"Those dratted wizards, that's who," Roxim said angrily. "It's obvious.
Stupid thing to do; has to be wizards, by George! But Woraug won't listen to me."
"Woraug? What's Woraug got to do with it?"
"He's in charge of the investigation," Roxim replied. "Taking his time about it, too, if you ask me."
"But if the King was only poisoned this morning…"
"What does that have to do with it?" Roxim said unreasonably.
"Besides, if Woraug doesn't hurry, he won't have the culprit in hand by the time the trials start tomorrow."
"Trials? You mean with Colin's Stone, to choose the new king?"
Cimorene said with some hesitation. She did not see how it could be a trial for the person who had killed the King if they hadn't caught him yet, but she was not completely certain that the dragons didn't have some way of getting around the problem and trying him anyway.
"That's it," Roxim said, pleased. "And before I leave I have to find that emerald I picked up fifty years ago. Coronation present for the new King."
"But you haven't got a new King yet," Cimorene said, feeling somewhat bewildered. "And what if you're the King?"
Roxim smiled broadly. "Knew you were a nice gal. Me, the King! I rather like the idea. I still have to find the emerald, though.
Wouldn't do to show up at the trials without a coronation present. Rum thing to do. Over-confident."
Though she was upset and more than a little worried, Cimorene helped Roxim as best she could. After about an hour of poking through the clutter, Cimorene found the emerald, wrapped in a gold-embroidered handkerchief and stuffed into the mouth of a large brass horn. Roxim thanked her and invited her to stay to tea, but Cimorene politely declined. She was eager to get back to Kazul, to tell her what had happened and decide what to do next.
Cimorene hurried back to Kazul's cave by the shortest route, thinking so hard about Tokoz's death that she forgot everything else. She found Kazul sleeping and was forced to wake her, despite her words about the dragon's health. She knew Kazul would want to hear about the King of the Dragons as soon as possible, and she wanted to hear what Kazul made of Woraug's involvement in the investigation.
"Back already?" Kazul said, opening her eyes. "Didn't Roxim get you in to see King Tokoz?"
"No," Cimorene said. She hesitated, uncertain of the best way to break the news. "It was too late."
"Too late?" Kazul raised her head, startled. She eyed Cimorene briefly, then said, "All right, let's have it. What's happened?"
"King Tokoz was poisoned this morning. Roxim said someone put dragonsbane in his coffee."
Kazul snorted. "Somebody knew Tokoz pretty well." Seeing Cimorene's surprised expression, she explained, "Tokoz drank Turkish coffee every morning. The stuff is strong enough to take the roof off your mouth.
It's why no one ever went to talk to him over breakfast. You could boil a whole field's worth of dragonsbane in Turkish coffee without changing the taste enough to notice. Or the texture."
Cimorene tried to imagine coffee, even Turkish coffee, strong enough to take the roof off a dragon's mouth and failed. "I told Roxim about the wizard Alianora and I met, and Roxim said I ought to tell Woraug because Woraug is in charge of finding the poisoner," she said. "But-" "But when you caught Antorell picking dragonsbane, he thought Woraug had sent you," Kazul said. "If Woraug's mixed up with wizards-" She broke off, coughing. Cimorene watched her anxiously, but the coughing spasm did not last long. "I don't like this," Kazul finished when she got her breath back.
"I don't, either," Cimorene agreed. "But what can we do about it?"
Kazul frowned and said nothing. For several minutes, the two sat and thought in silence. Then Kazul said, "We can't do anything until the new King has been chosen. Did Roxim say when the testing will be?"
"Tomorrow," Cimorene said.
"Tomorrow!" Kazul surged to her feet. "Why didn't you say so at once? If I'm to be at the Ford of Whispering Snakes tomorrow, I have to-" "Lie down!" Cimorene commanded. Kazul looked at her in surprise and collapsed in another fit of coughing. Cimorene waited until the dragon's coughing had subsided, then said sternly, "You're in no condition to go hauling rocks all over the countryside. I'd be surprised if you can even fly as far as the end of the pass. I think you're going to have to give up on the trials this time around."
Kazul made a choking noise. Cimorene looked at her in alarm, then realized that the dragon was laughing.
"It's not optional, Princess," Kazul said. "All the adult dragons in the Mountains of Morning are required to show up, no matter what condition they're in."
"But-" "There is no acceptable excuse for missing the testing of a new King,"
Kazul repeated. "None. And I have a great deal to do before I leave, so if you'll-" "If anything needs to be done around here, I'll do it," Cimorene said firmly. "If you don't rest, you won't be able to fly at all, and then how will you get to the ford?"
"A reasonable point," Kazul said, settling reluctantly back into place.
"Very well. The first thing I need is a coronation present for the new King.
There's a jeweled helmet on a shelf in the second storeroom that might do.
Bring it out so I can take a look at it."
Cimorene spent the rest of the evening running errands for Kazul.
Besides choosing a coronation gift (Kazul rejected the helmet and two crowns before deciding on a scepter made of gold and crystal), innumerable messages had to be delivered to various dragons who were in charge of arranging the trials. This one had to be informed of Kazul's ill health, so that it could be taken into account when the order of the testing was established; that one had to be told that Kazul would not be able to join the coronation procession. Substitutes had to be found to perform Kazul's various ceremonial duties, then their names had to be approved by a surly dragon in charge of protocol, and finally the substitutions had to be recorded on all the lists of all the dragons who were managing each of the events. It reminded Cimorene strongly of Linderwall and her parents' court.
By the time the last arrangement had been made and the last message delivered, it was very late and Cimorene was exhausted. She was also very glad she had not let Kazul do all the running around. The dragon, who had slept most of th
e time Cimorene was out, was looking much better, even in the dim light of Cimorene's lamp. Tired but satisfied, Cimorene went to her room and dropped into bed.
Cimorene was up early the next morning, stirring a dozen ostrich eggs in a large iron kettle for Kazul's breakfast. Kazul ate all of them, then slid out of the cave and prepared to leave for the Ford of Whispering Snakes.
"Don't fret, Princess," Kazul said. "The testing doesn't start until ten. I have plenty of time to get there, even if I stop to rest now and then." Her voice sounded much better than it had the day before, and it no longer seemed to rasp her throat. "While I'm gone, why don't you visit Woraug's princess? See if she's noticed anything odd these past few days. We need to know as much as we can before we talk to the new King about Woraug and the wizards."
"All right," Cimorene said. "As soon as I'm done with the dishes."
Kazul turned and leaped into the air, her wings churning clouds of dust from the dry surface of the ground. Cimorene squinted after her and shouted, "Good luck!" Kazul's wings dipped in answer before the dragon soared out of sight behind the shoulder of the next mountain.
Cimorene stood looking after Kazul, her forehead wrinkling in worry.
After a moment she shook herself and went inside. She had work to do.
Washing the dishes did not take long, and as soon as she was done, Cimorene set off to visit Alianora. The runnels and passageways were silent and empty, and Cimorene's footsteps echoed eerily through the darkness.
She began to wish she had taken the longer route along the outside of the mountain. She had not realized that the dragon city would seem so strange and lifeless with all the dragons gone.
"Psst! Cimorene!"
Cimorene jumped. She whirled in the direction of the voice, raising her lamp like a club, and Alianora stepped out of the adjoining tunnel and into the circle of light. In one hand she clutched a large bucket, three-quarters full of soapy water, and she looked rather pale.
"Alianora!" Cimorene said, lowering her arm. "What are you doing out here?"
"Shhh!" Alianora said. She looked nervously over her shoulder.
"Woraug told me to scrub off the table in the banquet room while everyone was away. And-and I heard someone moving around in there.
Even though everyone but us is gone. And I dropped my lamp, and-" "Oh, my goodness," Cimorene said. "The stone prince! I'd forgotten all about him."
"Who?"
"The stone prince." Quickly, Cimorene explained how she had found and hidden him the day before. "And I hadn't thought about it until now, but this is the perfect time to get him out of the mountains," she finished.
"All the dragons are gone and no one will see him. Come on, before I forget again."
Alianora nodded dubiously, and the two girls headed for the banquet room. When they arrived, Cimorene went in first, holding her lamp high.
"Prince?" she called. "Are you there? It's me, Cimorene."
"Yes, I'm here," said the stone prince, unfolding stiffly from a gray lump in the corner. "I'm glad you're back. Who's this you've brought with you?"
"Princess Alianora of the Duchy of Toure-on-Marsh," Cimorene said.
"She's the princess of the dragon Woraug just now."
"Does her father need a great service done for him?" the prince asked hopefully.
"Not that I know of," Cimorene replied. "Unless you're good at getting rid of aunts, but that would be more of a service to Alianora than to her father."
"I can think of nothing that would make me happier," the prince said with evident admiration as he bowed stiffly to Alianora. "Good afternoon, Princess. Or should it be 'good evening'? It's hard to tell without windows."
Alianora blushed and looked down at her bucket without answering.
"Actually, it's good morning," Cimorene told the prince. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come back for you, but… well, a lot has been going on."
Alianora looked up sharply. "You've been sitting here in the dark all night?" She shuddered. "You could at least have left him a candle, Cimorene."
"Thank you for the thought, Princess Alianora, but it's just as well she didn't," the stone prince said. "If I'd been sitting here with a lit candle, they'd have noticed me right away. And an unlit candle isn't much use in the dark, is it?"
"What do you mean?" Cimorene said. "Who would have noticed you?"
"The dragon and the two men he was talking to," replied the prince. "I think they were wizards."
"What?" said Cimorene and Alianora together.
"Well, they talked as if they were wizards," the prince said. "They weren't carrying staffs, though."
"What did they look like?" Cimorene said.
"They were both tall, and they both had beards. The older one's was gray and the younger one's was brown."
"Antorell and Zemenar!" Cimorene said. "And they were talking to a dragon?"
The stone prince nodded.
"Then they wouldn't have been carrying staffs. Dragons are allergic to them. Did you hear what they said?"
"Something about a contest," the stone prince said. "The wizards were going to fix it so this dragon would win. It sounded like a kind of cross-country race, and the wizards were going to hide along the path and-and help the dragon out somehow. I'm afraid I'm not very clear about that part.
Spells aren't my specialty. I'm much better at hopeless causes."
Alianora and Cimorene exchanged appalled glances.
"The trials with Colin's Stone to pick the new King!" Alianora said.
"Which dragon?" Cimorene asked urgently. "Do you know which dragon they were talking to?"
"I only heard the name once," the prince said. He sounded apologetic and a little embarrassed. "And I don't think I got it right. It's too silly."
"Tell us!" Cimorene commanded.
"Well, it sounded like 'wart hog,' "the prince said in an even more apologetic tone than before.
"Could it have been Woraug?" Cimorene asked.
"That's it!" the prince said. "I knew it couldn't really have been wart-hog."
"What a pity you remembered," said a voice from the entrance into the banquet hall.
Cimorene whirled. Antorell stood in the doorway, staff in hand, watching them with an intolerably smug expression.
13
In Which Alianora Discovers an Unexpected Use for Soap and Water, and Cimorene Has Difficulty with a Dragon
Antorell looked past Cimorene and Alianora as if they were not there and spoke directly to the stone prince. "I told Father someone was listening. He won't be happy when he finds out I was right, but he'll feel better when I tell him I've taken care of things. He might even let me have the first look in the King's Crystal, once Woraug gives it to us."
"So that's what you're after!" Cimorene said.
Antorell favored her with a superior smile. "Quite right, Princess Cimorene. The King's Crystal will show us the whereabouts of every piece of useful and interesting magic in the world. All we'll have to do is go out and pick them up."
"Somehow I don't think it will be that easy," Cimorene murmured.
"We knew Tokoz would never give it to us, but Woraug will, as soon as he's King of the Dragons. He'll have to, or we'll tell everyone how we were the ones who made sure he was the new king. Of course, we can't afford to have anybody around who might make… awkward revelations. I doubt that dragons will listen to a couple of hysterical princesses, but he"-Antorell pointed at the stone prince-"will have to go."
"What are you going to do?" Alianora demanded. She was plainly frightened, and Cimorene could see that her knuckles were white with the force of her grip on the handle of the scrub bucket.
"Oh, gravel seems appropriate, don't you think?" Antorell said. "No one will notice a few more rocks around here."
"Ought I to be taking this person seriously?" the stone prince said in a rather doubtful tone.
"You'd better if you don't want to end up as a lot of little pebbles," Alianora answered. She still sounded frightened,
but she seemed to be getting a grip on herself. "He's a wizard."
"You wouldn't be talking about gravel if you were the one who had to sweep the floor," Cimorene said to Antorell. She stepped forward as she spoke, hoping to get between Antorell and the stone prince before Antorell noticed what she was doing. She didn't think Antorell was a good enough wizard to do any real harm, but there was no point in taking chances.
"Stay where you are, Princess Cimorene," Antorell commanded. "I'll deal with you in a moment."
"Must you be so theatrical?" Cimorene said.
"Theatrical? You think I'm being theatrical?"Antorell said furiously.
"I am simply showing a proper respect for the importance of this moment?"
"You're showing off," Cimorene said flatly. "And you're not doing it very well."
"He doesn't sound much like a wizard to me," the stone prince said.
"Is he always like this?"
"Enough!" Antorell cried, and raised his staff. Light shimmered along its length and began to gather at the lower end. Grinning wolfishly, the wizard tilted the staff, aiming it toward the stone prince.
"Stop that? Alianora said. Antorell ignored her. "I said, stop it!"
Alianora shouted, and threw her bucket at Antorell's head.
Alianora's aim was off. The bucket hit Antorell's shoulder. A bolt of fire shot from the end of his staff and whizzed between Cimorene and the stone prince to strike the far wall with a whumping noise and a shower of sparks. Antorell staggered, slipped in the cascade of soapy water, and fell over the bucket, dropping his staff in the process.
Cimorene darted in and kicked Antorell's staff out of his reach. He stared up at her from a mound of soggy silk and soapsuds. "You can't do this to me!" he shrieked.
Something in his voice made Cimorene and her friends look at him more closely. Alianora's eyes went wide, and Cimorene blinked in surprise.
"He's-he's collapsing," Alianora said in a stunned voice.
"He's melting," Cimorene corrected her.
"I can't be melting!" Antorell cried. "I'm a wizard! It's not fa-" His head disappeared into a small brown puddle, and his cries stopped.
Dealing with Dragons ef-1 Page 13
