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 end 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?”

“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 be staying,” 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 tired of it after a while, 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 a little. 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.”

“You may disagree all you wish, but you aren’t 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 weddings 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,” she said.

“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. It hadn’t occurred to me that Kazul lived in the Mountains of Morning, and 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 at least 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.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else 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 started after Shiara.