Talking to Dragons - Wrede Patricia Collins - Страница 19

"Oh, but really, Isabelle-" "I'm sure Morwen won't mind," Shiara put in. "She fixed Daystar up just fine. She's even good with wet swords."

The Princess looked thoroughly confused, but the knight brightened a little. "Are you quite sure? Because I'm frightfully wet, sword and armor and everything, and it would be very nice if I could keep it all from rusting.

It's rather expensive, you see."

"I'm sure she could manage that," Shiara said. "Of course, you don't have to go. You could stay here and wait for the wizard to come back."

The knight didn't argue. I don't think he liked the idea of staying around the dragon, especially if a lot of wizards were going to show up any minute. As soon as he agreed, the Princess started telling him how wise and brave and wonderful he was. Shiara looked disgusted, but the knight seemed to like it. He sat up and even managed not to cough very much.

Shiara and I gave the knight directions back up the stream and through the woods to Morwen's house. He and the Princess said good-bye and started off.

"That's a relief!" Shiara said when they were out of earshot. "For a while I thought you were going to make us go with that stupid princess.

It was bad enough having to listen to her here without following her around."

I blinked at her. "But I thought you changed your mind about her! You were being a lot nicer to her after the knight got hurt."

Shiara snorted. "So I feel sorry for her. She really cares about that klutz in the tin can. I could tell. That doesn't mean I like her! I still think she's dumber than you are, but I'm glad they're going to see Morwen."

I wasn't sure whether Morwen would object or not, but I didn't say anything else about it. By then, the knight and the Princess were completely out of sight anyway. I turned around to see where I'd put the bundle of food and things Morwen had given me. The dragon was staring at me.

"Why," it said, "do you have wizards chasing you?"

"It's a long story," I said. "I'll be glad to explain, but you might want to make yourself comfortable first."

The dragon sighed. "Have you ever tried to be comfortable with a sprained tail?"

Shiara giggled. I ignored her. We waited while the dragon tried curling into a couple of different positions. One of them looked sort of like Suz when he was halfway through getting up on his tail.

Finally, the dragon curled itself around the little tree that had sprouted up in the middle of the tourney. "That's better," it said.

"Enchanted trees are always more comfortable than regular ones."

"Enchanted trees?" Shiara said.

"Of course," the dragon said. "What else do you expect to find in an enchanted forest? I'm going to have to remember to tell someone about this, though. There haven't been any new ones in a long time."

I looked at the tree a little more closely. It was nearly six feet tall now, and it seemed to have stopped growing. It didn't look very different from the other trees in the Enchanted Forest, except that it was a lot smaller than most of them. And, of course, none of the other trees had dragons wrapped around them.

"You were going to tell me about the wizards," said the dragon.

So I explained about Mother and Antorell, and the Sword of the Sleeping King, and everything. It took a long time. The dragon didn't say anything at all while I talked, but its tail twitched a couple of times. Whenever that happened, the dragon winced.

"That's very interesting," the dragon said when I stopped. "Where are you going now?"

"Morwen told us to follow the stream," Shiara said. "And Suz said we should go talk to someone named Kazul."

"It's the same thing," the dragon said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The stream goes to the castle, and Kazul lives right outside it. I wonder why she wants to see you?"

"What castle?" Shiara said in an exasperated voice. "And who is this Kazul person, anyway?"

"It must have something to do with that sword," the dragon said, ignoring her questions completely. "Especially if it really does belong to the Sleeping King."

"You mean you know something about it?" Shiara said. "Well, then, tell us what the stupid thing does?"

The dragon looked sheepish. Dragons just weren't meant to look sheepish. "I don't know. I'm not old enough yet," it said.

"Not old enough?"

"That's why I wanted a princess," the dragon said. "Otherwise, Kazul won't tell me anything important until I'm two hundred. She says that before then dragons are irresponsible, unwise, and talk too much." It looked faintly indignant. "I don't talk too much."

"Who is Kazul?" I said. I was getting a little nervous about meeting her. I hadn't ever known anyone who could tell a dragon what to do, even a young one. Well, Mother might have been able to get away with it.

"Oh, I thought you knew," the dragon said. "Kazul is the King of the Dragons."

10

In Which They Take a Shortcut and Run into an Obstacle

Shiara and I looked at each other. "Terrific," Shiara said. "And I thought wizards were bad."

"Did I say something wrong?" the dragon asked.

"No, not at all," I said hastily. "We were just a little surprised, that's all."

"Hey!" Shiara said. "How can Kazul be King of the Dragons if she's a she? That doesn't make sense."

"It does too!" the dragon said. "What else would you call her?"

"How about Queen?" Shiara said sarcastically.

"Queen?" The little dragon wrinkled its nose. "Why would you want to call her Queen? That's not the same thing at all! You're the one who doesn't make sense."

"I do too make sense? Shiara said. "Queens do the same things Kings do."

"Not for dragons," I said hastily. I didn't want the dragon to get offended again. "Dragons have a king, period. The King of the Dragons is whichever dragon can move Colin's Stone from the Vanishing Mountain to the Ford of the Whispering Snakes. It doesn't matter whether the dragon is male or female."

"It's silly to have two names for the same job," the dragon said complacently.

"People get confused."

"Oh." Shiara looked skeptical, but at least she didn't object anymore. I decided I was going to have to explain a few things to her soon, before she got us both in real trouble. For about a minute, no one said anything. Then Shiara looked over at me.

"Daystar," she said, "why are we looking for the King of the Dragons?"

I started to say something, then stopped because I wasn't really sure what to say. I mean, it would sound a little odd to say that I was looking for a dragon because a lizard told me to. Especially since the dragon was apparently King of the Dragons. I thought some more.

"I don't know," I said finally. "But I think we have to. At least, I have to."

Shiara sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say something like that."

The dragon looked puzzled. "What's the matter? It doesn't sound particularly unusual to me, but I suppose it'll be at least as interesting as running away to find a princess."

Shiara and I looked at the dragon, then at each other, then back at the dragon again. "You ran away?" Shiara said finally.

"It was the only way I could think of to get a princess." The dragon sighed. "It didn't work out the way I thought it would, though."

Shiara and I exchanged glances again. "You're sure you really want to come?" I said to the dragon. "I mean, there are wizards after us, and it might be a little inconvenient if they showed up again. And I doubt that we'll run into any more princesses."

The dragon looked thoughtful for a moment, then it shook its head.

"I'm coming with you, wizards or no wizards," it said stubbornly.

"Sneezing isn't so bad."

It was my turn to sigh. Dragons are awfully hard to talk out of things.