Talking to Dragons - Wrede Patricia Collins - Страница 20

"We'd better go, then," I said. "I'm sure Antorell will be back as soon as he thinks it's safe, and I'd sort of like to be gone by then."

Shiara grabbed Morwen's bundles and shoved one at me. "You're absolutely right. Here. Let's go."

I nodded and started toward the stream. "Not that way?" said the dragon. "It takes too long."

"How else are we going to find the stupid castle?" Shiara demanded. "We don't even know what it looks like"

The dragon looked smug. "I do. And I'm very good at shortcuts."

"Morwen told us to follow the stream," I said doubtfully.

"Morwen didn't know you were going to meet me." The dragon looked at us for a minute. "I thought you were in a hurry."

"Come on, Daystar," Shiara said. "I don't care which way we go, but let's go!"

I decided not to argue. I still didn't like the idea of leaving the stream, but it didn't seem worth fighting over. Not with a dragon, anyway.

Besides, if we didn't leave soon, the wizards would catch us. We started off, following the dragon.

Traveling with a dragon was rather nice, in a way. Nothing bothered us at all. When it started to get dark, we stopped and opened Morwen's bundles again. There was obviously something magic about them, because the leftovers from lunch had turned into a fresh packet of food, and there was plenty for everyone, even the dragon.

Nothing dangerous came near us all night, either. I stayed awake for a while, just to make sure, but evidently nightshades and wolves and things don't want to annoy a dragon any more than people do. Finally, I went to sleep, too.

We started off again as soon as we woke up next morning. The dragon went first because it knew the way, and we followed. After about an hour, I noticed that I didn't feel quite comfortable for some reason.

I touched the hilt of the Sword of the Sleeping King a couple of times, but I didn't feel any new magic tingles, just the same familiar ones.

I started watching the trees as we walked. Finally, Shiara noticed.

"What's the matter, Daystar?" she said.

"I don't know," I said. "But I feel as if I'm being watched."

"Watched?" Shiara looked at the trees quickly. "Who's watching us?"

"I don't know," I said. "I'm not even sure someone is. I just feel uncomfortable."

"You're being a little slow," the dragon called back over its shoulder, and Shiara and I stopped talking and ran to catch up. We didn't have a chance to discuss it again, but I noticed Shiara looking uneasily at the forest from time to time. Even Nightwitch seemed to notice something wrong; she stopped jumping at leaves and stayed close to Shiara. In fact, Shiara almost stepped on her once. After that, Shiara carried her.

In spite of all the worrying, nothing happened until late that morning.

The dragon was moving on through the forest, ignoring all the little branches and things that happened to be in its way. Suddenly it gave a smothered yelp and stopped. Shiara and Nightwitch and I ran forward to see what was the matter.

The dragon was sitting back, rubbing its nose and glaring at a large open space in front of it. I looked around, but I didn't see anything else.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I ran into something," the dragon said, glaring at me for a minute instead of the open space.

"But there isn't anything-Ow!" Shiara had started to wave toward the clearing, but her hand stopped about halfway through the wave, as if it had hit something. She rubbed her fingers, then put out her hand more cautiously.

It stopped in midair, right where it had before. Nightwitch hissed and backed away.

I reached out, very carefully. It was a little strange to feel something where I couldn't see anything. It was cool and smooth, like stone, and it went up as far as I could reach. "It's an invisible wall," I said.

"No, it's an invisible castle," Shiara said. Then she jerked her hand away and stared at the air in front of her as if she could make herself see something by trying hard. "Hey! How do I know that?"

"I don't know," I said. "When did you figure it out?"

"I didn't! I was just standing here, wanting to know what it was, and all of a sudden I did."

"That sounds like fire magic!" I said.

"I don't care what it is," the dragon said crossly. "I want to know where it came from. It wasn't here last time I came this way."

"No, I mean what Shiara did sounds like fire magic."

"Really?" The dragon looked at Shiara. "Then use your fire magic to find out what this invisible thing is doing in the middle of my shortcut."

Shiara looked doubtful, but she put her hand back on the castle. "It's an invisible castle, all right. Hey, I even know how to do it!"

"Do what?" asked the dragon. "Put your hand on a castle?"

"No, no, how to make things invisible," Shiara said.

"I don't want to know how to make things invisible," the dragon snapped. "What's it doing here?"

For once, I wasn't paying much attention to the dragon. I was staring at Shiara. Analyzing spells is hard. "You figured out how to turn a castle invisible just by touching it?"

"No, you have to do a lot of other things to it." Shiara's face changed, as if she had just remembered something she didn't like, and she stared at the open area for a minute. Then she swallowed so hard I could see it.

"Let's leave, Daystar. I don't think I want to meet anyone who would live in an invisible castle."

I looked at Shiara, then at the open space. I looked back at Shiara and opened my mouth to ask another question, but I stopped before I said anything. Shiara looked a little white, and a little sick, and a lot scared. I hadn't seen Shiara look like that before, not even when the wizard tried to catch us with his snaky water monster. Especially not then.

"All right," I said. "Let's go."

"But I want to know what it's doing in the middle of my shortcut," the dragon complained.

"We can talk about it somewhere else," I said.

Shiara was already backing into the trees, her eyes fixed on the open space where the castle would be if we could see it. I glanced back at the dragon. It shrugged. "Oh, all right. But I don't see what all the fuss is about."

Right then Shiara gave a half yell that stopped in the middle. I whirled around. There was a woman standing where Shiara had been. She was very tall, and she had long hair that was so red it was almost black. She was dressed in something green and shining and elegant that hung from a deep red jewel at her throat, and she was very beautiful.

More beautiful than the Princess, even. I didn't care.

"Where's Shiara?" I said.

She smiled, the same way a very satisfied cat smiles, except that cats don't look evil. Well, most cats don't. "Shiara-is that your little friend's name? She's right here, my dear." She stepped aside, and I went cold.

Behind her, where it had been hidden until she moved aside, was a gray stone statue that looked exactly like Shiara.

"That can't be Shiara!" I said. I was too upset to even think about being polite. "Shiara's a fire-witch, and fire-witches are immune to magic!"

The woman smiled another unpleasant smile. "Not to the magic of another fire-witch. I've been waiting a long time for someone like her to come by. I need her for something."

"How is turning her into a statue going to help?" I asked. I was hoping I could talk her into changing Shiara back. Then maybe I could do something to keep Shiara that way.

The fire-witch glanced at the statue. "It's an excellent way of storing people until you need them. I have quite a number in my garden. They're ornamental as well as useful."

"That doesn't sound nice," the dragon said.

The woman seemed to see it for the first time, which I thought was a little odd. After all, dragons aren't exactly easy to overlook. "I am not concerned with being nice," she said.