Talking to Dragons (14 page)

“The Living Spring?” Suz said. “Dear me! Why do you want to know?”

“What's that?” asked the dragon, who had finally managed to find the source of the squeaky voice. “It looks like a little dragon.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. This is Suz. I was just telling you about him. He's not a dragon, he's a lizard.”

“A lizard of extremely good family.” Suz frowned at the dragon, but the dragon didn't seem to notice. Suz gave up and looked back at me. “Now, why do you want to know about the Living Spring?”

“Because Shiara got turned into a statue by the fire-witch who lived in the invisible castle,” I said.

“She did?” The lizard peered around until he saw the statue, then scurried over. He cocked his head briefly and stared upward, then ran up the gray stone in a spiral until he was sitting on one of the statue's shoulders. “She really did! How exceedingly distressing. What are you going to do about it?”

“We thought if we dropped the statue in the Living Spring, it would, well, fix Shiara,” I said. “But we don't know where the spring is.”

“You don't? No, of course you don't. It's a secret.” Suz peered at me from Shiara's shoulder. “I suppose you want me to tell you where it is.” He considered for a moment. “I couldn't possibly do that, so you needn't bother asking.”

“But, Suz!” I said. “How else can we fix Shiara? I've tried the only other thing we could think of, and it didn't work.”

“That is extremely obvious,” the lizard said severely. He ran down the side of the statue and stopped right in front of me. “If it had worked, she wouldn't be a statue anymore, and you wouldn't be asking me silly questions.” Suz did whatever the thing was that he did to balance on his tail. “People who are looking for things in the Enchanted Forest have to find them for themselves. You really ought to know that, you really ought.”

“Well, what are we going to do about Shiara if you won't tell us where the spring is?”

“My goodness gracious, you certainly are persistent,” Suz said. “Have you tried kissing her?”

“
Kissing
her?” I said incredulously.

“Kissing the statue,” Suz explained condescendingly. “It's one of the standard cures for being made to sleep for years, or being turned into a frog or a statue or such. Have you tried it?”

I felt my face getting hot. “Um, well, no.”

“Well, then,” Suz said pointedly.

I thought about it for a minute or two. Shiara might not think much of my kissing her, but I didn't really object, especially if it would break the spell. In fact, I sort of liked the idea. At that point, I stood up very quickly because my face was getting even hotter and I could feel Suz staring at me.

I was right next to the statue, and as soon as I was all the way standing I leaned forward and kissed it. I didn't want to take time to look before I did it, because I didn't really want to think about it. First I felt cold stone, but it warmed up right away. A second later Shiara jerked away and said, “Hey! Daystar, what on earth do you think you're doing?”

“It worked!” I said. I was awfully relieved. If we hadn't been able to break the fire-witch's spell, we'd have had to bring the statue with us, and carrying a statue around would have been a lot of work. Besides, having Shiara back felt good, even if she
was
glaring at me.

“What worked?” Shiara demanded suspiciously. “And where did that witch go? She was here a minute ago.”

“You were a statue,” the dragon informed her. “The fire-witch did it, but Daystar got rid of her. I'm glad he did,” it added thoughtfully. “I didn't like her. She wasn't polite at all, and she . . . and she . . .” The dragon leaned forward and said in a loud whisper, “And she grew dragonsbane!”

Shiara stared at the dragon, but before she could say anything there was a loud squeak from behind me, and Suz's voice started shouting. “Help! Murder! Wild beasts and dangerous lunatics! Oh dear oh my help help goodness gracious help oh!”

I turned around. Nightwitch had come out from wherever she'd been hiding and sneaked up on Suz while I was, well, kissing Shiara. Suz was rolled into a tight golden ball, and Nightwitch was batting him back and forth between her paws in wide-eyed fascination. I didn't think she'd ever played with a ball that yelled at her before.

I bent over to pick up Nightwitch, but before I actually got hold of her the lizard uncurled very quickly, slapped his tail sharply against the kitten's nose, and curled up tight again. He didn't stop yelling the whole time. The kitten jerked her head back so fast that she sat down hard on her tail, and I grabbed her.

“It's all right now, Suz,” I said.

The lizard poked his nose out of the ball. “You're quite certain?” he said.

“Yes, of course,” I said.

Suz uncurled a little more. “This sort of thing is quite unsettling,” he said. “I do not approve at all. Dear me, no, not at all.”

“I'm very sorry,” I said. “I'm afraid I didn't know she was there.”

“People who keep wild animals ought to know where they are so they don't go around eating other people,” the lizard said. He uncurled the rest of the way and lay on the moss, peering reproachfully up at me.

I bent down, and Suz scooted back a couple of feet. “You keep that—that beast away from me!”

“Nightwitch isn't a wild animal, she's a kitten,” Shiara said indignantly. “And I don't believe she meant to eat you. She just wanted to play.”

“She's too young to know better,” I said. Shiara glared at me, and I added hastily, “Nightwitch, I mean.”

“She is?” The lizard squinted at Nightwitch from a safe distance. “Yes, I suppose she is,” he said reluctantly. “How unfortunate. I really do think I had better leave. Dear me, yes, I really must.”

Suz nodded and headed off into the woods.

“Suz, wait!” Shiara called.

The lizard stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“I'm sorry Nightwitch scared you,” Shiara said.

“You are?” Suz turned around and ran back to where Shiara was standing. He cocked his head at her, then did his tangled tail-balancing trick and stared up at her. “Why, you really
are!
How astonishing! How extraordinary! How extremely unexpected!”

I was a little surprised myself, but I decided I'd better change the subject before Shiara got offended. “Suz?”

The lizard turned his head and looked at me.

“What's the best way to get to the castle where Kazul lives?” I asked.

“Why, it's—” Suz paused. “Dear me, there seems to be an invisible castle in the way. How ridiculous. I'm afraid you'll just have to go around.”

“That's what I thought,” I said. “But thank you anyway.”

“It's quite all right. And I really must be going now, I really must. Goodbye.” Suz bowed politely, then did a quick back flip and scurried off into the woods.

“And thank you for telling me how to change Shiara back!” I called.

Suz didn't answer. I turned back to find Shiara glaring at me again.

“All right, Daystar, explain. What's all this about statues and getting rid of witches?”

“I already told you all that,” the dragon said in an injured tone. “Why do you want him to tell you again?”

“Because I didn't understand it when you told it,” Shiara said. She sounded a lot like Mother. “And I want to know what's been going on.” She sat down on the ground and looked at me. “So explain.”

I explained. Shiara let me talk until I started to explain how we'd finally turned her from a statue back into Shiara, but then she interrupted. “You don't have to keep going,” she said. She gave me an odd look. “I remember that part.”

“Oh. I'm sorry,” I offered. My face was getting hot again. “But no one could think of anything else, and it did work.”

Shiara wasn't paying much attention. “Daystar, did your sword burn your hands when Antorell tried to throw that spell at you?” she asked suddenly.

“No,” I said, relieved by the change of subject. “It didn't do anything at all.”

“It did, too!” Shiara said. “It ate Antorell's spell. And it didn't do anything to you. Why didn't it work like that on the fire-witch's spell?”

“Who's Antorell?” asked the dragon.

“The wizard you were sneezing at when we met,” I said. “He's not very pleasant.”

“Wizards aren't,” the dragon said.

“Daystar, this is important!” Shiara said. “Why didn't your sword work the same way on the fire-witch as it did on Antorell?”

“Fire-witches and wizards are different,” I said. “It makes sense that the sword does different things to them. I wish it
would
get rid of Antorell, though. Then I could stop worrying about him.”

Shiara said something else, but I missed it. All of a sudden I had the same itchy feeling I'd had earlier, as if someone were watching me. I looked over my shoulder, but there wasn't anyone there. Just trees.

“Daystar?” Shiara almost sounded worried.

“I'm all right,” I said. “But can we get started and talk about this somewhere else? We still have to get to see Kazul, and there's an invisible castle in the way.”

“Shouldn't we do something about the people she turned into statues for her garden?” Shiara said, looking nervously at the clearing where the castle ought to be.

“Why?” said the dragon in a puzzled tone.

“Because it wouldn't be right to just leave them there,” I said.

No one seemed to like the idea of going into the castle. No one wanted to leave the fire-witch's statue people there, either. We spent a little while trying to figure out how to get into the castle. Shiara wanted to climb over the wall, but I didn't think that was a very good idea if we couldn't see the wall or what was on the other side. Finally, she agreed to help me look for a door or a gate or something.

We stretched our hands out in front of us and walked carefully toward the castle. It wasn't there. We went a little farther. It still wasn't there. We walked around the clearing for a few minutes while the dragon watched with interest. Eventually, we gave up.

“I don't understand,” Shiara said as we came back to pick up Nightwitch and Morwen's bundles. “Where did it go?”

“Maybe the fire-witch moved it while she was talking to me,” I said.

“A whole castle? That fast? Besides, didn't Suz say it was still in the way? It must have moved since he left.” Shiara stopped, and her eyes widened. “Daystar, you don't think she could still be around, do you?”

“She isn't around anywhere,” the dragon said positively. “She went up in smoke. I saw her.”

“Good,” Shiara said savagely. I must have looked awfully surprised, because Shiara glared at me and added, “She deserved it. You don't know what she had to do to make that castle invisible.”

“What was it?” the dragon asked curiously.

Shiara glared at it, too. “I don't want to talk about it.”

“Why not?” said the dragon.

“Because she tortured people to death!” Shiara shouted. “It was part of the spell, and I know how to do it, and I don't want to think about it!”

“I told you she wasn't a nice person,” the dragon said.

Shiara snorted. She picked up Nightwitch and her bundle and walked straight across the clearing. After a couple of seconds, the dragon and I followed.

Once we got across the clearing, the dragon took the lead again. Nobody said much for the rest of the morning, which was fine with me; I still felt as if someone was watching me, and I didn't like it. Finally even the dragon noticed.

“You look a little strange,” it said. “Is something wrong?”

“I don't think so,” I said. “I just feel like someone's watching me.”

“You're imagining things,” Shiara said. “I've been looking since you told me about it this morning, and I haven't seen anyone.”

“Someone's following us?” the dragon said. It blinked at me, then turned in a slow circle, eyeing the trees. “You're right,” it said finally. “Someone is following us. That's not polite.”

Before Shiara or I could say anything, the dragon's head shot out toward one of the trees. I'd never seen anything move so fast. There was a loud yell from someone who wasn't the dragon. Then the dragon yelped and a bunch of leaves came drifting down to the ground. I heard a couple of crashing noises and another, louder yell, and then the dragon reappeared. Dangling by the seat of his pants from the dragon's mouth was an elf.

I stared for a minute, trying to decide whether this was the same elf we'd met before. He
looked
the same, but all elves look alike. Besides, he was yelling and kicking, and every now and then the dragon would shake its head, which made it hard to see the elf clearly.

I almost laughed; the dragon looked a lot like a very large cat with a very small mouse.

Nightwitch evidently thought so, too. She eyed the wriggling elf with some interest, then glanced up at me. “Mrrow?” she said.

“I'm afraid he's too big for you,” I said.

“He certainly is!” yelled the elf. “Put me down! Let me down at once!”

“Mrof!” said the dragon through a mouthful of cloth.

“I don't think he wants to,” I said to the elf. “Why were you following us?”

“Hey!” said Shiara. “Are you the elf we ran into before? Because if you are, I want to talk to you.”

The elf stopped struggling and looked down at Shiara. Then he twisted around and looked at the dragon. “On the other hand, maybe I'm better off up here,” he said.

“Mmnuf!” said the dragon, and shook its head violently.

“Yow!” said the elf. “Help! I surrender!”