The Lazy Dragon and Bumblespells Wizard (24 page)

From below, a flurry of feathers flashed up and in front of Cl'rnce. Raspberries cawed as the sword disappeared into the mountain. A blast of gold light flared
out behind it, seizing Cl'rnce, Amythyst, the raven, and Great and Mighty. They were sucked into the mountain faster than Cl'rnce could finish saying, “River Rats!”

Cl'rnce pulled Great and Mighty closer to his chest as they hurtled down a tunnel that curved this way and that, then turned upward. Faster and faster, they sped along. “I hope we don't end up just passing through the mountain again,” Cl'rnce said, shivering at the memory of his failed attempt to rescue Great and Mighty.

“Look!” Great and Mighty yelled.

Ahead of them, the sword's golden glow exploded, lighting a huge cavern. No sooner had they entered the crystal-lined chamber, than Cl'rnce's wings tired out. They felt like lead weights as he dropped like a ton of wet river stones. As he hit, posterior first, Cl'rnce managed to hold Great and Mighty up while Amythyst clung to his shoulder. Other than Cl'rnce's bruised dignity, nothing was hurt. “Everybody off.” Cl'rnce let go of Great and Mighty.

Cl'rnce turned his head to Amythyst, but the little dr'gon ignored him. He squinted at the far side of the cavern. Cl'rnce followed the little guy's gaze. Across from them, dark shadows swirled, growing and shrinking, as they moved, first forming a billowy man, then solidifying into the enormous dr'gon.

“Welcome.” Lasair's voice dripped with hate. He slid out of the shadows without so much as a slither of
noise. “I see we are all gathered.” His eyes were slits, out of which red light leaked at the corners. “You who are about to die, I salute you!”

Without another wasted second, the huge dr'gon charged at Cl'rnce, throwing blasts of fire at Cl'rnce's head. Cl'rnce dodged behind a rock, trying to get his flame pit to fire up. He hadn't had enough practice to make fire instantaneously.

Before Cl'rnce had a mouthful of flame, two more jets of fire shot by the sides of his hiding place. When a third blast shot over the top of the rock, Cl'rnce was ready and jumped up to fire back. Lasair was far closer than Cl'rnce thought, but still Cl'rnce missed the other dr'gon when his flame deflected to the left. Something was wrong. Cl'rnce ducked down and tried to think. Lasair had some kind of shield. Cl'rnce needed one, and a way to pierce Lasair's. Cl'rnce looked around for Great and Mighty. She'd made a shield before.

The little wizard squatted behind a rock two paces from Cl'rnce, but her focus was not on Lasair. Instead, she stared as if hypnotized by the boiling shadows to the right of Lasair.

“A little help here,” Cl'rnce called. “I need a shield.”

“Sure.” Without taking her eyes off the shadows, Great and Mighty tapped her crystal rod three times on the rock floor and said, “Shield the dr'gons.” She snapped it out all three times before Cl'rnce could stop her.

Cl'rnce watched a golden haze form in front of him. When he stretched to look around his rock, a matching fog hung in front of Lasair. Cl'rnce wanted to whine about the unfairness, but faster than he could waste time sniping, he had an idea. Cl'rnce's years of practical jokes took over. He had a plan.

Cl'rnce popped up and screamed, “You will never be the Primus, you loser. I'll make your skin into a rug for my palace.” Then he dropped down, making a loud gulping noise like he was afraid and was shouting to try and fool Lasair. He wanted the dr'gon confused and overreacting.

He had to give the Killer a moment to get riled and dig up a really big flame. After counting to two, Cl'rnce popped up again, this time climbing to the top of his rock like he was going to leap at Lasair. “Coward!”

The red-eyed dr'gon screamed in fury as he let loose a huge burst of fire. When Lasair's first flame bounced off his shield and smacked back into him, the Killer was knocked onto his rear. He screamed in frantic fury. Lasair was one part ambitious killer and nine parts too angry to think. Cl'rnce couldn't hold in his laughter.

Lasair blasted another flame, like he hadn't figured out how he'd knocked himself over. This time his rabid fury had given the fire the black edges of death. When it splashed back over the insanely screaming Lasair, he stopped moving. Shadows wrapped his still body like a
funeral cloak.

“YES
!” Cl'rnce yelled. “I did it all on my own. I saved the day. I'm a hero.” An image of Amythyst clutching the Whisper Stone came to him. Cl'rnce said, “Come on, Amythyst, we'll take the Whisper Stone to the Council Chamber and do all the official stuff to make you the next Primus.” He looked for the little dr'gon but didn't see him.

What he saw instead was Great and Mighty standing stiff, as if frozen, her face nothing but terror, her skin sliding around like it was trying to leave her skull. Hedge-Witch reached for Great and Mighty's rod.

As Hedge-Witch's fingers neared the crystal staff, Amythyst and Raspberries flew at the crone. She almost had the rod when Amythyst wedged himself between her and the magick staff. With her other hand, the witch reached around him and jerked the rod and dr'gon to her until it dug deeply into Amythyst's back. Raspberries swooped and pecked at Hedge-Witch, but she grabbed the little dr'gon with her free hand and pushed him until her rod sank deeper into him.

He went limp, and she dropped his little body on the cavern floor. “Two before one,” she said. She lifted her wand and turned in Cl'rnce's direction.

Before she could do anything more, Cl'rnce was on her. He'd never hated anyone so much as he hated this witch. He knew he couldn't blast her with fire, because
the shield would make him fry himself, but he still had his tail. He swung it at her, along with his shield, knocking the witch across the cavern and away from Great and Mighty and Amythyst.

From where she landed on her back, he heard the witch cursing. He might have stopped Lasair, but Hedge-Witch was still a problem. He needed Great and Mighty to wake from whatever trance she was in. She had to save Amythyst, who was leaking royal purple River Dr'gon blood all over the cavern floor. And the little wizard had to save herself.

All his ideas about being a hero, handing over the Primacy to Amythyst, and being able to slack off for the rest of his life were nothing. Cl'rnce didn't care about power or helping power, he just wanted Great and Mighty and Amythyst to live. He wanted Lasair and Hedge-Witch to be permanently imprisoned, stored in a deep river dungeon forever, even if he had to stand guard on them for the rest of his life. But how?

Moire Ain couldn't move. Giant ghost snails sucked at every inch of her body, inside and out. Their gloppy bodies covered her and glued themselves so closely she couldn't even twitch. Their slime sank into her nose and mouth. Her fear was even thicker. She could barely think. Twice, several years ago, Hedge-Witch had bound her with ghost snails. Each time, Moire Ain had been close to suffocation before the old hag relented and freed her.

I can't let her do this to me,
Moire Ain thought.
The whole reason for learning magick was to make me so powerful I could stop her. To keep her from hurting me and other people. To keep her from using me to kill the king. I cannot let her do this to me.
The ghost snails sucked the oxygen Moire Ain needed to breathe, and their mucous sealed her arms to her body. They sapped her strength. She felt like a hollow gourd emptying itself of air, crumbling. If she didn't do something fast, she wouldn't have the strength to stand up.

Think, Moire Ain, think,
she told herself.
Hedge-Witch can't take your thoughts. Think of a spell. You don't have to talk and move. You can make a spell and make it work, silently. Be Great and be Mighty. Think!
She shut her eyes and pretended the snails were blankets rolling her in warmth. She drank in their almost non-existent heat.

Moire Ain still couldn't move, but her thoughts came clearer when she pictured the ghost snails as comforting warmth rather than steamy slugs creeping through her body and into her brain.
I need a spell to get free. To get rid of the snails. What do you do with snails besides remove them from vegetables?
A vision of Cl'rnce delicately picking snails off squash blossoms popped into her head. He was always hungry, so he'd probably eat the blossoms and the snails. She had it! Moire Ain started to giggle.

Eat the snails! Eat the snails! Eat the snails!
She pictured herself swallowing the snails whole. She gagged, and threw up. A stream of gray lumpy ectoplasm spewed across the cavern, slapping into Hedge-Witch where she crouched on hands and knees. The force of the vomit smashed the witch back on her seat.

“I'm free!” Moire Ain yelled. A second later she gagged, and another round of snails hurled up her throat and gushed out. She aimed them at the witch again. This time Moire Ain knocked the crystal stave
out of the old crone's grip.

Moire Ain leapt and grabbed for the rod at the same time Hedge-Witch muttered, “To me!” The crystal staff began to slide back to the old witch.

Moire Ain knew that if Hedge-Witch valued a thing, then it had power. It was time to take power away from her. Moire Ain bellowed, “
TO ME
!” She vomited snails again, aiming at the old crone's eyes. At the same time that the staff flew to Moire Ain, her puke took a turn and headed back at her. “Uh-oh. Bumblespelled again!”

The wand was in her hand and the vomit only inches away, when Cl'rnce stepped between Moire Ain and the oncoming snail chunks. “You're going to owe me big,” he said.

Moire Ain winced, thinking of his green scales coated in vomit. But the snail chunks never hit him. Instead Cl'rnce did a fast turn and the snails bounced off something invisible around him. The snails splattered back onto the old crone.

“Cool!” Moire Ain said.

“Nevermore,” Raspberries cawed from a ledge at the top of the cavern.

Cl'rnce nodded. “That shield you made for me came in handy.” But he didn't smile. He walked over to a small pile of purple on the floor. Bending down, he tried to pick it up, but the glowing shield encompassing him made his movements clumsy. He sighed and poked the
little thing gently.

Moire Ain followed him over. “Amythyst! What happened?”

For a moment, Cl'rnce just pointed at Hedge-Witch as the old hag slipped on the floor, trying to stand again. “She killed him.” His arm trembled, and smoke seeped out of his mouth, filling the space around his head.

Moire Ain was afraid if she didn't dissolve his shield, Cl'rnce would fill it with smoke and suffocate, or worse, he'd get so angry he'd spit flame and burn himself. Without thinking that there was no way she could penetrate the shield, she grabbed his arm. They both stared at how her fingers flowed easily through his shield.

Her heart beating a tattoo of bravery and belief, Moire Ain said, “I can do it. First I'll get rid of your shield, and then we'll make Hedge-Witch bring Amythyst back to life. By the rules of her black magick, I think she can do that. What evil she did she can undo. Right?”

Cl'rnce gave her a doubtful look. He held up a single digit. “Wait.” He walked over to the witch, who was almost on her feet. “Stay down!” he yelled. And he smacked her with his tail, sending her skidding across the room.

“We have to work quickly,” Moire Ain said, trying to make her brain come up with everything she needed. First, she had to take away Cl'rnce's shield. How? She couldn't make herself concentrate and think of anything but how much she hated Hedge-Witch. For so many
years Moire Ain, had tried to undo the cruelty the witch had wrought. Despite Moire Ain's determination to prevent it, the old hag had killed the next Primus, the next Dr'gon King, little Amythyst. Just as the old crone had wanted, she'd used Moire Ain to do it. If Moire Ain and Cl'rnce had not brought the little dr'gon to the cave, Hedge-Witch would never have gotten to him.

Moire Ain examined the crystal rod. The witch wanted it badly, so that meant the magick in it was what Moire Ain needed. “Hold still,” she called to Cl'rnce. He turned around. Moire Ain sang, “Break,” as she smacked at him with the rod. The stick bounced back, knocking into and cracking a stalactite above Moire Ain. She barely kept her grip on the staff. Trying again, slowly this time, she pushed the rod at Cl'rnce and said, “Break the shield. Break the shield. Break the shield.”

There was a cracking noise, and Cl'rnce yelped. Then he sang, “YAY!”

But his voice was drowned out by a roar rolling down the tunnels leading into the cavern. Shadows flew into the chamber, pooling where Lasair twitched as if he had called something evil. The shadows disappeared into the Killer Dr'gon, and he leapt to his feet, snarling.

Before Moire Ain could scream, Cl'rnce charged at Lasair. Cl'rnce jumped into the air to meet the killer, who soared to the chamber ceiling. In midair the two dr'gons attacked each other with flashing teeth and razor claws.
Moire Ain could hardly follow them as they tumbled and slashed in the middle of the huge cavern.

She tried to think of a way to help Cl'rnce. But as she raised the magick rod to cast a heavy-as-stone curse on Lasair, Hedge-Witch tackled her and grabbed at the rod. This was it. Moire Ain had to fight face-to-face the being that she most feared. If she didn't, Hedge-Witch would kill them all. The witch may have seemed to be subservient to Lasair, but she'd pretended the same thing with Sir George the first time Moire Ain saw them together. The witch was a liar. Moire Ain was certain the treacherous crone had all the power she needed with or without Lasair. Hedge-Witch would stop at nothing to accomplish her evil plans—to kill Cl'rnce, to take the Primacy by force.

Moire Ain clung to the stick. The staff thrummed with power. Moire Ain didn't just want to keep that much magick away from Hedge-Witch, she felt a growing need to have it for herself. She'd felt the pure white-magick energy when she'd used the staff before. With this kind of sorcery, she could help Cl'rnce. And maybe, with this surging power, revive Amythyst.