Wrede, Patricia C - Enchanted Forest 01 (7 page)

“Do you know which part of the
Historia Dracorum
Zemenar was reading?” Kazul asked.

“Somewhere in the middle, a little past my bookmark,” Cimorene replied. “I was just looking at it when you came in. It’s the part about how the dragons came to the Mountains of Morning and settled into the caves and chose a king.”

‘That’s the section where the
Historia
describes the Caves of Fire and Night, isn’t it?” Kazul said.

Cimorene nodded. “There was a whole page about somebody finding a stone in the caves so that the dragons could pick a king. It didn’t make much sense to me.”

“Colin’s Stone,” Kazul said, nodding. “We’ve used it to choose our king ever since the first time. When a king dies, all the dragons go to the Ford of Whispering Snakes in the Enchanted Forest and take turns trying to move Colin’s Stone from there to the Vanishing Mountain. The one that succeeds is the next king.”

“What if there are
two
dragons strong enough to move it?” Cimorene asked curiously.

“It’s not a matter of strength,” Kazul said. “Colin’s Stone isn’t much larger than you are. Even a small dragon could carry that much weight twice around the Enchanted Forest without any trouble at all. But Colin’s Stone has an aura, a kind of vibration. When you carry it, you can feel it humming through your claws, and the humming gets stronger the farther you go until your bones are shaking. Most dragons have to drop it or be shaken to pieces, but there’s always one who is ... suited to the stone. For that dragon, the stone’s humming is just a pleasant buzz, so of course it’s easy to get it to the Vanishing Mountain.”

“You sound as if you’ve had experience,” Cimorene said.

“Of course,” Kazul responded matter-of-factly. “I was old enough to participate in the tests when the last king died.” She smiled reminiscently. “I got farther than anyone expected me to, though I wasn’t one of the top ten by any means.”

Cimorene tilted her head to one side, considering. “I think I’m glad you didn’t win.”

“Oh? Why is that?” Kazul sounded amused.

“Because you wouldn’t have had any use for a princess if you were the Queen of the Dragons, and if you hadn’t decided to take me on, that yellow-green dragon Moranz would probably have eaten me,” Cimorene explained.

“You mean, if I were the King of the Dragons,” Kazul corrected her. “Queen of the Dragons is a dull job.”

“But you’re a female!” Cimorene said. “If you’d carried Colin’s Stone from the Ford of Whispering Snakes to the Vanishing Mountain, you’d have had to be a queen, wouldn’t you?”

“No, of course not,” Kazul said. “Queen of the Dragons is a totally different job from King, and it’s not one I’m particularly interested in. Most people aren’t. I think the position’s been vacant since Oraun tore his wing and had to retire.”

“But King Tokoz is a male dragon!” Cimorene said, then frowned. “Isn’t he?”

“Yes, yes, but that has nothing to do with it,” Kazul said a little testily. “ ‘King’ is the name of the job. It doesn’t matter who holds it.”

Cimorene stopped and thought for a moment. “You mean that dragons don’t care whether their king is male or female; the title is the same no matter who the ruler is.”

“That’s right. We like to keep things simple.”

“Oh.” Cimorene decided to return to the original topic of conversation before the dragon’s “simple” ideas confused her any further. “Why would the wizards be interested in Colin’s Stone if it’s only used for picking out the kings of the dragons?”

“I doubt that they are,” Kazul replied. “However, Colin’s Stone was found in the Caves of Fire and Night, and wizards have always been interested in the caves. But the dragons control most of them, and all the easy entrances are ours, so the wizards have never been able to find out as much as they would like. The
Historia Dracorum
is one of the few books that talks about the caves at all, and there aren’t many copies. I’ll wager Zemenar would have stolen it outright if he’d thought he could get away with it.”

“I thought the dragons let wizards into the Caves of Fire and Night,” Cimorene objected. “Why would Zemenar be poking through history books looking for information if he can just go and look at them whenever he wants to?”

“We don’t let wizards visit the caves whenever they want,” Kazul said. “If we did, they’d be running in and out all the time, and nobody would be able to breathe without sneezing. No, they’re limited to certain days and times, and if they want to visit the Caves of Fire and Night otherwise, they have to use one of the entrances we don’t control. Few of them try. The other ways of getting into the caves are very dangerous, even for wizards.”

“Maybe they’re looking for an easier way in.”

“Mmm.” Kazul did not seem to be paying much attention. She thought for a moment, then turned toward the cave mouth. “I’m going to go see Gaurim. Roxim said a book had been stolen from her library, and I want to know which one. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“I think I’ll go look at the
Historia Dracorum
again while you’re gone,” Cimorene said thoughtfully. “If there is something useful in it about the Caves of Fire and Night, maybe I can find it, now that I know what I’m looking for.”

*
         
*
         
*

Cimorene spent the rest of the afternoon carefully translating the chapter that talked about the caves. She was disappointed to find that there was very little about the caves themselves, though what was there was interesting. The book told how the dragons had discovered the back way into the caves and described some of the things they had found in them—caverns full of blue and green fire, pools of black liquid that would cast a cloud of darkness for twenty miles around if you poured three drops on the ground, walls made of crystal that multiplied every sound a thousandfold, rocks that spurted fire when they were broken. Most of the rest of the chapter was about Colin’s Stone, and how it was taken out of the caves by the first King of the Dragons.

Kazul returned just before dinner, and she and Cimorene compared notes. Cimorene told Kazul what she had learned from the chapter on the Caves of Fire and Night, and then Kazul explained what she had learned from Gaurim.

“The stolen book was
The Kings of the Dragons
, and the entire first section was about Colin’s Stone and the Caves of Fire and Night,” Kazul said. “And only a wizard could have gotten past the spells and safeguards Gaurim puts on her library. I think that settles it. The wizards are definitely collecting information about the Caves of Fire and Night.”

“Then why do they keep looking at books of dragon history?” Cimorene asked. “It seems like a roundabout way of finding out whatever it is that they want to know.”

“There isn’t any other way to do it,” Kazul said. “Nobody but dragons has ever had much to do with the caves, and no one has written much about them except in dragon histories. Even the wizards weren’t particularly interested in them until a few years ago, except as a reliable route into the Enchanted Forest.”

“But from what I’ve been reading in the
Historia Dracorum
, the caves sound fascinating,” Cimorene said. “You mean to say that
no one
has ever written anything about the Caves of Fire and Night except dragons?”

“That’s—” Kazul stopped suddenly, and her eyes narrowed. “No, that’s not right. There was a rather rumpled scholar who talked his way into the caves a century or so back, and after he left he wrote an extremely dry book about what he found there. I’d forgotten about him.”

“Do you have a copy?” Cimorene asked hopefully.

“No,” Kazul said. “But I don’t think the Society of Wizards does, either. There weren’t very many of them printed, and a lot of those were lost in a flood a few years later. Some hero or other shoved a giant into a lake to drown him. The silly clunch didn’t realize that if he put something that big into a lake, the water would have to go
somewhere
.”

“Well, that doesn’t do us much good,” Cimorene said. “It’s nice that the Society of Wizards doesn’t have a copy of that book, but if we can’t get hold of one either—”

“I didn’t say that,” Kazul said. “I don’t have a copy myself, but I know who does.”

“Who?” Cimorene said impatiently.

“Morwen. I’m afraid you’re not going to be able to work on that fireproofing spell of yours tomorrow. We’re going to take a trip to the Enchanted Forest instead.”

C
imorene was surprised to hear that Kazul intended to take her along on the visit to Morwen, and she was not entirely sure she liked the idea. She had heard a great deal about the Enchanted Forest, and none of it was reassuring. People who traveled there were always getting changed into flowers or trees or animals or rocks, or doing something careless and having their heads turned backward, or being carried off by ogres or giants or trolls, or enchanted by witches or wicked fairies. It did not sound like a good place for a casual, pleasant visit.

On the other hand, it seemed unlikely that anything dreadful would happen to Cimorene if she were traveling with a dragon, and she was looking forward to seeing Morwen again. Besides, Cimorene was curious.

“And anyway,” she said to herself, “Kazul says I’m going, and there’s no point in worrying about it if I don’t have any choice.” Nevertheless, she decided to take one of the smaller magic swords along with her, if Kazul said it was all right. Cimorene saw no point in taking unnecessary chances.

Kazul had no objection, so Cimorene picked out a small, plain-looking sword in a worn leather scabbard that made the wearer invincible, and they started off. Cimorene had assumed that Kazul would fly through the pass, but Kazul said no.

“It’s not that easy to get into the Enchanted Forest,” she explained. “At least, not if you’re trying to get in. Princes and youngest sons and particularly clever tailors stumble into it by accident all the time, but if one wants to go there on purpose, one has to follow the proper route.”

“I didn’t think dragons had that kind of problem,” Cimorene said.

“Dragons don’t,” Kazul replied. “But you’re not a dragon.”

So instead of flying through the Pass of Silver Ice, Kazul led Cimorene through the tunnels. Cimorene had to walk very quickly to keep up, even though Kazul was moving slowly. It was not long before she was wishing that the tunnels were high enough for her to ride on Kazul’s back. The route twisted around and up and back and forth and down and around again until Cimorene was thoroughly lost. Finally they came to a gate made of iron bars that completely blocked the passage. Cimorene studied it carefully, but she could see no sign of a handle or a lock.

“This is the entrance to the Caves of Fire and Night,” Kazul said. “Be careful from here on, and don’t wander away or you’ll get lost.”

Cimorene refrained from saying that as far as she was concerned, they were lost already. “How are you going to open it?” she asked instead.

“Like this,” said Kazul.

“By night and flame and shining rock

Open thou thy hidden lock.

Alberolingam!”

As the sound of Kazul’s voice died away, the iron gate swung silently open. “That’s a very unusual opening spell,” Cimorene commented, impressed.

“It wasn’t always that complicated,” Kazul said. She sounded almost apologetic. “I believe the first version was very simple, just ‘Open sesame,’ but word got around and we had to change it.”

Cimorene nodded and followed Kazul through the gate and into the Caves of Fire and Night. For the first hundred yards or so, the only difference Cimorene could see between these caves and the ordinary tunnels on the other side of the gate was that the Caves of Fire and Night were warmer. Then, very suddenly, her lamp went out, plunging everything into complete and utter blackness.

Cimorene stopped walking immediately. “Kazul?”

“It’s quite all right. Princess,” Kazul’s disembodied voice said from out of the darkness. “This happens all the time here. Don’t bother trying to relight the lamp. Just put your hand on my elbow and follow along that way.”

“All right,” Cimorene said doubtfully. She groped with her free hand in the direction of Kazul’s voice and scraped her knuckles on the dragon’s scales. “Ow!”

“Take your time,” Kazul advised.

“I’m ready,” Cimorene said. Her right hand was pressed flat against the cool, rough-edged scales at the back of Kazul’s left forearm. “Just don’t move too fast, or I’ll lose you or get stepped on or something.”

Kazul did her best to oblige, but Cimorene still had difficulty in keeping up. She had to take at least three steps for every one of Kazul’s, and it seemed that every time she moved her foot, she hit a rock or an uneven place in the tunnel floor. Then she would stumble, and her hand would scrape and slide against Kazul’s scales, so that she was afraid she would lose contact with the dragon.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t try and relight the lamp?” Cimorene asked after her fifth painful stumble-and-slide.

“Quite sure,” Kazul said. “You see, it isn’t—ah, there it goes.” While Kazul was speaking, there was a flicker of light, and then the darkness rolled aside like a curtain being pulled. Cimorene found herself standing in a large cave whose walls glittered as if they were studded with thousands of tiny mirrors. The lamp in her left hand was burning cheerfully once more.

“
Was
it the lamp?” Cimorene asked after studying it for a moment. “Or was it me?”

“It was the caves,” Kazul said. “That was one of the reasons they’re ‘of night’ as well as ‘of fire.’ “

“Only
one
of the reasons?” Cimorene said thoughtfully. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“You’ll be quite all right as long as you’re with me,” Kazul assured her. “Very few things are willing to mess with a dragon, even in the dark. And the periods of darkness don’t last long. Ifs because the magic of these caves doesn’t affect us as much as other people, or so I’m told.”

“You mean that blackness is likely to come back?”

Kazul nodded.

“Then let’s get as far as we can before it does,” Cimorene said, and started across the cave.

There were four tunnels leading out of the opposite side of the glittering cavern. Kazul took the second from the left without hesitating an instant.

“Where do all these tunnels go?” Cimorene asked, glancing at the other three openings as she followed Kazul.

“The one on the right end leads to a chain of caverns,” Kazul said over her shoulder. “The first few are quite ordinary, but then you come to one full of hot sulfur pools. Some of the older dragons bathe there. They claim the water is good for rheumatism. Beyond that is a cave with molten silver dripping down the walls, and the chain ends at a deep chasm with a river of red-hot melted rock at the bottom.”

“Doesn’t sound very attractive,” Cimorene commented.

“The dwarfsmiths find it very useful for forging magic swords,” Kazul assured her. “The second tunnel on the right takes you into a maze. The tunnels and caverns constantly shift around, so that no matter how carefully you mark your way, you always get lost.”

“Even dragons?”

Kazul nodded. “Though I believe there was one prince who managed to find his way out with a magic ball of string.”

“Oh, bother!” said Cimorene. The lights had gone out again, just as they emerged into a small cave.

“It’s quite all right. This part’s easy,” Kazul said.

“Next time I’m going to bring a cane,” Cimorene muttered. “Where do the other tunnels lead?”

“The one on the far left goes through a couple of caverns that are pretty, but not very interesting. We’re always chasing knights and princes out of it, though. They come for flasks of water from the bottomless pool at the far end.”

“What does it do?” Cimorene asked. “Ow!” She had just banged her right elbow against the wall of the cave in the dark.

“It casts a cloud of darkness for twenty miles around when it’s poured on the ground,” Kazul replied.

“How useful,” Cimorene muttered balefully, rubbing her elbow.

“And this tunnel leads to the Enchanted Forest, by way of the King’s Cave,” Kazul finished.

“Oh, good. I was hoping to see that,” Cimorene said. The King’s Cave was the chamber where the first King of the Dragons had found Colin’s Stone, and the
Historia Dracorum
had not described it anywhere near well enough to suit Cimorene. “And here’s the light coming back, thank goodness. Let's hurry before it goes again.”

They went through three small caves and two more periods of blackness before they reached the King’s Cave. Kazul pointed out various locations of interest, such as the wall of crystal with a chip in one comer where the Prince of the Ruby Throne had stolen a piece to make a magic ring and the jewel-studded cavern where the King of the Dragons met with people who needed impressing. There was one very eerie cave full of slabs of black rock. Most were standing on end, though a few had fallen over. Kazul said they were all enchanted princes.

“All of them?” Cimorene asked, appalled. There were at least forty of the stone slabs, and the cave was quite crowded.

Kazul shook her head. “No, the one on the end there is just an ordinary boulder.”

“How did it happen?”

“The princes came to steal some of the Water of Healing from the well at the end of the cave,” Kazul said. “There are two dippers by the well: one is tin, the other is solid gold and covered with jewels. The princes all tried to use the gold one, even though they’d been told that only the tin dipper would work. It’s no more than they deserve.”

Cimorene frowned, thinking of some of the princes she had known. “Well, I won’t deny that they probably behaved foolishly, but—”

“Foolishly!” Kazul snorted. “Any reasonably well-educated prince ought to have sense enough to follow directions when he’s on a quest, but all of these fellows were sure they knew better. If they’d simply done what they were told, they wouldn’t be here.”

“Still, turning them into slabs of stone forever seems a little extreme.”

“Oh, they won’t be stone forever,” Kazul said. “Sooner or later someone will come along who has the sense not to improvise, and he’ll succeed in getting the water. Then he’ll use some of it to disenchant this lot, and the cave will be empty for a while until the next batch of young idiots starts arriving.”

Cimorene felt better knowing that the princes would someday be freed, though she had sense enough not to try doing it herself. Since she had not been sent on a quest for the Water of Healing, it was highly unlikely that she would be able to disenchant the princes even if she succeeded in taking the water. And she knew enough about quests and enchantments and the obtaining of things with magical properties to know that she would probably get into a lot of trouble if she tried. So she tucked the matter into the back of her mind and followed Kazul through the stone-filled cavern. She was careful not to step on any of the fallen slabs.

Just outside the entrance to the next cave, Kazul stopped. “This,” she said, “is the King’s Cave. We have to cross it as quickly as we can. Don’t stop in the middle, and don’t say anything while we’re inside. Understand? Good. Come on, then.”

As soon as she stepped inside the cave, Cimorene understood the reason for Kazul’s request for silence. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor were made of dark, shiny stone that multiplied and threw back echoes of even the smallest sound. The soft scraping of Kazul’s scales against the floor sounded like thirty men sawing wood, and the tiny gasp Cimorene gave at the sight and sound of the cave was as loud as if she had shouted. Cimorene went on as quietly and carefully as she could.

Halfway across, she noticed the vibration. It began as a gentle and not unpleasant buzzing in her bones, unrelated to the loud and continually multiplying echoes of her passage, though it, too, grew stronger the farther into the cave she went. Kazul was in front of her now, and she saw the dragon’s tail lash once, as if in pain or anger. Suddenly she remembered Kazul’s description of the aura that made it impossible for most dragons to carry Colin’s Stone, and that this was the place where Colin’s Stone had been found. No wonder Kazul was uncomfortable.

Cimorene found herself wishing she could stop and pay attention to the humming in her bones, but she remembered Kazul’s directions and continued walking. She had nearly reached the exit when she saw a pebble about the size of her thumbnail, made of the same dark, shiny stone as the cavern walls. Kazul had said nothing about picking things up, so Cimorene veered a little to the right and scooped the pebble up as she passed. A moment later she was out of the cave.

“Phew!” said Kazul. “I’m glad that’s over. From here on, it should be easy.”

“Good,” said Cimorene. She dropped the pebble into her pocket to look at more closely later and followed Kazul down the narrow, winding tunnel.