Dealing with Dragons

"Was that what the silver-green dragon meant when he said that if the wizards started wandering through the mountains you'd lose half your magic in no time? I never heard that wizards stole magic rings and swords and things."
"Not magic things," Kazul said. Wizards steal magic. That's where their power comes from."
"How can a wizard steal magic?" Cimorene said skeptically. She climbed on a stool and began working at the ribs of Kazul's wings.
"Wizards' staffs absorb magic from whatever happens to be nearby," Kazul said, stretching out her left wing so Cimorene could get at the base.
"That's why they're always hanging around places like the Mountains of Morning and the Enchanted Forest. The more magic there is in the area, the more their staffs can soak up."
"What would happen if someone stole a wizard's staff?. Would the wizard still be able to use it?"
"The wizard wouldn't be able to work any magic until he got it back," Kazul said. "Most of them have a great many anti-theft spells on their staffs for exactly that reason. Of course, it happens anyway, now and then. And as long as the wizard and the staff are separated, the staff doesn't absorb."
"It doesn't sound like a very good arrangement to me," Cimorene said.
"I can think of half a dozen ways a staff could be lost or forgotten or stolen or something. It doesn't seem sensible for a wizard to depend so much on anything that's so easy to mislay."
Kazul shrugged. "They seem to like it."
"I can see why you don't want them in your part of the mountains."
"Can you? Do you have any idea how unpleasant it is to have part of your essence sucked out of you without so much as a by-your-leave? Not to mention the side effects."
"Side effects?" Cimorene said, puzzled. "There! Turn around, and I'll do your other side."
"Roxim isn't the only dragon who's allergic to wizards," Kazul said dryly as she shifted her position. "Or rather, to their staffs. We all are.
Roxim's just a little more sensitive than most. That's why we made the agreement with them in the first place."
"The dragons have an agreement with the wizards?"
Kazul nodded. "To be precise, the King of the Dragons has an agreement with the head of the Society of Wizards: the wizards stay out of our portions of the Mountains of Morning, and we allow them partial access to the Caves of Fire and Night. At least, that's the way it's supposed to work.
King Tokoz is getting old and forgetful, and lately wizards have been turning up in all sorts of places they aren't supposed to be."
"Like that wizard Zemenar I met on the path," Cimorene said. "Do you think he really was the same Zemenar that's the head of the Society of Wizards?"
"I doubt that anyone, even another wizard, would dare impersonate him," Kazul said. "He has a nasty reputation."
Cimorene remembered the hard black eyes and sharp features of the wizard she had met. He had certainly looked nasty enough, even when he was pretending to be nice. He was sneaky, too, or he wouldn't have tried to trick her. And he had been very annoyed when Cimorene got off the ledge without his help. Cimorene frowned.
"I wonder what he wanted, really," she mused. "Do you suppose he'll stop by the way he said he would?"
"I almost wish he would try," Kazul said. There was an angry glint in her eye, and her claws made a scratching sound against the stone floor of the cave as she flexed them.
"Don't wiggle," Cimorene said. "If Zemenar is as tricky as everyone says, he won't come while you're here. He'll wait until you've gone somewhere and I'm alone."
"True." Kazul frowned. Then she looked at Cimorene, and her eyes took on a speculative gleam. "He probably thinks you're as silly as most princesses, so he'll be hoping to trick you into giving him whatever it is he's after. And if he does-" "Then maybe I can fool him instead," Cimorene finished. "And once we know what he's after, we can decide what to do about it."
Kazul and Cimorene discussed this idea while Cimorene finished brushing the dragon's scales. There was very little they could do to prepare since they did not know when Zemenar might show up at the cave or what he might do when he arrived. Then Kazul went off to inspect the ledge where Cimorene had met the wizard, to see whether bits of it were still invisible.
When Kazul had gone, Cimorene went into the library to hunt through all the books and scrolls of spells. The behavior of the dragons at dinner the previous evening had made a considerable impression on her, and she wanted to see whether she could find a spell to fireproof herself.
Until then she hadn't realized that when a dragon lost his temper, he started breathing fire. Not that she was planning to do anything to irritate Kazul-or any other dragon, for that matter-but the dragons at dinner had been too annoyed to be careful, and she didn't want to get burned by accident, no matter how sorry the dragon might be afterward.
At first Cimorene didn't have much luck. She hadn't had time to do much organizing in the library, and most of the books and scrolls were lying in haphazard, dust-covered piles. Some had even fallen onto the floor, and there were spiders everywhere. Cimorene realized that if she wanted to find anything, she was going to have to do some more cleaning first. With a sigh she went to get a bucket of water, some cloths for washing and dusting, and a handkerchief to tie over her hair.
She worked for several hours, dusting books and manuscripts, wiping off the dusty bookshelves, and putting the books back in neat rows when the shelves were dry. She found two books and five old scrolls that looked as if they might be interesting. These she set on one of the tables to look at later.
She had just pulled a stained and yellowed stack of papers out of the back of the second-to-last bookshelf when she heard someone hallooing outside.
"Now what?" she muttered crossly. She set the papers on the table with the rest of the books she was planning to look at later and went out to see who was there.
To her surprise, the noise was coming from the back entrance, not from the mouth of the cave. She hurried into the passage, rounded the corner, and found herself facing three beautiful, elegantly dressed princesses. They were all blonde and blue-eyed and slender, and several inches shorter than Cimorene. The first one wore a gold crown set with diamonds, and her hair was the color of sun-ripened wheat.
The second wore a silver crown set with sapphires, and her hair was the color of crystallized honey. The last wore a pearl-covered circlet, and her hair was the color of ripe apricots. They looked rather taken aback by the sight of Cimorene in her dust-covered dress and kerchief.
"Oh, bother," Cimorene said under her breath. Then she smiled her best smile and said, "Welcome to the caves of the dragon Kazul. May I help you with anything?"
"We have made the perilous journey through the tunnels to see the Princess Cimorene, newly come to these caverns, to comfort her and together bemoan our sad and sorry fates," the first princess said haughtily.
"Tell her we are here."
"I'm Cimorene," Cimorene said. "I don't need comforting, and I'm not particularly sad or sorry to be here, but if you'd like to come in and have some tea, you're welcome to."
The first two princesses looked as if they would have liked to be startled and appalled by this announcement but were much too well bred to show what they were feeling. The princess with the pearl circlet looked surprised and rather intrigued, and she glanced hopefully at her companions.
They ignored her, but after a moment the first princess said grandly, "Very well, we will join you, then," and swept past Cimorene into the cave.
The other princesses followed, the one with the pearl circlet giving Cimorene a shy smile as she passed. Cimorene, wondering what she had gotten herself into, brought up the rear. The princesses stopped when they reached the main cave, and the ones in the gold and silver crowns looked a bit disgruntled. The one in the pearl circlet stared in unabashed amazement.