"The Affairs of Dragons" part 2 -- Morwen & Kazul, Enchanted Forest Chronicles, G
Title: The Affairs of Dragons
Author: Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)
Fandom: Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Rating: G
Prompt: #68 - The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning. -- Ivy Baker Priest.
Summary: In which Morwen loses her house, meets a princess and a knight, does a favor for the king of the dragons, makes a new friend, and finds a new home, all within two days. This story uses some of my personal backstory for Morwen, but it should be perfectly comprehensible to anyone who's read Patricia C. Wrede's books... and, hopefully, even to people who haven't. Thanks to uminohikari and sirena_lune for the lightning-fast beta!
part 1
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The Affairs of Dragons, part 2
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"That is definitely a dragon," said Murgatroyd. His tail lashed from side to side as he peered around the bend in the path at the far side of the pass. "And that's definitely a knight, even if he has lost his sword and armor."
"Thank you for your excellent observations," Morwen said, venturing a glance of her own. The Pass of Broken Hawthorn opened onto a wide, flat ledge with a nasty drop-off on the left and jagged heaps of fallen stones on the right. Kazul was a large, green presence several yards away, curled up with her head propped on a foreleg as she contemplated a lanky, ginger-haired man whose wrists were tied to a scraggly tree. She seemed to be questioning him; her sharp teeth glinted in the morning sunlight when she spoke. A sword and a pile of dented armor lay at the knight's feet.
Morwen ducked back into the pass. "I don't think we can sneak up on her. We'll have to be straightforward."
Thelistra smiled conspiratorially and fished a tangle of silver embroidery floss out of her sewing bag. "No we don't. I have an invisibility charm. The catch is that it only works on one person, and it doesn't hide your shadow."
"You might have mentioned that sooner," Morwen said, tapping her fingers against the granite wall of the pass. "Hmm. In that case, you wear the charm and take my broom. Sneak towards your knight while I'm talking to Kazul. If the negotiation goes badly, untie Andovan and fly away; I'll distract Kazul long enough for you to get a good head start."
Thelistra took the broom and hugged Morwen. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Then she frowned. "But you'll be stuck in the mountains. I can't do that to you."
Morwen waved one hand sharply. "Don't worry about it. I have a jar of flying ointment. If I need to, I can make some sort of transportation out of the tent poles. The important thing to remember is that you can't untie Andovan unless Kazul refuses to see reason. If you untie him too soon, it will make me look dishonest, and we may lose our chance at a peaceful solution."
"Yes, yes, of course," said Thelistra, who was practically dancing on tiptoe. "Can we start now? Please? I have to see him!"
"Shush, or Kazul will hear you. And yes, I'm going. Jasmine, Murgatroyd, you come with me. Jasper and Miss Eliza, you stay with Thelistra. The rest of you, keep watch." Morwen ignored Trouble's protests with the ease of two years' practice, adjusted her hat and glasses, and stepped out onto the ledge.
"Hello," she called. "I offer you greetings in the name of myself and my companions, and I wish you good fortune on this day. I'm Morwen; may I have the honor of knowing your names?"
Kazul swung her head around and examined Morwen, while the ginger-haired knight tilted his head in curiosity. "Greetings to you, too," said Kazul after a moment. "I'm Kazul and this is Sir Andovan of Taliss. I assume the cats are the companions you mentioned?"
"Of course we are," said Jasmine, leaping to a nearby rock and then to Morwen's shoulder. "Do you see anyone else around?"
Morwen closed her eyes and counted to ten, very rapidly, but fortunately Kazul laughed. "I don't see anyone else, but you never can tell with witches. Speaking of which, what are you doing in the Mountains of Morning? You need the king's permission to visit the Caves of Fire and Night or to settle here."
"I'm only passing through," Morwen assured her, moving forward into more comfortable speaking distance; she felt silly shouting across the whole length of the ledge. "I... left my home a bit suddenly, and I decided to spend a few days in the mountains while I decided where to go. I thought it would reduce interruptions." She looked over at Andovan and raised one eyebrow. "Possibly I was wrong. Would it be rude to ask what's going on here?"
"Not at all," Kazul said, settling back down on her haunches. "Andovan and I were discussing poetry while we waited for a guest. He has a much higher opinion of de la Mare's epics than I do, and was attempting to persuade me by reciting the duel of wits between Charmian and Teleute."
"I admit the heroic couplets can be tedious at first," Andovan put in, "but one grows accustomed to the rhythm, and de la Mare's wordplay and pacing are brilliant. And he's one of the few poets who bothers to write intelligent women."
"I'll grant him that," agreed Kazul, "but I don't think it makes up for the rhyme scheme. It always reminds me of spells and that jolts me out of the story."
Morwen blinked. This friendly conversation -- even allowing for Andovan's bound wrists -- was not what Thelistra had led her to expect.
"Um," she said. "You do realize that Sir Andovan is tied to that tree, right?"
"Do we look blind?" Kazul asked.
"No, of course not," said Morwen, "but it seems odd to tie a person up just to have a conversation about poetry. Am I missing something?"
"A house, a library, a broom..." Murgatroyd muttered, stalking around her feet.
"You hush," Morwen said, and looked back up at Kazul and Andovan. To her right, a dry leaf crunched and a shadow moved behind a low screen of rocks. Thelistra was moving in.
Kazul and the knight exchanged a meaningful glance. "This is mostly for the look of things," Andovan said after a moment, "but it's also... well, I'm a trifle clumsy, you see, and I nearly fell off the ledge yesterday evening, so I asked Kazul to give me an anchor overnight. I rather forgot about it, to be honest."
"I also wanted to make sure he didn't wake up in the middle of the night and run off looking for our guest before I had a chance to talk with her," Kazul added. "He's a trifle forgetful as well." She smiled. Her teeth were very sharp.
Thelistra's shadow flowed out from behind the rocks, nearly with arm's length of Andovan, and Morwen realized things were getting out of hand.
"I apologize for this," she said, bowing to Kazul, "but I didn't know all the details at the time, and I'd appreciate not being eaten until I know what's really going on. Thelistra! Stop! This isn't what we thought it was!"
Kazul reared up and Andovan spun wildly, tangling himself in his cords. "Thelistra? Where? Darling, we have to talk!"
"I smell her," snarled Kazul, little tongues of flame slipping between her teeth and falling to the ground. "You silly goose, what are you trying to do now? Why can't you ever talk to me before jumping to conclusions?" She leaned toward the pile of rocks, sniffing loudly.
Jasper and Miss Eliza flowed around the other side of the stones, looking sheepish. "I tried to make her wait," Jasper said as they hurried to Morwen's side, "but it's hard when she can't understand us. Sorry."
"It's not your fault," Morwen said, wondering frantically what she could do if Kazul lost her temper and tried to fry someone. She didn't know any fireproofing spells.
Kazul lashed out with one foreleg, two claws pinching together on a fold of invisible fabric, and hauled Thelistra forward onto the main ledge. "Make yourself visible! I want to see you when I'm talking to you."
Thelistra's shadow moved, one hand reaching toward her torso, and then she faded into visibility as she unpinned the knot of silver embroidery floss from her bodice. "What conclusion am I supposed to reach when a dragon flies overhead and breathes fire at me and my love?" she yelled, anger nearly drowning out the chimes in her voice. "I thought we were done with each other. Why won't you leave me alone?"
"Because you have something that belongs to the dragons," Kazul said, shaking Thelistra back and forth, "and you ran off before I could explain and try to bargain like civilized people. And I was not breathing fire at you -- I was warning off a giant hawk that was stooping to carry you away as dinner for its nestlings. I've told you and told you, you have to pay attention to what's happening around you instead of getting lost in your books and your stitching."
"Um," said Morwen, stepping forward, "this might work better if you let go of her and if you both stopped yelling."
Kazul and Thelistra glared at her like eerily mismatched reflections, one spitting flame metaphorically and the other literally. "Don't interrupt!" Thelistra snapped.
Morwen raised her hands and backed off. "Fine, yell away. Don't mind me, I'll just go back to my tent."
"That's the first sensible thing you've said all morning," muttered Jasmine, digging her claws into Morwen's shoulder. "Standing in front of an angry dragon is just asking for trouble."
"No, stay here," Kazul growled. "You were trying to trick me, but you stopped Thelistra before she did anything irreparably stupid. Maybe you can help us negotiate." She let go of Thelistra's dress and shuffled back toward the drop-off, giving the humans a bit of space. "Thelistra, do you trust this witch?"
"With my life," Thelistra said defiantly. "She's been nothing but kind to me. Even if she did give me away, I'm certain she had a good reason." She dropped Morwen's broom and hurried over to untie Andovan's wrists, caressing them as she worked. "Andovan, darling, are you hurt?"
"Not in the slightest," he assured her, gathering her into his arms. "Kazul has been a most gracious host and I swear the rope was only to make this look like the aftermath of a battle, so no other dragons would interrupt us while we waited for you. I really think you should listen to her, because this whole situation seems to have been a misunderstanding."
Thelistra looked skeptical but didn't argue out loud. Morwen took that as a hopeful sign.
"Since we all know more or less who we are," she began, sitting on a handy chunk of granite, "why don't we start with explanations. Kazul, what do you think Thelistra took from the dragons, and why do you think she has it? She told me she didn't take anything from your caves, not even food or blankets."
Kazul sighed a small gush of flame. "That's a long story. It starts nearly sixty years ago, with the old king of the dragons. Murzig was... eccentric, to put it mildly -- that's the trouble with letting a magic stone choose our kings -- and he... well, bluntly, he fell in love with another dragon's princess."
There was a long moment of silence, broken by Miss Eliza. "That sounds awkward. How on earth did they manage?"
"Murzig was an expert at transfiguration," Kazul said, flushing slightly. "We've never been sure if he made himself into a human or her into a dragon, or something even odder, but the fact remains, something was going on, and Murzig had stopped paying any attention to his duties. The other dragon, Gaurim, did everything she could to get rid of the girl, and finally managed to lose a fight with a prince. Murzig couldn't stop the prince from taking the girl away, and Oraun, the queen, persuaded him that nobody would support him if he attacked the prince's kingdom in revenge."
She paused and looked contemplative. "I've always wondered if Murzig was behind the idiot knight who tore Oraun's wing a few years later; the timing is suspicious. But that's not the point.
"The important thing is, Murzig gave the Box of Shadows to the girl as a parting gift. It's an iron chest that holds powdered shadows from the Caves of Fire and Night, and it's part of the king's official regalia. Nobody noticed for years since it's of no practical use, but when Murzig died and Tokoz took the crown, we couldn't find the box."
"But that's nothing to do with me," Thelistra interrupted. "I don't have any iron boxes. I think I would have noticed."
"Shush," said Morwen. "You'll get your turn in a minute."
Kazul pointedly ignored them and continued her story. "The girl married the crown prince of Veritand. Tokoz asked me to find the Box of Shadows, which is why I was in the kingdom when your parents wanted to get rid of you. I accepted the contract because I hoped the box might be in the treasure they gave me, or that one of the court wizard's predecessors had written about it. It took me a year and a half to find the right entry in those eight journals, but I finally did. And you do have the box. It's been right in front of me the whole time."
Kazul pointed one claw at Thelistra's enameled locket. "You see? I did say Murzig was an expert at transfiguration."
"My locket? But it can't be a magic box," said Thelistra, clutching her hand around the lumpy green locket. "For one thing, it doesn't have any shadows inside, just a bit of my grandmother's hair, and for another, even the best transfigurations leave a magical resonance. I would have noticed that once I started learning spells. Besides, I don't believe you. My grandmother would never have done something as... as mad as carrying on with a dragon. She loved my grandfather!"
Kazul looked skeptical. "Are you sure? As I recall, she was fanciful and headstrong, like you, though she was a much better cook. She fell for Murzig as fast as you fell for Andovan."
"The details of Thelistra's family history aren't relevant at the moment," Morwen said before Thelistra could start yelling again. "The important thing is the locket. We just need to test it to see whether it is or isn't this Box of Shadows." She held out her hand and stared pointedly at Thelistra.
Slowly, Thelistra pulled the chain over her head and handed the locket to Morwen. "If you so much as scratch it..." she began.
"But I won't," said Morwen. "You see, if this is the Box of Shadows, I think I know what happened to it. A transfigured object always has a residual hum, true, but what most people don't know is that the resonance can be masked by the presence of another spell." Thank goodness for Telemain and his insistence on theoretical research -- back at the academy, she'd helped him transfigure a teaspoon into a salt shaker, and they'd managed to disguise the change by casting a spell to keep the salt from sticking. They had received excellent marks for the project.
Morwen hoped she could do an equally good job stripping the masking spell from Thelistra's locket, without getting tangled in either the transfiguration spell or whatever magic was necessary to keep shadows in powdered form. She pulled a mirror from her sleeve and set it on the ground. "Jasper, go fetch the others. I might need their help."
"Others?" asked Kazul. After a moment, six cats swarmed out of the Pass of Broken Hawthorn and joined the three already at Morwen's feet. "Ah," Kazul said. "You have an unusual number of familiars."
"I like cats," Morwen said defensively. "And they're very helpful with complicated magic. Anyway, Thelistra, I suspect your grandmother or her court wizard knew about the masking effect of layered spells, which is why your locket is enameled." She set the locket in the center of the mirror.
"There's nothing odd about enameled jewelry. It's the national style of Veritand," said Thelistra.
"Yes, and that helped the disguise, but this is the wrong kind of enamel," Morwen said. "Your crown and your rings are done in white with gold and silver accents, but this locket is done in green---"
"It's the exact shade of Murzig's scales, come to think of it," Kazul said.
"---and it's a very sloppy job," Morwen continued, after a pause. "A professional jeweler would never have let this out of the workshop. I think your grandmother was trying to hide her gift and chose a color preservation spell as the masking layer. If you give me five minutes, I can find out for sure."
Thelistra frowned, but Andovan ran his hands over her shoulders. "There's no harm in being certain, darling," he said, "and this will solve our problem with Kazul either way. Let the witch do her spell."
"Thank you," Morwen said, reaching into her sleeves for the rest of her emergency spell supplies. "By the way, would anyone like some cider while I work?"
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"That's definitely transfiguration resonance," Kazul said, staring down at the locket. It sat on the surface of a mirror, glistening damply with a mixture of water and salt and speckled with flecks of ground unicorn horn. To anyone sensitive to magic, it seemed to hum on a particularly high, grating note.
Thelistra poked the green enamel with her finger and winced. "I suppose I can't argue. Bother. I liked that locket. It was the one thing I had left of my grandmother, and she was the only one in my family who understood me properly."
"If she was moon-struck enough to love a dragon, I'm not surprised," said Scorn, ambling away from the mirror now that the revealing spell was completed.
"Now now, she was at least sensible enough to manage a good magical concealment," Aunt Ophelia said, "even if she was no good with enamel."
"She was good enough to fool me for over a year," said Kazul, scooping the locket up between her claws and spinning it in the air. "What do you want in return for this, Thelistra?"
"I don't want to trade it in the first place," Thelistra said, leaning back into Andovan's arms and glaring at Kazul, "but if I keep it, I doubt you'll ever give me any peace. Fine. Take it. I don't need anything from you. Just leave me alone from now on and I'll count it a fair trade."
Morwen sighed. "You're being short-sighted again. Kazul, do you have anything Thelistra and Andovan can use as transportation? They're heading for Kaltenmark but they hardly have any supplies and it's a five- or six-day journey from the Pass of Silver Ice, which means it's probably at least four days from here."
Kazul slipped the locket over her head and shook herself until it settled at the base of her long neck. "I could give you directions to Ballimore's castle," she said with a considering air. "She'll feed you and put you up for the night, and I think she and her husband have some flying carpets they can lend out."
"That sounds excellent to me," said Andovan. He bent down to speak into Thelistra's ear. "Darling, what do you think?"
"I think there must be a catch," Thelistra said, still glaring at Kazul.
"No catch," Kazul assured them, "unless you have something against giants."
Thelistra sighed. "Not particularly, no. Fine. Give us a note and some directions, and hopefully we'll never have to see each other again. It's not that I'm ungrateful for the experience, but I'll be quite glad to get out of the Mountains of Morning and back to human lands."
"I imagine I'd feel the same way if Tokoz had made me an ambassador instead of asking me to find the Box of Shadows," Kazul agreed. "Does anyone have pen and paper?"
Morwen produced both objects from her right sleeve, whereupon Kazul wrote out directions and a note of introduction in a large, round hand, holding the pen delicately between two claws. She pointed Thelistra and Andovan back toward her caves. "You'll want to cut right at Dilzip's cave and head straight north along the cliff path for a mile," she said, "and then follow the directions on the page. You should reach Ballimore's castle by sunset if you hurry."
Andovan bowed while Thelistra gathered his discarded sword and armor. "Thank you very much," he said, "and I hope there are no hard feeling from our battle."
"None at all -- you and Thelistra were very clever about it," Kazul said, nodding her head in return. "I wish you well in all your endeavors."
"Likewise, I suppose," said Thelistra. "And thank you so much, Morwen. This could have been quite unpleasant without you." She curtsied, dumped Andovan's sword and armor into his arms, and led him off along the ledge.
Morwen watched them go with a mild surge of envy. Thelistra and Andovan might be bad at practical details, but they seemed to be managing well enough, they knew where they were going, and they had each other. She was floundering and... well, she wasn't alone -- nobody with nine cats could ever entertain that illusion -- but familiars weren't the same as friends, and she had no idea what to do with her life.
Sighing, she began to put away her magic supplies.
"She's right, you know," Kazul said, interrupting Morwen's thoughts. "This could have been a huge mess without you to keep us from arguing. Thelistra and I have always rubbed each other the wrong way." She held out an empty mug. "Thank you for the cider as well; it was excellent."
"I make it myself," Morwen said, tucking the mug back into her left sleeve. "I was a failure as a village witch, but I've always been good with potions and plants. Cider is just a sideways application of those skills."
"Do you really think you're a failure?" Kazul asked, sounding surprised. "You seem perfectly competent to me. You figured out the concealment spell and broke it, you kept me and Thelistra from sabotaging each other, and you seem very clean and well-fed for someone camping in the middle of nowhere on short notice."
Morwen flushed. "Thank you," she said, "but even if I'm good at magic and common sense, I'm not usually good at dealing with people. Otherwise I wouldn't have been kicked out of Tolchester."
To her astonishment, Kazul laughed.
"It's not funny!" Morwen protested, waving her broom for emphasis. "I tried so hard, and nothing went right! That's nearly three years of my life utterly wasted, and now I have no idea where to go."
"But it is funny. Tolchester hasn't been able to keep a village witch for more than three years for generations," Kazul said between bursts of laughter. "They snatch young witches before they've heard the rumors and wear them out -- most of their witches don't even last one year. If you managed nearly three, you must be amazing."
Morwen blinked.
"But... but that can't be true. I would have known. My aunt would have told me. Wouldn't she?" Aunt Grizelda wouldn't have let her waltz blithely into such a mess without at least warning her, right?
"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes children need to go out into the world and make their own mistakes," Kazul said. "I know my children did some awfully stupid things when they were young. It was hard to sit back and watch them flail, but they wouldn't have learned anything if I'd tried to smother them in safety or rescue them before they could rescue themselves."
"She has a point," said Jasper, winding around Morwen's ankles. "And you really did do everything anyone could reasonably expect from a witch. It's not your fault the people of Tolchester are so impossible."
"Oh, you shush," Morwen said, sitting heavily on her rock. "You're sure about Tolchester?"
Kazul nodded. "Of course. And if you want somewhere to go, why not stay in the Mountains of Morning? We can always use a few humans with common sense and who are willing to stand up to us. I could probably talk Tokoz into hiring you. Would you like to be the royal witch of the dragons?"
Morwen ran her hand absently over Jasper's back as she thought. On the one hand, working for the king of the dragons would almost certainly be interesting. On the other hand, she didn't want to be beholden to anyone, not after Tolchester. And there was a fine line between 'interesting' and 'dangerous' -- living with dragons might cross that, unless she found a good fireproofing spell.
"Thank you, but no," she said eventually. "I need to find my own way."
"Fair enough," said Kazul. "Have you considered the Enchanted Forest?"
Morwen blinked again. No, she hadn't. And why was that? The Enchanted Forest was more welcoming than the Border Duchies, much less boring than Linderwall, and warmer than Kaltenmark. It didn't have any libraries, but it did have a lot of semi-reclusive witches, magicians, enchantresses, sorcerers, and so on, who might be persuaded to into reciprocal lending agreements. And if any place on earth wouldn't blink twice at a witch with nine cats who refused to grow warts or let her house go to cobwebs, it would be the Enchanted Forest.
"Do you think I could manage that?" she asked. "I've always heard the Enchanted Forest can be dangerous."
"You stood your ground in front of me in a temper," Kazul said, dryly. "I think you can manage a bit of shifting scenery and some light-fingered elves. Just mind your manners and you should be fine."
Morwen thought about the Enchanted Forest for another minute. She could build a cottage and start a garden. She could catch up on her research, without people bothering her all hours of the day and night for things as silly as hangnails. She could even help people now and then, since a lot of quests seemed to go through the Enchanted Forest.
"I think I'd like that," she said.
Kazul smiled. "Good. I'll take you through the Caves of Fire and Night this afternoon; I think you've more than earned your passage. And once I know where you live, I can drop by for more of your excellent cider, if it won't be too much trouble."
"No trouble at all. Friends are always welcome," Morwen said. "Speaking of which, why don't you come have lunch with me before we go? I don't have all that much, but I'm sure I can manage a light snack for you."
"That sounds lovely," Kazul said, and followed Morwen into the Pass of Broken Hawthorn.
The next day, the king of the dragons got his Box of Shadows back, a seamstress and a clerk landed in a small town in Kaltenmark, and the Enchanted Forest welcomed a new witch. And they all lived happily ever after, as much as anyone ever does.
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The End
Author: Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)
Fandom: Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Rating: G
Prompt: #68 - The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning. -- Ivy Baker Priest.
Summary: In which Morwen loses her house, meets a princess and a knight, does a favor for the king of the dragons, makes a new friend, and finds a new home, all within two days. This story uses some of my personal backstory for Morwen, but it should be perfectly comprehensible to anyone who's read Patricia C. Wrede's books... and, hopefully, even to people who haven't. Thanks to uminohikari and sirena_lune for the lightning-fast beta!
part 1
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The Affairs of Dragons, part 2
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"That is definitely a dragon," said Murgatroyd. His tail lashed from side to side as he peered around the bend in the path at the far side of the pass. "And that's definitely a knight, even if he has lost his sword and armor."
"Thank you for your excellent observations," Morwen said, venturing a glance of her own. The Pass of Broken Hawthorn opened onto a wide, flat ledge with a nasty drop-off on the left and jagged heaps of fallen stones on the right. Kazul was a large, green presence several yards away, curled up with her head propped on a foreleg as she contemplated a lanky, ginger-haired man whose wrists were tied to a scraggly tree. She seemed to be questioning him; her sharp teeth glinted in the morning sunlight when she spoke. A sword and a pile of dented armor lay at the knight's feet.
Morwen ducked back into the pass. "I don't think we can sneak up on her. We'll have to be straightforward."
Thelistra smiled conspiratorially and fished a tangle of silver embroidery floss out of her sewing bag. "No we don't. I have an invisibility charm. The catch is that it only works on one person, and it doesn't hide your shadow."
"You might have mentioned that sooner," Morwen said, tapping her fingers against the granite wall of the pass. "Hmm. In that case, you wear the charm and take my broom. Sneak towards your knight while I'm talking to Kazul. If the negotiation goes badly, untie Andovan and fly away; I'll distract Kazul long enough for you to get a good head start."
Thelistra took the broom and hugged Morwen. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Then she frowned. "But you'll be stuck in the mountains. I can't do that to you."
Morwen waved one hand sharply. "Don't worry about it. I have a jar of flying ointment. If I need to, I can make some sort of transportation out of the tent poles. The important thing to remember is that you can't untie Andovan unless Kazul refuses to see reason. If you untie him too soon, it will make me look dishonest, and we may lose our chance at a peaceful solution."
"Yes, yes, of course," said Thelistra, who was practically dancing on tiptoe. "Can we start now? Please? I have to see him!"
"Shush, or Kazul will hear you. And yes, I'm going. Jasmine, Murgatroyd, you come with me. Jasper and Miss Eliza, you stay with Thelistra. The rest of you, keep watch." Morwen ignored Trouble's protests with the ease of two years' practice, adjusted her hat and glasses, and stepped out onto the ledge.
"Hello," she called. "I offer you greetings in the name of myself and my companions, and I wish you good fortune on this day. I'm Morwen; may I have the honor of knowing your names?"
Kazul swung her head around and examined Morwen, while the ginger-haired knight tilted his head in curiosity. "Greetings to you, too," said Kazul after a moment. "I'm Kazul and this is Sir Andovan of Taliss. I assume the cats are the companions you mentioned?"
"Of course we are," said Jasmine, leaping to a nearby rock and then to Morwen's shoulder. "Do you see anyone else around?"
Morwen closed her eyes and counted to ten, very rapidly, but fortunately Kazul laughed. "I don't see anyone else, but you never can tell with witches. Speaking of which, what are you doing in the Mountains of Morning? You need the king's permission to visit the Caves of Fire and Night or to settle here."
"I'm only passing through," Morwen assured her, moving forward into more comfortable speaking distance; she felt silly shouting across the whole length of the ledge. "I... left my home a bit suddenly, and I decided to spend a few days in the mountains while I decided where to go. I thought it would reduce interruptions." She looked over at Andovan and raised one eyebrow. "Possibly I was wrong. Would it be rude to ask what's going on here?"
"Not at all," Kazul said, settling back down on her haunches. "Andovan and I were discussing poetry while we waited for a guest. He has a much higher opinion of de la Mare's epics than I do, and was attempting to persuade me by reciting the duel of wits between Charmian and Teleute."
"I admit the heroic couplets can be tedious at first," Andovan put in, "but one grows accustomed to the rhythm, and de la Mare's wordplay and pacing are brilliant. And he's one of the few poets who bothers to write intelligent women."
"I'll grant him that," agreed Kazul, "but I don't think it makes up for the rhyme scheme. It always reminds me of spells and that jolts me out of the story."
Morwen blinked. This friendly conversation -- even allowing for Andovan's bound wrists -- was not what Thelistra had led her to expect.
"Um," she said. "You do realize that Sir Andovan is tied to that tree, right?"
"Do we look blind?" Kazul asked.
"No, of course not," said Morwen, "but it seems odd to tie a person up just to have a conversation about poetry. Am I missing something?"
"A house, a library, a broom..." Murgatroyd muttered, stalking around her feet.
"You hush," Morwen said, and looked back up at Kazul and Andovan. To her right, a dry leaf crunched and a shadow moved behind a low screen of rocks. Thelistra was moving in.
Kazul and the knight exchanged a meaningful glance. "This is mostly for the look of things," Andovan said after a moment, "but it's also... well, I'm a trifle clumsy, you see, and I nearly fell off the ledge yesterday evening, so I asked Kazul to give me an anchor overnight. I rather forgot about it, to be honest."
"I also wanted to make sure he didn't wake up in the middle of the night and run off looking for our guest before I had a chance to talk with her," Kazul added. "He's a trifle forgetful as well." She smiled. Her teeth were very sharp.
Thelistra's shadow flowed out from behind the rocks, nearly with arm's length of Andovan, and Morwen realized things were getting out of hand.
"I apologize for this," she said, bowing to Kazul, "but I didn't know all the details at the time, and I'd appreciate not being eaten until I know what's really going on. Thelistra! Stop! This isn't what we thought it was!"
Kazul reared up and Andovan spun wildly, tangling himself in his cords. "Thelistra? Where? Darling, we have to talk!"
"I smell her," snarled Kazul, little tongues of flame slipping between her teeth and falling to the ground. "You silly goose, what are you trying to do now? Why can't you ever talk to me before jumping to conclusions?" She leaned toward the pile of rocks, sniffing loudly.
Jasper and Miss Eliza flowed around the other side of the stones, looking sheepish. "I tried to make her wait," Jasper said as they hurried to Morwen's side, "but it's hard when she can't understand us. Sorry."
"It's not your fault," Morwen said, wondering frantically what she could do if Kazul lost her temper and tried to fry someone. She didn't know any fireproofing spells.
Kazul lashed out with one foreleg, two claws pinching together on a fold of invisible fabric, and hauled Thelistra forward onto the main ledge. "Make yourself visible! I want to see you when I'm talking to you."
Thelistra's shadow moved, one hand reaching toward her torso, and then she faded into visibility as she unpinned the knot of silver embroidery floss from her bodice. "What conclusion am I supposed to reach when a dragon flies overhead and breathes fire at me and my love?" she yelled, anger nearly drowning out the chimes in her voice. "I thought we were done with each other. Why won't you leave me alone?"
"Because you have something that belongs to the dragons," Kazul said, shaking Thelistra back and forth, "and you ran off before I could explain and try to bargain like civilized people. And I was not breathing fire at you -- I was warning off a giant hawk that was stooping to carry you away as dinner for its nestlings. I've told you and told you, you have to pay attention to what's happening around you instead of getting lost in your books and your stitching."
"Um," said Morwen, stepping forward, "this might work better if you let go of her and if you both stopped yelling."
Kazul and Thelistra glared at her like eerily mismatched reflections, one spitting flame metaphorically and the other literally. "Don't interrupt!" Thelistra snapped.
Morwen raised her hands and backed off. "Fine, yell away. Don't mind me, I'll just go back to my tent."
"That's the first sensible thing you've said all morning," muttered Jasmine, digging her claws into Morwen's shoulder. "Standing in front of an angry dragon is just asking for trouble."
"No, stay here," Kazul growled. "You were trying to trick me, but you stopped Thelistra before she did anything irreparably stupid. Maybe you can help us negotiate." She let go of Thelistra's dress and shuffled back toward the drop-off, giving the humans a bit of space. "Thelistra, do you trust this witch?"
"With my life," Thelistra said defiantly. "She's been nothing but kind to me. Even if she did give me away, I'm certain she had a good reason." She dropped Morwen's broom and hurried over to untie Andovan's wrists, caressing them as she worked. "Andovan, darling, are you hurt?"
"Not in the slightest," he assured her, gathering her into his arms. "Kazul has been a most gracious host and I swear the rope was only to make this look like the aftermath of a battle, so no other dragons would interrupt us while we waited for you. I really think you should listen to her, because this whole situation seems to have been a misunderstanding."
Thelistra looked skeptical but didn't argue out loud. Morwen took that as a hopeful sign.
"Since we all know more or less who we are," she began, sitting on a handy chunk of granite, "why don't we start with explanations. Kazul, what do you think Thelistra took from the dragons, and why do you think she has it? She told me she didn't take anything from your caves, not even food or blankets."
Kazul sighed a small gush of flame. "That's a long story. It starts nearly sixty years ago, with the old king of the dragons. Murzig was... eccentric, to put it mildly -- that's the trouble with letting a magic stone choose our kings -- and he... well, bluntly, he fell in love with another dragon's princess."
There was a long moment of silence, broken by Miss Eliza. "That sounds awkward. How on earth did they manage?"
"Murzig was an expert at transfiguration," Kazul said, flushing slightly. "We've never been sure if he made himself into a human or her into a dragon, or something even odder, but the fact remains, something was going on, and Murzig had stopped paying any attention to his duties. The other dragon, Gaurim, did everything she could to get rid of the girl, and finally managed to lose a fight with a prince. Murzig couldn't stop the prince from taking the girl away, and Oraun, the queen, persuaded him that nobody would support him if he attacked the prince's kingdom in revenge."
She paused and looked contemplative. "I've always wondered if Murzig was behind the idiot knight who tore Oraun's wing a few years later; the timing is suspicious. But that's not the point.
"The important thing is, Murzig gave the Box of Shadows to the girl as a parting gift. It's an iron chest that holds powdered shadows from the Caves of Fire and Night, and it's part of the king's official regalia. Nobody noticed for years since it's of no practical use, but when Murzig died and Tokoz took the crown, we couldn't find the box."
"But that's nothing to do with me," Thelistra interrupted. "I don't have any iron boxes. I think I would have noticed."
"Shush," said Morwen. "You'll get your turn in a minute."
Kazul pointedly ignored them and continued her story. "The girl married the crown prince of Veritand. Tokoz asked me to find the Box of Shadows, which is why I was in the kingdom when your parents wanted to get rid of you. I accepted the contract because I hoped the box might be in the treasure they gave me, or that one of the court wizard's predecessors had written about it. It took me a year and a half to find the right entry in those eight journals, but I finally did. And you do have the box. It's been right in front of me the whole time."
Kazul pointed one claw at Thelistra's enameled locket. "You see? I did say Murzig was an expert at transfiguration."
"My locket? But it can't be a magic box," said Thelistra, clutching her hand around the lumpy green locket. "For one thing, it doesn't have any shadows inside, just a bit of my grandmother's hair, and for another, even the best transfigurations leave a magical resonance. I would have noticed that once I started learning spells. Besides, I don't believe you. My grandmother would never have done something as... as mad as carrying on with a dragon. She loved my grandfather!"
Kazul looked skeptical. "Are you sure? As I recall, she was fanciful and headstrong, like you, though she was a much better cook. She fell for Murzig as fast as you fell for Andovan."
"The details of Thelistra's family history aren't relevant at the moment," Morwen said before Thelistra could start yelling again. "The important thing is the locket. We just need to test it to see whether it is or isn't this Box of Shadows." She held out her hand and stared pointedly at Thelistra.
Slowly, Thelistra pulled the chain over her head and handed the locket to Morwen. "If you so much as scratch it..." she began.
"But I won't," said Morwen. "You see, if this is the Box of Shadows, I think I know what happened to it. A transfigured object always has a residual hum, true, but what most people don't know is that the resonance can be masked by the presence of another spell." Thank goodness for Telemain and his insistence on theoretical research -- back at the academy, she'd helped him transfigure a teaspoon into a salt shaker, and they'd managed to disguise the change by casting a spell to keep the salt from sticking. They had received excellent marks for the project.
Morwen hoped she could do an equally good job stripping the masking spell from Thelistra's locket, without getting tangled in either the transfiguration spell or whatever magic was necessary to keep shadows in powdered form. She pulled a mirror from her sleeve and set it on the ground. "Jasper, go fetch the others. I might need their help."
"Others?" asked Kazul. After a moment, six cats swarmed out of the Pass of Broken Hawthorn and joined the three already at Morwen's feet. "Ah," Kazul said. "You have an unusual number of familiars."
"I like cats," Morwen said defensively. "And they're very helpful with complicated magic. Anyway, Thelistra, I suspect your grandmother or her court wizard knew about the masking effect of layered spells, which is why your locket is enameled." She set the locket in the center of the mirror.
"There's nothing odd about enameled jewelry. It's the national style of Veritand," said Thelistra.
"Yes, and that helped the disguise, but this is the wrong kind of enamel," Morwen said. "Your crown and your rings are done in white with gold and silver accents, but this locket is done in green---"
"It's the exact shade of Murzig's scales, come to think of it," Kazul said.
"---and it's a very sloppy job," Morwen continued, after a pause. "A professional jeweler would never have let this out of the workshop. I think your grandmother was trying to hide her gift and chose a color preservation spell as the masking layer. If you give me five minutes, I can find out for sure."
Thelistra frowned, but Andovan ran his hands over her shoulders. "There's no harm in being certain, darling," he said, "and this will solve our problem with Kazul either way. Let the witch do her spell."
"Thank you," Morwen said, reaching into her sleeves for the rest of her emergency spell supplies. "By the way, would anyone like some cider while I work?"
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"That's definitely transfiguration resonance," Kazul said, staring down at the locket. It sat on the surface of a mirror, glistening damply with a mixture of water and salt and speckled with flecks of ground unicorn horn. To anyone sensitive to magic, it seemed to hum on a particularly high, grating note.
Thelistra poked the green enamel with her finger and winced. "I suppose I can't argue. Bother. I liked that locket. It was the one thing I had left of my grandmother, and she was the only one in my family who understood me properly."
"If she was moon-struck enough to love a dragon, I'm not surprised," said Scorn, ambling away from the mirror now that the revealing spell was completed.
"Now now, she was at least sensible enough to manage a good magical concealment," Aunt Ophelia said, "even if she was no good with enamel."
"She was good enough to fool me for over a year," said Kazul, scooping the locket up between her claws and spinning it in the air. "What do you want in return for this, Thelistra?"
"I don't want to trade it in the first place," Thelistra said, leaning back into Andovan's arms and glaring at Kazul, "but if I keep it, I doubt you'll ever give me any peace. Fine. Take it. I don't need anything from you. Just leave me alone from now on and I'll count it a fair trade."
Morwen sighed. "You're being short-sighted again. Kazul, do you have anything Thelistra and Andovan can use as transportation? They're heading for Kaltenmark but they hardly have any supplies and it's a five- or six-day journey from the Pass of Silver Ice, which means it's probably at least four days from here."
Kazul slipped the locket over her head and shook herself until it settled at the base of her long neck. "I could give you directions to Ballimore's castle," she said with a considering air. "She'll feed you and put you up for the night, and I think she and her husband have some flying carpets they can lend out."
"That sounds excellent to me," said Andovan. He bent down to speak into Thelistra's ear. "Darling, what do you think?"
"I think there must be a catch," Thelistra said, still glaring at Kazul.
"No catch," Kazul assured them, "unless you have something against giants."
Thelistra sighed. "Not particularly, no. Fine. Give us a note and some directions, and hopefully we'll never have to see each other again. It's not that I'm ungrateful for the experience, but I'll be quite glad to get out of the Mountains of Morning and back to human lands."
"I imagine I'd feel the same way if Tokoz had made me an ambassador instead of asking me to find the Box of Shadows," Kazul agreed. "Does anyone have pen and paper?"
Morwen produced both objects from her right sleeve, whereupon Kazul wrote out directions and a note of introduction in a large, round hand, holding the pen delicately between two claws. She pointed Thelistra and Andovan back toward her caves. "You'll want to cut right at Dilzip's cave and head straight north along the cliff path for a mile," she said, "and then follow the directions on the page. You should reach Ballimore's castle by sunset if you hurry."
Andovan bowed while Thelistra gathered his discarded sword and armor. "Thank you very much," he said, "and I hope there are no hard feeling from our battle."
"None at all -- you and Thelistra were very clever about it," Kazul said, nodding her head in return. "I wish you well in all your endeavors."
"Likewise, I suppose," said Thelistra. "And thank you so much, Morwen. This could have been quite unpleasant without you." She curtsied, dumped Andovan's sword and armor into his arms, and led him off along the ledge.
Morwen watched them go with a mild surge of envy. Thelistra and Andovan might be bad at practical details, but they seemed to be managing well enough, they knew where they were going, and they had each other. She was floundering and... well, she wasn't alone -- nobody with nine cats could ever entertain that illusion -- but familiars weren't the same as friends, and she had no idea what to do with her life.
Sighing, she began to put away her magic supplies.
"She's right, you know," Kazul said, interrupting Morwen's thoughts. "This could have been a huge mess without you to keep us from arguing. Thelistra and I have always rubbed each other the wrong way." She held out an empty mug. "Thank you for the cider as well; it was excellent."
"I make it myself," Morwen said, tucking the mug back into her left sleeve. "I was a failure as a village witch, but I've always been good with potions and plants. Cider is just a sideways application of those skills."
"Do you really think you're a failure?" Kazul asked, sounding surprised. "You seem perfectly competent to me. You figured out the concealment spell and broke it, you kept me and Thelistra from sabotaging each other, and you seem very clean and well-fed for someone camping in the middle of nowhere on short notice."
Morwen flushed. "Thank you," she said, "but even if I'm good at magic and common sense, I'm not usually good at dealing with people. Otherwise I wouldn't have been kicked out of Tolchester."
To her astonishment, Kazul laughed.
"It's not funny!" Morwen protested, waving her broom for emphasis. "I tried so hard, and nothing went right! That's nearly three years of my life utterly wasted, and now I have no idea where to go."
"But it is funny. Tolchester hasn't been able to keep a village witch for more than three years for generations," Kazul said between bursts of laughter. "They snatch young witches before they've heard the rumors and wear them out -- most of their witches don't even last one year. If you managed nearly three, you must be amazing."
Morwen blinked.
"But... but that can't be true. I would have known. My aunt would have told me. Wouldn't she?" Aunt Grizelda wouldn't have let her waltz blithely into such a mess without at least warning her, right?
"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes children need to go out into the world and make their own mistakes," Kazul said. "I know my children did some awfully stupid things when they were young. It was hard to sit back and watch them flail, but they wouldn't have learned anything if I'd tried to smother them in safety or rescue them before they could rescue themselves."
"She has a point," said Jasper, winding around Morwen's ankles. "And you really did do everything anyone could reasonably expect from a witch. It's not your fault the people of Tolchester are so impossible."
"Oh, you shush," Morwen said, sitting heavily on her rock. "You're sure about Tolchester?"
Kazul nodded. "Of course. And if you want somewhere to go, why not stay in the Mountains of Morning? We can always use a few humans with common sense and who are willing to stand up to us. I could probably talk Tokoz into hiring you. Would you like to be the royal witch of the dragons?"
Morwen ran her hand absently over Jasper's back as she thought. On the one hand, working for the king of the dragons would almost certainly be interesting. On the other hand, she didn't want to be beholden to anyone, not after Tolchester. And there was a fine line between 'interesting' and 'dangerous' -- living with dragons might cross that, unless she found a good fireproofing spell.
"Thank you, but no," she said eventually. "I need to find my own way."
"Fair enough," said Kazul. "Have you considered the Enchanted Forest?"
Morwen blinked again. No, she hadn't. And why was that? The Enchanted Forest was more welcoming than the Border Duchies, much less boring than Linderwall, and warmer than Kaltenmark. It didn't have any libraries, but it did have a lot of semi-reclusive witches, magicians, enchantresses, sorcerers, and so on, who might be persuaded to into reciprocal lending agreements. And if any place on earth wouldn't blink twice at a witch with nine cats who refused to grow warts or let her house go to cobwebs, it would be the Enchanted Forest.
"Do you think I could manage that?" she asked. "I've always heard the Enchanted Forest can be dangerous."
"You stood your ground in front of me in a temper," Kazul said, dryly. "I think you can manage a bit of shifting scenery and some light-fingered elves. Just mind your manners and you should be fine."
Morwen thought about the Enchanted Forest for another minute. She could build a cottage and start a garden. She could catch up on her research, without people bothering her all hours of the day and night for things as silly as hangnails. She could even help people now and then, since a lot of quests seemed to go through the Enchanted Forest.
"I think I'd like that," she said.
Kazul smiled. "Good. I'll take you through the Caves of Fire and Night this afternoon; I think you've more than earned your passage. And once I know where you live, I can drop by for more of your excellent cider, if it won't be too much trouble."
"No trouble at all. Friends are always welcome," Morwen said. "Speaking of which, why don't you come have lunch with me before we go? I don't have all that much, but I'm sure I can manage a light snack for you."
"That sounds lovely," Kazul said, and followed Morwen into the Pass of Broken Hawthorn.
The next day, the king of the dragons got his Box of Shadows back, a seamstress and a clerk landed in a small town in Kaltenmark, and the Enchanted Forest welcomed a new witch. And they all lived happily ever after, as much as anyone ever does.
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The End