"Here we go again," said Trouble, wrapping all four paws tightly around one of Kazul's back spines.
"Hello, the tower!" Kazul bellowed. "Who's home? Come out and meet your visitors!"
The window flew open with a force that ought to have shattered the glass. "Go away!" shouted someone inside the tower. "She doesn't live here anymore, and if you keep pestering me, I'll burn you to cinders!"
Cimorene's eyes narrowed and she muttered something Morwen could not hear. Then she motioned Morwen and Killer to move back. After a moment's consideration, Morwen stayed where she was. If there were any real danger of being burned, her cats would not still be cringing to Kazul's spikes; their instinct about such things was very good.
"Come out and talk!" Kazul roared again.
A man's head appeared at the window, silhouetted against the light. "I don't want-Good lord, a dragon."
"Don't go away!" Cimorene shouted. "We need to talk to you."
"I wasn't going away," the man yelled down. "Not yet, anyway. What is a dragon doing in the middle of the Smoking Swamp?"
"So that's where we are," Trouble said.
"We missed our way," Morwen called. "And we have an injured companion who needs to rest in a warm, dry place. We were hoping you could help."
"Another one?" The man leaned precariously out, peering into the gloom. "How many of you are there?"
"Three humans, a donkey, two cats, and a dragon," Cimorene said.
"Are you going to help or not?"
"Help." The man sounded mildly surprised by the idea. "I suppose I could. Since you didn't actually come looking for me."
"What's that got to do with it?" Killer whispered. "I don't understand this person at all."
"I expect we'll find out in a little while," Morwen said. Raising her voice, she called, "Are you going to let us in or not?"
"I think so. Yes, I believe I will. Hold on a minute while I get the laundry basket."
"Basket?" Killer's ears waggled. "I don't like the sound of this."
"Neither do I," said Kazul.
"Don't be unreasonable," Cimorene said to the dragon. "You can't expect everyone to be able to accommodate a dragon on short notice."
"This place doesn't look as if it could accommodate a dragon on any notice," Kazul said.
"Here it comes," said the man's voice above them. "Look out below."
Something large and dark poked out of the window, trembled, and fell.
Kazul ducked, and her rear legs slid back into the mud. An instant later, a large straw laundry basket jerked to a stop a foot from the ground, bounced once, and swung twisting in the air. Three short ropes stretched from metal anchors around the basket's rim to a much longer rope that extended upward into the dark.
"One at a time, please," the man called. "And send somebody light first."
"I don't like the sound of that at all," Kazul said.
Morwen studied the laundry basket, nodded, and reached into her left sleeve. "One person at a time? Nonsense. There is no reason to drag things out." She withdrew a fat round jar and opened it. "Trouble, Scorn, I'd like your assistance, please."
Alerted by her tone, the cats slid down Kazul's sides and bounded over.
Purring loudly, they took up positions on either side of the laundry basket without further instructions.
"What's that?" Cimorene asked, nodding at the jar Morwen was holding.
"Flying ointment," Morwen said. "It's a standard spell for broomsticks, but it should work equally well on a straw basket. Be quiet for a moment, please."
"What's going on down there? Hurry up, or I'll haul it in without you!"
"Kazul, would you mind?" Morwen flicked a finger at the rope.
"Not at all." Kazul took hold of the knot where all the ropes met, inserting her claws carefully in the gaps between ropes so as not to damage anything.
Satisfied that the laundry basket wasn't going anywhere, Morwen dipped a finger in the flying ointment and smeared it along the basket's rim.
The straw soaked it up much faster than a broom handle, so it took longer than she had expected to work her way around the basket.
Overhead, the man in the tower shouted again, but Morwen did not bother to listen.
Suddenly, as she neared the spot where she had started, Scorn hissed and the laundry basket swayed wildly.
Her concentration broken, Morwen looked up. A palm-sized semicircle had disappeared from the rim of the laundry basket in front of her, and Killer was backing rapidly away. A ragged fringe of straw stuck out around the edges of his mouth.
"Killer? said Morwen.
"I'm sorry," Cimorene said. "I should have been watching him, but I got too interested in what you were doing."
"Men hmph hmphrraph," said Killer. He swallowed and tried again. "I was hungry. You wouldn't let me eat those vine things."
"Straw has no nutritional value," Morwen said. "And after all that's happened to you already, I'd think you'd know better than to take a bite out of something while I'm casting a flying spell on it."
"Oh, I was careful," Killer said. "I aimed for the part you hadn't gotten to yet."
"I think you missed," said Kazul.
Killer's ears pricked up, then dropped. "What? No, I'm sure I-ouch! Oh no, now what? Morwen, this hurts!"
"What hurts?"
"My back. Owww! Can't you do something?"
"In a minute," Morwen said. Whatever was happening to Killer, it was unlikely to damage him seriously. Finishing the spell was far more important.
To break off now might cause difficulties, and even if it didn't, there wasn't enough of the flying ointment to start over from the beginning.
Morwen turned back to the laundry basket. With two more swipes, she covered the rest of the rim, including the part Killer had bitten out.
She wiped her fingers carefully on the side of the laundry basket, nodded to the cats, and said, One of fire, Two of light, Three from ground at dead of night.
Four in strands of deep sea foam, Five that si and brings them home."
The cats stretched upward and dug their claws into the straw. With a faint pop, a spark of dim purple light appeared on the rim of the laundry basket. It rolled around the edge, then spread down along the sides to where Scorn and Trouble held on. The cats meowed in harmony, and the light winked out, leaving a smell of burned nutmeg.
"There," said Morwen. "Now, Killer-" "Hurry!" said the donkey. "It's getting worse. Owww! None of the other things hurt like this."
"That doesn't surprise me," Morwen said after a quick look. "You're growing wings, and Telemain's lying across the top of them. Cimorene, give me a hand, please."
"Wings?" Killer sounded stunned. "Me?"
Trouble snickered. "A bright blue six-foot donkey with wings. What an idea."
Together, Morwen and Cimorene got Telemain off Killer's back and into the laundry basket. Killer sighed in relief as the weight lifted, then he craned his neck backward to get a look at his new appendages.
"They're awfully large," he said after a stunned moment.
"They're not just large," Cimorene said. "They're enormous."
"And they're still growing," Trouble pointed out.
"Fertilizer," Morwen said resignedly. "Magic fertilizer. I thought there'd be trouble over that hay."
"Can't you stop them?" Killer asked nervously.
"They'll stop growing on their own, when they run out of-of the fertilizer magic," Morwen said. "It shouldn't take too long. You didn't eat much of MacDonald's hay. Now, Kazul, if you'll let go of the rope and tell our future host to give it a tug-" Fire ran down the rope from the window to the knot, then flared brightly and died. When Kazul opened her hand, the charred ends of the three short ropes fell into the laundry basket, along with a few horrible-smelling flakes of black ash. There was nothing left of the long rope. Above them, the window slammed shut.