"Quiet, all of you," said Cimorene, edging her way through the narrow gap between Killer's rear end and the door frame. Since Fiddlesticks seemed more or less unharmed, Morwen followed Cimorene inside. Killer continued to moan and whimper despite Cimorene's order, but he at least stopped braying.
Inside, Cimorene glanced around the kitchen, which was nearly as clean and tidy as Morwen's, and nodded to the cook. The cook bowed deeply.
Cimorene turned to Killer. "Nobody is going to eat anyone here unless I say so. Now, how did this happen?"
'Just how you'd expect," Scorn said from the window. "Killer was being stupid again."
"I'm not stupid," Killer said. "Eee-eeaugh! Oh, help!"
"I said quiet," Cimorene said.
"But I can't move, and there's a dragon-" "I can arrange it so you can't talk, either," Morwen said. "And if you don't start behaving yourself, I'll do it. Cimorene, this is Killer. He ought to be a rabbit of the usual size and color, but he's had some trouble with wizards lately. This is Cimorene, the Queen of the Enchanted Forest I think you should answer her question."
Killer rolled his eyes and waggled his ears, managing to look foolish and terrified at the same time, but after a few more minutes of reassurance, coaxing, and stern commands, he calmed down enough to explain. He had been waiting for the castle cook to mix up his promised lunch, and hadn't noticed Kazul's arrival. When the cats pointed her out to him he had been nervous, but he hadn't really started to worry until Kazul asked the cook to pack provisions for a journey. What had really panicked him, though, had been the dragon saying, in answer to a question from the cook, that the provisions should be for human people only, because she would find her own meals.
"There, you see?" Scorn said, lashing her tail. "He was being stupid."
"I can see why it might make you nervous," Cimorene said to Killer.
"Kazul can be a bit intimidating up close." She considered for a moment.
"Kazul won't eat you once you've been properly introduced. Let him loose, Morwen, and I'll take him over and present him."
"Are you sure?" Killer asked.
"Positive," Cimorene told him. "Dragons are very polite. Morwen?"
Since all the cats were out of danger and Killer seemed to have settled down, Morwen nodded agreement. Bringing her hands together at waist height, she said, 'Fire and cloud and rain and snow, Lift the spell and let him go!"
As she spoke, she raised her arms in a slow reversal of the movement she had used to freeze Killer where he stood.
For a long moment, nothing seemed to happen. Morwen frowned, wondering if the wizards' size-changing spell was interfering with her witchcraft.
Then a ripple ran across Killer's back, like heat rising from an iron stove. He shivered, shook himself, and pranced backward several steps, ducking his head to clear the top of the doorway.
"Thanks," he said. "Um, could we just sort of skip the part about presenting me to the dragon for now?"
"That wouldn't be a good-Killer, are you growing again?" Morwen asked.
"You look taller."
Jasper yawned widely and jumped down from the window ledge. "He's not taller," the cat said, strolling forward. "He's just farther up."
Automatically, Morwen, Cimorene, and the cook glanced down, following Jasper's movement. Morwen blinked. Between Killer's front hooves and the flagstones of the courtyard stretched a long inch of empty air.
"I wonder if he'll still leave footprints?" Cimorene said, half to herself.
"What is it?" Killer asked nervously. "What are you all staring at?"
He looked down and his ears stiffened. "Eee-augh!" He pranced backward, out of sight, and Cimorene and Morwen hurried out after him.
With every step, he gained a little more height, until he was a good four inches above the ground. "Help! I'm falling!"
"You're not falling," Scorn said. "You're floating."
"He is, isn't he?" Fiddlesticks said, walking over. "And it's a very good idea. He can't step on anybody's tail now."
"Hold still," Morwen said to the donkey. "Every time you take a step, you get farther up. If you keep moving, you'll be over the castle in no time.
And if the spell suddenly wears off…"
"Eee-augh!" Killer rolled his eyes and planted his feet firmly in thin air.
"Now what?"
"Now you wait," Morwen told him. "This looks like another side effect of mixing different kinds of magic, and that's really Telemain's specialty. I'll send him out as soon as we're done inside."
"Tell him to hurry!"
Cimorene shook her head. "I'm afraid it will take a while, but we'll bring him as soon as we can. In the meantime, Evim will get you some lunch." She looked back over her shoulder at the cook, who nodded and vanished into the kitchen.
Behind Killer, scales scraped noisily against stone. "This is very entertaining," Kazul said, "but haven't we got more important things to do than argue with an oversized blue donkey with avian ambitions?"
Killer rolled his eyes and choked back another bray. Cimorene smiled but shook her head. "It's not quite as silly as it looks. Kazul, this is Killer; Killer, this is Kazul, the King of the Dragons. Killer is the one who found out that the wizards are back in the forest, Kazul."
"He is?" Kazul came around in front, where she could see Killer more clearly. "Have you got any idea how they got into the palace?"
"N-no, sir-I mean, ma'am," said Killer.
"The size-changing spell must have had something to do with it," Morwen said. "If they shrank themselves small enough to sneak through the door without being seen-" "That would be hard," Cimorene said. "Our regular doorman is on vacation, so Willin's been handling it. And he's not all that big himself.
Those wizards would have had to shrink awfully small to get past him."
"There are other doors," Kazul pointed out. "This one, for instance."
She waved a claw at the kitchen entrance.
"Yes, but there's a spell on them that rings a bell in the footman's room whenever someone who doesn't belong here comes through one of them."
"However they did it, we aren't going to figure it out standing here," Morwen said. "Either we should go down to the armory and investigate, or we should get those lemons and go meet Mendanbar and Telemain the way we planned."
"Good heavens, I almost forgot," Cimorene said. "Lemons and unicorn water it is. I'm sorry, Kazul, but we can't do everything at once."
Cimorene and Morwen said good-bye to Kazul and went back into the kitchen, where they collected the lemons and unicorn water. Just as they were leaving, Jasper slipped out from behind a large basket of apples that was leaning against a corner wall.
"Morwen?" said the cat. "I've got something to tell you."
"All right," Morwen said. "Would you mind waiting a minute, Cimorene? Jasper wants to talk to me, and he wouldn't interrupt if it weren't important."
"Of course," Cimorene said. "But do try to be quick, Jasper. We've already taken more time than we should have."
Jasper favored Cimorene with a slow blink of approval. "I like her. She understands cats better than most people do."
"Very likely," said Morwen. "Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"
"I know how the wizards got into the armory."
"Well?"
The cat coughed and looked around to make sure none of the other animals were within hearing distance. "Plumbing and mouse holes," he said very softly. "There's an old drain that goes under the moat and comes out in the forest. The wizards used it to get into the castle and then wandered around in the walls until they found a mouse hole into the armory. Once they had the sword, they used a transport spell to leave."
"How do you know all this?"
Jasper hunched his shoulders in embarrassment. "I asked the castle mice. A couple of them are friends of mine, and they gave me the whole story. Don't tell anyone, will you? If Scorn finds out, I'll never hear the end of it."