"Useful, huh?" said Scorn.
"This doesn't make any sense," said Cimorene. "Why would anyone make a path that leads nowhere?" She drew her sword, eyeing the vines doubtfully. "Can we cut our way through, do you think?"
"I don't know," said Kazul, "and I don't care." Her tail thumped into the mud for emphasis, spattering thick, sticky gobs in all directions.
"Uh-oh," said Trouble. "Hang on, Scorn."
The dragon sat back and arched her neck. "I am not going to spend another two hours fighting the same mud we just came through. If I must wade through mud, it is at least going to be new mud. Get out of my way, the rest of you."
"If you're thinking of diving through the vines, don't," Morwen said, moving sideways. "Invisible dusk-blooming chokevines are very strong, and there are enough of them here to kill even someone as large as you are."
"Not if they've been toasted first." Stretching her head forward until it was only a few yards from the chokevines, Kazul opened her mouth and blew. Long streamers of bright orange fire shot between the trees.
Kazul's head moved back and forth, sweeping the flames across the end of the path.
Steam hissed from the mud, and glowing silver blossoms winked out in puffs of ash. As Kazul's flame moved across the tree trunks, it left smaller flickers of fire behind hanging in midair. On the second pass, the flickers spread, outlining leaves and stems in tongues of flame.
Blackened spirals slowly materialized around the trees as the fires burned upward and the charred vines lost their invisibility.
"I think that's enough, Kazul," Cimorene said at last.
The fire died. "Good," said the dragon, sounding a little out of breath.
"Shall we go on?"
"I think we'd better wait until the mud cools off," Morwen said. "You got a trifle overenthusiastic, I'm afraid."
"No kidding," said Scorn. "Next time, warn us before you do that."
"Killer!" Cimorene shouted. "Come back here!"
"Why?" said the donkey. He stood in the middle of the path Kazul's flame had cleared through the chokevines, flecks of ash drifting through the air around him. Beyond, the fog and darkness closed in once more. "You said it was the vines that were dangerous, and they're gone."
"Even so, we shouldn't split up," Morwen said. "There may be other dangerous things around."
"We haven't seen any so far."
"And that's supposed to mean it's safe?" Scorn shook her head.
"Rabbit logic."
"Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Trouble said.
Morwen sighed. "We may not have seen anything but the chokevines, but that doesn't mean there aren't other dangers."
"All right," Killer said. "But I thought you wanted to get this wizard of yours somewhere dry."
"He's a magician, not a wizard," Morwen said automatically. "And just because Kazul dried out some of the mud-" "No, no, I'm talking about that tall building in the open space." Killer pointed both ears into the gloom ahead of him and a little to the right. "It looks dry. Why don't we take him there?"
13
In Which They Make a New Acquaintance
Gingerly, Morwen moved forward to take a look at whatever Killer had found. The acrid scent of burned chokevines made her stomach feel queasy again, but the mud turned out to be cool enough to wade through without discomfort. Where Killer stood, it was almost dry enough to be solid ground, and the warmth that remained to filter through her shoes was very welcome.
"Now, where-ah, I see." Dimly visible in the foggy dark, a white tower stood among the trees ahead of them.
"Yes, that looks promising. Let's go." Morwen started forward, and the others followed.
Less than five minutes later, they stood at the foot of the tower. It was at least four stories high, and made of something smooth and pale that did not feel like stone. Ten feet from the base of the tower, the mud changed to hard, bare ground. This gave Morwen and Cimorene a comfortably wide area on which to stand, though Kazul was a little cramped.
"There's no door," Cimorene announced after circling the tower. "No stairs on the outside, either, but there are four windows at the top.
One of them is showing a light, so somebody's home."
"But how could anybody get in?" Killer asked.
"Through the windows," Morwen said. "What a pity I didn't bring my broomstick."
"Maybe whoever lives here has some other way of getting inside," Cimorene said.
"There's one way to find out," said Kazul. With Morwen, Cimorene, and Killer in line after her, the dragon edged around the tower until she stood below the single lighted window. Then she sat back and stretched her neck upward, until her head was halfway up the side of the tower.
"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.