"And wouldn't it be amusing if she were right?" the purple-green dragon said, showing some interest in the proceedings for the first time.
"I don't see that it matters," the silver-green dragon said. "The important thing is that he was a wizard, poking around smack in the middle of our mountains. What are we going to do about it?"
"Tell King Tokoz," Roxim said. "His job to handle this sort of thing, isn't it?"
"What can Tokoz do about it?" Woraug said, and there was a faint undercurrent of contempt in his tone.
"He could use the King's Crystal to find out what the wizards are really doing," the thin dragon said in a prim tone.
"He won't use the crystal for anything less than a full-fledged war," Woraug said. "And why should he? What could Tokoz do even if he did find out some wizard was preying on poor defenseless dragons like Gaurim?"
"Lodge a formal protest with the Society of wizards," Roxim answered promptly, ignoring Woraug's sarcasm. "Proper thing to do, no question.
Then the next time anyone sees a wizard…" His voice trailed off, and he snapped his teeth together suggestively.
"He'd probably just set up a committee," the purple-green dragon said.
"Can't anyone think of something else?"
"I don't think we should do anything until we have some idea what Zemenar was after," said the thin dragon. "It could be important."
"We have to do something? the silver-green dragon said. Her claws clashed against the stone table. "We can't have wizards wandering in and out whenever they please! Why, we'd lose half our magic in no time."
"Not to mention everyone sneezing themselves silly every time one of those dratted staffs gets too close," added the dragon at the far end.
The dragons began arguing among themselves about what to do and how best to do it. It reminded Cimorene of the way her father's ministers argued. Everyone seemed to agree that something ought to be done about the wizards, but they each had a different idea about what was appropriate.
Roxim insisted huffily that the only thing to do was to inform the King, who would then make a formal protest. The thin dragon wanted to find out what the wizards were up to (she didn't say how this was to be done) before anyone tried to chase them off. The silver-green dragon wanted patrols sent out immediately to eat any wizard who ventured into the Mountains of Morning. The dragon at the far end of the table wanted to attack the headquarters of the Society of Wizards the following morning, and the purple-green dragon thought it would be most entertaining to wait and see what the wizards did next. Woraug was the only one of the guests who did not have a proposal, though he made occasional comments, usually sarcastic ones, about everyone else's suggestions.
Kazul did not say anything at all. Cimorene was at first surprised and then puzzled by her silence, since Kazul was the one who had set the whole discussion going to begin with. As the argument grew more heated, however, Cimorene began to be glad that there was at least one dragon present who was not involved in it. The dragon at the far end of the table was starting to breathe little tongues of fire at the purple-green dragon, and Roxim was threatening loudly to have another allergy attack, but Cimorene was fairly sure that Kazul would stop the discussion before things got completely out of hand.
She was right. A moment later, while the dragon at the far end was taking a deep breath to continue arguing and the thin dragon was winding up a long, involved train of logical reasons why her proposal was the best, Kazul said, "Thank you all for your advice. I'll certainly think about it before I decide what to do."
"What do you mean by that?" the thin dragon asked suspiciously.
"It was my princess who met the wizard," Kazul pointed out.
"Therefore, it is my decision whether to report the matter to the King, or to take some action on my own, or to ask for cooperation from some of you."
None of the other dragons appeared to like hearing this, but to Cimorene's surprise none of them gave Kazul any argument about it. The dragon at the far end of the table made a few half-hearted grumbles, but that was all, and the conversation turned to the intricacies of several draconian romances that were currently in progress. As soon as her guests appeared to have calmed down, Kazul gave the signal for the empty mousse dishes to be taken away, so Cimorene only heard a few incomprehensible snatches of the new conversation. She did not really mind. She had plenty to think about already.
5
In Which Cimorene Receives a Formal Call from Her Companions in Dire Captivity
Kazul slept late the following morning, and Cimorene was afraid that she would leave before Cimorene had a chance to ask about the dragons' after-dinner conversation. To her relief, Kazul called her in as soon as she was thoroughly awake and asked Cimorene to bring in the brushes for cleaning her scales.
"What was that crystal your friend mentioned last night?" Cimorene asked as she laid out the brushes. "The one she thought King Tokoz could use somehow to find out what the wizards are doing?"
"The King's Crystal?" Kazul said. "It's one of the magical objects that belongs to the King of the Dragons."
"But what does it do? And why did Woraug think that King Tokoz wouldn't want to use it?"
"Using the crystal is difficult and tiring, and Tokoz is getting old," Kazul replied. "Zareth was right to say that the crystal ought to be used, but it will take more evidence than we have right now to persuade the King of that. As to what it does, the crystal shows things that are happening in other times and places. It's useful, but it can be very difficult to interpret correctly."
"Oh, a crystal ball," Cimorene said, nodding. She tapped Kazul's side, and the dragon bent her elbow so that the scales were easier to reach.
"The court wizard at Linderwall had one, but I had to stop my magic lessons before he got a chance to show me how to work it."
"The King's Crystal is more like a plate, but the principle is the same," Kazul said.
"A crystal plate?" Cimorene blinked. "No wonder nobody talks about it much. It just doesn't sound right."
Kazul shrugged. "The King's Crystal is much more accurate than an ordinary crystal ball, and if 'crystal plate' sounds odd to most people, it means that fewer of them will try to steal it."
"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."