"Oh!" said Alianora, and went off into gales of laughter again.
Cimorene gave her a questioning look. "It's the idea of Keredwel being-oh, my-being rescued by a secondhand knight," Alianora gasped.
"Oh, dear?"
Cimorene's eyes began to dance. "I could take a good look at them first, to make sure they're worthy of her before I sent them on," she suggested.
This was too much for either of them, and they both collapsed in laughter. "You wouldn't, really, would you?" Alianora said when she began to recover.
"Send the knights to rescue someone else? I certainly would," Cimorene said emphatically. "I meant it when I said they were a nuisance. I wouldn't want to upset Keredwel, though. I'll have to think about the best way of handling it. It's a good thing there probably won't be any more of them for a few weeks. I should have plenty of time to figure something out."
"How do you know that?" Alianora asked. Cimorene explained about the sign and Therandil and her "sprained ankle." Alianora was impressed and promised to help if she could. "I'll tell Hallanna that you've twisted your ankle. I know she'll tell the next knight who comes to rescue her, and then it won't matter if your Prince Therandil doesn't tell anybody."
This settled, the two girls sat down and began looking through the books and scrolls Cimorene had piled on the table. Alianora, having been brought up as a proper princess despite the tiny size of her country, did not read Latin, so Cimorene had to examine those scrolls herself. There was a sizable stack of books left, however, and Alianora waded into them with a will. It was Cimorene, however, who finally found the spell they were searching for.
"I think this is it!" she said, looking up from an ancient, crumpled scroll. "'Being a Spell for the Resisting of Heat and Flames of All Kinds, in Particular Those Which Are the Product of Magical Beasts,'" she read.
"Yes, there's a list and it includes dragons."
"I would think dragons would be at the top," Alianora said. "Is it difficult?"
"It doesn't look hard," Cimorene said, studying the page. "Some of the ingredients are pretty rare, but it says you only need them for the initial casting. After that, you can reactivate the spell just by throwing a pinch of dried feverfew in the air and reciting a couplet."
"That's not bad," Alianora said. She came around the table and peered over Cimorene's shoulder at the faded ink. "Is it Latin?"
"No, it's just an ornate style of writing," Cimorene assured her.
"It's not hard to read, once you get the hang of it. See, there's the couplet.
"Power of water, wind and earth, Turn the fire back to its birth."
"It's a variation on a dragon spell," Cimorene added thoughtfully.
"How do you know that?" Alianora asked.
"The court wizard at home mentioned it when he was teaching me magic," Cimorene replied, studying the directions.
"Then maybe it really will work on dragon fire. Can we get all the ingredients for the initial casting?"
"I think so, but it'll take a while," Cimorene said. "I don't have any wolfsbane, and I'm not at all sure about unicorn water. Come on, let's check and see what we need to get."
They took the scroll into the kitchen and began hunting through the shelves and supplies. They found more of the ingredients than Cimorene had expected, and she began to wonder whether one of Kazul's previous princesses might have studied magic. They did not, however, find any wolfsbane or unicorn water, nor were they able to locate any white eagle feathers. Alianora discovered a very cobwebby jar labeled "POWDERED HEN'S TEETH," but it was quite empty.
Cimorene made a list of the ingredients they still needed, while Alianora changed back into her pearl-embroidered dress. Alianora took a copy of the list and went back to her quarters, much excited, to see whether she happened to have anything useful in the dusty, disused corners of her dragon's kitchen. Cimorene doubted that she would find anything, but there was no harm in letting her look.
As soon as Alianora left, Cimorene tidied up the kitchen and put all but two of the books back on the shelves in the library. One was the scroll of spells in which she had found the fireproofing spell, because she wanted to take a more careful look at some of the other charms and enchantments it described. The other book was a fat volume bound in worn leather, with the words Historia Dracorum in cracked and flaking gold leaf on the cover.
Cimorene had decided it was time she really got to work on her Latin.
6
In Which the Wizards Do Some Snooping, and Cimorene Snoops Back
For the next three weeks, Cimorene spent most of her free time studying the fireproofing spell and collecting the ingredients she would need to cast it.
A few, like the wolfsbane and feverfew, she could gather herself from the herbs that grew on the slopes of the mountains. Alianora found a little jar of hippopotamus oil among the cosmetics left by her predecessor. The unicorn water Cimorene got from Morwen, after promising her a copy of the spell if it worked. She went to Kazul about the white eagle feathers, though she was a little afraid to explain what she wanted them for. She didn't want Kazul to think that she was worried about Kazul losing her temper and accidentally roasting her. Fortunately, the dragon found the whole idea very interesting.
"It could be very useful," Kazul said reflectively. "There are enough hot-tempered youngsters around that it would be well worth fireproofing the princesses who have to deal with them."
"I'm not sure I'll be able to fireproof anyone at all," Cimorene said.
"I still need the white eagle feathers and the powdered hens' teeth, and nobody seems to have any."
"I'll see what I can do," Kazul said, and a few days later she dropped a bundle of white feathers at the door of the kitchen. Half a feather was stuck to one of her right claws, and another was caught between two of her teeth, and she looked very pleased with herself. Cimorene decided not to ask any awkward questions. Even Kazul, however, could not find any hens' teeth, so Cimorene had to keep putting off trying out the spell.
When she wasn't working on collecting the ingredients for the fire-proofing spell, Cimorene read the Historia Dracorum. It was very difficult at first. After all, it had been a long time since her last Latin lesson. She kept working at it until she started to remember the right endings for the declensions and conjugations and cases. Shortly after that she realized that she was not having to look up quite as many words as she had at the beginning.
From then on, her progress was rapid. It helped that she found the book fascinating. Dragon history was not a subject commonly taught to princesses in Linderwall. But as she was now a dragon's princess, she had personal reasons to be interested. Besides, the history of the dragons was very exciting. Every page was full of descriptions of dragons ravaging villages, carrying off princesses, defeating knights and princes (and occasionally being defeated by them), and fighting with wizards, giants, and each other. When the book wasn't describing battles, it was describing famous dragons' hoards and peculiar draconian customs.
Cimorene was in the library with the Historia Dracorum in front of her and her Latin dictionary on the table beside her left hand when she heard someone calling from the front of the cave. She had hoped it would be at least a little longer before the knights started coming back, so she couldn't help sighing as she stuck a leather bookmark in the book and closed it.
Then she went out to argue with whoever it was until they went away.
Two wizards were standing just outside the mouth of the cave.
Cimorene saw their wooden staffs first, before she was close enough to see their faces. As she came nearer, she recognized the one on the left as Zemenar. The one on the right was taller and younger; his brown hair and beard showed no trace of gray. His blue and brown robes were identical to the older wizard's, except for the colors. His eyes were the same bright black as his companion's, and he looked at Cimorene in a way that made her feel uneasy.