Everyone turned to look at Alianora. "I think that would have worked quite well, Princess," Kazul said. "Why do you ask?"
"Because Woraug had something like that with him when he went to see King Tokoz the night before the King was killed," Alianora said. "I saw it."
An angry muttering ran through the crowd of dragons.
"Lies!" Woraug snarled. "They're all lies!"
"Are they?" Kazul said coldly. "I don't think so. You must have wanted to be King very badly indeed."
"I-" Woraug darted a glance around the circle of dragons. What he saw did not appear to reassure him. "No!"
"Consorting with wizards, killing the King, and plotting to cheat in the trials with Colin's Stone," Kazul said as if Woraug had not spoken.
"Hardly proper behavior for a dragon."
The crowd muttered agreement. Cimorene looked from Woraug to Kazul and back. Woraug appeared to be terrified of something, but Cimorene could not tell what it was. He crouched and seemed to shrink away from Kazul, drawing his wings in close and making himself as small as possible. Cimorene blinked. It was remarkable how much smaller Woraug could make himself look. In fact…
"He's shrinking!" Cimorene exclaimed.
"No!" Woraug cried again, but it was much too late. He shrank faster and faster, his wings melting into ridges along his back and his claws retracting.
He was barely as tall as Cimorene's shoulder. Then, with a sudden shiver, he collapsed in on himself. A small rain of scales pattered to the ground. A moment later, an extremely warty toad with angry red eyes crawled clumsily out of the center of the pile.
"Is that is that Woraug?" Alianora asked in a hushed tone.
The toad turned and glared at her, and she stepped back a pace. The stone prince put a protective arm around Alianora's shoulders and glared back at the toad.
"Behave, or I'll step on you," he said.
"Yes, it's Woraug," Kazul said. She sounded almost sad. "That's what happens when a dragon stops acting like a dragon."
The toad turned his glare in Kazul's direction, then hopped off and disappeared among the stones along the riverbank.
Alianora shuddered. Kazul studied her for a moment. "You were Woraug's princess, weren't you? I'm sorry about all this, but it couldn't be helped. It won't take long to find you another dragon."
"I don't think you have to worry about finding her another dragon," Cimorene said. She had been watching Alianora and the stone prince, and an idea had occurred to her.
"What? Why not?" said Kazul.
"Because the stone prince fought with Woraug, and Woraug certainly didn't win. Doesn't that mean that he gets to rescue Woraug's princess?"
"I'm not sure the rules cover this situation at all," Kazul said. "But it sounds reasonable enough, and under the circumstances I doubt that anyone will object. Unless of course she does."
"Oh!" said Alianora, and blushed a rosy red. "No, I don't object at all!"
"Are you sure?" the stone prince said anxiously. "You won't mind waiting a while to marry me? I mean, if you're willing to marry me? You needn't, you know, if the idea doesn't appeal to you."
"It appeals to me very much," Alianora said, blushing redder than ever.
"But why do you say that we have to wait?"
The stone prince sighed. "I still have to find a king and do him a great service, and that's bound to take a while."
"For a young man as intelligent as you seem to be, you're remarkably foolish," Morwen commented. "What on earth do you think you've just done?"
An expression of astonishment spread across the prince's face. "You mean the king I was supposed to serve is the King of the Dragons?"
"Exactly," Morwen said. "And I doubt that you could do her a greater service than saving the throne from Woraug's plotting."
"That's settled, then," Kazul said. "Let's get the rest of the ceremonies finished and get back to the mountains. There's a great deal of work to be done."
The dragons all bowed, and eddies of movement began in various sections of the crowd. Shortly, two dragons came forward carrying Colin's Stone. It looked like a long black log about three times as thick as Cimorene's waist and twice as tall as she was. The dragons laid it in front of Kazul and backed away. Another dragon appeared, holding a large circlet made of iron, with six spikes poking upward at intervals around the rim.
Kazul set her front feet on the black stone, and the dragon set the circlet on her head. The crowd of dragons began cheering again, and after a few minutes they began forming a line to congratulate their new King and present their coronation gifts. Other dragons set up large tubs of wine and platters of meat and cheese, which were quickly surrounded.
In the middle of the presentations, the dragons Kazul had sent off to the blackberry clearing returned, and Kazul took a short break from accepting congratulations to hear what they had to say.
"The wizards showed up before we'd been there more than ten minutes, Your Majesty," said the pale green dragon who was the leader of the group. "Six of them, just like your princess said."
"They weren't happy to see us," the youngest dragon said smugly.
"I would think not." Kazul smiled. "What did you do with them?"
"We chased five of them away," the pale dragon reported. "I don't think they'll be back, either."
"Five?"
The pale dragon shot a glance at the youngest of the group, who licked his lips and looked even more smug than before and said nothing. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"I see. Well, that's more than enough evidence to confirm what Cimorene's told us," Kazul commented. She raised her voice. "The arrangement between the dragons and the Society of Wizards is hereby canceled.
From now on, wizards will not be allowed anywhere near the Caves of Fire and Night, no matter what they say." Then she went back to accepting presents and congratulations from her new subjects.
Cimorene watched the festivities with mixed feelings. She was very glad that Kazul was the new King of the Dragons, but she couldn't help wondering what effect Kazul's coronation would have on her own position. The King of the Dragons certainly wouldn't need a princess as a mark of status, and there would be plenty of younger dragons eager to cook and clean for their King, if only as a way of getting a start at the court.
Her preoccupation stayed with her for the rest of the day, through the entire coronation picnic and the flight back to the Mountains of Morning.
Cimorene and Alianora rode on the back of a very large dragon whose scales were such a dark green that they looked almost black. Alianora would have preferred to ride with the stone prince, but none of the dragons were willing to take on a second passenger if the stone prince was the first. All of the dragons had paid their respects to Kazul at the coronation, so the cave was empty when the dragon dropped Cimorene off.
When Cimorene said good-bye to Alianora, she promised to come over and help her pack the following morning. Then she went in and waited for Kazul to come home.
Kazul did not arrive until very late. She was still wearing the iron crown, and she looked very tired.
"Thank goodness that's over," she said, taking the crown off and throwing it across the cave. It hit the wall and bounced off with a harsh dang.
You shouldn't treat your crown like that, Your Majesty," Cimorene said, retrieving the iron circlet.
"Of course I should," Kazul said. "It's expected. That's why we made it out of iron instead of something soft and bendable. And don't start calling me 'Your Majesty." I've had enough of that for one day."
Cimorene began to feel a little better. "What happens next?"
"Tomorrow we start moving," Kazul said and sighed. "It will probably take weeks. It's too bad there's no way of warning a new king in time to pack everything up before the work starts."