"-and I'm Daystar," I finished.
Shiara was frowning at me, but before she could say anything the elf bounced to his feet and said, "Daystar! Not Cimorene's son? My dear boy, I can't tell you how glad I am you've finally come. It's about time things got straightened out a little."
"I don't trust elves," Shiara said. "And why should we listen to you, anyway?"
"My dear girl, if you expect me to answer questions, you're going to have to listen to me," said the elf. "Otherwise there's no point in it. Why don't you trust elves?"
Shiara didn't want to tell him anything, but I was beginning to like him. Also, I didn't see any good reason not to explain, so I told him about the first elf and the wizard's staff. When I finished, Janril nodded solemnly.
"That," he said, "makes your position entirely understandable. I'm afraid you ran into one of the Darkmorning Elves. They're a rather disreputable lot. They've been running wild since the King disappeared, so of course they'd cause you trouble."
"Why 'of course?" said Shiara suspiciously. "And what king are you talking about?"
"The King of the Enchanted Forest," the elf said. "The Darkmorning Elves don't want him to come back. They like the way things have been run since he disappeared. Since you have his sword, of course they want to get rid of you. If they can," he added thoughtfully.
"Personally, I don't think they really know what they're doing."
"How do you know about Daystar's sword?" Shiara asked suspiciously.
"My dear girl, everyone who lives in the Enchanted Forest knows something about the Vanished King's Sword," Janril said. "It-" "Wait a minute?" I said. "I only have one sword, and I thought it was called the Sword of the Sleeping King."
"Sleeping, vanished, run away-what difference does it make?" Janril said. "He's gone."
"I don't care about the sword," the dragon said. "I want to know why you were following us."
The elf looked annoyed. "My dear… ah… dragon," he said, "I told you already, I wanted to find out more about you. I believe that's the usual reason for following people around."
"But that doesn't explain anything," the dragon complained.
Shiara's eyes narrowed suddenly. "All right, then, why did you want to know more about us?" Janril considered for a moment, then grinned reluctantly. "Because I'm trying to find out what the Darkmorning Elves are up to."
"What does that have to do with us?" I asked.
"If i knew that, I wouldn't have to follow you," the elf said reasonably.
"But the Darkmorning Elves have been very active in this part of the woods for the past few days, and we thought it might be you they were interested in. And of course, if they're interested, so are we."
"Who do you mean by 'we'?" I said.
"The Goldwing-Shadowmusic Elves," Janril said with a touch of pride.
"We are on the side of the King, even if he is missing right now. We follow the sword."
"What does that mean?" Shiara demanded. "And how many kinds of elves are there?"
"Quite a few," said Janril. "But the only ones you have to watch out for are the Darkmorning Elves and the Silverstaff Elves. Fortunately, the Silverstaff Elves don't know the sword is back yet, but I doubt that your luck will hold much longer."
"How do you know these Silverstaff Elves don't know about Daystar's sword?" Shiara asked.
"My dear girl, if they did, you'd have wizards all over the place. The Silverstaff Elves are in league with them. Undiscriminating, that's all I can call it."Janril looked prim. A prim elf is almost as odd looking as a dignified lizard. I found myself wishing Suz were still around so I could compare them.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Shiara said.
"I suppose you don't," the elf said cheenqally. "But it doesn't really matter. We'll still be glad to help you."
Shiara snorted. "The last elf who said he was going to help us almost got Daystar killed."
"I'm sorry about that," Janril said politely. "But I simply can't take responsibility for the Darkmorning Elves. Now, I must be going; I have to let the rest of the Goldwing-Shadowmusic Elves know what's going on.
We'll see you at the castle."
'Just a minute!" Shiara said. "What makes you think we're going to let you go?"
"Can you think of anything else we could do with him?" I said.
"I could eat him, I suppose," the dragon said dubiously. "I don't think I want to, though. Elves don't taste very good."
I decided not to ask how the dragon knew that. "You don't have to eat him," I said. "I think we should just let him go."
"But Daystar-" Shiara stopped and thought for a moment, biting her lip.
"Oh, all right. If you want to let him go, let's do it."
"Are you sure?" I said, surprised. "I thought you didn't like the idea."
"I don't," Shiara said, glaring at me. "But we'll be here all day if we start arguing. Besides, it's your sword."
"All right," I said to Janril, "You can go, as long as you don't follow us around anymore."
"But of course!" The elf bounced to his feet again, bowed to each of us-including Nightwitch-and whisked off. Shiara scowled after him and opened her mouth, then apparently decided not to say anything.
"Well, let's go," I said after a minute. We picked up our bundles and started walking again. The dragon and I both watched the trees for a while, but Janril kept his promise.
Shiara walked just behind the dragon, looking thoughtful. "Do you really believe that elf?" she finally asked me.
"I'm not sure," I said. "I don't think it makes much difference, though.
I'd still be going to see Kazul, no matter what he said. I want to find out about this sword and what it does and what's really going on around here."
I must have sounded annoyed, because Shiara frowned at me and asked, "What's the matter with you?"
"I'm getting sort of tired of people chasing my sword," I said. "I'd like to know why they want it so badly." I was also beginning to realize that I didn't know nearly as much about the Enchanted Forest as I thought I did, which made me very nervous. I wasn't going to mention that to Shiara just yet, though.
"Oh." Shiara looked thoughtful again. "Well, you could-" The dragon looked backward over its shoulder. "You're slowing down," it said.
"Can't you two talk and walk at the same time?"
We made fairly good time for the rest of the afternoon, and we were just beginning to think about finding a place to spend the night when we came to a clearing. The dragon stopped right at the edge of it, very abruptly.
Fortunately, Shiara and I were back far enough to stop before we ran into it or stepped on its tail or something. Bumping into a dragon is not a particularly good way to end a day.
"What's the matter now?" asked Shiara.
"This looks just like that last clearing," the dragon said. "The one that had the castle in it."
"You mean we've been going in circles?" Shiara said.
"No," said the dragon. "I know my way around the Enchanted Forest better than that. I just don't like this."
"Why are you worried?" Shiara said. "You're not the one who got turned into a statue."
"Well, if you think banging into something you can't see is fun, you go first," said the dragon.
I put my hand on the hilt of my sword and felt a nice, strong rumble, like a cart full of bricks on a bumpy road. There was definitely a lot of magic in the clearing, or at least close by. I said so.
"If it's invisible, I don't want anything to do with it," Shiara said decidedly. "Can't we just go around?"
"No," said the dragon grumpily. "I want to know who's putting all these invisible things in my shortcut. If there's another one here, I'm going to find out about it." It stalked cautiously out into the clearing, heading straight through the middle.
Nothing happened. The dragon walked all the way across, then turned and looked at us. "Are you sure there's something here? I can't find anything."
I touched the sword again. "It feels like there is," I said. I looked at Shiara. She looked dubiously across the clearing. "Hurry up," said the dragon.