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He also told us to hold anything we really didn't want to lose in one hand until we were out of the Caves.

When Telemain was satisfied that we knew our way, he rolled the map up and put it back in his sleeve. We went outside to say good-bye.

"When you meet Kazul, tell her I will be coming for the battle."

Telemain said. "I called her last night on the magic mirror to let her know that you're on your way, so she's expecting you."

"I'll remember," I said. "And thank you again for your help."

"Yes," said Shiara. I looked at her, a little surprised, but she was watching Telemain with an odd look on her face. "I think I ought to apologize to you," she said finally. "I wasn't very nice last night."

This time I really did stare, but she didn't seem to notice. Telemain bowed. "Neither of us was blameless," he said. "I shall forget it, if you will."

Shiara nodded and turned to me. "Let's go, then."

I shut my mouth and picked up the bundle Morwen had given me.

Shiara already had hers. We waved good-bye to Telemain and started off into the forest again.

Nothing much happened all morning. Shiara and I were both nervous anyway, thinking of all those wizards ahead of us. The dragon didn't seem bothered, though, and Nightwitch certainly wasn't. We found the first few landmarks Telemain had told us about, and we were fairly close to the entrance to the caves of chance when the dragon stopped and demanded lunch.

As soon as the dragon mentioned food, Shiara and I realized that we were hungry, too. We started looking for a good place to sit down and eat.

Almost immediately, we found a huge tree lying on the ground in the middle of a small clearing.

The dragon wrapped itself around a medium-sized tree in front of us; it said it was much more comfortable that way. Nightwitch wandered around investigating the interesting holes and crannies around the fallen tree. Shiara and I sat down and passed out gingerbread and meat pies from Morwen's bundles.

"How much farther is it to the castle?" Shiara asked the dragon, handing it a slice of gingerbread.

"Oh, not very far," the dragon said. "About another day, if we weren't going through the caves. I've never been in the caves, so I don't know how long that will take."

"I thought you said this was a shortcut," Shiara said.

"It is a shortcut," the dragon said in a hurt tone. "How was I supposed to know a fire-witch was going to get in the way? Not to mention an elf and a magician."

"Do you think Kazul will tell us anything about the sword?" I asked.

Nobody else seemed willing to explain, and I didn't see why Kazul should be any different.

"I'm sure she will," the dragon said reassuringly. "That is, if you're polite to her. Kazul is very particular about… about… ahh…

Shiara and I dropped our lunches and ducked hastily to either side.

"Achoo!" said the dragon. A large spurt of flame shot across the clearing, just missing us, and the dragon's tree shook. "Achoo! Oh, bother.. Achoo!"

"Daystar? Shiara shouted. "Over here!"

I ran around behind the dragon, who was now sneezing almost continuously.

I pulled out my sword as I went. When my hand touched the hilt, I felt the same jangling that I'd gotten from Antorell earlier. Then I came around the tree, and even before Shiara pointed, I saw the wizards.

There were two of them right in front of Shiara, leaning on their staffs and looking from Shiara to the dragon and back.

"Hurry up," one of them said nervously. "We don't want this to get out of hand."

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait," another voice said from behind him.

The first wizard jumped, and Antorell stepped out of the bushes. His beard and hair were several inches shorter than they had been, and his staff had a scorched streak near the top, but getting caught in the little dragon's fireball didn't seem to have done much to him otherwise. He smiled and went on, "You see, I want him, too."

"Um, can't we discuss this somewhere else?" said the nervous wizard, eyeing the dragon.

"Oh, you needn't worry about that," Antorell said, following his gaze.

He smiled nastily. "I came prepared." He held up his free hand so that all of us could see the spray of spiky, saw-edged purple leaves he was holding.

"Dragonsbane," he said unnecessarily.

The other wizards relaxed a little. "Such forethought," murmured the tall one. He exchanged glances with his companion, then bowed to Antorell.

"Under the circumstances, we will be happy to split the reward with you."

"I am afraid that is out of the question," Antorell said over the dragon's sneezes. "The boy and his sword are mine."

"The boy!" said the nervous wizard. "But-" The tall one frowned at him, and he stopped.

The tall wizard turned back to Antorell. "As you say, the boy is yours.

I trust you have no objection if we take the girl?"

Antorell frowned. He turned toward Shiara and stared at her for a minute, then shrugged. "She's no use to me. Of course I have no objection."

I started moving very, very slowly toward Shiara, so that when the wizards started throwing spells at us I could try to stop them with the sword.

The wizards didn't notice, and neither did Shiara. By the time the wizards finished deciding what to do with us, I was almost over to her.

"It's settled, then," Antorell said. "We help each other. The girl first?"

"Ah, why not start with the dragon?" the nervous wizard asked.

Antorell smiled condescendingly. "Very well." He stepped forward and started muttering over the dragonsbane. Right away the dragon started yelling.

"Yow!" it said. "Achoo! I hate wizards. Ouch! Achoo! Help!"

"You stop that!" Shiara said to Antorell. The wizards ignored her, and Antorell kept mumbling.

I started forward. If I could knock the dragonsbane out of Antorell's hand, the spell would stop. I wasn't sure whether it would be completely broken, but at least he wouldn't be able to hurt the dragon anymore. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about the other wizards. I didn't even realize one of them had done something until my feet stuck to the ground and suddenly I couldn't walk forward anymore. If I hadn't been stuck, I'd have lost my balance. It was very disconcerting. Antorell was still out of reach.

I took a quick glance back over my shoulder. The dragon was sneezing much too hard now to say anything at all. I could see its coils going slack, and it was losing its hold on the tree. Here and there, its scales were turning pink around the edges. Even the tree looked wilted.

"Shiara!" I yelled. "Get the dragonsbane!" I didn't think I could get loose in time, but the wizards wouldn't be able to stop a fire-witch.

I didn't wait to see what she did. I leaned forward a little and tried to lay part of the Sword of the Sleeping King across my feet. It hadn't helped Shiara when she was a statue, but this was a wizard's spell, not a fire-witch's spell, and Telemain had said the sword was meant to be used on wizards.

Besides, I couldn't think of anything else.

It worked. I straightened up just in time to see a little tongue of flame shoot up from Antorell's hand. Antorell yelled and dropped the dragons bane, which was burning brightly. Before it even hit the ground, there was nothing left of the plant except ashes.

I looked behind me. Shiara was standing with a surprised look on her face and one finger pointing at Antorell. The dragon was still sneezing, but the green was already starting to come back to its scales. I sighed in relief.

"This is the assistance you give us?" the tall wizard said to Antorell, who was brushing ashes off the front of his robe. "The dragon still lives!"

"Did I say anything about killing it?" Antorell said. I got the feeling he was trying to sound haughty, but he only managed to sound annoyed. "You need have no more fear of it. It will take some time to regain its strength, and by then we shall be finished. What next?"