that looked as if it had been burned.
Morwen's long-haired tabby cat sat in the ashes several feet from the mouth of the cave, surveying the waste with evident disapproval.
'There you are,' Morwen said to the cat as she joined Cimorene and Mendanbar by Kazul's left shoulder. 'Any sign of more wizards?'
The cat meowed.
'Good,' said Morwen. 'Did any of the others get away?'
The cat made a growling noise.
'Very good,' said Morwen. She turned to Mendanbar. 'Can you keep them from interrupting us by accident?'
'I don't think so,' Mendanbar said. 'There isn't any magic here for me to work with.' He was horrified at the extent of the destruction. How was he going to fix it?
'So this is how they did it,' Telemain's voice said from behind Mendanbar. He sounded pleased, as if he had just solved a very difficult puzzle. 'I'd been wondering.'
'Did what?' Mendanbar asked.
'Established that shield spell,' Telemain said. 'The power involved was clearly several factors beyond the generating capacity of-' Kazul turned her head and looked at Telemain.
Telemain coughed. 'There weren't enough wizards to have done it by themselves.'
'Power,' Mendanbar said, half to himself. 'They sucked all the magic out of this whole area and put it in the shield. Where did it go when the shield disappeared?'
'Into your sword, of course,' said Telemain, as if that were so obvious that everyone should have realized it without his saying anything.
'And the sword is linked to the forest,' Mendanbar said. 'And this is part of the forest, or should be. So…'
'So all you have to do is use the sword to put the magic back where it belongs,' Cimorene finished.
'Theoretically, that should work fine,' Telemain said, frowning. 'But the practical applications aren't always that easy.'
'Nonsense,' said Cimorene. 'That sword turned a whole patch of the Mountain of Morning into a bit of the Enchanted Forest when we were having all that trouble getting here. Mendanbar pulled it back into the sword then; all he has to do now is turn that spell around and push magic out. Try it, Mendanbar.'
Slowly, Mendanbar lowered the tip of the sword until it touched the ashes. He couldn't feel anything at first. Then he realized that he was trying to reach outside himself for the threads of magic that always floated around him in the Enchanted Forest . And in this wasteland there were no threads.
He frowned. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the sword instead.
That felt more promising. He could sense power crackling along the length of the blade, lots of power, but he did not think it would be enough.
He stretched deeper, using his experience outside the Enchanted Forest to pull together every last bit of magic he could reach. It was still not enough.
'I don't think I can do it, Cimorene,' he muttered.
'You can, too,' Cimorene said, and put her hand on his shoulder encouragingly. 'Try again.'
As she touched his shoulder, Mendanbar felt it come-not just magic, not only power, but all the magic and power of the Enchanted Forest itself.
It washed over him, and as it did he saw patterns in it, patterns that were the threads he manipulated to work magic in the forest. And he saw how to shift the pattern just a little, filling it in with the power stolen from the forest and stored in the sword, to repair the damage the wizards had done. Without thinking, he did it.
He heard an astonished gasp from Cimorene, a snort from Kazul, a low whistle from Telemain, and a surprised noise from one of the cats.
'Well? said Morwen.
Mendanbar opened his eyes. A thick carpet of moss, greener than Kazul's scales, spread out in all directions from the cave mouth.
Massive oaks and beeches with cooper leaves stood so close together that it was hard to see more than a little way into the shadows below them, packing every part of what had been a burned-out waste moments before.
All around, Mendanbar could feel threads of magic hovering in the air, ready to use for more ordinary spells.
No one said anything for a long moment. Then Telemain tore his gaze away from the restored forest and turned to Mendanbar.
'Could you do that again, slowly, so I can analyze it?' he asked.
Despite Telemain's urging, Mendanbar refused to repeat the spell immediately, though he did offer to let the magician watch when he went to clean up the barren area near the Green Glass Pool. Then Telemain wanted to stay and investigate the melted wizards some more, but Morwen and Cimorene insisted that this was a bad idea, and eventually he gave in. He was inclined to be sulky about it until Morwen pointed out that he had fourteen more wizards' staffs to study, including one that had belonged to the Head Wizard. It cheered him up enormously.
'You're quite right,' he told Morwen. 'Those wizards will get themselves back together before long, and once they do, they'll come looking for their staffs. If I don't examine the staffs before then, I'll lose my chance. I can always melt another wizard later and study the disintegration process then.' He hurried back into the cave, reappearing a moment later with his arms full of wizards' staffs.
'Be careful with those!' Mendanbar said as Telemain came out onto the moss-covered ground.
'They are unlikely to be a source of difficulty without intelligent guidance,' Telemain said reprovingly. 'So long as the wizards are not in contact with them, they are merely passive instruments of assimilation. There's nothing to worry about.'
'Yes, there is,' Cimorene put in. 'If you drop them, Mendanbar will have a lot of ugly brown marks on his nice new moss. And if they can do that, there's no telling what else they might do.'
'Wizards store spells in their staffs,' Morwen said, nodding. 'You can't always be sure what will set one off.'
Telemain looked at them with annoyance. 'I suppose you'd rather I left them here. Have you no spirit of scientific investigation?'
'Not where wizards are concerned,' Cimorene muttered.
'Nonsense,' Morwen said. 'I'm just as curious as you are, Telemain, but I never heard that a spirit of scientific inquiry precluded taking intelligent precautions.'
'Oh, I see,' said Telemain. 'Why didn't you just say so in the first place?'
While the others talked, Mendanbar studied the staffs, keeping a careful watch on the threads of Enchanted Forest magic that were nearest to Telemain. To his surprise, the threads showed no tendency to drift toward the magician or wind themselves into knots around the staffs he carried. Apparently, Telemain was right-the staffs would only be a minor nuisance as long as their wizards weren't carrying them. He resolved to mention this to Telemain later. Perhaps Telemain could even help him find a way to deal with the problems the staffs caused when they did have their wizards with them.
A few minutes later, when Kazul was satisfied that there were no wizards left in the area, Mendanbar took them all back to the castle with a quick spell. He was relieved that the wizards' staffs caused no trouble, and pleased to discover that transporting a dragon was no harder than transporting anyone else.
They materialized in the castle courtyard, just inside the moat.
Willin, who had apparently been watching for their arrival, came hurrying out to meet them.
'Welcome home, Your Majesty,' the elf said with evident relief.
Mendanbar noticed that he'd dug up a formal uniform somewhere, all sky-blue velvet and dusty gold braid. 'May I assume that your mission was a success?'
'Yes, you may,' Mendanbar said. 'Willin, this is Kazul, the King of the Dragons, and she's very hungry. See if you can scare up something in the kitchen that would do for a dragon-sized meal.'
'At once, Your Majesty,' Willin said, bowing. 'And may I congratulate you and your companions on your great achievement and welcome King Kazul to the Enchanted Forest.'
