you?'
'What castle?' Shiara said in an exasperated voice. 'And who is this Kazul person, anyway?'
'It must have something to do with that sword,' the dragon said, ignoring her questions completely. 'Especially if it really does belong to the Sleeping King.'
'You mean you know something about it?' Shiara said. 'Well, then, tell us what the stupid thing does?'
The dragon looked sheepish. Dragons just weren't meant to look sheepish. 'I don't know. I'm not old enough yet,' it said.
'Not old enough?'
'That's why I wanted a princess,' the dragon said. 'Otherwise, Kazul won't tell me anything important until I'm two hundred. She says that before then dragons are irresponsible, unwise, and talk too much.' It looked faintly indignant. 'I don't talk too much.'
'Who is Kazul?' I said. I was getting a little nervous about meeting her. I hadn't ever known anyone who could tell a dragon what to do, even a young one. Well, Mother might have been able to get away with it.
'Oh, I thought you knew,' the dragon said. 'Kazul is the King of the Dragons.'
10
In Which They Take a Shortcut and Run into an Obstacle
Shiara and I looked at each other. 'Terrific,' Shiara said. 'And I thought wizards were bad.'
'Did I say something wrong?' the dragon asked.
'No, not at all,' I said hastily. 'We were just a little surprised, that's all.'
'Hey!' Shiara said. 'How can Kazul be King of the Dragons if she's a she? That doesn't make sense.'
'It does too!' the dragon said. 'What else would you call her?'
'How about Queen?' Shiara said sarcastically.
'Queen?' The little dragon wrinkled its nose. 'Why would you want to call her Queen? That's not the same thing at all! You're the one who doesn't make sense.'
'I do too make sense? Shiara said. 'Queens do the same things Kings do.'
'Not for dragons,' I said hastily. I didn't want the dragon to get offended again. 'Dragons have a king, period. The King of the Dragons is whichever dragon can move Colin's Stone from the Vanishing Mountain to the Ford of the Whispering Snakes. It doesn't matter whether the dragon is male or female.'
'It's silly to have two names for the same job,' the dragon said complacently.
'People get confused.'
'Oh.' Shiara looked skeptical, but at least she didn't object anymore. I decided I was going to have to explain a few things to her soon, before she got us both in real trouble. For about a minute, no one said anything. Then Shiara looked over at me.
'Daystar,' she said, 'why are we looking for the King of the Dragons?'
I started to say something, then stopped because I wasn't really sure what to say. I mean, it would sound a little odd to say that I was looking for a dragon because a lizard told me to. Especially since the dragon was apparently King of the Dragons. I thought some more.
'I don't know,' I said finally. 'But I think we have to. At least, I have to.'
Shiara sighed. 'I was afraid you were going to say something like that.'
The dragon looked puzzled. 'What's the matter? It doesn't sound particularly unusual to me, but I suppose it'll be at least as interesting as running away to find a princess.'
Shiara and I looked at the dragon, then at each other, then back at the dragon again. 'You ran away?' Shiara said finally.
'It was the only way I could think of to get a princess.' The dragon sighed. 'It didn't work out the way I thought it would, though.'
Shiara and I exchanged glances again. 'You're sure you really want to come?' I said to the dragon. 'I mean, there are wizards after us, and it might be a little inconvenient if they showed up again. And I doubt that we'll run into any more princesses.'
The dragon looked thoughtful for a moment, then it shook its head.
'I'm coming with you, wizards or no wizards,' it said stubbornly.
'Sneezing isn't so bad.'
It was my turn to sigh. Dragons are awfully hard to talk out of things.
'We'd better go, then,' I said. 'I'm sure Antorell will be back as soon as he thinks it's safe, and I'd sort of like to be gone by then.'
Shiara grabbed Morwen's bundles and shoved one at me. 'You're absolutely right. Here. Let's go.'
I nodded and started toward the stream. 'Not that way?' said the dragon. 'It takes too long.'
'How else are we going to find the stupid castle?' Shiara demanded. 'We don't even know what it looks like'
The dragon looked smug. 'I do. And I'm very good at shortcuts.'
'Morwen told us to follow the stream,' I said doubtfully.
'Morwen didn't know you were going to meet me.' The dragon looked at us for a minute. 'I thought you were in a hurry.'
'Come on, Daystar,' Shiara said. 'I don't care which way we go, but let's go!'
I decided not to argue. I still didn't like the idea of leaving the stream, but it didn't seem worth fighting over. Not with a dragon, anyway.
Besides, if we didn't leave soon, the wizards would catch us. We started off, following the dragon.
Traveling with a dragon was rather nice, in a way. Nothing bothered us at all. When it started to get dark, we stopped and opened Morwen's bundles again. There was obviously something magic about them, because the leftovers from lunch had turned into a fresh packet of food, and there was plenty for everyone, even the dragon.
Nothing dangerous came near us all night, either. I stayed awake for a while, just to make sure, but evidently nightshades and wolves and things don't want to annoy a dragon any more than people do. Finally, I went to sleep, too.
We started off again as soon as we woke up next morning. The dragon went first because it knew the way, and we followed. After about an hour, I noticed that I didn't feel quite comfortable for some reason.
I touched the hilt of the Sword of the Sleeping King a couple of times, but I didn't feel any new magic tingles, just the same familiar ones.
I started watching the trees as we walked. Finally, Shiara noticed.
'What's the matter, Daystar?' she said.
'I don't know,' I said. 'But I feel as if I'm being watched.'
'Watched?' Shiara looked at the trees quickly. 'Who's watching us?'
'I don't know,' I said. 'I'm not even sure someone is. I just feel uncomfortable.'
'You're being a little slow,' the dragon called back over its shoulder, and Shiara and I stopped talking and ran to catch up. We didn't have a chance to discuss it again, but I noticed Shiara looking uneasily at the forest from time to time. Even Nightwitch seemed to notice something wrong; she stopped jumping at leaves and stayed close to Shiara. In fact, Shiara almost stepped on her once. After that, Shiara carried her.
In spite of all the worrying, nothing happened until late that morning.
The dragon was moving on through the forest, ignoring all the little branches and things that happened to be in its way. Suddenly it gave a smothered yelp and stopped. Shiara and Nightwitch and I ran forward to see what was the matter.
The dragon was sitting back, rubbing its nose and glaring at a large open space in front of it. I looked around, but I didn't see anything else.
'What happened?' I asked.
'I ran into something,' the dragon said, glaring at me for a minute instead of the open space.
