'What?' said the dragon.
The man looked a little startled and peered at the dragon more closely.
'Oh, I see,' he said after a moment. 'Well, you're welcome. Come and make yourself comfortable.'
Shiara scowled at him and bent to pick up Nightwitch, who had come running toward her as soon as the flames had died. The dragon looked suspiciously at the man.
'I don't like wizards,' it said. 'And I don't like people who put invisible things in the middle of my shortcut.'
'I am not a wizard,' the man said with a sigh. 'And my tower has been here for years, and it isn't invisible. Now, come in and talk.
There hasn't been a dragon by for a long time, and I'm a bit behind on the news.'
'If you're not a wizard, what are you?' Shiara said, petting Nightwitch and glaring at the man.
'I'm a magician,' the man said. 'And my name is Telemain.'
'Pleased to meet you,' I said.
'Mrrow,' said Nightwitch, and started purring loudly.
Telemain looked at the kitten, and suddenly he began to laugh. He had a nice laugh, sort of deep and friendly. I started thinking that I might be able to like him after all, even if his fire wall had nearly burned me to a cinder.
'I don't believe I have ever seen a group quite like this one,' Telemain said when he finished laughing. 'Please, tell me who you all are.'
I introduced everyone, and Telemain nodded courteously to each of us.
He gave me a sharp look when I told him my name. 'I thought that was what your friend called you,' he said. 'Welcome to my home.'
'Some welcome!' Shiara said. 'You nearly got Daystar killed, and you started the dragon sneezing again. And how come the dragon was allergic to you if you aren't a wizard?'
'Dragons aren't allergic to wizards,' Telemain said, sounding surprised.
'What gave you that idea?'
'I did? the dragon said. It came forward and sat down emphatically, right next to me. 'All dragons are allergic to wizards. I should know: I sneeze every time I get near one.' It eyed Telemain belligerently.
'Oh, I don't doubt that at all,' Telemain said. 'But the hypersensitive reaction results from the indiscriminate absorption of magical energy through the enchantments fixed in their staffs.'
'What?' said the dragon.
Telemain sighed. 'It's not wizards you're allergic to, it's their staffs. You stopped sneezing as soon as I got rid of mine, didn't you?'
The dragon looked startled. 'I did, didn't I?' it said after a minute.
'If you aren't a wizard, what are you doing with a wizard's staff?'
Shiara asked.
Telemain raised his eyebrows. 'Why do you ask?'
'We've been having some trouble with wizards,' I said before Shiara could answer. I didn't want her to make him angry. We had enough people mad at us already.
'Really.' Telemain looked as if he were going to laugh again. 'All of you?'
'Well, mainly just Shiara and me,' I said. 'We've been sort of worried about them. Most of them are after Shiara,' I added.
'What would the Society of Wizards want with a fire-witch?' Telemain said. 'I can see that I shall have to invite you in, if only to hear your tale.'
'How do you know about the Society?' Shiara said angrily. 'And why should we trust a wizard, anyway?'
'Anyone who knows much about magic can tell you're a fire-witch, and the only reason I can think of for a fire-witch to have several wizards after her is if she has done something to offend the Society of Wizards,' Telemain said. He still sounded amused. 'And for the third time, at least, I am a magician, not a wizard.'
'What's the difference?' Shiara demanded.
'Magicians deal with many ways of magic,' Telemain said. 'Wizards with only one. Now, will you come in and sit down?'
Shiara was still looking at him doubtfully. Telemain smiled. 'Will an oath content you? If you mean no harm, I am not your enemy, and I will o you no harm while you are my guests, save in self-defense. I swear by the sword,' I felt a kind of popping at my side, even though I wasn't touching the sword, and a tipple ran through the clearing, like a shimmer of light in the air. I thought it kept on going out into the forest, but I couldn't be certain.
Shiara started and dropped Nightwitch, who landed on her feet with a yowl.
The dragon stretched its neck, looking almost as if it were trying to purr.
Telemain suddenly looked very intense.
'That is the way of it, then?' he said when the tipple passed. 'I don't think I blame you for your caution.' He looked pointedly at my sword.
Shiara scowled again, but I thought she looked a little more doubtful than the last time. 'If you're so smart…' she began, and stopped.
Nightwitch was rubbing against Telemain's leg and purring.
'Nightwitch?' said Shiara.
'An intriguing name for a cat,' Telemain said, bending over to pick up Nightwitch. 'Even more interesting for a kitten. Where did you come by her?'
'She was a present,' Shiara said grudgingly. 'From a witch named-' 'Morwen?' said Telemain. Nightwitch purred louder. 'I suspected as much. Now, will you come in? Or do you wish to continue this discussion where anyone may hear?'
We went in. The door of Telemain's home looked like an ordinary, normal-sized door, but it couldn't have been, because the dragon fit through it without any trouble. The room inside was made of stone and very bare.
In the center of the floor, two iron staircases twisted around each other in a spiral and disappeared into the ceiling. The whole place seemed much taller from the inside. If i hadn't seen it before we came in, I would have been sure we were in a tower.
As the door closed behind the dragon, Telemain waved his hand. A table and three chairs materialized beside the stairs. 'Sit down and tell me more about yourselves.'
We sat down, except for the dragon, who sort of curled itself around the edges of the room. I started explaining about Mother and Antorell and everything that had happened in the Enchanted Forest. I even told him about the Sword of the Sleeping King, because I was pretty sure from the way he looked at it that he already knew something about it.
The questions he asked made it pretty clear that I was right, although sometimes he got so technical that I had to ask him to repeat something. He sounded as if he knew exactly what answers he expected, too. When I told him about the voice that had said, 'All hail the Bearer of the Sword,' he nodded in satisfaction.
Then I explained how Shiara and I had met, and why the wizards were after her, and about the one who'd tried to get us at the stream.
Shiara frowned at me, but she didn't interrupt. When I told him about meeting Morwen, Telemain seemed very interested.
'I haven't seen Morwen in a long time,' he said. 'How is she?'
'You know Morwen?' Shiara said.
'We grew up together,' Telemain said. 'Now, exactly what did she have you do to repair the damage to your hand?'
Telemain asked a lot of questions about the things the Sword of the Sleeping King had done, but he didn't seem particularly interested in the wizards. He wasn't interested in the Princess at all. Then I told him about the invisible castle and the fire-witch.
'So that's how you knew about it,' Telemain said. 'I wondered.'
'That's how we knew,' Shiara said. 'How did you know?'
