with Shiara putting in a comment now and then when she thought I was leaving something out. I finished by explaining about Shiara's magic. Both Mother and the King looked rather startled, and then the King began to smile.
'A polite fire-witch,' he said thoughtfully. 'Very unusual.'
'I don't want to have to be polite to people? Shiara said angrily.
'Why not?' I asked. 'You're getting much better at it.'
'Especially not to you!' Shiara said.
'I can understand that,' Father said. 'It's his fault, after all.'
'What?' Shiara and I said together.
'It's Daystar's fault that you have to be polite,' Father repeated.
'His and the sword's. One of the things the sword does besides control wizards is unlock people's talents, particulary magical talents. When you met Daystar, both of you touched the sword at the same time. You wanted to use your magic and Daystar wanted you to be more polite. I think the sword did the best it could, under the circumstances.'
'I knew it!' Shiara glared at me. 'I said it was that stupid sword's FAULT!'
'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I didn't know. But at least you can use your magic now, sometimes. Isn't that better than not being able to use it at all?'
'no!' said Shiara. 'It's worse! I have to go home and be NICE to people, and it probably won't work most of the time, because I have to mean it, and how can I mean it if I'm always thinking about being able to do magic? And it's BORING at home, and people will still keep expecting me to do things I can't do. I don't even know anyone who could teach me about magic even if I could get it to work all the time.
I'll never learn anything?'
Little flickers of flame started running down Shiara's cheeks. It took me a minute to realize that she was crying fire, and when I did, I didn't know what to do about it.
'That is quite enough of that,' Mother said while I was still thinking.
Shiara looked up. 'You don't know what it's like! It's horrible.'
'On the contrary, I know quite well what it's like,' Mother said. 'And the solution is obvious. In fact, it's the same one I used.'
'what?' Shiara blinked, and the flame tears stopped running down her face. 'What do you mean?'
'You can become Kazul's princess,' Mother said. 'She doesn't have one at the moment. It would have a great many advantages on both sides.
You will learn considerably more about magic, dragons, and the Enchanted Forest than you WOULD anywhere else, and Kazul will get a princess who can't be accidentally roasted if one of the other dragons gets out of hand.
And you'll be living nearby, which will give Daystar and Mendanbar a chance to figure out how to reverse that ridiculous politeness spell.'
'But I'm not a princess!' Shiara said.
'If Kazul says you are a princess, then you are a princess,' Mother said firmly. 'No one is going to argue with the King of the Dragons.
Besides, it will be excellent experience for you later.'
I opened my mouth to ask what Mother meant by that, but Shiara asked, 'But are you sure Kazul would be willing to do it?'
'Kazul will have no objection whatsoever to training the next queen of the Enchanted Forest,' Mother said calmly. 'You don't need to worry about that.'
I closed my mouth very quickly and looked at the floor, feeling my face getting hot. I heard Shiara say, 'Oh,' in a small voice, and then the King laughed.
'Cimorene, you're going a little fast,' he said, still chuckling. 'If Shiara wants to go live with Kazul, I'm sure we can make the arrangements, but there's no reason to hurry. She can stay here until she decides. There's plenty of room. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back outside. Kazul was going to talk to Willin about a feast, and I haven't had a good meal in seventeen years. As a matter of fact, I haven't had any meals in seventeen years.'
Mother didn't object, so the King moved us all to the feast with another wave. Everyone was there: dwarves and dragons and elves and cats, and even a few wizards who had been on the King's side. Morwen was there, too, but she spent quite a bit of time popping back to the castle to make sure Telemain wasn't doing anything she disapproved of.
Mother and the King sat at one end of a long table, and Kazul sat at the other. The elf Willin scurried up and down making sure everyone had enough to eat and plainly having a wonderful time. Shiara and I sat at the middle of the table, and the people sitting next to us kept changing. All of them wanted to hear about how Mother had stolen the sword back, and how Shiara and I had gotten into the castle and broken the spell.
'I'm getting tired of this,' Shiara whispered to me while some of the people next to us were changing seats. 'Let's go someplace else for a while, and let them tell each other about the stupid wizards.'
'I'm tired of it, too, but I don't think we should leave,' I said.
'You don't? No, of course you don't. How very irksome' said a squeaky voice from the ground by my left foot.
'Suz!' I said, looking down. 'Where did you come from?'
'The forest, of course.' The lizard ran up the leg of the table in a thin gold streak, then stopped and looked around nervously. 'Is that-that kitten anywhere close by?'
'No, she's inside,' said Shiara. 'I don't think she likes the crowd.
Why?'
The lizard looked at her. 'If you'd ever been jumped on by something four times as big as you are, and been rolled around until you were dizzy, not to mention bruised, you wouldn't have to ask.' He balanced on his tail and peered over the edge of a bowl of nuts.
'Would you like something to eat?' I said.
'I believe I would,' Suz said. He made a very fast bouncing motion, and a moment later he was holding one of the nuts. 'What are you going to do now that the wizards are gone?'
'They aren't all gone,' I said. 'I think a few of them were on our side, and some of the others actually got away.'
'They did?' Suz considered for a moment. 'I suppose they did. How very annoying. But what are you going to do?' He looked from me to Shiara and back.
'I'm going to be Kazul's princess,' Shiara said before I could answer.
Suz fell over backward, just missing a silver bowl full of cranberry jelly.
'Oh my gracious goodness my oh!' he squeaked. 'However did that happen?'
'Mother suggested it,' I said. I looked at Shiara. 'But I thought you hadn't made up your mind yet.'
'I just decided,' Shiara said. 'Home is boring, and this way I can learn things and maybe even stop having to be polite to get my magic to work.'
I suspected Shiara was more interested in not having to be polite than she was in learning things, but I didn't say so. 'I'm glad you're going to stay,' I said instead.
'You are?' Suz said skeptically. He peered up at me. 'Why, you really are! How amazing.'
I didn't know what to say to that, but FORTUNATELY I didn't have time to think about it. Father and Mother and Kazul all stood up just then and everyone else got very quiet. Father looked around for a moment, smiled, and started speaking.
First he thanked everyone for coming to help with the wizards, and then he introduced Mother formally as 'my wife, Cimorene.' All the dragons and elves and other people shouted and applauded; the din was tremendous.
Then he introduced me, and I had to stand up and be clapped at.
After that, Kazul said that the dragons were pleased to be of assistance, and everyone sat down and started talking again. The whole thing didn't take very much time, which surprised me. I'd thought speeches at feasts were supposed to be longer.
Even with short speeches, the feast lasted longer than I expected.
