"who's that?" said the escort dragon. "Morwen? That does it! This is too much for me. I'm taking you all into custody until the trials are over and the King can sort it out. Come along."
"I assume that doesn't apply to me," Woraug rumbled. He winced as he spoke.
"It certainly does," the escort dragon said. "I said all, and I meant all. If I'd meant 'all the humans,' I'd have said 'all the humans,' or maybe 'some of you' or 'you over there' or 'all you non-dragons' on" "Nonsense!" Woraug interrupted. "Don't you know who I am?"
"You're the dragon who caused a ruckus just now for no reason I can see," the escort dragon replied. "And it's my duty and my job to take you into custody. When the trials are over, you can explain it to the King, and if I've done something wrong, well, I'll take what I have coming. And if I haven't, you'll take yours. And-" "All right, all right," Woraug said. "But I warn you, you'll regret this."
"That's as may be," the escort dragon said with dignity. "Right now, though, you're in custody along with the rest of these people, and you'd better not go snacking on any of them until things are sorted out. I saw what you did to the gray one."
"Did you?" said the stone prince. "Then what are you going to do about this chip in my sleeve?"
"Tell it to the King," the escort dragon advised. "Now, off we go, the lot of you."
Morwen came cautiously out of the bushes, brushing leaves from her already wet black robes. She stopped and peered at the escort dragon over the tops of her glasses. "This has not been a good day for anyone's clothes," she said severely. "I shall send the cleaning bill to your king."
"Whatever you want," the escort dragon said impatiently. "Come on."
Scowling furiously, Woraug marched off into the forest. The stone prince and Alianora followed, talking in low voices. Morwen paused to pick up the wizards' black rock and Cimorene's pebble, then went on after them.
Cimorene hesitated.
"Go on," said the escort dragon.
"I will, but I think you ought to know that another batch of wizards is supposed to show up soon," Cimorene said. "Zemenar said something about a second shift. I don't know what they can do without the stone they were using, but I'm sure they'll try something."
"Wizards always do," the escort dragon said with a sigh. He studied the wizards' staffs that were lying around the clearing with a melancholy air.
"All right, I'll send someone back to keep an eye on things as soon as we get to the ford. Whatever was going on here, there certainly were wizards in it, and that's enough for me."
"Good," said Cimorene. "And thank you." She smiled at the startled expression on the dragon's face and started after the others.
The walk to the Ford of Whispering Snakes took longer than Cimorene expected. The trees of the Enchanted Forest grew close together in many places, forcing the dragons to take a zigzag path instead of heading straight up the bank of the river. Woraug, who was in the lead, seemed to be deliberately setting a slow pace. Cimorene was sure he was hoping that the second shift of wizards would arrive at the blackberry clearing before the dragons at the ford had been warned.
She had no idea what would happen then, but she doubted that it would be good. The escort dragon was not interested in Cimorene's worries, however, and he refused to speed things up, so the group ambled on.
As they approached the ford at last, they heard cheering ahead of them.
Woraug flinched visibly, and Alianora and the stone prince were startled out of their quiet conversation.
"What's that?" Alianora said.
"Sounds to me as if we have a new King," the escort said with great satisfaction. "That means I can get you lot off my hands right away.
What a relief! I thought I was going to be stuck with you for hours."
Alianora looked faintly indignant at this unflattering opinion. Morwen was merely amused. Woraug's wings sagged momentarily, but then he seemed to pull himself back together, and he continued on as confidently as ever. Cimorene's concern deepened. What if Woraug managed to convince the new King that they were all lying?
They reached the edge of the cheering crowd of dragons. "Who did it?" the escort dragon asked. "Who's the new King?"
"How should I know?" the other responded. "I can't see a thing from way out here."
"You'll find out soon enough," the escort dragon said. Then he raised his voice and shouted, "Make way! Coming through! Prisoners for the King! Make way!"
The crowd of dragons parted reluctantly, and the escort dragon herded the group forward, still shouting. They made their way through the cheering dragons until they reached the edge of the river. "Stand away!" shouted someone in the crowd. "Stand away for the King!"
The nearby dragons drew back, leaving Woraug, the escort dragon, and Cimorene and her friends standing by themselves on the trampled moss.
As the dragons moved away, Cimorene caught sight of Kazul, lying comfortably beside the river. "Kazul!" Cimorene cried, and ran forward.
"Are you all right?"
A mottled dragon standing beside Kazul shifted and flicked his tail angrily at Cimorene. "You should say 'Your Majesty,'" he said with a warning scowl.
"Don't be ridiculous, Frax. She's my princess," Kazul said. "I'm quite all right, Cimorene. What are you doing here?"
"You're the new King of the Dragons?" Cimorene said in astonishment.
"But-but when you left this morning, you could barely fly! How did you get Colin's Stone all the way from here to the Vanishing Mountain?"
"Colin's Stone apparently does more than merely pick out the right King," Kazul said. "The minute I picked it up, I felt fine."
"This is impossible? Woraug said.
"Are you accusing me of fraud?" Kazul asked mildly.
"He'd better not," Cimorene said. "He's the one who was cheating, with the help of Zemenar and the rest of the wizards."
"Really," Kazul said in tones of great interest.
"It's all nonsense," Woraug declared. "The girl's just trying to attract attention."
"Really," Kazul said again, and smiled, displaying all her silver teeth.
"Oh, come now, Kazul. Surely you won't take a mere princess's word over mine," Woraug said.
"That depends entirely on what she says. Tell us about it, Princess," Kazul commanded.
So Cimorene told them. She brought the stone prince forward to explain what he had overheard the wizards and Woraug discussing in the banquet hall, and she made Alianora tell everyone about melting wizards with wash water and lemon juice. She told about getting to the Ford of Whispering Snakes on the first feather and being unable to convince any of the dragons to listen to her. She told about going to Morwen's house to find out where the wizards were, and about using the last feather to get to the wizards and melt them. She described Zemenar's unexpected appearance and subsequent melting, and the way Morwen had broken the wizards' spell, and she finished with an account of Woraug's futile attack.
"And then he landed"-Cimorene waved in the direction of the escort dragon-"and decided to bring us all back here. And I think somebody ought to go back to that clearing where the blackberries are before the next batch of wizards arrives. I don't know what they'll do when they find out what's happened, but…"
"Yes, I see," said Kazul. She turned to a pale green dragon beside her.
"Yes, Your Majesty," said the pale dragon with a fierce grin.
"Surely you don't believe this!" Woraug said.