Dealing with Dragons - Wrede Patricia Collins. Страница 6

"Not if you'd rather be rescued now, of course," Therandil said hastily.

"Though you ought to consider the advantages, and I expect it won't be so very long…" His voice trailed off, and he looked at her hopefully.

"I'm afraid it will be a very long time," Cimorene said with satisfaction.

"You see, Kazul hasn't defeated any knights at all yet."

"B-b-but I thought you said there'd been eight," Therandil spluttered.

"I said eight of them had come by; I didn't say they'd fought anybody.

I sent them away."

"You sent them away?" Therandil repeated, plainly horrified. "But that's-that's-" "-not done, I know." Cimorene smiled sweetly "But I've done it. And I intend to go on doing it, so you might as well go home and warn your friends. They'd feel so foolish, you know, if they came all this way into the mountains to rescue me and then had to turn around and go back home without doing anything."

"They certainly would? Therandil said indignantly. "What do you mean by playing these kinds of tricks? Don't you want to be rescued?"

"No," said Cimorene, losing her patience at last, "I don't. And I'm tired of having my work constantly interrupted. So please go away, and don't come back."

"You can't possibly mean that," Therandil said. "Besides, everyone expects me to rescue you."

"That's your problem," Cimorene told him. "I'm going to go fix dinner.

Good-bye." Before he could say anything else, she turned and ducked back into the cave, hoping the prince wouldn't follow.

3

In Which Cimorene Meets a Witch and Has Doubts about a Wizard

Therandil left, but he came back again the next day, and the day after that. It got so that Cimorene could not even step outside the cave without running into him. She might have been flattered if it hadn't been so obvious that Therandil was only worried about how foolish he'd look if he went home without fighting the dragon. On his fifth visit Cimorene was very sharp with him, and when he had not returned by midafternoon of the next day, she began to hope that he had finally left for good.

Cimorene was in the kitchen taking the pits out of cherries when she heard someone knocking at the mouth of the cave.

"Go away," she shouted in complete exasperation. "I've told you and told you, I don't want to be rescued, and I'm not going to argue with you any more!"

"I didn't come here to argue," said a no-nonsense female voice from outside. "I came to meet the person who keeps borrowing my crepe pan.

It's not something there's normally much call for."

"Oh, dear," said Cimorene. She wiped her hands hastily on a corner of her apron and hurried out to greet her visitor. "I'm sorry," she said, coming around the gray rock at the cave mouth. "But I've been having a problem with knights lately, and I thought-" She stopped short as she got a good look at her caller for the first time.

The woman standing outside the cave was considerably shorter than Cimorene. Her ginger hair was piled in waves on top of her head. She had on a loose black robe with long sleeves, which she wore unbelted.

A small pair of glasses with rectangular lenses sat firmly on her nose, and she carried an extremely twiggy broom in her left hand. Despite her unusual appearance, she projected an air of great self-assurance.

"I quite understand," she said, studying Cimorene shrewdly. "You must be Kazul's new princess."

"Yes, I'm Cimorene. And you are… ?"

"Morwen," said the black-robed woman, leaning the broom against the rock. "Kazul and I have been friends for a long time, ever since I moved to the Enchanted Forest, so I thought I'd come have a look at her new princess."

"You're the person Kazul's been borrowing dishes from, aren't you?"

Cimorene said, and blinked. "But then you must be-" "A witch," Morwen finished. "I don't see why you find it surprising.

It's not exactly an unusual profession in these parts."

"It's just that I haven't met one before," Cimorene said, not mentioning the fact that in Linderwall witches were considered dangerous and probably evil and were therefore avoided if at all possible. But then, people in Linderwall didn't like dragons much, either. "Won't you come in and have some tea?"

"I certainly will," said the witch, and she did. She prowled around like a nervous cat while Cimorene put the kettle on the stove and got out the tea things.

"Well," Morwen said approvingly as Cimorene filled the teapot, "you're the first princess I've ever met who has the sense to keep up with the kitchen."

Cimorene decided that she liked Morwen's down-to-earth manner. She soon found herself telling Morwen everything, from the fencing and philosophy and Latin lessons to the seemingly endless stream of knights. The story lasted through two cups of tea and finished with Therandil's stubborn insistence on rescuing her.

"That is absurd," Morwen said decidedly when Cimorene finished. "If this continues, you'll never get anything done."

"I know," Cimorene said. "I keep telling them I don't want to be rescued, but they're all so honorable that none of them will tell anyone when they go back because they think it would be gossiping."

"More likely they don't want to look foolish."

"Maybe, but even if they did tell people, I'm not sure anyone would believe it. I have a hard enough time convincing the knights when they show up in person."

"It's just as well that your visitors have been honorable," Morwen said, looking thoughtful. "Linderwall's a prosperous kingdom. Sooner or later the chance of getting hold of half of it is going to tempt someone to try rescuing you whether you want to be rescued or not."

"That hadn't occurred to me," Cimorene said with a worried frown.

"What can I do about it?"

"I'm not sure," Morwen replied. "The situation's not at all usual, you know. I've never heard of a princess volunteering for a dragon before.

Which rather surprises me, now that I think of it. A dragon's princess is practically guaranteed a good marriage, so you'd think princesses from the smaller kingdoms would be clamoring for the job."

"They're probably worried about being eaten," Cimorene said. "Do you think it would help if I sent my parents a letter?"

"Probably not," Morwen said after a moment's consideration. "But it can't hurt to try. I'll check my spell books when I get home. It may give me an idea. I suggest that you hunt through Kazul's library.

She's been collecting scrolls for centuries; you ought to be able to find something useful. Meanwhile, we'll put up a sign."

"A sign?" Cimorene stared at Morwen for a moment, then began to smile.

"'Road washed out,'" she said. "'Use alternate route." Is that the kind of sign you were thinking of?"

"Exactly," Morwen said with approval. "It won't stop anyone who's really determined, but it will certainly slow them down. That should give us time to come up with something better."

The two women set to work at once and in a short time produced a large, official-looking sign. Morwen offered to set it up on her way back to the Enchanted Forest, but Cimorene thought it would be too awkward for her to carry while riding the broom. So, once Morwen had gone, Cimorene tucked the sign under her arm and started down the path.

Cimorene had not had a chance to do any real exploring before, though she had looked out at the mountains every day and wondered. She was happy to have an excuse to see more of the outside of her new home.

It was a lovely day, warm and sunny, and at first the path was level and easy. Cimorene was just beginning to wonder whether anyone would believe her sign, once she got it put up, when the path swung left around a boulder and narrowed to a tiny ledge that sloped steeply upward.

Cimorene stopped. Now she knew why none of the knights had ridden up to the cave. The ledge was barely wide enough for a person on foot to edge along sideways; the best rider in the world couldn't have gotten a horse down it. Cimorene rolled her sign up into a firm, tight cylinder and stuck it through her belt, so she would have her hands free while she climbed. Then she stepped out onto the ledge.