Calling on Dragons - Wrede Patricia Collins. Страница 4

The rabbit sighed. "I wanted something to eat, and this thing-you say it's a lilac?-looked large enough for a meal. It takes a lot to fill me up, now that I'm so big. Only I couldn't reach the bit I wanted, and when I tried, the branches twisted around and I got stuck, and then he snarled at me-" Killer broke off, cringing, as Murgatroyd demonstrated the snarl for Morwen's benefit.

Morwen frowned at the rabbit. "How long have you been six feet tall?"

"Seven feet, eleven inches," corrected Killer, "counting the ears.

Since this morning. And it's no fun, believe me. I'm hungry all the time, and I don't fit in my hole, and I can't hide under bushes the way I used to."

"And how did you happen to grow so large so quickly?"

"I don't know." Killer sighed again and his ears lifted and dropped expressively. "I was just nibbling at my clover patch when all of a sudden everything started shrinking. The next thing I knew, I was nearly eight feet tall-counting the ears-and there wasn't enough clover for a snack, much less breakfast. It didn't even taste right," he finished sadly.

"Before or after you started growing?"

The rabbit's ears stiffened as he frowned in concentration. "The taste? Before. Definitely before. The leaves were a little sour and the stems didn't crunch right."

It sounded as if some enchanted seeds had gotten mixed in with the clover, and Killer had eaten the sprouts. If Morwen was lucky, he wouldn't have eaten all of them. A plant that increased one's size would be a valuable addition to the garden, even if it only worked on rabbits. "I'd like to see this clover patch."

"Well…" Killer hesitated. "Do you have to bring them? I don't like it."

"I don't think I'll need everyone," Morwen said. "Aunt Ophelia, Trouble, and Miss Eliza will be quite enough."

"Why can't I come?" Fiddlesticks trotted up to the gate and inspected the rabbit through the slits. "I didn't get to chase Fatso, and I didn't get to chase the rabbit. My, he's big. And I didn't get any fish."

"You talk too much, that's why," Trouble told him.

"Perhaps you should go tell Jasper what's happened," Miss Eliza put in.

"Right," said Fiddlesticks. "Maybe he's caught a mouse while we've been out here talking to rabbits. Maybe he'll share? And he bounded off.

"Optimist," said Scorn, looking after him.

"If we are going to look at vegetables," said Aunt Ophelia in tones that conveyed her poor opinion of the entire undertaking, "perhaps we should get it over with."

"Are you done for now, Morwen?"Jasmine asked. "Because if you are I'm going back to the window before someone else grabs it."

"Go ahead," Morwen told her. Immediately, Jasmine and Scorn took off at a dead run for the house. Morwen turned to the rabbit. "Now, about this clover patch…"

Killer dropped to all fours, which brought his head nearly level with Morwen's. He sniffed the air twice and cocked an ear to the right.

"That way." He started off, and Morwen and the three chosen cats followed.

After ten minutes, Morwen was wishing she had brought her broomstick.

Killer set an extremely uneven pace, taking two or three long hops that would nearly carry him out of sight and then pausing to sniff the air and twitch his whiskers nervously. It would have been much easier to follow him by air, Morwen thought, but she did not say anything because it would only encourage the cats to complain. Trouble, in particular, was extremely put out at having to let a rabbit lead. To make up for it, he pretended to stalk Killer, slinking around trees like a gray shadow and muttering under his breath. Aunt Ophelia and Miss Eliza contented themselves with making malicious remarks. Fortunately, Killer was usually too far ahead to hear any of them.

When they finally reached the clover patch, Morwen was nearly as cross as her cats. Killer did not seem to notice. He sat back on his haunches, waved proudly, and said, "Here we are!"

"This is it?" Trouble said, staring at an irregular mat of small green plants. It was no more than four feet across, and a third of the plants had been nipped neatly off, leaving only short, bare stems.

"That's all?"

"It's much larger when I'm my normal size," Killer said in an apologetic tone. "And it's got much better flavor than the one by the little pond or the one by the currant bush. At least, it used to."

Morwen suppressed a sigh of irritation. As long as she'd come this far, she'd better have a look at the thing, even if it didn't seem particularly promising. Pushing her glasses firmly into their proper position-they had slid down her nose a little on the walk-she knelt beside the clover patch.

At first glance, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Trouble came up beside her and sniffed at the plants. "Don't nibble on any of them," Morwen said.

"I'm not stupid," said Trouble.

"No, but you've done things like that before," Aunt Ophelia put in.

"Don't interrupt Morwen while she's working."

Trouble licked his front paw twice, displaying his unconcern to the world at large, then pounced on an imaginary mouse in the middle of the clover patch.

"Morwen, there's something rather odd over here," Miss Eliza said.

She was crouched at the opposite edge of the clover patch, and her tail was lashing back and forth in a way that belied her casual tone. "When you have a moment, you may wish to look at it closely."

"I'll take a moment now," Morwen said, rising. "What is it?"

"These." Miss Eliza sat back and waved a paw at the moss in front of her. A six-inch strip next to the clover patch was peppered with small brown spots, as if someone had pushed the end of a pencil into it several times.

"You're quite right," Morwen said. "This is odd. Killer, do you remember which part of this patch you were nibbling on when you started to grow?"

"Not really. Does it matter?"

"It might. Trouble, would you please look around and see whether you can find any more of these spots?"

"Oh, all right," said Trouble, but his yellow eyes gleamed with pleasure as he circled the clover patch.

"What are they?" Aunt Ophelia asked, joining Miss Eliza at Morwen's side. "Besides odd."

"I don't know. They look like a small version of-" "Morwen!" Trouble yelled from the foot of a nearby tree. "Here's a big one!"

With a sinking feeling, Morwen crossed to Trouble's side, followed by the other cats. In the moss at the foot of the tree, just where someone might have set the end of a staff to lean against the trunk, was a dead brown circle about two inches across.

"A wizard!" Morwen said. "I was afraid of this."

3

In Which Morwen Makes a Discovery and Some Calls

There was an instant of silence, and then all of the animals tried to talk at once.

"One at a time, please," Morwen said. "Or I won't understand a thing any of you are trying to say. Killer first."

"The rabbit?" Trouble curled his lip back, showing his fangs in an expression that wasn't quite a snarl. "Why him?"

"Courtesy to a guest," Morwen replied. "Killer?"

"It's just a hole in the moss," said the rabbit. "It doesn't look like a wizard to me."

"Of course that's not a wizard," Aunt Ophelia said. "That is what a wizard's staff does when it touches a part of the Enchanted Forest . I thought everyone knew that."

"He obviously hasn't been paying attention to the news for at least a year," Miss Eliza said. "Possibly longer." She switched her tail.

"Are you even aware that the King of the Enchanted Forest has been married for nearly fourteen months?"

"Stop badgering," Morwen said to the cats. "And remember that you are in something of a privileged position when it comes to news from the castle." She turned to Killer. "Queen Cimorene has been a friend of mine since before the wedding, and we still keep in touch."