Wrede, Patricia C - Enchanted Forest 01 by Dealing, Dragons Page A

to turn back to the center of the room, she caught a glimpse of Zemenar hastily closing the Historia Dracorum . Cimorene pretended not to notice, but she made a mental note that he had been looking at something near the middle of the book.
    “That was dreadfully careless of you,” Cimorene said, frowning at Antorell.
    “Very clumsy,” Zemenar agreed.
    “I don’t know what Kazul will say when she finds out about it,” Cimorene went on. “Really, it is too bad of you. I did ask you not to touch anything, you know.”
    “Yes, you did,” Zemenar said. “And I wouldn’t like to think that we had gotten you in trouble. Perhaps it would be best if you didn’t mention to Kazul that we were here at all.”
    “I suppose I could do that,” Cimorene said in a doubtful tone.
    “Of course you can,” Antorell said encouragingly. “And I’ll come back in a few days, to make sure everything’s all right.”
    “I think it’s time we were on our way,” Zemenar said, giving his son a dark look. “Thank you for showing us around. Princess.”
    *           *           *
    Cimorene escorted them out of the cave and made sure they had left, then hurried back to the library. She spent the next several hours poring over the middle parts of the Historia Dracorum , trying to figure out what Zemenar had been looking at. She was still there when Kazul arrived home and called for her.
    “That wizard Zemenar finally came, and he brought his son along with him,” Cimorene said as she came out of the library.
    “I know,” said Kazul. Her voice sounded a little thick, as if she had a cold. “I could smell them the minute I came in.”
    “Is that why you sound so odd?” Cimorene asked. “You’re not going to sneeze, are you?”
    “I don’t think so,” Kazul replied. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll have plenty of time to turn my head away.”
    “I wish I could get hold of some hens’ teeth,” Cimorene said, frowning. “That fireproofing spell—”
    “Have you looked in the treasure rooms?” Kazul asked.
    “No,” Cimorene replied, startled. She remembered seeing a number of jars and bottles of various shapes and sizes when she had been organizing the treasure, and none of them had been labeled. “I didn’t think of it and besides, it’s your treasure.”
    “You’re my princess, at least until someone rescues you or I decide otherwise,” Kazul pointed out. “Go ahead and look, and if you find any hens’ teeth, use them. Be careful when you’re checking the jars, though. There are one or two with lead stoppers that shouldn’t be opened.”
    “Lead stoppers,” Cimorene said. “I’ll remember.”
    “Good. Now, what did those wizards want?”
    “I’m not sure.” Cimorene explained everything that had happened, including how she had seen Zemenar closing the history book as she turned and how the two wizards had been perfectly willing to leave right after that. “But just before they disappeared, Antorell said he might come back another time,” Cimorene concluded. “So I don’t know whether they found what they were looking for or not.”
    “Do you know which part of the Historia Dracorum Zemenar was reading?” Kazul asked.
    “Somewhere in the middle, a little past my bookmark,” Cimorene replied. “I was just looking at it when you came in. It’s the part about how the dragons came to the Mountains of Morning and settled into the caves and chose a king.”
    ‘That’s the section where the Historia describes the Caves of Fire and Night, isn’t it?” Kazul said.
    Cimorene nodded. “There was a whole page about somebody finding a stone in the caves so that the dragons could pick a king. It didn’t make much sense to me.”
    “Colin’s Stone,” Kazul said, nodding. “We’ve used it to choose our king ever since the first time. When a king dies, all the dragons go to the Ford of Whispering Snakes in the Enchanted Forest and take turns trying to move Colin’s Stone from