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

there to the Vanishing Mountain. The one that succeeds is the next king.”
    “What if there are two dragons strong enough to move it?” Cimorene asked curiously.
    “It’s not a matter of strength,” Kazul said. “Colin’s Stone isn’t much larger than you are. Even a small dragon could carry that much weight twice around the Enchanted Forest without any trouble at all. But Colin’s Stone has an aura, a kind of vibration. When you carry it, you can feel it humming through your claws, and the humming gets stronger the farther you go until your bones are shaking. Most dragons have to drop it or be shaken to pieces, but there’s always one who is ... suited to the stone. For that dragon, the stone’s humming is just a pleasant buzz, so of course it’s easy to get it to the Vanishing Mountain.”
    “You sound as if you’ve had experience,” Cimorene said.
    “Of course,” Kazul responded matter-of-factly. “I was old enough to participate in the tests when the last king died.” She smiled reminiscently. “I got farther than anyone expected me to, though I wasn’t one of the top ten by any means.”
    Cimorene tilted her head to one side, considering. “I think I’m glad you didn’t win.”
    “Oh? Why is that?” Kazul sounded amused.
    “Because you wouldn’t have had any use for a princess if you were the Queen of the Dragons, and if you hadn’t decided to take me on, that yellow-green dragon Moranz would probably have eaten me,” Cimorene explained.
    “You mean, if I were the King of the Dragons,” Kazul corrected her. “Queen of the Dragons is a dull job.”
    “But you’re a female!” Cimorene said. “If you’d carried Colin’s Stone from the Ford of Whispering Snakes to the Vanishing Mountain, you’d have had to be a queen, wouldn’t you?”
    “No, of course not,” Kazul said. “Queen of the Dragons is a totally different job from King, and it’s not one I’m particularly interested in. Most people aren’t. I think the position’s been vacant since Oraun tore his wing and had to retire.”
    “But King Tokoz is a male dragon!” Cimorene said, then frowned. “Isn’t he?”
    “Yes, yes, but that has nothing to do with it,” Kazul said a little testily. “ ‘King’ is the name of the job. It doesn’t matter who holds it.”
    Cimorene stopped and thought for a moment. “You mean that dragons don’t care whether their king is male or female; the title is the same no matter who the ruler is.”
    “That’s right. We like to keep things simple.”
    “Oh.” Cimorene decided to return to the original topic of conversation before the dragon’s “simple” ideas confused her any further. “Why would the wizards be interested in Colin’s Stone if it’s only used for picking out the kings of the dragons?”
    “I doubt that they are,” Kazul replied. “However, Colin’s Stone was found in the Caves of Fire and Night, and wizards have always been interested in the caves. But the dragons control most of them, and all the easy entrances are ours, so the wizards have never been able to find out as much as they would like. The Historia Dracorum is one of the few books that talks about the caves at all, and there aren’t many copies. I’ll wager Zemenar would have stolen it outright if he’d thought he could get away with it.”
    “I thought the dragons let wizards into the Caves of Fire and Night,” Cimorene objected. “Why would Zemenar be poking through history books looking for information if he can just go and look at them whenever he wants to?”
    “We don’t let wizards visit the caves whenever they want,” Kazul said. “If we did, they’d be running in and out all the time, and nobody would be able to breathe without sneezing. No, they’re limited to certain days and times, and if they want to visit the Caves of Fire and Night otherwise, they have to use one of the entrances we don’t control. Few of them try. The other ways of getting into the caves are very