Hurry up!" Cimorene had kept her grip on the sword and she was still on her feet, but she was beginning to turn blue.
"If you say so." Killer stretched out his neck and bit at the air in back of Cimorene. The clay pot crashed to the floor and shattered, spewing dirt and shards of clay, while Killer munched thoughtfully.
"Not bad. It's much more delicate than I'd expected from the way it smells, though. And I can't quite place the flavor." He nibbled delicately next to Cimorene's ear.
Cimorene choked, gasped, and began to regain her proper color. Taking two or three deep breaths, she made a series of brushing and pulling motions around her head and shoulders.
"Hey!" said Killer. "You're knocking it all over the floor!"
Cimorene coughed and glared at him. "That's the idea."
"But it'll get all dusty!"
"You won't have time to worry about that," Vamist said. "I have other snares in my house for criminals and thieves!"
Dodging between two chairs, he jabbed his thumb against a wooden flower carved into the wall. With a high-pitched screeching of metal against metal, the suit of armor next to the door raised its spear to throw.
"Telemain," cried Morwen, "get us out of here!"
The suit of armor let fly. Cimorene evaded the missile easily, but Killer was too large to avoid it quickly. As the edges of the room blurred and ran together in the beginning of Telemain's transportation spell, the spear struck the left side of Killer's chest.
"Eeee-augh!"
Killer reared back, wings flapping. As the mist of transportation cleared, he sat down on the air six inches above a clump of violets.
The spear fell to the ground below him with a loud thump, flattening a strip of moss.
"Killer!" said Cimorene. "Oh no! Morwen-" With the back of her mind, Morwen noted that Telemain had managed to transport them all the way back to the Enchanted Forest in one jump, and that for some reason he had brought Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist along. Most of her attention, however, was centered on Killer, who was flopping around in a manner that would have looked exceptionally silly if she had not been so concerned.
"Stop floundering about like that," Morwen said to the donkey. "I can't do anything to help if I can't get near you."
"Waugh!" Killer rolled sideways and struggled to his feet. "That was uncomfortable. Am I dead?"
"No such luck," said Scorn.
Everyone stared at Killer. There was not a mark on him to show where the spear had struck, though they had all seen it hit him. Then Trouble sauntered forward. Reaching up, he batted at Killer's front hooves. His paw went right through them as if there were nothing in the way but air.
"That's a handy trick," Trouble said. "How'd you do it?"
"Do what?" Killer asked. He looked down in time to see Trouble jump through his right leg. "Eee-augh! I'm a ghost! Oh, help."
"You can't be a ghost," Cimorene said. "It's the middle of the day.
Ghosts only come out at night."
"Most of them," Morwen corrected. "I knew a ghost once who was afraid of the dark, so he always appeared at noon. He had a terrible time scaring anyone. Still, I believe you're right about Killer."
"If I'm not a ghost, why is that-that cat prancing through me like this?"
Killer demanded.
"Side effect," said Morwen. "An extremely opportune side effect, in fact. Eating that invisible dusk-blooming chokevine seems to have made you insubstantial."
"Shouldn't it have made him invisible?" Brandel asked.
"Not necessarily," Telemain said. "The pattern of interactivity among the various layers of enchantment affecting Killer is such that the precise effect of additional incidents is not subject to the usual predictive methods."
"Eeeeee-aaauugh!" Killer's wail of distress was louder and longer than any of his earlier complaints. "If I'm insubstantial, how am I going to eat?"
"We'll take care of that as soon as we return Mendanbar's sword," Morwen told him. "Telemain, if you're quite recovered, we should-Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist! Where do you think you're going?"
"Somewhere else," Vamist said. "You have no right to kidnap me like this!"
"And you have no business aiding and abetting the theft of important magical items from the King of the Enchanted Forest," Cimorene said.
"Besides, I'm a witch," Morwen put in. "Isn't it traditional for witches to steal people away?"
"Not people like me!" Vamist said. "Babies and princesses."
"Babies and princesses are of no practical use whatsoever," Morwen said. "Most of them, anyway. And the ones that are useful don't need to be kidnapped."
"That's not the point!"
"No," said Cimorene. "The point is that we have more important things to do right now. We'll deal with you later; until then, you stay with us. Telemain, can you take us to the castle now?"
"It will be simpler if you will all stand a little closer together," Telemain said. "That's better." He gestured, and the familiar mist rose around them.
When it cleared, they found themselves in a large empty area. Forty feet ahead of them, the enormous trees of the Enchanted Forest rose in massive splendor, but where they stood were only ashes and bare, blackened ground. For a moment, Morwen thought Telemain had made a mistake.
Then she turned her head and saw the castle, with its improbable towers and windows and staircases, shimmering inside a giant ball of golden light.
"Good heavens!" said Cimorene, speaking for them all. "What's happened?"
20
In Which Disaster Strikes
For a long moment, no one answered. Then Morwen said, in a voice that sounded grim even to herself, "The Society of Wizards happened. I just wonder where they've all disappeared to."
"Good riddance, wherever it is," Scorn said. "What a mess."
"Maybe they're inside the castle?" Brandel suggested.
"No," said a pleasant female voice behind them. "Outside the forest.
At least, that's what the dragons tell us. Hello, Brandel; it's nice to. see you again."
"Amory!" Brandel spun around, kicking up a small cloud of ash, and hugged the slender red-haired woman standing in back of him. "So Marli passed my message on."
"Yes, and we've certainly had an interesting time of it." The red-haired woman smiled over Brandel's shoulder at the rest of the group. "I'm Brandel's cousin Amory. You must be Queen Cimorene and the others King Kazul told us about. She wants to see you right away."
"I should hope so," said Trouble.
"What's been going on here?" asked Cimorene. "And where's Mendanbar?"
"Who?" said Amory.
"The King of the Enchanted Forest," Brandel said. "Her husband."
"Oh. I'm afraid I don't know anything about him. I think King Kazul does, though."
"Then take us to Kazul right away," Cimorene said.
Telemain took hold of Vamist's shoulder-the bald man had been trying to slip off again, although there was nowhere near to slip off to-and they followed Amory around the castle. As they walked, little eddies of ash followed everyone except Killer. The cats were very unhappy about the way the fine gray particles stuck to them; Trouble even tried to jump onto Killer's back to get out of the dust, having forgotten about the donkey's lack of solidity.
A quarter of the way around the castle, they saw the first few dragons walking purposefully along the boundary between the forest and the ashy area. As they went on, they saw more dragons, some walking, some flying above the trees. A number of red-haired people-presumably more of Brandel's fire-witch relatives-were standing guard near the edge of the glow that surrounded the castle. Amory nodded to them in passing and cut across the open area to the forest on the far side.
Kazul was just inside the forest, talking with another dragon and two more fire-witches.
"... and now it seems to have stopped growing completely, Your Majesty." The second dragon had a deep, clear voice that carried plainly to the approaching party. "Nobody's sure why."