Dealing with Dragons: Chapters 12–15

“I am Cimorene, princess to the dragon Kazul, and I offer you greetings and good fortune in all your endeavors.”

“Ha!” Roxim snorted, examining the dents. “Shoddy work, shoddy work, that’s the problem.”

“Now, what’s this message of Kazul’s?”
“It’s about the wizards,” Cimorene said, settling gingerly onto the dusty surface of the chest.

“A reasonable point,” Kazul said, settling reluctantly back into place.

Substitutes had to be found to perform Kazul’s various ceremonial duties, then their names had to be approved by a surly dragon in charge of protocol, and finally the substitutions had to be recorded on all the lists of all the dragons who were managing each of the events.

Substitutes had to be found to perform Kazul’s various ceremonial duties, then their names had to be approved by a surly dragon in charge of protocol, and finally the substitutions had to be recorded on all the lists of all the dragons who were managing each of the events.

“We knew Tokoz would never give it to us, but Woraug will, as soon as he’s King of the Dragons. He’ll have to, or we’ll tell everyone how we were the ones who made sure he was the new king. Of course, we can’t afford to have anybody around who might make...awkward revelations.”

“I doubt that dragons will listen to a couple of hysterical princesses, but he”—Antorell pointed at the stone prince—”will have to go.”

They materialized at the very edge of a river, on a flat, narrow rock that jutted out over the water, and Alianora immediately slipped on the wet stone.

“Sloppy,” Morwen said. “Very sloppy. Though I’m not surprised. Wizards always seem to depend on brute force when a little subtlety would be far more effective.”

The escort dragon was not interested in Cimorene’s worries, however, and he refused to speed things up, so the group ambled on.

Alianora looked faintly indignant at this unflattering opinion.

A mottled dragon standing beside Kazul shifted and flicked his tail angrily at Cimorene.

The dragons all bowed, and eddies of movement began in various sections of the crowd.

“I’m the King. One of the advantages of being King is that nobody objects to whims like keeping a princess when you’re not supposed to need one. If it bothers you, we’ll give you a different title: King’s Cook and Librarian, maybe. Stop worrying and go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for both of us.”