“I’m glad he’s gone,” she said, “but how could you melt Morwen just to get at that wizard?”

“But I didn’t,” the stone prince said. “Look.”

Cimorene and Alianora turned. Morwen seemed no shorter than usual, though she certainly looked very damp. She had taken off her glasses and was shaking water off them. “Don’t just stand there,” she said crossly to Cimorene. “Hand me a dry handkerchief.”

“Just a minute,” Cimorene said, checking her pockets. She found the handkerchief that had been wrapped around the magic feathers and handed it to Morwen. “Um, why didn’t you melt?”

“Clean living,” Morwen said as she began to dry her glasses on Cimorene’s handkerchief.

“I thought as much,” the stone prince said in a satisfied tone. “Nobody who lives in a house as clean as yours could possibly melt in a bucket of soapsuds.”

“Quite right,” Morwen said approvingly. “You have a good head on your shoulders, young man. What’s this?” She held up a sharp-edged black pebble.

“It’s a piece of stone I found in the Caves of Fire and Night,” Cimorene said.

“Where, exactly?”

“In the King’s Cave,” Cimorene said. “Morwen, shouldn’t we do something about that spell Zemenar mentioned?”

Alianora was watching the sky, shading her eyes with her hand. “Woraug’s nearly halfway to the mountain,” she said anxiously.

“Good,” said Morwen, though neither Cimorene nor Alianora could tell which of them she was talking to. The witch shook her wet robes and walked over to the patch of dead moss where the wizards had been working, picking her way carefully past little piles of robes and staffs. Cimorene followed. In the center of the brown area was a black stone the size of Cimorene’s fist. A web of yellow-green light flickered across its smooth surface.

“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.” She fingered Cimorene’s pebble for a moment, then reached out and dropped it on top of the wizards’ stone.

There was a noise like a great deal of popcorn all popping at once, and the light that flickered over the black stone spat yellow-green sparks in all directions. Alianora jumped and backed away. Cimorene would have liked to do the same, but she did not want to give Morwen a bad impression of her courage, so she stayed where she was.

The sparks died, and the flickering light went out. From the sky high above came a faint shriek of surprise and rage. Cimorene looked up and saw three black specks in the sky. No, not three: four, and the two escort dragons were swooping to catch the speck that was Colin’s Stone, which Woraug had just dropped.