“I’m not sure the rules cover this situation at all,” Kazul said. “But it sounds reasonable enough, and under the circumstances I doubt that anyone will object. Unless of course she does.”

“Oh!” said Alianora, and blushed a rosy red. “No, I don’t object at all!”

“Are you sure?” the stone prince said anxiously. “You won’t mind waiting a while to marry me? I mean, if you’re willing to marry me? You needn’t, you know, if the idea doesn’t appeal to you.”

“It appeals to me very much,” Alianora said, blushing redder than ever. “But why do you say that we have to wait?”

The stone prince sighed. “I still have to find a king and do him a great service, and that’s bound to take a while.”

“For a young man as intelligent as you seem to be, you’re remarkably foolish,” Morwen commented. “What on earth do you think you’ve just done?”

An expression of astonishment spread across the prince’s face. “You mean the king I was supposed to serve is the King of the Dragons?”

“Exactly,” Morwen said. “And I doubt that you could do her a greater service than saving the throne from Woraug’s plotting.”

“That’s settled, then,” Kazul said. “Let’s get the rest of the ceremonies finished and get back to the mountains. There’s a great deal of work to be done.”

The dragons all bowed, and eddies of movement began in various sections of the crowd. Shortly, two dragons came forward carrying Colin’s Stone. It looked like a long black log about three times as thick as Cim­orene’s waist and twice as tall as she was. The dragons laid it in front of Kazul and backed away. Another dragon appeared, holding a large circlet made of iron, with six spikes poking upward at intervals around the rim. Kazul set her front feet on the black stone, and the dragon set the circlet on her head. The crowd of dragons began cheering again, and after a few minutes they began forming a line to congratulate their new King and present their coronation gifts. Other dragons set up large tubs of wine and platters of meat and cheese, which were quickly surrounded.

In the middle of the presentations, the dragons Kazul had sent off to the blackberry clearing returned, and Kazul took a short break from accepting congratulations to hear what they had to say.

“The wizards showed up before we’d been there more than ten minutes, Your Majesty,” said the pale green dragon who was the leader of the group. “Six of them, just like your princess said.”

“They weren’t happy to see us,” the youngest dragon said smugly.

“I would think not.” Kazul smiled. “What did you do with them?”

“We chased five of them away,” the pale dragon reported. “I don’t think they’ll be back, either.”

“Five?”