“Everything,” Kazul said. “And if you think straightening out things here was difficult, wait until you see the mess the official vaults are in.”

“Oh, dear,” said Cimorene. “Is it very bad?”

Kazul nodded. “I’ve just come from looking at it. You’ll see for yourself tomorrow. There’s a smallish cave next to the library that I think will do nicely for you, but I’d like you to look at it before we start hauling things around.”

“You mean you want me to stay?” Cimorene blurted. “But I thought the King of the Dragons didn’t need a princess!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kazul said. “How am I going to get my cherries jubilee if you don’t stay? And you haven’t even started cataloguing the library, and how else am I going to get the King’s treasure vaults arranged so I can find things? I’m not going to have time to do it.”

“Won’t the rest of the dragons object?”

Kazul snorted. “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.”

Cimorene smiled and went off to her rooms with a light heart. She slept soundly and was up early next morning. Kazul was already awake and supervising three of the younger dragons, who were packing up the treasure and the library. Since Cimorene was pressed into service at once, it was several hours before she could get away to keep her promise to Alianora.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Cimorene apologized when she arrived at Woraug’s cave at last. “But it didn’t occur to me that Kazul would be moving, too, and she wanted me to help.”

“It’s all right,” Alianora assured her. “It wasn’t as big a job as I’d expected, and the prince helped. I’m almost finished.” She gestured at an almost-full suitcase lying open on the floor. On the other side of the room, the stone prince was stacking the empty drawers from Alianora’s bureau.

“Well, at least I got here in time to say goodbye,” Cimorene said.

“You’re staying with the dragons, then?” the stone prince asked, straightening with a frown. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Of course she’s sure,” Alianora said. “Kazul’s going to need her even more than she did before, and Cim­orene wouldn’t be happy in a normal kingdom.”

“How did you know that?” Cimorene said, staring at Alianora.

“It’s obvious. Linderwall is about as normal a kingdom as you can get. If you ran away from there, you certainly wouldn’t be happy anywhere like it.”