Chapters (22)
Kazul returned just before dinner, and she and Cimorene compared notes. Cimorene told Kazul what she had learned from the chapter on the Caves of Fire and Night, and then Kazul explained what she had learned from Gaurim.
“The stolen book was The Kings of the Dragons, and the entire first section was about Colin’s Stone and the Caves of Fire and Night,” Kazul said. “And only a wizard could have gotten past the spells and safeguards Gaurim puts on her library. I think that settles it. The wizards are definitely collecting information about the Caves of Fire and Night.”
“Then why do they keep looking at books of dragon history?” Cimorene asked. “It seems like a roundabout way of finding out whatever it is that they want to know.”
“There isn’t any other way to do it,” Kazul said. “Nobody but dragons has ever had much to do with the caves, and no one has written much about them except in dragon histories. Even the wizards weren’t particularly interested in them until a few years ago, except as a reliable route into the Enchanted Forest.”
“But from what I’ve been reading in the Historia Dracorum, the caves sound fascinating,” Cimorene said. “You mean to say that no one has ever written anything about the Caves of Fire and Night except dragons?”
“That’s—” Kazul stopped suddenly, and her eyes narrowed. “No, that’s not right. There was a rather rumpled scholar who talked his way into the caves a century or so back, and after he left he wrote an extremely dry book about what he found there. I’d forgotten about him.”
“Do you have a copy?” Cimorene asked hopefully.
“No,” Kazul said. “But I don’t think the Society of Wizards does, either. There weren’t very many of them printed, and a lot of those were lost in a flood a few years later. Some hero or other shoved a giant into a lake to drown him. The silly clunch didn’t realize that if he put something that big into a lake, the water would have to go somewhere.”
“Well, that doesn’t do us much good,” Cimorene said. “It’s nice that the Society of Wizards doesn’t have a copy of that book, but if we can’t get hold of one either—”
“I didn’t say that,” Kazul said. “I don’t have a copy myself, but I know who does.”
“Who?” Cimorene said impatiently.
“Morwen. I’m afraid you’re not going to be able to work on that fireproofing spell of yours tomorrow. We’re going to take a trip to the Enchanted Forest instead.”