“You’ll be quite all right as long as you’re with me,” Kazul assured her. “Very few things are willing to mess with a dragon, even in the dark. And the periods of darkness don’t last long. It’s because the magic of these caves doesn’t affect us as much as other people, or so I’m told.”

“You mean that blackness is likely to come back?”

Kazul nodded.

“Then let’s get as far as we can before it does,” Cim­orene said, and started across the cave.

There were four tunnels leading out of the opposite side of the glittering cavern. Kazul took the second from the left without hesitating an instant.

“Where do all these tunnels go?” Cimorene asked, glancing at the other three openings as she followed Kazul.

“The one on the right end leads to a chain of caverns,” Kazul said over her shoulder. “The first few are quite ordinary, but then you come to one full of hot sulfur pools. Some of the older dragons bathe there. They claim the water is good for rheumatism. Beyond that is a cave with molten silver dripping down the walls, and the chain ends at a deep chasm with a river of red-hot melted rock at the bottom.”

“Doesn’t sound very attractive,” Cimorene commented.

“The dwarfsmiths find it very useful for forging magic swords,” Kazul assured her. “The second tunnel on the right takes you into a maze. The tunnels and caverns constantly shift around, so that no matter how carefully you mark your way, you always get lost.”

“Even dragons?”

Kazul nodded. “Though I believe there was one prince who managed to find his way out with a magic ball of string.”

“Oh, bother!” said Cimorene. The lights had gone out again, just as they emerged into a small cave.

“It’s quite all right. This part’s easy,” Kazul said.

“Next time I’m going to bring a cane,” Cimorene muttered. “Where do the other tunnels lead?”

“The one on the far left goes through a couple of caverns that are pretty, but not very interesting. We’re always chasing knights and princes out of it, though. They come for flasks of water from the bottomless pool at the far end.”

“What does it do?” Cimorene asked. “Ow!” She had just banged her right elbow against the wall of the cave in the dark.

“It casts a cloud of darkness for twenty miles around when it’s poured on the ground,” Kazul replied.

“How useful,” Cimorene muttered balefully, rubbing her elbow.

“And this tunnel leads to the Enchanted Forest, by way of the King’s Cave,” Kazul finished.