“Well, you can do it to me now,” Cimorene said.

Alianora took the bowl and feather from Cimorene.

“You’re right,” Cimorene said a moment later. “It does tickle.”

“Now what?” Alianora said.

“Set the bowl down and shut your eyes,” Cimorene instructed. When Alianora had done so, Cimorene closed her own eyes and said:

“Power of water, wind and earth,

Turn the fire back to its birth.

Raise the spell to shield the flame

By the power that we have tamed.”

“Oh!” said Alianora. “That feels peculiar. Can I open my eyes now?”

“Yes,” said Cimorene, opening her own. “We’re finished.”

“Did it work?” Alianora asked, cautiously opening one eye and squinting at Cimorene.

“Well, something happened. We both felt it,” Cim­orene said. “And your hair and forehead don’t have brown gunk on them any more.”

Alianora promptly opened both eyes and studied Cimorene. “Neither do yours. What does that mean?”

“It means we go back to the kitchen and test it,” Cimorene said. She bent over and picked up the mixing bowl. “We’ll clean up later. Come on.”

10

In Which Cimorene and Alianora Conduct Some Tests and Disturb a Wizard

BACK IN THE KITCHEN, CIMORENE AND ALIANORA quickly determined that the fireproofing spell had indeed worked. First Cimorene, then Alianora tossed a pinch of feverfew into the air and recited the spell-verse, then put a hand into a candle flame and held it there. Neither was burned at all, though Alianora claimed that the candle tickled almost as much as the eagle feather had done.

“How long does the spell last?” Alianora asked.

“I’m not sure, exactly,” Cimorene said. “At least an hour, but I’ll have to do some tests to pin it down beyond that. I hope Kazul gets back soon. I want to see if it works with dragon fire.”

“You’re going to have Kazul breathe fire at you, just to see if the spell works?” Alianora said, horrified. “What if it doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll talk to Kazul, and we’ll go see Morwen, and the three of us will try to figure out what to change to make the spell work for dragon fire, too. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to stand in front of Kazul and have her breathe fire at me. I’ll just stick out a finger, the way we did with the candle.”

This was not enough to convince Alianora, but Cim­orene was determined. “The whole point of trying this spell was to make ourselves immune to dragon fire,” she said. “If it doesn’t work, I don’t want to find out for the first time when one of Kazul’s guests gets mad and breathes fire at me because he doesn’t like the way I cooked his cherries jubilee.”