“It’s a good thing I’m not a wizard,” Cimorene said. “Ready? Here we go.” She twisted her hand toward the edge of the iron pot and let go of the black feather. “I wish we were at the Ford of Whispering Snakes,” she said as the feather fell, and the room dissolved around them.

They materialized at the very edge of a river, on a flat, narrow rock that jutted out over the water, and Alianora immediately slipped on the wet stone. If the stone prince had not been so solid and heavy, all three of them would have fallen into the river. As it was, it took Cimorene and Alianora several seconds to regain their balance. When she was finally sure of her footing, Cimorene breathed a sigh of relief and quickly looked about her.

The Ford of Whispering Snakes was crowded. Dragons of all sizes and shades of green lined the banks of the river and filled the spaces beneath the towering trees of the Enchanted Forest. On the far bank, a pale dragon was poring over a parchment list that Cimorene thought she remembered seeing during one of the many errands she had run the previous night. All the dragons seemed to be talking at once, and none of them noticed Cimorene and her friends.

“Hello, dragons!” Cimorene shouted, trying to make herself heard above the noise.

“Here, now! What’s all this?” an olive-green dragon on the bank demanded, turning. “Someone’s trying to sneak a look at the trials.”

“S-s-s-sneakssss,” hissed a soft but nonetheless clearly audible voice from somewhere near Cimorene’s feet. Cimorene jumped and looked down, but though she craned her neck to see all around her, she could not find the second speaker.

“Get rid of them before Troum comes back with Colin’s Stone,” another dragon advised.

“We aren’t trying to sneak in, and we don’t care about watching the trials,” Cimorene said, wishing she dared to look around for Kazul. “We came to warn you about the wizards.”

“Wiz-z-zardssss,” the soft voice echoed.

“Wizards?” the olive-green dragon said skeptically. “There aren’t any wizards here.”

“No, but they’ve figured out some way of interfering with your choice of the next king,” Cimorene said. “They’re hiding somewhere. You have to put off the trials with Colin’s Stone until we can find them and stop them. If you’ll just tell Kazul we’re here—”

“Put off the trials?” the olive-green dragon interrupted. “Impossible! They’ve been under way for half an hour. We can’t just stop in the middle. Who are all you people, anyway?”

A flicker of motion caught Cimorene’s eye, and she looked down just in time to see a thin red snake dart from one clump of weeds to the next. “S-s-s-sneaksss,” whispered the soft voice an instant later. “S-s-sneaksss and wiz-z-zardsss.”