For a moment all three were glumly silent. Cimorene stared at the water, remembering how and where she had gotten the feathers. Suddenly she raised her head.

“We may not know where the wizards are, but I’ll bet I know someone who can find out. Hold this for a minute.”

Cimorene handed one of her buckets to Alianora, then dug out the packet of feathers. She pulled the second feather from the packet and grabbed Alianora’s elbow. “Hold tight, everybody. I wish we were at Morwen’s house,” Cimorene said, and dropped the feather.

The scenery shifted abruptly, and they were standing on Morwen’s porch. The house was just as tidy-looking as Cimorene remembered, and the porch floor gleamed as if it had just been washed. A black and white cat, startled by their sudden appearance, fell off the porch railing. Four others left off washing themselves to stare at Cimorene with unwinking green and yellow eyes.

“I need to talk to Morwen,” Cimorene said to the cats. “It’s an emergency.”

A lean tiger-stripped cat rose and oozed through a crack in the door. Cimorene unwound herself from Alianora and the stone prince and set her bucket on the porch floor. “I hope this works,” she muttered to herself as Alianora and the prince placed their buckets beside hers.

14

In Which the Wizards Try to Make Trouble, and Cimorene Does Something About It

THE DOOR OF THE COTTAGE OPENED and Morwen stepped out. “What sort of emergency?” she asked. She studied Alianora and the stone prince for a moment, then peered at Cim­orene over the tops of her glasses and added with some severity, “I hope you weren’t referring to his predicament. He may well find it an inconvenience, but it certainly isn’t an emergency. Not by my standards, anyway.”

“No,” said Cimorene, “I was talking about the wizards. They’ve poisoned the King of the Dragons, and now they’re trying to interfere with Colin’s Stone so that Woraug will be the new king. We have to stop them, but we don’t know where they are, and Woraug’s going to try to carry the stone any minute. Can you find them for us?”

Morwen blinked twice and shoved her glasses back into place with her forefinger. “I see,” she said. “You’re right. It’s an emergency. I’ll do what I can. But if you don’t tell me the whole story later, when there’s a bit more time, I shall—I shall turn you all into mice and give you to the cats. Wait here.”

As she spoke, Morwen disappeared into the house. She reappeared a moment later, holding a small mirror and muttering over it. “Colin’s Stone,” she said, and breathed on the glass. She looked up. “Any wizard in particular?”

“Zemenar, the Head Wizard of the Society of Wizards,” Cimorene said, wishing Morwen would go faster and knowing she couldn’t.