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How had it happened that he, Horace, was so much smarter than other dragons? Because he and his human brother and sister were of one hatch. Because a creature called a chimaera had interfered as a favor to his mother and sire. Somehow he was as he was and this one was as she was, and this one was strange. Not as intelligent as he, no, but every bit as determined. If she wanted mating she would encourage him; if she didn't, she wouldn't. In her nature, then, she was not much different from him.

  The spring before them was sparkling clear. Reflected in the water, along with the drooping tree limbs festooned with leaves, tall yellow-stalked weeds and bushes heavy with red and yellow fruits, two perfect dragon faces. She, golden and shining; he, copper and dirty now from the mud he had been in. What a pair they would make! How he would enjoy clutching her with his claws, his long tail scale by scale with hers.

  SPLASH!

  He blinked as the water rippled away in all directions. Slowly the wavelets smoothed out and the reflection was returned. Her tail was raised, quivering as she was about to slap.

  Two could play at that! Horace raised his own tail, pivoted away from her, and brought it up fast and hard. His tail struck hers with a stinging shock.

  "OOOMPTH! OWROOTH!" She stopped her downward tail whip, her tail held back by his.

  So, you big old piece of copper trash!

  She stood up in the water on her hind legs. Suddenly, so quickly that it caught him unprepared, she pivoted on her left hind foot and grabbed him with both front legs around the throat. Her extended claws ripped at his back and hooked into his wings. A moment later he was flipped, his head under water, and she was leaning on him, holding him down.

  "Blub, blub," said Horace, appalled at this. Water got into his mouth as he tried to blow it out. Let me up! Let me up! I'll drown!

  You should have thought of that before! The forefront of her body pressed down on his head, forcing his face against hard river rocks that dented into his scales. This was clearly no way to treat a future mate!

  Horace considered that he hadn't really wanted this. The big female who had driven him off and then mated with his rival hadn't been as cute, but Ember was as troublesome. He braced his forefeet against rock, bunched his muscles, and shot his head upwards. His nostrils broke surface, and with their emergence into air his hind feet pushed down and his leg muscles contracted. He lifted her on his head, free of the water. Then, angrily, his forefeet grabbed hers, his neck hunched, and he flopped her down. She went below the water where he had been. He threw his weight against her as they changed places.

  Stop! Stop! I'll drown!

  You should have thought of that before!

  Bubbles of air surfaced, breaking against his snout. His snout was now very near hers, only hers was under water. He counted the bubbles the way Merlain had taught him to count: one, two, three, four, what in the world are we drowning for?

  Her face drifted prettily beneath the water. He hoped he had not held her there too long. Exploratively his tongue shot down, tickling with forked tip the smooth, golden skin of her nostrils.

  "GALOOPTH!" Splash!

  Air and water shot upwards into his mouth and face as Ember coughed and choked. She gave a desperate flop and he held her down, watching her eyes widen and then narrow. Quickly, not wanting her to really drown, he tightened his hold on her and yanked her head above the surface.

  She gasped and spat and choked a while. He considered pushing her down again, holding her longer this time, making her really desperate.

  You're killing me, male chauvinist dragon!

  Now for that she should go down again. He looked into her eyes, darted his tongue out. Her eyes followed its tip.

  I don't really want to hurt you, Ember. That wouldn't be right. Merlain, my sister, would tell me it can't be right.

  She strained against him. Her jaws parted and hastily he moved his tongue back, not wanting it bit. Suddenly her tongue was out, touching his, twining with it.

  Oh, Horace, what kind of a dragon are you, anyway?

  A good dragon, I hope. A dragon with a sister and brother.

  A human sister and brother!

  Yes, and your brother too is human. Doesn't he want you to do good?

  Humans are... humans. Dragons aren't. You're supposed to take me, overpower me with your strength, subdue me. Dragons don't question.

  You do. I do.

  Yes.

  It's our siblings' fault. They misfitted us.

  Bite all humans!

  No!

  No?

  No, I said. Merlain polished my scales. Charles brought me game. Sometimes it was as if the three of us were one.

  Glint fed me meer guts. Glint rubbed plant sap on my baby hurts. Sometimes it was as if Glint and I were from one egg.

  Do, we have to battle more?

  No, Horace. We feel human, though dragon. It is enough.

  Enough, Horace's mind echoed. The bank?

  The water.

  It was enough. They plunged deep into the pool, well beneath the surface. Here, where the water was renewed even in the time of winter, it was the coldest. Here they came together, without pause for breath.

  Later in the day the spring water had quite lost its iciness.

  CHAPTER 5

  Reacquaintances

  Helbah searched with her magic crystals: first the outhouse, then the swimming pool, then the secret hiding places she wasn't supposed to know about. No sign of the kinglings, no evidence that they or their nursemaid, Glow, had even been about. Where had they gone, anyway?

  "Oversleep one morning and everybody's missing," Helbah said to her familiar.

  Katbah arched his shiny black back and stared her full in the face. It was as though the animal, really a part of her, was suggesting something.

  Helbah felt a chill. "Zady!" she said. "She must have—it wasn't natural, my sleeping so late!"

  "Meow," Katbah said. There was unhappiness and fear in the way he said it. Zady had affected Helbah's sleep and could as easily have slain them. But to have overcome Helbah's defense magic would have meant even more power than Helbah had attributed to the evil witch.

  Her crystals, all four of them, blinked a rosy shade of pink. Zady's hated face appeared, wrinkled and hideous as ever, on every one.

  "Satisfied, Helbah? Satisfied that they're not here?"

  "Bag of bones—" Helbah started.

  "Oh my, no," the Zadies told her. "Not at all, my dear. Take a look, Helbah. Take a look at what you have done for me."

  On all four crystals a woman's lush young body with spectacular ripe curves appeared. It was beautiful and would have been arousing to any male except for one astounding fact: from the neck up it was the old Zady with all her hairy warts.

  "What do you want?"

  "Why, dearie, I've returned to thank you."

  "You're welcome. I'm always glad to help your body separate from your head."

  "HISSSSSS," Zady said. It was more the hiss of a serpent than a cat. "Perhaps you'll be interested in this!" Her arms gestured in the crystals and in place of herself were the images of two young men and a young woman crouched on a narrow ledge. Below the ledge eagawks flew a magic pattern back and forth, while beneath the eagawks' talons were clouds and a sheer drop into a dark and forbidding crevasse.

  "You have them," Helbah said. Illusions were one thing, but she knew this was no illusion.

  "Yes."

  "What do you really want?"

  "Control."

  "Over what?"

  "Everything this frame holds. Tell your darling princelings they must abdicate. Zady will be your ruler from now on."

  "You're twenty years behind the times, Zady. Kildom and Kildee aren't the big rulers."

  "No? Then who is?"

  "Horace," Helbah said before she could stop herself. "After your defeat the human and orc kingdoms united and placed a member of a third race in nominal command. Horace has the say over all the kingdoms with the exception of Throod and Rotternik."

&nb
sp; "Horace? That reptile?"

  "Dragon."

  "Ridiculous! Where is he?"

  "Where he wants to be, of course. If he doesn't want you to find him, you won't."

  "Still has the opal in him, does he? I'd have thought an orc would have gutted him for that."

  "You don't know orcs, dragons, or humans," Helbah said with satisfaction. "As a matter of fact you don't know witches except for the few you command."

  "The frames are full of malignant witches," Zady said.

  "The frames are full of those who practice benign magic, as well."

  "Where's your Horace?"

  "Why, Zady, you have to search. When you find him you'd better be polite. He's all grown-up now and he's fond of politeness. I'd be careful for the welfare of his subjects if I were you. Take care that no harm comes to Kildom and Kildee or their nursemaid."

  "Nursemaid! I'll turn her into a sword again!"

  "I wouldn't do that, Zady. Horace wouldn't like it, and neither would I."

  "Don't you want them returned forthright?"

  "You're not going to do that, Zady. Why should I ask it?"

  "You're an infuriating witch!"

  "I always knew you thought so. Thank you. I relish that respect."

  "Respect! For you I have no respect!"

  "You should have, Zady. It was I who defeated you."

  "You and a great many others! Besides, that was but a skirmish. The real war is coming."

  "You mean you can't persuade a dragon to do your bidding?"

  "Persuade it? I'll destroy it!"

  "Of course you will, Zady. At least you will try."

  The imaged Zadies raised right hands and snapped fingers. Instantly the four pinkish crystals grew blood red.

  Helbah raised a hand and gestured an invisible wall of impenetrability between her and the crystals.

  Zady laughed cruelly. At the end of her laugh the crystals imploded, pulling the simple furnishings of Helbah's palace room inward. A moment later the imploded crystals had left behind a spectacular mess.

  Helbah stroked an angry Katbah, smoothing his fur.

  "Yes, Katbah, yes, it will take all the art I can muster. I just hope that art will be sufficient."

  Katbah dehumped his back. He reached a paw up and touched her lips.

  "Yes, Katbah, we have to hope that she will save them. She will want the big triumph, with all around alive to see and suffer. If she ever wins, she will win all. No enemy then will she allow to live unrepentant."

  "Meow," said Katbah sadly.

  "Yes, yes, of all her enemies you and I and the prophesied hero she will try to hurt the worst. We must stop her completely." She sighed. "I only wish that I knew how. The way to defeat Zady isn't at all clear to me."

  Glow shivered on the ledge, feeling the fear of the two kinglets. They were all three terrified by the height, fearful of what their captor planned for them.

  "Kildom, I never thought I'd say this, but I wish we had that book again."

  "That's stupid, Brother!" the young redhead said to his identical twin. "You know how much trouble we were in."

  "Yes, but we were young. Besides, it did get us out of things."

  "It got us into trouble as often as out of trouble. I suppose you'd like to call up that big bird again."

  "Yeah. It got us to Ophal."

  "It also got us into danger, as you-know-who had planned. If Charles hadn't controlled it, it would have eaten all of us."

  "Oh, dear," Glow said. "I wasn't with you and Charles and Merlain, but I know how you must have felt."

  "You were so!" Kildee insisted. "It's just that you were then a sword."

  "Oh yes, and I talked to Charles in his dreams. It was so romantic. I wish we had carefree times like that again."

  "The fact remains," Kildee said pedantically, "that it was you-know-who's planning. She got Merlain to steal the book at the convention and then charmed her into using it."

  "Which was lucky for us," Kildee said. "Without the book we'd not have escaped the orc prison, or—"

  "Without the book and without you-know-who, we'd never have adventured in the first place! The adventure part was fine, but you-know-who had us doing evil. If she'd won out we'd be doing evil still, or we'd be—"

  "Dead."

  "Or enchanted into something," Glow put in. "She might have turned you into swords."

  "That wouldn't have been so bad!" young sovereign Kildee exclaimed. "That might have been fun!"

  "You don't know what you're talking about!" Glow snapped. "You boys think it was fun for me all those years? Let me tell you it wasn't! I had no one to talk to! I couldn't eat anything! I couldn't play! I didn't know where I was most of the time or what was happening to me!"

  "Besides," Kildom said to his brother, "she might not have made us into swords. She could have made us into jugs or pots. Yes, little fat pots and not the kind you cook in!"

  "Boys, boys, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Glow said reprovingly.

  "We're going somewhere?" Kildee asked innocently. "Do you suggest down or up?"

  Glow looked off the ledge at the eagawks flying their magical patterns, then peered down into the depths. Even with Kelvin's very special boots, courtesy of Mouvar, it was a long way down. "I do know something we can try," she said.

  "Try? Try what?" Kildee sounded skeptical.

  "I can try to think to Charles and Merlain. If I can mind-talk to them and tell them what has happened, maybe they can help."

  "We don't know where they are or where we are!" Kildee protested. "Besides, help how?"

  "With Helbah, maybe. With Kelvin, perhaps. Maybe Charles."

  "You're dreaming."

  "I am not! I've had a lot of experience with dreaming, and this is no dream. Now if you'll both shut up, I have to concentrate."

  Glint was tasting a particularly tangy appleberry, which he decided had been picked a little green, when the head buzzing started. Someone trying to reach his thoughts? Horace? He'd have thought the copper-scaled dragon was still involved with Ember. Besides, he doubted that either dragon could mind-speak to him without help. This was a searching thought, a questing thought, a human thought.

  Woman. Female. Mind alike.

  WHAM!

  It was his sister! His sister Glow! Zady had made her forget, and had made him forget. But when her enchantment was broken, so was his. That was what had happened, and it came to him all in a rush. Sister, small and pink and cuddly like him. Learning to walk, learning to play. Taken from their mother, transmuted into swords. Cruel separation. The work of an evil witch, to punish their mother.

  She was mind-searching. Reaching out.

  Sister! Sister!

  Who? What?

  Your brother Glint. Remember?

  A whir of thoughts. Boy and girl twins not related to them. Red-haired, growing-up king twins, also unrelated. Fight on mountaintop. Switch of sword. Long fall. Zady's head in talons of eagawk.

  So much. So very much. Yet he got it. He knew what Glow knew and she knew all that was him. Twin mind-talking was like that. Charles and Merlain and Horace were like that as well.

  She's got you again.

  Yes.

  The evil old witch!

  Yes. Help. Please help.

  I will. If I can. He did not want to become a sword again. Neither would he abandon his sister.

  I don't know where we are. It's high. It's a mountain, but where?

  Eagawks flying. Great chasm. Dragon territory, because of strength of your thoughts. He'd seen the eagawks flying, had followed them, had seen a beautiful woman from afar. An eagawk had brought her meat. When the woman had turned in the light, wrinkled face bloody, and he had seen her clearly, he knew it was Zady. He had blocked his thoughts, just in case, knowing then that she was still developing, growing, becoming an apparent human again.

  You saw her! You knew she was here, Glint?

  Yes.

  Why didn't you destroy her when you had the chance?

/>   I was afraid of her. Once I knew it was her I never went near the nesting site again!

  Glint, can you help me now?

  I can try, Glint thought to his unseen sister. I know where she has you. It's a long way from here.

  Glint, get Horace. Horace can carry you. Horace has the opal. He can bring you directly here.

  Yes, with Horace's help I just may be able to rescue you.

  Hurry, Glint! Hurry before she returns!

  Kelvin was admiring his newly bulging arm and leg muscles and flat stomach in the reflection in the clear river water. He strutted just a bit, shoulders back, imagining himself a handsome and heroic young adventurer. Except for a bit thinner hair and a reasonably matured face, he was almost the Kelvin who tried to fight against orcs and ended up slicing off Witch Zady's ugly head. Those had been the days—they really had!

  "Kelvin, you preening turcock!" Lester had been watching him, a hint of disapproval on his face, instead of his fishing bobber. Now as he spoke a trass took that opportunity to snatch the bait and run with the line, propelling Lester upright.

  "That's a big one, Dad!" Kathy Jon exclaimed. As usual she had been the one to come along while her brothers begged their way out of the fishing trip. Though Kathy hadn't the patience of a born fisher, she did take the delight. She was in mannish clothing, as usual: brownberry shirt and shorts. She avoided feminine apparel whenever possible.

  "Don't get your line tangled with hers!" Kelvin warned. "Give him line! He'll break your—"

  Lester's rambloo pole bent double as he heaved on it. A dark shadow moved up from the depths: a trass of near-record size. "Lester, you're putting too much strain on that!"

  "I am not! Get your line back!"

  CRACK!

  The broken half of Lester's pole splashed its reflection, then made a wake as the trass swam away with it.

  "Damn!" Lester swore. "It's your fault, Kelvin! You and your advice!"

  "Don't blame me! You're the one who put the pressure on."

  "I'll get him, Dad!"

  "Kathy, no!"

  SPLASH!

  Water splashed shockingly cold on Kelvin's sweaty face and his new clothes. He rubbed and shook drops from his eyes and saw a pair of pretty, slim, well-browned legs dipping below the river's surface.