“I wouldn’t have asked you if I knew,” I said. “It’s a sword. I think it’s magic.”
“It’s a sword! He thinks it’s magic!” Suz ran around twice in a small circle, then did the tail-balancing trick again. “Where did you get it?” the little lizard demanded.
“My mother gave it to me. She got it out of the Enchanted Forest somewhere.” I was getting a little tired of this. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“Your mother gave it to you. The Sword of the Sleeping King, that everyone in the world has been looking for for fifteen or twenty years, and your mother gave it to you.” The lizard got so agitated he fell over again. “That isn’t right. That isn’t reasonable. My dear boy, that simply isn’t done! Even in the Enchanted Forest there is a proper order for these things! Someone will have to notify them at the castle immediately. Oh, dear, what a stir this will cause!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. What’s the Sword of the Sleeping King?” I’d never heard of it before, which rather surprised me. After Mother made me memorize all those pages of names and titles and peculiar weapons, I’d thought I knew the name of every magic sword in the world.
“You don’t know?” The lizard froze in the middle of getting back up on his tail. He looked like a golden pretzel. “No, you don’t! Oh, my. You’d better go to the castle at once. Kazul will know what to do with you. I’d better go there myself, right away.” Suz untwisted and darted off into the undergrowth.
“Wait!” I shouted. “What castle? Who is Kazul? And why—”
The lizard looked back. “I don’t have time for that! And even if I did, I couldn’t tell you. You have to find out yourself. Magic swords always work that way. Don’t you know anything?”
“Do you want me to recite the names of the Four Hundred Minor Swords of Korred the Spellsmith? . . . I know lots of things. I just don’t know about this. How do I find out?”
“Follow the sword, silly,” Suz said, and disappeared among the leaves.
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About the Author
PATRICIA C. WREDE has written many novels, including Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and The Grand Tour coauthored with Caroline Stevermer, as well as the four books in her own series, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Patricia C. Wrede, Calling on Dragons
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