Talking to Dragons Read Free Page A

about.
    â€œYou’re Daystar?” The lizard did something very tangled very quickly and ended up balanced on his tail. “So you are! Well, my goodness. I hadn’t expected to see you around here for a while yet.”
    â€œYou were expecting me?”
    â€œOf course.” The lizard looked smug. “I know everything that goes on in the Enchanted Forest. Absolutely
everything!
I’ve seen you in the Outer Forest. It was only a matter of time before you got this far, though I thought it would take longer. I’m Suz, by the way.”
    â€œPleased to meet you,” I said.
    â€œYou are?” The lizard leaned forward and almost lost his balance. “Yes, you really are! How positively extraordinary. Whatever are you doing in the Enchanted Forest?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said.
    â€œYou don’t know!” The lizard did a back flip and scurried up onto a fat tree root, where he would have a better view. He balanced on his tail again and looked at me thoughtfully. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, why are you here?”
    I thought for a moment. “Do you really know everything that happens in this forest?”
    â€œOf course I do.” Suz looked offended. An offended lizard is an interesting sight.
    â€œI didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything,” I said hastily. “I just wondered if you could tell me where this came from.” I touched the sword Mother had given me.
    The lizard squinted in my general direction. “What? It’s on the wrong side of you, silly. Bring it over where I can see it. If it came from the Enchanted Forest, I can tell you about it.”
    I lifted the sword, sheath and all, and twisted it around so it was on the same side of me as Suz. The lizard promptly fell over backward.
    â€œOh dear me my gracious goodness my oh,” he squeaked. “Do you know what that
is?
”
    â€œI wouldn’t have asked you if I knew,” I said. “It’s a sword. I think it’s magic.”
    â€œIt’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.
    â€œMy 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?”
    â€œYour 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!”
    â€œI’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.
    â€œYou 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.
    â€œWait!” 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?
”
    â€œDo you want me to recite the names of the Four Hundred Minor Swords of Korred the Spellsmith?