Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [126]
He led them to his throne room, and the children sat on the floor. He pointed to Toady first and released her voice. She asked her question, got an answer, and the wizard moved on to another child.
Ellie thought about how good his method would be for handling children in a classroom or even her own large family around the dinner table. The thought instantly made her think of her little brothers and sisters. Her heart ached to hear their voices. Hopefully she and Bealomondore would leave Rumbard City and the lost city of Tuck soon.
Bealomondore woke to the smell of baking bread and frying bacon. He looked around the room where he’d slept with several other boys. The tumanhofer beds were the right size for him, and a comfortable fit for six-year-old-sized urohms. Several were still asleep, but three had deserted the bedroom.
Bealomondore got up and checked the closet, hoping to find fresh clothing. The cupboards were bare. But thankfully, from the sounds and smells coming from the kitchen, the pantry was well stocked.
A few minutes later, he entered the kitchen through the dining room. He greeted Ellie and Wizard Pater and the two girls who helped with the cooking, then voiced his concern.
“I thought there would be more children at the tables.”
Wizard Pater brandished the fork he used for turning sausages. “Some have finished eating and already embarked on the quest for the bottle.”
Lisby looked up from buttering biscuits. “The bottle has a stick figure man on it with his head in a cloud. That is the symbol for memories.”
Bealomondore nodded. He could see how that would represent someone with a cloudy memory.
“Of course,” explained the wizard, “not all the memories are gone, just those pertaining to urohms and Rumbard City.”
Ellie’s smile was extra bright this morning. “When we open the bottle, people in the neighboring villages and countryside will remember long ago, when the urohms first came and the time they spent building.”
The wizard winked at her. “And the glass bottle around the city will dissolve.”
Bealomondore took the warm biscuit Lisby offered him. “Thank you, pretty girl.” She giggled and he turned to Wizard Pater. “Is there any trick or ceremony that needs to be done?”
“No, just take out the cork, and let the liquid evaporate into the air. It’s gradual, but that’s better for the populace who are doing all the remembering. Don’t want to rush something like that.”
“Of course not.”
Bealomondore settled at the kitchen table to have breakfast. He asked about clothing and learned that the wizard had no stores of that type. Tuck was deserted when he found himself the sole inhabitant.
The morning passed comfortably. He and Ellie strolled through the well-lit tunnels of the unique city. They admired the architecture and visited home after home with an eye out for a bottle marked with a man whose head hid in a cloud.
The children searched as well but soon lost interest and occupied their time with a few toys left by tumanhofer children. Most of these were broken, and the wizard stopped his inventory of the bottle closet to patiently mend them.
Bealomondore sent Orli and Det back to inform Old One about finding the underground city. Some of the minor dragons returned to Rumbard City to perform the duties of the watch.
After hours of roaming from one house to another, visiting closed stores, and locating the public records building, Bealomondore and Ellie returned for noonmeal.
Wizard Pater had not bothered to prepare their food in the kitchen, even though he said cooking breakfast had been a pleasant experience. He didn’t relish assembling meals three times a day, every day, by that method. Instead, he handed them meals in baskets and on platters just as he had