Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [92]
“I think I understand what you’re telling me, but I am not sure how it relates to the wizard’s wusstbunters.”
“Is that what we were talking about?”
“Yes.”
“I’m afraid I don’t remember.”
“You said that the wizard is not evil but ordinary and that he doesn’t really send the wusstbunters to harm you.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
Ellie fought down her impatience. “Then why do they come?”
Old One looked her in the eye. “Have you ever said something that you wouldn’t have said if you’d thought about it before you opened your mouth?”
She nodded. “Oh yes, plenty of times.”
“But you’re learning to control your tongue?”
“It’s hard.”
“Yes, I agree. But we can clamp our lips together and forbid the uncharitable words to come forth.”
“Some people are better at that than others. Gramps would never say a hurtful thing. Ma rarely does. But Da not only says it, he says it loud and clear.” She made a face. “I used to speak way too often when I should have been quiet. I’m learning.”
“Consider the callous words you think. For the wizard, it does not matter if he immediately regrets his unsympathetic thoughts. They become the wusstbunters, and they take the first opportunity to attack the subject of the wizard’s displeasure.”
“Oh my.” Ellie took a moment to think of the many times she’d had cruel thoughts about her siblings. “None of my brothers or sisters would be alive today if wusstbunters flew from my mind.”
A fluttering noise caught their attention, and they both turned toward the back of the library. The dragons of the watch came into sight first, then Bealomondore and Tak. Orli flew to the armrest and perched next to Ellie.
She placed a hand on Orli’s back. “How do you feel?”
The answer came rapidly, and she had to concentrate to catch it all. The minor dragon had physically recovered, but emotionally, he was all atwitter. He told her his spiritual being had been assaulted and only because of his own negligence. He’d allowed Wulder to slip into a corner of his life where He was seldom thought of and seldom consulted.
The minor dragon reasoned that since he’d blocked out Wulder, Wulder wasn’t paying attention. With Wulder removed from the picture, then he, a lowly minor dragon, was in charge. The overwhelming weight of such responsibility had disabled him completely, befoozled him. He was paralyzed in a state of constant dither. He’d ignored his duties to the children and Old One. And humiliation had engulfed him, so he’d refused to tell all he knew to the newcomers.
“We’re the newcomers?”
With his eyes turned away, his shoulders signaling shame, and his head hanging so low that his chin touched his chest when he nodded, he looked so much like one of the high races, like one of her brothers when he’d been naughty, that she almost laughed.
“So what do you need to tell us?”
A rush of images almost knocked Ellie off her seat on the arm of Old One’s chair.
Dark tunnels. A key. Hidden closets. Bottles. A book bound in purple leather. A key. A gate. Dirty children. A sleeping wizard. Glass walls dissolving. A huge city decorated with colorful bunting. A key.
Ellie held her breath, but Bealomondore spoke, “You know the way out.”
Orli’s denial came swiftly, too swiftly for Ellie to understand his torrent of explanations. Bealomondore slowed him down with a series of questions.
“The key?”
“Opens door. Many keys, one door.”
“The tunnels?”
“Under city. Always been there. Old, very old.”
Bealomondore and Ellie looked at each other and said in unison, “The lost city of Tuck.”
“What’s this?” asked Old One. “I’ve never heard of any lost city.”
Bealomondore turned his attention away from the frantic minor dragon and addressed the old urohm. “Tuck is a legend, but many believe the legend is based on fact. Tumanhofers lived underground centuries ago. They built entire cities with elaborate tunnels and snug dens carved into the earth. Most were close to the surface and, once abandoned, collapsed, making odd valleys in the landscape. But the lost city of