Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [129]
He rejected each book Kale found until she reached her arm into the hollow up to her shoulder and recovered a small blue leather book with ancient yellowed pages.
The librarian frowned as he opened it. “Someone has been restoring these volumes.” He leveled a glare at the o’rant girl. “Risky business. You could do a lot of damage.”
Kale shook her head and spread her hands in an innocent gesture. “Not me, it was the cape.”
Librettowit carefully turned the fragile pages until he came to a passage of interest. He harrumphed a few times as he read.
“I could send it to my castle,” suggested Fenworth.
“No,” said the tumanhofer and scratched his brow.
“Use it to bake a cake and then do the backward spell once we’re out of this hideous mountain.”
“No,” said Librettowit and squinted fiercely behind his spectacles.
Lee Ark, Brunstetter, and Leetu stood at attention. Dar shifted from foot to foot. With big yawns, the minor dragons disappeared into their pocket-dens. Fenworth stroked his beard, dislodging a whole family of mice and a sparrow.
“Just as I feared,” Librettowit said.
“What can we do?” asked the wizard.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You went to university so that in a time of crisis you come up with nothing? Preposterous. We should have brought a plumber instead of a librarian.”
He turned to address Lee Ark. “I knew it at the time, but he mopes if you leave him at home.”
The tumanhofer’s face went red beneath his whiskers. With his book tucked under one arm, he stepped in front of the old wizard and with a pointed finger jabbed him in the beard at waist level. “I didn’t want to come on this quest. I told you I’m a librarian, not an individual given to questing.”
Fenworth bent forward and growled. “You should have told me you were a plumber! I would have left a plumber at home. In fact, I did. I did leave the plumber at home and brought a librarian.”
Librettowit shook his fist in the wizard’s face. “You don’t even know a plumber.”
Lee Ark stepped forward, separating them. He stood between the angry men and patted each on a shoulder. “If the bisonbecks don’t hear the egg, they will hear you. I suggest we leave.”
Fenworth straightened and looked at the floor strewn with bisonbeck warriors slain minutes before. “Quite a good idea, actually. It’s getting crowded down here.” He looked down the dungeon corridor in both directions. “Which way would you suggest we go, Wit? You’ve always had a good head for directions. Especially underground.”
Librettowit signaled for the others to follow and led them back the way Kale had come with Seezle and Shimeran. As they passed the room where the orb had floated, Kale touched Leetu’s arm and whispered.
“I haven’t heard Risto’s voice in my head for a long time. What do you suppose he is up to?”
“He’s up to capturing us again. You haven’t heard him because the rest of us put a shield around you.”
“How?”
“The same way you blocked him with the words Granny Noon gave you. We knew you were in peril so we kept up the block for you.”
“You can do that?”
She nodded.
Kale looked at her companions trudging through the tunnel, following the tumanhofer. “All of you?”
“All of us in the cell.”
“What did you say?”
“We stand together under Wulder’s authority and offer a shield of protection from Risto’s poisonous words around Kale’s mind.”
“And the words worked?”
“The words didn’t work, Kale. Wulder worked.”
Another four bisonbeck guards barreled down the corridor at them. Lee Ark and Brunstetter sprang in front of Librettowit.
Leetu pushed Kale behind Dar and the wizard. “Keep that egg safe,” she ordered and ran forward to enter the fray.
The wizard changed into a tree. Dar stood ready with a dagger and his short sword drawn. The bisonbecks did not break through the comrades’ line of defense.
Kale gingerly stepped over the legs of one of the fallen warriors when Lee Ark gave the all clear and Fenworth was persuaded to change back into himself. The sight of blood still made her queasy. The still forms of the dead soldiers looked capable of jumping up and