The Wizardry Consulted (Wiz, #4)(3)

“The dragon’s got a new name!” Caitlin announced. “We had to come tell you because you can’t call him LRD any more.”

“Not LRD?” asked Danny, looking down at his son squirming in his lap.

“No! Fuf-fee,” Ian pronounced distinctly, reaching up and hugging the scaly monster’s neck. LRD looked pleased.

“I beg your pardon?” Wiz said.

“He means Fluffy,” Caitlin said with five-year-old superiority.

“Fluffy!” Ian repeated with three-year-old emphasis.

“Okaaay,” Wiz said, “his name’s Fluffy.”

“He’s taking us on a adventure,” Caitlin announced. “We’re going across the river to hunt for mushrooms.”

“All by yourselves?” Danny asked. “What does Shauna say?”

“Oh, Shauna can come too,” Caitlin said. “Fluffy says it’s all right.”

“Where is Shauna anyway?” Wiz put in.

“Here, My Lord,” the nursemaid said, puffing with exertion as she came into the room. She dropped a perfunctory curtsy to Wiz. “Sorry, My Lord, we were down in the orchard and they just took off running. The whole pack of them.” She turned toward her charges and planted her hands on her ample hips. “No manners in the lot of them. Just up and whooping off like a tribe of savages. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, bursting in here like that and disturbing wizards at their work. Why it would have served them right if they’d interrupted a powerful spell and been turned into a parcel of frogs!”

The boy, the girl and the dragon recognized their cue and they all managed to look properly abashed.

“Maybe it would be a good idea to take them over to the woods,” Danny said. “Let them run off some of this energy.”

“Well . . .”

“Please Shauna,” Caitlin wheedled.

“Peese,” Ian chimed in.

“Whuf,” added the dragon.

Shauna considered and then relented. “Well, all right, My Lord. But just to get them out of your hair.” She turned and glared fiercely at the children. “And this time that beast-“ She jerked her head at the dragon. “That beast has to swim the river. Near to upset the boat last time, he did, and the boatmen won’t take him any more.”

“Come on,” Caitlin whooped and dashed for the door. Ian jumped out of Danny’s lap and pounded after her and the dragon followed, nearly knocking Shauna down as he charged past.

“Here now!” she yelled. “Just slow down, the lot of you.” With an apologetic glance over her shoulder, she followed her charges out the door, calling to them to come back.

The racket died down as dragon, children and nursemaid vanished down the corridor.

At that point Wiz’s wife Moira came into the room, a wide-brimmed straw hat thrown back over her shoulders, setting off her freckled, slightly flushed skin and cascade of red hair. She was wearing a peasant blouse, a brightly colored skirt and she had a basket of fresh flowers in her hand. To Wiz she looked like a vision out of a Monet painting.

“Was that LRD?” Moira asked as she came over to kiss her husband hello.

“No, that was Fluffy.”

Moira arched her coppery eyebrows over great green eyes. “Love, even for you that is incomprehensible.”

“Wasn’t my idea.” Wiz shrugged. “Caitlin and Ian insist LRD’s name is Fluffy.”

“Where did they get that, I wonder?”

Wiz shrugged again. “Maybe the dragon told them.”

Moira just sighed and shook her head.

“Normalcy,” Wiz sighed. “It’s wonderful.”

Jerry snorted with laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“Two kids go tearing out of here chased by a dragon, and you say it’s normal.”

“The dragon doesn’t bother me, I just think of it as an overgrown St.

Bernard.”

A discreet cough reminded him of the waiting seneschal.

“I’m sorry Wulfram. Now, you were saying?”

“There is a dragon to see you, My Lord.”

“A dragon?”

“A large dragon,” the seneschal amended with gloomy glee. “He is sitting on the East curtain wall and-ah-urgently desires an audience.”

For a minute no one said anything.

“Oh boy,” Wiz said at last.

“So much for normalcy,” Moira said.

“Just think of it as an executive vice-president from the home office,” Jerry suggested.





Two: Enter the Dragon


First, know who you’re working for.

The Consultants’ Handbook



Their guest was perched precariously on the east curtain wall of the castle. The walkway on top of the wall was wide enough for eight men to pass abreast, but the dragon gripped it with his talons the way a parakeet grips its perch. Its enormous scaled head stretched well above the watchtowers. Wiz couldn’t see its tail, but judging by what he could see the dragon was a monster, two hundred feet long if it was an inch.

Although the courtyard and walls were deserted, the dragon had an audience. Wizards and others crowded the windows and doorways looking out into the East Court. There was another group at the double gate that led into the courtyard.