(A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone! I hope you enjoy this new chapter!)

Chapter Three: Deals with Dragons

"Hmmm. Shiara, what should we do with him? You know how much I hate wizards..."

"But I didn't want to be a wizard!" I cried helplessly.

"I don't know...He'd probably give you indigestion."

"Yes, probab-" Kazul broke off and gave me a sharp look. "You what?"

"I wanted to be...well...something else. I don't know. I always had problems with finding a job, but then my father-"
And I told them my whole sad story. I was kind of hoping that, you know, they'd take pity on me a little bit.

"-and I didn't even like what they were doing. Truly, I didn't! But I also didn't really have a choice." I finished dismally.

"I have an idea." Shiara grinned. "I know what we can do with him!"

Kazul frowned. "What? I'm not very hungry at the moment. Just the smell of whatever you were cooking made me lose my appetite."

"I don't want you to eat him. I think-"The fire witch leaned over and whispered something into the dragon's ear. Kazul nodded in agreement, then Shiara whispered something else.

I whimpered. Really, I didn't mean to, but I couldn't help it.Things were really starting to look bad for me.

My only hope was that the end would come quickly. And painlessly.

Now Shiara was finished whatever she had been saying. Both her and Kazul were staring at me, both smiling.

I was in for it now.

xxxxx

"So let me get this straight." I said slowly, "You want me to pretend to be spying for the wizards on you, but actually be spying for you on the wizards?"

Shiara nodded triumphantly.

"And I won't get eaten?" -What? I just wanted to make sure.

The fire witch rolled her eyes. I was getting the feeling that she was losing her patience with me. "No, you won't get eaten."

"Great, I'd love to!" I agreed.

"Perfect."

"Er...I hope it wouldn't be too much bother to tell me, but..."

"What now?"

"What am I doing, exactly?"

Shiara glared at me, and wouldn't talk. Kazul told me instead.

"You are going to go back to the wizards-"(I didn't like this part), "And tell them that you tried to kidnap Shiara, but she and I were away visiting the King of the Enchanted Forest."

I was about to ask who that was, but I decided not to interrupt.

"Then, you are going to suggest that you go to the castle in disguise and spy on what the king is doing, then become one of his friends, and finally, when he isn't paying attention, try to steal his sword."

By now, I was extremely confused. "What sword is this?"

My memory drifted back to those unpleasant times when I had wanted to be a renouned swordsman. I was just thinking about how heavy swords were when Kazul continued.

"Aren't you listening? The Sword of the Enchanted Forest!"

"Ah. That sword." I still had no clue what she was talking about.

"You're going to say you need to keep in contact with them so that you can tell them how you're doing. That way, you can tell us what they're up to so that we're ready for them."

"Great. Now what was this about a sword?"

"FORGET the sword!"

"Okay." I squeaked.

"Now, I am going to put a tracker on you. Don't worry about it, it's only a magical artifact that will let the dragons see what you're doing."

Oh, Great. Nothing to worry about there.

"There Shiara is now. She went to get it."

"Huh?" I turned around. I hadn't realized that the fire witch had been gone until Kazul said something.

"Hold still." Shiara demanded. She was holding something that looked like a small six-pointed blue gem. It was so tiny that it sat on her fingertip comfortably.

"Is this going to hurt?" I eyed the speck distrustfully.
"Not at all." Before I could say anything else, Shiara pressed the thing to the back of my neck. It kind of tickled.

"Good." Kazul said, sounding annoyingly satisfied, "Do you remember everything I told you?"

"Yes." I lied.

"Okay, then, you're free to go." The King of the Dragons stepped away from the entrance.

I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Just when I reached the doors, Kazul cried back, "And remember- The dragons are watching you!"

I gulped.

xxxxx

The wizards were waiting to greet me when I got out of the Mountains of Morning.

"Where is the girl?" the lead wizard demanded.

"She...she, uh-"I tried to remember what the dragon had told me. "She...wasn't there."

"Oh really?" he wasn't buying it.

"She and her d-dragon were visiting the castle...visiting The King of the Enchanted Forest, I mean."

The lead wizard frowned. "That sounds realistic...but how did you know where they were?"

"I...I, er...read a note that the dragon left for...one of her friends."

"Great." The wizard cursed. "What do we do now? This messes up our entire plan!"

"We could just wait till they got back-"One of the others began, but the lead wizard shook his head.

"No, no...that could be days! What should we do..."

"I think..." I began hesitantly. The wizards all looked at me.

I tried vainly to recall what I was supposed to say. For some reason, all I could remember was, "The dragons are watching you."

"Yes?" the wizards were waiting for me to say something.

Then, suddenly- miraculously- I remembered.

"Maybe someone could go in disguise to the castle."

The wizard appeared to think about this.

"Perhaps that would work...but we'd never get the girl out of there unnoticed..."

"M-maybe we don't really need to kidnap the girl. Maybe we can take...take...something else." I stuttered. My memory was vague on this point.

"Like what?" the lead wizard snapped irritably.

"A...sort of weapon, maybe? Does the king like weapons? Because I know it was something to do with a kind of weapon-"

The lead wizard wasn't listening to me. Instead, he was smiling greedily, eyes alight.

"We can steal the sword!"

That was it...the sword!

"Yes, the sword." I agreed vigorously, "The Sword of the...um...Magical Tree..."

"Enchanted Forest."

"Yes, that."

The lead wizard eyed me suspiciously. "And I suppose that you're the one to do it?"
"Do what?"

"Steal the sword."

Uh oh. He was on to me. "M-me? I don't think that-"

"Perfect. Thank you for volunteering. Of course, we'll have to get you some normal clothes. And you'll have to leave your staff behind again."
I tried not to sigh in relief. "I-I..."

"Well, you're the best choice. After all, you don't even have a beard, and you certainly don't look much like a wizard-"

I decided to take this as a compliment.

"Oh, fine, I'll do it. But only if someone other than Therinive writes down what I'm supposed to do. I can't read his handwriting."

"Done."

xxxxx

"Well, he didn't bungle it up too badly. And the wizards didn't figure out what had happened and kill him." Kazul told Shiara triumphantly, looking up from a large, flat blue crystal that was showing the events. "I won the bet. You owe me."