Calling on Dragons

"Calling on Dragons" is a young adult fantasy novel by Patricia C. Wrede, third in the "Enchanted Forest Chronicles".

Plot summary

In this book, the witch Morwen is introduced in greater depth. She has been a fairly minor character in previous books, but Book Three is told from her perspective. Telemain the magician also figures significantly in this story.

Deep in the Enchanted Forest, in a neat grey house with a wide porch and a red roof, lived the witch Morwen and her nine cats. The cats were named Murgatroyd, Fiddlesticks, Miss Eliza Tudor, Scorn, Jasmine, Trouble, Jasper Darlington Higgins IV, Chaos, and Aunt Ophelia, and not one of them looked like a witch's cat. They were tabby, grey, white, tortoiseshell, ginger, seal brown, and every other cat color in the world than a proper and "witchy" black.

As this quote suggests, Morwen is having trouble with people who believe that magic should follow traditional forms, specifically one Arona Michealear Grinogion Vamist.

One day, Morwen's cats find a large rabbit and signs that a wizard had worked a size-changing spell. The rabbit is named, of all things, Killer. More significantly, they find the burned-looking splotches that a wizard's staff leaves in the forest, despite the spell that Mendanbar and Telemain worked out that prevents the absorption of magic by a staff. They then find a shrunken wizard, Antorell, who tries to escape but is subdued by Morwen's cats and then melted by Telemain, who has devised a spell to allow a person to melt a wizard without throwing soapy water on them. (The key word to activate the spell is "argelfraster".)

Morwen then finds that Killer has eaten one of the magical cabbages in her garden, and has therefore become a donkey. Morwen and Telemain immediately go to the castle of King Mendanbar and Queen Cimorene, who is pregnant. On the way, Killer drinks the soapy-water-with-lemon that Morwen brought to take care of wizards and turns blue. At the castle, Mendanbar and Telemain discover that the magic, wizard-averting sword that is the heart of the forest's magic is missing. It was the main focus of the anti-absorption spell, so removing it deactivates the spell - and allows the wizards free rein in the forest. Morwen, Kazul, Telemain, Cimorene, Killer and two of Morwen's cats, Trouble and Scorn, must undertake the journey to the headquarters of the Society of Wizards, who stole the sword so as to be able to absorb magic from the forest again.

Telemain teleports the group twice, than they stop for the night. Then, on the next teleport, they land nowhere near their destination and Telemain is unconscious. Killer, who has also picked up a spell that makes him float six inches above the ground at all times, carries Telemain through what they find to be the Smoking Swamp. Soon, they find a tower in which lives a lonely fire-witch, Brandel. While Morwen is enchanting a laundry basket to carry them to the top of the doorless tower, Killer picks up yet another spell, this one making him grow enormous wings. They meet Brandel and find that he and his family are also having trouble with Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist. Then, using Brandel's magic mirror, they try to contact Mendanbar, and find that they cannot because of a problem at his end. Because of this, Kazul decides to go home and back up Mendanbar. The next morning, again with Brandel's mirror, they find that the sword is not at the headquarters of the Society of Wizards as they assumed, but at the house of Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist.

With the help of the cats, Morwen and Cimorene manage to rescue the sword. Vamist throws a potted plant called an "Invisible Dusk-Blooming Chokevine" at Cimorene, which begins to choke her. Killer eats the plant to save her. Telemain teleports them back to the forest just as Vamist throws a spear which hits Killer. Back at the forest, the group realizes that they accidentally brought Vamist along and that Killer survived the spear attack since the vines he ate made him insubstantial. When they return to the castle, they find that a battle between the dragons and wizards has occurred, the castle has been evacuated but encased in a giant magical bubble, and Mendanbar is missing, presumed inside the castle. As with the bubble shield spell in "Searching for Dragons", the only way to break it is with the sword of the King of the Enchanted Forest, and the only one who can wield the sword is the King - or his heir. As the battle is temporarily over, everyone goes home or moves into the Enchanted Forest. Morwen and Talemain move the spells on Killer onto Arona Michaelear Ginogion Vamist, turning him into a giant blue donkey with wings, as well as a bald patch between his ears, as the Vamist was bald. This makes him look so silly that no one will ever listen to him complain about "untraditional" magic again. Cimorene decides to hide the sword in the forest since the wizard's spells can only find the sword if it's being held by someone who knows what it is. They can, however, use magic to find Cimorene or her son, Daystar, so she takes her baby to the outer region of the forest so that they can't be found. The dragons put up a second bubble around the castle, which only they can take down, so that the wizards can't get into the castle either.

Series

*"Dealing with Dragons"
*"Searching for Dragons"
*"Calling on Dragons"
*"Talking to Dragons"

References

*Wrede, Patricia C. "Calling on Dragons", Jane Yolen Books, 1993, ISBN 9780152009502