Waiting for Sunrise

"Since there is supposed to be a whole race of them, it seems unlikely," the man, whose name was Edwin, said.

"Perhaps the dragon had heard of these steingeweser and recognised Simon's spell as producing a similar effect?" George suggested.

"Yes," Fred replied, "except that Thomas and the princess are - though still alive if what I heard is to be believed - seemingly either frozen or unconscious. The second spell - that the dragon said would allow the princess to move, but that would make her life depend on his will - was the one that went wrong and produced the fireball as well as petrifying Thomas.

"We clearly cannot move the statues - they would be far too heavy. So we need to find a mage and bring him here, so that he can reverse the petrification spell or - failing that - at least restore the victims' mobility."

"Bringing a mage here is much easier said than done," one of the men remarked.

"I realise that," Fred replied. "The dragon's servants aren't going to disappear from the caves. Not in the short term, anyway."

"We might not need to bring a mage here," Edwin said. "There is a bit more to the legend. The steingeweser are supposed to freeze at sunset and then come alive again at sunrise."

"Simon and the dragon clearly did not expect that to happen with Princess Astra," Fred pointed out. "Otherwise they wouldn't have needed the second spell."

"True. They may have believed that the petrification spell produced an effect that was rather different from the 'natural' stone men. Or perhaps they simply weren't aware of that part of the legend. Well, in a few hours time we will know one way or the other."

1. Seven hours later, the sun rose.

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