Fred Has Much to Ponder

He thought that the princess seemed to be taking her strange transformation remarkably calmly. Her clothing had been transformeded along with the rest of her, but it did not seem to be stone exactly, as it seemed to retain a certain degree of flexibility.

He had been surprised to see that she apparently still needed to drink. Did that mean that she would need to eat as well? If so, would it be ordinary food, or rock or sand? Did she still need to breathe? If so, then deep water might prove a barrier to her if a boat was not available, as she was clearly too heavy to float or swim.

It occurred to him that, with two stone people to lead the way, their party might be able to leave the valley and escape through the caves without needing to worry about opposition from the dragon's forces. But then he had a worrying thought. If steingeweser froze at sunset, then might not the darkness of the caves have the same effect, even if they had torches? If the dragon knew about that, then it might explain why he wanted the casting of the second spell, which perhaps would have prevented it.

His musing was interrupted by Marius saying: "Hey! Come here." The man went on: "This may be what Simon was looking for."

Marius was holding up a small cylindrical object which, judging by its colour, was probably made of copper. It was slightly misshapen, as if the heat of the fireball had caused it to deform slightly.

"Could it be a magic wand?" Fred asked. "From my position, I was unable to see if Simon had anything in his hand when he cast the first spell. The fireball might have made him drop it. But I don't understand why Anselm did not have a wand when he tried to cast the second spell. Instead he used some powder and a couple of rocks."

"Whether it's a magic wand or not, it doesn't help us," George said. "We have no idea of how to use it. Even if we did, it might no longer be safe to use. You can see that it's suffered from the heat of the fireball."

1. Astra picked up her her stick (which she had dropped in order to lift George) and wrote something more in the sand.
2. Thomas had by now reached Anselm's fire-blasted statue, He then did something surprising.
3. Fred said: "George, you said that it looked like Simon was talking to Thomas. It might help if Thomas could tell us what Simon said to him. Of course, if he was already petrified then he may have been unable to hear,"
4. Just then Marius called out: "I think that Thomas is dying!"

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