Dealing with Dragons

Written by Patricia Wrede, Dealing with Dragons (1990) is a middle-grade fantasy novel that collectively joins two subsequent installments—Searching for Dragons (1991) and Calling on Dragons (1993)—as prequels to the author’s 1985 book, Talking to Dragons. Together, these titles form the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Wrede has written several other series, along with a number of young-adult novelizations for the Star Wars prequels.

Dealing with Dragons follows Princess Cimorene, who rejects “proper” princess behavior and elects to enter the service of the dragon Kazul. Together, they and a group of allies discover that the wizards have formed a devious plot to destabilize dragon society and steal magic itself. In the midst of invoking fairy tale tropes and allusions in order to question their underlying ideologies and inherent absurdity, the novel leans heavily on themes such as Challenging the Status Quo, Cleverness and Wit as Forms of Power, and The Positive Impact of Friendship and Loyalty. 

The novel has been included in many “best-of” lists, including the ALA 1991 Best Book for Young Adults list and the Young Adult Library Services Association “Best of the Best” List in 1994. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles also placed 84 out of 100 on NPR Books’ Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll.

This guide refers to the 1990 Harcourt Children’s Books paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Princess Cimorene of Linderwall is bored by the necessity of learning “proper” princess etiquette. Chafing under society’s expectations, she starts pursuing her own interests, such as fencing and cooking, but her father keeps putting a stop to her unconventional hobbies. When she is 16, she goes to her fairy godmother for help, but she only wants to help if Cimorene is in love. When Cimorene finds out that her parents plan to force her to marry Prince Therandil, she follows the advice of a talking frog and runs away.

Cimorene arrives at a dragon’s den and tries to negotiate a way to stay, doing their cooking, cleaning, and other tasks. Though it isn’t considered “proper” for a princess to volunteer to be a dragon’s captive (as opposed to being abducted), a female dragon named Kazul agrees to Cimorene’s proposal. Cimorene enjoys her assigned tasks, and she and Kazul get along well.

Therandil keeps showing up to try to rescue Cimorene against her will until a witch called Morwen helps Cimorene to deter his efforts. Cimorene later ventures outside and encounters a wizard called Zemenar, whom she defeats in a battle of wits. On her way back to Kazul’s cave, she encounters a dragon named Moranz, who hopes to embarrass Kazul by accusing Cimorene of running away from her dragon. 

Kazul later throws a dinner party in order to show her friends that Moranz was lying about his claims that Cimorene was running away. Cimorene tells the dragons about her encounter with Zemenar, who is head of the Society of Wizards. Later, Kazul tells Cimorene that wizards and dragons are enemies, and they have a treaty delineating where wizards can go on dragons’ lands, and wizards are breaking this treaty more often lately.

Cimorene meets other captive princesses and befriends one named Alianora, who is an outcast like Cimorene. Together, the two start gathering ingredients for a fireproofing spell. The next week, Zemenar and his son Antorell show up at Kazul’s cave and ask for a tour. Realizing that they are up to no good, Cimorene pretends to be a “silly” princess, playing into common stereotypes in the hopes that the wizards will become complacent. She catches Zemenar reading a book about the history of dragons, and she and Kazul later realize that Zemenar was researching the dragons’ kingship ritual, in which the next king is chosen by undergoing a test to see which dragon can carry the magical Colin’s Stone to the top of a mountain. Colin’s Stone is from the King’s Cave in the Cave of Fire and Nights. Cimorene and Kazul visit Morwen in the Enchanted Forest to find more information about the caves.

To get there, they venture through the Caves of Fire and Night, passing an enchanted healing pool and a magical golden dipper that has turned over 40 enterprising princes into stone. As they pass the King’s Cave, Cimorene takes a pebble for herself. They get the information they need from Morwen. On the way back, Cimorene slays a large white bird in self-defense, and the bird gives her three magical feathers that will allow her to teleport both herself and anyone who is touching her.

The next day, Cimorene looks through Kazul’s magical jars, searching for the last ingredient that she needs for her spell. Therandil arrives and accidentally unleashes a jinn, who wants to kill them in order to fulfill the expectations of “proper” jinn behavior. Cimorene negotiates a way for the jinn to keep his oaths while she and Therandil are “killed” by old age. 

Cimorene and Alianora complete their spell. While walking in a green glade, they see Antorell harvesting a purple plant, which he quickly hides. Antorell also seems friendly with Alianora’s dragon, Woraug, and this prospect makes Cimorene suspicious, as dragons are not supposed to consort with wizards. Later, Cimorene tells Kazul about her suspicions that Woraug is in league with the Antorell. When she shows Kazul the plant that Antorell was gathering, Kazul identifies it as dragonsbane and immediately burns it, but accidentally inhales the smoke and faints, remaining unconscious for three days. When she wakes, she sends Cimorene to warn Roxim, an elder dragon, that the wizards have dragonsbane and are planning to kill the dragon king.

On her way to see Roxim, Cimorene discovers a stone prince; he turned halfway to stone after using the gold dipper in the healing pool. She tells him to wait for her to finish her errand, after which she will return to retrieve him. Roxim tells Cimorene that King Tokoz has already been poisoned and killed; the dragons will begin the kingship ritual of Colin’s Stone the next day. She hurries back to tell Kazul, who must also participate in the ritual. The next day, after Kazul leaves for the ritual, Cimorene realizes that she forgot to retrieve the stone prince, so she and Alianora visit him. He tells them that he heard two wizards plotting with a dragon named Woraug.

Antorell, who has been eavesdropping, attacks them in order to stop them from warning anyone else about the wizards’ plans to corrupt the dragon’s kingship ritual. In his gloating, he reveals that because all rocks from King’s Cave have similar properties, magic that is cast on one stone can affect the others. The wizards have taken a stone from the cave and have cast magic on it, affecting Colin’s Stone so that Woraug alone can carry it up the mountain and become king. 

Alianora defends the prince by throwing a bucket of soapy water on Antorell, melting him away into nothing. They each gather two buckets and use a magical feather to go to the location of the ritual. None of the dragons will help them to search for the wizards, so Cimorene uses another feather to transport them to Morwen, who scries for the wizards’ exact location. Cimorene then uses the last feather to transport them all to the wizards. They throw water on five wizards, melting them. Zemenar tries to hide behind Morwen, but the stone prince knows that she won’t melt and throws the water on them both, melting only Zemenar.

Morwen destroys the stone that the wizards were using to manipulate Colin’s Stone. Woraug tries to attack them, but his efforts are thwarted. Meanwhile, Kazul has succeeded at the kingship trial and has become the King of Dragons. Cimorene tells Kazul the whole story, and Morwen explains the wizards’ plot. Alianora confirms that Woraug was the one who actually poisoned and killed the dragon king. Because Woraug acted dishonorably and unlike a dragon, he spontaneously turns into a toad. The stone prince asks Alianora to marry him, and she accepts his proposal. Morwen finds a way to turn the stone prince human again. Even though Kazul is now king, she asks Cimorene to stay with her, which is Cimorene’s own version of “happily ever after.”