The woman standing outside the cave was considerably shorter than Cimorene. Her ginger hair was piled in waves on top of her head. She had on a loose black robe with long sleeves, which she wore unbelted.

A small pair of glasses with rectangular lenses sat firmly on her nose, and she carried an extremely twiggy broom in her left hand. Despite her unusual appearance, she projected an air of great self-assurance.

"I quite understand," she said, studying Cimorene shrewdly. "You must be Kazul's new princess."

"Yes, I'm Cimorene. And you are… ?"

"Morwen," said the black-robed woman, leaning the broom against the rock. "Kazul and I have been friends for a long time, ever since I moved to the Enchanted Forest, so I thought I'd come have a look at her new princess."

"You're the person Kazul's been borrowing dishes from, aren't you?"

Cimorene said, and blinked. "But then you must be-" "A witch," Morwen finished. "I don't see why you find it surprising.

It's not exactly an unusual profession in these parts."

"It's just that I haven't met one before," Cimorene said, not mentioning the fact that in Linderwall witches were considered dangerous and probably evil and were therefore avoided if at all possible. But then, people in Linderwall didn't like dragons much, either. "Won't you come in and have some tea?"

"I certainly will," said the witch, and she did. She prowled around like a nervous cat while Cimorene put the kettle on the stove and got out the tea things.

"Well," Morwen said approvingly as Cimorene filled the teapot, "you're the first princess I've ever met who has the sense to keep up with the kitchen."

Cimorene decided that she liked Morwen's down-to-earth manner. She soon found herself telling Morwen everything, from the fencing and philosophy and Latin lessons to the seemingly endless stream of knights. The story lasted through two cups of tea and finished with Therandil's stubborn insistence on rescuing her.