The Fairy Godmother (9 page)

Or, perhaps the one behind the throne would start a war on some trumped-up cause—a little war, of course, against a weak but convenient enemy, one that would be difficult to lose, that would stir up patriotic fervor, one that would, of course, entail “sacrifices for the good of all and the security of the realm” under cover of which more “privileges” could be “temporarily” taken.

Clever and insidious, and damnably difficult to counter.
And all the while, the spider spun his web, battening on the misery and depression, growing fat and ever more powerful, and in the darkness behind the throne, indulging himself in secret cruelties against the “enemies of the state.”

These, more than the others, were the ones that were the most dangerous to the Godmothers, the White Wizards, the Good Wizards. The first class were brutal, but seldom thought past the moment. The second planned ahead, months, years, decades—anticipated opposition, and moved to counter it well in advance. These were the ones who swiftly cleansed their countries of resident magicians, either directly murdering them or instigating the local peasantry against them, and then ensured that no one else would move in by creating intense hostility against “foreigners” and “outsiders,” cleverly engineering their rhetoric so that the blame for
anything
that was bad would be laid to the door of “outsiders.” Since that effectively made isolationism a certainty, it protected the evil ones further, for anything outside the borders became suspect, even hated, and there would be no chance for anyone to learn that things might be better, elsewhere.

Elena saw, in detail, what was happening to the “outsiders” in several of the infected Kingdoms…imprisonment was the least of it. In rapid succession, she saw Faerie Folk being driven into grim encampments hedged around with cold iron and salt and spells, there to wither and die, or suffer torture at the hands of sadistic guards. She saw a Godmother dragged to the center of a town and burned alive, a White Wizard buried in the rubble of his own tower, a coven of Good Witches torn to pieces by a pack of savage hounds.

It all played out with dreadful immediacy in front of her eyes, and sent her heart into her throat.

But more than that, it made her
angry
. This was what her stepmother had done to
her
, writ large on the face of the world. She had been powerless to stop it then, but she would not be powerless now, and she would not stand idly by when there was something she could do.

So that when, after it all was shown to her and the Faerie Queen took the wand from her forehead, she emerged from the nightmare fueled with rage and determination.

It must have shown on her face, for the Faerie Queen gave her a penetrating look, then a nod of satisfaction.

“Good,” she said. “You are made of stern materials. You are an iron bar, lady. We will give you the tools to be transformed to a sword.”

She beckoned, and an ethereal creature, outwardly sexless, winged like a dragonfly and garbed mostly in its own flowing hair, drifted forward, handing her what appeared to be a rose petal. “Eat it,” the Faerie Queen commanded, and wary of what had happened the
last
time she had followed a similar command, but obedient to Bella's nod, she did so.

It tasted like nothing—but a moment later, she was seeing things—ribbons and auras of intense blue, surrounding and drifting between the Faerie Folk for the most part, but also around Bella, more faintly running everywhere she looked. And also,
very
strongly, around herself.

A second creature, another Brownie, came forward with what appeared to be a small stone. Again she ate it, and now, added to the ribbons of blue were ribbons of gold. A shin
ing bird dropped what appeared to be a hot coal in her hand, which gave her ribbons of fiery red, and last of all, a girl clothed in water-weeds with a water-lily in her hair dripped a single drop of clear water into her hand, which granted her emerald-green ribbons and auras.

“Now you see the magic around you, of air and earth, fire and water,” the Faerie Queen told her. “What you see, you can use. Use this gift wisely.”

That seemed to be a dismissal, for the assemblage of Faerie creatures formed up around their monarchs, and the King and Queen descended from their thrones. An arch of vines at the far side of the clearing that Elena had taken for an accidental arrangement of wild plants over a natural pathway began to glow, faintly, with soft moonlike light, and fill with mist. The mist glowed, too, and there were hints of figures moving in it. The unearthly Court formed up in a rough line and began to file through it.

The King and Queen were the last to depart; the Queen passed through the arch without a moment of hesitation, but the King stopped for a moment, and looked deeply into Elena's eyes. She could not have looked away if she had wanted to—but she did not really want to. Although his narrow, high-cheekboned face, with its winglike eyebrows, strange, slightly slanted, enormous eyes, beardless as a boy's, with long midnight-black hair any woman would be proud to boast of, was not what
she
would have named as attractive before this moment, she understood exactly what was meant by “Elven glamorie.” She felt powerfully drawn to him, and knew that if he had cared to, he could have had her by snapping his fingers.

But he did nothing of the sort; he merely looked deeply into her eyes, as if weighing and measuring her as his consort had done. And then, without a word, he touched her brow with a delicate forefinger.

Something
passed between them, though she could not have said just what it was. A great shudder shook her, a moment of dizziness, and for a moment she heard a sound as of the rushing of great wings all about her. The hair stood up on the back of her neck, yet at the same time, she was filled with such intoxication she might have been drunk.

Then the moment passed; the Elven King smiled faintly, turned, and passed through the gate behind his consort. The light within the gate faded; the glow of the framing vines faded.

And Elena and her mentor were standing in a perfectly ordinary clearing, in the dim light filtering down through the myriad branches of the trees above them as a bird called somewhere in the middle distance.

Bella was regarding her Apprentice with a look of great thoughtfulness. “Well,” she said at last, “he certainly never did that with
me!
What happened between you?”

“I don't know,” Elena said honestly. “I haven't the faintest idea.” She blinked as she said that; the pale glows and colors were everywhere now, and she was having to get used to the
sight
of magic all about her.

“Interesting.” Bella tapped her cheek with one finger, thoughtfully. “Well, whatever it was, it's something that King Huon thinks you'll need, and we'll have to let it go at that. He's too subtle for the likes of mere mortals.” She beckoned, and smiled. “Come along, Apprentice. We have to choose your wand.”

But as they left the clearing, Elena could not resist looking back for a moment, wondering.

“Curious, Apprentice?” Madame called over her shoulder. Elena hurried to catch up.

She wanted to ask why the Elven King had been interested in her, but she heard herself asking a different question entirely.

“Why are the Fair Folk—” she groped for a word “—involved?”

“Ah. Well, very long ago,
all
of the Godmothers were Fair Folk; that is the reason some folk call us Fairy Godmothers still. Some still are, and there is an equivalent to Wizard that you hear of very, very seldom, and that is the Elven Knight. But most Godmothers are human now,” Bella told her, as they walked back towards the cottage.

“Why?” Elena asked.

“I suspect because there are so few of the Fair Folk and so many mortals,” Bella said wryly. “They soon discovered that if The Tradition is to be served and directed properly, they needed help. Since their very existence depends upon The Tradition, they did not have a great deal of choice, it would seem.”

She could not imagine at the moment why the existence of the Elves would depend on The Tradition, but she supposed that her reading or lessons would eventually tell her. “So that is why the Queen has to accept an Apprentice?” she hazarded.

“Exactly.” Bella seemed pleased that she had made the connection. “Having been the originals, they are best at judging who will be appropriate. And of course, their un
derstanding is much deeper than ours; they can do with a touch things that require great effort from a human.”

That last only made her wonder the more, as they continued down the path. They can do with a touch….

So what had the Elven King done to her?

C
hoosing a wand turned out to be nowhere near as complicated as Elena had thought it would be—given the complexity of nearly everything else that had happened to her from the moment Madame Bella entered her life.

It was, oddly enough, the House-Elf Lily who helped her with the task. Robin she had expected, but not Lily. After all, Lily did the tending, didn't she? So what would she have to do with the business of finding a wand?

Lily was waiting for them on the path, and smiled with satisfaction when she saw them. “Ah, good, you have the King's Favor as well as the Queen's!” she said and looked to Madame Bella, as Elena wondered
how
she had known of the Elven King's odd behavior. Then, just as she wondered that, she
saw
it; more of the swirling color she now
knew was magic, a haze, a dusting of pale silver (which must have been the Queen's mark) and pale gold (surely the King's) that drifted around her exactly like dust motes drifted in warm air. Bella didn't have that cloud about her, nor did Lily.
How peculiar. I wonder if it will wear off?
This business of seeing magic was going to take some getting used to.

“Is she ready for her wand?”

“No reason to put it off,” Bella replied. “I have some things to attend to; this will take until luncheon?”

“Oh, at least; after Robin makes the wand, he wants to take her measurements for her costumes, and after this, you're going to keep her too busy to take the time for proper measuring,” Lily replied, and turned to Elena. “Come along, Apprentice, and don't look so wary; this won't be anything like that nasty business over breakfast.”

I certainly hope not!
she thought, following Lily with an apprehension that she hoped she veiled adequately.

They ended up in a little workshop where Robin already was at work, laying out lengths of perfectly straight wood on a workbench, placing longer, similar pieces of wood leaning against a wall. “The wand,” Robin said, with immense dignity, as if he was lecturing, “is not a thing of magic in and of itself, as most outsiders believe. It is merely the extension of the magician, a tool to help focus magic. Actually, practically any old stick will do in a pinch so long as it is made from a wood that the magician feels comfortable with.”

“Ah, but now, that's the trick,” Lily said, taking up the lecture as smoothly as if she and Robin had rehearsed it. “And that is where I come in. All of these bits of wood have been
harvested over the years from trees I grew from cuttings or seeds, trees I nurtured and tended, and they
gave
me these lengths freely, as a gift. Not one piece was cut. There was no pain in the culling of these branches, and as a consequence, there is nothing here for the darker magics to work on. No Black Witch or Sorcerer can make a wand made from
this
wood turn against its Godmother.”

There it was again, that warning of danger. But she had accepted the risk, and though she shivered, she set her chin. She would no go back on her given word.

“So would I need a little wand like that one—”

With the colors and currents of magic drifting all around her, Elena found that easier to accept than she might have before the Elven Queen bestowed the gift of Magic Sight to her. In fact, as she pointed at one of the wands, she saw and felt the potential of magic building up, as if the were act of
pointing
at something energized the magic to flow in a particular direction.

“That will depend on your costume; you will have your everyday clothing, of course, and probably a small wand like this—” Robin held up a slender, polished stick no bigger around than her little finger, and no longer than a foot. “When you are in your most impressive garb, the sort of thing you will wear to attend Royal Christenings, for instance, you will bear a full-sized staff like this.” He hefted a length of wood about a foot shorter than she was.

“Have you ever seen a man concentrate the sun with a lens to make something catch fire?” Lily asked. Elena nodded; when she was younger, one of her playfellows used to purloin his granny's glasses to amuse his friends with just
that trick. “Well, there you are. The wand acts for magic as a lens does for the sun; it concentrates and focuses it. It won't matter a pin if one of your wands is broken—we'll keep several made up for you in each size. And you can certainly cast your spells without one—but it will be easier for you to use magic if you have one.”

“Now, please, Mistress, go along the ranks of these small lengths, and tell me when you have found a wand that feels right in your hand,” Robin said, stepping aside so that Elena could approach the bench. She did so, and picked up the first of the rough-finished wands. And it felt like—nothing. A stick of wood. She tried the next, and the next, with similar results. Finally, about halfway through the ranks of samples, she found it.

And that mere act surprised her, because she had begun to think that she wasn't
feeling
whatever it was she was supposed to sense, and would have to just make an arbitrary selection. Then the next wand she picked up came alive in her hand.

There was no other way to describe it; the rest had been as inert as an old broomstick; suddenly
this
one felt like a living thing in her hand.

“Ah!” Lily said, taking it from her—and she found that she was incredibly, inexplicably reluctant to let go of it. “That would be the birch in the water-meadow. A good choice.” And as she set the wand in a vice, Robin cleared away all the other lengths of wood but seven.

“I'll have this finished for you in a trice,” Robin said matter-of-factly. “The others will take longer, but this will give you something to work with.”

In less than an hour, Robin fashioned a wand for her of the polished and waxed birch, tapered, with a simple spiral carving to it so that it looked like the horn of a Unicorn. It was lovely, and although she had watched him make it, she could not imagine how he had finished it in so short a period of time.

“You'll find a long, narrow pocket in your skirt,” said Lily, and when she hunted for it, she found that indeed, she did. The wand fit in there as perfectly as it had in her hand.

“The other wands can wait,” Robin said, and gave her an unreadable look. “Next, we need to fit you for proper clothing.”

So she spent an uncomfortable two hours with every inch of her being measured by the little Brownie. This would be for her “Fairy Godmother” costumes, which Bella assured her, when the Godmother looked in on the fittings, were as vital a tool as her wand, if not more so.

“What people think of you is important,” Bella insisted. “If you don't look the part, they won't believe in you, and if they don't believe in you, you might not be able to get your job done right.”

Quite frankly, Elena was feeling very intimidated, and it got worse as Robin held up one length of fabric after another against her face. She was afraid to touch the delicate fabrics with her work-roughened hands, and thought that she would probably look a fool in the kinds of dressmaker's confections that her stepsisters had worn.

She was even more intimidated when Hob brought in the trays of jewels, the bolts of trimmings that were to adorn these putative costumes. It was bad enough when they held
up lace as fine as cobwebs, or gorgeous, heavy stuff shining as only bobbin lace made with silk thread could shine; it was far worse when they brought in the trimmings made with real gold and silver threads, and began selecting pearls and other gems to be added to the ornamentation.

“I can't wear these things!” she finally burst out. “I'm not—”

“You
are
, Mistress,” Hob said sternly. “You are every bit as important in rank as an Empress, and when the time comes, you
must
wear these gowns, and wear them without a second thought. Appearances are important, Mistress, and the time will come when you will speak with Royalty and they will know you for their superior, the gracious bestower of gifts that
they
have humbly asked of you.”

She shook her head, unable to even picture that in her own mind.

“But don't worry so much,” Lily told her, with a wave of her hand. “Most of the time you'll be dressed like Madame does around here—because most of the time you need to look like one of the common folk.”

“Oh, not exactly like Madame,” Robin demurred. “Madame's choice of colors is—well, in a fine lady of her age, it is delightfully eccentric. In a young woman—” He visibly groped for words.

Lily did not. “You'll look like a motely fool, or a color-blind Gypsy,” she said bluntly. “Don't worry; you'll not be mistaken for a mountebank in what we give you.”

Finally the measuring and selection—none of which she got any chance to make for herself—was over, and the Brownies let her go. She sought refuge in the kitchen, where
Madame was making a cold Ploughman's luncheon with her own hands, slicing meat, onions, bread, and cheese.

Of course, this was a better luncheon than Elena had seen in months, perhaps even years.

“Ah, they've released the prisoner. Come have something to eat,” Bella said cheerfully, and Elena hurried to help her with the platters which they placed on the table. “Eat well; you'll be working very hard this afternoon.”

When luncheon was over, with her wand in her pocket, Elena followed her mentor to a secluded room at the back of the house. Her heart was literally in her mouth, but she kept her chin high and told herself that if she was not fearless, she could, at least,
look
fearless.

Bella closed the door; the room was utterly empty except for a few shelves that held a book or two and some oddments. But Elena did notice something odd.

The swirls of magic around her did not drift through the walls as they did elsewhere in the house. In fact, they never got closer to the walls than a foot, and the same held true of the floor and the ceiling.

“Elena, do you
see
magic, now that the Queen has given you her power?” Madame asked. And the way she emphasized the word “see” made Elena very careful with her answer.

“I think it's magic,” she said carefully. “It's like swarms of dust motes that glow the way dust motes glow in the sunlight, only in different colors. It's rather thick around me,” she added, hoping that was helpful.

“Ah good.” Bella's expression cleared. “That makes things easier.”

“Some people don't?” Elena hazarded.

“It does vary.
Most
people see it, but I know of Godmothers and Wizards who hear magic as music, some who taste or smell it.” Now Bella pulled her own slender wand, a bit of walnut carved with a delicate hint of vines and leaves, out of the pocket of her skirt. “Right, well, since you can see it, now you'll learn how to move it about.”

Elena spent what was possibly the most curious afternoon of her life, the flying cart notwithstanding, as she herded flocks of colored dust motes about, first with, then without her wand. It
was
easier with the wand. As she did the herding, she began to notice that some of the motes would always escape, drift towards her, then—vanish. “Why am I losing magic?” she finally asked.

“Because you're using it. The only power in this room is yours and mine, and I've pent mine away from you.” Bella half smiled, and raised an eyebrow. “You are moving your own power about, the power that has built up around you, trying to bring your life into The Traditional path. You will probably use most of it up,
learning
how to use it.”

“Oh.” Then what am I supposed to—

“And part of that learning will be how to acquire more power,” Bella went on, before she could voice the question. “Though if you absolutely
must
, there is no other choice, and you can convince them that it is in their best interest, the Elves will probably share power. But you do recall how I told you that others like you often wish to lead ordinary lives? That is one source of power that we often avail ourselves of, and there are others that I will teach you.”

Ah.

“And now, my dear, we must get back to work.”

On the face of things, these lessons would have sounded to an outsider as if they were easy, and so, in a way, they were, just as walking is easy. But suppose that someone was possessed of two good, healthy, strong legs, yet had never used them, and had not, in fact, ever known that they
could
be used? This was the position that Elena found herself in now.

It was, to put it fine,
hard
work. It took real physical effort, and more concentration than she had ever put into anything in her life. Finally Madame called a halt to the lessons, which by that point had graduated up to containing the power.

She might not have been sweating, but she certainly felt limp with exhaustion when Madame sniffed the air, declared that she could smell supper, and allowed her to stop her current exercise. “Go tidy yourself up, child,” Madame told her, with no sign whatsoever that she was exhausted. “We'll hold the meal until you join us.”

The sun was just starting to set, and deep golden light poured in through the western windows, a light as thick and rich as honey. The walk up the stairs was as hard as it would have been after an entire day of running about tending to the household chores and multiple errands for her stepmother and stepsisters.

But there was water in the ewer beside the basin in her room, waiting for her, a luxury she hadn't enjoyed for so long…. With her face and hands washed, she felt much more like herself, and trundled back downstairs. It couldn't
be said that she did so in a
more
cheerful frame of mind, because, despite the hard work, she was enjoying herself. This was challenging, she was doing things she had never even dreamed of, and it was all real—