The Sleeping Beauty (10 page)

They expected her to solve the problem, of course. It was going to be a great surprise for them to discover the problem was solved.

Meanwhile, in the carriage, Rosa listened carefully as her Godmother explained what she should do, and why.

“Once I’ve driven away, go ahead and dawdle, try to give me as much time as you can. It won’t be hard, your loyal supporters will be pressing on you on all sides—answer every question, even if it means repeating yourself twenty times. Wait for Queen Sable to make her appearance and then
you
take over the situation. The Tradition will expect you to be meek and self-effacing. Don’t be. Act like your mother.”

Rosa nodded, and whatever Lily saw in her face, it made her smile. She thought for a moment. “Mother would have been gentle, but firm. Polite, but quite clear.” She pondered a while longer. “Do you want the Huntsman to flee, or stay? I can lie about him, or tell the truth, but if I tell the truth, he’ll probably do his best to escape.”

“Stay, if possible,” Lily replied instantly. “I would like to see what he does next, and now that we know he is an enemy, and you know what I am, I can make sure you have a protector at all times.”

“Then I’ll say that I was attacked and fled, but never saw the attacker’s face. And that once I was on the horse, it ran away with me.” She nodded decisively. “I hesitate to tell any other story because he will know I am lying and wonder why. This is close enough to the truth that he might be cautious, but assume that I am telling everything I know.”

Lily gave a nod of approval, and Rosa felt warm and proud. “One way I can keep you safer is to keep you with me more. I’ll drop suggestions that I don’t believe you, that I think you ran off on purpose as a kind of temper tantrum, and it will look as if I am keeping you from your loyal folk out of spite. To keep this from getting boring, I am going to start you on Godmother training.”

Rosa gave a gasp of surprise and delight; Lily smiled. “Now mind, I have no idea if you can ever become an actual Godmother, or if you’ll be able to work any magic at all when this is over and you
stop
getting so much Traditional power focusing on you. But there are a number of simple spells I can teach you that you’ll be able to use now, and there is a great deal of information I have that you need. If you have the native ability, which I think you do, I can also train you to see magic—that is, the power twisted into spells that are on things and people.” Her smile broadened. “It won’t hurt. You already know a great deal about The Tradition. And if it happens that you
do
become a Godmother, well, that is even better, if you ask me. It’s
been a long time since a Queen was also a Godmother, but if any kingdom needs two, it’s this one.”

Rosa’s smile was rueful; after the initial moment of excitement wore off, she realized just how much more complicated her already complicated life was about to become. “I wish I didn’t agree with you so much.”

When the carriage pulled in through the gates of the Palace, it was practically mobbed. When Lily was handed down, the crowd became so quiet that Rosa heard the cooing of the pigeons on the roof above them, and the scuffling of feet in the gravel as people in the crowd moved restlessly.

But when she turned without saying a word, and Rosa herself stepped down, the crowd erupted in a roar.

Lily merely smiled, sphinxlike, waited for a few moments and motioned to her footman. The footman handed her into the carriage, and she drove off. The two Princes sat on their horses, the dark one looking disgruntled, perhaps because he hadn’t gotten the credit for a rescue, the blond one looking lost.

Rosa remembered what her mother had done in situations like this and made the same hand motions Queen Celeste had to ask for quiet. It worked for her as well as it had for her mother; she got instant quiet—not quite dead silence, but more than enough for her to be heard. “I know you are all wondering what happened, and how I came to vanish. On my way to my quarters on the day of the great storm, I was attacked in the passage nearest the stables,” she said, in a firm, clear voice. As those around her gasped, she continued quickly, “Whoever it was meant to kill me, for I saw the flash of a knife in his hands. I did not see my assailant’s face—he must have been wearing a hood or a mask. I fled, hoping to find a Guardsman or a footman, with my attacker in hot pursuit. I saw a horse standing ready, and I did not even think. I simply flung myself into the saddle and rode for my life. I intended to try to pull up once outside the
gates, but the horse was too strong, and ran away with me. Once we were deep inside the forest, he was frightened by something, and threw me, and I landed hard and fainted. The thunderstorm revived me. I found a cave and lived on the mushrooms and berries I found until the Godmother found me again, for I was mindful of what my mother had taught me.”

The last was an outright lie, and she hoped that it wouldn’t lead to a problem later. Well, that was more or less what she probably would have done if the Dwarves hadn’t found her first. And she didn’t want to mention the Dwarves. She had the feeling they would be very bad enemies. Better to let them fester in their hovel, never knowing who they had played host to, eking out a bare existence from their wretched mine, at least until their law-abiding kin found them.

She glanced at the Princes. If they were a little confused about her version of the story—or at least, as much of it as they knew—they didn’t show it. They were, in fact, waiting very politely and quietly. And since the Mirror Servant had advised that they be kept around, she wove them into her story, too.

“We encountered these gentlemen on the road, who had learned of my plight and were searching for me. Because of such gallantry, the Godmother advised that they be rewarded. We offered them the hospitality of the Palace, therefore I beg you show them to the guest quarters and make them comfortable.”

The dark one looked a little better satisfied with that. The blond was whispering to his bird, which flew off to join the pigeons on the roof.

As soon as the coach was out of the gates and out of sight, Lily ordered the Brownies to pull it off the road and set up the mirror. Swiftly, she returned the horses to their mouse state, the coach to a squash and the Brownies to themselves. By holding their hands as they crossed the threshold, she was able to ensure that the mirror
spell allowed the Brownies through it; a tap of the hilt of her wand shattered the mirror and the spell with a single blow. Then, with a wave of her wand, she reduced glass fragments and wood to merest dust. There would be nothing here that anyone could use, magically or otherwise. She hated doing this, it was a dreadful waste of a mirror, but didn’t want to put the Brownies to the effort of taking it home, and she hadn’t wanted to leave even a trace of her magic back where the Dwarves might possibly come upon it. Just because someone couldn’t
use
something, it didn’t follow they couldn’t identify where it had come from.

She’d learned to take precautions like that a very, very long time ago. Never leave anything magical about unless there was no other choice. Such things had a Traditional tendency to turn up in the hands of people who only used them for mischief.

Then she shook out Old Maggie’s cloak, tossed it over her shoulders, picked up the box with Jimson in it and trudged toward the Palace as if she had every right to be there, heading for the servants’ entrance.

No one stopped her; most of the servants and all of the Guards were up at the front, in any case, and very few people ever trouble an old woman who is carrying a box and looks as if she knows where she is going. She nodded to a few people, as if she knew them. That was another way to make people leave you alone. They nodded back, vaguely. Once she was in the Royal Wing, she ran up the back stairs to the hall of the Queen’s Chambers, which were locked from the inside. She tapped on the door with the hilt of her wand and murmured the countercharm, “Open locks, whoever knocks,” and the door unlocked for her with a
click.

She let Jimson out of his prison and hung him for the moment on the wall, pulled off the cloak and folded it away, to be returned as soon as possible to her own Castle. Or, possibly, loaned to Rosa. Being able to look like an old woman might be very useful to the girl.
Then, she put on the much more powerful illusion that kept her in the form of Sable no matter what she was wearing, and resumed her disguise as the Queen.

She just stood in the middle of the room, composing herself, slowing her breathing. She reminded herself of who she was supposed to be, settled into the personage of Queen Sable. At last, without hurrying her steps, she made her way from the Royal Wing into the more public parts of the Palace, and descended the Grand Staircase, arriving near the great door just in time to hear Rosa tell her altered story. She nodded to herself with approval. There was nothing in it that anyone could disprove, except for the part about the Princes. She was pretty sure that neither of the young men wanted to irritate the Godmother by giving the lie to anything Rosa said, especially not when going along with the tale gave them free run of the Palace as a guest.

She waited until a servant came toward her, leading the two Princes up to the guest quarters. She stopped all three of them with an imperious gesture.

“Who are these…men?” she asked, looking down her nose at them. She wasn’t sure yet if she was ever going to let them know that she was also the Godmother. It wasn’t likely that the blond was another enemy agent, but the dark one? She couldn’t as yet tell, and was going to ask Jimson to be very particular about his investigations. “And where are you taking them?”

“The Princess ordered me to take them to the guest quarters, Queen Sable,” the servant stammered.

“And their names?” she asked again, knitting her brows.

The servant cringed a little, and looked terrified that he didn’t actually know who they were.

Predictably, the dark one answered first, reaching for his battered hat and sweeping it off his head in a low bow. “Prince Leopold of Fal
kenreid,” he said, radiating a deliberate charm. “At your service, in all things. It is a privilege and an honor to be granted the hospitality of Eltaria.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. He doubled the charm. She sniffed, to indicate that she was immune to it, and turned toward the blond.

“Prince Siegfried von Drachenthal,” the blond said, drawing himself up with commendable dignity, then bowing just enough to show respect. “Your hospitality is appreciated, but I shall soon be on my way if you have no need of me. I prefer to earn my way with my sword. I heard there is war—“

“There is
possible
war,” she replied, with as little expression as she could manage. “There is no actual conflict—as yet. Nevertheless, I shall send word to the King. It is possible he can find a use for you, either or both of you. In the meantime—” she made a slight gesture onward “—please enjoy the hospitality of the Crown while you remain in our land.” Her expression made it very clear that she would do her best to see their visit was as short at possible.

They passed her; she stopped the servant again. “See that they have more suitable clothing,” she said, with cold disdain. “And baths. We shall have them to dinner with the court. We would rather not be confronted with vagabonds and barbarians at our table.”

The servant nodded frantically, and she let him go.

The dark one is going to take it all as his due. I’m not sure how this Siegfried is going to react.
But it was interesting that Siegfried had offered his sword immediately. If Leopold was living on his charm, Siegfried was clearly living by his arms. Someone like that could be extremely useful here, so long as he kept his role to that of bodyguard.

He certainly rides well enough. If Jimson decides he’s safe, it might not be a bad thing to have him go with Rosa whenever she has to leave the Palace.

She descended the rest of the way to the courtyard, where half the inhabitants of the Palace still mobbed the Princess. As people
caught sight of her, however, they went very quiet, until at last the entire throng was as still as they had been when she as the Godmother had descended from the carriage.

She stepped toward Rosa, and the crowd parted silently to let her pass.

When she came face-to-face with the Princess, Rosa stood up to her bravely, although she was just a little pale—no doubt because she still was not quite sure that under that cold exterior was the Godmother. Lily lowered her lids and looked at her with slitted eyes.

“Well,” she said. “We are pleased to see you safely restored to us. We shall hear your entire tale in private, we think. Such things are not for every ear.”

Rosa straightened immediately, and at that moment, Lily could see her mother live again in her. “Of course, my lady,” she replied, using the appellation “my lady” to make it clear to anyone who understood the protocol that she was naming herself as the Queen’s equal. “We have every intention of disclosing all details to the King’s Consort.” Again, Rosa used the royal “we” to show she was standing up to the Queen; Lily was, after all, only the Royal Consort. She had not actually been
crowned
Queen here. Technically Rosa was as much Queen as she was. Lily had been proud of her courage before; she was doubly so now.

She took Rosa’s arm, and gazed about at the rest with the glare of a basilisk. “In the meantime, return to your duties,” she said coldly, raking her eyes across the entire crowd. “There will be a cask of wine in the servants’ kitchen and another in the Guardroom with which you may drink to the safe return of King Thurman’s beloved daughter.”

Pulling Rosa along, she made her way back up the stairs to the Queen’s chambers, called for wine and cakes, then dismissed all the servants and locked the doors.

Only then did she drop the cold demeanor, though not the disguise, and take a chair. Rosa was still standing, looking uncertain.

“It’s all right, dear, sit and have something to eat,” she said in her normal voice, and Rosa immediately relaxed. “Jimson?”