The peasants gaped, as if they couldn't believe they were getting off that lightly. The mayor especially had a look on his face like a stunned calf. "But — "
Siegfried patted him on the shoulder. "There's a good fellow. I am a Hero. This is what I do. And right now, I am a hungry Hero and one in great need of a bath, as well. So let's have a feast and you can tell me about your land and its troubles. Besides — " he laughed " — Kings can afford to pay better than farmers. I shall tell him about the Boar, and let him reward me."
Now he was speaking words they understood; well of course he was going to claim a big reward, but it would be from the King and not from them. With a shout of approval, some went for a cart to carry off the Boar, while the rest carried Siegfried off in triumph to the Inn where the bird waited, perched on the rooftop, singing happily.
The next day, as soon as Coward left for his rounds, Rosa went out into the garden. This time Old Maggie was preceded by a veritable cloud of bees that swarmed around the garden and through the cottage before vanishing. Maggie appeared a moment after they had left.
"They're my little clever guardians, ain't they, then?" Maggie said triumphantly. "And if they find some nasty old Dwarf a-lyin' abed, well! All he'll think when he sees bees is that they're a-swarming, and all he'll think to do is to hide himself under the blanket lest he get stung!"
She cackled, and Rosa managed a laugh, herself.
"Now!" The old woman had a much bigger basket this time, strapped to her back. Out of it she pulled an old, threadbare, but immaculately clean shift, which she handed to Rosa, and a chunk of pinkish-purple soap. "Off with them clothes, pretty, and put this on. Into the cauldron with them and a piece of this — " She handed Rosa the soap. "No need to boil, just get the water warm, like, and then we'll stir, stir, stir."
Rosa scrubbed and rinsed, scrubbed and rinsed; wished she could wash her hair, too, but at least it wasn't matted up like a wild sheep's wool. Finally, as she put the shift back on over skin so clean it felt new, she asked, "Have you heard any news? I heard that the King has a new wife — "
"I only hear what the bees tell me, and they don't care for Kings nor Queens, no more what they do,"Maggie said dismissively. "Nor should you. Kings and Queens and their doings ain't for the likes of us."
Disappointed, Rosa agreed rather weakly. The two of them got to work on the minimum that the Dwarves were likely to expect, which was finished in plenty of time for them to take the slightly damp clothing, mend the tears with needles and thread that Maggie produced from her basket, and for Rosa to put it on again before Coward made his lunchtime appearance.
Maggie returned when he had gone, handed Rosa a meat-and-vegetable pasty, and gathered up the soap, the shift and the comb.
"You look as good as new, don't you, pretty!" she exclaimed, as she helped Rosa braid up her hair in a more tidy fashion. "And Maggie may have some good news for you tomorrow, yes she might! So keep your pretty head down, and don't call attention to yourself, and we'll see what the morning brings, aye!"
Once again, she whisked around the corner and out of sight before Rosa even got a chance to ask what she meant.
The potion was done. Tomorrow Lily would see if the time was right to reveal herself twice over. Tonight, thanks to the bespelled soap, Rosa was safe, still looking like the filthy thing that she had been yesterday. That wasn't a powerful spell and it would wear off; the trick was to make sure it didn't wear off until after the Dwarves got rid of what they thought was a dead girl.
Lily went to bed torn between anticipation and apprehension. With all of the potential of this situation, it wouldn't take much to unbalance it. She only hoped that she and Jimson were fast enough to get The Tradition to work with them, instead of against them.
Chapter 5
Lily was very glad that she had a great deal of experience behind her, for she could not imagine trying to juggle all of this two hundred years ago — or even only a hundred. She was back in the Palace, in the persona of Queen Sable, who had somehow not gotten around to telling the King that his daughter was missing. Or so everyone thought, for everyone seemed to be sending clandestine messages to the King at the northern border.
In actuality, she had told him the moment that she knew where Rosa was. She'd gone in person, assured him that she had the situation in hand and that Rosa was safer with her seven Dwarvish guardians than she was in the Palace, where someone was certainly trying to murder or abduct her. She had lied a little. She'd not told him the conditions that Rosa was in. Eventually, she supposed, it would have to come out, unless she could enlist Rosa in perpetuating the lie, but for right now it was better that he had in his mind the Traditional picture of the happy Princess playing at housekeeping amid a throng of adoring Dwarves. And since she was the Evil Stepmother, there would be no danger of an old woman slipping her a poisoned comb, a strangling necklace, or a fatal bit of fruit or candy.
So the messages to the King were all going unanswered and unheeded, which only cemented the certainty of the rumors that she had placed a spell on him. This was fine. This was perfect, in fact. The Tradition would be satisfied with that, if such an insensate thing could be said to be satisfied.
The search continued, although no one had gone as far afield as the Dwarves' fetid cottage. The horse had been found, lame, wandering in the forest, and that was where the search was concentrated. No one, not even the Huntsman, had been able to trace back to the point where Rosa had parted company with the wretched beast. The storm that night had obliterated every sign. Lily had the shrewd notion that with the distance Rosa had tried her utmost to put between herself and where she had last seen the Huntsman, as well as the distance traveled underground by the Dwarves, it was extremely unlikely that anyone would ever have found her.
Of course, she had made certain of that now. Spells of confusion for the hounds worked wonders. So did false traces.
Her sturdy Guard Captains were sticking to the Huntsman as if they were all members of the same devoted family. His frustration was cheering to watch.
The interesting, and somewhat alarming, aspect to all of this was that he had not approachedher, nor even tried. This meant he was almost certainly working for someone else; that was a very dark cloud on her horizon.
In the meantime, the Kingdom still needed to be governed, and the King was too busy facing down another army on the border to handle the day-to-day matters. And if Queen Sable was not beloved, she was certainly as good an administrator as Queen Celeste had been. She was rather better at quelling disputes among the nobles: all she had to do was bend a cold and faintly murderous glare on the offending parties, and suddenly everyone remembered more important business.
The administrative tasks, thank goodness, could all be handled by her Brownies. They were good at that sort of thing, and they enjoyed it. Perhaps it had something to do with being able to issue orders that the Big Folks had to obey!
Thanks to Jimson keeping an eye on almost everyone through anything that reflected, she knew who was likely to give her trouble at any given audience. The murderous stare was the best weapon in her arsenal, and she used it freely today. By the time she dismissed them, there wasn't a soul who would have dared to offer a petition, complaint or even a comment. The Lesser Audience Chamber was as silent as a tomb. "Is there any more business?" she asked. No one spoke up. "Very well. This session is concluded. May King Thurman be successful in preventing war, and if he cannot prevent it, may he be victorious. All hail King Thurman."