Bah.
And it was obvious that he could not see magic as she could — or sense it in any other way, except when the spells were completed and he got the results he was looking for, or when the spells themselves caused effects that anyone could see. If he had been able to, he would have known by now how much she was interfering.
"You returned sooner than I expected, sire," the Huntsman said, as Desmond paused between spells. The Huntsman might well have been thought handsome by some, if it had not been for the coldness of his expression. Facially, he could have been Desmond's relative.
Perhaps he was. It would not be the first time that a bastard son had ended up as the legitimate son's right hand.
Rosa could tell that Desmond was between spells, because the woven bands of sinister murky-yellow magic around her were — well, finished off was the best way she could describe it. The ends were precisely tucked in and the whole looked neat and complete. Desmond really was a patient and thorough sorcerer. He had pronounced each syllable of the spell exactly, had been painstaking with his diagrams and had taken his time over it.
He was not, however, as observant a sorcerer as he was patient, or he would have noticed that she was not as bound as she should have been. No sooner had he finished the work, than she began unpicking it, having paid careful attention to where those ends were tucked in. The necklace of unicorn hair kept the things from affecting her, and once she started unpicking them, well they might just as well have not been there. The magic wasn't that hard to break when you could see it. She wondered if he had any idea that there were magicians who could see magic, and just undo so easily what he did. If he didn't — he was probably thinking smugly that unless someone knew the spells he had been working, it would be impossible to get her free of them.
Ha.
"Someone saw us taking the girl," was the terse reply, as he leafed through his book. "The entire Palace was aroused. I couldn't even take a horse from the stables for my return journey. I had to steal one from outside."
Oh, that made him angry. He wasn't counting on his plans being disrupted.
The Huntsman's frown deepened. "Is that likely to be a problem for you, sire? If they send out searches, which I am sure they will — "
Desmond laughed. Clearly he had no idea the resources that the Godmother could call up. Which actually relieved Rosa; she was a lot happier with the idea that he was overconfident. "Not likely. The wretched Dwarves kept this place a secret even from their own kin. I doubt that they will muster a search that goes beyond the city very soon."
"They could track you," the Huntsman said, looking dubious. "You will have left a scent."
Desmond shrugged. "I will grant you that Queen Sable is a clever woman, but even if they can get your hounds to obey without you being present, do you think they could track us all the way here?"
The Huntsman shook his head after considering this. "The trail will be cold and muddled by the time they get the hounds to track, and it is too far. You cannot keep them on a cold track forever, especially if I am not there."
Unless, of course, you are a Godmother who knows Magic Beasts, she thought angrily. Then — well I don't know what she can do, but I imagine that she can persuade them.
"What about the Godmother?" the Huntsman asked. "She's the one who rescued the Princess the last time."
Desmond smirked. "She has to be able to find the girl in the first place. I have made sure no one can scry what is in this tower.Perhaps she is clever enough to realize that a place so warded must have something interesting in it, but I doubt it. She is only a woman. But even if she does, she has to get here. Then she will have to fight through my defenses. Godmothers are many things, but I have never heard that they are adept at combative magic, and certainly not at physical fighting."
The Huntsman nodded, and Rosa wanted to slap the self-satisfied looks off both their faces. Only a woman! She's cleverer than both of you put together — which is just not that hard. And combat? She'll bring help. When Siegfried gets here — and he will get here — I hope you remember that he's bested you in combat at least once.
That is, assuming she left enough for Siegfried to fight once she got loose. Right now she was angry enough to tear Desmond's handsome head off his body and stuff it down his neck.
She used that anger, just as Siegfried had taught her, as the lever to pry the magic encircling her apart.
She had left the paralysis magic alone for now, since it was loosened, and it would take no effort at all and little time to unravel it. She was more concerned with the things Desmond was concocting that were designed to manipulate her mind and emotions. Those were the things that most worried her. The necklace kept them from touching her but only because of the faint taint of evil about them. If he used something that hadn't come from a tainted source...
Well, so far, he hadn't. She just hoped that her luck would continue in that regard.
The wolf still had the trail. Siegfried only hoped their luck would continue in that regard. If it had not been for Luna, they could never have pressed on as fast as they had, but they had still been pushing through the forest for most of the day. He was beginning to think that they would have to find a place to camp for the night which would not be good — when the bear threw up his head and stopped.
"The wolf is near," he said. Then he took a deep breath and let out a roar to signal to the wolf that they were close behind.
Every hair on the back of the bear's neck stood up when he roared...and every hair on Siegfried's body did the same. He had never been this close to a bear when it made a noise like that — the bear he had killed as a child had been too busy fighting him off to make anything other than growls. The sound actually vibrated Siegfried's chest and awoke a deep and primitive fear in his gut. It made his heart suddenly race, and from the way that the horses jumped and Leopold's eyes widened, it did the same to the others. Even the bird fluttered her bright new wings nervously. Only Luna was unaffected. A howl in the distance answered the roar.
"Uh, won't that tell Desmond that we're out here?" Leopold asked, patting his horse's neck to try to calm it.
"It will tell Desmond that there are animals out here," Siegfried replied. "And this is a forest, after all. One would expect animals in a forest. I doubt he would recognize that the wolf is answering the bear."
"But the Huntsman — "
"The Huntsman will expect animals to behave as wild animals usually do." Of that much Siegfried was certain. "Wolves and bears don't work together. If anything, he'll assume that one challenged the other."
Since the bear wasn't moving, they all waited patiently; evidently the wolf was going to come to them. Now that they had stopped moving, Siegfried was very conscious of the forest around them. The presence of the bear was probably keeping most of the wildlife nearby very quiet. Bears were known to eat whatever they could catch, after all. But in the middle distance, there were rustlings and the occasional call and the even more occasional sound of something falling from the trees. There was a great deal of birdsong, above and around them. This was a very, very old forest, as evidenced by the girth of the trees; late-afternoon sunlight pierced the thick canopy from above, making slender shafts of light that only served to emphasize how gloomy it was beneath the branches. In fact, he realized he'd passed this way when he first arrived in the Kingdom.