magical means of spying. You’ll never learn a thing. You certainly won’t learn who sent the Huntsman after Rosa.”
She nodded. It would take some rather fancy footwork, but the disguise of Old Maggie could serve once more rather neatly. “What about our two problems?” she asked. “We seem to have acquired a pair of figurative Princes, if not actual ones. I’m sure The Tradition puts them in that category.”
She held the mirror so Jimson could look back over her shoulder.
“Hmm. The Tradition is thick around the big one, not so much around the other. I am going to hazard my professional guess that,yes, they are at least technically Princes, that the dark one is nothing more than a younger son, but not a youngest son. He looks to me as if he is rather too old to be out on his first quest. He was likely kicked out by his father to find himself a Princess, and I’d guess fancies himself as a rascal. He has probably been getting bribes from the fathers of those Princesses he had gone courting to go away, and using that to live on, and lately the bribes have been very few.” Lily lowered the mirror. Jimson looked up at her. “As for the other, he’s Northern, he may be Prince by blood but actually owns nothing, and I’ll have to see what I can find out later. I actually don’t have any advice. I have several courses of action, but no real advice. You could send them to the King to make use of, assuming they will actually be of some use. You could give both of them horses and money to go away. Or you could let them stay. Letting them stay would have the advantage of confusing The Tradition about Rosa. There aren’t supposed to be two Princes, only one. They are wildly unalike, so The Tradition will be further confused about which Path to take for Rosa. On the other hand, something could turn up to force the Path, and you have been trying very hard to keep that from happening.”
Lily weighed the advantages of all of those possibilities in her mind. Here she had assumed that having yet another Path coming into conflict with Rosa’s would be a disaster. But as Jimson pointed out, it could be advantageous.
What won out, in the end, was the ability to further confuse The Tradition. While the dark-haired rake was negligible in that regard, with the kind of power she could now see besetting the blond on every side, having two really strong Traditional Paths clashing would only be good for Rosa. Three Paths, really; Rosa could still fit both Snowskin and Beauty Asleep. And if need be, Lily could throw in some other Traditional Path to really mire things up.
She thanked Jimson and handed the mirror back to be put safelyin the box. A few moments later, the vague forest track opened up, the tree tunnel became a lane lined with beautiful beeches and oaks and the worn ruts became a well-tended gravel road. Recognizing that the spell had worked, and they were close to the Palace, she stopped the wagon.
She stood up on the wagon seat, held the wand over her head and made several complicated passes with it, concentrating on what she wanted to do. A kind of explosion of faint, sparkling “dust” erupted out of the tip of the wand, fountaining up, then raining down on them. She rather liked the effect, so she had never tried to tone it down; it reminded her of miniature fireworks. And as the plumes of fairy dust drifted down and touched them, the wagon, horses, Brownies, Godmother, and Princess changed.
The wagon became a grand carriage, ridiculously elaborate, all in lily-white and gilt. In keeping with The Tradition, it was gently rounded, with metalwork done in graceful tendrils like squash vines, and metal leaves and blossoms. The horses became blinding white, with bobbing feather plumes on their foreheads, and their harness. Their manes and tails were braided up with gold and satin ribbons, the leather harness was spotlessly white, with gilded fittings. Rosa’s stained and battered gown became gold-embroidered,
She nodded. It would take some rather fancy footwork, but the disguise of Old Maggie could serve once more rather neatly. “What about our two problems?” she asked. “We seem to have acquired a pair of figurative Princes, if not actual ones. I’m sure The Tradition puts them in that category.”
She held the mirror so Jimson could look back over her shoulder.
“Hmm. The Tradition is thick around the big one, not so much around the other. I am going to hazard my professional guess that,yes, they are at least technically Princes, that the dark one is nothing more than a younger son, but not a youngest son. He looks to me as if he is rather too old to be out on his first quest. He was likely kicked out by his father to find himself a Princess, and I’d guess fancies himself as a rascal. He has probably been getting bribes from the fathers of those Princesses he had gone courting to go away, and using that to live on, and lately the bribes have been very few.” Lily lowered the mirror. Jimson looked up at her. “As for the other, he’s Northern, he may be Prince by blood but actually owns nothing, and I’ll have to see what I can find out later. I actually don’t have any advice. I have several courses of action, but no real advice. You could send them to the King to make use of, assuming they will actually be of some use. You could give both of them horses and money to go away. Or you could let them stay. Letting them stay would have the advantage of confusing The Tradition about Rosa. There aren’t supposed to be two Princes, only one. They are wildly unalike, so The Tradition will be further confused about which Path to take for Rosa. On the other hand, something could turn up to force the Path, and you have been trying very hard to keep that from happening.”
Lily weighed the advantages of all of those possibilities in her mind. Here she had assumed that having yet another Path coming into conflict with Rosa’s would be a disaster. But as Jimson pointed out, it could be advantageous.
What won out, in the end, was the ability to further confuse The Tradition. While the dark-haired rake was negligible in that regard, with the kind of power she could now see besetting the blond on every side, having two really strong Traditional Paths clashing would only be good for Rosa. Three Paths, really; Rosa could still fit both Snowskin and Beauty Asleep. And if need be, Lily could throw in some other Traditional Path to really mire things up.
She thanked Jimson and handed the mirror back to be put safelyin the box. A few moments later, the vague forest track opened up, the tree tunnel became a lane lined with beautiful beeches and oaks and the worn ruts became a well-tended gravel road. Recognizing that the spell had worked, and they were close to the Palace, she stopped the wagon.
She stood up on the wagon seat, held the wand over her head and made several complicated passes with it, concentrating on what she wanted to do. A kind of explosion of faint, sparkling “dust” erupted out of the tip of the wand, fountaining up, then raining down on them. She rather liked the effect, so she had never tried to tone it down; it reminded her of miniature fireworks. And as the plumes of fairy dust drifted down and touched them, the wagon, horses, Brownies, Godmother, and Princess changed.
The wagon became a grand carriage, ridiculously elaborate, all in lily-white and gilt. In keeping with The Tradition, it was gently rounded, with metalwork done in graceful tendrils like squash vines, and metal leaves and blossoms. The horses became blinding white, with bobbing feather plumes on their foreheads, and their harness. Their manes and tails were braided up with gold and satin ribbons, the leather harness was spotlessly white, with gilded fittings. Rosa’s stained and battered gown became gold-embroidered,
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