But that was for the future, and now that she had put it all in motion, it was out of her hands.
So much for the horse. Now for the ass.
Overhead, the sky was growing dark, and in the far east there the first few stars were coming out, pale diamond-dust against the velvet blue. Not only was it time to get home, but she and the ass both needed to be out of these woods quickly. She would be safe enough, but it was going to get cold, and she didn't want to try to negotiate the path in the dark. As for Alexander — asses didn't see well in the dark. Even if she could get him moving, which was debatable, he'd be stumbling over every little stone and root. She sauntered back to where she had left Alexander tied up, and was not particularly surprised to find she was being glared at out of a pair of eyes nearly red with rage.
His ears were back, his teeth were bared, and his neck was stretched out towards her. Now, unlike a real ass, Alexander probably wouldn't bite her; it simply wouldn't occur to him to do so. But he was angry enough that he might, and besides, he was certainly likely to try to step on her or kick her. 'A good thing that I hobbled you, I think,' she said, regarding him thoughtfully. 'However, this does present a problem; how to get you home with me.'
'Let me go!' brayed the ass, angrily. 'Witch! Slut! Traitor! Let me go!'
'Oh, no,' she said, amused in spite of herself. 'First of all, you brought this on yourself, so don't blame me, blame your own behavior. For your information, I'm not a Witch, I'm a Godmother, and I am charged with seeing to it that virtue is rewarded and — now how shall I put this? — ' She regarded him with a raised eyebrow. 'Hmm — nasty little boys who behave like cruel, rude brats get their comeuppance.'
The ass nearly burst with anger at being called a 'nasty little boy.'
'Now, just to complete your edification on this business of Stancia's daughter,' she continued, really beginning to enjoy herself, 'your brother Octavian is currently wandering in the woods, very nearly as ill-provisioned as your brother Julian was. He will continue to do so until he learns to treat all people with the same politeness that he would give to his equals, and to give them the consideration he would expect for himself.' She tilted her head to the side and matched him glare for glare. She also tried not to laugh; the donkey looked absolutely ridiculous, trying to twist his face into an expression of affronted outrage. 'Does that sound familiar? It should. I suspect he will be quite ragged — and very well acquainted with the kind of hunger, cold, and misery the poorest of the poor live with — by the time he mends his manners. And I suppose that you're wondering why I let him go his way still human? He only ignored the poor, starving old woman. You attempted to run her down.'
The ass's eyes flashed warningly. She feigned surprise. 'What, you don't think there was anything particularly wrong with your behavior? I suppose you're under the impression that your birth gives you the right to trample whoever you please under your horse's hooves.'
He looked for one moment as if he was about to say something; she didn't care to hear it. 'Well, your punishment is in my hands, my lad, and as it happens, I'm going to see to it that while you are not as well-acquainted with hunger and misery as your brother, you will learn all about the hard labor that turns your peasants old before their time. I told you; I need a donkey, and you will do. The main problem now is, how to get you home, since I doubt that you're going to cooperate of your own free will.'
She crossed her arms over her chest, and tapped her cheek with the tip of her wand while she thought out loud. 'I could put a spell of coercion on you, but you might hurt yourself trying to fight it.' That was a distinct possibility, for as angry as he was, although she doubted he could break it, he might well wrench muscles or even break a bone trying to keep from obeying it. Such things had happened in the past, because the sort of coercion spell that good magicians used only worked on the subject's body, and imperfectly at that. Now, the coercions used by practitioners of the Dark Arts were more insidious. They worked inside the subject's head. And sometimes, even when the spell had been lifted, the subject was never quite right again.
'I could blindfold you and ask the path to take us home,' she continued. But if she did that the odds were good that he would fall off. He'd try to escape or try to hurt her, and he'd fall off, possibly hurting himself, certainly ending the magic right there. Then it would be all to do all over again, and most of it in the dark. Probably a bad choice.
Considering her options, she decided on a third. 'On the whole, I believe I will see what magic and The Tradition have around us that might suit best.'
In the time since Bella had turned over the position to her, Elena had learned something very interesting about The Tradition — which was that when it had no set path that it was trying to follow, it could be very helpful indeed. Apparently The Tradition always had to do something whenever magic was used, and if she merely used a very little magic to get its attention, she often got a very large benefit in return. Now this was more to Elena's liking, again, conserving magical power.
If she was not specific in how she wanted something done, it also tended to happen much more efficiently and faster than if she had been. The Tradition would bring whatever help she requested that was nearest and best suited to the task, and in the process of doing so, laid down a trace to follow at some other time, in some other place. She was, in effect, using The Tradition itself to build new paths. The more paths The Tradition had to choose from, the easier it would be to keep it to one she and other good magicians preferred.
So she released another thread of power, and sent it seeking, saying only, 'I need some help in getting the pair of us to my home quickly, please,' to the twilight air.
She saw the little wisp of glowing light waver uncertainly, like a thin stream of smoke from a pipe, for a moment. Then, suddenly, it compacted itself into a tight ball, and shot off into the east at tremendous speed.
So! That suggested that there would be an answer to her request very soon —
There was; so soon that she barely had time to finish that thought before she heard something large, very large, crashing and crunching its way through the forest towards them. It wasn't just twigs that were snapping out there, it was large branches.
And she had no idea what could be that big.
But she didn't go anywhere beyond the walls of her cottage without at least one talisman that would react to the presence of anything evil — really wicked, not merely 'bad' as Octavian and Alexander had been — and whatever was coming was not making her talismans the least uneasy. So she waited with anticipation, but no trepidation, to see what her magic had called to her side.
Now, Phaelin's Wood was a very old forest, and the trees were enormous, much taller than the tallest building that Elena had ever seen, and since becoming an Apprentice she had seen quite a bit. So she wasn't at all
