Fairy Godmother

There, she gave Octavian one last test — resuming her guise as the old woman, she came to the back entrance to beg for food. Not only did Octavian give her half of his share, but he prevented the stable-troll from running her off and he was about to give up his sleeping place to her as well, when she dropped her disguise and revealed herself to him.

That went well. Arachnia appeared right on cue, dropping her guise as the Evil Sorceress, and the two of them played out the first act of Octavian's Redemption precisely as The Tradition preferred. In fact, The Tradition unleashed a veritable flood of magic upon the scene — presumably to ensure that Acts Two and Three would take place as well. Arachnia's servants took Octavian off to be bathed and reclothed, feasted, and finally put to bed until the morrow, when they would take him back to his father.

When the hurly-burly was over, Elena and Arachnia retired to the peace and quiet in Arachnia's Library. It was nothing like her own, cozy little chamber; this was a Library, stretching up three full stories, with two balconies ringing it. Dark banners hung down from the rafters above them — banners that featured, not the arms of defeated enemies nor of ancestors, but beautifully rendered images of creatures normally associated with night — several species of owls, bats, wolves, and cats, as well as a dragon or two, the rare Ebon Unicorn, and the Nightmare. There was a fireplace in one wall of a size sufficient to make any ox placed on a spit therein look like a suckling piglet.

'Dare I ask how you got all of this — ?' Elena said, looking about her.

Arachnia laughed. She was, all in all, very much prettier than she had been when Elena had first seen her, and for all that she and her Poet-Prince preferred being semi nocturnal, much rosier. Being in love and beloved evidently suited her well indeed. 'I killed the owner,' she said.

Elena felt her eyes widen. 'You're joking?'

'Oh, no,' Arachnia assured her. 'I was her servant. She had a Sleeper here — she wasn't playing by The Tradition, and after she enchanted the poor thing, she carried the girl off to here, her palace. She wanted to ensure herself of a steady diet of Failed Questers without having to work at it too hard.'

'Ah.' Elena nodded. She remembered Bella telling her that like those whom The Tradition was trying to set down a path not of their choosing, there was a great deal of magical power invested in the life of a Quester. When one Failed, all that magical power was available to the evil magician —

— and it was also possible to transmute life-force into magical power as well. So it was in the interest of an evil magician to attract and slay as many Questers as possible.

'She had half a dozen human servants that she had kidnapped or lured here, and easily three times that in magical servants or enslaved magical creatures. She was really dreadful to all of us, but I was the only one who dared to think about killing her.' Arachnia shook her head over the cowardice of her former fellow servants. 'I watched for my chance, and one day when she was gloating over murdering yet another Quester and feasting on the magic that his death had released, I pushed her out a window.'

Arachnia's eyes glinted at the memory; Elena had to wonder just how bad 'dreadful' had been in order to bring that look to her face.

'The Sleeper awoke and ran off with the stableboy,' Arachnia continued. 'In fact, everyone ran off except me and the talking statue — ' She indicated a statue in the corner of the library of a very graceful, half-nude woman. The statue gave Elena a stiff little bow; Elena bowed back. ' — and, of course, a few ghosts. I decided to stay, partly because I hadn't anywhere else to go, and the statue began to talk to me. She was the one who discovered that I could see magic; she pointed out that this meant that I could be a magician, and I decided that I would be the Sorceress here. I knew that the ghosts would keep everyone away until I had learned enough to be formidable.' She shrugged. 'Not a very exciting story, but the statue tells me that I was supposed to have been a Witch-killer except that the Spider-queen's hunters found me wandering around in the forest before I could find the evil Witch's hut. Which is probably why I could see magic in the first place.'

'And why you shoved the Spider-queen out a window, I suppose,' Elena said thoughtfully, as she watched the swirls and eddies of magic play about the banners overhead. It was so thick up there you could practically read by it; The Tradition really, truly wanted Octavian reunited with his father and reinstated as the Heir, and it was putting all sorts of effort to bear on the situation. Perhaps because not one, but two magicians with a habit of opposing it were sitting here with Octavian's fate in their hands. 'Don't Witch-killing children usually shove the Witches into their own ovens, or down wells? I suppose shoving just was the natural thing for you to do. How old were you?'

'Seven,' Arachnia said serenely. 'The statue taught me how to read. There were plenty of provisions stored under preservation spells, more than enough to feed me while I learned magic. What I didn't learn from the books here, some of the ghosts taught me, but of course it was all a bit slanted.'

Slanted? Considering that this has apparently been a stronghold of Evil Sorceresses for the last three hundred years? I'm surprised that she didn't go completely to the bad!

But of course, Elena didn't say that aloud.

'The ghosts are mostly very sweet,' she continued thoughtfully. 'They were all victims of my former mistress and her predecessors, so they were disposed to like me and wish me well. And the statue was stolen by her mistress, so she wasn't particularly upset about seeing me get rid of the Spider- queen, either. Now, what are we going to do with Octavian? Have you any ideas?'

'You do realize that whoever brings Octavian back is going to become Kohlstania's Godmother, don't you?' she asked instead of answering directly. It was only fair to give Arachnia the chance at having the place — it would mean another source of magic for her —

'Hellfire and damnation!' Arachnia swore with a start. 'No! Elena, if you don't take him back, I swear, I will revert and curse you!'

Elena choked on a laugh. Well, that was certainly vehement enough! 'I thought I ought to at least give you the option — '

'I do not want to be a Godmother! The wretched man is yours, and his Kingdom with him! Now, have you any ideas?' Two pink spots flared on Arachnia's cheeks as she calmed herself.

'I don't suppose you have any sort of transportation that flies?' said Elena.