Fairy Godmother

She was breathing as hard as if she had been running; her secret parts were still tight and hot with need, and if at that moment she could have gotten her hands on an axe, there would have been poultry for dinner.

Instead she closed her eyes and forced herself to think rationally, difficult though that was under the circumstances. It wasn't the damned bird's fault. It must not have gotten into the coop with the rest before Lily closed them all in for the night. It was lucky it had escaped the ferrets, foxes, and owls. It was dawn. It was only behaving like a rooster.

There was some cold comfort in knowing that Alexander had been jolted just as rudely out of the same dream.

Think about this, she reminded herself. Rationally. You were sharing the same dream. That doesn't happen to just anyone.

Unless she was greatly mistaken, that meant that Alexander had a touch of magic himself. Probably not a lot, or he would have been able to put up some resistance to her spells even with no training at all. But even a little magic was certainly enough to qualify as a Hedge-Wizard.

That put something of a different complexion on things. Even a little magic would allow him into the brotherhood of magicians. Which meant —

Which meant he could stay. He wouldn't be a common — or uncommon — outsider anymore. He could be allowed free access to everything here.

I have to find out if the Elves will give him the power to see magic. If they will —

If they did, then there was no question. If he chose to remain here as part of the household, the mere fact that the Elves gave him a magical ability of that nature would mean that not only could he stay if he wanted to, but that they intended for him to stay. Even Rose would have to give in to the will of the Great Ones of Faerie.

Only those born to be among the Sorcerers could see magic naturally, as Arachnia did, and there were plenty of Witches and Hedge-Wizards who, never having the chance to gain that power, went on and blithely worked with magic without being able to see it. You didn't need to see it to be effective, it simply made things much easier for the Godmothers and Wizards if they were able to see the magic following the will of The Tradition and could gauge how strong it was at a glance. That was why they were always given the gift after they were accepted by the Fae.

And when she remembered that, a plan fell into place in her mind, whole and entire. And despite the level of her frustration, she very nearly laughed aloud. If it worked — if it worked, well — there would be some changes. If it didn't, she'd be no worse off than she was now.

And with that, she was able to fall back to sleep. This time, without dreams.

'I take it you can hunt,' Lily said to Alexander over breakfast. 'Never heard of a noble who couldn't. But are you any good at it?'

He blinked at her in surprise, still feeling a bit muzzy-headed from the dream that had been so rudely interrupted by that wretched rooster. If he'd had ready access to an axe, there'd have been poultry for Robin's stew pot this morning....

Rose was assiduously ignoring him, but everyone else seemed interested in his answer, so he took the time to think about it before he said anything. 'Well, I'd have to ask what you wanted me to hunt for, and with,' he said, wondering what had prompted the question. 'I'm good with any kind of bow. Pheasant, quail, waterfowl — I'm quite good at hunting those. Rabbit and hare are best taken with snares; you're more likely to lose or break arrows going after them with a bow, and I have to be honest with you, I never learned how to set a snare.' He was not going to say that the snare was considered to be fit only for peasants to use. 'If it's deer you're wanting, I would feel more comfortable with a crossbow; without a hound to help me track a wounded one, I want to be able to take the beast down at once, not let it run off to die slowly.' At that, he saw Hob smile approvingly, and went on, feeling encouraged. 'I won't hunt boar alone; that's for fools and braggarts — although, if there's a boar giving one of your villages trouble, you can count on me for the hunt. And I won't hunt anything I can't eat, and I count swan, stork, crane, and heron in that category. Does that answer your question?'

'Perfectly,' said Lily, with great satisfaction. 'We have beef and chicken, and goose, too, but Robin wants deer in storage, and some wild fowl — '

'The house has a larder that preserves anything put into it and keeps it at the state it was when it went in,' Robin said gravely, turning away from his cooking for a moment. 'You've heard us speaking about the house growing? And you recall from yesterday that Madame Elena is now the Godmother for Kohlstania as well as her other Kingdoms? As a Godmother's responsibilities grow, so do her obligations, and we believe that we may be required shortly to be able to play host to visitors. I wish to have something more on hand than the ingredients for simple country-fare.'

'And we don't hunt,' Lily concluded. 'If you do, and you're good at it, then Godmother thinks you're ready to have the bounds taken down so you can go hunting.'

A few months ago, that pronouncement would have set his plans for running into motion. What more could he have possibly asked? He was being made free of the forest and fields, with a weapon in his hands! No matter how far away Kohlstania was, he was certain he would be able to find his way there.

Of course, that was before he learned — thanks to what had happened to Octavian — that the Godmother was perfectly capable of putting a curse on someone that would make him wander in circles until she cared to collect him.

He might still have considered making the attempt to escape, but — no. When he left this place, he wanted it to be because he was deemed ready to go. Like Octavian.

'I'd prefer fowl, to begin with,' Robin was saying, interrupting his thoughts. 'Since I don't believe we'll be seeing more than one or two important visitors at a time, at least at first. Frankly wild boar is no tastier than domestic swine, and we have plenty of farmers prepared to sell or trade us for pork.'

'I'd like to be deeper into fall before I hunt deer,' he replied, 'and since we're hunting for the pot, I would