Fairy Godmother

prefer to draw them to a bait-spot where I've set up a blind, anyway. It might not be as sporting, but it will give me a better chance to select a target, and the best chance for a clean, quick kill. I'll leave the does and the King-stag, given my choice, and cull out some of the younger bucks.'

'That sounds like a fine plan.' Robin nodded agreeably. 'Hob?'

'Finished your plate?' Hob asked, and at Alexander's nod, said, 'Come with me, then. We'll get something that suits you, and I'll point you in a good direction for some fowling.'

It was to another of the outbuildings that Hob led him, one that was no bigger than a gardening shed on the outside, and in fact, the last time Alexander had looked at it, it had been a gardening shed, empty but for a few pots. But when Hob opened the door —

'Ah, I thought that might've happened,' Hob said with satisfaction.

Alexander knew he should not have been surprised, and yet he foolishly was. Outside was a shed he could have circled in ten paces. Inside was a royal hunting-lodge, with polished wooden floors covered with bright carpets, polished wooden walls adorned with hunting-trophies from all manner of animals (including a span of antlers that must of once belonged to a creature the size of a small elephant), and furnished with massively constructed chairs and benches. And there must have been a second, perhaps even a third floor, since there was a staircase beside the door. There were no windows on the outside. Ten enormous glass windows on the inside let in the light from a landscape of stunning beauty, a wide meadow studded with flowers on one side, and a forest with tall, graceful trees of no species he recognized on the other. It was mountainous, too, the purple, snow-capped mountains rising above the trees at the far edge of the meadow, and of course, there were no mountains within sight of the Godmother's cottage....

'Good place for putting visitors,' said Hob matter-of-factly. ''Course, the Great Fae can come a-visiting by coming through here, an' they choose.' And as Alexander stumbled across the threshold, Hob strode the length of the lodge to the racks of hunting-bows on the wall at the far end — which also had a door in it. 'Come along, lad!' he called over his shoulder, reaching for a longbow. 'You'll want to check the pull on these for yourself.'

Alexander hurried across the room, which did not show a single sign of wear, dust, or occupancy, and took the bow that Hob had selected; it was a thing of beauty, the work of a master craftsman, who had not wasted time, skill or the strength of the wood on foolish carving or inlay-work. It was a thing of perfectly polished simplicity, the close grain of the wood speaking for itself, the surface like satin. Only the ends were sweetly capped with silver- chased fittings. Alexander nocked the string and tried the pull.

'Too light,' he said with disappointment, for it was an otherwise exquisite piece, and had roused an unexpected avarice in him.

'Aye, well, you've muscled up a bit since you came here,' Hob replied, with a smug smile. 'Doubt you could still fit in that candy-soldier tunic you showed up wearing.' And before Alexander could react to that statement, Hob handed him another.

This one, just as fine as the first, differing only in the chasing on the silver tip-caps, was still a bit light. But the third choice felt perfect, and Hob took down a quiver full of fowling arrows and a second of target-arrows, and led him back outside again.

'Have you — seen that place before?' Alexander asked, as they set up a target at the bottom of the garden.

'Oh, aye, back when the Godmother here — that'd be Madame Beaubaton — was the first mortal after the Fae Godmother, the Emerald Fairy,' replied Hob, eying the distance between Alexander and the target. 'Back up a bit, lad. I think you'll find with that pull you have more distance to work with. Aye, by rights, she should've been a Sorceress, should Madame, but she was more minded to the herding of things, so to speak. Happens that way, sometimes. Them as should be Sorcerers decides they want to be more active. Said she didn't care to sit on a mountain and wait for a Great Quest to set things aright when she could nip trouble in the bud.' He sighed, reminiscently. 'That there was the hunting-lodge of the Emerald Fairy, and that's Fae lands you see outside the windows, and since Madame was so powerful and all, the lodge stayed put until we didn't need it again. Last of the outbuildings to shut up, and first to open. Fae can come and go from there, and now, probably will. Oh, aye, we had visitors in them days. Great Sorcerers, mortal Kings, and Fae — needed the room then. Me and the rest, we was under servants then, serving under Ald Kelm, he's Sir Kelm now, if you please, him as runs the Elven Queen's household as her Seneschal now. Never dull, but a mort'o work, I tell you. We scarce need magic now, but then — crikey! Couldn't get through a day without casting till you was dizzy with it, and that was just to keep the stables clean! So many invisible servants the air fair buzzed with 'em!'

'Do you miss it?' Alexander asked, taking careful aim.

'Truth to tell — no. Ah, good! See, I told you that you've got more range with this one.' As Alexander took aim again — his first shot having hit the target, but high — Hob continued. 'No, I'm a simple fellow, and I like a simpler life. We all do, or we wouldn't be here. But — now, well done there! — that's not to say I wouldn't like things a little livelier. A visitor, now and again, that's a good thing. Seeing some of the Great Fae. Madame Elena's like Madame Bella before her; she's got some good notions, not minded to just react to what The Tradition does, more inclined to do a bit more pushing and a bit less following, if you take my meaning. I'd like to see some of the Great Ones putting some consideration into her notions. But a Court here again? Like Madame Beaubaton and the Emerald Fairy before her? No, no. Now there you go! You've got the range of her now!'

Alexander's last arrow hit dead in the center, and he felt comfortable with the bow now. 'Well,' he replied. 'I agree with you. Now, where do you suggest I go?'

Much to Rose's exasperation, Elena was taking Alexander's place out in the old orchard — though little did Rose guess that Elena was doing so in order to talk with Lily privately. All that Rose knew was that Elena and Hob had decided to see what Alexander would do with the freedom to hunt alone and unescorted. She didn't know that this was part of a much larger plan, nor that Lily had gone to see if she could have an audience with the Elven King before the sun rose this morning.

'So, Madame, like you thought, when I mentioned the lad, they took me right to His Majesty. And like you said, I made no suggestions.' Lily upended her basket of apples into the back of the cart, and Elena followed it with hers a moment after. 'I just said that you were looking for a real trial for the Prince, knowing that he'd recognize all the usual sorts of things, and that you were sending him out hunting today. And His Majesty did give me a look, then told me to tell you that he'd see to it personally.' She gave Elena a look of her own; pleased, but wary. Well, she was right to be wary.