Each one was given explicit instructions and sent out on the King's — now her — swiftest horses. Five would go to the near neighbors, fifteen to allies. That left eighty more copies...which would go out by yet faster means.
Birds. Thurman's grandfather had established a network of communication with trading ambassadors well out beyond the neighboring lands, with emergency messages being sent by pigeon. If anything was an emergency, this was. She had reduced these copies to the size that pigeons could carry, called in the Bird Master, and sent them to be spread as far and wide as possible. Not just Princes would come. Obviously. But the worst adventurers could be sorted out and sent away.
She was relieved that Siegfried and Leopold had not lingered; she didn't want to deal with them just yet. Instead, she took Rosa with her back to her chambers, and again dismissed all of her attendants, but left a heavy guard on the door. Not that she couldn't defend herself but...better safe than sorry.
She felt weary, impossibly weary. And her work had only begun. This was, in every sense, the worst crisis she had faced in her entire three hundred years as Eltaria's Godmother, with no discernible ending in sight.
Damn, you Tradition, she thought, a little bitterly. Why don't you move so that a Godmother can always win?
Rosa looked as frozen as Queen Sable's demeanor; after a glance at her pale face, Lily decided that some things could not wait. 'Sit down, love,' she said, guiding her to what had been Celeste's favorite chair and pushing her down into it. 'We still have a long day ahead of us.' She had to shake her head. 'Heaven only knows what they are going to think of the way you and I are locked in together, but it can't be helped.'
Rosa looked up, and her face took on some expression again. 'Probably that you are lecturing me. Should I start acting cowed and puppetlike?'
She considered this. 'That's not a bad thought, at least for now. Not too unlike yourself, however, or they'll think I've stolen your soul or some other nonsense. Now, I want you to sit there and think of what I might need to help me out with your courtiers, while I tend to some other matters.'
She opened the mirror to her own Palace and stepped through. Normally she would never have expended this much magic, but between Rosa and Siegfried, there was enough to be profligate, so she might as well use it. Perhaps if she could drain enough of it off, this kingdom would manage to avoid attracting a powerful Evil Magician along with everything else.
Her Brownies heard the news in silence, 'I don't trust the kitchens for now, not until I can afford to have Jimson spy on the help. So I want food and drink for us, and — ' she looked for, and found, the four Brownies who tended her wardrobe ' — I want you Gayna, Tris, Latti and Mira, to bring your tools. I'm going to need some special things and quickly.' The Brownies sped to relay her orders. In an amazingly short time, they returned, with what might, to other eyes, have been a strange series of burdens. Trays of food and hot tea, but also the tools of a seamstress.
She brought them through the mirror, and before Rosa had any idea of what was happening, turned them loose on her. While they fed and measured her, held up bits of fabric to her face and buzzed around like a flock of fat brown quail chasing bugs, she turned to Jimson's mirror.
Jimson, of course, already knew what had happened, and his wordless look of sympathy warmed her deeply. 'Tell me what you want, and it will be done, Lily,' he said simply, without the honorific. 'If I have to, I can collect enough embarrassing information on every important person for twenty Kingdoms around to coerce them into — '
She held up her hand. 'I've another idea altogether,' she replied. 'I plan to make this a real contest, but I am going to need a lot of help. Id like you to speak to as many of the other Godmothers and magicians as you can reach and ask them to speed the Princes who want to come here on their way, by whatever means they can. I honestly don't care what they do, if they want to hand-deliver a boy, then do so. The sooner they get here, the better, and honestly the more fuss there is, the better. I want our enemies to be caught utterly off guard by how swiftly we moved.'
'Done,' Jimson replied immediately. 'What else?'
'As repugnant as this is, set a watch on the nobles and the staff in the Palace, the kitchen in particular. We can afford deserters, but not traitors.'
'Easily done,' said Jimson, and chuckled. 'You know, Godmother,we have apprentices, too. This is just the sort of thing to put them to. We don't often get carte blanche from a Godmother to do a wholesale watch. It will be good practice for them.'
'I need you to think as you never have before, and see if the other Godmothers can and will help with this, as well. We are going to need some real trials here. Hard ones, but not fatal ones. Trials that require a lot more than brawn. Honestly — ' She paused and rubbed her aching head. 'Honestly, this is going to have to be a set of trials that sets Tradition, not just follows it.'
Jimson's head bobbed. 'You don't intend to marry any of these princes yourself, do you?' he asked hesitantly.
'Good God, no!' she exclaimed. 'Oh no...I only added myself to the letter so that we'd get those who would otherwise hesitate by reason of age. The only reason I am continuing on here as Queen Sable is to protect Rosa. And truth be told, if it weren't for those wolf packs on the borders, she wouldn't need any protecting.' She sighed. 'I hope, I really do, that what comes out of this is a Traditional love match.'
'I'll settle for a strong, clever, kind man I can like, who w ill care for my people as I do, Godmother,' said Rosa herself, coming up behind Lily, wrapped in one of Lily's own black velvet dressing gowns, and carrying a little tray with tea and scones on it. 'Now, it's time someone tended to you, or you'll spin yourself out into nothing. Right, Jimson?'
'Well said, Princess,' the Mirror Servant replied, bestowing a look of approval on her so heavily that she blushed, and Lily smiled.
'Beset on all sides,' she mock-complained, then sat down and took the tea from the Princess. 'None of this would be necessary if your neighbors had Godmothers, you know,' she observed ruefully.
Rosa looked thoughtful. 'That might be another reason for me to take over some of the Godmothering here,' she said, slowly. 'If I can manage some of the day-to-day matters in this Kingdom, perhaps you could...well...interfere a bit with the neighbors.'
