The Fairy Godmother

by Mercedes Lackey

  Mercedes Lackey

  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.

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  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 surprised that she couldn’t actually see what was coming.

  What did surprise her was that when it stepped into the clearing, it—he—certainly stood as tall as, say, the average Town Hall.

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  He was a giant, the first one that Elena had ever set eyes on.

  I didn’t know there were any giants in this Kingdom!

  A very civilized giant he was, and clearly visible in the twilight, nicely clothed in a patchwork leather jerkin which had probably taken the hides of six or eight cattle to make, a canvas shirt which had probably been sewn from ships’ sails, a good pair of woolen breeches likely made from blankets, and in place of boots—which obviously would have been very difficult to have made for one so large—heavy felt shoes with wooden soles. He was bearded, but his beard was neatly trimmed, and though his hair was a little wild, it did look as if he made an effort to keep it tended.

  He looked around the clearing for a moment, and she helped him out by stepping out where he could see her. His gaze fell on her, and his face lit up with a smile.

  “Ah, our Godmother! I wondered why I’d felt a summoning!” he said in a voice like a flood of warm, dark velvet. She smiled with delight in return; you couldn’t not like someone who sounded like that. “How can I serve you, Godmother?”

  “An exchange of services is in order, I think,” she replied.

  “I’ve changed a fool into an ass, and I don’t think he’s going to cooperate in coming home with me, so I need a bit of help in bringing him along.”

  The giant laced his fingers together and pushed his hands outwards, cracking the joints, with a laugh. “Well, I’m your man for that! And if it’s an exchange you’re offering—well, I could use a new ram.”

  For some reason completely unfathomable to Elena—or any of the chroniclers of The Tradition that she had ever The Fairy Godmother

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  read—sheepherding was a Traditional occupation for giants, along with woodcutting. And as it happened, although this was not normally the case, Elena had a ram penned up in the old donkey paddock, given her by one of the women she’d made haying charms for. It was completely useless to her, and she’d been searching for something she could barter it for.

  This was not unlikely coincidence; this was how, given free rein and the nudge of a little magical power, The Tradition worked for a Godmother who knew how to manipulate it. She needed a way to get Alexander home, he needed a ram, she had a ram, and a touch of magic and The Tradition put them together. It could have been a farmer passing through with an animal cart; it could have been one of the Fair Folk who could whisk them home in a breath. Anything would serve so long as she had something that the other wanted. This time, it was a giant who was nearest and fit the bill.

  “Done!” she said, and to the giant’s delight, spit in her hand to seal the bargain in the country way.

  “They told me the Godmother who’d Apprenticed for our Bella was a right lass,” he said, with that broad grin spreading across his face again. “And so you are, Godmother Elena. I’m Titch. Howler Titchfen, in full, but mostly they call me Titch.”

  “And I’m pleased to meet you, Titch,” she replied, almost giggling at the notion that anyone with so mellow a voice as this giant’s would be called “Howler.” “How do you propose to help me?”

  “Let’s see your wee donkey,” he replied, and she led him in the gathering gloom to where Alexander was tied up.

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  The ass was petrified with fear. All four legs were rigid, and his eyes practically bulged out of his head. His ears were flat down against his back, and he shook so hard it was almost comical.

  Evidently Alexander had never seen a giant before, either.

  “I don’t think this one’s likely to give me much trouble, Godmother,” Titch said, with a chuckle like thunder in the distance. “I reckon the easiest is to carry the two of you—him ’neath my arm, and you on my shoulder.”

  And so it was; Titch knelt down and offered her his hand to step up onto; from there she got into a comfortable sitting position on his shoulder and took a good hold of his hair.

  He seized the trembling ass with both hands and tucked Alexander under his arm, and away they went, back down the path to her cottage. Each one of Titch’s strides covered a good thirty feet, so Elena reckoned that was probably how tall he was, since a man can usually stride the length of his own height when he’s in a hurry. It was a very good thing that she no longer had any difficulties with heights, though.

  The giant’s hair was like strands of yarn, so it was easy to hold onto, and his broad shoulder made a surprisingly comfortable seat. He kept up a lively conversation with her as they walked, modulating his voice so as not to deafen her.

  She suspected that he must spend a reasonable amount of time around humans to be that sensitive about their needs, and a moment later, he confirmed that.
<
br />   “And the wife says to me, ‘Titch,’ she says, ‘Your old mam’s getting creaky in her bones, and I’m not so young anymore. Can you find me a couple of human lasses and lads to help with the cleaning? They can get where I can’t.’ And The Fairy Godmother

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  Godmother Bella, she set us up with some lively folk that don’t mind living off in the beyond. Said they was tenant farmers turned out by the lord for havin’ sauce. ‘Sauce away,’ says I, ‘I like a man who’ll tell me what he thinks to me face!’ and we get on as right as rain.”

  She hoped that Alexander was listening to this. It was the sort of thing he needed to hear. For here was a giant, a monster, giving help to humans who’d been dismissed, not because they hadn’t done their work and done it well, but for speaking their minds. And furthermore, this same giant approved of men speaking their minds.

  Then again, at this point, he had probably passed out from fear.

  Before they were home, Elena learned all about Titch, his half-deaf old mother, his wife of thirty years, the four humans who helped them tend house and the herds and the sheep themselves.

  Now, sheep don’t live in forests, they live in grasslands, and Elena finally asked Titch what had brought him down into Phaelin’s Wood.

  “Oh,” he replied, “That’s no secret. Got a bargain with the Elves; when there’s a storm I clear deadfall and leave it in four special places. Humans around about know where I leave it, and they go there for their firewood and stay out of the deep woods. So no trees get cut, and there’s no one trampin’ around where they shouldn’t be. And I get deer when I get tired of mutton. When I felt that tuggin’, I thought ’twas maybe one of the Elves that wanted something.”

  By this time, the lights of the cottage were gleaming 248

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  warmly through the trees, and Elena felt her stomach whisper a complaint that it had been too long since breakfast.

  And that made her offer—though not without trepidation, since she wasn’t sure they had enough food to feed a giant—“Look, we’re here! Would you care to stay for supper?”

  Titch laughed. “Ah, no, thankee, Godmother. I’ll be taking my ram and be on my way. The wee wife’ll be in a taking if I spoil her meal by coming home late!”

  And it appeared that Titch was no stranger to the cottage, for once he’d set Elena down at her door and the House-Elves came out to see who was there, there was a round of friendly greetings and banter before Alexander was put down in the stable with strong charms about him to keep him from running away. Then Titch collected his ram, tucked it under his arm, and was off, striding away under the stars.

  “So,” Lily said, hands on hips, looking at the ass, who was still shaking. The lantern in the stable shone down on him, and she had to admit that he made a very good ass; strong, well-muscled. “What’s the tale behind this one?”

  Elena told her, and Lily raised her eyebrows. “Well,” she said judiciously, “I hope you know what you’re getting into.”

  I don’t, actually, she thought, but she wasn’t going to admit that. “It’s within The Tradition,” she pointed out.

  “Oh, I know, it’s a little grey to haul him home with me and make him work for a while, but I could hardly have left him out in the forest. He’d probably have gotten eaten by something. And it’s not as if I’ve put some impossible conditions for him to meet on his state.”

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  “Hmm,” Lily replied, as they walked back towards the house. “That wasn’t what I was thinking. I’m more thinking what’s going to happen when you give him his days as a man. You’ll have to do that, you know.”

  She nodded; she’d given thought to that herself. Only the most powerful of Sorcerers and Sorceresses—good or evil—could do a transformation on someone without the risk that the person transformed would lose himself in the creature. For anyone else, there was the need to allow the person time as himself, in human form, on a regular basis.

  “I’ll have him hedged around, believe me,” she replied as they stepped into the warm, fragrant kitchen. “He won’t be able to even think about violence, or about running off—”

  “That wasn’t what I meant—ah, never mind,” Lily replied, somewhat to Elena’s puzzlement. “We’ll see what happens the first time he gets his day as a man.”

  “And in the meanwhile, we have an ass again,” Robin said with great satisfaction. “Poor Dobbin was so old I was afraid to work him as much as we needed. I have plans for a great gathering of firewood tomorrow.”

  And Elena hid her smile behind a spoonful of soup.

  Tonight, the Prince of the Blood would be eating dry hay and drinking water. His only companions would be three cows. And in the morning, he would find himself roused at dawn and working harder than he ever had in his life until sunset.

  She could hardly wait.

  Alexander woke slowly to the sound of roosters crowing.

  He’d always come awake slowly, for as long as he could remember, no matter how much racket anyone made. In his days at the military academy he might have gotten into trouble over that, if he hadn’t been the Prince.

  As it was, some—adjustments—were made to the usual procedures for cadets. Not to allow him to lie abed longer, good God, no—King Henrick would never have countenanced that. No, another arrangement was made. While the officers did not allow him to lie abed at reveille until he was actually awake, they did allow his batman to come in and begin the waking process for him alone, specially, a half hour early. He had a batman, of course, though the other The Fairy Godmother

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  cadets did not. And he had his own room, though the other cadets shared a dormitory. He was a Prince of the Blood, after all. While he was expected to abide by discipline and study as hard as the rest, he could scarcely be expected to shine his own boots or make his own bed. It was thanks to the batman that by the time the bugle sounded, he was awake and ready to fall out with the rest of the class.

  As thoughts began to form with glacial slowness, he gradually realized that something wasn’t right. He didn’t feel right, and there was something different about his surroundings. He was lying all wrong, and he wasn’t in a bed.

  A new thought oozed to the surface; of course, he wasn’t in his bed at home, he was on his way to win Stancia’s daughter. He couldn’t be in an inn, though, or he would be in a bed.

  No, of course he wasn’t in an inn. He’d been wandering around for days in the wilderness. He should have been in the forest, but there weren’t any roosters in the forest. So something was still wrong.

  He managed to move a little, and a foreign aroma—not unpleasant, but foreign—came to his nose, along with the crackle of something underneath him. From the scent, he seemed to be lying in straw.

  He managed to move again, although he could not get his eyes open. His foot hit a wooden wall. He was lying against another. He got one eye open, got a hazy impression through sleep-fog and predawn light, of a narrow space hemmed in by crude wooden walls.

  He was in a stable, in a stall. He was lying in a very odd 252

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  position; he should have felt cramped, but he wasn’t. He looked down at himself.

  He had four legs. Four stubby, hairy legs, ending in hooves.

  He had in his life, on a very few memorable occasions, come awake in a single moment. This was not the first time such a thing had happened, but it was certainly the worst.

  He remembered everything, all in a rush. That horrible woman. The curse. Julian. The giant.

  The memory sent a cold shock through him, jolting him into movement fueled by anger. All four hooves scrambling, he heaved himself up, braying at the top of his lungs, full of rage and despair.

  And knocked himself senseless on the manger he’d somehow wedged himself underneath in the night.

  The second time he awoke that morning, it was with a head that pounded as if five men were playing bass dru
ms inside it, and a pain behind his eyes that stabbed all the way through his brain with every beat of his heart. And this time, he couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing there; he gazed around at what was clearly a stall in a stable without any idea of how he had gotten there. Before he could get his thoughts clear, he realized that there was someone standing over him.

  “All right with you, lad,” said the voice above him. “Time for you to go to work.”

  Work? But—

  Then it hit him all over again. For a second time the memories came back to him in a rush, but this time he was feeling too sick and his head hurt too much to sustain the rage.

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  He lifted his head from the straw and looked blearily at his captor.

  It took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t a human, although it was a male.

  The—man?—couldn’t have been taller than three feet, but he was as weather-beaten and wizened as an old man.

  He had overlarge ears that came to hairy points, and wore clothing that Alexander associated with common laborers or peasants; homespun shirt, leather breeks, canvas tunic.

  His clothing looked new and clean, though, and the creature had a bridle in his hands.

  A bridle? He wouldn’t! The man wouldn’t dare!

  Alexander opened his mouth. He was going to say, “I am a Prince of Kohlstania, and I demand to be restored!” except that what he started to say came out in a bray, and anyway, as soon as he opened his mouth, the creature jammed a bit into it. And the next thing he knew, his head had been trussed up in the bridle, and the creature had the reins firmly in his hand.

  “Up with you!” the creature said, and he must have been immensely strong, because somehow he hauled Alexander to his feet by main force. The Prince swayed there a moment, torn between rage and fear. He’d always thought of himself as a brave man, but this time it was the fear that won, and he tried to bolt, only to find himself brought up short by the reins that were now tied to the manger. He reared and fought the bridle, kicking not at the man, but wildly, at random, trying desperately to break free.