Mercedes Lackey - Sleeping Beauty

Lily waited patiently for the cheering to stop, which it eventually did. When she had relative quiet again, she look another deep breath. She had been looking forward to this part formonths.

"As you know, the Prince and Princess were wed two months ago. His solution was discussed, negotiated and, as of today, is in place. Flocks have been moved to their new homes. The dragons are today picking out their lairs. The Prince and Princess have been administering to the day-to-day needs of the Kingdom under the eyes of the Council and us. And now it is time. This day, we, Queen-Consort Sable, do hereby abdicate all pretensions to the crown, giving over the rule of Eltaria to King Siegfried and Queen Rosamund. Long live their majesties! Long live the King! Long live the Queen!"

This, of course, was completely unexpected for everyone but the four on the balcony, and after a moment of silence, as she placed the Royal crown on Rosa's head, and Jimson took the State Crown from its box and put it on Siegfried's, the roar that went up actually rocked the balcony under their feet. Then she stepped back into the Palace, to let the new King and Queen properly greet their subjects.

"Someone is likely to have a polite tiff at usurping the coronation," Jimson observed, as they made their way back to the Queen's suite. Everything that Lily wanted had already been sent back home to her Castle. It only remained for the two of them to leave.

"Someone can have all the tiffs he wants," Lily retorted. "The last time we had a coronation, there was nearly a war amongst the priests and clerics over who was going to get to perform it. Now they can all blame that 'foreign interloper, Queen Sable' and unite in their umbrage."

Jimson threw back his head and laughed. She loved that laugh. She loved to make him laugh. She had always known he was witty, but she had never known what a good sense of humor he had. The past two months had brought many revelations.

"Now, have we gotten everything taken care of?" she asked as they passed through the doors of the suite and closed them behind themselves.

"Well, let's tick off the list." Jimson marked off the needed tasks on his lingers. "Dragons, abdication, coronation."

She nodded.

"Rosa knows the mirror spell, so any time she needs to consult with us or have a lesson in magic, she can just step through."

"And Siegfried has the firebird to advise him on magic and whatever the Tradition is going to try to sneak by him."

"We've cowed the Council into acting as a Council should, and not trying to bully them." Lily laughed. "Or Siegfried has. That one day he roared at them, it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud." She ran through the list in her mind. "There will still be problems. And Eltaria will still need its very own Godmother. It's too wealthy and too full of magic not to."

Jimson snorted. "Eltaria will still need the Godmother, the Queen-Godmother, and the — what would you call me?"

"Utterly captivating. I cannot wait to get back home so we can drop all the 'Queen and her guard' nonsense. I was so tired of stepping through mirrors every time I wanted to seduce you!" She gave him her "look" through lowered lashes.

"And here I thoughtI was the one doing the seducing!" He kissed her nose. "All right, then — "

For the last time, Lily discarded the persona of Queen Sable, and with it an invisible burden she was only too glad to set down. She and Jimson each picked up an identical hand-mirror from the table beside the "traveling" mirror.

"Mirror, mirror, in my hand," they chanted in unison — and a green face appeared in each. Now, of course, she realized that the green Color was just the result of the image having to pass through the veil between their worlds.

"Godmother Lily!" said the one in her hand, and "Master" said the one in Jimson's.

"Is everything ready for us at home, Apprentice?" Jimson asked, a little sternly.

"Oh, yes!" they both said. "And the Brownies do not wish you to leave like this ever again, Godmother," added the one in Lily's mirror.

"WellI don't want to, either," she replied fervently, and turned to Jimson. "Well, my love, shall we?"

He bowed and gestured to the mirror. "After you, my dearest."

Swiftly they stepped through, leaving the suite silent and empty, waiting for its new occupants.

Rosa was perfectly happy to put her new crown in the hands of the attendants who were hovering nervously beside her, waiting for her to give it over. She really had no idea how Lily had put up with that much weight on her head. She was already getting the signs of a headache.

Siegfried seemed just as happy about being rid of his. "Are they gone?" he asked, as the attendants took the crowns away to be locked up. Even in a kingdom as wealthy as Eltaria, the two State Crowns were priceless, every gem — and there were exactly one hundred gems, large and small in each crown — matched and flawless, and enough gold in them to stagger the imagination.

"Let me check." Rosa took out her own little mirror, and the face of Jimson's third apprentice appeared in it without her prompting.

"Sylvie, are the Godmother and Jimson gone from here?" she asked.

"Not only gone home, but retired to the bedchamber and locked the door!" giggled the Mirror Spirit. "Shameless!"

Rosa slipped the mirror onto the hanger on the wall and laughed.

"Indeed! You would think that after three hundred years they would have some decorum!"

"l don't know about that," Siegfried replied, slipping his arms around her from behind and kissing the top of her head. "We don't have anything pressing, you know. That sounds like a good idea to me — "

"We still have to say goodbye to Leopold, so he has some daylight to travel by," she reminded him, and he mock pouted.

"All right. Let's go say our farewells to the rogue so we can get back to more important business." At her raised eyebrow, he retorted, "What? Making an heir isn't important?"

"Shush, you." She batted at his hands, and he released her with a laugh that made her shiver a little at the promise in it.

They made their way out to the garden — closed off from the public, and for once, empty of the courtiers. The public were being feted in tents out in that enormous field — after all, it wouldn't do for them to say they had been cheated of a coronation celebration! — and the Court having a celebration of their own in pavilions in the orchard.

Which left the garden free for someone who needed space to say his farewells. Like Leopold.

And Leopold's new wife.

Who was currently berating her father and getting the best of the argument.

As Rosa and Siegfried entered the garden they could already hear her. She had a very impressive voice, and the lungs behind it to make sure people got her point. Siegfried held out his hand, and the royal pair stopped just out of the immediate vicinity of the three. The stunning and statuesque blonde woman in the gold armor had her hands on her shapely hips and, from the look of it, had been dressing her father down for some time. "...and did I, or did I not do exactly what you wanted by helping Sieglinde escape?" she asked the old, white bearded man acerbically. "And never mind what you told Mother about her! And never mind what Mother told you . Goddess of the hearth and marriage be damned, she has no right to go around trying to murder poor pregnant girls who got wyrded into falling in love! That makes no more sense than punishing a fish because it can't breathe air!"

He rubbed at his eye patch uncomfortably. "Well — yes — but — Brunnhilde — "

"So since I did what you wanted,why was I punished for it?" she demanded.

He fidgeted and wouldn't look at her. "I — promised your mother — "

"Promises you had no intention of keeping! And you knew what was going to happen! You knew very well that once Siggy woke me, the whole wretched saga was going to play out. Erda told you. And I know she told you, because she told me she told you!" Brunnhilde actually stamped her foot at him. "Half of your problems are because you keep too many secrets, and the other half are because you bring them on yourself. So why punish me for them?"