When the stunned crowd fell silent, she began issuing orders. She pointed to the guards who had been at her door. "You guards — check on the remaining Princes.Now. Find out who is missing." She pointed to the ones that had come running at the fuss. "You guards — see if the Huntsman is gone." She turned to the maids. "You get back in those rooms, and if you can't calm yourselves, at least keep your hystericsin there. " And then to Siegfried. "Where is the mother cat?"
It was the kitten, clinging to the shoulder opposite the one that the wary bird claimed, that replied. "Mama outside! Mama see BadMans!"
"Put him down," she ordered Siegfried, who was perfectly happy to pry those twenty little needles out of his shoulder and put the kitten on the floor. "Take me to your mama," she ordered the kitten, who scampered off. "Find Leopold!" she called to Siegfried as she followed.
Siegfried ran back the way he had come, and burst in the door of Leopold's suite — for now that there were so few candidates, they all had their own suites again. Leopold was groggily clambering into his clothing, having been awakened once by Siegfried's screaming and again by the guards checking on the Princes.
"What in hell is going on?" Leopold demanded, blearily, looking haggard and a bit the worse for wear.
"The Princess is missing, an animal came to tell me someone had taken her, the Godmother is — "
Siegfried began, only too well aware that he was perilously close to babbling, when Lily returned with the mother cat he had aided in one arm, the kitten in the other.
"Desmond is missing," Lily told them tersely. "He is the only one of the Princes gone. The Huntsman is missing, too. The cat says she was moving the kittens to establish them here at the stables, and she saw two men take Rosa. So unless the Huntsman has a confederate and Desmond followed them, somehow knowing when we didn't that Rosa had been taken, we can assume they were collaborating all along."
Siegfried snarled an inarticulate oath and headed for the door, but she stopped him dead before he got more than two steps.
"Wait," she ordered. "Just a moment. Think. What will you need?"
She was right. A moment spent now would be saved a thousand fold later when he realized he was missing something. "My armor, my weapons, a horse — " he began.
"A direction," Lily pointed out. She jiggled the mother cat in her arm a little. "Cat?"
"Told kitten to wake you. Followed to market. Lost there," the cat said, tilting her head to the side and switching her tail rapidly. "Ran back here."
Siegfried thought about that a moment; from the market there were a dozen directions that Desmond could have gone, and at the moment he had no clear idea of which. Unless there was a witness...would the donkey have seen them? It was worth finding out. And if the donkey had not, perhaps he could start querying dogs. "There's a stable there. I might have someone in it who noticed them."
"I'll take care of the horses," Lily said. "You get down to the stable." She put down the cat and kitten and hurried off.
"I'm coming with you!" Leopold interjected, now fully clothed, and bundling up what little armor he had. Siegfried wasn't even going to try to dissuade him; first, it would be a waste of time, and second, Leopold had as much right as he did to join in the search.
"Come on, then," he snapped, and headed for his rooms at a run. Like Leopold, he only bundled up his armor rather than pausing to put it on. Speed was of the essence now, though it was unlikely that they would overtake Desmond before he got well, wherever it was he was going. The entire Palace had been aroused now; people were poking their heads out of doors as they passed, and he could hear the steady tramp of booted feet that could only mean Guardsmen on the move. For good measure, he also grabbed his pack, which out of habit he kept ready to go. He'd lived out of it for months at a time. If he needed something, well, hopefully it would be in there.
With his armor and sword under his arm, he ran for the stables. When he got there, he discovered that there were two horses already saddled and ready. "Hurry up!" one of them whinnied, laying back his ears as he stamped with impatience. "We need to run! She has us so full of magic we are about to pop!"
"She" was undoubtedly the Godmother, and he was not at all unhappy about these being two of her mouse-horses. He tied his pack and armor onto the back of the saddle, then literally leapt into the saddle without using stirrups; Leopold did the same, and the two of them galloped out of the Palace grounds while the rest of the Palace was still buzzing in confusion alter being roused from sleep.
At this hour the streets were empty, which meant they could gallop without encountering any obstacles. The occasional head popped out of a window, but otherwise there were no signs of life. He was still trying to think of what he was going to do if the donkey hadn't seen anything as they pounded into the silent marketplace — but the donkey was already waiting there for him.
"The men with the Princess!" the little beast brayed. "They came through here, riding straight for the Forest Gate!"
Oh, bless you, little beast!
With a wave of his hand to the helpful creature, Siegfried reined his horse over to the left and urged him down the street that led to the Forest Gate. Too late, he forgot that the Gate was probably closed and locked —
But the moonlight beating down on it showed that it wasn't. In fact, it stood wide-open. And the Gate-guards lay motionless beside it, on either side of the street.