My Royal Pain Quest (The Lakeland Knight series, #2) by Laura Lond

woman, not exactly a hag, but, well, let’s just say distinctly different.
    I tried not to appear surprised, but I don’t think I succeeded. Good thing Rosmarina was no longer looking at me: her gaze was fixed on Cassandra.
    “Please accept my most humble apology, oh mighty wizard,” she said, her voice different as well, with no trace of the former melodic ring. “May I ask how you saw through the spell?”
    Yeah, that’s what I wanted to know, too. That and the reason why I couldn’t see through it. Had the effect of the pink berry worn off? But Cassandra and I had taken the berries together, at the same time; why would it still work for her but not for me?
    I knew Cassandra pretty well by now, and as I turned to her I saw that, although she did a good job of looking confident, she was confused. She probably had no idea that I had seen a beauty with the rose instead of the unpleasant old woman with a dagger.
    “Shall I chop her head off, Archibald?” I offered. “Or do you want to find out all the details first? I don’t mean the trick, disguising herself as a young beauty and her weapon as a rose is nothing original. Will you be able to determine who sent her?”
    “I’d rather not waste my power on that,” Cassandra played along, much to the witch’s relief. “I hope she is sensible enough to tell me, to earn her pardon.”
    “No one sent me, I swear! We knew our defenses were breached, so I went to see whether I could stop you, or at least discover your intentions. It was foolish of me, I should have guessed that you are much stronger than us. But this spell has never failed before, I was certain no man, wizard or not, could repel it.”
    Ah. ‘No man,’ that had to be it. Archie’s disguise was proving to be more useful than we ever thought.
    “I suppose I will take this explanation, for now,” Cassandra said, still frowning. “However, by ‘stopping us’ you most certainly did not mean politely asking us to go back.” She turned to me. “I don’t know about you, Ark , but I find it rather irritating when someone comes at me with a dagger. I say she still has to pay for it.”
    Ark ?? That was not something I’d normally let a servant of mine get away with, but Archie was not just a servant. Besides, I kind of liked it.
    “No objections from me,” I replied. “Shall I chop her head off?”
    Rosmarina’s frantic eyes darted from Cassandra to me.
    “No! Please do not harm me, mighty wizards. Name your price. I can’t imagine what someone like you would possibly want from three humble witches whose strongest spells do not work against you, but I am willing to compensate for my discourtesy, if I can.”
    Speaking of spells, our ten minutes of protection were nearly over. I slipped my hand into my pocket where I had more berries ready, pink ones wrapped in a cloth and white ones loose, so that I could find the right ones without looking. I pretended to cough as I popped the berries into my mouth—both to get Cassandra’s attention and to hide my act from the witch. Cassandra knew what I did right away; her hand slowly moved to her pocket as well.
    “I will name the price,” I said, taking a small step to the witch and thus ensuring she had her eyes on me while Cassandra ate the berries. “These dogs of yours, as you call them, have captured a young Swirg not very long ago. We want him.”
    Rosmarina gasped and held her breath for a second.
    “Never!!” she screamed, snatching something off her neck and throwing it at us.
    Whatever object it was exploded into black dust. The dusty cloud did no harm to us as we dashed through it after the witch, but it obscured our vision long enough to let Rosmarina escape. I searched around, Cassandra checked behind the rocks where the witch had been hiding earlier; it was of no use.
    “She’s gone.” Cassandra spat in frustration. “Now they know what we’re after.”
    “Yes. We must find their lair, and quickly.” I picked up the witch’s