AN: Hi! Dashboard Confessional is an amazing band. Just to let you know . . . All those who reviewed, thank you! You're like, like, like wondertastic! Or something equally insanely amazing! (Imitating my friend Austin . . . She's a bit hyper.)

Disclaimer: Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, someone owned something. It was pretty cool.


Prince: (to himself) "'I'll meet you at the baths!' She orders me around as if I were a servant! It's my own fault, really. With women, you have to show them you're in charge right from the start, or they'll walk all over you! I've been too indulgent: probably because I felt sorry for her. Well, it stops now! From now on, she'll have to toe the line! . . . That is, assuming I can find her."

Chapter 8: Trust . . . or the lack of it.

"If you can fit under this gate, I'll be really impressed," the Prince informed Farah dryly, observing the firmly shut gate in front of us. Farah just raised an eyebrow at him, walking toward the right side of the gate and sliding through the hole there.

"I knew that hole was there. I just wanted to see if you knew."

I mouthed the words along with the Prince, smirking. I love that line. Prince is so dumb. I looked at him fondly. The gate slid open with a clang, and we walked through.

"Birds. Oh yay. I'm so thrilled," I deadpanned. There were several of them, perched along the railing of the bridge in front of us, preening and bating in their restlessness. But there were four of us now, as opposed to the two in the game. And the birds "died" with just one blow; I decided that the odds were pretty good.

But wait . . . if I remembered right, the bridge collapsed just as the Prince finished crossing. Would the weight of two extra people be enough to overload it? I wasn't willing to take the chance, even if I raised some questions in my companions' minds that I wasn't ready to answer.

"Hold on," I said quickly, grabbing the Prince's arm. He turned to me, his expression quizzical. "Umm . . ." I made a face. I hated keeping secrets from people I liked and trusted. "This bridge is highly unstable. If all of us go out there at once it might collapse."

"I suppose you've just been 'paying attention' again," Farah commented ruefully. There was a faintly frustrated smile on her lips. I realized suddenly that she knew something was up with me; she just trusted me enough not to ask. Aaaaw, warm fuzzies.

"Yeah," I said, grinning at her in a way that let her know . . . that I knew, that she knew. I totally didn't mean to say that."We should probably go across one—actually, two at a time. You and the Prince first," I told her. "Just cross as fast as you can without getting injured by the birds. Don't worry about fighting them, alright?" I met each of their eyes seriously until they nodded. "Good. Now go! And stay together!" I sound like my mom. They obeyed, and with the Prince blocking the bird's vicious beaks with his new sword, made it across without incident. The bridge trembled suspiciously, however.

Maybe my mysterious gold flash of light wouldn't come through this time. I shuddered at the thought, staring at the unstable bridge. But just in case we did fall, and the goldy-light did save me . . . I didn't want our quartet to go back to a trio. I grabbed Lucan's hand.

"Whatever you do, don't let go," I told him grimly.

"I won't," he promised. I think he thought I was holding his hand 'cause I was scared or something. That's not to say that I wasn't scared . . . In fact, I was just about ready to pee my pants. (Or rather, my sarong.)

"Let's go," Lucan said. If he was scared too, he didn't show it. Except, perhaps, for the lack of a sardonic retort to everything I said . . .We sprinted forward. I could see Farah and the Prince waiting for us on the other side, faces pale. She was clinging to his hand like a lifeline, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he was holding on just as tightly. Hello! In danger of dying, here! Matchmaking-related thoughts off limits!

We made it a little over halfway before the bridge began to crumble. We kept running, of course, but I already knew it was futile. From the look of horror on the royals' features, I could see that they did too. I heard Farah screaming my name and Lucan swearing lividly in an unfamiliar language—it was definitely swearing— panic in his voice, as the ground gave out from under us.

Clinging tightly to Lucan's hand, I fixed my gaze on the stable stone floor where Farah and the Prince were standing. There. Take us there, goldy-flashy-light-ness!Now!

Golden light surged through me and out, blinding me for a moment. When my eyes cleared, I was sitting down and leaning against a pillar, my hand still clasped in the now unconscious Lucan's, and with two sets of incredulous eyes staring at me. Well, at least I'm still alive.

"I'm alive. Yay," I said thoughtfully, not thinking much about it beforehand. I sounded rather dazed. Maybe I wasn't quite as unaffected by all this as I thought I was . . .

The Prince rubbed the bridge of his nose, his expression disbelieving. "Yes, but what I'd like to know is how. What . . .?" He shook his head, apparently speechless. His words seemed to rouse Farah from her shock, however. She blinked, her eyes clearing and focusing on me, and gasped.

"Jenny!" she cried, flinging herself at me and squeezing me tightly. I let out a startled 'umph.' "I can't believe it!"

She pulled back after a few moments, a relieved smile still on her face. "I'd almost forgotten about that last time you fell . . . Do you think maybe that that's what your Ring does? It's similar to the way the sand creatures teleport . . ." she drifted off. I barely managed to refrain from smacking myself in the forehead. Could have had a V8! It was so obvious! Of course the Ring was what gave me the ability to teleport. I shook my head mentally in exasperation at my own blatant stupidity, while Farah still waited expectantly for an answer.

"What's she talking about?" the Prince interrupted before I could speak. "What last time?" Farah glared at him, and he flushed a little, smiling wryly. "Sorry Jenny. I really am glad you're okay. It's just that I'm—" he spread his arms helplessly, "—confused."

I met the Prince's gray-green eyes, then Farah's brown ones, and realized that telling more lies at this point would just dig my ditch deeper. That didn't mean that I couldn't omit information, though . . . I sighed, and after making sure that Lucan was safely unconscious, stood up and began my tale.

"Prince, when I told you that I knew things because of my Ring? I was lying," I said bluntly. I put my finger to his lips when he tried to speak. "No, let me finish." I turned my gaze to Farah. "Thanks for trusting me, Farah. Both of you have noticed that I know things that I shouldn't . . ." We smiled at each other. Taking courage from her open support, I took a deep breath, and continued.

"The reason I know all these things is because where I come from, this is all just a story. Not just the Sands, but this. You two climbing the Tower of Dawn to reverse the evil that the Vizier has released onto this land." Two mouths swung open in unison. Farah regained her voice first.

"Are you in the story?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not. That's why I'm hoping that I can change things." Seeing the worry on their features, I hastened to reassure them. "No, it's not that you don't succeed. It's just . . . some things happen along the way that I'd like to prevent, if possible."

"What happens?"

That was the Prince. I hesitated.

"I don't think that I should give you too many specifics," I said carefully, "but I will tell you that a lot of things go wrong because you two stop trusting each other." They looked at each other, surprised.

"Why?" The Prince sounded absolutely baffled. I gave him my best 'are-you-kidding-me' look.

"Are you kidding me?" I demanded.

He only looked confused for a moment longer, until apparently his wits returned to him. He grimaced. "Oh. Right," he said belatedly. Farah and I rolled our eyes.

"How is it that I'm not dead?"

Ah, Lucan. Articulate as always, even when he'd just regained consciousness.

"I saved your butt with my mysterious magical powers, that's how," I informed him cheerfully. Having at least part of my secret off my chest, with no negative side effects as far as I could tell, had put me into a good mood.

"Huh?"

Okay, maybe not so articulate.

"Apparently Jenny's Ring gives her the power to teleport," Farah cut in smoothly. "She teleported both of you to safety just as the bridge was collapsing."

Lucan raised his eyebrows, pulling himself into a sitting position and looking sidelong at me. "Really. That's interesting. Why doesn't she just teleport us all to the Tower of Dawn?"

"I've never even seen the place," I told him irritably, my good mood seriously diminished. "How the heck am I supposed to teleport there?" Not quite true. I had seen the animated version, but I didn't think that counted.

"You could at least try!" he countered. I scowled, glaring. Unfortunately, he had a point.

"All right!" I snapped peevishly. "I'll try. But I can't promise you anything." Good mood officially blown to smithereens.

Huffing, I stood, crossed my arms over my chest to underscore that I was not happy, and closed my eyes. I brought the image of the Tower to my mind; the octagonal room, treasure piled at the corners, with the open sky visible through a hole in the ceiling, and most importantly, the Hourglass on a pedestal in the center. I tried to subtly alter the image to be more lifelike, but it didn't work very well. At least I knew what the Hourglass looked like. There, I told the Ring. I want you to take me there.

Nothing happened for a few long seconds. I almost opened my eyes, but then— O-my-fat-Aunt-Roberta. This is not good. A sickening sense of dislocation struck me, much like it had when Lucan had first contacted me. I couldn't see; I was being pulled in a thousand different directions at once. "Help—" I whimpered. Somehow, I'm not sure how, I managed to call for help through the chaos. In any case, a moment later my shoulder was gripped by a warm hand; the dislocation dissipated, and I could breathe again. I opened my eyes and saw that the hand was Lucan's; my breath came in shuddering gasps, and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to stand on my own much longer. I stumbled to the nearest pillar and leaned heavily against it, sinking down to the floor.

"Never," I said hoarsely, "make me do that again." I looked up, begging them with my eyes, and added, "Please." I must have sounded and looked pretty pathetic. I felt pretty pathetic. 'Disturbing' was immeasurably inadequate to describe what I'd just been through. And this coming from someone who'd been through a lot more than the average American teen.

"I think I can safely say that none of us will," Farah said shakily, offering me a rather trembly smile of support. It helped a little. Enough that, with a conscious effort of will, I managed to steady my breathing and stand up, although I still kept a hand on the pillar.

"Thanks," I said quietly.

The silence stretched out for an almost ludicrous amount of time, until Lucan finally blurted out, "I'm sorry!"

I blinked at him.

"Why?"

"You weren't going to try until I convinced you to," he said guiltily. I rolled my eyes, feeling a bit more like myself now that there was someone being idiotic to make fun of.

"Oh, shut up," I told him. All three of my companions looked startled, staring at me. "You were right. Trying was the sensible thing to do. It's not your fault that it happened to be a crazy death-trap of doom." I shook my head exasperatedly. What was it with the men in this dimension and feeling responsible for things that they had absolutely no control over? Excluding the Vizier, of course.

Wait a sec . . . I'd just thought men 'in this dimension.' Not 'in dream-land.' Not 'that my subconscious comes up with.' Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap! I was definitely in deep . . . Okay, I wasn't even going to say it. Three times was enough. I realized that without noticing it, I'd been thinking this way for a while now. Hadn't I just been wondering if Lucan was from a different world too, and if he knew how to get back? So, either I was completely bonkers . . . or I really was in a different dimension, and all of this was really happening. I decided after a moment of weighing the pros and cons that I liked the second option better.

Blinking, I realized that everyone was still staring at me. I sighed mentally. Time to get things moving. "Look! A crack!" I unabashedly mimicked Farah's enthusiastic tone from every time she said those exact words. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately got down on her belly and slid through.

"The switch is broken!" she called after a moment, dismayed. Prince rolled his eyes.

"Very funny. Open the gate."

"I mean it! It's really broken!"

I cringed. The idea of trying to teleport again, especially so soon, was extremely unappealing at the moment, but . . .

"I could try teleporting us through," I offered reluctantly. Three sets of concerned eyes turned to me.

"Are you sure you want to try this?" Prince asked, uncharacteristically gentle. Wow, I must've scared them almost as much as I scared me if the Prince was actually making an attempt at being sensitive.

"I'm sure," I said firmly. "If we're going to get to the Tower of Dawn we all need to use all of the gifts at our disposal." I grinned weakly. "Being scared witless isn't a viable excuse not to." Farah was polite enough to chuckle; the men just stood there and looked worried. I kind of missed my insensitive Prince and sardonic Lucan . . . What happened to them? These new guys really needed to lighten up a little. A lot, actually.

I didn't close my eyes this time around. I thought that that might've been part of the problem last time: the fact that I couldn't see my destination. Although, I wouldn't have been able to see it even if my eyes had been open of course. Instead, I fixed my eyes firmly on the other side of the gate, and willed myself over there. A golden aura surrounded me; I yelled, "Ow!" bouncing off the gate, landing hard on the cold stone flagging, and adding more bruises to my ever-growing collection.

"My ability sucks," I decided, rubbing my sore backside and glaring up at the gate. "I can't even teleport through walls!"

"Hey!" Lucan protested, his expression affronted. "Your ability just saved our misbegotten lives! Don't diss it!" He looked completely serious— almost. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly upwards. There he is! I knew the old Lucan was hiding in there somewhere . . .

Then the Prince spoiled my glee-fest by saying glumly what I probably should have been thinking: "What do we do now?"


AN: YAAAAY! My inspiration hasn't run out! That's what happened with my last story . . . It sucked. Took me forever to finish, and every minute was dragging. :p I was pleased with the finished product, though. But my vivid-muse-horse-weird-fabulous is alive again! YAAAY! (Notice that this time there are only 3 A's in my "Yay." This is me winding down.) Review please! :)

~Killer Zebra