Chapter 9: The Judge

When Barda left the parlour, he was surprised to see that no people were milling about downstairs. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw that the sign on the door read 'Closed', and the door was locked. There was no one in the shop at all. Confused, he took out his keys and unlocked the door. He walked into the shop, locking the door behind him, and walked through to the living room. There he found Lindal, Min and Anthony.

"Ah, there you are love." Lindal smiled. Barda quirked a brow at her. She was starting to sound like Mrs Lovett. "Was just going to come up and get you." He turned and glanced over his shoulder at the pie shop.

"What was wrong with out there?" He muttered in a low voice. Lindal frowned. He was starting to sound more like Mr Todd.

"People could see us. 'Sides I figured if there were people in the shop, the customers would wanna know why we're closed." She explained with a shrug. "And t'is more comfortable back here." She stood up and walked over to him, putting an arm around his shoulders and leading him to another chair. "There, sit yeself down. Want some gin, love?" The only response was a grunt, which she took as a yes, and poured him a glass. He took a gulp of it, and she frowned again. This wasn't good. He hadn't complained about the taste.

Drinking it like Mr T did.

"We were just discussing the judge." Lindal said, ignoring what Mrs Lovett had said because she did not want to admit that she was right. "And the girl he keeps locked away." This got his attention, and the attention of Todd.

Wait… if she's back then that means she's…

Easy, love. Easy.

"Girl?" Barda questioned.

"Aye, pretty little blonde." Min smiled. "Anthony here is going to investigate further, see if he can find out her name." Barda glanced at Anthony, who looked hopeful, but when he looked away again, that hope died. Lindal noticed this and sighed.

"Barda." She said sharply. He looked up, surprised that she hadn't added 'mister' in front of it. "Take a good long look at Anthony." Confused, he did so.

"What am I looking for?" He murmured. Anthony bristled with frustration.

"How can you not see it?" He barked. Barda quirked an eyebrow again. "Do you not recognize me, Barda?" Barda took in the brunette hair and pale blue eyes and shook his head.

"He's a natural blonde, Barda." Lindal murmured behind him. "With light eyes and fair skin. He's twenty years younger than you."

"And he reminds me of Endon." Min added. Anthony turned to her with surprise. He still didn't know who this woman was, but she knew Endon? Barda's eyes widened when she mentioned Endon, and his gaze snapped back to Anthony. And then, he saw it.

"…Lief?" He asked in a hushed voice. Anthony nodded.

"Finally! I knew it was you from the moment I heard your name. I knew there was no chance it was only a coincidence that the new barber on Fleet Street shared the name of one of my closest friends." Lief sighed. "I was hoping you'd recognize me, or at least enquire about my full name. It's Anthony Lief, you see."

"I'm… sorry." Barda muttered. "I didn't recognize you at all until my mother mentioned that you are like Endon." Lief's eyes widened.

"Your… mother?" He turned to Min. Now that he looked, he could see the resemblance. "That's how you knew Endon!" Min smiled and nodded. "But… you're supposed to be…"

"You're in an alternate universe, Lief, and you find my mother's existence here more surprising?" Barda cut in quickly. "We are all well aware of my mother's position back home, as we are of Glock's."

"Glock… is he here too?" Lief asked, shocked.

"He is the Beadle." Lindal told him.

"Then… it must be them…" Lief muttered to himself. Noticing three pairs of confused eyes upon him, he smiled. "Ranesh is here, as is his son Josef."

"Surely this means that the girl and the judge are both from our world, too?" Lindal said quietly. "But who?" Now Min stood up.

"I know who the judge is." She said. Barda was suddenly alert.

"Who?" He asked quickly.

"Do not hold me to this. After all, it has been a long time since I've seen that face, and it was greatly different back then." She sighed, sitting down again. "I could quite easily be mistaken…"

"That does not matter. If you are, it will not be your fault." Barda smiled. "Who do you think it is?" He urged, sitting on the edge of the chair. He gripped the glass of gin tightly in one hand.

"The judge is…" She paused.

"Go on…"

"It's Jarred." She said at last. Barda, Lindal and Lief exchanged glances. Jarred? And then… Barda understood.

"Jarred!" He repeated, standing up quickly. "The man we know as Doom!" Lindal and Lief gasped.

"Doom is the judge? Oh no…" Lindal sighed. "I was hoping it would be someone we didn't know, or didn't like. Someone like, like…"

"Like Prandine." Min finished for her. Barda's eyes darkened at the mention of his name.

"I wish it was Prandine." He muttered. Lindal watched him, worried for his mental state. He was becoming more and more like Sweeney Todd each moment. She was getting scared, wondering if he would forget that he isn't Mr Todd.

Is the judge a friend of yours?

Now that it was clear both Min and Lief were friends, both of them heard Mr Todd's voice. And they could both see him, and Mrs Lovett. Barda sighed.

"The closest." He whispered. It was true. Despite the fact that they constantly bickered and fought, he and Doom were very close friends. Their bickering was just because they refused to admit to each other that they were close.

You need to kill him.

"I know." But it didn't mean he had to like it.

"Well surely you can't, Barda!" Lief exclaimed. "It's Doom!"

"I have to." Barda muttered. "If any of us ever want to get home, I have to." Min stood up now and walked over, looking into his face.

"Where has my son gone?" She whispered. It went deathly quiet in the room. She was frowning.

"What do you mean? I'm right here." Barda replied, confused. She shook her head slowly.

"No. This isn't my son." The words struck hard, and hurt crossed Barda's face. "My son would never have said that. My son would never have wanted to hurt someone close to him." She went on. "My son stood up for his friends, and wouldn't let anyone hurt them. If someone did, then that someone paid the price for it. The man standing in front of me isn't my son." She noticed the tears in Barda's eyes, but it had to be said, before he went too far. "When you find him again, you come and tell me." With that said, she left the room. Lief and Lindal exchanged glances before looking at Barda.

Ouch. That had to hurt.

It did. It hurt more than any physical strike. It all happened in one second – the tears slipped free and his legs gave out from beneath him. He crumpled to the floor, crying for the first time in many a year.

Poor thing…

Lindal rushed to him and put her arm around him. Words came to her instantly, and she murmured them to him.

"Easy now, hush love, hush…" Min stood in the doorway watching them. It had hurt her to say those things, but she didn't like what she saw her son becoming. Deep down, she knew that he would know that she would always be there for him, and that she could never hate him. He was her little boy, and she had missed him so much. Lief was pouring more gin for him in the hopes that it would ease him. Min felt bad for what she had done to Barda, and as he looked up their eyes met. And he knew that she hadn't truly meant to hurt him. That was enough for him. He took the gin from Lief with a faint smile.

"I'll work something out." He said quietly. "I can't kill Doom. He's my friend. My friend." Min smiled and walked over to him.

"That's my boy." She wiped the tears from his face and swept his fringe out of his eyes. "You're clever, you'll know what to do." She stood up and turned to face Todd and Lovett. "And as for you," she pointed at Todd, who looked surprised, "don't go telling my boy to kill people, you hear? I don't care what's in your head, but you keep it out of his! Understand?" Todd could only nod. "Good. I'll be back in a moment, sweetheart." She murmured to Barda, and left the room. The moment she was gone, Todd let out the breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding.

I think that's the first time I've been scared of a woman.

"That's my mother for you." Barda laughed. "She has that affect on people."

Nobody 'arms her lad, do they?

Barda shook his head, remembering all the times when he was younger when his mother would actually terrify any bullies that had tried to do him harm. He also remembered the way she'd sniped at his superior officers back when he was a young guard, because they liked to blame their mistakes on the new guards.

"No… nobody does." He smiled.

So what are you going to do about the judge? He needs to be dead.

"We'll figure something out." Barda shrugged. "But my mother's right. I can't kill him. I don't think I could even if I wanted to."

But my revenge…

"I swear if you mention your bloody revenge one more time, I'll dig up your corpse and kill you again myself." Barda cut in.

Ere, I think he means it!

"I do." Barda muttered, but he smirked. "So… I wonder who the girl is."

That's a point, actually. Why is she back? And why are you back, Anthony?

Lief sighed. He'd wondered when someone would ask.

"Anthony told me everything. He and Johanna were escaping England, aiming for America. However the ship they were on sank, and many people died. Sadly, he and Johanna were among those who perished." Lief explained, saddened. Todd said nothing, and instead left the room rather abruptly.

Oh dear… I'll go see if he's okay…

Mrs Lovett left, too, leaving Barda, Lief and Lindal alone in the room.

"That's sad. All that work to free her from Turpin's grasp and they both lost their lives quite suddenly…" Lindal murmured.

"They married quite soon after they left London. They were planning to move to America and start their family there but… they never made it." Lief went on. "So at least they were happy." Mrs Lovett came back into the room.

He wants to be left alone…

"No doubt." Barda sighed. "It's not nice finding out that a family member is dead." He was speaking from experience. He remembered all too well when he'd heard about his mother's death. It hadn't hit him straight away – he'd been distracted with escaping the palace and stumbling to the forge – but the next day, when he was sat alone in the room Sharn and Endon had given him, it had come to him all at once. Sharn had sat with him for hours, trying to soothe him.

And every year it came back to him. And it was Lindal who sat with him now, his dear wife. He looked at her, and smiled. She showed her sadness at the story of what happened to Anthony and Johanna. She would never admit it, but Lindal was actually rather sensitive.

Like me, he thought. How was he going to deal with this judge issue? He couldn't kill Doom. He just couldn't. Doom was his friend.

Doom settled down in a large, comfortable chair and pondered on his position. He had to dispose of this new barber quickly, before anything happened on his end. But it was going to be difficult. Glock hadn't reported anything suspicious after his visit to them that morning, but he had seemed on edge. Clearly the barber had frightened him. Either that, or he frightened Glock. He didn't see why he would, though. After all, they had been friends, right?

Then again, he had changed a lot since he came here. He glanced up at the ceiling. What was Jasmine doing now? He hadn't wanted to lock her away – she was his daughter! He knew how much she hated being imprisoned anywhere that had four walls and a roof. Yet if he was going to get home, he had to make sure the sailor didn't get to her.

He briefly wondered who the sailor would be. If Jasmine was here, and Glock too, Doom figured that it would be someone else from their world. It would probably be Lief, he concluded with a smile. It seemed logical that Lief would be the boy to rescue Jasmine.

This brought him back around to his original thoughts. Glock had mentioned who the barber was, and the baker that lived in the downstairs.

"So… Lindal and Barda are here too." He murmured to himself. "This is going to be rather difficult." He stood up and paced around the room. "I don't want to lock Barda away. I don't want to have him killed. Lindal would have my ass if I did." His lips quirked into a smile. "Perhaps I can talk this through with him…" He stopped by the window at one end of the room and looked out into London. "No doubt he'll want to go home, too. If we can arrange something, hopefully no one will be killed."

If Doom had known that only moments earlier, Barda had been thinking about how to kill him, perhaps his thoughts may have been slightly different. After all, they both wanted to go home, didn't they?

"I wonder… if one of us gets killed, do we just return home or do we actually die?" Doom sighed. It wouldn't be that simple, would it? If something happened to him here, it was a likely chance that it would happen to him back home.

Glock paused outside the door, listening to Doom speaking his thoughts out loud. He didn't like this new Doom. Harbouring murderous thoughts may have seemed well suited to his character – the man walks around with the name Doom – but he had never been one for mindless violence and killing innocent people. And the moment he'd been told that Barda was his arch nemesis in this crazy story…

He'd always noticed the rivalry between the two men. He'd occasionally been caught in the crossfire, and it wasn't pretty. But their fights – no matter how vicious or bitter – were always resolved. Their rivalry was friendly. They were both leaders – Barda of the Guards, Doom of the Resistance. They were both strong fighters, as had been proven in the Rithmere Games. If Glock was honest, he'd always believed that Barda was still bitter about Doom's win. He knew that if given the chance, Barda would have ordered for a rematch. Doom had tricked him into faltering, and had therefore knocked him down.

But surely they were friends enough to push all that aside? Thinking of ways to kill each other was not something they did a lot, or at all. Barda was good-natured and kind, and so was Doom – though he hid it rather well at the best of times.

But they had both changed. Doom was vicious and cruel. Barda was violent and dangerous. Glock knew it was because of the character they had to fulfil, but… he was worried that when they were finally allowed to return home, they would remain in those characters.

And a murderous Barda wouldn't be good for Deltora.

End of Book One

Author's Note: Well, this is the end of Book One: The Demons Awaken. Book Two: The Tale Of Sweeney Todd will be out tomorrow, with the first installation. Whoever guessed the judge was going to be Doom gets a cookie. I WAS going to have someone like Fallow or someone else evil to be the judge, but I figured it'd make things interesting if it was good ole Jarred.