The Accidental Return
PART TWENTY ONE
The sky was dark, clouds covering the stars and moon. Ludo was whimpering where the fairies had left him. They had grown bored of the walking rug and had moved onto the goblin crew. Doggle was yelling profanities at the Fairy Queen as she stood at the helm. The ship was anchored over the Goblin City, her eyes on the castle. She narrowed them as a white spec flew from the castle gardens. The city was quiet, only the slightest movement every now and then. Her fingers gripped the wheel of the ship and the wood splintered under her hands. She turned, walking to the rail and looked down. Her shadow was menacing in the half light all the fairies created. It was like a thousand candles floating about. It was the only light on the ship and it was spooky. The only sound was Doggle's cussing, Ludo's whimpering, and the sound of a thousand wings.
Since Sarah had jumped over the rail, the Queen had hoped to see her mangled body on the ground. She had also hoped, at least, to smell the whores blood, but no. She had felt a spike of magic, she thought it was just a fluke. Jareth coming to the whores rescue, maybe. But after she had broken that bird… no… that might not have been Jareth at all. She had seen that owl leaving the castle only moments before.
"I should have sent her to the middle of a desert…" The Queen muttered darkly. "The Sea of Glass wasn't good enough. She should have been sliced up and bled to death in the middle of no where..." The rail splintered like the wheel under her fingers. "How did she survive! Jareth's pet human! Did he save her? Did my spell fail?"
The cloud of fairies shifted around her, feeling her anger.
"YOU PSYCHO!" Doggle yelled, "You can't hurt her! You could never hurt her, you fool!"
The Queen turned, staring at Doggle as a bird would a worm, "Why, my dear little half breed, could I not hurt her?"
Doggle's eyes widened. He didn't expect her to actually listen to him. He felt stupid now, more then stupid. He was an idiot.
"I… I… uh…"
The Queen disappeared from where she stood. Doggle gasped as she knelt in front of him suddenly, her face inches from his. The over powering smell of roses filled his nose. The smell of roses and magic. He wanted to gag as she gripped his shoulders. He winced, her grip like iron. Her thin boney fingers dug into his flesh as she shook him, her teeth gritting in rage, "TELL ME!"
"You're… hurting me.."
"I'll do more then just hurt you, you little dirt clod. Tell me what you meant. Why can't I hurt her?"
Doggle squealed, kicking, "I don't know! I don't know! I was only guessing! She looked like her! It was only a glimpse but she looked so much like HER!"
"Like who, you little shit? WHO!"
"Well, I could say I look like Jennifer Connelly, but that would be a stretch." A voice said from the rail.
The Queen turned, hissing in surprise. Doggle gave a cry of relief as Sarah stood on the rail, perfectly balanced. Her arms crossed over her chest, if her hair had been free, it would had blown theatrically in the wind. The bubbles that held Hoggle and Didymus burst, releasing them onto the deck.
"HAVE AT THEE!" Didymus cried as Lancelot sat and scratched a flea. Didymus sighed and poked Lancelot in the rump to get him to stand, "Come on, Lancelot, we have a battle to win!"
Hoggle landed on his butt. He scrambled to stand and limp/ran over to the hostages. He started untying them, Doggle looking at him gratefully. "It's about time you do something useful." He said to his brother.
"It's about time you shut the hell up." Hoggle said.
The Queen was focused on Sarah, her eyes narrowing, "I knew it was too much to hope for. Your mangled body broken on the streets of the Goblin City."
"If hope was candy, your ass would be huuuuge." Sarah said, jumping down to the desk. She moved with a grace she didn't have before. She felt the magic coursing around her, guiding her to what she needed to do.
"Well said." Jareth said from the wheel. He leaned his back against it, his arms folded, watching. The Queen looked up at him, "Did you come to defend your little whore?"
"No, actually. She can defend herself quite well. I just came to watch. Oh… and maybe even up the score." He rolled a crystal orb to the tips of his fingers and then tossed it into the air. It exploded and rain started to fall over the deck.
"Lemon juice!" The Queen cried as her children began to drop to the deck, twitching. She looked at Jareth, "How could you! We were to be married!"
"I doubt that's what you had in mind, my dear." Jareth said, looking bored. As all the other inhabitants of the deck were soaked in a fine mist of lemon juice, he stayed dry.
The Queen bared her teeth, turning to Sarah, "How did you survive the Sea of Glass? How did you survive my venom?"
Sarah smiled, winking, "It's a secret."
The Queen screamed and rushed to the rail. Sarah reached out but the Queen jumped over the side. Sarah leaned over it to watch as the Queen dropped to the ground, as if she didn't fall almost a mile through the air. Sarah looked up at Jareth and then stepped backwards. She slowly faded from sight. Doggle cried out but Hoggle shook his head, "Don't worry about it. The little lady can take care of herself."
Didymus woofed, "I didn't even get to fight." He sighed and went to Ludo, "Come my brother."
"WOTCHER!" David yelled as Doggle stood, wobbling. The little worm crawled out of Doggle's coat pocket.
"AH! Sir David!" Didymus cried.
"Right, I've been trapped in there by the ropes, what the 'ell 'appened?" He said as Doggle put him onto Didymus's shoulder and went to arrange his men and began calling out orders to land.
"A valiant story full of sadness and adventure! But then again, you know more then I, since I was trapped in a bubble for the last day and night. There is still much to be done! Lady Sarah went to fight the evil queen!"
Nearby, Lancelot scooped a fairy into his mouth, gagged and spit it out.
Sarah faded back in. She looked around. They were in the forest again. She hated this place, even if was beautiful. She could feel the Queen somewhere in this area and she followed that feeling to a large clearing. She stood at the edge of it, the Queen stood in the middle with her back to Sarah. Her arms were out, her palms down to the ground. Sarah looked around and noticed the grass starting to turn brown. The trees started to turn red, as if it were autumn and Sarah realized as she watched this patch of the Underground die, the Queen was sucking the magic from the very earth to gain power over Jareth.
Sarah gasped in horror as the Queen turned, her eyes lit with a new fire, "Came to finish me off, WHORE?" The Queen spat.
Sarah no longer thought this woman was beautiful. She had taken on a new quality. Her long silky hair was twisted and tangled, her peerless skin was pock marked from lemon juice. Her clothes were stained from the muddy earth she stood on. Her face was twisted in rage. Sarah stepped closer, "You know it, you nasty flying insect."
The Queen laughed at that and brought her hands up. Mirrors thrust from the ground like jagged rocks. Sarah grit her teeth as one of the mirror caught her pant leg and ripped it, taking a few lays of her skin from her ankle. She dodged the mirrors the best she could, watching her reflection reach out for her, as they tried when she first met the Fairy Queen.
"Reusing old tricks?" Sarah taunted, "I could say you took a page out of Jareth's book."
The Queen screamed and rushed at Sarah. Sarah grinned and side stepped her. Sarah moved her hand in a swiping motion and a deep pit of mud appeared before the Queen. She fell in with a sucking splat. The Queen sputtered, struggling to sit up as the mud coated her from head to toe. She screamed as she also realized besides the muck, she smelled. Sarah had taken the liberty to make the mud out of Bog of Eternal Stench water.
"HOW!" She shrieked, "How are you doing this?!"
Sarah sat on a rock that rose to seat her. She thanked it and crossed her legs, looking at the Fairy Queen.
"Well, it is rather a complicated story. I still don't know how I can here a second time. I do know that my great grandmother was the last Queen of the Underground. Sorry, love, you never stood a chance to take the throne as queen. Besides Jareth not loving you, you just had too much history and legend against you."
The Queen grit her teeth, spitting out a clump of mud. Sarah restrained a laugh and blinked as the Queen disappeared and reappeared before Sarah. She wrapped her hands around Sarah neck and lifted her off her rocky seat.
"You stupid, smug whore bitch." The Queen spat into Sarah's face and Sarah struggled against her. She felt all her weight being supported onto the Queen's hands as she was lifted into the air and it was choking her. She also felt her magic draining from her as the Queen's spell, or however she stole magic, worked on her. Sarah kicked as the Queen stood to her full height, which was a good foot taller then Sarah.
Sarah began to feel light headed, the edges of her vision going gray. She breathed in deeply and then out. She fell to the ground, coughing violently. She rolled onto her back, looking up at the sky and smiled as she let her throat stop throbbing slowly. Nearby she heard the tiny sound of something hitting glass. It was like the tinkling of silver bells.
She heard Jareth chuckle nearby and she sat up slowly. Jareth leaned against a tree holding an orb. He was looking at the thing inside, smiling, "Well done, Sarah."
Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but no voice came out. She shook her head slowly and smiled, waving a hand. Jareth chuckled and walked over, skirting the mud pit and held a hand out to her. She took it, pulling herself up. Jareth ran a hand over her throat slowly, making her shiver. She felt the pain leave her slowly and after a minute, she could talk again. She took the orb from him, looking into it. Inside, the Fairy Queen beat her fists against the glass, screaming soundlessly.
"I couldn't kill her." Sarah said, surprised how sad her voice sounded.
"I didn't think you could." Jareth said quietly.
"No matter what she did, how badly she had hurt my friends or what she did to the Underground…" Sarah said as she stared into the orb. She looked to Jareth and flinched as a fire built in her chest. She staggered into him and clutched her chest. The orb fell from her fingers as Jareth wrapped a hand around her, "Sarah?"
"Sarah?"