To all my readers I dedicate this chapter:) I beg forgiveness for taking so long, and for those of you who are wondering about the relationship between Jareth and Rosalinda this should make your minds start churning!
Thanks for all the kind reviews, as always!
Enjoy!
Penelope's expression was one of great amusement mixed with pity as she watched Giric and Rosalinda argue. Ever since arriving at the old ruin of a castle, all during the process of lighting a fire in what had once been a private apartment, the two had been going at each other like angry children. The lady was in search of an apology for her treatment that day, of being kidnapped and made to walk through knee deep snow to the dismal abandoned place. But the man kept on saying that she had given him permission to bring her there, so there was no kidnapping and nothing to apologize for. The fight went round and round in circles, and they were no closer to resolving it than when it first started.
Not that I can blame her for wanting to fight with him; his handling of the situation was far from what even I had expected. Penelope's pretty mouth turned up in a grin as she tossed another piece of wood on the fire, thinking how if things kept up this way then the tempers would soon be running hot enough to keep them all warm. But now is about the time for me to step in and give the poor fool a break. Much needs to be explained, and the time draws near for the moon to shine down on this side of the castle.
Rising from her kneeling position before the fire, she crossed over to Giric and laid a hand on the back of his neck. He jerked at the feel of her cold skin on his, and glowered at her. "What is it, Penelope?" his mind barked to hers, his annoyance at being interrupted during an argument plainly felt by her.
"You have wasted enough time fighting with her, now is time for me to explain what she is here for." her minds voice was soothing, but held a no nonsense tone about it that was meant to make Giric step down and let her take over the situation. But he remained stubborn, wanting to finish the fight instead of leaving it hanging. She gave him a smack upside the head and promptly scolded him. "Giric! Stop being such a stubborn idiot! Remember who is in charge here, and let me do what I must."
Growling under his breath he turned to Rosalinda, who sat there with a look of satisfaction on her face; she had had the last word before Penelope had intervened. "The princess wishes to speak with you." he ground out in a rough voice.
"But don't think this is the end of our dispute! You will apologize for abducting me sooner or later!" she threw back her head in a aggravatingly proud manner, and shifted herself to face the princess. "Forgive us our hostility, Your Highness. But, as you can tell there is quite a bit of anger between us, the least of which is not limited to what he did today!"
Penelope smiled as she knelt down on the floor. She held out her hand to Rosalinda, who took it quietly, and then her other to Giric. When he didn't take it she gave him an elbow in his side, drawing from him a grunt of pain. He glared at amber eyed princess, who merely gave him a look that said 'take my hand or else!', which he did with a scowl.
"Penelope is unable to speak, as I told you before, due to Clarissa injecting her with some sort of silencing potion," Giric said in a straight and short voice, hoping to avoid any further misunderstandings and fights. He reminded himself of the importance of this meeting, and forced his pride back once more. "but her mind is untouched. I will act as conduit between you, what you say will be heard by me, but I will not read your minds beyond that."
Hands all joined, forming a circle, Giric established a telepathic link between all of them. Rosalinda hated the idea of joining in the link with him, even with his promise that he wouldn't read her mind, but she forced her dislike down and focused on the moment.
"Majesty," Penelope's voice echoed through Rosalinda's mind. It was strange to her to hear the princess's mental voice, and she wondered if it were anything like her real one. "Your anger at how you were treated today shouldn't be directed at Giric alone, I do share part of the blame. I hereby apologize for the manner in which you were brought here; it wasn't at all how a Queen should be treated. His tactics, while being effective, are not always considerate. But I told him to get you here as soon as possible, and he did so the fastest way he could see. I regret it was not done in a more genteel fashion."
"Apology accepted, Princess. At least you were kind enough to offer one!" she glared at Giric, but he kept his eyes closed and focused on maintaining the link. His long lashes made dark crescents against his pale skin. "But, that aside, I would very much like to know why I have been brought here. Giric mentioned something about Clarissa using the demon to steal the royal pendants, though he neglected to say why."
"You are well aware of what a royal pendant is for, what one means to each monarch." Penelope began without preamble. A shiver ran up her spine as it fully dawned that she was now taking the first steps in her plot to put an end to her sister. She hoped it ended something like she planned, though there was no guarantee that everything would go down as she hoped.
Rosalinda nodded in response to Penelope, images of her own pendant coming to her mind. It was, without question, the most important thing she had, more important than her own life in many ways.
"The Pendant of the Mist, our most treasured possession, my child. It is that which gives us the power over our realm, that which makes a monarch one with the land. One drop of blood from the first of our family to rule was added to the molten metal as it was cast, and then the proper spells and potions were used. It is the same with all pendants, each one made for a monarch to give him power over his realm. This is as precious as your own life, and whatever may happen in your life or your descendants lives it must be protected above all else."
She could remember her father telling her those words so clearly it could have been yesterday. It was her first lesson on what it was to be a monarch, and she had never forgotten. Slowly her eyes opened and the vivid memory faded into the back of her mind.
"Clarissa plans to mold all the pendants together into a single piece. Recast them, wipe out the original blood and add her own. She hasn't done anything to them yet, the realms still belong to their rightful rulers, but it won't be long now before she goes through with her plans." Penelope paused, and Rosalinda took the chance to ask a question.
"How long have you known about her plans? You must have known for quite sometime-"
"I know where you are going with this, and please don't accuse me of not acting once in all this time since realizing the truth; I have done my fair share of plotting against my sister, though I have done so with the utmost caution so that no one could suspect me." she looked over at Giric. "And part of my plotting was in saving his pendant before Clarissa could get her hands on it.
"But yes, I have known for quite a while, though this is the first chance I have seen to expose my sister for what she really is. You see, Rosalinda, this trial is the perfect opportunity to bring all of what she has done out in the open; a gathering of all the monarchs has never been done since Clarissa was put on the throne, but this trial will bring all of them together. Only no one knows that it will be the High Queen in the accused position, and the demon merely her accomplice."
Rosalinda's temper flared up and she glared at Giric. "You kidnapped me just to tell me this?! Writing a letter would have been much more convenient for us all, and saved us a great deal of time-"
"Really, Rosalinda!" said Giric, exasperated and completely fed up with their fight. He didn't care if he won or lost. "You can be so obtuse when the mood strikes you! Ok, I'm sorry for kidnapping you! There, I said it, and I would say it again if it would just make you hold your tongue long enough for Penelope to finish having her say!"
Her mouth fell open in shock, but then snapped shut again before any words could come flying out. She knew she was in the wrong for being so proud and wanting to fight, but couldn't forgive the way she had been treated during the course of the day. But in view of the larger picture her treatment wasn't that important, so she backed down. "I'm sorry." she said quietly. "Please, go on Penelope."
"Until now Clarissa could do nothing without finding out what had happened to the last three pendants, to yours, Jareth's, and Giric's, and without the demon she was left in the dark. Jareth, as you know, never told anyone what had become of the demon, merely that he wouldn't trouble anyone again. With his return to the Underground she gained his knowledge, and it won't be long before she decides to hunt out Giric to find out if by some chance his pendant had somehow survived."
The feeling of foreboding she had experienced the other night suddenly made sense to Rosalinda. There was indeed something very wrong in the Underground, and it wasn't what she had thought it would be. We are running out of time, and quickly. If she finds Giric, and no doubt she will before too long, then there will be nothing stopping her from going against Jareth, and consequently me, to get our pendants.
"And why am I here, exactly?" she asked, still not seeing what she had to do with any of it.
"There are several reasons, but as a witness is first. You have been told many things, but being told something, and seeing it for yourself, are two very different things."Giric suddenly pulled his hands away from both of the ladies and rose to his feet. He looked up at the massive domed ceiling over their heads, and Rosalinda followed his gaze. Up in the highest point of the ceiling, where the dome came to a point, a ghostly blue light was forming and spreading down the five curved support struts.
"What is that?" she asked, getting to her feet along with Penelope, never taking her eyes from the spectacle before her. Whatever it was emitted a light humming sound, and it felt as if something sinister were building in the air around them.
"Moonlight." Giric answered, half smiling to himself when he realized that any and all animosity Rosalinda had held for him before had been wiped out of existence, for the moment at least. "There are things in here that Clarissa wanted no one to see, and she used her black arts to hide them from anyone who might find their way in here during the daylight. Only in the moonlight, shining down on this section of the castle, can we see what is really here. But I must warn you not to try to touch anything; Clarissa has set an unknown spell on everything, one that kills instantly, so my poor chronicler found out on the first night in this place."
The light had reached the walls of the circular room. Rosalinda had thought it would continue down in straight lines, but instead it spread out along the circumference of the room from left to right, then slowly worked its way down in a solid circle of light until it reached the floor, leaving a shimmering film over the walls that illuminated the whole room.
All around the room, where nothing had been seconds earlier, shelf after shelf of magic potions, books, scrolls and instruments came out of nowhere and into focus. Everything was perfectly organized, sorted and labeled, nothing out of place in any way. They all reeked of black magic, just looking at them gave Rosalinda the shivers.
But what caught Rosalinda's attention at once was a rack directly across the room from her, hanging from which were the very six royal pendants that had been the topic of their conversation only moments before.
"Ok, so now I'm a witness." she said, walking slowly past Giric, eyes trained on the things that bound a monarch to their land. "What is it you want me to do with what I know?"
"Take this." he held up his hand, palm turned up, and an orb of polished obsidian, shot through with vivid blue, appeared on it. Rosalinda reached out and took the object, which was light as a feather. "Ever since finding out what Clarissa has been up to Penelope has been writing her own Chronicles, and I have added my own contributions, and now is the time to bring it forward. After your trial you will be exonerated, and then you will show this to the court. As a reliable witness, and with Jareth behind you no one will question you. All questions will be directed at Clarissa."
"But this is just a case, and I am just a witness. What of evidence? Something this important will need more than Chronicles."
Giric opened his mouth to say something, but a strange look came over his face that kept her silent. Eyes flickering, he turned his head sharply to the side as if to listen to something. Instantly alert Rosalinda stilled her breathing and strained her ears to pick up any and all sounds around them, but there was nothing beyond the normal sounds that the three of them made.
"Time for both of you to leave." he said calmly, turning back to look at the two women. Rosalinda knew without having to hear what he was going to say, though she had to wonder at his complete lack of concern. "Clarissa and her wizard are both here, and here for us. Have no fear, Rosalinda, we have our own plans for getting that very evidence."
JSJSJS
'Don't go wandering about the castle when I am not here.' Jareth had told Sarah before leaving to take her father back to the Aboveground. She would have listened to him, and did try for a whole ten minutes to sit in her room and relax, but she couldn't bear to be still. She had to move, and so she did.
Up and down the halls she wandered, feet randomly taking her where they would. It was funny, from the outside the castle was quite large, but somehow it seemed that the inside was too big to be enclosed within its walls. There were clocks everywhere, she was never without a reminder of how long she had been walking, and if the timepieces were reliable then it had been nearly an hour.
An hour and still I'm finding all kinds of new places! she thought, taking a random turn that went directly to a staircase heading down. She didn't even know what floor she was on, or which side of the castle she was in, but strangely she didn't care; so long as she kept walking the lonely feeling that came with knowing her father wasn't in the same world as she was wouldn't catch up with her.
The stairs looked as if they went in a straight line, but as Sarah went along she noticed that they actually were very curved, as was the wall they were up against; she was going down a stairwell, and a big one at that. And what was worse they didn't seem to have an end; each step she took added three more, or so it seemed, and the more quickly she moved the slower she went.
Out of breath, a trickle of sweat running down her back, she stopped to rest and assess the situation. Looking back the way she had come there were only stairs, looking forward there were only stairs, and peering over the fancy banister she found herself looking down a bottomless stairwell that ended only in darkness. The view made her dizzy and she stepped away from it until she felt the cool wall pressing against her back.
"I should have gone fairy hunting with Hoggle!" she sighed, wiping the back of her hand against her forehead. The dwarf had found her after Jareth had left with her father, and he asked if she wanted to go into the bowels of the castle for a spot of fairy hunting. 'The best fun in the Underground, I tells ya!' he had said with great enthusiasm, but she had turned down the offer, preferring to be alone for a little while.
But now she wished to be just about anywhere else instead of on that endless staircase, and really wished she had listened to Jareth about not wandering around the castle when he wasn't there. She was tired and longed for the simple pleasure of a pillow under her head and a blanket to keep the chills of night air away. The thought of having to stay on those stairs until someone found her not at all appealing, she most certainly didn't want to spend the night there, so she leaned over the banister, braving the feeling of vertigo, and raised her voice.
"Help! Someone help me!" she shouted, hoping that her voice carried and caught someone's attention. She wasn't panicky, not in the least frightened, only eager to get back to a part of the castle she was familiar with. "I'm trapped in an endless stairwell! Someone help me get out of here!"
No one answered. Even the echo of her voice didn't return. She slumped against the wall again, then willed her feet forward once more. This time she ran her hand along the wall just in case she came to a doorway that was hidden from her sight.
Exactly one hundred steps later, laying in the perfect center of her path, was a piece of paper folded neatly in the style of a letter. She frowned as she picked it up, taking note of the lack of seal or signature, and glanced around to see if there were any signs of the person, or creature, who had left it there. But there were none, so she opened it up.
The handwriting was crude and sloppy, scrawled across the page in small and often tight lettering that was hard to read. A few minutes of hard staring and the words slowly started coming together in her mind, and to her delight it was a small set of instructions on how to get out of the spot she was in.
'Go left on this step, a secret doorway you will find.' was the first line. Sarah saw only a blank wall, but in reaching out to touch it discovered there was indeed a hidden doorway. Smiling and wondering what possessed Jareth, or whoever had first made the Labyrinth, to fill it with such tricks she went through it and found herself in a long narrow hall.
'Follow path, at end of hall there be a door. Go through it.'
Sarah did as the note said, but had a creeping feeling run up her spine as she wondered just how someone knew where she was and where she would be. True, she had called for help, but it seemed to her that someone had to have been watching her all that time as she went wondering around the castle to know where to put such a helpful letter. Am I being watched right now? she looked back over her shoulder as she went on.
And there it was, the door. It stood out from all other doors she had seen just by how plain it was; there were no carvings, no giant metal hinges. or even a plaque to say what was behind it. It wasn't even a double door, merely a single through which only one person at a time could fit; even the door to her own room was a double. A simple wood door with a tarnished brass knob, that was all it was, and it gave her the willies just looking at it.
But there were no other doors in the hall, and the only way back led to the staircase, so she turned the knob and walked into the room beyond. Just like the door, a perfectly ordinary room, with a few pieces of ordinary furniture, that is nothing like any place I have seen in the whole castle until now. Disused perhaps? An empty storage area? Who knows?
But she wasn't comfortable being there, as if she were where she wasn't supposed to be. Looking around there was nothing to be seen that she thought would give her such creepy sensations, there was not so much as a dark painting staring at her from one of the walls. Sarah quickly read the next part of the letter, wanting to be gone as quickly as possible.
'Look in mahogany desk, large drawer. Take key and use on double doors.' Sarah found the desk on the wall to her right, and sure enough there was a key laying in the middle of the otherwise empty drawer. She snatched it and trotted over to the indicated doors. The key fit in the lock, and she gave it a small turn; the doors flew open so quickly she barely missed being slammed in the face by one of them.
"I should have known it was some kind of a trick!" Sarah growled, seeing not an open doorway but a closet filled from top to bottom with papers, letters and scrolls, one of which fell off of its shelf and landed at her feet. She stooped and picked it up, planning on just putting it back where it came from, but it came unrolled in her hands, and out of curiosity she read the fancy writing on it.
The opening line was a date, some time she had no idea of, though there was something to indicate it had to be during the current High Queen's reign. But any curiosity about the date was wiped out by the words that came after it.
'On this date, Crowned Prince Jareth, heir to the Labyrinth Kingdom and all it holds, offered his hand to and was accepted by the Crowned Princess Rosalinda, heiress to the Kingdom of the Mist...'
It went on from there, all the wording suggesting that it was a joyous occasion for all and that the hearts of all the subjects of both kingdoms were filled with delight and happiness for both parties. But all Sarah could feel was her world slowly turning upside down; there was no joy in her, only the terrible pain that came from the one question that was on her mind.
Is Jareth already married to Rosalinda?
Laying on the floor where it had fallen from her hands, the letter that had guided her burst into flames and vanished.