Disclaimer: Not mine... tra la la
Chapter 8: Something Wicked
The celebration after the nuptials was loud, music and conversation wafted into every corner of the room. Jareth and Annalisa danced, Jareth danced with Emily, laughing as the girl giggled because she was feeling very grown up. Everyone drank and was marry, except for a short list of people. Lord Byron looked at his friend with annoyance harsh on his thin hard face. "She suspects something. There was a surge of magic when they were in the circle, I wonder if she knows." He said quietly.
Lord Hilliard laughed, "There is no way she could know anything, the trolls involved are dead, her family is dead, Jorge is dead. No one alive knows anything about it. Mummy dearest was banished. She is tired and tense because she just married the Goblin King. There is nothing wrong." He slapped his friend on the back, this was going to be to easy. Now that she was the wife of the Goblin King she would have to much to do with making his heirs and keeping her sister out of trouble to bother with Kildalton Glen, it would be easy to ask her to care for it himself. No one else needs die.
/Something wicked this way comes/
Lord Byron and Lord Hilliard walked to see the happy trio. Both had smiles on their faces, that if the new couple hadn't known better would have been mistaken for real. "Congratulations, my dearest! It is wonderful to hear you have claimed the fief. I am sure you will do a wonderful job rebuilding it." She frowned. She hadn't really decided what she was going to do with the land, it was interesting that they seemed to think they could read her mind.
"Actually, I was going to tear everything down and make it an area for cattle. The trolls may eat some of the cattle, but at least people won't be a stake." She said, her face very serious, she had decided to kill all the trolls, they would be an extinct race very shortly, along with two Lords that found the taste of betrayal was sweeter then loyalty.
Lord Byron looked concerned for a minute. "Well, madam, it is your right, but perhaps you should think of those that are living there now?"
"Oh, yes, living there, but living in fear. Fear of the trolls, of the wyverns. Its no way to live, and I will move them all the a nice place in the Labyrinth where they can be safe."
/In the Labyrinth? / Jareth intruded on her thoughts, reading them carefully, /Oh, darling, let them think what they will, it won't matter soon. /
/Yes, Jareth, it will. Even after they are dead I will have to explain things to myself and if they have any inkling that I am afraid of them, or that I am no longer afraid of the glen then they will strike, and not realize I know their plan. /
Lord Byron saw her face, the expression there changed rapidly, and he knew there was something afoot. "But, the druids? There will be a war?" She was behaving differently, there was defiance in her eyes that he had never seen, she was obviously not the quiet and wayward child that he remembered, but a woman with idea's that may be beyond her station.
"How can my clans war amongst themselves. There will be no war."
"Are you alright, my lady?" Byron was feeling more and more agitated the more she spoke.
"Yes, I am fine, I am just rather tired. If everyone would excuse me it has been a rather long day, and far past Emmy's bedtime. She looked to the nearest clock and found it past four in the morning. She gathered up the slumping Emmy and took her off to bed. Jareth followed, shaking hands with a few men before he caught up with her.
"Jareth, I think that I may need to go home." She said quietly, not wanting to wake the girl who had collapsed in her arms as soon as they were away from the noise.
"Home? No one will harm you here, you know that Annie," he frowned, finding that he was once again unsure of her meaning, but the whimper from the sleeping girl in her arms made him smile. "Come, let us be gone from here. I am sure my mother will understand." They disappeared in a flash of light and there was a metallic taste in the air.
==============
They appeared in Jareth's room. It has all in mahogany and dark velvet, just like in the castle beyond the Goblin City. Jareth pulled away the covers and Annalisa placed the sleeping child in the bed. The young woman placed a kiss on her sister's forehead and frowned. "I have to go to the Glade, Jareth. I knew so little before today." She produced a crystal, much the same as the ones that Jareth was infamous for. Her crystal's though, instead of being clear and sparkling, were tinted in green, and within a blue light swirled slowly, revealing the magic of the ball. "From the bodies and magic that harms, from the hearts that mean ill, from the souls that do evil protect this child." She threw the crystal up, and just before it hit the high ceiling of the room it exploded and rained sparks of green and blue magical fire down upon the room. Each held on for a moment before disappearing, and the taste of tin hung in the air for long minutes.
She had found in her studies with Jareth on Fae magic, and speaking with different scholar's of the druidic magic that her family had specialized in that only the most powerful spells required a crystal. Most of their magic was pulled from the ground, and the land around them. Though, the next spells that she caste was a simple spell, the first summoning spell that she had learned she felt that it required a crystal. The crystal was the same green tinted with a blue light within. Instead of throwing the crystal she cradled it in her arms and softly chanted. Jareth wondered what she was doing, but made sure to be quiet. He was not one to interrupt a master at work and she was pulling a lot of magic from the earth, he could see it swirling about her feet.
He was rather surprised when it turned into a small furry animal that squeaked at him from its place in her arms. He was unfamiliar with the type of creature that it was, though it did look a lot like a small furry ball of something mammalian. She spoke quietly to it and it whimpered. "Please, watch over her, she is nice and warm and important to me, so please, be her guardian and I will return you home when I come back. It won't be long." She placed the ball onto the bed and it half hopped to cuddle into Emily's arms.
Looking up she studied his face. His beautifully sharp features, his deep mismatched eyes. She could read his soul there; they were full of emotion. She had been considering for a long time going home, even before they had begun to argue, but now it didn't matter anymore. The Labyrinth was her home. A place that she could be happy in, but there was something nagging at her. Something telling her that she needed to see her home, before choosing another. "Come with me to the Glade, Jareth."
"Tonight? Now?"
"Yes, it is nearly morning. I promise that we won't be there for a long time."
"Don't you want to wait for Emmy to wake up? She doesn't even remember it."
"I don't want her to see it if it is still saturated with the evil. Please, come with me. Just this once." Her voice was pleading, but she knew he would come. He had told her once that if she wanted he would destroy the place, taking it from the world along with her nightmares.
"Alright, darling, but you will have to take us there. It is your land, and you are the one connected with it."
She nodded and took his hand, then pushed to her tiptoes and kissed his thin soft lips. "Away," she whispered, and closed her eyes.
=================
Every Kingdom of the Underground has a monarch of some kind, weather it is Queen or King, or Chieftain or Czar. Depending on the people and whom they chose to bond with the land hundreds of thousands of years ago after the Fae Wars. At the time it was a solemn vow that Fae took with the land, and the land became sentient, helping the leader care and protect the land and the people, monsters and creatures of the land.
Just as Jareth took the vow and joined the Labyrinth, who later bonded with two girls, Annalisa's father took the vow, and his father before him. There had never been a female of the line, but at last the time had come.
Before Annalisa Kildalton, Chieftain of the Kildalton Clans, and Chieftain of the Druids opened her eyes she felt the land touch her soul, and accept her as its ruler. The Glade, much like the Labyrinth in its way, having a purpose unlike any other land in the Underground, called to her. It was hurt. The moment that Annalisa's father had died the bond had jumped to the eldest living child, and the Glade knew that the danger was not over, so asked her sister land, the Labyrinth to care for the girls.
Duchess Kildalton opened her eyes, and was stunned at what she found. The courtyard was in disrepair, but nothing like her dreams had insisted that the place look like. The hedges were overgrown and the fountain had sprouted, but the cobbles were safe in their nukes and crannies. She half remembered Jareth saying that they would take the bodies away so that when she wished to return there would be no reason for her to fret. Jareth slipped his hand into hers, and they walked forward.
The Glade was happy she had returned. It cooed and loved on her, hoping that she would decide to stay. There was nothing that would make her happier then if her Lady stayed. Annie in turn cooed and soothed the Glade. It was a place of natural magic, the magic that allowed creatures like the Trolls to survive, that allowed the pixies and nymphs, and fairies and dwarves that populated the Labyrinth to live. She entered her mother's parlor and felt her body tighten. There was no blood, or bodies, everything had been put into its place, but the carpet was dusty and the fire had gone out long ago. She urged the fire to light, and urged the dust to take its leave, it would be happier outside anyway.
"Why can I communicate with the Labyrinth and the Glade?" She turned to Jareth after the room was back to normal. She was under the impression that this was strange.
"Because you have soul bonded with both of them."
"But, I thought it was only with you I was bonded."
"Well, we are bonded by marriage, and the seasons. You are bonded with them because their magic is close, like they are sisters. The Labyrinth excepted you and treated you as if you were her mistress, and the Glade is as well. The Glade will be sad with out you, but since you are planning on using the land for cattle it shouldn't be a problem."
"Cattle? Oh, no, I never intended it for cattle Jareth. I want to make it safe. The trolls had never held a threat as long as the wards were safe, but Hilliard and Byron found a way to break the wards. It wasn't the trolls that did this, they would have never attacked those that protected them." She thought for a minute, staring into the fire. "Perhaps if I explain to the Glade that they are bad men and the wards must be protected at all costs the land will be fine."
/Glade, I need you to listen to me closely/
/Yes, Lady? How can I be of help? /
Annalisa paused for a moment. /I have wed the Goblin King. I need to be with him, but I want you to be safe as well. I promise to come every day and be with you, but you must do me a favor. /
/Anything lady! /
/Good, you know Lord Hilliard and Lord Byron? /
She felt the dread of the Glade filling her, and making her weak. /Yes, Lady. / The reply was sad and scared.
/What is it? Why are you so afraid? /
/They tricked me, Lady, they told me that they were trying to warn your mother of danger, but they hurt everyone, I wouldn't let them hurt you and Emily. They were angry and sent the Trolls after you, but you escaped and I sent you to the Labyrinth. /
She found herself close to tears, so it was not by chance that she and Emily had ended up with in the mazes of the Labyrinth. She found that it was strange and wonderful at the same time, but knew she needed to continue. /Very well. You know that they must never set foot within the bounds of this castle again, right? You know that my children and Emily will stay and protect you after I am gone, right? /
/Yea, lady. /
/Good, now, we are going to replace the wards, and neither of those men will ever step foot on this land again. If they try you will warn me immediately, no matter where I am, right? /
/Yea, lady. /
/Good, let us begin. /
She looked at her husband, and smiled. The land was behaving exactly as she needed it to. It was pushing magic into her so that she could shape it into the wards. Slowly at first as she struggled to place everything where it needed it to go, but as she got the hang of it the magic came faster and faster until there was a many layered egg around the borders of her kingdom. Nothing but the most powerful Fae magic in the realm would be able to break the wards that she had put up in fear, and love. They were powerful forces and she built upon them and laid the brickwork for the protection of her family for ages to come. It would be a long while before those wards would need tending to.
Chapter 8: Something Wicked
The celebration after the nuptials was loud, music and conversation wafted into every corner of the room. Jareth and Annalisa danced, Jareth danced with Emily, laughing as the girl giggled because she was feeling very grown up. Everyone drank and was marry, except for a short list of people. Lord Byron looked at his friend with annoyance harsh on his thin hard face. "She suspects something. There was a surge of magic when they were in the circle, I wonder if she knows." He said quietly.
Lord Hilliard laughed, "There is no way she could know anything, the trolls involved are dead, her family is dead, Jorge is dead. No one alive knows anything about it. Mummy dearest was banished. She is tired and tense because she just married the Goblin King. There is nothing wrong." He slapped his friend on the back, this was going to be to easy. Now that she was the wife of the Goblin King she would have to much to do with making his heirs and keeping her sister out of trouble to bother with Kildalton Glen, it would be easy to ask her to care for it himself. No one else needs die.
/Something wicked this way comes/
Lord Byron and Lord Hilliard walked to see the happy trio. Both had smiles on their faces, that if the new couple hadn't known better would have been mistaken for real. "Congratulations, my dearest! It is wonderful to hear you have claimed the fief. I am sure you will do a wonderful job rebuilding it." She frowned. She hadn't really decided what she was going to do with the land, it was interesting that they seemed to think they could read her mind.
"Actually, I was going to tear everything down and make it an area for cattle. The trolls may eat some of the cattle, but at least people won't be a stake." She said, her face very serious, she had decided to kill all the trolls, they would be an extinct race very shortly, along with two Lords that found the taste of betrayal was sweeter then loyalty.
Lord Byron looked concerned for a minute. "Well, madam, it is your right, but perhaps you should think of those that are living there now?"
"Oh, yes, living there, but living in fear. Fear of the trolls, of the wyverns. Its no way to live, and I will move them all the a nice place in the Labyrinth where they can be safe."
/In the Labyrinth? / Jareth intruded on her thoughts, reading them carefully, /Oh, darling, let them think what they will, it won't matter soon. /
/Yes, Jareth, it will. Even after they are dead I will have to explain things to myself and if they have any inkling that I am afraid of them, or that I am no longer afraid of the glen then they will strike, and not realize I know their plan. /
Lord Byron saw her face, the expression there changed rapidly, and he knew there was something afoot. "But, the druids? There will be a war?" She was behaving differently, there was defiance in her eyes that he had never seen, she was obviously not the quiet and wayward child that he remembered, but a woman with idea's that may be beyond her station.
"How can my clans war amongst themselves. There will be no war."
"Are you alright, my lady?" Byron was feeling more and more agitated the more she spoke.
"Yes, I am fine, I am just rather tired. If everyone would excuse me it has been a rather long day, and far past Emmy's bedtime. She looked to the nearest clock and found it past four in the morning. She gathered up the slumping Emmy and took her off to bed. Jareth followed, shaking hands with a few men before he caught up with her.
"Jareth, I think that I may need to go home." She said quietly, not wanting to wake the girl who had collapsed in her arms as soon as they were away from the noise.
"Home? No one will harm you here, you know that Annie," he frowned, finding that he was once again unsure of her meaning, but the whimper from the sleeping girl in her arms made him smile. "Come, let us be gone from here. I am sure my mother will understand." They disappeared in a flash of light and there was a metallic taste in the air.
==============
They appeared in Jareth's room. It has all in mahogany and dark velvet, just like in the castle beyond the Goblin City. Jareth pulled away the covers and Annalisa placed the sleeping child in the bed. The young woman placed a kiss on her sister's forehead and frowned. "I have to go to the Glade, Jareth. I knew so little before today." She produced a crystal, much the same as the ones that Jareth was infamous for. Her crystal's though, instead of being clear and sparkling, were tinted in green, and within a blue light swirled slowly, revealing the magic of the ball. "From the bodies and magic that harms, from the hearts that mean ill, from the souls that do evil protect this child." She threw the crystal up, and just before it hit the high ceiling of the room it exploded and rained sparks of green and blue magical fire down upon the room. Each held on for a moment before disappearing, and the taste of tin hung in the air for long minutes.
She had found in her studies with Jareth on Fae magic, and speaking with different scholar's of the druidic magic that her family had specialized in that only the most powerful spells required a crystal. Most of their magic was pulled from the ground, and the land around them. Though, the next spells that she caste was a simple spell, the first summoning spell that she had learned she felt that it required a crystal. The crystal was the same green tinted with a blue light within. Instead of throwing the crystal she cradled it in her arms and softly chanted. Jareth wondered what she was doing, but made sure to be quiet. He was not one to interrupt a master at work and she was pulling a lot of magic from the earth, he could see it swirling about her feet.
He was rather surprised when it turned into a small furry animal that squeaked at him from its place in her arms. He was unfamiliar with the type of creature that it was, though it did look a lot like a small furry ball of something mammalian. She spoke quietly to it and it whimpered. "Please, watch over her, she is nice and warm and important to me, so please, be her guardian and I will return you home when I come back. It won't be long." She placed the ball onto the bed and it half hopped to cuddle into Emily's arms.
Looking up she studied his face. His beautifully sharp features, his deep mismatched eyes. She could read his soul there; they were full of emotion. She had been considering for a long time going home, even before they had begun to argue, but now it didn't matter anymore. The Labyrinth was her home. A place that she could be happy in, but there was something nagging at her. Something telling her that she needed to see her home, before choosing another. "Come with me to the Glade, Jareth."
"Tonight? Now?"
"Yes, it is nearly morning. I promise that we won't be there for a long time."
"Don't you want to wait for Emmy to wake up? She doesn't even remember it."
"I don't want her to see it if it is still saturated with the evil. Please, come with me. Just this once." Her voice was pleading, but she knew he would come. He had told her once that if she wanted he would destroy the place, taking it from the world along with her nightmares.
"Alright, darling, but you will have to take us there. It is your land, and you are the one connected with it."
She nodded and took his hand, then pushed to her tiptoes and kissed his thin soft lips. "Away," she whispered, and closed her eyes.
=================
Every Kingdom of the Underground has a monarch of some kind, weather it is Queen or King, or Chieftain or Czar. Depending on the people and whom they chose to bond with the land hundreds of thousands of years ago after the Fae Wars. At the time it was a solemn vow that Fae took with the land, and the land became sentient, helping the leader care and protect the land and the people, monsters and creatures of the land.
Just as Jareth took the vow and joined the Labyrinth, who later bonded with two girls, Annalisa's father took the vow, and his father before him. There had never been a female of the line, but at last the time had come.
Before Annalisa Kildalton, Chieftain of the Kildalton Clans, and Chieftain of the Druids opened her eyes she felt the land touch her soul, and accept her as its ruler. The Glade, much like the Labyrinth in its way, having a purpose unlike any other land in the Underground, called to her. It was hurt. The moment that Annalisa's father had died the bond had jumped to the eldest living child, and the Glade knew that the danger was not over, so asked her sister land, the Labyrinth to care for the girls.
Duchess Kildalton opened her eyes, and was stunned at what she found. The courtyard was in disrepair, but nothing like her dreams had insisted that the place look like. The hedges were overgrown and the fountain had sprouted, but the cobbles were safe in their nukes and crannies. She half remembered Jareth saying that they would take the bodies away so that when she wished to return there would be no reason for her to fret. Jareth slipped his hand into hers, and they walked forward.
The Glade was happy she had returned. It cooed and loved on her, hoping that she would decide to stay. There was nothing that would make her happier then if her Lady stayed. Annie in turn cooed and soothed the Glade. It was a place of natural magic, the magic that allowed creatures like the Trolls to survive, that allowed the pixies and nymphs, and fairies and dwarves that populated the Labyrinth to live. She entered her mother's parlor and felt her body tighten. There was no blood, or bodies, everything had been put into its place, but the carpet was dusty and the fire had gone out long ago. She urged the fire to light, and urged the dust to take its leave, it would be happier outside anyway.
"Why can I communicate with the Labyrinth and the Glade?" She turned to Jareth after the room was back to normal. She was under the impression that this was strange.
"Because you have soul bonded with both of them."
"But, I thought it was only with you I was bonded."
"Well, we are bonded by marriage, and the seasons. You are bonded with them because their magic is close, like they are sisters. The Labyrinth excepted you and treated you as if you were her mistress, and the Glade is as well. The Glade will be sad with out you, but since you are planning on using the land for cattle it shouldn't be a problem."
"Cattle? Oh, no, I never intended it for cattle Jareth. I want to make it safe. The trolls had never held a threat as long as the wards were safe, but Hilliard and Byron found a way to break the wards. It wasn't the trolls that did this, they would have never attacked those that protected them." She thought for a minute, staring into the fire. "Perhaps if I explain to the Glade that they are bad men and the wards must be protected at all costs the land will be fine."
/Glade, I need you to listen to me closely/
/Yes, Lady? How can I be of help? /
Annalisa paused for a moment. /I have wed the Goblin King. I need to be with him, but I want you to be safe as well. I promise to come every day and be with you, but you must do me a favor. /
/Anything lady! /
/Good, you know Lord Hilliard and Lord Byron? /
She felt the dread of the Glade filling her, and making her weak. /Yes, Lady. / The reply was sad and scared.
/What is it? Why are you so afraid? /
/They tricked me, Lady, they told me that they were trying to warn your mother of danger, but they hurt everyone, I wouldn't let them hurt you and Emily. They were angry and sent the Trolls after you, but you escaped and I sent you to the Labyrinth. /
She found herself close to tears, so it was not by chance that she and Emily had ended up with in the mazes of the Labyrinth. She found that it was strange and wonderful at the same time, but knew she needed to continue. /Very well. You know that they must never set foot within the bounds of this castle again, right? You know that my children and Emily will stay and protect you after I am gone, right? /
/Yea, lady. /
/Good, now, we are going to replace the wards, and neither of those men will ever step foot on this land again. If they try you will warn me immediately, no matter where I am, right? /
/Yea, lady. /
/Good, let us begin. /
She looked at her husband, and smiled. The land was behaving exactly as she needed it to. It was pushing magic into her so that she could shape it into the wards. Slowly at first as she struggled to place everything where it needed it to go, but as she got the hang of it the magic came faster and faster until there was a many layered egg around the borders of her kingdom. Nothing but the most powerful Fae magic in the realm would be able to break the wards that she had put up in fear, and love. They were powerful forces and she built upon them and laid the brickwork for the protection of her family for ages to come. It would be a long while before those wards would need tending to.