AN: Ok here we go. Thank you to everybody who reviewed, you're all fab people. g
I'm so glad you're all enjoying this.
All names in this chapter do have a base in fae mythology, maybe not in the context as I have them here, but they're roundedly truthful. I'm not saying anything in my story is based on fact. I've took some elements of truth, and twisted it to fit the fic.
Like I said before if you have a problem with it, tell me.
As always, a big thank you to Scattered Logic, my wonderful beta. I am so not worthy. g
Too Much, Too Young
Family Ties
Arron arrived at his father's castle late on a stormy night. The last few hours of the ride had been difficult in the raging storm. Arron was tired, cold and wet, but thankful that Melise had decided to remain at Jareth's castle to help plan the wedding. And thus had been spared the dreadful ride.
He was not in the best of moods and he was sure his father could have waited till the morning to hear his news, but apparently not. He had entered his rooms and a servant was waiting with a missive that instructed him to attend the high king immediately.
Arron cursed to himself as he made his way down to his father's private offices. He didn't notice his surroundings until he almost tripped over a huge black marble statue that stood at the corner of a sharp right turn. He stepped back in amazement. The great palace Annwn had not been modified in… well, ever.
As far as
Arron could remember, the palace had always been
the same. It was a magnificent creation of architecture.
Its walls were made of the lightest sandstone with floors of white
marble; the doors and windows were made from the softest colored pine.
Everything was light, everything was soft.
Even his father's throne was made of white ivory. As were any statues. So to
see a black marble one was highly abnormal.
Looking more closely, Arron suppressed a shudder; the statue was of The Host (King of the restless dead.). Looking down the hall that led to his father's private offices, he noticed other statues that we similar, Black Annis (the cannibal fairey) Nicnivin (Queen of the Unseelie court), a Barguest (a foul beast, all teeth and horns).
There were about twenty statues, all of them were dark creatures. Creatures that had been banished by his oldest ancestor, King Finavarra. Many battles with the creatures had destroyed thousands of their race.
King Finavarra, had built upon and tamed the kingdoms of the underground after they had to leave the human world. After the Christian laws came into affect, and mortals turned their backs on the old beliefs.
To see such creatures here in the palace was an abomination.
Arron was worried, rumors had reached him lately, disturbing rumors of nasty unexplained events going on at the palace. He had heard of women that had been requested to attend his father who had entered his father's rooms never to be seen again. Loyal advisors who had served the high king for centuries had been poisoned or had mysteriously disappeared. But Arron had dismissed the rumors as exaggerations or courtly gossip.
There had always been gossip about the high royals.
King Treval, Arron's father, had reigned for six centuries; he had been a good king, well loved by his subjects not to mention his wife and children.
The oldest memory Arron had of his father was a fond one. A memory of a past misdeed when he was very young.
Darra had taken him into the city. He had said that it would be fun to go and play with the children who frequented the streets outside the place gates. Arron had been very unsure, he was much younger than Darra and not nearly so adventurous, and his mother had warned him time and time again not to leave the safety of the palace. But Darra had called him a coward when Arron had objected to going with him. So not wanting Darra to think he was scared, Arron had gone along. They had crept past the palace guards and out into the busy streets of the city.
As soon as they had met some of the city children, Arron had known it'd been a mistake to go. Darra, after finding a group of friends his own age, had disappeared leaving Arron alone and lost. He had tried to ask a people for directions, but they ignored him, he was only little and the people that rushed about the streets were far too busy to bother with a child.
He had wandered for what seemed like hours before he had been found by some of the palace guards that had been sent out to search for him. The next hour spent with his mother and father alternated between hugs and lectures, and then he was sent to his room without supper to think about what could have happened to him.
As he had lain on his bed hungry and tearful, his door opened and his father came in carrying two trays. Placing one of them before him, his father told him to eat it quickly so he could take the tray away before they were discovered. Then his father gave him a lecture on duties and responsibilities that had left a lasting impression on the small boy. Before he left, Arron asked who the other tray was for, his father had smiled wryly and told him his brother was also in trouble and had been sent to his room.
There were many other memories, the times when his mother and father were at the palace instead of traveling around the kingdom. Of family days that consisted of mainly teasing and playful banter.
But all that changed with his mother's death.
King Treval had been married three times. Darra's mother and Treval had married when they were both very young. For an arranged marriage, they had done very well. Both of them had been overjoyed when Eleyne found she was to give the king a child.
The child was Darra; unfortunately, to Treval's great sorrow, Eleyne, didn't survive the birth.
Treval had married again when Darra was five years old. His advisors were very insistent upon it. The old saying was repeated again and again; an heir and spare, meaning that if anything should ever happen to Darra, there would still be a king to follow in Treval's footsteps.
So Treval married again. On his advisors' recommendation, he married Jana, the beautiful, powerful and tempestuous Jana. Arron's father always said that being married to Jana was an adventure, one he never wanted to go on again. After Jareth was born, Treval and Jana decided to part and end their marriage, so Jana went away. She still saw Jareth, he would often go and visit with her until her death 90 years ago.
Out of all Treval's children, Jareth was the most powerful. He to have an inexhaustible well of magic within him. His father said that Jareth took after his mother even down to the color of his eyes.
After his marriage to Jana, Treval swore he would never wed again.
That lasted until he met and fell in love with Kathryn. All it had taken was a look across a ballroom. They married not long after meeting.
Kathryn had died just over three hundred years ago.
After her death, King Treval had fallen into a deep depression. The three young boys had been at a loss as to how to help him. But the king had seemed to recover, after a time.
Then Darra and Jareth had learned how to travel through the thin barrier that separated their world from the mortal one. They had begun to play games with mortals, teasing and trickery. That was until the day that Darra had met Emma.
Arron didn't know what had happened, but he knew that one day Darra had arrived at the great palace to announce to his father that he and Emma had married.
The memory of Treval's anger when he had heard the news still had the power to send a shiver down Arron's spine. He and Jareth had been present at the time; both had intervened in the fear that their father would kill their older brother.
It was then that they had learned of the prophecy. The prophecy that was about to change Jareth's life forever.
The king demanded that Darra cast Emma aside, and when Darra refused, Treval grew even more furious. He told Darra that if he would not leave the mortal, then he, Treval, would take her away from him.
Summoning powerful energies, he had thrown an immense spell at Emma; Darra had no time to think, much less carry out a deflection.
Arron was still not sure what the spell had meant to do to Emma, but Darra had clung to her, determined that she would not face the fate of the spell alone.
Treval seemed not to care that he was dooming his own son as well as the mortal girl. He did not call the spell back.
The magic hurtled toward them but before it could hit, Jareth had appeared before the couple. He casually turned the spell away. It was the first time his father had realized just how powerful Jareth was.
Arron remembered that everything had gone silent in the great hall, no one moved, no one dared.
The king's advisors gathered around Treval and, after a few minutes of whispered disagreements, they withdrew with the king into an antechamber.
After hours of waiting, an advisor had come out of the room. He gave the three brothers their father's verdict.
Darra and Emma were to be banished. The punishment was carried out there and then. No one had time to say goodbye, they were just gone.
Jareth was told that he was now the heir, and their father had sent a message saying that for the treasonous act of aiding Darra and Emma, thus preventing the course of judgement, Jareth would have the lowly job of ruling the Labyrinth. A place where all the creatures that hadn't been evil enough for banishment lived. The Labyrinth also stood on the border of the banished lands. It was a place where no self-respecting lord of the underground would go. Jareth was also told he was never to come back to the great palace while his father still lived.
Without a word, Jareth had left.
With his brothers' disgrace and their departure, life in the palace was unbearable. Treval hardly talked to anyone, and Arron found himself spending more and more time with Jareth in his castle.
Jareth had completely restored the castle, and he seemed happy enough to be there. Together they would try and find Darra, but even after two hundred years they'd had no success.
This was the first time in two years that Arron had come home. He'd only come to tell his father of Jareth's forthcoming wedding. And if Arron had a choice about whether or not to stay at the great palace, he knew he would choose to remount his horse and head straight back to Jareth's lands.
Rounding the last corner before Treval's offices, Arron noticed a bright tapestry that hung to the side of his father's office door. It seemed so out of place just hanging there that he walked up to take a closer look.
The woven threads showed a battle scene between the Seelie and the Unseelie courts. The tapestry showed the most ferocious of the Unseelie beasts. It wasn't until he spotted a knight in the background of the picture holding aloft a shining sword, that his mind made the connection and he knew what the picture was of.
The massacre of the Tirfo Thuinn. The massacre that had rocked the underground. And saw the Unseelie court banished to Scathach. The underground version of the mortal's hell.
Thousands of years ago, multitudes of unsuspecting nomads had come together and had traversed the length of the underground, seeking a place to settle in the new land. The monsters that inhabited the underground had also banded together and slaughtered everyone in the convoy. Which, in turn, led to a war that lasted for 300 years.
Arron closed his eyes to shut out the gruesome picture before him. Almost stumbling to the door, he rested his hand against it. Feeling the solid oak, he gave himself a moment before he knocked. It wasn't the fact that the picture was of the massacre of Tirfo Thuinn that unnerved him. He had seen many of them depicting the heroes of the battles, the great King Finavarra, Herne the hunter, and many more that had tipped the balance of the battles and won the war. What bothered Arron about this tapestry was that it seemed to picture the very worst of the battle and glorified it. The sight of it left Arron feeling sick and uneasy.
Regaining his composure he knocked on the door.
Surprisingly, his father opened the door himself, greeting Arron as he did so.
Arron walked into the room, surprised by the lack of light.
"Why is it so dark in here?"
Treval voice came back at him through the darkness, "I like the dark, I have these headaches, and the light makes it worse. But if it bothers you…" A lit candle appeared in Arron's hand. It cast a soft light that barely penetrated the gloom.
His eyes, growing used to the lack of light, could just make out his father's desk against the back wall of the room. He walked over to it waiting for permission to sit. Years ago he wouldn't have waited, but he hadn't seen his father in so long, he was unsure how to proceed.
His father remained perversely silent, as if he could sense Arron's discomfort and reveled in it.
Arron cleared his throat; "I have come with magnificent news father." Treval remained silent, so Arron continued.
"A mortal girl has solved the Labyrinth, father. She agreed to stay. Jareth and the girl will be married in a month."
His father still said nothing.
The silence grew along with the tension in the air. Arron couldn't be sure that it wasn't just his imagination, but he seemed to be finding it hard to breathe.
He heard his fathers shuffling footsteps as he approached. Treval's face appeared ghostly in the flickering light of the candle.
"Why is he waiting a month?"
Arron had expected this question. "Jareth feels he should give the girl time to prepare to be a queen."
Treval snorted. "What does she need to prepare for? All the mortal has to do is squeeze out an heir or two, then Jareth can get rid of her." Treval heard his son's outraged gasp, but paid it no mind. "This family is being over run by mortals. Their bad blood tainting our family line. If it weren't for that damned prophecy, I'd never tolerate another mortal in the family. Not after…"
He didn't continue, Arron wasn't surprised, and since the day Darra had been banished his father had never again mentioned his name. Nor did anyone else in his presence.
Arron decided to change to a less sensitive subject.
"Will you come and officiate the ceremony?" He knew even before he asked that his father would refuse. His father would never go to the Labyrinth. And Jareth was forbidden to come to the palace.
Treval looked him in the eye. "No."
Nothing else, just a simple 'no'. Arron thought it best to leave it at that.
Treval turned and walked back into the shadows, "You will act as my proxy. Jareth would rather you do it, anyway."
Arron bowed his head in acceptance and made to leave.
He was surprised when his father called for him to halt.
"I don't suppose you have heard anything from Pascal? She left court a while ago and has not been heard from. I am quite worried about her."
Something in his father's voice caused a cold shiver to travel its way down Arron's spine.
"No, father, I haven't seen her." The lie just came out. The unease he felt intensified.
Treval was silent for a long while.
Arron could feel his father's stare. He knew, even without being able to see Treval, that he was deciding whether to believe him or not.
He must have decided that Arron was telling the truth, the door behind Arron opened letting refreshing light form the hall. Arron executed a smart bow. He had been dismissed.
Closing the door he took a deep breath, the first since he had entered his father's room.
He decided to leave. The palace had become an uncomfortable place in the last few years. Arron couldn't wait to leave. His exhaustion had left him in the face of his fear. It saddened him that the palace no longer felt like his home.
Hour's later Arron let himself into the room he shared with Melise in Jareth's castle. It was nearly dawn, and Arron was ready to sleep for at least a week. Shedding his clothes, he pulled Melise into his arms. Her warmth penetrated his skin and he immediately began to feel better. The worry that had plagued him since he had left his father's palace was still there, but as always when he held Melise she brought a little peace into his soul.
Before falling asleep, he thought about whether he should tell Jareth about their father. He felt again the discomfiture that he had felt when his father had mentioned Pascal. He couldn't explain where the feeling came from. But he had been taught from a very early age to trust his instincts. And his instincts were telling him that there was something very wrong going on with his father. But should he tell Jareth?
Arron thought about it for a while longer, his tired mind going round and round in circles.
By the time he came to a decision, the sun was up and Melise was beginning to stir.
Arron decided he would send a few men into his father's palace and get some facts before going to his brother.
TBC
People who have come back more than once:
Dawn: Thanks for sticking with me. I really like your stories too.
Redaura: Yes I live. I am writing more. Sorry about my long absence, my muse went on vacation. We've talked it through, and she has promised not to leave again without warning me first.