*
An: Good night for updates, eh? Disclaimer: Don't own anything
*
Strangely Devine: Chapter Seventeen: Disappearances
*
Sarah slumped down against the wall as Dacian suddenly let her go. Her vision was ebbing and slowly turning black around the edges like burning photograph but she heard voices and tried to stay conscious.
"You can't kill her here!"
There was a low snarl "I wasn't"
"Don't be foolish, they'll know. Control yourself, we'll be there---"
Sarah didn't hear the rest of what was said as she went unconscious.
*
Gwendolyn knocked on Sarah's door. She didn't actually expect her to be in there, and is she never opened the door anyway. Gwen figured she'd give Jareth enough time to get dressed in any case.
It was obvious to the whole court what happened after that little display at diner the night before. Gwendolyn had been shocked at first, like everyone else. Sure, she had her suspicions, but really, she hadn't thought they would, well, you know.
Then when Sarah didn't come ask Gwen to help her get undressed it had sealed it. Oh well, it was probably for the best. Jareth had been madly in love with Sarah ever since she'd beat his Labyrinth, just like the book said. And even though Sarah tried to hide her feelings behind physical attraction, Gwendolyn didn't doubt hers to be much different.
After a bit of waiting Gwen vanished herself into Sarah's room and was not surprised to find it empty.
She went to Jareth's sitting room, resolving to pretend she didn't know what was going on.
*
"Up--- Up--- Up---Up--- Up---Up---Up---Uhhh---"
"Would you just fuck off already?" Jareth snarled, and Gaeton received a pillow in the face for his dutiful attempt to wake his king.
"Hey, I'm just doing my job" Gaeton laughed. "I'm surprised you're alone, to be honest"
Jareth pulled his sheets over his shoulders and buried his head deep into a soft feather pillow. He hadn't gone to sleep until late the night before. After dropping Sarah in her room he'd made a dignified exit unlike the last time he'd been in there. Of course once in his own room, alone and unsatisfied he'd deeply regretted it. And Jareth didn't regret much. That was what he had been brooding about until three in the morning.
"Are you wearing pants?" Gaeton asked.
Jareth looked up at him "What kind of question is that? Of course I am. Why are you acting like you're twelve"
Gaeton promptly jumped on the bed "Because if you weren't wearing pants I wouldn't do this" he started bouncing.
Jareth sputtered and sat up. He had breeches on but not much else, Gaeton ignored the fact that his normally thin king was looking a bit like he'd been starved. He was all sharp shoulders, prominent collarbones, and nearly visible ribs. It didn't help that Jareth was so pale you could practically see through him.
"Gaeton!" Jareth's tone was harsh but he was smiling "Stop it. Stop it! Fuck off, already" he threw another pillow at him. "I'll throw you in the dungeon" he threatened
Gaeton stopped bouncing. "Gwen's waiting with tea, she's just bursting with questions about you and the lovely lady Sarah"
Jareth moaned and kicked the covers off he stumbled out of bed in a rather ungraceful unkindly way and winced at the cold floor.
"Poor baby, shall I get you slippers?" Gaeton giggled, sitting down on the huge bed.
Jareth rolled his eyes "Shut up"
Gaeton sighed happily. This was the Jareth he and Gwendolyn knew and loved. The overbearing, cold, and cruel Goblin King; the vain and spoilt High Prince; the smooth, sexy, overly sexed playboy; they were all facets of Jareth's complex personality. Most of them just facets personified to stupid degrees. But Gaeton's favourite was the pale, skinny, whinny, playful Jareth. Mostly because he could beat this Jareth up and not get sent to the dungeon.
"We don't spend enough time together" Gaeton said
Jareth shot him a patronized look. "Go away, already"
"At least you've stopped using mortal profanity" Gaeton grinned, following Jareth out of his bedchambers and into the sitting room that Gwen and Ilareo occupied. They were holding hands and sitting quite close on a settee but quickly jumped apart upon Jareth and Gaeton's entry into the room.
"Eww" Ilareo said "Put some clothes on"
Gaeton sighed proudly. "Our King the exhibitionist"
Jareth ignored them and dropped onto a chaise lounge dramatically, covering his face in his hands. "Just shut up"
"Erm" said Gwendolyn "Your majesty--"
"Gwen" he cut her off irritably, "If you keep calling me that I will throw you in the bog"
"It's etiquette" she insisted.
"Bog" he said simply, illustrated by a vague hand gesture
"Fine, Jareth" Gwendolyn rolled her eyes "Where's Sarah?"
"In her room" Jareth said shortly "I know you'd all like to think she's madly in love with me, but she's not."
An uneasy silence settled over the group. Jareth was not one to talk about feelings. And being that he'd never actually been in love before, all were thrown by the sudden confession to Sarah six years ago. If you were a vain self centred and some what whiny king you would probably pretend you hated the person that rejected your love too.
These three knew better though.
Gwendolyn finally spoke. "She went back to her room then?"
"Gwen" Jareth shot her a deadly look "If you don't drop it, luv, I really will throw you in the bog. She wasn't here."
Gwendolyn's eyes went wide. "But she wasn't in her room-last night or this morning"
Gaeton frowned "Where is she?"
Cold dread filled Jareth's stomach. He didn't dread much. Actually, he didn't dread anything. He waved his hand and appeared in Sarah's bedroom. Gaeton and Ilareo appeared moments later, obviously figuring out where he had gone. Gwen appeared just after them with his shirt clutched in her hand.
"You can't go around with nothing on" she chided.
He took it wordlessly and slipped on as they stared around the empty room hopelessly.
"Well-if her dress is in the closet maybe she came and went this morning. She might just be in the gardens, you know" Gwendolyn said helpfully. She went to the wardrobe and opened it, the pale green dress wasn't in there.
"Fuck" Jareth shouted before he vanished himself once more.
*
When Sarah awoke she wasn't sure where she was but it was very uncomfortable. Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up quickly.
"Shit" she muttered, running a hand over her face.
The sound of hooves clomping on hard ground reached her ears and she realized she must be in some kind of litter or carriage. She was sitting on rough hay and the floor was made of wood. A small window with metal bars was the only source of light. Sarah crawled over to it and stared out at the passing scenery. They were on some sort of dirt path with grass near the edge and a lot of trees.
It was daylight now, she also noted, probably early afternoon. She felt the litter sway back and forth and tried not to concentrate on it because it made her feel ill. Instead, she concentrated on the number of clomping hooves she heard.
It sounded like four, maybe five horses. Wait, they didn't have horses. So were they Thestrals? Sarah touched her hair and found it was still in that elaborate up do Gwen had done the night before, only slightly looser with dust and hay matting it. She cringed and wondered what had been in the hay before her. Ugh.
Her hands trailed down to her neck and she froze when her fingers touched a sticky crusty substance. Cringing, she looked down at her fingers. Blood, she was bleeding. Dacian drank her blood. So why wasn't she dead?
The last fragments of a conversation bubbled up in her mind. 'You can't kill her here!'
Jareth's family probably had every protection spell in creation cast on their castle. They weren't stupid after all. So was she being taken away from the castle to be killed? Her pulse raced as panic struck her. Killed by vampires? Or turned into one?
Sarah slid over to the window and waved her hands violently wishing for the bars to come off. "I wish I was free, I wish I was free, I wish I was free" she murmured.
Nothing happened.
She screamed as a black Thestral with a rider in a thick black cloak clomped by. The rider turned to look at her, it was a very pale old man with shiny eyes and glistening canine teeth. "Won't do any good, luv" he grinned showing that except for his incisors, all his other teeth were crooked and yellow. His voice was rickety and decidedly cockney. He rapped on the carriage "Iron cage, sweet 'art, iron repels magic"
"Won't it repel you?" she snarled,
He leaned close and snapped at her then laughed when she jerked back in fright. "No luv, because I ain't magical, luv, now is I?"
"Where are you taking me?" she demanded
"Now, if I told you that, darling, it won't be as fun" he grinned again "But I will tell you sommat, luv, you'll be lovely to eat. I think I want yer eyes first"
Sarah swallowed the wave of nausea and fear that swelled over her.
"Stop it Jasper." She heard Dacian's voice and felt the closest thing to relief she felt since waking up.
He rode up next to her and Jasper went on ahead, muttering about eyeballs.
Dacian's darkly beautiful face filled her view. Sarah leaned forward. "You have to let me go, Dacian. Please, I'll do anything, let me go, please." It was not in Sarah's nature to plead for anything, but in this case she had an idea it was the only remote thing that would get her freedom.
He leaned down off his mount and put his hand through the metal bars to touch her hair. Sarah gritted her teeth and did her best to lean into his touch and look up at him with adoring eyes.
"Are you frightened, my darling" he asked softly.
She contemplated it for a moment and then nodded sadly, although she felt more rage then sadness. "Yes, Dacian, I'm very frightened. Please Dacian, let me go"
She cringed at the pathetic note in her voice but was triumphant when she saw him look hesitant for a moment.
He pulled her head closer to the bars and though the carriage was jostling like mad and he was on a horse he somehow managed to press his lips to hers. Bile rose up in Sarah's throat but she pressed back.
When he pulled away at last he looked at her with a deadly glow that Sarah didn't like at all. "You will b e my queen" he whispered, petting her hair possessively. "Yes, my dark beautiful queen. I can not let you go. We must be together forever"
Sarah's helpless look must have been mistaken for something else because he leaned in to kiss her again. She felt anger bubble in her stomach and she vaguely remembered something about Vampire's hating sunlight. She put her hand up and jerked Dacian's cloak back.
Dacian looked around in shock at first and then screamed when he felt the sun burning his flesh. He fought to get his hood back on but not before several black and red blisters appeared on his poreless white face. If he was as vain as Jareth, Sarah doubted he would be very happy about this.
He snarled at her and then snapped his jaw like a snake. Sarah jumped back from the bars of the window and sat back on the hay out of view feeling strangely triumphant.
The litter rolled to a stop.
"We've reached the border Prince Dacian!" Jasper shouted.
*
The High King and Queen were in their dressing gowns having a quiet breakfast --as one has with one's spouse when one is old --when their son Jareth came storming into their sitting room.
"Where is she!" he demanded, his mismatched eyes blazing.
The High Queen had just taken the top off her hard boiled egg. "Where is who, my dear?"
"Sarah" Jareth scowled "She is not in her room, she didn't go there last night and she hasn't been seen by the servants since we left the ballroom"
"Well, yes, son" The High King said, as he buttered his toast carefully. "We assumed she was with you"
Jareth closed his eyes suppressing his rage. "I am not sleeping with Sarah" he said in a low voice. "She isn't here. She has disappeared"
"Disappeared?" The high Queen repeated "Well darling, people do not just--- "
A frantic looking servant popped into the room. He looked quite harassed and was panting heavily as he dropped onto the floor in a kind of bow bordering on death. "Your highnesses, please forgive me, I am just the messenger. Queen Moria wishes to speak with you most urgently"
"I am already speaking urgently with my son" The Queen said primly "How many other urgent people must I see before I am dressed?"
"Please, your highness, she is quite distressed"
"Mother" Jareth hissed
"Oh, alright" she sighed dramatically and waved her hand "Have Moria come in"
"But Mariead, I'm in my dressing gown" The High King protested mildly as he chewed on his toast.
"Oh, Duncan, she won't care" Mariead sniffed. "Send her in"
Jareth fought the urge to blow the servant up. He concentrated on doing the buttons on his shirt up instead.
Queen Moria wafted into the room, her black hair was piled high on top of her head and she wore a long black satin dressing gown that flowed over the stone floors. "Oh my dear Mariead" she sobbed rushing to the high queen and sitting on the chaise lounge next to the High Queen. The two older woman clutched at each other's hands desperately.
"What is it Moria?"
"Oh, it's my Dacian! He's gone!" she sobbed dramatically.
"Gone?" Mariead repeated
"Gone!" Sobbed Moria
"Oh for Athena's sake, how many more people will turn up missing before I've finished my toast" Duncan asked gruffly. He looked up at his son. "Would you like a piece of toast, Jareth?"
Jareth declined the toast.
"Why, my dear Moria, Lady Sarah is missing as well!" Mariead continued.
Moria gasped dramatically and clutched her hands to her chest. "You don't think---" she trailed off.
"Moria, I hardly think a wee girl like Lady Sarah could have done anything that tragic to your son" Mariead tittered
"No, no, no. I mean what if they ran off together?' Moria's eyes went misty and smile lit up her face as she convinced herself of this. "Yes, yes, why, Dacian was going on about how lovely lady Sarah was just the other day. He said her beauty was like non other he'd seen"
"Did he" Mariead asked, folding her hands in her lap and looking decidedly uncomfortable. She knew full well if there had been any running off, it had been Dacian with Sarah and not by her own will.
Jareth caught his mother's eye as he realized this as well. The need to destroy something was becoming unbearable. He wanted to take the little saucer his mother's egg sat in and chuck it at Moria's head.
"Oh, my, yes. I was quite sure that she felt the same, you know, the way I saw her staring at him. Yes, that must be it" Moria rose to her feet. "He's with Lady Sarah for a lovely weekend. Oh, that will be nice. He deserves a weekend off. Such a nice boy" she sighed and saying her goodbyes, strode from the room in the same dramatic fashion she entered it.
"Nutter" the High King snorted.
"She means well" Mariead sighed and looked at Jareth, seeing the desperate look on his face she sighed heavily "Well I can't very well do anything, can I? I can hardly tell her that Sarah was a human and that her son kidnapped her. Oh dear, whatever as come over Dacian, he was such a nice boy"
"It's just some human girl" Duncan shrugged. "I don't see the fuss"
Jareth rounded on his father. He suddenly felt like a misunderstood teenager as he shouted. "She is not just some human girl!"
Duncan frowned at his son. "Don't you yell at me, Jareth. Well what is it? Are you in love with her?"
Jareth wavered on the spot for a moment, his eyes wide as his parents stared at him, waiting for a response. Finally he changed into his owl form and flew out the nearest window.
"Stupid boy" Duncan muttered "He doesn't know what he wants"
Aislinn burst into the room, her blue eyes wide. She was wearing a brilliant pink nightgown. "Oh my Athena, Mummy. Did he nearly say it!" she squealed running over to the spot Moria had just occupied.
"No, darling, but nearly" Mariead sighed.
Egeus as followed his pregnant wife into the room with a rather exasperated look on his face and sat next to Duncan.
"Ooooh! I so wish I could have been here to see his face" Aislinn squealed.
Duncan glanced at his son in law's face. "Don't worry, it only gets worse" he said as he offered the elf egg.
*
The litter rolled to a stop and Sarah tried to hear what was going on over the Thestral's hooves pounding the dirt as the stopped.
Border? Border of what? She tried to remember the maps from the library. The Kingdom of Calais was shared it's borders with the Nosferatu. Her heart sunk as she realized they were taking her to their kingdom.
But surely someone would notice that she was gone. Surely Gwendolyn? And they would notice Dacian's absence and realize what had happened. And they would send a search party maybe.
Was she important enough for a search party? She wasn't nobility, she wasn't a princess. Sarah was only, in the eyes of the court, the friend of Cymboline's tutor, and on the receiving end of a few of Jareth's kisses like many before her. There would be no search party. People might even think she went willingly, for how could a Fae be captured by a Vampire? But she was just a human. She had proven to be very easy to capture.
"Greetings" she heard Dacian say in his smooth voice. "I am Dacian, Prince of the Nosferatu. We are returning to my Kingdom with a present from the High King of the Underground."
"We haven't heard anything of your return. Are the peace talks over?"
"Yes" Dacian hissed.
"We'll need to see what's in the carriage"
"Certainly"
Clomping hooves and then an Elvin man so tall his head was a bit higher the then litter stood next to Dacian's horse. "This is the present?"
Sarah threw herself in front of the bars "No--- I'm not a present, he kidnapped me, please, I'm friend's with the Goblin King you must let me go"
"This is the present?" The elf asked Dacian
Sarah grabbed at his cloak desperately. "I'm not a present!" she said shrilly. "And if you don't let me go, when Jareth finds me he'll kill you!" She couldn't quite believe she'd said that. Have Jareth kill him? Was it some line in play she been in? Sarah brushed it off as melodrama and obviously the elf did too.
"She's gone insane" Dacian elaborated. "A bit defective, but I don't doubt the king's sincerity"
"Of course" the elf said slowly, he pulled his sleeve away. "You may pass"
*
AN: Tee hee-first I had her saying 'your head on a stake' but it was mostly just from watching Macbeth on channel 4 today and there were a load of heads on sticks in this version. But that sounded a bit unlike Sarah. I'm just the updating fiend, aren't I. I'll be done soon at this rate. Good thing we're only half done *evil snicker*
An: Good night for updates, eh? Disclaimer: Don't own anything
*
Strangely Devine: Chapter Seventeen: Disappearances
*
Sarah slumped down against the wall as Dacian suddenly let her go. Her vision was ebbing and slowly turning black around the edges like burning photograph but she heard voices and tried to stay conscious.
"You can't kill her here!"
There was a low snarl "I wasn't"
"Don't be foolish, they'll know. Control yourself, we'll be there---"
Sarah didn't hear the rest of what was said as she went unconscious.
*
Gwendolyn knocked on Sarah's door. She didn't actually expect her to be in there, and is she never opened the door anyway. Gwen figured she'd give Jareth enough time to get dressed in any case.
It was obvious to the whole court what happened after that little display at diner the night before. Gwendolyn had been shocked at first, like everyone else. Sure, she had her suspicions, but really, she hadn't thought they would, well, you know.
Then when Sarah didn't come ask Gwen to help her get undressed it had sealed it. Oh well, it was probably for the best. Jareth had been madly in love with Sarah ever since she'd beat his Labyrinth, just like the book said. And even though Sarah tried to hide her feelings behind physical attraction, Gwendolyn didn't doubt hers to be much different.
After a bit of waiting Gwen vanished herself into Sarah's room and was not surprised to find it empty.
She went to Jareth's sitting room, resolving to pretend she didn't know what was going on.
*
"Up--- Up--- Up---Up--- Up---Up---Up---Uhhh---"
"Would you just fuck off already?" Jareth snarled, and Gaeton received a pillow in the face for his dutiful attempt to wake his king.
"Hey, I'm just doing my job" Gaeton laughed. "I'm surprised you're alone, to be honest"
Jareth pulled his sheets over his shoulders and buried his head deep into a soft feather pillow. He hadn't gone to sleep until late the night before. After dropping Sarah in her room he'd made a dignified exit unlike the last time he'd been in there. Of course once in his own room, alone and unsatisfied he'd deeply regretted it. And Jareth didn't regret much. That was what he had been brooding about until three in the morning.
"Are you wearing pants?" Gaeton asked.
Jareth looked up at him "What kind of question is that? Of course I am. Why are you acting like you're twelve"
Gaeton promptly jumped on the bed "Because if you weren't wearing pants I wouldn't do this" he started bouncing.
Jareth sputtered and sat up. He had breeches on but not much else, Gaeton ignored the fact that his normally thin king was looking a bit like he'd been starved. He was all sharp shoulders, prominent collarbones, and nearly visible ribs. It didn't help that Jareth was so pale you could practically see through him.
"Gaeton!" Jareth's tone was harsh but he was smiling "Stop it. Stop it! Fuck off, already" he threw another pillow at him. "I'll throw you in the dungeon" he threatened
Gaeton stopped bouncing. "Gwen's waiting with tea, she's just bursting with questions about you and the lovely lady Sarah"
Jareth moaned and kicked the covers off he stumbled out of bed in a rather ungraceful unkindly way and winced at the cold floor.
"Poor baby, shall I get you slippers?" Gaeton giggled, sitting down on the huge bed.
Jareth rolled his eyes "Shut up"
Gaeton sighed happily. This was the Jareth he and Gwendolyn knew and loved. The overbearing, cold, and cruel Goblin King; the vain and spoilt High Prince; the smooth, sexy, overly sexed playboy; they were all facets of Jareth's complex personality. Most of them just facets personified to stupid degrees. But Gaeton's favourite was the pale, skinny, whinny, playful Jareth. Mostly because he could beat this Jareth up and not get sent to the dungeon.
"We don't spend enough time together" Gaeton said
Jareth shot him a patronized look. "Go away, already"
"At least you've stopped using mortal profanity" Gaeton grinned, following Jareth out of his bedchambers and into the sitting room that Gwen and Ilareo occupied. They were holding hands and sitting quite close on a settee but quickly jumped apart upon Jareth and Gaeton's entry into the room.
"Eww" Ilareo said "Put some clothes on"
Gaeton sighed proudly. "Our King the exhibitionist"
Jareth ignored them and dropped onto a chaise lounge dramatically, covering his face in his hands. "Just shut up"
"Erm" said Gwendolyn "Your majesty--"
"Gwen" he cut her off irritably, "If you keep calling me that I will throw you in the bog"
"It's etiquette" she insisted.
"Bog" he said simply, illustrated by a vague hand gesture
"Fine, Jareth" Gwendolyn rolled her eyes "Where's Sarah?"
"In her room" Jareth said shortly "I know you'd all like to think she's madly in love with me, but she's not."
An uneasy silence settled over the group. Jareth was not one to talk about feelings. And being that he'd never actually been in love before, all were thrown by the sudden confession to Sarah six years ago. If you were a vain self centred and some what whiny king you would probably pretend you hated the person that rejected your love too.
These three knew better though.
Gwendolyn finally spoke. "She went back to her room then?"
"Gwen" Jareth shot her a deadly look "If you don't drop it, luv, I really will throw you in the bog. She wasn't here."
Gwendolyn's eyes went wide. "But she wasn't in her room-last night or this morning"
Gaeton frowned "Where is she?"
Cold dread filled Jareth's stomach. He didn't dread much. Actually, he didn't dread anything. He waved his hand and appeared in Sarah's bedroom. Gaeton and Ilareo appeared moments later, obviously figuring out where he had gone. Gwen appeared just after them with his shirt clutched in her hand.
"You can't go around with nothing on" she chided.
He took it wordlessly and slipped on as they stared around the empty room hopelessly.
"Well-if her dress is in the closet maybe she came and went this morning. She might just be in the gardens, you know" Gwendolyn said helpfully. She went to the wardrobe and opened it, the pale green dress wasn't in there.
"Fuck" Jareth shouted before he vanished himself once more.
*
When Sarah awoke she wasn't sure where she was but it was very uncomfortable. Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up quickly.
"Shit" she muttered, running a hand over her face.
The sound of hooves clomping on hard ground reached her ears and she realized she must be in some kind of litter or carriage. She was sitting on rough hay and the floor was made of wood. A small window with metal bars was the only source of light. Sarah crawled over to it and stared out at the passing scenery. They were on some sort of dirt path with grass near the edge and a lot of trees.
It was daylight now, she also noted, probably early afternoon. She felt the litter sway back and forth and tried not to concentrate on it because it made her feel ill. Instead, she concentrated on the number of clomping hooves she heard.
It sounded like four, maybe five horses. Wait, they didn't have horses. So were they Thestrals? Sarah touched her hair and found it was still in that elaborate up do Gwen had done the night before, only slightly looser with dust and hay matting it. She cringed and wondered what had been in the hay before her. Ugh.
Her hands trailed down to her neck and she froze when her fingers touched a sticky crusty substance. Cringing, she looked down at her fingers. Blood, she was bleeding. Dacian drank her blood. So why wasn't she dead?
The last fragments of a conversation bubbled up in her mind. 'You can't kill her here!'
Jareth's family probably had every protection spell in creation cast on their castle. They weren't stupid after all. So was she being taken away from the castle to be killed? Her pulse raced as panic struck her. Killed by vampires? Or turned into one?
Sarah slid over to the window and waved her hands violently wishing for the bars to come off. "I wish I was free, I wish I was free, I wish I was free" she murmured.
Nothing happened.
She screamed as a black Thestral with a rider in a thick black cloak clomped by. The rider turned to look at her, it was a very pale old man with shiny eyes and glistening canine teeth. "Won't do any good, luv" he grinned showing that except for his incisors, all his other teeth were crooked and yellow. His voice was rickety and decidedly cockney. He rapped on the carriage "Iron cage, sweet 'art, iron repels magic"
"Won't it repel you?" she snarled,
He leaned close and snapped at her then laughed when she jerked back in fright. "No luv, because I ain't magical, luv, now is I?"
"Where are you taking me?" she demanded
"Now, if I told you that, darling, it won't be as fun" he grinned again "But I will tell you sommat, luv, you'll be lovely to eat. I think I want yer eyes first"
Sarah swallowed the wave of nausea and fear that swelled over her.
"Stop it Jasper." She heard Dacian's voice and felt the closest thing to relief she felt since waking up.
He rode up next to her and Jasper went on ahead, muttering about eyeballs.
Dacian's darkly beautiful face filled her view. Sarah leaned forward. "You have to let me go, Dacian. Please, I'll do anything, let me go, please." It was not in Sarah's nature to plead for anything, but in this case she had an idea it was the only remote thing that would get her freedom.
He leaned down off his mount and put his hand through the metal bars to touch her hair. Sarah gritted her teeth and did her best to lean into his touch and look up at him with adoring eyes.
"Are you frightened, my darling" he asked softly.
She contemplated it for a moment and then nodded sadly, although she felt more rage then sadness. "Yes, Dacian, I'm very frightened. Please Dacian, let me go"
She cringed at the pathetic note in her voice but was triumphant when she saw him look hesitant for a moment.
He pulled her head closer to the bars and though the carriage was jostling like mad and he was on a horse he somehow managed to press his lips to hers. Bile rose up in Sarah's throat but she pressed back.
When he pulled away at last he looked at her with a deadly glow that Sarah didn't like at all. "You will b e my queen" he whispered, petting her hair possessively. "Yes, my dark beautiful queen. I can not let you go. We must be together forever"
Sarah's helpless look must have been mistaken for something else because he leaned in to kiss her again. She felt anger bubble in her stomach and she vaguely remembered something about Vampire's hating sunlight. She put her hand up and jerked Dacian's cloak back.
Dacian looked around in shock at first and then screamed when he felt the sun burning his flesh. He fought to get his hood back on but not before several black and red blisters appeared on his poreless white face. If he was as vain as Jareth, Sarah doubted he would be very happy about this.
He snarled at her and then snapped his jaw like a snake. Sarah jumped back from the bars of the window and sat back on the hay out of view feeling strangely triumphant.
The litter rolled to a stop.
"We've reached the border Prince Dacian!" Jasper shouted.
*
The High King and Queen were in their dressing gowns having a quiet breakfast --as one has with one's spouse when one is old --when their son Jareth came storming into their sitting room.
"Where is she!" he demanded, his mismatched eyes blazing.
The High Queen had just taken the top off her hard boiled egg. "Where is who, my dear?"
"Sarah" Jareth scowled "She is not in her room, she didn't go there last night and she hasn't been seen by the servants since we left the ballroom"
"Well, yes, son" The High King said, as he buttered his toast carefully. "We assumed she was with you"
Jareth closed his eyes suppressing his rage. "I am not sleeping with Sarah" he said in a low voice. "She isn't here. She has disappeared"
"Disappeared?" The high Queen repeated "Well darling, people do not just--- "
A frantic looking servant popped into the room. He looked quite harassed and was panting heavily as he dropped onto the floor in a kind of bow bordering on death. "Your highnesses, please forgive me, I am just the messenger. Queen Moria wishes to speak with you most urgently"
"I am already speaking urgently with my son" The Queen said primly "How many other urgent people must I see before I am dressed?"
"Please, your highness, she is quite distressed"
"Mother" Jareth hissed
"Oh, alright" she sighed dramatically and waved her hand "Have Moria come in"
"But Mariead, I'm in my dressing gown" The High King protested mildly as he chewed on his toast.
"Oh, Duncan, she won't care" Mariead sniffed. "Send her in"
Jareth fought the urge to blow the servant up. He concentrated on doing the buttons on his shirt up instead.
Queen Moria wafted into the room, her black hair was piled high on top of her head and she wore a long black satin dressing gown that flowed over the stone floors. "Oh my dear Mariead" she sobbed rushing to the high queen and sitting on the chaise lounge next to the High Queen. The two older woman clutched at each other's hands desperately.
"What is it Moria?"
"Oh, it's my Dacian! He's gone!" she sobbed dramatically.
"Gone?" Mariead repeated
"Gone!" Sobbed Moria
"Oh for Athena's sake, how many more people will turn up missing before I've finished my toast" Duncan asked gruffly. He looked up at his son. "Would you like a piece of toast, Jareth?"
Jareth declined the toast.
"Why, my dear Moria, Lady Sarah is missing as well!" Mariead continued.
Moria gasped dramatically and clutched her hands to her chest. "You don't think---" she trailed off.
"Moria, I hardly think a wee girl like Lady Sarah could have done anything that tragic to your son" Mariead tittered
"No, no, no. I mean what if they ran off together?' Moria's eyes went misty and smile lit up her face as she convinced herself of this. "Yes, yes, why, Dacian was going on about how lovely lady Sarah was just the other day. He said her beauty was like non other he'd seen"
"Did he" Mariead asked, folding her hands in her lap and looking decidedly uncomfortable. She knew full well if there had been any running off, it had been Dacian with Sarah and not by her own will.
Jareth caught his mother's eye as he realized this as well. The need to destroy something was becoming unbearable. He wanted to take the little saucer his mother's egg sat in and chuck it at Moria's head.
"Oh, my, yes. I was quite sure that she felt the same, you know, the way I saw her staring at him. Yes, that must be it" Moria rose to her feet. "He's with Lady Sarah for a lovely weekend. Oh, that will be nice. He deserves a weekend off. Such a nice boy" she sighed and saying her goodbyes, strode from the room in the same dramatic fashion she entered it.
"Nutter" the High King snorted.
"She means well" Mariead sighed and looked at Jareth, seeing the desperate look on his face she sighed heavily "Well I can't very well do anything, can I? I can hardly tell her that Sarah was a human and that her son kidnapped her. Oh dear, whatever as come over Dacian, he was such a nice boy"
"It's just some human girl" Duncan shrugged. "I don't see the fuss"
Jareth rounded on his father. He suddenly felt like a misunderstood teenager as he shouted. "She is not just some human girl!"
Duncan frowned at his son. "Don't you yell at me, Jareth. Well what is it? Are you in love with her?"
Jareth wavered on the spot for a moment, his eyes wide as his parents stared at him, waiting for a response. Finally he changed into his owl form and flew out the nearest window.
"Stupid boy" Duncan muttered "He doesn't know what he wants"
Aislinn burst into the room, her blue eyes wide. She was wearing a brilliant pink nightgown. "Oh my Athena, Mummy. Did he nearly say it!" she squealed running over to the spot Moria had just occupied.
"No, darling, but nearly" Mariead sighed.
Egeus as followed his pregnant wife into the room with a rather exasperated look on his face and sat next to Duncan.
"Ooooh! I so wish I could have been here to see his face" Aislinn squealed.
Duncan glanced at his son in law's face. "Don't worry, it only gets worse" he said as he offered the elf egg.
*
The litter rolled to a stop and Sarah tried to hear what was going on over the Thestral's hooves pounding the dirt as the stopped.
Border? Border of what? She tried to remember the maps from the library. The Kingdom of Calais was shared it's borders with the Nosferatu. Her heart sunk as she realized they were taking her to their kingdom.
But surely someone would notice that she was gone. Surely Gwendolyn? And they would notice Dacian's absence and realize what had happened. And they would send a search party maybe.
Was she important enough for a search party? She wasn't nobility, she wasn't a princess. Sarah was only, in the eyes of the court, the friend of Cymboline's tutor, and on the receiving end of a few of Jareth's kisses like many before her. There would be no search party. People might even think she went willingly, for how could a Fae be captured by a Vampire? But she was just a human. She had proven to be very easy to capture.
"Greetings" she heard Dacian say in his smooth voice. "I am Dacian, Prince of the Nosferatu. We are returning to my Kingdom with a present from the High King of the Underground."
"We haven't heard anything of your return. Are the peace talks over?"
"Yes" Dacian hissed.
"We'll need to see what's in the carriage"
"Certainly"
Clomping hooves and then an Elvin man so tall his head was a bit higher the then litter stood next to Dacian's horse. "This is the present?"
Sarah threw herself in front of the bars "No--- I'm not a present, he kidnapped me, please, I'm friend's with the Goblin King you must let me go"
"This is the present?" The elf asked Dacian
Sarah grabbed at his cloak desperately. "I'm not a present!" she said shrilly. "And if you don't let me go, when Jareth finds me he'll kill you!" She couldn't quite believe she'd said that. Have Jareth kill him? Was it some line in play she been in? Sarah brushed it off as melodrama and obviously the elf did too.
"She's gone insane" Dacian elaborated. "A bit defective, but I don't doubt the king's sincerity"
"Of course" the elf said slowly, he pulled his sleeve away. "You may pass"
*
AN: Tee hee-first I had her saying 'your head on a stake' but it was mostly just from watching Macbeth on channel 4 today and there were a load of heads on sticks in this version. But that sounded a bit unlike Sarah. I'm just the updating fiend, aren't I. I'll be done soon at this rate. Good thing we're only half done *evil snicker*