I ran all the way back to the Labyrinth facts and rumors crunching together
in my mind until I had a faint idea of what to do. Kestrel and Apple raced
me back to the alpine forest while I ate a rejuvenating peach and got some
sleep. Waking was more difficult than entering the black crystal temple.
I pocketed a couple extra peaches for my search of Aboveground and called
to mind the bicycle image.
I ran all the way to Sarah and Toby's house but stopped before I got there. Unusual things were surrounding the house, and soldiers in uniform were sauntering around the house and surrounding area. Worried I ran up the steps, telling one of them that I was a friend.
Inside I found Mr and Mrs Williams sitting in the living room with Toby, the only dry eyed one of the three.
"Who are you?" Mrs Williams demanded. Rubbing already red eyes. I considered giving her one of the healing peaches, but decided against it as she gave me a very sharp look.
"I'm a friend of Sarah's" I replied defensively. I could understand what she meant now, but being separate from her parents. Gosh they were cold enough to preserve meat. They seemed suspicious still but Toby came to my rescue, leaping off the couch and running over to clutch my leg.
"She's Sarah's friend." He told them stubbornly. They apparently thought him too young to lie though, because they immediately softened. I heaved the four-year old so that he was sitting on my waist.
"Where's Sarah Toby?" I whispered.
"She went to the Underground." He replied.
"How?" I hissed.
"She took Hoggle's hand and she said 'if you ever need me just call' and then they disappeared. Just like that."
Damn, things were going faster than I'd planned. I needed to arrange an accident, a sleeping peach would do. One from Kestrel would be strong enough to knock her out permanently if magical aid was not used in the wake up. There weren't that many who could remove peach magic, only his majesty really and Hoggle worked for him directly. I would just have to hope he didn't find out it was my peach. Yep that would be bad. He might stuff me halfway into a crystal for messing with his new bride.
I shivered at the thought.
Poor Kaeun I should do something about him. I'd have to add it to my 'to do' list. One: get Pear back, two: arrange for Sarah to be saved by his majesty, three: release Kaeun from unbreakable black crystal. Boy did I have my work cut out for me. And it was all Isabelle's fault!
This of course not including the minor tasks of arranging for a pleasant accident, have his majesty fall in love if not otherwise endeared with Sarah, find Issais's diary, cast magic spell on Sarah to make her mortal, somehow get the magic to cast the spell, prove Kaeun's innocence and find some way to break unbreakable black crystal.
And for the 'to not do' list, One: don't get caught, two: don't get caught, three: don't get caught. I think you can pretty much guess how the rest of the list goes.
"Do you know where Sarah is?"
I snapped out of my reverie. "No, I actually came here to talk. I thought she might want to discuss another book."
Mrs Williams scowled. "She's always got her nose in those books, and has no friends at all, no boyfriends, no extra activities. I told you Robert she's not acting like a normal girl I told you we should have sent her to a psychologists!"
I mentally ground my teeth at the no friends part and whispered to Toby that she looked like a goose when she was angry. He agreed with me.
So Sarah was back in the underground huh? Well, I suppose I'd have to get back there pretty quick if I was going to arrange for an accident before she reached the Goblin city.
"I want to be out there." Mr. Williams insisted to an officer. "I want to know what's happening."
I hoisted Toby again and gave him a sly wink. "Mr and Mrs Williams? Would you like for me to watch Toby for a while? Sarah and I would take him to the park all the time." I offered hoping I didn't sound too eager.
Mr. Williams looked at me thoughtfully. "That would be helpful, could I have your name and number so we can contact you?"
I nodded. "Lemme write it down for you."
I wandered over to a side table where a small notepad was lying and pulled it forward. Toby reached over and grabbed a fancy looking stick, handing it to me and pointing at the paper. I scrawled Alyia in snort neat strokes and then paused, looking at Toby for instruction.
"Two, two, three, one, nine, seven, five." I wrote with his dictation. Smiling broadly I ripped it off and handed it to Mr. Williams. Then I readjusted Toby's weight and with easy long strides walked out of the house. To my relief none of the uniformed men followed me as I walked back to the park.
"Hey Toby?"
"How do you feel like another trip to the Underground."
He just grinned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jareth (Goblin Castle)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I felt her the moment she entered my realm. One for the fact that she did not belong, appearing suddenly just inside the bog instead of walking through the gate like a sane person, second because in a way she did belong her presence at once familiar and distinct in the Labyrinth. Sarah.
If anything could both excite and annoy me at once it was her. And she was back, three years from when she had turned down my offer, and left. I had thought, she had left for good. Just like all other failures I'd reviewed it in my mind, critiqued my mistakes and vowed never to make them again while burying the event out of sight and out of mind.
It was a wound opened again, but a relished one. She had a youthfulness about her, a liveliness that somehow radiated out to make everything more vibrant. I registered that the dwarf, again, Haggle was leading her towards the city. After a few moments I felt the bridge guardian meet up with them.
And then my ears picked up on my name, or at least, one of my titles.
"His majesty does what is just." That was the guardian.
"Yeah but often what is just is dependant on his mood." The dwarf.
"I guess we'll just have to see what mood he's in then." Sarah.
She was coming to see me. After all these years, to ask for something. Her audacity will never cease to amaze me. I settled another land argument and forming a crystal called for Bryn.
Bryn appeared almost instantly at my left shoulder, seeming to detach himself from the shadows. He wore all black and metal armor peaked out from various gaps in the fabric. When I was in particularly bad moods I had him and Kenst stand on either side of me. It made the petitions go so much faster. It wasn't always a good thing to intimidate my citizens out of their minds though.
Bryn was my Master of the Guard. He trained and lead the other powerful fae that were drawn to my realm and organized the ones who wished to serve into patrols which were immediately implemented. After which he'd join me in my study to drink brandy and moan about the stubbornness of the troops while I moaned about the endless lines of petitions and the continuous decay of the Labyrinth, which had to be fixed almost daily now and Kenst just stood there and watched us.
Kenst was my personal guard. Although, instead of black he dresses completely in dark gray. Why? I don't know, he didn't talk although he was a superb fighter and I often train with him myself for practice. He's at my right shoulder, he's always at my right shoulder. He doesn't take orders, he defends and protects me. That is all he does, and it is all I've ever asked him to do.
I never actually asked in the first place unusually enough.
Bryn leaned down and I turned my head just marginally. "She's here, watch her."
That was all it took, he pivoted and was gone again. The next petitioner stepped forward and began a long tirade about the fierys harassing his horses. I couldn't do much about the fiery's without ordering them executed or permanently dismantled. It was a silly, redundant case, much like most of them. Only now I had something more interesting to do. I could feel her getting closer with each step. Flashing a toothy grin I beckoned Kenst forward into the light.
Things began to go more quickly after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hoggle (Wall above the Bog) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarah and I appeared back on the wall above the bog. I didn't suppose she remembered that this was the place she had kissed me, or that that was why I was sent back to this place every single time I returned, but I wasn't about to tell her. Things had to go carefully if she wanted to go through with this, which I didn't think was such a great idea, but once she got something into her head.that was it.
This time we could take a more leisurely path to the castle, since the wall ran halfway, but nope. She wanted to stop and say hello to Didymus so we had to go through the pond mazes, treacherous things but Sarah liked them. They get kind of annoying after you've fallen in a few times. Especially when the water sprites are active. Like today.
After all these years she still didn't trust my judgment on these things. I ran across like it was smart to do but no, she perked up at the mention of water fairies. By the time she caught up with me she was soaked clear through. We trudged to Sir Didymus's, she was silent most of the way, but probably because she was looking around rather than sulking. Sarah didn't do that much anymore.
I took care to point all sorts of things out that she might have missed on her last visit. Flower sprites, gnomes, gargoyles, trick streams and now and then other citizens of the Labyrinth that we ran across. Here a family of pickpockets, there a clever healer's hut. I even saw two peach trees walking ahead of us with a young maiden and an even younger boy sitting easily in the branches.
When we got to the bog itself, Sir Didymus was waiting, and Sarah was famished. I began to have an incredible sense of déjà vu. The peach tree owner had actually given Didymus fruit for passing three peaches, one apple.
Sarah immediately nabbed the apple, can't say I didn't blame her. She crossed by way of the rocks while Didymus and I used the bridge, she didn't want a reoccurrence of last time and we didn't want to be close to the bog. We were sitting in a small clearing on the edge of a precipice while Didymus got his bearings when Sarah began to feel woozy. She had just begun to eat the apple a few moments ago, commenting on how good apples tasted in comparison to peaches.
"I know the way now!" Sir Didymus exclaimed. "The Labyrinth may move but the destination shall not. Did you know that the Castle never actually moves Lady Sarah? The entire Labyrinth moves around it."
She shook her head smiling. "No I didn't. It'll be interesting to see if it changed though." She braced and arm against the tree she was leaning on but faltered and fell against it. A frown crept across her face as she struggled to sit up.
I was worried by now, suspecting treachery by Jareth again. It had to be coincidence that fruit just happened to be dropped of just before we got to Didymus. "Sarah? Are you alright?"
I walked over and took her hand trying to pull her upright. Humans are a lot bigger than dwarves though, and her eyelids were fluttering.
"Hoggle.so tired.can't seem to stay awake."
"My Lady!" Sir Didymus cried. "I had no idea! I'll catch that scoundrel of a grove owner if it's the last thing I do, and her little friend too!"
"This feels different...than last time." she commented weakly.
I patted her hand comfortingly. "It's okay Sarah, it's probably only a sleeping peach, a simple mistake. Grove owners are kind of kooky like that."
"Hoggle.I."
It was then the royal guard appeared.
The royal guard never run in, or jump down, they always just appear and this time they just appeared all around us, including Master of the Guard Bryn himself. The royal guard is Jareth's personal army. About two thousand fae exceedingly talented in both physical combat and magical duels. They do pretty much whatever Jareth wants them to do, from standing guard on the border to assassinations. Or so I've heard.
You can always tell a royal guard though, they wear a sandy gold cloak of the same color of the Labyrinth over a pure black tunic and trousers with an iron plated sword on their left hip and three bags of magical stuff on their right. They all wear black leather gloves and black leather boots. They've all sworn life oaths to his majesty. It's a longstanding profession.
Either way, seeing the royal guard was enough to send Didymus into a state of shock. I'm not the most courageous dwarf either but not as cowardly as before. I managed to back up into Sarah, blocking her from them somewhat. At least until Bryn himself came forward. All black, that was all it took to recognize a man I'd never met before.
Black hair, black eyes, boots, tunic, wraparound cloak, gloves and the black metal of his sword hilt. At the moment his expression was also very black. I backed to the side, no one argues with Bryn. He trains the guard, in magic and swordsmanship as well as knife fighting. He's a man you don't want to meet on a sunny day in a meadow.
Didymus was quivering with shock and I was just standing there astounded while the Master of the Guard approached Sarah, checked her pulse and temperature and then quickly and easily lifted her in his arms. All it took from him was two pointed glances, and Sir Didymus and I were also taken hold of. They also picked up the apple core. Then we were transported to the castle.
I ran all the way to Sarah and Toby's house but stopped before I got there. Unusual things were surrounding the house, and soldiers in uniform were sauntering around the house and surrounding area. Worried I ran up the steps, telling one of them that I was a friend.
Inside I found Mr and Mrs Williams sitting in the living room with Toby, the only dry eyed one of the three.
"Who are you?" Mrs Williams demanded. Rubbing already red eyes. I considered giving her one of the healing peaches, but decided against it as she gave me a very sharp look.
"I'm a friend of Sarah's" I replied defensively. I could understand what she meant now, but being separate from her parents. Gosh they were cold enough to preserve meat. They seemed suspicious still but Toby came to my rescue, leaping off the couch and running over to clutch my leg.
"She's Sarah's friend." He told them stubbornly. They apparently thought him too young to lie though, because they immediately softened. I heaved the four-year old so that he was sitting on my waist.
"Where's Sarah Toby?" I whispered.
"She went to the Underground." He replied.
"How?" I hissed.
"She took Hoggle's hand and she said 'if you ever need me just call' and then they disappeared. Just like that."
Damn, things were going faster than I'd planned. I needed to arrange an accident, a sleeping peach would do. One from Kestrel would be strong enough to knock her out permanently if magical aid was not used in the wake up. There weren't that many who could remove peach magic, only his majesty really and Hoggle worked for him directly. I would just have to hope he didn't find out it was my peach. Yep that would be bad. He might stuff me halfway into a crystal for messing with his new bride.
I shivered at the thought.
Poor Kaeun I should do something about him. I'd have to add it to my 'to do' list. One: get Pear back, two: arrange for Sarah to be saved by his majesty, three: release Kaeun from unbreakable black crystal. Boy did I have my work cut out for me. And it was all Isabelle's fault!
This of course not including the minor tasks of arranging for a pleasant accident, have his majesty fall in love if not otherwise endeared with Sarah, find Issais's diary, cast magic spell on Sarah to make her mortal, somehow get the magic to cast the spell, prove Kaeun's innocence and find some way to break unbreakable black crystal.
And for the 'to not do' list, One: don't get caught, two: don't get caught, three: don't get caught. I think you can pretty much guess how the rest of the list goes.
"Do you know where Sarah is?"
I snapped out of my reverie. "No, I actually came here to talk. I thought she might want to discuss another book."
Mrs Williams scowled. "She's always got her nose in those books, and has no friends at all, no boyfriends, no extra activities. I told you Robert she's not acting like a normal girl I told you we should have sent her to a psychologists!"
I mentally ground my teeth at the no friends part and whispered to Toby that she looked like a goose when she was angry. He agreed with me.
So Sarah was back in the underground huh? Well, I suppose I'd have to get back there pretty quick if I was going to arrange for an accident before she reached the Goblin city.
"I want to be out there." Mr. Williams insisted to an officer. "I want to know what's happening."
I hoisted Toby again and gave him a sly wink. "Mr and Mrs Williams? Would you like for me to watch Toby for a while? Sarah and I would take him to the park all the time." I offered hoping I didn't sound too eager.
Mr. Williams looked at me thoughtfully. "That would be helpful, could I have your name and number so we can contact you?"
I nodded. "Lemme write it down for you."
I wandered over to a side table where a small notepad was lying and pulled it forward. Toby reached over and grabbed a fancy looking stick, handing it to me and pointing at the paper. I scrawled Alyia in snort neat strokes and then paused, looking at Toby for instruction.
"Two, two, three, one, nine, seven, five." I wrote with his dictation. Smiling broadly I ripped it off and handed it to Mr. Williams. Then I readjusted Toby's weight and with easy long strides walked out of the house. To my relief none of the uniformed men followed me as I walked back to the park.
"Hey Toby?"
"How do you feel like another trip to the Underground."
He just grinned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jareth (Goblin Castle)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I felt her the moment she entered my realm. One for the fact that she did not belong, appearing suddenly just inside the bog instead of walking through the gate like a sane person, second because in a way she did belong her presence at once familiar and distinct in the Labyrinth. Sarah.
If anything could both excite and annoy me at once it was her. And she was back, three years from when she had turned down my offer, and left. I had thought, she had left for good. Just like all other failures I'd reviewed it in my mind, critiqued my mistakes and vowed never to make them again while burying the event out of sight and out of mind.
It was a wound opened again, but a relished one. She had a youthfulness about her, a liveliness that somehow radiated out to make everything more vibrant. I registered that the dwarf, again, Haggle was leading her towards the city. After a few moments I felt the bridge guardian meet up with them.
And then my ears picked up on my name, or at least, one of my titles.
"His majesty does what is just." That was the guardian.
"Yeah but often what is just is dependant on his mood." The dwarf.
"I guess we'll just have to see what mood he's in then." Sarah.
She was coming to see me. After all these years, to ask for something. Her audacity will never cease to amaze me. I settled another land argument and forming a crystal called for Bryn.
Bryn appeared almost instantly at my left shoulder, seeming to detach himself from the shadows. He wore all black and metal armor peaked out from various gaps in the fabric. When I was in particularly bad moods I had him and Kenst stand on either side of me. It made the petitions go so much faster. It wasn't always a good thing to intimidate my citizens out of their minds though.
Bryn was my Master of the Guard. He trained and lead the other powerful fae that were drawn to my realm and organized the ones who wished to serve into patrols which were immediately implemented. After which he'd join me in my study to drink brandy and moan about the stubbornness of the troops while I moaned about the endless lines of petitions and the continuous decay of the Labyrinth, which had to be fixed almost daily now and Kenst just stood there and watched us.
Kenst was my personal guard. Although, instead of black he dresses completely in dark gray. Why? I don't know, he didn't talk although he was a superb fighter and I often train with him myself for practice. He's at my right shoulder, he's always at my right shoulder. He doesn't take orders, he defends and protects me. That is all he does, and it is all I've ever asked him to do.
I never actually asked in the first place unusually enough.
Bryn leaned down and I turned my head just marginally. "She's here, watch her."
That was all it took, he pivoted and was gone again. The next petitioner stepped forward and began a long tirade about the fierys harassing his horses. I couldn't do much about the fiery's without ordering them executed or permanently dismantled. It was a silly, redundant case, much like most of them. Only now I had something more interesting to do. I could feel her getting closer with each step. Flashing a toothy grin I beckoned Kenst forward into the light.
Things began to go more quickly after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hoggle (Wall above the Bog) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarah and I appeared back on the wall above the bog. I didn't suppose she remembered that this was the place she had kissed me, or that that was why I was sent back to this place every single time I returned, but I wasn't about to tell her. Things had to go carefully if she wanted to go through with this, which I didn't think was such a great idea, but once she got something into her head.that was it.
This time we could take a more leisurely path to the castle, since the wall ran halfway, but nope. She wanted to stop and say hello to Didymus so we had to go through the pond mazes, treacherous things but Sarah liked them. They get kind of annoying after you've fallen in a few times. Especially when the water sprites are active. Like today.
After all these years she still didn't trust my judgment on these things. I ran across like it was smart to do but no, she perked up at the mention of water fairies. By the time she caught up with me she was soaked clear through. We trudged to Sir Didymus's, she was silent most of the way, but probably because she was looking around rather than sulking. Sarah didn't do that much anymore.
I took care to point all sorts of things out that she might have missed on her last visit. Flower sprites, gnomes, gargoyles, trick streams and now and then other citizens of the Labyrinth that we ran across. Here a family of pickpockets, there a clever healer's hut. I even saw two peach trees walking ahead of us with a young maiden and an even younger boy sitting easily in the branches.
When we got to the bog itself, Sir Didymus was waiting, and Sarah was famished. I began to have an incredible sense of déjà vu. The peach tree owner had actually given Didymus fruit for passing three peaches, one apple.
Sarah immediately nabbed the apple, can't say I didn't blame her. She crossed by way of the rocks while Didymus and I used the bridge, she didn't want a reoccurrence of last time and we didn't want to be close to the bog. We were sitting in a small clearing on the edge of a precipice while Didymus got his bearings when Sarah began to feel woozy. She had just begun to eat the apple a few moments ago, commenting on how good apples tasted in comparison to peaches.
"I know the way now!" Sir Didymus exclaimed. "The Labyrinth may move but the destination shall not. Did you know that the Castle never actually moves Lady Sarah? The entire Labyrinth moves around it."
She shook her head smiling. "No I didn't. It'll be interesting to see if it changed though." She braced and arm against the tree she was leaning on but faltered and fell against it. A frown crept across her face as she struggled to sit up.
I was worried by now, suspecting treachery by Jareth again. It had to be coincidence that fruit just happened to be dropped of just before we got to Didymus. "Sarah? Are you alright?"
I walked over and took her hand trying to pull her upright. Humans are a lot bigger than dwarves though, and her eyelids were fluttering.
"Hoggle.so tired.can't seem to stay awake."
"My Lady!" Sir Didymus cried. "I had no idea! I'll catch that scoundrel of a grove owner if it's the last thing I do, and her little friend too!"
"This feels different...than last time." she commented weakly.
I patted her hand comfortingly. "It's okay Sarah, it's probably only a sleeping peach, a simple mistake. Grove owners are kind of kooky like that."
"Hoggle.I."
It was then the royal guard appeared.
The royal guard never run in, or jump down, they always just appear and this time they just appeared all around us, including Master of the Guard Bryn himself. The royal guard is Jareth's personal army. About two thousand fae exceedingly talented in both physical combat and magical duels. They do pretty much whatever Jareth wants them to do, from standing guard on the border to assassinations. Or so I've heard.
You can always tell a royal guard though, they wear a sandy gold cloak of the same color of the Labyrinth over a pure black tunic and trousers with an iron plated sword on their left hip and three bags of magical stuff on their right. They all wear black leather gloves and black leather boots. They've all sworn life oaths to his majesty. It's a longstanding profession.
Either way, seeing the royal guard was enough to send Didymus into a state of shock. I'm not the most courageous dwarf either but not as cowardly as before. I managed to back up into Sarah, blocking her from them somewhat. At least until Bryn himself came forward. All black, that was all it took to recognize a man I'd never met before.
Black hair, black eyes, boots, tunic, wraparound cloak, gloves and the black metal of his sword hilt. At the moment his expression was also very black. I backed to the side, no one argues with Bryn. He trains the guard, in magic and swordsmanship as well as knife fighting. He's a man you don't want to meet on a sunny day in a meadow.
Didymus was quivering with shock and I was just standing there astounded while the Master of the Guard approached Sarah, checked her pulse and temperature and then quickly and easily lifted her in his arms. All it took from him was two pointed glances, and Sir Didymus and I were also taken hold of. They also picked up the apple core. Then we were transported to the castle.