AN: Guys I am really very depressed so if this chapter darkens your soul I apologize. Writing has always been an expression for me...
Chapter 32: A Soul of Pain
Ione could bear no more! She removed her thoughts from Jareth's for she could not stand his parent's hate any longer! A weight seemed to sit in her chest where her heart should be! Its stone hard weight seemed to drop to her hooves and choke her breath all at once. Her mind seemed to play the words of King Dayton and Queen Ithilia over and over again in torment. Could she never escape it? No! She was cursed with immortality! A Celtic dagger appeared in her hands. It was a wave dagger whose shiny surface mimicked the ocean it was named for. In a single angry, fluid motion the centauress slashed her wrist but to no avail. She watched in anger as the wound merely closed once again. She fell to her knees releasing a wail of utter sadness, frustration, anger, and pain that was weighted by her mourning. Its human and animal mixture would cause every hair to stand on end if heard, and heard it was. Jareth and Sarah were both connected enough to the centauress to catch a bit of its pain, but none could hear or feel it so well as the centauress own children.
Apollo and Isis ran to the chamber they knew they would find their father in. Without a knock, Apollo barged in searching for the one who could rescue their mother.
King Dayton stood and began protesting at the intrusion, but Jareth could see the wild anguish in his son's eyes.
"What is it Apollo?" he questioned. He could see something had truly frightened the centaur. His palomino fur resembled that of a cat the way it stood on end, and his tail whipped his golden flanks furiously. Jareth could recognize the signs for he had seen them before. Apollo would never barge into a room and forget to bow to the King and Queen for no reason.
"Father, you must help!" Apollo cried advancing toward Jareth quickly ignoring the others in the room if he even truly saw them. Apollo half reared whinnying in pain. Both centaur children gripped their left wrist in unison. The room seemed shocked into silence. Although everyone present knew that Jareth had fathered the two centauri, neither had ever spoken of it in front of any save Jareth and their mother. They were especially careful of the fact in front of Sarah.
"It is Ione!" Jareth stated hardly needing Apollo and Isis' affirming nods. "Come!" he commanded both of them. He had been afraid of this. Ione had been too wooden when she had left. He cringed when Apollo grunted in pain yet again. He knew well that the two children were fully connected in mind to their mother. If they were in pain for no obvious reason, Ione was hurt! Ione had long battled depression after she had fled the Aboveworld. It was a dreadful demon when stirred and was hard to conquer. This single enemy often defeated the warrioress who was better than twenty men on a battlefield.
"Hurry, Father!" Apollo insisted through another cry of pain. Apollo and Isis knew well what no one else knew. They had the power to give up their immortality. It had been granted to them after the disastrous fall of their forefather. If they gave up their immortality, they would rest forever in the skies with the spirit of Chiron. Apollo feared their mother would give up immortality if driven hard enough by depression. They came to the home Ione had long stayed in before the centaurs had moved to the castle. Apollo and Isis both stumbled at the doorway griping their wrists in pain. Jareth rushed past them entering the home searching for Ione. He found her in her room weeping and saw the reason for the children's latest pain. In her despair, Ione had thrust a wave dagger completely through her wrist. A liquid as clear and sparkling as diamonds dripped from the wound and made the exposed point of the dagger glisten. The blood of the centauri! It was a precious commodity, especially hers, for not only did it heal mortal wounds, it could also draw out the deadliest poisons! But he paid only passing attention to it. He could see the utter anguish in Ione's starry gaze.
"Ione! What have you done?" he asked quietly. It would not do to raise his voice to her right now, but at least her attention was diverted from hurting herself.
"Look," she responded in a wooden voice. "See for yourself." Her detached voice scared him! The centauress refused to look at him. "Go away, milord. I do not deserve your pity!" Slowly the centauress twisted the dagger and pulled it out of her wrist. Jareth winced slightly knowing how much pain that probably caused not only her but her children. In her depression, she would shut out her children and be unable to hear them though they were still connected to her.
"No, Ione, I will not leave. Nor do I pity you." Ione glanced at him but quickly lowered her gaze. "Ione, you have a place in my heart that cannot be denied. We may not have been meant for each other, but you will always be more than a friend to me. I may not love you the way I love Aranel or the way you love me, but I cannot live knowing that I had something to do with your death." Jareth did not realize that Sarah and his parents had followed his path to the centauress. They stood watching the confrontation from the shadow of the doorway.
"You will be better off without me, Jareth, Meldanya," she responded woodenly yet again. Jareth knelt beside the centauress. She was deep in the pit of despair and it would take drastic measures to bring her out. Using the first two fingers of his right hand, he softly touched the back of Ione's hand. Slowly he traced a pattern on the back of her hand with his fingers. Ione's hand began to rise to meet his. Swiftly Jareth removed his glove from his right hand. Ione's eyes rose hesitantly to meet his as their hands met. The instant their hands were joined Ione gasped closing her eyes. Light emanated from both of them and the wound on Ione's wrist closed rapidly with renewed vigor. Jareth closed his eyes as waves of the centauress' emotions swept through him. Ione had shared this intimate tradition with him during one night of passion. Now it was the surest way for him to lift her from despair through the sheer force of his will. They both channeled magic through their hands though Ione's natural abilities channeled through her mind. With their bare hands touching even tentatively, they opened a passageway that linked their souls. Jareth's fingers brushed lightly over the skin of her wrist and hand while she did the same to him. At last Jareth had to break away from the contact. The centauress had intense feelings and passions, and the open gate to her feelings was overwhelming. Both were breathing heavily from the brush with the deepest region of the other's heart. The spirit had returned to the centauress eyes and she stood. She offered a hand to her king, which he accepted once he had replaced his glove. It was then that both realized they had an audience.
"Oh, thank goodness you're all right, Ione!" Sarah exclaimed breaking the silence.
"I am flattered by your care, milady," Ione said with a bow.
"What was that, Jareth?" Ithilia asked her son.
"It is a centaurian tradition that I shared with the king some time ago," Ione explained.
Ithilia passed off the Centauress' comment. "But what was it?" she demanded looking pointedly at Jareth.
Sarah stepped forward with a determined expression. "With all due respect, Your Majesty, Ione just told you."
Ithilia looked to Sarah obviously perturbed. "Do you care nothing for your future husband's faithfulness?"
Sarah's chin rose defiantly. "There is nothing unfaithful about Jareth trying to help Ione overcome depression. A depression she feels, I might add, because she has done everything she can to give up everything she ever wanted, her dreams, for the sake of another's happiness; and no one recognizes it."
Ione stepped up beside her defender. "Yet you have seen, Lady Aranel. For that I thank you." Ione turned to Queen Ithilia. "What I shared with Jareth was an old Centauri tradition. We do not give our secrets lightly especially to those we do not trust with them. I can explain nothing more."
Sarah intervened yet again. "Now enough of this fighting. King Dayton and Queen Ithilia came here for a happy occasion, and it should remain so."
King Dayton and Queen Ithilia were rather put off by the centauress' underhanded way of saying she didn't trust them, but Aranel was right. The fighting was not going to accomplish anything besides pushing their son further away from them. All returned to the castle in a semblance of a truce, which Sarah prayed would work toward an eventual resolving of wrongs.