Author's Note: Well, well, well, darlings... and so we're back... again! And everything, just like it always is, is not good. After all, there's a war! And the Underground is a harsh place where a mysterious person is manipulating the strings that hold that realm tenuously to reality.

Author's Note 2: 'Hringer' means 'secret'. The 'g' sound is the same as in 'syringe'.

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"Hoggle, how long has it been since Jareth left?" Toby asked, wandering around the throne room as if he were looking for something he couldn't find. And Hoggle feared that if it were the case, Toby could only be looking for one thing.

"For the last time, I don't knows when he's coming back; you don't knows when he's coming back. But he's only been gone three months!"

Toby stopped and looked at the dwarf with bewildered hurt, blue eyes big and pleading. Naturally Hoggle wouldn't know about the very real physical ache that throbbed just under his ribs where the formal binding had taken hold, but he could at least be a little sympathetic! And for all his natural pride- and the fact that he seemed to be in charge now that Jareth was gone- the mortal really did miss his husband.

Hoggle caved in. "There, there, Toby. I knows you misses him, but you can't do nothing about it. He had to go."

"But it's a battle," Toby muttered, throwing himself into the throne and feeling even more unsettled when he smelt faint traces of pine and smoke, "He could be killed, Hoggle. And what'll I do then? I have Arradine to think about now; it's not just me. There's a reason that Gringol sent those reinforcements out and there's a reason that Jareth can't or won't mind speak with me. Hell, even the dreams are gone! What if he's already dead?"

Hoggle paled. "Uh, perhaps we shouldn't think about him dying, eh? It's bad luck for one thing. Anyways, you would know if he was dead; that bond thingie would go crazy."

"It would?"

Hoggle nodded his big head solemnly and hoped he wasn't lying too much. He had no real idea about bonds, never having given them a second thought, and he certainly hadn't spent sleepless nights reading up about them.

Toby sighed and flung a hand over his eyes, cushioning his head onto the rounded rim of the enormous stone seat. Vaguely he wondered how many Goblin Kings had sat where he'd sat, and what manner of things had been decided in this chair. He'd read some rather interesting books lately; ones that told him that this room had been originally used by the Kings and their advisers. A disturbingly small paragraph made mention of Jareth's cold decision to kill most of his advisers and then dismiss the survivors, electing to rule by himself with the official help of simpletons picked up randomly on the streets of the City, generally too drunk or too stupid to care about the King's decisions. Under Jareth alone had the Goblin Kings become so autocratic.

"You're right," he said slowly, "I won't talk about it. He's too experienced at this game to lose."

Hoggle patted his knee comfortingly and went back out into the fresh summer's haze. He was more troubled than he'd care to admit, but he wasn't about to babble about it. He certainly wouldn't tell Toby any of it, but the news from the Flat Plains was not so good this time. Goblins were fierce fighters and Jareth was a natural strategist, but there were rumours of some kind of disease in the army. A goblin had arrived only recently in the City, claiming to have run away because the goblin soldiers were dying by the score in a matter of days. That, and the fairies had blocked communication lines, throwing a magical barrier around the plains so that nothing and no one could get through.

Well, Jareth should certainly be able to get through, but from what Hoggle had heard- and he heard plenty when working so inconspicuously in the Castle's gardens- the Goblin King was ill himself. Nothing had been heard from him for many days.

Nobody would tell Toby, of course, though Hoggle suspected that that had nothing to do with a desire to keep Toby from worrying. Gringol was the only one who was actually interested in helping the boy- from guilt towards his bond mate probably- but the others had used Jareth's absence to wrest control away from the mortal. Jealousy was such an ugly thing to see. The dwarf could only thank his lucky jewels that Sir Didymus and Ludo had returned to keep an eye on things with him.

Two months later, on a hot summer's day, a goblin came tearing through the Castle and demanding to see the King's consort. Toby had been spending some time with his daughter but came out immediately, a frown on his face at the urgency.

"My Lord, the- the army..."

Toby impatiently patted the little creature on her back as she tried to get her breath back.

"My L- lord, the army has returned."

"What? The army? The goblin army?"

The little thing nodded and pointed behind her to the door.

Toby handed Arradine over to her nurse and bade her take the child to his room. "I don't want her there in case," he muttered. He called for the guards, not really knowing what to expect. With any luck, the goblin would be right and his husband was home. With a little less luck, the goblin would be right and his husband would never come home at all. With no luck at all, everyone was dead and the goblin was mistaken.

The enormous double doors to the Castle's entrance were thrown open, people gathering behind the guards and in the above windows to watch the tense situation.

A goblin Lady in a scarlet dress came forward. "My Lord," she said sweetly, "Perhaps you should go inside. Let us handle this for you; you should go to your child."

Blue eyes glittered fire and ice down at her and the goblin noblewoman backed away. The mortal was easily manipulated, but all knew not to cross him when he had that look on his face.

The rag-tag group of goblin soldiers were limping slowly towards the Castle. None called to them; none went to greet them. More goblins from the City were following at a safe distance, their loud boisterousness disappeared in the sobriety. A deafening silence screeched over tensed nerves, daring anyone to break it with unspeakable consequences.

The group stopped at the foot of the steps and stared fearfully up at the King's bond mate. "We lost," one said heavily.

Pandemonium broke out and Toby almost fell over at the implications of those words. The bond! The bond had been telling him that something was wrong for months now! How had he not realized it until now? Why else would Jareth not be here with the remainder of his army?

A voice rose above the rest, shouting from the crowd of City goblins behind the soldiers- "Can't be! We always win!"

"Well, we didn't this time," a soldier yelled back.

"But we sent reinforcements."

The arguments continued back and forth.

Toby watched them almost with a feeling of being back in a bubble. He couldn't draw breath; really he couldn't. And Arradine! How was he to raise her alone? How could this happen so soon after everything had started to come right again? "The King," he finally choked out, "Where is he?"

Silence. No one said a word as all eyes turned to the pretty mortal on the steps, highlighted by the sun and the shadows of the Castle. One golden hand was pressed to his chest as if it hurt to breathe, the fingers trembling as they pressed absently to where the bond ached and throbbed its warning.

The soldiers fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable and unwilling to answer. "He got, uh..."

"OPEN YOUR FAT MOUTH AND TELL ME!"

"He got captured, my Lord. Two weeks ago, it was," the goblins babbled, backing away as Toby leveled a crystal at them.

"Two weeks?" The crystal lowered slightly.

"He- he were ill and the fairies tooked him, they did."

The crystal shattered on the step. Ill! Jareth had been ill and captured and he hadn't known!

He barely registered it when Hoggle came running towards the Castle. "Toby! Toby, get out of here, quick! The fairies are coming!"

Goblins began to scream and shout in fright and disbelief, turning to stampede their way like frightened sheep back to the City. Toby blinked in shock, swaying where he stood. The fairies? The soldiers threw down what remained of their weapons and armour and refused to fight any more even when one of those damned idiots that had slithered his way into advising Toby declared his intention to lead the last remaining troops to battle.

Hoggle gestured hurriedly to something behind him. Toby blinked again, seeing gingery red fur as his vision swam out of focus. Somehow he knew that Ludo was carrying him back into the Castle, that Sir Didymus was riding his valiant Ambrosias before them and knocking on people's knees to get them out of the way. He heard Hoggle telling him that he had no time to faint.

"Get up!" the dwarf was insisting, "You needs to get up!"

Arradine! Oh God, his daughter!

Toby scrambled down, almost falling as he made a run for his rooms. His daughter was there, and the medallion. He had no time for this! He had to get them out of here. Not for nothing had he been reading the books in the library on the traditions of war in the Underground. He would be killed; his little girl would be killed. And that tiny baby girl was currently the heir to the Goblin Kingdom; the medallion was her birthright.

He stumbled in at the door only to find that the nurse had abandoned the baby, likely running away in her fear though the Gods only knew where she hoped to find protection. The fairies were practical and cruel people, just as the goblins would have been had the positions been reversed. Toby would have liked to believe that Jareth would not have killed Amarild, but... no! He was not going to think of Jareth.

Arradine let out a soft whimper as he scooped her up. He grabbed up the blankets and a quick change of clothes for her. He could use magic, but anyone with a grain of magical knowledge would sense the distinctive power that he used. And he had no hope of controlling it enough to be discreet. Jareth had never taught him how.

"Come, sweetheart, let's get you out of here," he soothed, holding her against him with one hand while the other hunted through the few trinkets in his drawers. A ring, a necklace... a few ridiculously overpriced gifts from people who seemed to think he liked flashy jewels.

The medallion glowed in his hands as he yanked it out from its deceptively simple case. He hurriedly buried it in the blankets with his child and then Hoggle was at the door, telling him to leave everything and come with him. He stared around wildly for one more instant, hating to leave, hating to say goodbye.

For just as instant, he turned to the mirror and saw a mirage of mismatched eyes, gone as soon as it had arrived. He left, running carefully down the hallways with his daughter in his arms. Hoggle took him down to the kitchens.

Jamelia and Kyfrem were there, shoving a table away from a door he didn't remember seeing there before. "In here, my Lord," Kyfrem panted, "Take the tunnel and don't stop until you get into the forests. Try not to let anyone see you."

"Aren't you coming, Kyfrem?"

"Toby, we has to go."

Toby nodded and left. Apparently Hoggle knew where he was going because the dwarf was taking them through twists and turns that would have confused anyone else. Toby couldn't see very well, and Arradine was upset and crying. He had to magically send her into sleep to stop her from making so much noise.

Countless times one or the other of them would slip in the damp earth, or would bump into a wall, but eventually they emerged into daylight, the afternoon sun glimmering through the thick foliage of the fierey's forest, long fingers stroking over the moss-covered stones and tree trunks.

"This way," Hoggle gasped.

Sir Didymus had been grumbling to himself for many minutes now. "But why must we fly?" he complained, "The battle lies with the Castle. We should give our lives to protect our kingdom, surely."

"No," Hoggle hissed, "I ain't giving my life for no one. 'Cepting maybe Sarah... and Toby... and Arradine. But that's it! And I wouldn't do it lightly for those three either. Those fairies will kill me if they sees my face, and they don't likes scary monsters like Ludo neither.

"We may well have to give our lives for Sir Toby," Sir Didymus said soberly, shooting a worried look at the stunned mortal walking beside them with the blank expression of shock on his face, "The immediate family of the defeated ruler is always executed after the battle is won. It is tradition."

"Ludo help Toby," Ludo insisted.

"Yes, yes, brother Ludo, we will all do our very best to save Sir Toby from any harm. We swore so to Lady Sarah and once more to our King. We have a sacred duty to him."

"Then shut up," Hoggle sighed, "We're coming to where the fieries is."

It felt like hours to the mortal as they crept through the thick growth, heading further and further between the trees. He had never felt so unbelievably tired in his life. His chest ached, his head ached and his entire body felt like lead. The world around him was dulled and haze-blinkered, seemingly coated with a sort of mist that stopped sound and vision from actually impacting on his senses. His daughter weighed a thousand pounds as far as he was concerned, and he was struggling to keep her safe and secure while holding himself up.

Day lengthened into evening and night fell. Arradine was awake and Toby was softly crooning to her to make her more comfortable. As it was she made far too much noise; Hoggle wouldn't say so, but he could see the dwarf shooting desperate looks at the child. He tried to keep her as quiet as he could.

They seemed to be bunking down in some kind of cave. Toby took careless note of where they were as he entered it. Ludo gave a quiet roar and a rock fell into place at the entrance, not only blocking them in but blocking everyone else out. Thankfully the mortal relinquished his burden to Ludo's gentle paws, trusting the creature implicitly not to harm his child.

For a few minutes they sat in silence, Toby with his knees drawn to his chest as he stared intently at the flames, and the others with an uncomfortable lack of anything meaningful to say.

Finally Sir Didymus cleared his throat. "Sir Toby, you must not lose hope. Very likely the King is on his way now to stop this invasion."

Blue eyes looked up, deadened and confused. "Then why are we running away?" Toby grated out, "He's dead, isn't he? And he promised he wouldn't do that. He said he'd be right back. He said he'd keep me safe. This is my fault; all my fault!"

Hoggle looked perplexed as he glanced at the others to see if they knew what the mortal was speaking of. Toby's fault? How so? Naturally, had he known about the rape... but that was a subject that Jareth had kept close to himself. Jareth had hated the dishonour of not being able to protect his own bond mate. "He didn't want you nowhere near there," he said awkwardly, "Said so often enough, he did. No reason that you should feel guilty."

Toby buried his face in his arms on top of his knees and shook his blond head. "What am I to do now," came the muffled plea, "Where do I go? They'll kill my daughter and I can't let them."

"Go back?" Ludo suggested, "Aboveground?"

"No. Arradine is Jareth's child. I can't take her away from the Underground. She's his heir and if she's ever needed... well, she'll need to be here, won't she?" He seemed almost to be hunched into a small bundle of cloth and bone, the stark lines of his body thrown into disjointed relief against the uneven wall. "Where do I go?"

"The elves," Hoggle revealed reluctantly, "Jareth said to take you to the elves."

Toby's head snapped up, blue eyes watchful as the dark blond brows pulled into a slight frown. "Jareth said? When?" he demanded, "You spoke to him? Why didn't you tell me?"

His voice was rising and it shocked Arradine, making her gurgle a little as she waved her fists aimlessly in the air. She was only six months old; not old enough to know what was happening to her. Certainly not old enough to know why her father was shouting.

Hoggle shook his big head and made hushing gestures with his gnarled hands. "Shush," he pleaded, "I hasn't spoken to him since he left; I promise. He told me before, said in case anything happened I was to take you and the baby to the elves in the Hringer glades."

"The who?"

"Hringer."

Toby sighed and sat down. He thought about it. "I thought they were all dead," he said at last, "How do we know we can trust them?"

The dwarf shrugged. "Lord Pelinlas' daughter is one of them; she won't do nothing to harm you. Nor will the other two."

Toby nodded. Reaching across, he took the whinging child back from Ludo and absent-mindedly put her to feed. The others hurriedly looked away and he realized, with a start that Jareth was no longer with him to keep the un-pleasantries from him. He blushed and settled back into the shadows where he could keep himself hidden to some extent. But for the first time since the birthing, he was ashamed of his child.