Sarah wrapped her shawl tighter around her body and shivered involuntarily, the soft wool did little against the cold that had penetrated her body to the core, gotten into her bones. The healer had made her stay in bed all morning and most of the afternoon, but she had finally discharged Sarah, who had immediately gone in search of Danae and Aldous, anxious for news of the battle. When she arrived at Jareth's study, which Danae had been using as a base of operations, it was deserted, and Sarah was informed that the princess and her advisor was standing on the balcony outside the front of the castle. Sarah hurried to join them.
Nothing could have prepared her for the site which was waiting for her outside. Danae and Aldous were standing, staring off into the distance, a cold look of horror on their faces. When Sarah followed their gaze into the distance she gasped. The blood drained from her face in shock leaving her standing there, deathly pale. "Oh my God" she whispered to herself in horror.
Noticing Sarah's presence for the first time Danae turned to her, her face as pale as Sarah's own. The princess grasped the other girl's hand, and they stood there clinging to each other for what seemed an eternity, staring at the horrific sight that lay before them.
The once lush green plains bordering the labyrinth were now stained a dark red colour, the colour of blood underneath a healing wound. But there was a worse sight than this, a sight that had caused Aldous' breath to catch, and Danae's legs to falter when they had first seen it. Smoke was rising from the fields. As far as the eye could see the sky was blackened out, by thick dark acrid smoke.
"What's going on 'Nae?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"The alliance is burning the battlefields" Danae explained, her voice level and controlled "They are preparing for a retreat, while causing the maximum damage that they possibly can." Seeing the stricken look on Sarah's face, Danae decided on a course of action. "Let's go back inside; there is nothing we can do here." And the princess led Sarah back inside the castle, to the parlour, where she sat Sarah down, and ordered her a hot cup of tea.
After a little while the warmth returned to Sarah's arms and she began to feel less anxious about the day's events.
"Sarah?" she was jolted back into reality by the princess.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I asked you, what did the healer say?"
Sarah brought her hand to her belly slowly. "She said I was expecting a baby"
Danae's eyes widened and she nearly choked on the tea she was sipping. "What? How far along are you? Does Jareth know?"
"I'm about two months gone, and Jareth doesn't know yet, I only just found out, and it's so much to take in." She glanced over at the princess who was beaming "You won't tell him will you? I want to tell him myself, when the timing is right."
"Of course I won't!" Danae reassured her, "I'm going to be an Aunt" she told Sarah giddily.
But any further news was cut short by the arrival of Aldous, "Your Highness" he addressed the princess formally. "May I have a word?"
Danae nodded and silently followed Aldous out of the room, squeezing Sarah's shoulder gently as she passed her. Once in Jareth's study Danae stood behind her brother's chair while Aldous spoke slowly.
"Ivenan has returned"
"How is he?" Danae asked anxiously.
"He'll be fine, he took a bad wound to the shoulder, but nothing life threatening, he's being seen by the healer as we speak." Danae's relaxed, however Aldous continued "However he brings bad news."
"What kind of bad news?" Danae asked warily.
"Jareth was trapped in the flames" he told her sadly, Danae brought her hand to her mouth, shocked. "He didn't make it." Aldous' voice broke, "All they found of him was his medallion." He placed the silver piece in Danae's hand; it was spattered with blood and darkened with soot.
Danae sank down into the chair slowly, cradling the medallion in her hands. The enormity of what had just happened, and what she was going to have to do sinking in slowly. Tears streaming down her face. "Could you…" her voice faltered for a moment "Could you go and tell Sarah what has happened. I need some time to think." Aldous nodded his head and left her alone.
Her thoughts drifted back to the conversation that she had had with Jareth last night. 'If anything should happen to me Nae, people will be looking to you to make the next move. Don't waste your time mourning me; you must do what needs to be done.' In that moment Danae made the hardest decision that she had ever had to make in her life. She abandoned Jareth.
When Aldous came back from breaking the news to Sarah, he found the princess sitting, regally, reading the contents of an envoy which had arrived a few moments ago. On Aldous' arrival she turned and looked him in the eyes, her head held high.
"Schedule the coronation for as soon as feasibly possible" she commanded formally, every inch of her royalty.
"You're Highness" Aldous nodded his ascent and bowed to his new sovereign. Then, taking a more informal approach, he walked over to the princess, and took her hand in his, and told her warmly. "I have never been more proud of you, than I am of you right now.
Danae's coronation was held three days later, and to her distress Sarah did not attend. Due to the circumstances it was a quiet and subdued affair, and after the ceremony the traditional celebration was not held, as the new Queen was too deep in mourning for her brother to try and act joyful on such a day.
Her first royal duties were the most distressing things she had ever done in her life. "A search was called to try and find Jareth's remains, and even after three weeks of hunting through all the thousands of dead, nothing was ever found of the former Goblin King. Her second, equally unpleasant duty, was dealing with the perpetrators of the attacks. Prince Harris had been killed by a deadly sword wound during the battle, so the sole responsibility of events had fallen on the shoulders of his wife, Lady Annabel.
She was brought in front of the princess, who was sitting elegantly on her brother's throne, eyeing the other girl coolly.
"Come on then?" Annabel demanded "Tell me what you have in store for me"
"You should speak to your betters with more respect Lady Annabel" the Queen informed her icily "Especially when they would be within their rights to demand your head on a stick." Annabel's face paled at this implied threat, "I have however decided to be lenient in this matter, banishment is your only punishment from the Goblin Kingdom. Though whether the other countries you have wronged will be quite so generous has yet to be seen." Danae knew for a fact that they wouldn't, Annabel would be further sentenced to banishment from Elgard, however Mannat would call for her execution. Though it was completely out of Danae's hands.
"Remove her" Danae called to the guards, and they escorted Annabel from the room, that was the last time Danae ever saw her alive, rather face execution in Mannat she hung herself four days later.
Sarah seemed to have handled Jareth's death better than Danae had anticipated; she had spent a few days in mourning, and then returned to her normal routine, spending hours in the library every day as if searching for something. The Queen had seen less of Sarah over the last few weeks than she would have liked, since their defeat in the Goblin Realm members of the alliance had sued for a peace treaty, one that Danae was all too eager to accept, and she had spent much of her time negotiating the treaty, which was due to be signed tomorrow in Threasedene. Sarah had agreed to travel to Threasedene with Danae and Ivenan, believing that a change of scenery would do her good, help her to take her mind off things.
Danae was sitting in the library with Sarah, she was quietly reading a few official documents that had arrived that morning, regarding the peace treaty, while Sarah was erratically flipping through a number of magic books, until she suddenly stopped on a single page.
"I want you to bring him back" she announced to the Queen, who looked at her puzzled.
"Bring who back Sarah?" she asked warily, not liking the direction that this conversation was taking.
"Jareth" her words became faster now in desperation "Bring him back to me and the baby. I found a spell; I knew I'd seen it before…just after Roland died. I know that you can do this; I overheard Aldous saying the other day that you were even more powerful than Jareth. I just want him back." She walked over and placed the open book in front of Danae, who studied it for a moment before turning back to Sarah.
"I can't do this Sarah." Most of what Sarah had said was true, the spell was in a magic book that she had studied from just after Roland's death, and through having two royal parents of the highest order as opposed to one, Danae had been blessed with more magic than her brother, but it just wasn't possible.
"Yes you can" she argued back, I've been studying the theory of magic and it doesn't sound that hard.
"No Sarah!" Danae sounded genuinely shocked "A thousand times, no!" before Sarah had time to interrupt she continued. "Even if I did have the power to do such a thing, there are laws against such atrocities, and rightly so." Sarah's green eyes filled with tears, "I'm so sorry Sarah, but I genuinely can't."
"He's never coming back is he?" she asked, her voice soft and afraid.
Danae took the girl in her arms and cradled her gently "I'm so sorry Sarah"
The walls that had been building up around Sarah for the last month slowly started to crumble as her body heaved with great wracking sobs "How could he do this to us? To you, to me and the baby?" She wept into Danae's shoulder "How could he leave us? He never said goodbye! He just left, and now I'm all alone with the baby. And I can't do this alone."
Danae held the sobbing girl tightly, tears rolling down her own cheeks. "You don't have to!" she told Sarah and she slipped her hand into Sarah's.
"You're not alone"
