Chapter 71: Long Live the Queen

Sarah's coronation came next. She knelt before Jareth and Alia, and recited her oath of office. She was determined not to need Arien's assistance this time! It was too important.

"I, Sarah rin Williams, as bride of Jareth, King of the Goblins, do hereby vow to rule my subjects fairly. I will show justice tempered with mercy; I will show compassion tempered with judgment, and I will faithfully fulfill the responsibilities required by my office. I will provide assistance to the king as we rule our kingdom together; and when God so wills it, I will provide him his heirs. I will keep controlled whatever magic comes to me, and whatever I do, I will do for the good of my kingdom."

Alia motioned with her head, and Jareth held up his empty hand. A crown appeared in it, a delicate, shining thing that looked as if it had been made of spun gold threads. Alia touched the crown with her horn, and Jareth placed it gently on Sarah's head. Sarah could hardly feel its presence; it felt faintly as if she were wearing a bubble—she could tell something was there, but it had absolutely no weight. She gave a sigh of relief, glad that her crown was lighter (and prettier) than Queen Claro's had been.

She wondered for a moment why Jareth had been the one to crown her; at Daxon's wedding it had been the king's aide who had crowned the new queen.

Alia answered her briefly inside her mind. "The crown is bestowed by me; it matters not whose hands deliver it." A bit of laughter showed up in Sarah's mind as Alia muttered an aside, "This is the one circumstance you'll see me regretting my lack of opposable thumbs!"

Alia touched Sarah's amused face with her horn, and suddenly Sarah felt an inrush of magic. It felt somewhat similar to when Jareth had tossed her lesson crystal at her—new pathways in her mind being forged, a thousand new tidbits of information making their way through her brain and finding new homes. Suddenly she felt different, as though a whole new personality had been poured into her body.

For the first time, the Goblin Queen rose and stood proudly before her people.

Alia announced to the audience, "All hail their Majesties, King Jareth and Queen Sarah!" Silently, every single person in the hall knelt to honor the new queen. Even Alia and Arien bent their heads for just a moment.

Then Alia stood and encouraged everyone to "Greet their Majesties!" and the hall resounded with cheering.

Beaming, Jareth and Sarah stood hand in hand, waiting for the cheering to die down. Unlike Daxon's wedding, where the bride and groom were the first to leave, Jareth and Sarah stayed behind as all the guests filed out and went to their homes. They each knelt and hugged the unicorns, kissing them on both horsey cheeks.

And suddenly Sarah was back to being Sarah. A little nervous about her upcoming consummation, she whispered to the young unicorn. "Arien, if we can't figure out some way to be able to meet, I'm sure going to miss you." A tiny tear rolled down her cheek, and the young unicorn nuzzled her.

"I agree, Sarah. We have become good friends, have we not?" Arien's bell-like voice sounded in her head. The unicorn cocked her head to one side. "Sarah, take out one of your hairpins."

Sarah did so, puzzled. She held it out to Arien, mystified.

Arien reached up one slender foreleg and, without warning, drove it against the hairpin. A shining drop of silvery blood welled up.

"Oh, Arien!" Sarah gasped.

"Touch the blood," the unicorn directed. "Put out your finger, and touch first my blood and then my horn."

Sarah did so, and gasped at the slight puncture that Arien's needle-sharp horn made in her finger. Some of the silvery blood seeped into the puncture on her finger, and she felt decidedly odd for a minute or two. "Arien, what is all this?"

The little unicorn's voice sounded in her head with supreme satisfaction. "Now there is unicorn blood in your veins, Sarah. You are as my sister."

The light came on in Sarah's brain. Of course—where had the tradition of blood-brotherhood and sisterhood come from, originally? Probably it had originated in the Underground, centuries ago. Sarah smiled and hugged the unicorn again. "Thank you, Arien."

It was odd, to share blood with a unicorn, but Sarah thought with wry amusement that it certainly wouldn't be the first new thing to happen to her that day!

Speaking of which, Jareth had finished bidding goodbye to Alia and was standing there waiting for her. Sarah rose, curtseyed to Alia, and went to take Jareth's proffered arm. The two of them descended from the platform together, and strode out the back doors. They swung slowly shut behind the couple.

A/N: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Dun, da da dun DUN!