Chapter Fourteen
Tacky, Wacky, and Wise
"I think brown. Brown will look nice. It's simple," Sarah called over to Jareth, who was standing on the other side of the throne room. She rolled a crystal around in her hands and looked at the vast canvas of walls. "It wont be a big change but I think it will work."
"Are you sure? Brown is alright?" Jareth had felt completely out of his realm once Sarah began the decorating process. He always thought he had decent taste, but now he realized how much the castle had needed updating. Sarah was doing well with the redecorating, but he just could not understand how she was so artistic. It came naturally.
Sarah rolled the crystal in silence for a bit, then shattered it in her hand and tossed the silvery dust onto the wall, changing it to a warm earthy brown. The floors were now slate but she had not touched the throne. She studied the effect that the new walls had, then nodded, "I like it. But we need more sunlight." With a wave of her hand, the windows across from the throne stretched to cavernous heights and the fading sunlight streamed across the floor to their feet.
"Perfect," they said in unison. Sarah tossed some crystals into the pit at the foot of the throne and a number of poufs and a large area rug appeared, making a more comfortable environment for the goblins and wish-aways.
Jareth walked alongside Sarah and admired her handiwork. The entire castle now looked much more modern without being too abstract. The hues were soft and the structures comfortably shaped. They passed through the new courtyard and paused to watch the sun sinking over the horizon.
"Sarah, have you given any thought to the ball?" He turned to face her, the orange glow illuminating her face and turning her eyes into pools of black.
"I have. I think we should have entertainment out here in the courtyard. Look," she gestured to a raised long dais at the back of the courtyard, "we can have the high table there and have performers from the different kingdoms come to entertain the guests."
Jareth was pleased that she had been thinking of the ceremony while she remodeled. "We will need to think about sending invitations and arranging for the food and entertainment, then. We should have the ceremony just before the hot weather makes the sun unbearable."
They moved inside as the sun dipped beneath the mountains and plunged the air into cool blue twilight. Sarah left Jareth to decide upon the guest list. She wondered if she might be able to bring her father and stepmother to the Underground but thought it might be impossible. As far as she had read, such things were not possible. She had missed them greatly, but found herself too preoccupied with Toby and Jareth to think much about them.
Sarah had no idea who to contact for entertainment, so she also tasked Jareth with the mission. He immediately suggested that she be in charge of decorating for the ball. Later that evening, Sarah had sketched a number of designs and made several long lists pertaining to the decorations. When Jareth walked into the room for bed, she immediately tucked a slip of parchment underneath the others and blushed a sanguine red.
"Can I see the designs?" Jareth bent over her shoulder.
"Yes, go change and then I'll show you." He spun around and was dressed in his usual night attire. "Well, I meant I needed you to walk away," she mumbled.
"Why? What are you hiding?" He asked suspiciously.
"The dress. I don't want you to see it until the ball. In the Aboveground it's supposed to be bad luck if the groom sees the gown before the wedding." He laughed but turned around until she pulled him back. He looked over the plans with further respect of her design talents.
"I think we should use green and gold to reflect upon the Goblin Kingdom. I want things to look natural but still grand. The arrangements will be ferns and gold orchids. All the stone will be white marble." He continued to examine the detail with which everything was planned. She had not missed a thing.
"You have a talent for this."
She gave him a hug around the waist then stood and dressed for bed.
Sarah licked her bottom lip delicately, moistening it. She had just woken up from something untraceable. She tucked her lip between her teeth pensively, then opened her eyes to find Jareth only a few inches from her face. She gave a little scream and jolted, but upon recognizing his mismatched eyes she calmed down a bit.
"Morning. Did you know that when you sleep your eyes twitch? It's interesting to watch. Oh, and your eyes don't seem to close all the way either."
Sarah took a deep breath as he straightened and looked down at her.
"Yeah. Okay. Why were you staring at me while I slept?" she was wide awake now but completely abashed that she had been scrutinized so closely.
"I don't know. You're pretty. It's not unpleasant to look at your face. I rather enjoy it." Jareth gave a slight nod of approval.
Sarah inwardly shrugged but smiled at the compliments. "Yours too, but that was startling. You remind me of my cat Phoenix. He used to do that to me. When we dream our eyes twitch. It's called REM sleep for Rapid Eye Movement."
"Really? That's new. Rapid Eye Movement."
With a great heave Sarah forced herself from the bed. The sky outside was cloudy but warm. She slipped on one of Jareth's outfits, or rather, charmed on. The pants, she had found, were impossible to put on without the aid of a crystal. She found this amusing.
After breakfast, Jareth and Sarah finished the invitations. The date was set two months from then on the Festival of the Sky. Jareth noticed Sarah addressing an invitation to Toby Williams.
"Do you think he will come? Your brother?" he asked with concern.
"I don't know. I think so. I hope he will." She stared at the sealed letter for a moment, then slipped it into the box with the others. With a soft noise of parchment, Jareth placed the rest of his sealed letters into the box as well. He rolled a crystal around and murmured something soft and foreign, then he picked up the box and dumped it out the window. Sarah stared in utter shock for a moment, then saw the letters twirling and shooting off in different directions intently.
"That should cover it. Well, on to plan the entertainment. I will see you around lunch." He strode off down the hall, heels clicking softly.
Sarah remained in solitude gazing out over the horizon, a single invitation flapping idly away. She knew which one it was because of the hesitance with which it traveled. With a sturdy shove, she flung herself from the wall and back down the steps to the courtyard. She couldn't waste her day worrying about her brother. If she had learned one thing since moving to the Underground, it was that worrying was wasted on things which were out of one's control. Toby would read the book, she was sure of that, and whether he understood what it meant was dictated by how far removed he had become form his former self.
The vast library smelled of warm parchment and comfortable chairs. To her left were immense windows that displayed a pernicious view over the edge of a steep precipice. It the feeling of exhilaration that seized her every time she stood by the window that made her continue to savor the view. After scanning down the rocky cliff, the scene changed completely into countless miles of fresh green fields and scattering golden flowers. To the right edges of her vision, she saw the long narrow stone walls of the Labyrinth itself. When she walked further to her left she could angle herself to see a whole wing of the expansive maze. Purple mountains glazed with deep green forests bordered her vision and hinted of the lands over their borders.
She flopped into her favorite large yellow squashy armchair and pulled out a notebook and magic quill. At this point she had drawn and arranged for all of the decorations. Now she had to finish the dress. After an hour in which very few minor details were put onto the paper, Sarah felt herself growing chilly. The sky had clouded over with a steely mass that seemed as though it wanted to rain but couldn't muster the strength. With a solid flick of the wrist she had lit a fire in the expansive fireplace before the chair.
A year ago she never would have pictured this possible. Magic was still new to her, and now she realized how much it had filled in her life. Things were easier, this was true, and it gave her more free time in her day. The trouble was that in a world of Fae life spans and powerful magic, there was too much free time.
Another half an hour passed as Sarah made the final details to her dress. She stood and walked out of the room and headed to a room which she had only just discovered upon beginning the remodeling. It was a large and colorful sewing room staffed by some of the most clever and conniving goblins she had met. The little creatures assured her that whatever the garment, they would do their best to make it exactly as she specified.
"The Miss is back!" cried one of the goblins with joy as she stepped into the cozy room. Sarah looked about but could not see the goblin amidst the hundreds of bolts of colorful fabrics. She had never seen anything so enchanting before- silks of the finest ruby red and saffron, great lengths of patterns and colors hanging from ceilings and wound around lightweight planks. On detailed shelves were threads of emerald and silver, buckets of decorative crystals and powdered gems that were used like glitter. Velvet trays displayed finely shaped moonstones and well-wrought gold pieces.
It was dazzling. Nothing could describe the complete bliss that encompassed the room.
A blue and gold bolt of fabric that was hanging from the ceiling to the table swayed and a smiling little goblin head peeked out from up at the top.
"We thought you might be back soon!" She jumped from the skywalk onto the fabric and slid down lightly to land on the table in front of Sarah. "Have you finished the design?"
"Yes, it took longer than I thought. It means so much to me," she smiled as another goblin slid down the same stretch of fabric and landed with a soft swish next to the other. They had identical sapphire blue orbs of eyes but wore extremely radical and bright clothes. The first goblin wore black and white striped leg warmers, a neon green skirt, and a bright pink tee-shirt with green ribbons sewn in squiggly patterns everywhere. The second goblin had turquoise pants under a yellow jumper and black shirt.
"Let's see it then," the goblin in the jumper said and took the papers which Sarah handed her and looked them over with a giggle. "Ooooh, this will be fun to make!" she squealed. The other goblin grinned happily while scanning the notes and drawings.
"Can you make a pattern for that dress, then?" Sarah asked hopefully.
The two sisters looked at each other as if they pitied Sarah, then looked back, "Who do you think you are working with? We're only the best in the Underground! Tacky-"
"And Wacky," the second sister chimed in, "Seamstresses Extraordinaire! Whatever you come up with, we will find a way to make it."
Sarah smiled and laughed a little. "Can I stay to watch for a while?" she whirled around as Tacky took a flying leap to land on another table covered in instruments of writing and measurement. She began scribbling something so fast that Sarah could have sworn she was blurry.
Wacky hopped over Sarah's shoulder to land next to her sister and began scribbling on another piece of paper. "Of course you can! You can pick out the fabric too." The sisters stepped back and Sarah saw that they had drawn up a plan for the pattern.
It seemed they needed no more than this small rendering for the dress, because as soon as Sarah selected the fabric they began cutting it into unusual shapes in varying sizes. She recognized something of a sleeve, what was clearly part of the skirt, and the bodice. Many other intricate pieces quickly and cleanly fell into the mix on the table. By lunchtime, the dress was almost completely assembled and ready for the embellishments.
Sarah left to eat with Jareth and the excitable sisters promised to work on something else until she returned later that afternoon. Sarah caught a glimpse of four other dresses on dress models in the back of the workshop. A pair of tight looking trousers that Sarah recognized at once lay on another table. His Royal Highness had torn the knee out only the other day when he snagged it on a waspish willow in the garden. Its delicate and graceful branches were apparently somewhat dangerous because when he got too close they whipped him smartly on the knee.
At the end of the day, Sarah was impressed that the dress was already half-finished. The twins worked remarkably fast and enjoyed having Sarah to joke with. They had no end of energy and enthusiasm for their art and loved to play. Tacky showed Sarah how to attach gemstones to the fabric and Wacky offered to give her a crash course in sewing one day when they were not so busy.
"Your dress is first priority as the wedding gown of the future queen," Tacky explained.
"But we can't put off the other dresses and suits just yet. This is the busy time of the season- just before the warm weather strikes," finished Wacky.
Sarah thoroughly enjoyed the company of the sisters and was amazed she had not discovered them sooner. She found that they hardly left their workshop, which was perfectly wonderful in their minds as they loved their work. In addition to their good humor, Sarah was pleased that they were so friendly with her. Even the librarian goblins, who had seen Sarah more than any others, found formalities and polite respect essential when dealing with the future queen. Tacky and Wacky seemed to understand that Sarah enjoyed being treated like a normal person just as much as they enjoyed working from dawn until the wee hours of the morning. It was just the way they were.
The next day they finished the dress and Sarah tried it on. For once in the two glee-filled days of giggling and teasing, the twins fell silent. They scrutinized Sarah carefully, looking for anything that needed adjustments, then stood back in awe to examine the dress. Sarah watched their huge eyes, then glanced in the mirror and admired their work.
"Perfect," they all said at once.
The day of the wedding was only a week away. Sarah had been back to visit Tacky and Wacky but was shooed away one afternoon.
"Why can't I stay here today?" Sarah asked, mocking hurt tones.
"Jareth said that he doesn't want you to see his outfit until the wedding day either. We're working on it today and tomorrow, so you'll just have to find another way to entertain yourself," Wacky chided with a wink.
"Don't worry, we have your dress being stored in your old bedroom so he won't see it." Sarah had explained the tradition of keeping the dress a secret until the wedding day. It would be different down in the Underground, as were most all things, but he wasn't getting even a hint until the morning of the ball. Tacky said that Jareth had asked them to use their own discretion on the style since they knew his fashion better than even he himself did, and they had rendered his outfit in matching fabric and complimenting embellishments.
"You will make quite a pair!" Wacky shrieked happily. Sarah didn't mind their energy. It was a welcome change from the quiet halls of the castle.
Later that same afternoon Sarah found herself sitting anxiously in the chair in the library. The weather had been cloudy and uncertain since that afternoon last week when Sarah had finished the dress plans. She hoped that it would be clear for the wedding, and sat daydreaming while staring out the window.
It wasn't until the figure was within one hundred yards that Sarah realized what she was seeing. A falcon, large and agile, was flying toward the castle. Sarah judged where is was going to perch and sent herself there in a flurry of wind.
The falcon had just begun to transform when she appeared. Within a moment she was facing her brother. They stared at one another for a moment, then he took the book out of his vest. With some hesitation, he handed it back to her. Sarah looked at him inquisitively and he also materialized the Teddy Bear.
"I can't keep these. She'd punish me if she knew I had seen you," he replied to her gaze.
"Did you read it?"
Toby shrugged and gave a little nod.
"What did you think?"
Something in his eyes softened a little, but he refused to look her in the eye. "I'm still thinking about what it said."
Sarah nodded and didn't force any more questions. If there was any trace of little Toby in his new adult body, then he would speak up when he felt ready.
He made a slight movement forward as if to hug her, then seemed to think better of it and just stood there awkwardly. Sarah gave him a quick tight embrace to which he barely responded. She could have sworn something youthful and innocent twinkled in his eye. He glanced up at her uncomfortably and then murmured, "I'd like to attend your wedding. I don't know what I'll tell her, but I'll try to be there," and just as quickly as he arrived, he morphed and took flight. Before he was out of sight, she was sure she saw him swing around to look back. She waved, and then he disappeared. Sarah just stood in the wind that he left behind. And smiled.
As Sarah walked back down to the dining hall to meet Jareth, it began to pour. She tilted her head back and enjoyed the water on her eyelids and cheeks. Once she stepped inside, she cast a crystal that dried her clothes and hair.
"You look pleased," Jareth purred when she strode into the hall.
"Toby read the book," she replied simply.
"And you know this, how?"
Sarah turned to face Jareth with a smile, "And he wants to come to the wedding ball. He was here, Jareth! He came to give me back the book and Lancelot so that Andromeda didn't find them."
Jareth was stunned and impressed. She had been dead on with the book tactic. "Excellent. But he is still," he paused, searching for words, "as he was last?"
"Physically, yes. Mentally, I think he is changing."
They left the subject at that and reviewed the final plans for the ball.