Tell everybody I'm on my way
And I just can't wait to be there
With blue skies ahead yes
I'm on my way
And nothing but good times to share
On my Way—Brother Bear
After a long day spent looking after children, Julianne is ready to flop onto her mattress and snuggle with her son. She's almost to her tent when a loud voice has her freezing in place. Beside her, Firefox has come to a stop as well and the little girl riding on his shoulders gives an impatient tug on his hair. She's sure she must be hallucinating, but then the voice comes again and she knows for sure that this is really happening.
"And another thing, I don't appreciate you sending my nieces out to collect children!" Julianne turns to find Elinor poking her finger against Snapper's chest like he holds all the blame in the world. "For heaven's sake, they're both still children themselves and—" Elinor's dark eyes have found Julianne and her words fade away.
"Do you know her," Firefox asks. He's got an amused smile curling one side of his mouth, no doubt enjoying Snapper's embarrassment.
"Julianne Victoria Folchart, you get over here this instant!" Julianne's feet are moving before her brain gives them permission, carrying her across the first snowfall of the year and into Elinor's strong arms. "Oh, my dear girl, I've missed you so much!"
"I missed you, too, Auntie," she says, though her words are muffled by the cheap velvet cloth of her auntie's dress. Elinor pulls back after a moment, hands clutching at Julianne's arms as though she's afraid Julianne will slip into a new story if she lets go.
"Well, you look exhausted. I prescribe a good night's sleep and some coco." She pauses and frowns over at where Snapper is poking at the fire with a stick. "My niece has been out in this cold all day, the least you can do is find her something warm to drink!" He's up and moving so fast that he nearly trips. "Lazy man. I just know that he's no good."
"He's not too awful." Elinor looks around, lips pinched together in a frown as though searching for a misplaced book.
"Where on earth is your child? There's so many here that I can't possibly pinpoint the one that belongs to us." Julianne turns as well and then laughs when she spots Dustin toddling his way over to Firefox. He's set the girl aside by now and he scoops Dustin up in an arc that makes the two year old squeal his joy.
"He's right there, Auntie." Elinor grasps her hand and tugs her through the crowd, coming to a stop right next to Firefox. She doesn't ask permission, just snatches Dustin up into her arms and plants a kiss on his forehead.
"Hello there, little one. I'm your aunt Elinor." Dustin grins, showing off his sparse teeth. "Oh, you are a handsome one, aren't you? You look just like your father. Where is that matchstick-eater?"
"He's outside the castle. He and Farid conjure things out of fire that keep Piper from beating Mo in the evenings and nights." She's not too pleased to be sleeping without Dustfinger now that she's finally got him back, but she's also relieved that someone's looking after Mo. "I suppose you know what's happened to him?"
"Oh yes, that useless author told Darius and I the whole story." Darius, the stuttering man who'd once been held captive by Capricorn, is currently warming his hands over the fire. "Did you ever decide on a name for this lad or are we still calling him Jellybean?"
"His name is Dustin." Elinor hums and hefts him up a little higher, pressing another kiss to the tip of his nose. Dustin giggles, kicking his feet and giving her cheek a wet kiss in return. Instead of muttering her disgust, Elinor coos. Julianne's pretty sure she's never seen this woman coo in all her years of knowing her. There's a great disturbance in the Force.
"Oh! There's your sister!" Elinor passes Dustin off to Julianne so she can practically tackle Meggie in her rush to hug her. Julianne only smiles, bouncing her son gently on her hip.
"Well, she's certainly entertaining," Firefox says. "You get your personality from her."
"Auntie's the best," Julianne says. "She once yelled at Capricorn." His brows meet his hairline and Julianne laughs. "I believe her exact words were Listen here, fat head, as a book collector, I know that all of us aren't as sane as we pretend to be, but you're the craziest one of us all. That's the instant she became my favorite aunt."
"I wish I could have seen Capricorn's face after that."
"It looked something like this." Julianne does her best impression of Capricorn, face wiped of any emotions and eyes going flat. The man will always scare her, dead or not, so it's best to take that fear with a healthy dose of humor. Firefox snorts his amusement, his grin a welcome sight.
"That's about what you'd expect from him. Have you eaten yet, Dee?" Dustin nods, looking around at the gathered children with wide eyes. The strolling players have been working these past three days to gather Ombra's little ones in order to hide them away from the Piper and now the robbers' camp is full. "What do you say to a story before bed, eh? I know a good one."
"Tory," Dustin shouts, wiggling until he's in Firefox's arms. "Toast, tory!" Jehan glances up from his spot beside his mother's tent, smiling tiredly when Dustin gestures at him. Jehan's feet drag a little in the snow as he comes over to them, like his legs can barely keep him upright. "Fox tell us tory!"
"Would you like to hear it, Jehan?"
"As long as it's happy," Jehan says. Firefox takes the boys over to where Jaime is sitting and soon all the younger kids have flocked around them to hear the story. Firefox, despite how stoic he had been four months ago, gestures animatedly, doing accents and voices as well as any of the Motley Folk.
"Has that one fallen in love with you," Darius asks. His voice is timid, but there's only a trace of his old stutter in it.
"No, he's been claimed by Roxane and Jaime," she says. Darius thinks for a moment and then nods, bringing up a pair of mangled glasses in order to spot Jaime. "What happened to your glasses?"
"Oh, a couple of guards stepped on them when Elinor and I arrived here." He frowns, stowing them away in the pocket of his waistcoat. He and Elinor are both dressed like background characters in Hamlet, but Julianne doesn't say anything about it. After all, she'd come to this world in a pair of pajama pants and an oversized Batman tee.
"Guards are assholes."
"Yes, I've learned that. Fenoglio told us all about the White Book and the Adderhead's takeover. We were in the crowd when you and the children were released from the castle, but we couldn't get to you in time." He shrugs, bringing his fingers up to push his glasses up only to abort the movement when he remembers they're in his pocket. "Have you heard any news about your father?"
"Dustfinger says he's in pain, but nothing too severe. He sends Farid back for food once a day." She doesn't like not being with him, but she keeps reminding herself that she'll have him all to herself once this is over and the Adderhead is dead. "How about you? How have you been?"
"Uh, well…." He glances over his shoulder at where Elinor has Resa picked up in a hug. "We had our ups and downs while you all were gone. Mostly downs after Orpheus moved in."
"Ugh, that guy blows."
They start moving the next morning after the children have eaten, the two hour walk made much worse by the banks of snow. Firefox carries a little girl on his shoulders, the same one from last night with dark hair and gray eyes, smiling when she begins babbling. He's such a softy.
"Ma, where Daddy," Dustin asks for the seventh time. He's been gazing around like he expects Dustfinger and Farid to pop out of the snow like daisies, but they never do.
"Daddy's watching over Mo." It's the same answer he's been given, but he never quite seems to believe it. She wonders if he shares dreams with his father like she still does, if he's ever seen that meadow where flowers grow plentifully and all of Dustfinger's worries have been washed away.
An hour into the trip, almost halfway to the cave, many of the children begin to cry. It's a long trip for them, uphill and downhill in clothes that don't keep them warm enough in the bitter cold. Ned Stark was right, winter is here. Roxane glances at Julianne over her shoulder and gives a familiar signal. It comes as something of a shock when Julianne knows exactly what Roxane means by that one signal, their own form of shorthand developed over the better part of two years. She returns the signal and they begin to sing in the same instant.
"Come little children, I'll take thee away into a land of enchantment. Come little children, the time's come to play here in my garden of shadows. Follow, sweet children, I'll show thee the way through all the pain and the sorrows. Weep not, poor children, for life is this way—murdering beauty and passions." Meggie joins in, her voice adding an extra cadence that only she and Mo are capable of creating. "Hush now, dear children, it must be this way, too weary of life and deceptions. Rest now my children, soon we'll away into the calm and the quiet. Come, little children, I'll take thee away into a land of enchantment. Come, little children, the time's come to play here in my garden of shadows."
They trade back and forth after that, singing bits and pieces of songs that keep the children entertained until they finally reach the hidden cave that Mo and the Prince had found before the children of Ombra were kidnapped. The entrance is shielded by tall fir trees and bushes with downy white strands hanging off them like hair. Beyond that is a crevice that everyone but the children had difficulty squeezing through, but the cavern beyond offers more than enough space for them all.
Prince sends four men out to obliterate their tracks, posting another six of them as guards who position themselves high up in the surrounding trees. The women, about half a dozen in all, set about making the cave a little easier to call home; they drag in leaves and spread out fur pelts for everyone to sleep on, using flat stones to create a hearth for the food to be cooked on. Roxane has even brought the season's last rose petals so the smell isn't so dank and musty.
Dustin grabs a small handful of the petals and toddles over to Resa, plopping down in her lap like it's the most natural thing in the world. She looks sick today, her pregnancy and stress taking its toll. She's just starting to show and Julianne finds herself praying more and more often that her future sibling will come through this without any problems.
"See how they stuff their greedy mouths," Snapper remarks an hour later once the children have been given food. "Our provisions will hardly last the week at this rate."
"The Adderhead will be dead by the end of the week," the Strong Man says, giving Snapper a hard look. The thief just gives a hoarse laugh in return, not at all threatened.
"Oh, and I suppose the Bluejay will kill the Piper in the same instance? And what about the Milksop and his men-at-arms?" Julianne snaps her hand out and pinches Snapper's ear between two fingernails, squeezing until he wriggles in discomfort. She wants to hurt him worse than this for trying to jinx her father, but she's too aware of little eyes watching the display.
"Keep your opinions to yourself or I'll make you eat them," she says just loud enough for him to hear her. "Understand?" His face has gone beet red and he nods as well as he can, grumbling when she releases him. Across from her, Elinor's doing her best to suppress a smile.
"Don't worry, Meggie," Elinor says after clearing her throat. "The Adderhead won't lay a hand on Mortimer because he's the only one capable of healing that Book. According to that useless author over there—" Fenoglio scowls, but wisely stays silent "—the Book can't be cured, but that doesn't matter. He just needs time to write three words. Everything will end well!" Julianne can read the anxiety in Meggie's face easier than words on a page, the way her sister desperately wants to believe their aunt but is unable to do so. Instead of moving away from the fire, Julianne nudges Dustin and the little boy goes straight for Meggie. Julianne's found that you can't be too down in the dumps when a kid is listing his favorite things about you.
"You gots pretty hair," Dustin says, playing with a stray lock of it. Meggie's hair seems to glow in the firelight just like Resa's. "You got Nana's hair and you got Nana's eyes and you gots the best stories, Auntie Meggs!" Meggie laughs in spite of the depression, resting her cheek against Dustin's soft hair.
The rest of the day and night passes without any excitement, Gecko sending out his trained crows for information and coming back with a magpie. The bird clings to his thin shoulder, studying the cave and its new occupants with a little too much intelligence for Julianne's liking. Will she ever be able to look at a magpie without thinking of Mortola?
As darkness falls, Dustin curls back up in Julianne's lap and begs for a story. Julianne's mind feels too full of stories—dark and depressing things that crop up whenever she thinks of what Mo must be going through. If she could just be there with him, even if it means getting hurt…. She just needs to know if he's still alive.
"I've got a story," Jaime says. Roxane's head is pillowed on his thigh, her dark hair spilling across the dirty white material of his trousers. "Your ma told it to me when she was still pregnant with you, Dee." Dustin gives a beaming grin despite how tired he must be. "Do you want to hear it?"
"I love Ma's stories," Dustin says. Julianne shares a smile with Jaime, nuzzling her cheek against her son's head. There's smudges of dirt on his cheeks and he's certainly smelled better, but there's still a trace of lavender at the crown of his head, that certifiably wonderful smell of baby.
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort…."
In the end, it's Farid that brings news of Mo and not Gecko's trained crows. He shows up early on that second day, shivering with snow caught in his dark curls. He tells them of Piper's expected violence, of animals made of fire to keep Mo safe, and Violante's plan to take Mo to her mother's castle.
"Her mother's castle," Elinor asks. "Violante's mother is dead, so what good's that castle?" Julianne doesn't remember hearing much about the Castle in the Lake, a few ghost stories that don't hold much truth.
"It's where her mother grew up," Farid shrugs. His fingers are playing with a pouch hanging from his belt and he's wearing a sulking frown that he usually adopts whenever Dustfinger sends him away. "Dustfinger's going with them."
"There are many songs about that castle," Prince says. He looks uneasy at the prospect, scratching his fingers over his close-trimmed beard. Beside him, Gecko looks just as uncomfortable.
"Dark songs," he adds. The magpie is on his shoulder again, a skinny thing that keeps its gaze focused on Meggie. Julianne had a nightmare about that bird last night and she woke up to find a handful of black feathers littering her bedroll.
"Don't be so dramatic," Fenoglio says, waving off their worry. "Those songs are just fanciful nonsense. The Castle in the Lake was abandoned long ago, so people fill it with stories, but that's all they are. "
"How reassuring," Elinor snaps. Fenoglio scowls and slouches in his spot by the fire. "Do you actually remember its history or are you guessing again?" His cheeks are ruddy with embarrassment rather than wine, lips twisting into a more severe frown.
"It was background scenery in my story. Read my book if you want to know more about it! That is if Dustfinger ever lets go of it! I get why he needed to take it from Orpheus, but he should have returned it to me."
"That copy never belonged to you," Julianne murmurs, ignoring his glare. The truth is that Dustfinger had given the book to Resa shortly after Mo was taken, entrusting it back with its original owners rather than the hands of Fenoglio. She's seen Resa flipping through it on some nights, hers and Meggie's heads bent together as they read silently.
Meggie pulls the book out when Fenoglio sulks back behind his wall of stones, moving slightly away from the fire and bending over the pages. Farid looks over at Julianne and she gives him a wink that makes him blush clear up to his ears before ducking his head and shuffling over to Meggie. He kneels down in front of her, the pair talking quietly for a few minutes until Doria interrupts. The Strong Man's little brother is slight and tall, as pale as Farid is dark, but he has a charming effect on Meggie. Farid comes to sit next to Julianne, a frown pulling at his lips.
"I don't like that other boy," he says, jerking his chin in Doria's direction. "He looks at Meggie too often."
"You're jealous, dear," Julianne informs him. "She's attempting to move on because she thinks you don't like her anymore."
"I kiss her when I see her." Julianne raises a brow and Farid's frown deepens. "What can I do to prove that I still love her? I've just been so busy working for Orpheus and now that Dustfinger's back—"
"Put in more effort to see her." He squawks and drops his shoulders, hunched over his knees. "How's your singing voice?" It's his turn to raise a brow this time and she grins. "I happen to know that she adores the Jonas Brothers and I also happen to know that my iPod still has a little juice left in it. Serenade her ass and make her feel special."
"I would feel like an ass."
"Yeah, but it has the possibility of being romantic. You wanna try it?" He shrugs as if to ask what dignity he has left to lose, leaning over to watch her scroll through her song list. The iPod's battery is bright red, but she's got the screen dimmed and this is the first time she's turned it on in four months.
"That one? Really?"
"Yo, who wants to be entertained," she hollers, getting everyone's attention. The cave's occupants turn to look at her and she's suddenly glad that there are very few shy bones in her body. Once you sing in front of the guy who wants nothing more than to murder you, you tend to realize that performing in front of normal people is easy-peasy. "Go get 'em, tiger."
"I hate you."
"You love me, fucker." Farid stands and she presses play, cackling as he begins to sing along haltingly. He moves past the gathered people, pulling Meggie up with him so they can dance together. She laughs for the first time since before Mo's capture and Julianne's heart begins to melt at the sight of these kids being so happy together.
"I'm a sucker for you," he sings, off-key but energetic. "You say the word and I'll go anywhere blindly! I'm a sucker for you, yeah! Any road you take, you know that you'll find me. I'm a sucker for all the subliminal things no one knows about you, about you, and you're making the typical me break my typical rules! It's true, I'm a sucker for you! I'm a sucker for you!"
She makes a note to tell her father that the Jonas Brothers can heal relationships.