Chapter 17
(Unexpected Realizations)
It was late as Jareth sat in a window looking out over his kingdom. It had been only three days since he'd seen Sarah but it felt like an eternity. He longed to see the dark haired girl. This was proving to be the longest week of his immortal existence.
"This is entirely your fault!"
Jareth turned to see his half brother looking less than pleased. It was then he noticed his skin looked…odd. "Pray tell what happened?" He asked. "Are you sick?"
"Sick? Am I sick He asks?"
"Your skin looks…"
"It was bright blue!" The prince said angrily.
Jareth's eyes widened as amusement began to sparkle in them. "A spell gone wrong?"
"A spell? A spell? No. No spell dear brother. Ari!"
"Arianna? Wait are you saying …"
"Yes Ari and your Sarah went on a prank spree and I ended up blue with white hair. Oh and father he ended up with Pink hair!"
Unable to stop himself the Goblin King smirked before starting to snicker and finally laugh.
"It's not funny!" Amador snapped. "You don't know what that girl is capable of!"
"You seem to have forgotten I have been looking over them for a time. I assure you I am quite aware of what Soren's daughter is capable of. Not to mention what she can talk everyone else into." Jareth assured the distraught man. "I'm somewhat surprised it wasn't worse."
"It was," The dark haired man informed him. "She and her little band locked our guards in a room in a taffy mess and taped their mouths shut with help from your little minions! Then they let chickens loose in the halls. We had chocolate poured on us; they greased the throne room with cooking oil. Oh and rigged water balloons to hit anyone that entered from the glass doors. Two of which hit my mother!"
"Has Soren been notified hi daughter is in the dungeon yet? I assume Sarah is as well?"
"Dungeon?" Jareth raised an eyebrow as his brother let out a frustrated growl. "Oh no she's not in the Dungeon. NO my mother thanked her for the entertainment!"
Jareth looked at him cocking his head and sighed. "What happened to them? I know your father didn't let your mother kill them."
"I'm serious Jareth. My mother adores Ari, Sarah and their human minions!" The High Prince pouted.
Jareth Blinked. Queen Dahlia wasn't angry, and liked Ari? The woman had threatened to personally take a whip to both him and Amador as children for a few of their pranks, and theirs were far less messy than what Amador had just described.
"You're serious," The Goblin King said baffled.
"After she dismissed Ari and her friends to get some rest she had the audacity to tell us to lighten up; she said we needed to look at it from Ari's point of view." The prince pouted and sat down on the other side of the window. "I don't care how pretty the girl is how is it no one can see how much trouble she causes?"
Jareth raised an eyebrow at his brother. Amador usually didn't notice beauty in a woman unless she was dolled up and impossible to miss. He knew for a fact the tomboy hadn't been dressing up.
"You think she's pretty?" The Goblin King said carefully.
"I realize your heart belongs to Sarah but surely even you can plainly see how beautiful she is," Amador replied sounding almost annoyed. "Even in those ridiculous basketball outfits she's…beautiful."
Jareth watched as realization began to dawn on the Fae prince. He found the tomboy beautiful not dressed up. A half smile crossed the face of the High Prince. "It was kind of funny to see father with bright pink hair and looking so undignified." The prince snickered and producing an orb allowed Jareth to see what had taken place.
The wild haired blonde King looked at his brother questioningly. "You can't use your crystals but I can show you anything I want." Accepting the man's logic Jareth accepted and watched the morning's events.
It was almost instant The Goblin King began to laugh. "You really were blue." Amador looked in the orb and chuckled. Even he hadn't fully realized just how blue he was. He could've easily hid among blueberry bushes and never be seen.
Amador felt a warmth he'd never felt before around his heart. He wondered if this was what Jareth felt every time he saw Sarah.
"How is Sarah?" Jareth asked as the orb went black ending the memory.
"I think she's confused," Amador admitted. "Part of her wants to believe you care about her but…she doesn't entirely trust you."
"No I doubt she does," Jareth admitted. "I'm sure Ari isn't exactly a supporter of mine either."
The dark haired prince shrugged. "She wants to protect Sarah. The whole prank thing was because she thought father was holding out on sending her friend's home."
"He still can't send them home?" Jareth inquired.
"No. Arium is supposed to arrive tomorrow to start teaching Sarah and Ari."
"Arium may find his most difficult student yet with Soren's daughter."
"Yes well I'm not going to warn him. I confess I'm somewhat curious to see how our ladies will fair with the Master teacher." Hearing a clack chime he looked at it. "I best get back before Mother calls." Slipping out of the window he instantly transformed into a falcon and flew away.
Jareth smirked. The king mildly wondered if his brother had even realized what he'd said. It seemed the Dark Elf Princess had caught Amador's attention without even trying.
Ari sat on a stone bench in the garden quietly looking up at the stars. Her friends were tired and she was sure all of them had turned in by now. The blonde woman heard a bird but paid it no attention.
"Deciding what entertainment you can provide tomorrow."
Ari smiled and looked back to see the High Queen. "No, not yet anyway."
Queen Dahlia smiled and approached her. "May I?"
"By all means," The new princess said and gestured to the unused portion of the bench. The Fae woman sat down and looked at the teenage girl. "Things must be very confusing for you."
"Not really. Just waiting to go home."
The Queen pressed her lips together trying not to frown. She knew the conversation she was about to begin would not be any easy one. "Ari I wanted to talk to you about…all of this."
"I won't let Jareth hurt Sarah."
"He won't. Jareth may not be my son but he and Amador were raised together. I do know him and…he does love her." The blonde woman went to speak but the queen was quicker. "Fae men don't always make the brightest decisions when it comes to women. I know you want to protect her but…He wants Sarah as his queen."
"Fae lie," Ari said and went to get up.
"Wait," The queen said and placed her hand on the girls arm stopping her. "I know your angry Arianna. Your friends may be part of it but it's not the dominating factor. Why do you detest the Underground?"
"I don't hate everything about the underground," Ari replied. "The goblins are awesome! I like Whippley and his friends a lot."
"So it's just Fae you don't like?" The queen inquired.
"Look Queen Dahlia…I don't know you. I can't judge what you're like but…I can't trust you either."
"I understand you figured out your Aunt was actually your grandmother," The High Queen replied. "Are you angry with her for lying?"
"My mother loved my father with all her heart. I read her diary I know how she felt. He left her."
"Ari there…"
"I don't want to hear it." Ari pulled away and started to walk away only to have the queen suddenly materialize in front of her.
"You're going to," She said firmly. "Your father loved your mother deeply. "He left her in the mortal realm safe. A war broke out and he had to fight. It was not the time to bring the woman he loved here and leave her in a strange place while he went to fight. As soon as he could he went back for your mother but she was gone."
The tomboy fell silent as the queen revealed things she hadn't known about.
"If you want to be angry then be angry with the person you should be angry with. Evelyn knew how dangerous it was for Brianna to have you in the mortal realm. She could've called to any of us and we would've brought your mother here and helped her deliver you. She died because mortal doctors don't understand that a fae child is different. The only reason Evelyn and your mother both survived her pregnancy was because Evelyn retained her immortality! Evelyn is to blame not Soren." Finished the Queen abruptly turned around and walked away.
Author's note: For those of you that are interested in learning where some of Ari's personality comes from take a look at my story Shalace. The main Character's name is Callista. It is also a humorous tale. I wrote most of it when the idea of Journey of two queens came to me. Thank you to all who read adds this story to Favs and Alerts and of course to my wonderful Reviewers. You rock!
