Chapter Thirteen
Monday before Thanksgiving
I really hate Mondays.
Sarah trudged back to her apartment in the pouring rain, the collar of her coat pulled up over her head and poor Tippy shivering inside it near her chest. Her collapsible umbrella had picked today to disintegrate when she pulled it out of her book bag. There had been a power failure in her apartment building, which made her miss her alarm, which in turn made her late for her Poli Sci class. Worse, some idiot on a skateboard had plowed into her, knocking her Styrofoam cup of coffee out of her hand, and spraying her with its contents. Then, after whiling away an hour at the library, she'd walked all the way to her Creative Writing class, only to see the sign posted that the class was cancelled for the day (this, after discovering that her umbrella was broken).
At first, she tried to feel Zen about it all. She'd just go back and spend some extra time in the library until her last class. Some sixth sense, however, told her to go check her last classroom before heading to the library and, sure enough, that class was cancelled too.
Why the hell can't they let us know ahead of time? I could have been home an hour ago and wouldn't have had to walk all the way over here in the rain, dammit!
The rain was ice cold, trickling into her pulled up collar and thoroughly wetting her shirt. Just as she was moaning her misery to herself, some jackass drove by at a high rate of speed, sending the water in the street gutter over her in a wave. She stood there, dripping wet, fighting the urge to scream, "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" for the world and the skies to hear.
By the time she put her key in her door, she had worked herself up into quite an internal tantrum. She stepped inside and stopped short. Randel and Garthan were in her apartment. IN. HER. APARTMENT.
"What the hell, Randel?" she shouted, her anger making her voice pitch higher than usual. Tippy scampered away to hide under her bed.
It was Garthan who answered her, "Milady, the King ordered us to…"
Sarah saw red. All the little indignities of the day cascaded over her in a wave, with this being the final insult. "I don't give a rat's ass WHAT His Majesty ordered! This is MY HOME! You don't just come into MY HOME without asking me first! EVER!" she roared. "OUT! Get OUT! Right now! Right the FUCK now!"
The blazing fury in her voice was tangible as it rose ever higher and grew ever louder. Both men bowed to her quickly and disappeared.
"I don't know, Jareth. We didn't even get a chance to explain. She was absolutely furious," said Garthan, as he took a drink of his brandy. His King groaned softly and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Surely, she understands that we are just trying to protect her. Why would she be so angry?" added Randel.
"I'll tell you why," said a melodious, feminine voice. Garthan turned to see his wife standing in the doorway. She walked forward, giving them all reproachful looks. "You didn't ask permission. You just went into her home, her private space, without asking her consent to do so. Of course she was angry." She came to stand with the three of them by Jareth's liquor cabinet. "Any woman would be upset to find two men in her rooms that she didn't invite."
Garthan scoffed at this, "We mean her no harm, she knows this." Women, he thought. I have never understood them, and even after all these years of being bonded, I still don't understand them.
The look his wife turned on him made him feel as if he were an imbecile. "Garthan, you may not have meant any harm, and she may well understand that, but the fact remains… you invaded her personal space without even asking her. Think about it for a moment. What else can a man violate without asking?"
His blood turned cold. He gave her a look of horror, as did Jareth and Randel. "Lily…we would NEVER…"
"I know that" she said, her usual soft voice getting a bit heated. "You know that. She does NOT know that. Doing what you did made her feel violated. Do you understand? I would have felt the same way if I'd gone into our chambers and found two men that I didn't invite mucking around in there, no matter how good their intentions were." She looked around at all of them, sternly. "The real problem is what she's going to do about it. We'd better hope that her anger cools and she will allow us to approach her again."
"She's a human. What do you think she can do to us?" Garthan said, rather dismissively. He watched in shock as his lady's soft, gentle countenance grew fierce and angry, angrier than he had ever seen it in a century of being life-bonded. Her eyes were afire with rage, sparks of wrathful magic coming off her in red, incandescent waves. All three men took a step back from her in an instinctive response.
"She can ban you! She can ban all of us! Forever!" she said, her voice hot with fury.
Garthan tried a soothing tone to his voice, "Now, Lily, surely that's an exaggeration. She couldn't…" Before his eyes, Lily's anger escalated.
"SHE BANNED OUR KING!" she returned, the fury in her voice burning even hotter. "Don't you tell me what she could or couldn't do! She's managed to ban the most powerful being in the Underground from coming anywhere near her for the last five years! With just a few words! What the hell do you think she can do when she gets really angry?"
He glanced at the other two men, who returned equally uneasy looks. She has a point, Garthan thought. Gah, I really am an imbecile...
Her voice now deadly calm (which was somehow even more frightening in Garthan's opinion), Lily continued, "We interact with her at her sufferance. Push her past the point of no return, and she might well decide that she wants no part of ANY residents from Underground. Which means she could sever contact with us, the Ughlánas and even her friends, should she so choose."
Garthan felt a swell of apprehension bubble up inside him. Jareth looked like he wanted to be sick.
Randel asked meekly, "What do we do?"
Her reply was as cool and sharp as a razor as she looked them over, "You will return to her. You will appear outside of her residence, and you will knock on her door like any other civilized person. You will apologize, on behalf of yourselves, the King, and this kingdom." She turned to glare menacingly at Garthan. "Apologize profusely. Grovel, even. You will promise that such an offense will NEVER happen again and beg for her forgiveness. Am I clear on this? Is there any part of this for which you lack understanding?"
Thoroughly chastened, all three men shook their heads silently. "Best you get to it, then." Giving one last glare to Garthan, she moved toward the chamber door. "You, husband, may return to our chambers when Sarah has accepted your apology, and not before."
With that, she exited the room, slamming the door behind her, leaving three stunned and utterly castigated men gaping in her wake.
The knock on her door, when it came, wasn't exactly surprising. Once she got over her anger at their trespassing, Sarah had time to think about why they were in her apartment in the first place. Clearly, Jareth was concerned for her safety, what with the war and all, and she appreciated it, but he really needed to think things through before just charging on. She would have allowed them to do whatever they needed to if they'd only asked. She had a feeling that they'd figure that out for themselves and try a more polite approach. Here it was.
She opened the door to see two very contrite Othánas men standing in the hallway.
"Lady Sarah," said Randel. "We humbly apologize, for ourselves, for our King and for the Goblin Kingdom, for offending you so."
Garthan spoke up, "In our zeal to protect you, we risked the ire of our King by abandoning any semblance of courtesy and manners. For that, I must beg your pardon. Further, I assure you that such an offense will never, ever happen again."
Sarah stood aside so they could enter the apartment. They did so, coming no farther than the foyer. The Ughlánas playing on the floor stopped and looked at them solemnly. "Please, have a seat." Sarah motioned to the couch. "Would you care for anything to drink?"
"Thank you, but no," said Randel as they sat down. "We would… like to perform the warding and let you have your privacy."
"May I ask, what does this warding do?" inquired Sarah.
"The closest Aboveground example might be what you call a 'home security alarm'. It will sense any hostile entity that attempts to enter your dwelling and will notify the Ughlánas that they are needed," said Garthan. "Anyone who thinks to come at you here will be facing two score of angry Ughlánas warriors within, and a host of Othánas without."
"Does this work on humans, too? I'd hate for the maintenance man to get shredded just for doing his job," said Sarah.
Randel laughed, "It will sense the entry, yes, but there is always at least one Ughlánas here, who can give the 'all clear' if the entry is innocuous, especially if they are forewarned."
"It's not like a camera or anything, is it? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea of being watched from afar." The reference to Jareth possibly scrying her didn't go unnoticed by the men.
"I assure you, His Majesty has set no such surveillance on you, knowing that you would not welcome it. It is something of a magical presence detector and alarm, nothing more," said Garthan.
Sarah looked at both of them with a measuring glance, "Good, because I have to tell you, I would NOT be happy to find out that I'm being watched like that in my own home."
Randel leaned forward and said, "Sarah, His Majesty was adamant that your privacy was to be always respected, both by us and by himself. He was furious when he found out that we had… taken it upon ourselves to complete our task without asking your permission first."
Garthan snorted and glared at Randel, "Furious. If you want to experience furious, try sleeping on a narrow couch when you have a wife angry with you."
At Sarah's puzzled expression, Randel chuckled, "Oh, Lily was quite offended on your behalf. She banished him from their chamber until he came to apologize." Garthan had the grace to look properly remorseful while at the same time glaring daggers at Randel.
Huh… I had no idea that Garthan was married. I think I like this 'Lily' already…
Sarah smiled, "Well, I think that when you have two different cultures, like ours, there's bound to be… misunderstandings here and there. Your apologies are accepted."
Garthan nodded gratefully and rose to his feet. "Shall we begin, then?"
"Indeed," said Randel. "Sarah, this will not take long. I promise."
As they walked the perimeter of her apartment, she could see them moving their fingers in what looked like patterns. What looked like wisps of green magic floated from their fingers to the ceiling, then spread out. After a few minutes, the entire ceiling, floor, and all the walls were covered in a webbing of green magic. It glowed briefly, then vanished.
Garthan turned to Sarah and bowed, "Thank you, My Lady. Again, my apologies for my lack of manners."
Sarah nodded with a smile, "Of course."
With that, Garthan vanished. Randel chuckled, "He's off to tell Lily that you forgave him, so she'll let him back into their bed tonight."
"Well, I wish he would have stayed a moment longer… I wanted to apologize myself."
Randel's eyebrows went clear up into his hair. "Whatever for? We're the ones who offended you, not the other way around."
Sarah sighed, "Yeah, but I was a lot meaner about it than I should have been. I've had the day from hell, and when I came home and saw you guys, I got a little madder than it really deserved, especially when the King had already notified me that he was going to send you at some point." She looked at him sternly, "That's not to say I want you guys barging in on me like that, but… I overreacted. I'm sorry."
"Well, why don't we just put this whole episode behind us? Are you going to visit your family for the upcoming holiday? The Giving of Thanks?" said Randel.
"Thanksgiving," Sarah said, laughing. "Yes. I'm excited to go back and… see all my old haunts." She looked at him a little uncertainly, then took a deep breath to continue, "It's nice to relive pleasant memories by visiting certain places. Especially the Park." Randel nodded, waiting for her to continue. "Maybe if the King has some free time… he might want to revisit some of those memories," she said, looking down and blushing.
Understanding flashed across Randel's face. "Indeed, My Lady. He might." With a gallant bow, and a sly smile, he vanished.