Chapter Twenty

Saturday Night, Last Week of April

"Have a look at this, Sarah," Lily said as he held out what looked to be a locket of some kind, about the size of a pocket watch. "This is a blood-oath talisman." Lily pushed a small lever and the locket opened. Instead of a picture inside, there was a blank piece of paper with a vertical line through it. "The way it works is that one person makes an oath, and pricks their thumb with this," she pointed out the sharp spike on the top of the locket. "They put their thumbprint in blood on the left side. When the oath is fulfilled, the person to whom the oath was made pricks their thumb and puts their thumbprint on the right, signifying that the oath is complete."

She then pricked her thumb, pressing it to the left side of the paper. "I give you my blood oath, that nothing we speak of here tonight shall ever be repeated outside of the two of us, without your permission, unless it is a matter of life or death."

Sarah looked at her in amazement, "Lily… you don't have to…"

"Yes, I do. I see those two bottles of wine. I don't know about you, but after a couple of glasses, my tongue is going to run away from me at breakneck speed. I want you to understand that anything we say tonight, anything we talk about, is strictly between the two of us. The consequences of breaking a blood oath are… extremely unpleasant. The trick here is that you will not execute your side of it. This way, you know that I will always keep your confidence." Lily handed her the locket. "Just put it in your jewelry box or something. No one could ever tamper with it, even if it gets misplaced."

Sarah took the locket and placed it in the jewelry box that sat on her vanity table. She had to admit to herself that it made her feel better, knowing that whatever girl talk they indulged in under a haze of wine during their 'Girls Night' wasn't going to be reported to Jareth and The Boys. The Ughlánas were at the castle for the night, except for Tippy, who was already asleep in Sarah's bed. Both women were relaxing in their pajamas, Sarah lounging in a pair of old flannels while Lily wore a delightful long sleeved pink sleep shirt and pants made of what looked to be soft cotton. She sat on Sarah's couch, legs folded beneath her, as she opened the first bottle of wine and began pouring.

"Just so you know, I also made sure the Othánas that watch over you are well outside of hearing range. I could just picture Garthan skulking outside your window to eavesdrop. Not that I blame him, really…he is a spymaster after all and its almost second nature. But tonight, he's relegated to the trees outside, on pain of another banishment to the couch."

Sarah laughed. She had a feeling that this was a punishment Garthan would move mountains to avoid. "So, Garthan is here too?"

"Oh yes. Not because he wants to listen in on you, I was only jesting about him eavesdropping. It's just that there is no way that he would want me to come Above unless he were to guard me personally."

Sarah looked at the rain pouring in sheets outside her window, "Oh, those poor guys. They're stuck in a tree in the rain while we're in here all toasty." Sarah had to admit that her opinion of Garthan had done a complete 180 in the last few weeks. Where before he had been an extremely intimidating, almost scary presence, the more time she spent with him the more she saw just how much he cared about his wife and son, his king and his people. He was just naturally reserved, and now that they both felt more comfortable with each other, she saw the flashes of humor and sarcasm he'd fling out. She came in for her own portion of his teasing now, as if he saw her as part of their inner circle of comrades. It felt nice, especially considering he was one of Jareth's closest friends. It also didn't hurt that he was head over heels in love with his wife and didn't care who knew it.

"So how did you two meet?"

Lily took a sip from her newly filled glass. "Othánas primarily find their life-mates close to home, but sometimes there aren't many eligible males available locally. In that case, unbonded girls are given the option of being kitted out with some finery and sent to Caladh for the Spring Equinox festivities." At Sarah's puzzled look, she continued, "Caladh is the name of our capital city. It means "Haven". I was sent there with some other girls to mix and mingle and hunt for a husband. Who knows? Perhaps one of us might even catch ourselves a king."

"You mean Jareth?"

Lily nodded. "Oh, we all knew it was a long shot. The main thing was that there would be a plethora of men to pick from, even if the King wasn't interested. It was done to give us girls a better chance to find a suitable mate than if we stayed home. If it happened to be the King, so much the better, but we weren't expected to win him."

"So, what happened? You and Jareth didn't like each other?"

"I hadn't even met him before it was out of my hands," Lily said, laughing. "I arrived at the castle with my group rather late in the evening, so we wouldn't get presented to the King until the next day. We were invited to take part in a hunt the following morning, and as I love riding horses, I was excited. I was at the stables waiting for my mount to be brought out, when I noticed a gentleman on horseback staring at me." Lily chuckled and sipped her wine. "It felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. I literally forgot to breathe. After I remembered to inhale, I realized that he was still staring at me. He didn't even smile. I might have kept standing there like a plank of wood if my friend hadn't nudged me to mount my horse."

"It was Garthan?"

"Yes, although I had no idea who he was at the time. I could still feel his eyes on me as we rode out. I didn't even care that the King had joined us. He gave us all a polite nod, but for the most part rode with his gentlemen."

Sarah frowned, "I would have thought Jareth would at least try and socialize a bit. After all, you guys were there as a potential queen for him. The least he could do is chat you up."

Lily shrugged delicately, "Perhaps. I think honestly, he was weary of the whole thing. He had long since ceased to view these occasions as 'fun' and instead thought them to be tedious, although it must be said that he was always kind." Lily took a sip of wine, "At any rate, I don't know how long we were riding for when they came upon the trail of a boar. Wild boars are extremely dangerous. They're monstrous, vicious, and impervious to magic. They're not usually found in the royal hunting park. The King insisted that the ladies be taken back to the castle before they proceeded any farther. Garthan volunteered to escort us. I thought he would use the opportunity to talk to me, but no. He didn't even try." Lily chuckled and took another sip of wine. "He told me later that he didn't trust himself to put two words together coherently."

"But he seems so… I don't know… always in control of every situation."

Lily smiled, "Professionally, yes. Not when it comes to talking to a girl socially. After getting to know him better I realized that he was just shy when it came to women. You didn't hear that from me, though."

Well, how about that, thought Sarah, smiling inwardly. Smooth, unflappable, taciturn Garthan, too shy to talk to a girl. Who would have thought it?

"At any rate, I was about to start the conversation with him myself when a huge boar burst out of the trees. My horse was so startled that she threw me, and I looked up and could see the boar making to charge at me. I don't think I was ever so frightened in my life; I knew it was going to kill me."

"My God, what did you do?"

"I pulled my dagger," she said, laughing. "I figured if I was going to die, I'd at least stab it in the eye while it was killing me. Before the boar could reach me though, Garthan charged in on his horse between it and me. He practically flew off the back of the horse, rolled and swung his sword, all in one movement. Swords are not really effective with boars, spears are much better, but it's what he had to work with. I just lay there, watching in a daze as he darted in, sliced the boar and danced away, pausing only to throw a magical shield over me. He literally sliced that boar to ribbons before a spear came flying in and found its mark."

Lily took another sip of wine. "It was the King. He'd heard the boar squealing and rode in with the rest of the gentlemen. There was some back slapping and congratulations, then the men realized that I was still lying on the ground. The King suggested that Garthan take care of me while they prepared the boar carcass and brought it along with the other ladies back to the castle. I didn't know it at the time, but the King had noticed Garthan's interest in me earlier and thought he'd do a little matchmaking." Lily reached over for the wine bottle and refilled their glasses again. "As he walked over to me, he looked at the dagger I was still holding at the ready. He asked me if the dagger was for him or for the boar. I couldn't help it, I laughed. Nervous laughter, to be sure. That's when I saw him smile for the first time."

Lily sighed softly, "I can't explain what I felt then, the closest I can come to describing it is that I felt like I was… home. Like a piece of my soul that I didn't even know was missing had finally clicked into place." Lily looked down at her wine glass and swirled it around. "That's when we heart-bonded. He knew, as I did, that we were meant for each other. It only took him another two weeks before he presented me with his courting token." At this, Lily giggled, "He was so nervous that he couldn't even get the words out to ask me to accept it. I ended up taking pity on his inability to articulate and just kissed him as my answer."

"What is a courting token?" Sarah asked.

Lily shifted into a more comfortable position, casually draping one leg over the arm of the couch. "I am sure you have noticed that the males all wear special medallions." Sarah nodded. "Well, each medallion is basically a stylized version of their individual sigil which they create when they begin puberty. When an Othánas man is ready to present his courting token, he has a feminized version of his sigil made, to which is attached a pendant. The pendant symbolizes something that bonded the couple together." She lifted her own medallion. "You can see Garthan's sigil here," she said as she pointed to the goldwork at the top of the medallion. "The pendant is a tooth from the boar that attacked me. When I accepted the token and put it on, I was announcing to the world that he was mine and that we were going to be life-bonded."

"Like an engagement?"

"Precisely. We didn't really need a long courtship. I simply sent word to my family that I would be staying and that I had found a husband. They were quite happy for me."

"What about the wedding? Did you have that at the castle?"

"We don't have wedding ceremonies as such. Some of the other races Underground do, but for us, it's a private pledging. When they are ready, the couple makes a mutual wish that they will stay together for all time. The bond then becomes permanent and detectable by magic."

"So, how does it all work? Do you date before this 'heart bond'? Like humans do?"

"No, not before. When a couple meets for the first time, the males tend to know almost immediately if they've met a potential life-mate. It usually takes a little longer for the woman to feel the same. Once she does, a heart-bond is formed between them. I suppose the human equivalent would be that they have fallen in love with each other. At this stage, they spend more time together and begin to detect each other's aura and emotional scent. They will lose all interest in pursuing intimacy with anyone other than their chosen."

"Aura and emotional scent?"

Lily took a sip of her wine. "Each partner will notice the special, unique scent that their mate exudes. It's something only they can detect and is considered quite intoxicating. You could call it an olfactory manifestation of romantic love."

Cinnamon, spice, and magic, Sarah thought. That's Jareth's emotional scent… I just know it is. Does that mean he… loves me?

Lily continued, "The aura is visually made up of that partner's emotions, such as fear, annoyance, sadness, etcetera. As time goes on, the ability to read your mate's aura gets even stronger. Eventually, the partners can read each other's emotional state instantaneously, just by glancing at them."

"And this is all from a heart-bond? How is it any different from a life-bond?"

"The main differences are that it's not permanent yet, and only a life-bonded couple will produce children. Heart-bonds are extraordinarily strong, but they can be broken under certain circumstances. A life-bond cannot be."

Sarah chewed on this for a moment, "So, there is no divorce among the Othánas? No… infidelity?"

Lily shook her head. "Once bonded, the couple are literally incapable of intimacy with anyone but their life-mate. As for divorce, no. Life-bonds are just that. A bond for life. Sometimes the couple might not recognize their potential life-mate right away, but that's almost always because the woman was just too young at the time of their first meeting. It's not unknown for a male to leave his home village for a few years, come back and be heart-bonded to a girl he's known from birth, once she's old enough."

Sarah looked down at her wine glass. "What's the minimum age for a heart-bond?"

Lily frowned in thought, "I think the youngest that I personally know of would have been the equivalent of around 13 human years old."

Sarah looked up, eyes wide with shock, "They marry that young?"

"Oh, no. A life-bond requires adulthood. They can, however, enter formal courtship before then, and bond when they reach their majority." Lily cocked her head to the side, "Young humans enter romantic relationships before adulthood, do they not?"

"True. I guess I didn't realize it's sort of the same thing. Come to think of it, underage sex is a thing here, too."

Lily drank the last of the wine in her glass. "While I'm sure it's probably happened a time or two between young couples, intimacy with an underage partner is severely frowned upon by Othánas. It is seen as degeneracy, like the Fae would practice."

Sarah shook her head, "This is fascinating. It sort of excludes any kind of marriage of convenience, doesn't it?"

"It does. We don't exactly advertise our mating customs, so the King is always fending off marriage alliance proposals from other kingdoms or solicitations from noble Fae women." Lily snorted contemptuously, "They hate us, take every opportunity to disparage us, and yet behind the scenes, they try everything they can to seduce our men. The Fae women at the High Court are absolutely shameless. The unbonded Othánas find it almost a sport to sleep with them and see how many times they come back for more. They have running totals and wagers placed on them. Randel is the frontrunner among them at the moment. But as a potential life-mate? Fae are not capable of the life-bond, or at least it's never happened before in all our species' history."

"So, they'll take what is offered, but more or less treat them like whores?"

Lily laughed, "They are whores, Sarah. At least, the ones at the High Court are. They probably place wagers of their own." She sighed, then, "I feel pity for the King when he has to attend functions there. He absolutely hates it."

"So, he doesn't participate in the… sport?" Sarah said, while looking down at her wine glass.

"Oh, no. It's one thing for the other men to indulge, but for the King, it could have severe political ramifications if he dallied with one of the Fae. He also can't just turn them down flat; he has to couch it in flattery, so they don't get their feelings bruised and tell their papas to start a war with us. He once told me that it made his teeth hurt, having to fake so many smiles." Lily picked up the wine bottle and saw that it was empty, "Looks like we need to open another bottle."

"I'll get it." Sarah rose from the couch and headed to the kitchen. "I'm still surprised that Jareth has avoided getting married so far." She located the second bottle of wine and the corkscrew and returned to the couch. She made quick work of the cork and poured out more wine.

Lily shrugged, "It's not as if he can control it. A heart-bond either happens or it doesn't. If it doesn't, no amount of effort will change it. Without a heart-bond, there can be no life-bond, and without that, children cannot be conceived." She took a sip of her wine. "Besides, he didn't lack for company when he wanted it."

Sarah snorted, "I'll bet. He probably has to drive women away with a stick."

Lily burst into laughter, "Well, to be truthful, between building our kingdom, wars, negotiations, and diplomatic missions, not to mention the wished-aways, he really didn't have a lot of time to pursue any romantic relationships beyond something fleeting and casual. It's only been the last century or so that he's been able to turn his attention to other things." Her expression grew thoughtful. "Come to think of it, he hasn't indulged in any kind of dalliance amongst the Othánas in… oh, almost six years."

Almost six years, Sarah thought. Almost six years ago, I ran the Labyrinth.


Author's Notes:

The blood oath talisman is directly inspired by the John Wick movies. I can't remember what those debt lockets are called in the movie, but that's what I used for the talismans here.