She could feel the truth of his words when he had stood on her worktable; he had not forsaken her, though she realized now that she had forsaken him. The vow still held her, she knew that now, she couldn't easily kill him because of it, even if she had wanted to. However, if he was telling her the truth....
She threw another spell by him, to see if he would flinch, if he would run. He didn't. He still trusted her and maybe he even wanted her. He could kill her; she had been the one to forsake the vow, not him. She knew that now, she'd learned years ago the effect such a vow could have when one who was powerful in the arts made it. All these years she had thought he’d been the one to break the promise, but the truth now was that it had been her and she could see it. She was the one who had been living a lie, and the dreams had been her punishment.
She should never have made that vow, but back then she was in love and would do anything to keep him, so afraid of losing him as she was. Especially when she knew how her father had hated him.
"I... This isn't about you and Lelani," she said, "I have to do this, I don't have a choice anymore. Too many people have been killed, and there is too much blood on my hands. Even if I didn't kill them, I didn't stop it either. I can't go back there with you, Jareth, we have to fight, and one of us has to die."
I sat down. There wasn't anything else I could think of. Kill her? After just finding her? I couldn't!
"What is this all about, Alini? Tell me."
"I... I can't," she cried arms still up in a defensive posture, trying to cast another spell but unsure.
"I love you, Alini." I said softly. "Do you still love me?"
"Yes, dammit!" She swore, "That's why I let you in here, to make you pay for betraying my love, and now, now I find you haven't."
I nodded, "I suspect your father had a hand in that message you received," I growled, "He had his hand in quite a few things apparently."
I noticed she stiffened at that, and lowered her hands slightly.
Her father, yes, her father had lied to her about him. He'd not lied to her before or since that she knew of. Oh he'd tortured her, beat her, and done even worse things to her, but he'd always claimed to tell her the truth, and in a way for all that she hated him, she had honored him as her father because of blood, and because he had never lied to her. He had said he did the things he did, because he must, because of what would happen if he didn't. She had believed him because he had always been honest with her.
But now, now she suddenly knew he had lied to her then. He had lied to her about Jareth's feelings for Lelani, and had lied to her when he'd altered the letter. No one else could have done it, she could see that now. He'd used her, her despair, and her anger. If he'd lied to her about the most important thing in her life, why couldn't he have lied to her about other lesser things as well?
She closed her eyes a moment, blinking away tears that suddenly threatened to overwhelm her.
"Yes, my father. He's had his hand in more than a few things." She said and dropped her hands looking back at Jareth.
"I'm all that stands between you and Lelani and my father, Jareth. After me there is nothing else. They're in cells on the floor above. I swore to him that you would not go through that door as long as I lived. I have no more choices.... I’m sorry. So what are you going to do?"
I looked at her; she suddenly seemed to have shrunk in on herself. She looked defeated, she looked lost.
"Who was behind all of this?" I asked.
"My father of course," She spit. "Who else? He wants to run the kingdom, he hates the queen, poisoned her himself. He'll run it through Lelani. Even has plans to marry her, the bastard. He'll probably kill me eventually, he's killed everyone else."
I blinked, ears flattened. She sounded despondent.
There, she had said it; she had told someone everything she knew. She’d broken faith with her father by telling Jareth about his plans. She’d broken the oath he’d had her swear more than seven years ago. Yet, no lightning bolts crashed from the roof, nor did her heart stop beating. Why should it? He had broken faith with her when he had lied to get her oath. Vows of power only held when honored by both sides, they were immune to tricks and treachery, which is what made them so valuable and so deadly. So, just as her vow had no power over Jareth because she had broken it, her vow with her father held no power over her because he had betrayed it long ago.
He had lied to her once and she wondered how many more times he had? Suddenly she knew it had to be many more times. He'd ruined her life, without a care for her as long as it got him closer to what he wanted. Well, she'd ruined his plans now. Jareth would take care of that, she knew she could count on Jareth, she realized now that she should never have stopped. There was really only one thing left to do.
I saw the decision in her eyes and jumped her, hitting her hard I pinned her to the floor, changing back so I could grab her hands, holding them I lay on top of her,.
"Jareth, no, please, let me go. I must, I have to." She begged.
"Hush" I said and kissed her. She broke down then and started to cry, grabbing at me and pulling me close.
"I thought you hated me," She sobbed.
"I thought the same," I sighed. "But now that I know you don't, nothing else matters."
"But what about everything that's happened? My father? Lelani? The queen?"
"These things are our fault how?"
"Not your fault, my fault!"
"You think your father wouldn't have carried out his plan without you? You were just someone at hand he could use. That's all."
"But I can't go back, not after all this...."
"So what?" I growled, "We can go elsewhere, as long as I have you I don't really care where I live."
She looked up at me and sobbed again, smiling a little, "You mean that?"
I nodded, "Of course," I said, and I meant it. As long as I had Alini, I'd never forget who I was.
"What about all this?" She asked waving a hand at the room.
I thought about that, I had a duty to Lelani of course, and I'd take care of that. My oath was to do what I thought best. Well, everyone was about to see what I thought was best, and I was sure going to do it, whether they liked it or not.
I got to my feet and picked up my swords. "Take the barrier down over the door." I said softly sheathing one sword to give her a hand up.
She nodded and sat up on the floor. A moment later the barrier was gone.
Clint charged into the room with Tam on his heels. They looked at me as I stood there, sword in hand, with Alini sitting on the floor next to me looking downcast.
"Alini!" Clint gasped.
I nodded, "Yes."
"So she was the Mage up here?" Tam asked looking a bit surprised as well.
"Yes, she has been here doing the will of another for some time apparently."
Clint took a step forward, I raised the tip of my sword an inch and he stopped and looked at me.
"Just a moment, Clint. No one is going to be laying hands on Alini, and I'd hate to have my sister mad at me 'cause I beat up her mate. All of this, all of it, happened because I let someone come between her and me. I will never allow anyone to stand between us again as long as I shall live."
"But Lelani, the queen...." He said.
"Don't worry; we're going to deal with all of that."
"When?" he growled.
"Right now. I'm the queen’s champion, and I have the power to dispense the queen’s justice. So this is what you're all going to do...."
Then I told him. When I finished he took Sensu and went up to the next level.
I sheathed my other sword and helped Alini back to her feet from where she had been sitting.
"I guess this is goodbye then, Jareth," Tam said sadly.
I nodded, "I told you not to fall in love with me, as my heart already lay elsewhere."
She nodded looking a little downcast, "I know. Well, I'll survive," she smiled wanly. "Good luck."
"Just be sure to tell everyone who
was behind all of this. Now get upstairs and make sure that Clint is following orders."
She nodded and was gone. I turned to Alini.
"Let’s go, Hon."
She smiled and sniffed a bit, still as beautiful as I remembered her. "This way," she pulled me over to a corner of the room, "it will get us out of here unseen."
I nodded and followed her out; pausing just long enough to make sure that only four sets of boots came down the stairs, not five. I thought I heard a familiar voice shouting curses from above. I could only hope so.
Her escape tunnel brought us out among the rocks and trees well away from the tower. I could hear the sounds of my troops as they mustered and left the area. I thought I heard my name once or twice, but Clint’s stern orders got them moving.
Watching the tower start to burn as we made our way carefully out of the valley caused a number of feelings to run through me. I wanted to see him die, I wanted to watch him burn, I wanted to hear him scream and suffer. Alini had assured me that the cell was strong enough to hold him; it had to be, to make it look good for his rescuers. Still I had my doubts; he was a resourceful bastard after all. But word would spread of his treachery, of that, I was sure, so even if he did manage to survive, that alone would do more damage to him than the fire ever could.
However, I couldn’t be the one to do it; Alini had promised her father to stop me there at all costs; and so she had, I thought smiling to myself. Just not at the cost he had planned.
I had been ordered by the queen, and had promised her, to do what I thought was best, and I had done that as well. Clint, Sensu, and Tam I had been told to save the princess and no one else, to touch nothing else, and to leave immediately. Because that had been our orders, to save the princess and return home immediately, I didn’t even have to tell anyone to torch the buildings. I had told everyone to do that before we’d even started. Neither Alini nor I would be directly responsible for his death, just his discovery and the exposure of his plans. If the torching of the compound included the tower, well I guess that was better than his starving to death in there right?
Maybe I was splitting hairs and skirting the edges of meaning, playing word games, but such was the way Elantisfey had led his life, and such was the way he had honored his oaths and vows. I thought it was only fitting to apply that same standard to him as well. This way Alini didn’t violate her promises and the customs of her people. This way we would be free of him and his guilt, and the stain of his dishonor and his death if it came to pass.
And if it didn’t, well the truth of what he had done would still be known, as well as the depth of his crimes. She had killed no Elf or Shrean, she had been a party to the crimes committed, but only under duress, forced into a blood bound oath, and tortured as bad as any of the others. She might not be the innocent she once was, but neither had she gone so far down the other path as to be lost to it. I was sure of that, otherwise how could I still love her?
Northridge
Fall was in the air as we finally made it back. The hardest part had been making it to a port town from the mountain keep. I didn’t want to go back the way I had come in, I didn’t want to run into any of my troops, and the other major route had held the king’s army. Not a great choice either right now. Therefore, getting around all of that and the fleeing stragglers of Elantisfey’s forces took us more than a month. Finding and booking passage on a ship to Portsmith took a few weeks more as well, however we spent that time in a rather nice little inn getting reacquainted with each other.
Some days we even left our room.
In Portsmith, we overheard from the crew of one of the elven ships in port that the queen had died shortly after Lelani had been brought back safe. Apparently, the story of Elantisfey's treachery had made it back as well and the Elves from the ship spun the story at least twice within my hearing while Alini and I relaxed unseen in a corner of a bar. I smiled as my name came up in the tale; I liked the end part where I mysteriously vanished and all, the exiled hero disappearing until called on again someday. Poetic license was such a nice thing.
Nice to be on the good side of it again as well. Alini's name was left out of it completely, for which I silently thanked Tam and Clint.
The rest of the trip turned out to be much easier and more enjoyable than the trip on the way out had been. Not too many people wanted to cause problems for the regal looking elven woman in the long robes with the huge black panther following her around. Only at Midway did anyone realize what I was, which was nice. The captain in charge of the garrison there invited us both to dine with him the night we were there, and was not at all put out by my not shifting forms. Alini translated my responses for him when it was necessary and that satisfied him apparently. He was way too polite and well mannered to make an issue of it. I rather liked him.
I did change back when we got to Bartley's inn before the mountains; we ended up staying a week there because Bartley and his wife wanted to throw us a little celebration when they learned I was now married. Also we learned that there was a caravan traveling back to Northridge coming through there soon, the last of the season, and so we decided to wait and travel with them.
Northridge. I had told Alini about it and she thought it sounded like a good place to go. We'd see how we liked it, and settle down for a while. I felt we could always work for Clark if things got boring, I knew there wasn't a mage of Alini's caliber anywhere in town. Of course, I still had my stake I had to pick up from Hanson. That alone would see us well set up.
Alini had stopped to grab what remained of her father's gold when we had slipped out of the tower. Not that we really needed any of that to survive, but she was a very practical Elf and saw no reason to leave it behind. It helped as well.
However, we had each other now, and that was more than enough, though I did find I had to keep an eye on her at times. Her views on dealing with Humans were a bit rough and I'd had to rein her in more than once. Her time with her father had definitely given her a rather biased view towards Humans and at times, she could be downright cold. She was learning though and I could tell she always felt guilty about her behavior afterwards.
In time, I was sure she’d be more of the sweet Elf maiden I had fallen in love with, though of course when it came to dealing with Clark, I didn't bother to rein her in at all. It was just too much fun to watch. When I told Hanson about it, he couldn't stop laughing until his third mug of ale.
Life was looking good for the immediate future. We found a nice place on the edge of town, not too far from the Dwarves, where we could live in comfort, but not be hemmed in. I varied my work between helping the Dwarves, mostly Hanson, and doing special jobs for Clark. We didn’t really need to, but we enjoyed the challenges, neither one of us was really made for a life of leisure. Alini turned out to be quite good at dealing with the hardships of living in the field and always joined me on our little expeditions.
I’d come full circle, but this time I was happy to be here, and the future looked good. Maybe someday we’d return home, to the Elshavel Havens, when things had settled down and the wounds of the events had time to heal. Then again, maybe not, because the Elshavel Havens really weren’t home anymore, home was where ever Alini and I could be together.
END
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Urban/Modern Fantasy:
Portals of Infinity, Book One: Champion for Hire
William is just your typical engineer fresh out of college with a stressful job, a boring life, and not a lot of prospects of anything better in the future.
Until one weekend while hiking in the woods he stumbles across a portal to another time, or perhaps another place. The more he investigates this new world the more he realizes that it may just be able to offer him a lot more than the one he's been living in.
However, there are forces at work beyond anything that Will has ever come across before and the local goddess seems to have taken a liking to him. Will may soon find himself getting an offer he cannot afford to refuse.
Portals of Infinity, Book Two: The God Game
Will’s life has definitely changed since that day he went hiking in the woods of Pennsylvania. He’s discovered that reality is a lot bigger and stranger than he had ever imagined. Learning about the portals that link the infinite number of worlds opened his eyes to that wider reality. Learning that he was being groomed to become the Champion of a God in one of those realities was an even more startling discovery.
But now it’s time for him to pay the bill for his ‘recruitment’. Just as the Gods on a single world fight and jockey for power and position, the older Gods from the many different spheres of the infinite play a much larger and more complicated game. The Goddess Aryanna has a quest she needs completed, and William and four other Champions are the ones tasked to do it.
What bothers Will however is what could a Goddess possibly need? And why would it take five Champions to retrieve it?
Lost Souls Page 17
