Disclaimer time!
*The Labyrinth and it's natives are the property of Henson Productions. Stephan and Lucas, as always, to their listian creators with my eternal gratitude and hope that I have not misused them. Oberon to the plays of Shakespeare. Wonderland and Oz, to Caroll and Baum, of course, and the Hobgoblin has been taken from The Snow Queen, and old fairytale on Alexa's recommended reading list. There's also a teeny bit of a song in here (in A Herald in Passage, I forgot to credit Soft Cell for Tainted Love), Spandu Ballet (hope I got that right) released True. It's just a bit of the chorus, but credit where it's due.*
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"Blast!" shouted, Aeris, picking up the little jar of frozen paint on the table and winding up to toss it into the flames of the fireplace. She thought better of it and put it back down. It would probably be useless to her even if it did thaw out, but she supposed cleaning up the mess wasn't going to make her happier. She brooded over her paints…winter in her part of the Labyrinth…how insane. She shook her head, touching the solid blue medium.
The Underground took winter in different ways. In the Fae, on the eastern edge of the Labyrinth, winter came with snow and frozen streams, the little faeries delighting in the chance to ice skate. In the Fey, its twin kingdom on the western edge, the weather grew warmer, melting snowmen and ice flowers. In Wonderland, there were no seasons, except spring year round so the royalty could play croquet, but in Oz, the occasional snow flurry was never out of the question, nor the sudden appearance of fields of poppies. In the Labyrinth, it tended to actually become winter in some places and summer in others. The Bog of Eternal Stench froze, but still reeked. The heat was so unbearable in the forests that even the crazy Fireys wouldn't be out. In the surrounding area of Aeris' cottage, it had snowed unexpectedly, resulting in solid paint. Yet she had a feeling this was somehow different than a little unscheduled snow.
A knock at the door startled her. She hopped out of her chair, holding her shawl around her, and turned the knob, opening it slowly against the snowstorm outside. Jareth was standing there, his black cloak dark against the white backdrop of cold, snow-drenched forest that surrounded her house at the edge of the Labyrinth. The flakes whirled around him, the wind blowing his spiky, long hair, and fluttering his cloak around his boots. He cut an amazing figure in the storm, as arrogant and handsome as ever.
"Let me in, Aeris." His breath came out in a warm fog. "It's cold out here."
"Oh, sure, come in. Sorry."
He pulled off his cloak with all the ease and grace of a magician, and put it on a chair, then moved over to the fireplace. "Herald, there's business at the castle."
She sighed and glanced up at him, unable to keep the irritation out of her face of voice. "That's all? It's at least a hundred degrees below out here and you want to tell me there's business. No friendly visit for a cup of cocoa. No 'I was just wondering how you were doing, Herald.' Just, 'There's business at the castle.'"
He watched her with an amused smile playing over his lips. "Finished?"
"Yes. No. My paints are frozen, Jareth. I've spent all morning trying to get them to stay constant. Too close to the fire and they get watery. Too far and this." She held up a little jar of frozen red. "And there is apparently no happy medium. No pun intended. They just need that particular temperature...what we usually have. I guess now I know why the Heralds have always lived way out here. We're not supposed to get winter in these parts."
He chuckled at her. "Didn't your mother ever tell you anything? Of course that's why you live out here."
"Why do I always get the feeling everyone knows more about Heralds than me?"
"Because they do."
She gave him a hateful glare and picked up her green jar, heaving it into the fireplace. It narrowly missed hitting him, but he didn't move. "Feel better?"
"No," she snapped. "My aim is off."
He clucked his tongue at her, in sympathy or a mockery of it she couldn't tell. "Poor Herald, this hasn't been your day at all, has it? Can't be helped. You're needed at the castle. I wouldn't have come all the way out here if it wasn't important."
"What's the problem?"
"Well…Aeris, we are definitely not supposed to be having winter in your part of the Labyrinth. In fact," he said, not looking at her, "quite a few other places are having a similar problem. We need you to see what the problem is."
She shrugged. "That's all?"
"It's a little more than that. We've already got a suspicion. The Hobgoblin."
Memory struck her with potent force. "But…Lucas…when I was having the dreams, he gave his word not to interfere with the Hobgoblin's work if he would save me."
Jareth nodded solemnly, finally turning his face towards her, and she could read the dark, unsettled look in his eyes. "He did. My father should be entirely at power to stop this winter…but if it's the work of the Hobgoblin, then, well, we're finished. This is more than a winter, Aeris. The entire Labyrinth is freezing, as well as some parts of the Underground-even Wonderland."
Aeris felt the enormity of what he was saying for the first time, and not the last. She knew the Queen of Hearts was the keeper of the spring in Wonderland, and did so by sheer force of her indomitable will. It would take an amazing amount of power to cause snow there as well as in the Labyrinth.
"The goblins are all going to freeze to death," he continued. He had begun to tell his fears, and now they were spilling out of him. Had he even realized how worried he sounded, she wasn't sure he would have been able to stop. "The Underground is in total uproar. Stephen has been given a post over the Fey temporarily to try to keep order with the fairies there, but they're out of control, causing all kinds of chaos in protest. The dwarves have sent emissaries to my father insisting that he do something. We could go to war, Herald."
She let the edges of the shawl go, and it slipped off her shoulders as she went to him. She wasn't exactly sure how to comfort him, but wanted to. She knew how it was in the castle, where he was unable to portray any amount of uncertainty, lest he inspire it in the subjects. Aeris wasn't entirely surprised when a memory of the feelings she had known for Corwin swept her as she touched his shoulder. "It'll be fine, Jareth. I promise. We'll take care of it."
He straightened up, looked slightly offended, shrugging off her touch. "Of course," he said, obviously uncomfortable at having shown emotion, however minor. "But I…just hurry up and let's get back to the castle."
She nodded, keeping her eyes on him for a moment, and his locked with hers. No matter what he said, he was still worried, perhaps even frightened. The possibility of war so seldom crossed the minds of the majority of the Underground populace, especially in the Labyrinth, where the mental puzzles were stressed far above physical strength. But the dwarves were a different story, and she broke their gaze when that thought touched her, and went hurrying around to gather her things.
One of the ornate, enchanted winter carriages of Oberon's Fae waited for them outside. It was a sparkling silver in the snow swirling around, and the horses that stamped and steamed at the reigns were pure white. At the coachman's seat was a faery, tall and blue and obviously immune to the cold around him. He nodded to her, his icy eyes respectful, and though she appreciated the gesture, it served as an unconscious reminder of just what she was, and how important her job would be that day. She just hoped she would be able to see what they needed her to. Once inside, Jareth tapped the ceiling of the carriage, and the faery hitched the reigns. The horses neighed and trotted together, and they were on their way.
The old coach road through the forest was blanketed deep in snowdrifts, but the carriage cleared them easily. When Aeris looked out of the window, she saw the snow slipping away fast, too fast, beneath them. She realized they were no longer on the ground, and settled quickly back in her seat.
"You like it?" asked Jareth, smiling mysteriously across from her.
She took a deep breath, a delighted smile lighting her face. "This is amazing."
"Thank Oberon. Quite a marvelous contraption, if I say so myself."
"Jareth," she asked seizing the opportunity. "Why are you being nice to me today?"
He looked at her blankly for a moment, then shrugged. "I could be cruel if you preferred. But I don't want to upset you. It wouldn't exactly be in the best interest of the kingdom."
"I suppose not." Disappointed, for what reason she couldn't guess, she looked back out the window, watching the carriage wheels spinning above the snow.
"Aeris, I thought you understood me better by now."
She turned her eyes briefly back to him. "I'll never understand you at all, Jareth." She looked back outside into the snow, and heard him singing under his breath, a nuance he'd always had that was developing into a habit.
"I know this...much is...true," she heard him singing softly.
"Where do you get those songs? I've never heard them."
He smiled mysteriously at her. "I make them. Someday I'll take them to the Aboveground and slip them into dreams. And then those dreamers will teach them to everyone else."
She scoffed. "Songs indeed. That's not the talk of a king."
"That, my dear, is not the business of a Herald." But he sang no more, and she regretted her words. For all his outward sureness, she knew she had ruffled his feathers, and he didn't speak to her again until the carriage swept through the gates of the Goblin City.
Covered in snow, the usually tattered Goblin City was clean and sparkling, icicles hanging from the little houses. But the city was also dreadfully silent, and though she kept searching over the landscape, she saw no one. "Jareth," she said suddenly, looking at him.
His face was as dark and worried as it had been in her home. "There's not a single--"
"They're in the castle, the ones that could make it. Some of them couldn't. Aeris, this is bad."
She nodded soundlessly, her blue eyes wide an horrified as the city rolled by. It was bad. Very bad.
The throne room was something out of a nightmare. Goblins were everywhere, and this was limited territory for them, essential servants only. Lucas was standing by his throne, the dwarf before him sneering rebelliously.
"I'll not be swayed! It ends tomorrow, or we attack," Aeris heard the dwarf say over the deafening din of the goblins. He turned and exited, shoving her out of his way with a mighty heave on her legs.
"Excuse me," she said, narrowing her eyes and summoning up all the arrogance of Jareth's performance. She grabbed the little fellow by the shoulder.
His eyes met hers, and surprise came over his face. "Herald..."
"What is your name?" she thundered at him above the goblin noise, and the room stood still.
"Biggle," he answered uneasily.
"Hear me well. I serve the Goblin King before all the rest of the Underground. Warn your king that the destiny of his children will remain the secret of the future if he makes war. I'll not paint a killer's brood. And," she added, stooping down close to him, "Never, never show me such disrespect again. I should paint your death for you, for the injury you just committed alone. Now begone with you, Biggle, and come back with prettier manners."
The dwarf scurried out of the room, and Aeris stood, biting her lip uncertainly. "I hope I didn't make any more trouble," she told Lucas.
"It couldn't get worse," he answered, smiling tiredly. "Herald, do you think you can see what I need you to?"
She frowned. "I tried on the way, a little, but I didn't..."
And outside the window, the swirling snow caught her eyes, and through it she could see so much, the leering face of the Hobgoblin in everything. That face spoke to her.
"Ah, the little Herald. You're no match for me. I wouldn't go forgetting who saved you from Necrodemos." She saw images of him, pulling the cork from a bottle and pouring it into a cauldron. She saw white steam arising from it...clouds. "But you can tell them from me, that I think going to war is a simply splendid idea. Go on, wipe each other off the Underground. The better for me to return and take control. Oh, I forgot to mention. One of the unfortunate side effects is that your powers might be just a tad bit weakened. Enjoy the poison in the clouds, my dear!" And the scene dimmed, then blinked out altogether, no matter how hard she tried to hold it. Lucas startled her, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Herald?"
"Poison in the clouds," she said in response, and then she gasped, coming back to life. "It's the Hobgoblin. He did something in...He said there was poison in the clouds." She looked out the window again, but the snow was just snow, and there were no secrets in it. "But...He wanted me to see that. I can't..." She raised her palms up helplessly.
The Goblin King nodded understandingly. "You'll have to paint the answer then, Aeris."
"My paints...they're frozen."
Lucas dropped into his throne, and put one gloved hand to his face, massaging his temples.
"I'm sorry," she stammered. "I don't know..."
Jareth grabbed her arm. "Let's go," he hissed in her ear.
"Where?"
But he didn't answer, only dragged her out of the room where his father still sat. "Aeris," he told her, pulling her along through corridors lined with goblins, "I believe there's a reason you're having trouble."
"Yeah, I can't see it on my own and I can't paint, what were you missing?"
"There's a reason you can't."
"Oh really?"
"If you're sure this is the work of the Hobgoblin, then we can also assume that he's trying to stop you, and is technically allowed to do so, since you're trying to help my father, who is oathbound not to interfere."
She stopped short in the hallway. "What can we do?"
"Aeris, come along." He motioned her forward, and she suddenly knew where the were going.
At the top of a small flight of stairs, he opened the door to the Escher Room. The enchanted space had its own power, and barred all interference. If the laws of the universe were bent in the Underground, they were completely broken in the Escher Room.
Built long before the castle, it was once a cube with no doors or windows, seemingly solid, that fit in the palm of a human hand. Passed through generations of the Goblin King's line, the architect Farin had been ordered to include the Escher Room in the plans somehow when the castle was built more than six centuries of Aboveground time before. Farin was remembered for his clever design, with its magical doors all around the castle that lead into the room.
She smiled at Jareth. "You have some kind of plan?"
"No, not exactly. That's your job. You're going to find out how the Hobgoblin did this, and how to fix it." He started to slip out of the room. Her smile fell into a straight line across her face. "And just where are you going?"
"I--"
"Oh, no. You stay. Sit down, keep quiet, don't do any magic or distract me."
"So why do I have to--"
"Keep the Herald happy," she said, closing the door and blocking his retreat. He shrugged his acceptance. Hours dragged by. Jareth kept as still as he could, watching Aeris. She was sitting on the lip of the round opening in the floor of the room, dangling her legs in midair. Sometimes she would change position, but always come back to that one. It was frustrating.
No matter how unhappy he was, Aeris was twice that. Each time she sensed that feeling of reaching out and seeing, she would focus on it entirely, missing the picture her powers were trying to show. Finally, she stood up, walking over to Jareth.
"We're finished."
"Go back over there and think some more."
She shook her head. "I can't, Jareth. I don't know what to say."
Disgusted with her, he waved her away with his hand, then took out a crystal, gazing into it to see the throne room.
Shocked, she glared at him. "How did you do that?"
He glanced at her, annoyed. "It works from inside here, Aeris. I just can't see in from the outside. Actually works better, to tell the truth."
"Jareth," she said slowly, her hand touching the side of her head, where the long streak of white was. "Did...did you get any of that snow in your hair?"
"Of course. Didn't you? Aeris?"
She reached into her hair, feeling through it.. "Ow!"
Jareth stood up, concerned. "What is it?"
"This." She held out her hand to him. Her fingertip was bleeding, but more than that, he saw a white snowflake in her palm. One tiny point had pricked her.
"It should have melted."
"It's poisoned." She opened the door, and called to one of the goblins. "Dispose of this quickly please. Throw it outside or something."
"Clever girl."
She smiled at Jareth's comment. "I'd say so. Where was I?" She closed the door, and not two steps into the room, she had it. Aeris explained her idea in detail to Jareth. The Hobgoblin had used a cold poison, creating clouds and sending them to the Underground The poison was not without remedy, but it was only in Lucas's power.
"He's the only Underground resident with strong enough magic. You're much younger, and you're not king, or otherwise I'd include you. But here's what we can do. Let's use the Escher Room as an amplifier for your magic.
"Aeris," Jareth asked carefully. "Will it work?"
"I don't know. All I could see was the power in the room, and you...and I hope so."
"How long do we have?"
"The dwarves attack the sunrise after next," she said.
He nodded solemnly. "I'll try tomorrow night."
The next day was hectic. Labyrinth creatures were flocking to the castle, all of them driven out of their homes by the spread of the strange winter. Emissaries were also arriving from different lands, and Aeris found herself playing hostess to them all while Lucas attended to his subjects. As far as the Goblin King knew, his son was taking care of the emissaries, since Aeris and Jareth had agreed not to inform him of their plan. But Aeris had no idea where Jareth was; she had awakened that morning to find a note in gold ink on her bedside table asking her to fulfill his duties that day.
The thirteenth hour chimed twice before she had a moment to herself, and she ran upstairs and slammed the door to the guest room she occupied. "That blasted rabbit!" she was muttering to herself hotly, her anxious day almost forgotten amidst her anger with the Wonderland emissary, a nervous white rabbit who had done little else but whine since he had entered the castle gates.
"Aeris," said a voice in the room, and Jareth was there, leaning against the wall. He held a crystal in his hand, larger than normal, with a different glow to it...sort of pink. "Look outside," he told her.
She moved to look out the window. The snow was still falling, not the storm of the previous day, but light, almost harmless flakes.
Harmless.
The castle was covered in the stuff, and much of the goblin city was crumbling under the weight. Through the darkness, though, she could see the tiny twinkle of lights in the distance. Fires. Enough for an army. She glanced at Jareth, and he read the question in her eyes.
"They're on the edge of the Labyrinth, marched in today. My father has begun to ready what little we have left in the way of troops. It must be done. Quickly."
"That's not yours," she said, nodding at the crystal in his hand. She found herself staring at it, looking deep into the color. She moved forward, the thought of touching it on her mind.
"No, it's not. But it will be." Jareth's voice broke the spell, and she realized who that crystal belonged to.
She gasped. "Your father's--"
He put a hand to her lips. "Sh. Aeris, I..." Then he kissed her gently where his fingertips had been. It would have been a strange gesture any other time, but there, with danger so close, it took on a new quality. Aeris closed her eyes, and felt all the things in the kiss...there were so many things he couldn't say, and this was all he knew, action in place of communication. No, he didn't love her, she knew he knew that now for certain as she sensed the change from the brief, confused kiss they'd shared once. His love for the woman she'd painted was true. But she felt something there. Friendship. Thanks. Good things that he never would have been able to find the words for, and something so deep he could only think of one way to tell it. She broke the kiss with that and stepped back from him.
"I understand. It's time."
The went to the Escher Room silently, a dark sort of purpose settling on both of them. Aeris felt it like a band of steel around her chest. The air around her seemed too heavy, her breath labored. She looked at Jareth. His handsome face was set and hard, and his mismatched eyes stared straight ahead as they made their way though the halls. But she saw his hand holding tight to the large crystal.
Inside the stairway-filled room, she watched Jareth take a few deep breaths and walk towards the center of the room. "Aeris, show the outside."
"What?"
"Here," he said, pointing to the opening. "Show it here."
She frowned at him. "You know I can't."
"I know no such thing. Do it."
Aeris moved hesitantly over and tried to concentrate on the outside picture in her mind, as she stared at the opening. She stopped and sighed. "It's hard enough to get a vision of real time, Jareth. I can't direct it."
He rolled his eyes and took her hand impatiently. "Think of it. We need a window."
This time she was surprised to see the picture of the snowfall outside the castle gates appear in the circle. Jareth released her hand and she found she could keep the illusion. "This is just wild."
"Escher Room qualities," he said. "We'll probably never know all the things it can do." He looked at her. "Aeris, I'm going to start. I want you to stand back, but keep that image going."
She did as told, taking a seat on a step, watching him. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the crystal. It began to glow bright in his hand. But nothing more. And in her winter window nothing changed, and as the night wore on, she thought she could see the first daylight rising. She bit her lip and hugged her knees to her chest. Outside the Escher Room, she could hear the sounds of the troops preparing.
"Come on, Jareth," she caught herself whispering quietly.
And then, the light grew brighter, and brighter. She knew Jareth had hit on what he wanted, and was now directing the crystal with a will. And in her window, the snowfall ceased, and she thought she could see just a single star through the clouds. A shriek and a blast of wind changed everything. The crystal was blown from Jareth's hand, sent bouncing over the stairs, up and down, paying no heed to any kind of law of movement. Aeris looked up. The Hobgoblin was standing across the circle from Jareth.
"Aeris, get the crystal!" he shouted to her.
"I think not," the Hobgoblin said, and to her absolute horror, his big black-green body began to chase after it. She ran to intercept, hoping she didn't display any of the characteristic clumsiness that usually lost every race for her.
He almost touched the crystal. She leaped, feeling herself slam into him and the stone stairs. He was hanging off the side when she opened her eyes. One of his claw-like hands was grasping for the crystal, which was bouncing teasingly on one step. Aeris narrowed her eyes, and put one foot out, about to kick him off the edge.
"No gratitude from the wicked," said the Hobgoblin.
"None for them." She smashed her shoe into his face, and he went scrabbling off the side.
She put her hand on the crystal. "Jareth," she said, turning to throw it to him.
"Give it to me," said the Hobgoblin, suddenly appearing on the side of the stairs again. His large wings were flapping behind him, bat wings.
She screamed, scooting away from him.
"Aeris, throw it!" Jareth called.
"Give it to me," the Hobgoblin insisted, leaning closer, his eyes coloring with a dangerous yellow light. It was hypnotic. Aeris found herself staring into them...her arm, set for a pitch, relaxing.
"No! Aeris! You...You clumsy little fool, even if you did throw it you'd probably miss! I'm sorry I ever kissed you!"
She blinked once, glanced at Jareth standing over the opening. "You bastard!" she shouted, hurling the crystal at him with all her might, her temper thinking for her.
He caught it neatly in his hand, and the crystal's light was blinding in seconds. The Hobgoblin's screams were drowned out by a rush of warm air, and in the winter window, the clouds cleared to the first rays of dawn. The light took up the entire room, drowning everything in the glow. The Hobgoblin vanished.
"Aeris?"
She looked around. She stood in the pink light with Jareth. The Escher Room was gone.
"Did we do it?"
"Yes." He smiled at her. "Are you still angry?"
"Yes." The light was fading around them slowly, and she could see the stairs again. He was moving away from her, as the illusion that was the Escher Room remade itself. She was back on the steps where she had fought the Hobgoblin, and he was back at the lip of the opening in the floor. She marched down and past him, and out the door, not looking back.
"I'm not sorry I kissed you," he said softly, his voice lost in the echo of the slamming door.
Disaster averted, the dwarves and emissaries left the castle, and the task of rebuilding the Goblin City amidst the melted snow began.
"I'm not going to ask how," said Lucas, watching the workers from a window. He turned back. Aeris and Jareth were standing in front of him, his harsh gaze making a blush creep up on Aeris' face, but Jareth bore it well, meeting his father's eyes. "I don't really think I want to know. I have a feeling there was more danger involved that I would have liked. The kingdom's thanks, to both of you...and my reminder. Never again." He turned back to watch the goblins at work. "And Jareth?" Lucas called over his shoulder.
"Yes?"
"I have a missing crystal. I'd like to see it right back in it's place before noon."
"Yes, sire."
"Your brother's carriage approaches. Go and meet him."
They raced down to the gates together, thankful to be free of Lucas' stern lecture. Stephan looked none the worse for wear. Trying to keep order with the fairies would have worn anyone down, much less a seventeen-year-old, but he was smiling cheerfully, and gave Aeris a wink.
"Anything exciting happen?"
Aeris shook her head. "Nothing unusual."
His smile fell. "Rats. I always miss everything."
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Hope you enjoyed it!
Believe in me,
Alexa