The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) (11 page)

“You made the right choice, Raven,” Zelphie was saying.

“I know,” she said, her voice sounding much more normal now that she’d stopped crying so much. “But it will provide little benefit to me.”

I figured she was talking about Rafael loving her.

Zelphie confirmed my suspicions. “The heart can’t be ordered to feel what it doesn’t wish to feel,” she said in soft, dulcet tones. “But you can be at peace, knowing you made the right choice.”

“Saving Earth is little consolation,” Raven replied petulantly.

I figured she didn’t really mean it. I guess she was more of a brat than evil.

Jareth gave a loud groan as we reached the last step, and again, I felt the sucking sensation as I was transported to the other side of the portal.

But this time, we weren’t alone as we arrived at the mini Stonehenge.

In front of us stood the Queens of Avalon. The blonde-haired Queen of the Light clad in black and the raven-haired Queen of the Dark dressed in white. Jewels glinted in their elaborately-braided hair and blue lipstick sparkled on their lips.

Fierce looking Protectors surrounded us all. Their white-spotted leopards graced with sharp, pointed horns crouched by their sides. I didn’t like the way the leopards were looking at us, as though we were tasty two-legged snacks.

Not yet fully conscious, Jareth still managed to stagger a step forward, patting his pants as if searching for something. “Where’s my trion?” he asked, his words slightly slurred. “I’ll root them while you run, Rafael.”

Rafael just shook his head, amusement flashing in his eyes. “You can’t even stand,” he muttered under his breath, catching Jareth as he tripped.

Suddenly, the Light Queen raised a hand.

“
Dare you come here, Rafael?
” she thundered in a voice that made my heart stand still. “What words can you possibly utter that will stay my lips from ordering your execution on this very spot? You have shown nothing but disrespect for us and you have desecrated the Hall of Mirrors!”

I froze.

Slowly, Rafael stood to his full height. And then he said the last thing I ever would’ve expected him to say. “I order you to take me to your Hall of Mirrors. At once!”

Chapter Six - Fear

Jareth’s dark head snapped back and with a sardonic twist of his lip, he said, “Irony becomes you, Rafael.” His voice sounded unusually weak.

The Queens were anything but amused. Their blue-sparkled lips opened in shocked outrage to accuse in unison, “You speak as a traitor, Rafael.”

I wasn’t exactly fond of the Queens. The last time we’d met, they’d wanted to get rid of me. I couldn’t see any reason for their feelings to have changed. But for the moment, anyway, they seemed more concerned with Rafael.

“If you can’t see that I’ve never been a threat to you, then you are unworthy of the throne, my Queens,” Rafael replied with a scathing frown. “Avalon has never been in greater danger than now. So now, we must break the rules. We can’t let traditions blind us. I need—I
must
see the mirrors. Jareth’s fate lines dictate that I must track back through his fate. It is his only chance to survive. And I will do it, with or without your help.” He stood there, feet planted wide and his arms folded in defiance.

The Queens had wanted to execute us ever since we’d set foot in the forbidden Hall of Mirrors. It didn’t seem likely they’d willing help us enter the place a second time.

They both frowned.

But it was the way they did it that struck me.

It looked scripted. Call it a gut-feeling, but they suddenly appeared to be playing a game. And the facts certainly backed that up. They were Queens. If they’d wanted to kidnap me and exact some form of Fairy justice, there was no doubt they could have done it. Nothing could have stopped them from ordering a Fae Protector to zip down to Earth and bring me back. It wasn’t like I’d be able to resist, especially if they shape-shifted into Rafael. I’d probably be fooled long enough to willingly turn myself in before I’d realized my mistake.

I was jolted out of my reverie by the Queens themselves. “Perceptive,” they whispered in unison, their astute gaze giving me the shivers.

But I didn’t know what they meant by that. They could very well have been confirming the fact they could have easily kidnapped me if they’d wished.

Without warning, they raised their hands and a golden bubble of light formed around us—just around the Queens, Rafael, Jareth, and I. And before I had time to even wonder, the bubble popped.

We’d been shifted into the Hall of Mirrors and were standing in the very center of the cathedral-like building. The two enormous mirrors hung suspended in midair, spanning the entire space, stretching from the floor to the breathtaking domed ceiling above me. I could only stand there, staring at them in awe.

Gradually, I became aware of the fact the Queens were watching me, but I couldn’t read their faces. They didn’t display any emotion.

“Human intuition,” they suddenly intoned. “An interesting power. One wonders why it isn’t exercised more often.”

As Rafael’s curious brow ached my way, I just shrugged in return. I didn’t know what to tell him. Yet. I didn’t know what game the Queens were really playing, anyway. It could very well end with nasty consequences for me.

Jareth gave a feeble snort. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to make some kind of snarky comment, but I guess he still lacked the energy. Instead, he just closed his eyes and leaned into Rafael standing at his side.

Seeming to lose interest in me, the Queens addressed Rafael. “You are here, as requested, Rafael. But the mirrors will not help you. They have been silent since the last time the human beheld them. But if you wish, look in them as you will.” With a graceful flutter of fingers, they waved at the mirrors in an open invitation.

We hesitated, uncertain what they were up to. They knew we didn’t trust them. After all, they were Mind Whisperers. And their faces were impossible to read.

I glanced at the massive mirrors. They were astounding, so huge to be just hanging in the air.
The Mirrors of Destiny.
Rafael had told me that they faced each other to record into infinity, but unlike last time, their surfaces were dark now—pitch black, actually—and didn’t reflect anything.

Or so it seemed.

Instinctively, I knew that was wrong. The more I stared into the blackness, the more I became certain the darkness was alive. Moving. Sensing. Reaching.

With a choking gasp, I recognized it for what it was.

The Mutant Tulpa. It was enormous, stretching out to consume the entire universe, and my heart quailed as a feeling of dread and of impending doom encompassed me. Was that our future now? For everything to be turned into fear? Was there no way out of it all?

Dimly, I became aware of Rafael’s reassuring hands on my shoulders. I guess I must have cried out, but his presence calmed me, providing enough strength so that I could point at the mirrors and exclaim, “It’s … it’s
fear,
and it’s alive!”

The Queens descended upon us at once, their eyes locked upon the mirrors, and I could only bite my tongue and stare at the blackness of fear, horrified.

It took some time before I realized that Rafael and the Queens were talking, but I didn’t hear their words. They sounded angry. Vicious. Afraid.

Suddenly, I just wanted to get away.

Stepping back, I moved to join Jareth, weaving a bit unsteadily upon his feet. He looked sick. His skin was pale and clammy. As I arrived, he tore his eyes from the mirrors to search mine. I could see the alarm in his face.

He shook his head and said in a voice of resignation, “That’s our future then, Sydney.”

“No!” Rafael interjected before I could respond.

His voice rang loudly through the hall, and then strangely began to bounce back and forth between the mirrors, echoing “No!” louder and louder until the volume increased so much that the floor rumbled, and we all covered our ears.

Jareth collapsed to his knees.

I shivered, hugging my elbows.

The ringing and rumbling stopped.

Rafael inhaled audibly and faced the Queens, waving his hand at the black mirrors behind him. “Yes, what you see is where we are, the results of our choices, and yes, it could very well be the final result,” he explained, stubbornly locking his strong jaw. “But Sydney has not yet been given the chance to make her choice. And do not doubt it. She
will
make the right one.”

I wasn’t so confident. But I guess he had a point. And it knocked me out of once again playing the part of a victim, of just receiving what life dealt without even trying to fight back. Deep inside my inner-being, a spark ignited. Rafael was right. Yeah, maybe Jareth and Rafael had made their choices, but I hadn’t. If I didn’t even try, fear would win by default. I had to remember that while my choice could spell the disaster in the mirrors, my choice also carried a promise of a chance to make it all right. I had to stand up and try.

And I could start by not feeding the Tulpa the fear it needed to get even stronger.

“Don’t feed it,” I said then. “It lives off fear.”

It could have been a coincidence, or maybe not. But the mirrors chose that moment to vibrate. We all froze, watching as the darkness began to recede. It started at the corners, moving so slowly that I didn’t notice it at first until I noticed the blackness collapsing in on itself, growing smaller and smaller until it finally vanished into a tiny hole.

But I knew the Tulpa wasn’t really gone. Not yet.

Suddenly, the mirrors displayed a kaleidoscope of colored images. Millions. So many and so fast that I couldn’t understand them before they switched once again to reveal myself standing in a life-sized coke bottle, dressed in a black lace dress with Jerry perched on my shoulder. I was banging on the glass, trapped.

As if in a dream, I reached out to touch the glass, but before I could reach it, the mirrors’ surfaces cleared to show nothing more than our reflections.

“I don’t understand,” I said in the astonished silence that followed. My voice shook. I hadn’t really followed what had happened the past few minutes.

The Queens seemed shaken themselves. They took a few moments before replying together, “Humans are powerful creatures. With the Power of Thought—with what you label as ‘dreams’—you can alter reality. The possibilities are endless.”

I wasn’t really sure about that. “I don’t really dream of standing in a coke bottle,” I couldn’t resist pointing out.

Jareth interrupted us with a groan, grasping his head between his hands, and Rafael was at his side in an instant, forming a bubble of light around him that clearly eased his pain. But the expression on Rafael’s face as he looked up at the Queens disturbed me. He almost seemed scared.

“I must aid him, at once,” he informed them.

“Then do so,” the Queen of the Light bid imperiously. “Sift through Jareth’s past and show us the evidence of Melody and her designs. That is what you’re searching for, is it not?”

Rafael’s brows knit into a grim frown as he replied, “Swear you’ll not stop us. I’ve shown faith in you. It’s time you should do the same. Swear upon all that you hold sacred that you’ll help us.”

They didn’t like that. “Is what you will reveal so devastating? Is that why you crushed the evidence we sought beneath your feet?”

I remembered Rafael crushing a gray cube with his heel, telling me it was all that the Queens had wished to know. What
had
they wished to know? Of Melody’s evilness? If so, then why would Rafael protect her?

“Not her, Sydney. He was protecting
us
,” Jareth moaned from where he lay on the floor. He’d obviously recovered enough to see the thoughtforms I’d been generating.

Rafael’s eyes flickered in surprise, but he met my gaze to answer my unspoken question. “Yes, I had evidence of Melody’s betrayal, evidence that she’d created a weapon. I didn’t know what
kind
of weapon it was then, but I saw enough in your fate lines—both of yours—to know the Queens would seek to destroy us all should they find the answer.” He paused and studied my face. “And now you must see it, too. I can’t risk either of your lives over this.”

I frowned. I didn’t think he had much choice anymore.

Jareth was breathing hard. I watched his chest rise and fall. His life was already in danger over what Melody had done to him. He obviously needed help. But if the Queens discovered
he
was the weapon—created to destroy the Tree of Life—they’d probably just finish the job. Most likely, they’d kill Rafael too when they discovered his fate also ended at the tree. After that, there would be no one left to stop them from getting rid of me as well.

On the floor, Jareth began to writhe in pain, and it was clear if we didn’t help him, he was going to die, anyway.

“Help him,” I told Rafael, dropping to my knees beside them. “If I do have a real chance to make the right choice, then I’ll have the both of you with me, right? You said I needed you and I know I do. That means all three of us are going to make it through this right now, right?”

It was a weird, backwards-kind of logic, but it worked.

Rafael hesitated a moment before nodding in reluctant agreement.

Ignoring the Queens, he rose gracefully to his feet and approached the mirrors which were already filling with a smoky haze as myriad glowing threads appeared over Jareth’s reflection. Lifting a hand, Rafael picked one and began tracking it back through time like he’d done before.

The Queens appeared startled and even a little displeased at this ability, but they remained quiet as Rafael worked.

Silence fell.

Jareth began drifting in and out of consciousness.

I’d scarcely wondered how long Rafael would take to find what he was searching for when Melody’s white-cloaked figure appeared. She loomed large on the mirrors’ surfaces, hovering over a young Jareth as he lay asleep on some kind of metallic hospital-type of bed. Holding a needle-sized crystal shard between two fingers, she balanced it on Jareth’s forehead and after only a moment of hesitation, drove it into his skull.