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Crystalline Dreams
by: Dreamspinner and Delilah
Chapter 9

    Gwydion smiled at his wife, watching her try unsuccessfully to pull her boots on. Her unbound tresses kept falling into her face, obscuring her vision... and adding to her blooming frustration. Chuckling softly, he moved over to sit beside her with a brush ready in his hands. She smiled ruefully at him and quieted, sitting still so he could play with her hair without inadvertently making any snarls and tangles. He started moving the brush through her bright hair, attempting to tame her unruly locks into a manageable braid. Suddenly, he felt a backlash surge in the bond he and his huntsmen shared...what was happening? Finn! Finn was dying?! With his huntsmen's frantic cries for their lord echoing throughout his consciousness, Gwydion clenched his teeth as Finn's pain lanced through him. Dreamspinner looked up at him and gasped as she felt his pain, and she hurriedly shoved her foot
into the remaining boot.
"Not Finn!" Dreamspinner cried in horror. Finn was so very special to her, for the young bard had a true dreamer's soul. Gwydion leapt up, grabbing her by the hand as they ran out of their room. Dreamspinner's unbound tresses flew out behind her like a banner as they ran toward the courtyard. Goblins scattered as they darted past, none willing to get in their way. She sent a frantic mental plea to Jareth, appraising him of the situation, and he sent a grim reply back to her, telling her that his castle was at their disposal. Gwydion's shadowed steed was already anxiously awaiting its master in the courtyard, and they mounted up quickly, for speed was of the utmost importance. Gwydion had to get Dreamspinner to Finn quickly.

    Jareth's ears still rang from the intensity of Dreamspinner's projected thoughts. He was very glad she never used them on him as an attack! He grimly called a scrying crystal to him to search out the fallen elf. Aha... in the glade. He watched the other hunters swarming about Finn, and decided to change his view to one more above the position he was currently viewing things in. What he saw when he looked down upon the dying young elf-lord greatly disturbed him. Only one creature was capable of that, and he knew there was only one antidote to that particular poison. He also realized that Dreamspinner would heal that one even at great cost to herself, a fact that worried him. She was under his protection, after all. He saw them arrive in the glade, and the huntsmen all move aside as Dreamspinner leapt down from the saddle. She ran to Finn, who was curled into a fetal position on the soft grass. She tenderly pulled him into her embrace, and locked minds with him, calling him back
while healing the effects the poison had ravaged on his weakening form. Gwydion moved in behind his wife and placed his hands upon her shoulders, adding his reservoir of natural magic to hers to aid in the healing. The poison kept renewing itself! Dreamspinner did the only thing she could think of that she knew would heal Finn; She took the poison into herself. She collapsed backwards into Gwydion's stunned embrace. Finn shook his head to clear it, then howled in anguish when he saw the cost of his healing, turning into Dreamspinner's now-slackened embrace and pressing his tear-stained cheek to her pale cheek, his silver-bright hair mingling with her flame-bright tresses. Gwydion squeezed the hunter's shoulder, then hurriedly snatched up Dreamspinner's unconscious body into his arms as he called his steed. He leapt up into the saddle, holding his dear-one tightly, praying with all he was worth that either she could burn the poison from her body or Jareth would have what they needed when he reached the castle. Even so, he realized she had a better chance of surviving this than Finn would ever have had. His wife's abilities never ceased to amaze him. Gwydion's huntsmen all followed their lord, Finn riding double with Gawain for he was still unsteady. The huntsmen's thoughts sparked amongst themselves, all vowing retribution for this day's events.

    Jareth muffled a curse as the scene unfolded before him. He transported himself directly to his study and rummaged through the carefully dried herbs for the right one. Too much of it could kill, too little and the person would die of the effects of the poison. Damn! He hoped that the herb would be unnecessary because Dreamspinner could heal herself. This was the last thing he needed.

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    Bane cursed as he watched Dreamspinner from his dark castle. What was she thinking? He would never understand her motivations. So what if Gwydion was less one hunter- it was not as if he didn't have enough of them! Fools all of them! Bane comforted himself with the thought that he was going to trim his new cape with wolf hide if anything happened to her.

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    Jareth was out on the steps when Gwydion arrived, and he took Dreamspinner from the elf-lord's embrace, "Stay out of my way," he snarled at them, then transported himself and his precious burden to his room, where he had everything ready. He placed her on the bed, and she moaned and turned on her side, curling up into a little ball. He grabbed the hastily prepared mixture from the table, and tried to force it down her throat, but she knocked it out of his hands. She twisted around, and a blast of heat radiated from her as she burned the remaining poison from her body. She opened her eyes and looked up into Jareth's.
"Hi," she said smiling weakly.
"Hi, yourself," he smiled back, unable to fully articulate what he was feeling at the moment, "Don't you *ever* pull a stunt like that again."
She smiled at him, grim humor burning in her eyes, "Like you could stop me." He made a don't-even-tempt-me face, which caused her to giggle. He looked at her with a serious expression, "You know that I am responsible for your safety while you are here. I cannot allow anything to happen to you. Those are the rules."
"Unhuh, like you ever follow the rules."
Jareth made a sour face. Her apparently undimmed spirit relieved him greatly, and he ordered his guards to escort Gwydion to their chambers.
"You want to stay here, or go to Gwydion?" he oh-so-casually asked her. Her hurried reply of, "Go to be with Gwydion." caused him to smirk. Now he had the entire Wild Hunt to host! He knew the faithful warriors would not leave until they saw Dreamspinner safe- and in their minds, that meant back in her cottage with Gwydion. Things were not going well at all. He sat down next to her, and with a mental command, transported them to their destination. Gwydion jumped up from his seat when they appeared, running to the bed where Dreamspinner now lay.
"Gently!" Jareth warned him. Gwydion gingerly took her into his embrace and she smiled at him, saying, "I'm okay, really. What's going on? Where's Finn? Is he doing well? Where are the others? What happened while I was out? Have you seen Delilah? Where's Genna?" Gwydion laughed good-naturedly at her barrage of questions, holding her all the more tightly. Finn burst into the room and threw himself into Dreamspinner's ready embrace. She softly crooned a wordless tune as she stroked his silver-bright hair.
He looked up into her eyes, and green-bright eyes met compassionate teal-bright ones, "I would have never forgiven myself..." he choked, and buried his face onto her neck, she sending him soothing thoughts and gentle dreams of exquisite beauty. Jareth wondered why Finn was so damned special to Dreamspinner- even he could see that she loved him...and Gwydion was just sitting there allowing another man to make a fool of himself over his wife! He almost found himself slipping into a sneer,
but caught it just in time. After seeing she was in good hands, Jareth quietly excused himself to go and check on one of his other charges. He gritted his teeth and hoped Delilah hadn't decided to finish that horrid blue mural she had started....

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    Bane watched the wolf lope into the castle through one of the side doors snarling viciously at an Unseelie that didn't move out of his way fast enough. He didn't miss the fact that the wolf limped slightly and favored one leg as opposed to it's opposite. Turning from the window he walked up the dais to his throne and awaited the arrival of Justarus. The wolf entered and in a shimmer of shadow changed and became the tall man. He opened his mouth to speak but Bane cut him off.
"You intolerable fool! I thought you were supposed to have more wisdom than the forest animal you appear as. I am seriously doubting that claim now." He snarled in rage.
Justarus had the gall to yawn and lean against a pillar. "And what has you in such a snit? I killed a simple hunter. A hunter who had seen me and would have brought the intelligence of my return back to his huntsmen and their leader. It is in both of our interests that knowledge of my return is held secret. I was only protecting those interests."
"Not at the cost of the one whom I wish to possess!" Bane noticed Justarus's confused look and sighed. "Dreamspinner took the poison herself to save the elf that you claim you killed."
The dark wolf raised an eye brow. "Really? That's quite interesting." His eyes unfocused as he began to retreat into the realm of thought. "Perhaps we can use that... "

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    Delilah started awake at the sound of voices echoing throughout the castle halls. She picked herself out of the chair she had fallen into and walked towards the door. There were men sitting together speaking quickly as well as strange horses the likes of which she had never seen before. She shrugged and walked past them all. The day had clouded over and the sky was the same steely gray as the stone walls of the Labyrinth. She wasn't sure where she was going but her feet seemed to know. She drifted off into a hazy half-sleep trance but kept walking. A couple creatures peered at the strange woman fascinated that someone seemed to be trying to get out of the Labyrinth then to find their way in. A small reddish brown bird swooped down out the sky and landed upon her shoulder twittering in her ear. The blonde seemed oblivious to the bird's presence and kept walking. The doors to the Labyrinth swept open and she passed through without trouble. A dark shape on a dark horse separated from the bleak background swept her up onto the dark horse's back. With a fiery snort, the horse leapt into a gallop as the rider steadied his entranced load.

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    After about ten minutes Jareth was able to conclude that Delilah was no longer in his castle. Five more minutes passed before he realized that she was no longer in the city and no one had seen her since that night. He cursed wondering what trouble that woman was getting herself in now. He considered counseling Dreamspinner but he decided not to. One, he had no wish to remind them of last night's happening and two, he didn't want to ruin the happy reunion going on. Not that he wouldn't mind
distracting Dreamspinner from her husband but he felt that they deserved some time before the next crisis arose. A soft voice from behind caused him to turn and observe a young elven girl. She stepped forward.
"I heard that you were looking for the blonde human." She said. Jareth wondered for a moment where she had discovered this but figured she had stumbled across a few of the goblins he had sent looking for Delilah.
"Yes. Do you know where she is?" He asked.
The elf shook her head. "No, but I saw her this morning. She seemed distracted." The elf seemed to want to say something else but closed her mouth and looked away.
"And?" Jareth prompted needing all the information.
The elf hesitated before continuing on quietly. "It was none of my business but she stayed out of the sunlight. I. . . I thought that was odd but I didn't want to say anything to bother her."
Jareth's frown deepened. He had often seen Delilah in the sunlight, so why had she avoided it this morning? And the elf had said she was distracted. He turned away and walked to the window. Calling a crystal he tried to locate her. The crystal clouded slightly then cleared again but produced no picture. This didn't surprise him much. He didn't have any idea as to where she could be and as a result couldn't direct the crystal to find her very well.
"Where are you?" He whispered to the wind as he tossed the crystal out the window. It floated like a bubble and rose up into the sky. The Labyrinth was full of dangers and she could flounder into any one of them accidentally. He stepped up onto the sill and leapt out into the air. His newly formed feathers gave him lift and he soared up after the crystal.

~~~~~on to Chapter 10