Through Dangers Untold and Hardships Unnumbered

Yes, the rumors are true.

I’m writing again.

My muse is a fickle, jealous thing, and he tends to take offense at extended periods of neglect. And I have been neglecting him rather badly.

December of 2005 I descended into madness, and within a month I churned out 35,000+ words that became the story “Immortal Love.” Immediately upon finishing it, I started writing “Dangers Untold.” 17,500+ words in… I lost the beat. It died a cold, stunted death, and I stood there, frantically searching for the trail for…

oh…

two years, five month, and eleven days.

During that time I picked up a couple of other stories and finished them. “What you Wish For” is a particular favorite. “The Price of Dreams” was written under what I can only describe as a fit of madness.

At one point, it occurred to me that the way forward is sometimes the way back, and so I started writing “Shove’s Tale.”

I was right.

While at first that one was hard going (do you have any idea how hard it is to go back and rewrite a whole story from the point of view of a minor character? One who had a whole ‘nother set of problems going on? Different interactions with the main characters, sub plots and storylines that interwove and affected the original storyline but that the main character must remain oblivious to? Huh? HUH?) lately it has picked up, and by writing it I’ve discovered the trail of “Dangers” again.

I also partially blame this on Phuriedae, my loyal beta, and Lixxle, new friend and psychologist. And Subtillior, who got some of those gears grinding again.

Yes, the rumors are true. I’m writing again. Slowly, sometimes not without a great deal of agony, but I’m writing again. I will finish Shove’s Tale and post it as I go, as intended. “Dangers,” however, I’m keeping back until ST is finished. I want to make sure it’s done, make sure it’s complete and edited and makes sense before I post it.

However, as a show of good faith, for you loyal few who’ve found me here, I’ll be generous and post a small excerpt.

(from “Dangers Untold”… currently in progress
Plot–if you’ve not been following so far– after the events at the end of Immortal Love, it is revealed that the Labyrinth itself has had a hand in things. Vast, sentient, and very, very insane, the Labyrinth has taken steps to retrieve its chosen Queen and to equalize her with its King. Specifics have not been given yet, but Sarah and Jareth have found themselves forced to run the Labyrinth’s longest and most deadly path, one that is normally reserved for humans who abuse and neglect the children they wish away. They have thirteen days in which to reach the castle. In addition, Jareth has been blocked from the majority of his magic, and Sarah has been given access to it. Wild and unpredictable, the magic could kill or destroy her if she doesn’t learn to control it–and Jareth is neither a patient, nor a willing teacher. Here we find them trapped in a vast maze of Underground tunnels, and Sarah is worrying because they have no way of measuring how much time they have left…)

The tunnels sometimes twisted unexpectedly, and she’d lost all sense of bearing long ago. She had no way of gauging how far they’d gone, no idea at all of how much further they had to go. It bothered her. She remembered her last trip through the Labyrinth. Remembered how she’d run into creatures who had helped point the way. Here there was nothing, no helpful hands, no doorknockers, no sign that anything had ever lived here or ever would. It was as inhospitable as a maze could be and she thought, had she been an abusive parent, she would probably have given up long ago. It still would have been too late. There was no going back now. She had no desire to encounter the Echoes again, or to traverse that long lonely Wasteland.

Jareth would not stop, would never give up, never turn back. There was no choice for her, she would go on because he would, and because some part of her was still that determined girl from before. She wanted to unravel this knot, to find the center again, to beat this unbeatable challenge.

The time still bothered her. Even if she had no idea of how far they still had to travel, she wanted to know how much time they had left to do it in. In her mind she toyed with the box. Sarah could still feel the magic in there, roiling, eager to escape. Was Jareth right? Would it rip her apart to use too much of it, too fast? Probably, she thought, remembering the way it had unleashed itself in the Wasteland, the strength it had put forth in the caverns. But if she didn’t learn how to use it, then Jareth would remain powerless, they might not make it to the castle in time, and if they did… she did not want to think about that yet. His words still stung.

She was on her own.

Sarah thought about time. In her world, time was something that was measured for you. You seldom had to sit down and look at the stars or the sun any more and guess what hour it was. There were always clocks or watches or cell phones or computers that would answer the question for you. There were calendars to tell you what day it was. They announced it on the news. Even if she could magically create a watch or a calendar she had no way of knowing how much time had passed since they’d arrived.

Only the Labyrinth knew that.

If only she could ask it.

Abruptly she stopped. Why couldn’t she? She’d heard it speak. Heard it answer when Jareth had gotten angry with it. If she did have his power, or some of it, then shouldn’t she be able to talk to it, too? How did one go about talking to the Labyrinth, though?

Ahead the passage went on as far as she could see in the torchlight. Jareth hadn’t noticed her halt yet, and continued stalking into the darkness, his black silhouette sharply outlined by the flickering light of the perpetual torch. Sarah closed her eyes and reached out and touched the wall with one hand. It seemed appropriate to be in contact with something before she tried this.

“Hello?” she said in her mind, trying to direct the thought at the wall. “Um… Labyrinth, can you hear me?” There was no response. She felt foolish, talking to a wall. Maybe if it had a face? She remembered the False Alarms, with their giant features chiseled from the gray, glittering rock. There had been that friendly one, so eager to speak his lines. Trying hard to remember its features, she tried again, “Hello?”

“What?(Whatwhatwhat?)(who?)(what?)(Wakeu

p!)(Shhhhhhh!)(LadySarahspeaks)(lady?lady!)(Saaaaawwwah?)(M’lady!)(What?)SHUTUP!Listen!”

She felt the dull edges of her headache sharpen again, the knife’s edge of pain beginning to cut. Ignoring it, she pressed her hand flat to the wall. She needed the right words.

“We have been traveling for so long now. Please, how much time do we have left?”

There was a brief argument as all the creatures of the Labyrinth conferred. She heard them bicker. Time was an alien concept for some of them, for others it moved faster or slower. She felt all this, and them gathering to respond, just before something slammed into her, wrenching her away from the wall.

“Ten days, twelve hours, twenty nine minutes and eleven seconds,” Jareth said pleasantly. His odd eyes were dark in the dim light. He was still angry. “Twenty eight minutes, now.” His gloved hand banded her wrist, holding it beside her head. He regarded it as if it were a potentially lethal weapon. “Clever girl,” he mused. “But I can hear when you do that. You don’t know how to shield yourself and the Labyrinth is not quiet.” Very carefully, he let her go. “I would not do that again, were I you.”

“Can you stop me?” Sarah asked, defiant.

“Precious thing,” he said softly, reaching out to brush back a lock of her hair. “Can you imagine a world in which I would not try?” Then he turned and continued on, leaving her no choice but to follow.

x-posted to my new(ish) LJ: http://knifeedgefic.livejournal.com

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