And some nights you're breathing fire
And some nights you're carved in ice
Some nights you're like nothing I've ever seen before or will again
I Would Do Anything For Love – Meatloaf
It was so rare that anyone would actually come to Kiamo Ko that the sentries who guarded the place were, to be quite brutally honest, somewhat lax in their duties. It was impossible, however, to miss the two people walking across the stone causeway that led to the castle gate.
“Halt!” yelled the sentry on duty from the small room above the gate. “Halt and state your business.”
“I am Prince Fiyero Tiggular and my business is none of yours.”
“Your Highness, forgive me, we were not expecting you!”
“My fault. I didn’t send word ahead.”
“I’ll send the order to open the gate immediately, Your Highness.”
“Just like that?” whispered Elphaba to Fiyero.
“Of course,” he shrugged, “No one comes here if they can avoid it. The castle has something of a bad reputation.”
“What’s that odd smell?” asked Elphaba moving onto the next observation that caught her attention.
“Sulphur, from the underground hot springs.”
“Hot springs?” repeated Elphaba. “As in hot water?”
“That’s right. The baths are left over from several centuries ago when the castle was occupied, though there is no record of who occupied it, before my family took over the running of the place.”
He stopped talking to look at Elphaba, having finally realised what a dreamy voice she was speaking in.
“Surely you don’t want to bathe at this time of night? You’re nearly asleep on your feet and you could catch your death in this cold weather!”
“I haven’t bathed in anything other than cold water for four years,” replied Elphaba.
“The baths aren’t going anywhere. They’ll still be there in the morning.”
“But there will be people around then. Besides I always had my baths in the middle of the night at Shiz and it never harmed my health!”
“Why in Oz would you… oh I see. Well, you don’t need to worry about anyone walking in on you here, from what I recall there are doors to the bathing rooms that can be locked from the inside. Still if it will make you feel better you can bathe as soon as we get inside.”
“Thank you!” exclaimed Elphaba and wrapped her arms around him.
The guard opening the gate found that the prince and his female… companion were somewhat occupied. He whacked the gate loudly with his boot and was amused to see the lady pulling away and, rather hastily, pulling her hood over her face.
“Welcome back to Kiamo Ko, Your Highness.”
“Thank you.”
Fiyero led Elphaba into the entryway of the castle and waited while the guard closed the gate behind them. The Officer in charge was waiting for them and Fiyero recognised him.
“Anjeri?” he said, sounding both pleased and surprised. “You’re a Captain now? Congratulations… what did you do to deserve being posted here?”
“Tactful aren’t you?” murmured Elphaba.
“In fact I requested the assignment, Your Highness.”
“Fiyero,” said Elphaba in a neutral sounding tone.
“Right. We need a room.”
They had discussed the matter on the way there and Elphaba had reassured him that she had no problem sharing a room as long as he didn’t.
“And my lady would like to use the hot springs.”
“Begging your pardon, Milady, would you not rather wait until morning? I can assure you that my soldiers will not disturb you.”
“Thank you, Captain, but I really would prefer to bathe tonight.”
“I argued for a while before I gave up, I don’t advise you trying the same,” suggested Fiyero with a fond look at Elphaba.
“As your lady wishes then. I shall have one of the junior men prepare a room for you both and one prepare the bathing room.”
“That is most kind of you, Captain,” said the Prince’s companion. She had a lovely rich voice he noticed and he wondered if she was a performer of some kind. The more suspicious part of his mind wondered why she was wearing her hood inside.
“Would you and… I apologise I didn’t catch your name Milady.”
Even with the hood covering her face Captain Anjeri could tell that the lady was amused by his question.
“Miss Elphaba Thropp, Captain.”
Miss? wondered the captain. He had assumed the arrangement was more formal. I suppose I should have guessed when he didn’t introduce her as his fiancée but this seems like an odd place to bring your lover to… hardly the most romantic spot in the Vinkus, unless his family disapproved of her.
“Pleased to meet you Miss Thropp,” said Anjeri formally. He turned to the junior officers who were waiting a short distance away. “Private Freyan, go and clean out the main tower room for the Prince and Miss Thropp. Private Restaf you go and prepare the bathing chambers for them. Do you need any assistance with your luggage, Your Highness?”
As he mentioned their luggage he noticed that Miss Elphaba was carrying a medium sized bag slung over her shoulder and a…broomstick? Now that was peculiar…he lifted his eyes from the broomstick to find that she was looking at him again while Prince Fiyero had started chatting to one of the other guards.
“Do you hear much news of the outside world here, Sir?” asked Elphaba as she looked directly at the Captain.
“No, Miss, we don’t. Last I heard our Prince Fiyero had upset the family by joining the Wizard’s Guard after he finished University and that was what? Two years ago I believe, just before I transferred here.”
“I see.”
She replied simply but something in her voice must have caught the Prince’s attention because he turned and looked at her with a nervous expression.
“As I was saying, Your Highness, perhaps you would care to join me in my private dining room while your rooms are being prepared?”
Elphaba and Fiyero started to reply at the same time.
“That won’t be necessary,” said Fiyero
“I think that would be a good idea,” suggested Elphaba.
“Elphaba?”
“I think we should talk to the Captain in private, that’s all.” She replied in a tone that was far too mild for what the Captain had already observed of her.
“I don’t think that’s really necessary…” disagreed Fiyero. “It’s late, it can wait until tomorrow.”
Anjeri thought she was going to protest but she seemed to wilt slightly, the way someone would when they were very tired, and nodded her head in agreement.
“The bathing area is ready, Captain.”
Private Restaf announced his return preventing any further discussion of the matter.
“Very good, Private. You may return to your usual duties for the rest of the night.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Well what are we waiting for then?” said Elphaba with a smile in her voice. She held out her hand to Prince Fiyero, and Anjeri noticed that she wore gloves as well.
“Would you care to lead the way?”
“Of course,” said Fiyero. He took her arm with a smile, relieved that what ever she had planned to say had been interrupted.
“The baths are downstairs,” explained Fiyero as he led her through the hallways. “The castle was, most historians agree, built over hot springs for convenience. The steam is directed upstairs though some sort of pipe system and it keeps the lower floors of the castle bearable during the winter.”
They stopped in front of a large wooden door whose hinges were driven deep into the walls.
“This is the only way in, it has a massive lock but that is only used during sieges – at least that‘s what is intended we haven’t yet had a siege – then there are two passageways that lead to separate pools and they each have lockable doors as well.”
“Fiyero?” said Elphaba quietly as she walked just behind him.
“Yes?” he said, stopping just outside the door.
“Why are you babbling at me?”
“Babbling? I’m not…I’m babbling?”
“Yes, you are. Is there a reason?”
Fiyero stopped walking so he could ponder the question – he wasn’t really sure why he was nervous, other than the reaction to the almost incident with Captain Anjeri. Elphaba stopped walking and leaned back against the wall of the passageway.
“I never expected you to be lost for words.” She teased Fiyero with a smile. “Must be the company you’ve been keeping.”
“You’re right,” agreed Fiyero. “I always had something to say until I met you – you have this crazy effect on me, you make me think about what I’m going to say. It’s very detrimental to my conversational skills.”
“You have trouble saying what you think instead of what you think other people want to hear.” Elphaba translated his words haphazardly and smiled softly.
“That’s about right.”
“Is it because I was going to tell the Captain who I am? Or show him at least.”
“What?”
“The reason you’re upset?”
“I’m not upset!”
“Then why are you babbling?”
“Because…I’m tired that’s all.”
“If you say so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“It’s not what you said it’s the way you said it!”
“What do you mean ‘the way I said it’? I didn’t say it any way, I just said it!”
“You didn’t just say it. You never just say anything. You always mean something!”
“Why are you shouting at me?”
“I’m not shouting at you!”
“Yes you are!”
“I am?”
“You were.”
“Why was I yelling at you?”
“Because you’re tired, apparently.”
“Don’t start that again!”
“I didn’t start anything!”
“Yes you did, you deliberately… and you’re doing it again!”
“I’m not doing anything except trying to find out why you’re so upset with me!”
“I’m not upset with you!”
“You’re lying!”
“I’m not lying and now you’re yelling at me!”
“Only because you won’t talk to me!”
“I’m trying to talk to you! Maybe if you listened for two minutes together!”
“Oh so now you’re saying I don’t listen?”
“Yes! Because you don’t!”
“How dare you say I don’t listen? When have I not listened to you? Other than the first day we were ever alone which hardly counts! If you want to say something then go ahead and say it! I can’t read your mind, just tell me what I did!”
“Nothing!! Absolutely nothing! Everything is fine!”
“If everything is fine then why are you still shouting?”
“Well why are you?”
“Because you are!”
“You started it! Why couldn’t you just pretend not to notice me babbling?”
“What? It was a bit hard to miss!”
“That’s why I said pretend!”
“But why? It was just an observation! I don’t see why you’re so upset about it!”
“That’s because you’re missing the point! It’s nothing and I don’t want to talk about it!”
“Well if it’s nothing we can’t talk about it can we!”
“Exactly!”
“Oh I see, you could have just said you didn’t want to talk!”
“I did!”
“Well you should have said it before you started yelling!”
“Well if you hadn’t changed the subject so suddenly and started interrogating me!”
“I wasn’t interrogating you!”
“Oh so you talk to everyone like that?”
“Yes!”
That blew the wind right out of his sails.
“What?”
“Yes, I talk to everyone like I’m interrogating them. It’s a bad habit I picked up as a child. I’m a defensive speaker because I usually have to get out everything I want to say before people start looking at me to closely and ignoring what I say.”
“I don’t ignore you!” protested Fiyero.
“I didn’t say you did!”
“Yes you…”
With a visible effort Fiyero forced himself to stop talking and took a deep breath. Elphaba leaned the broom against the wall and rubbed her eyes one handed.
Fiyero put his arm around her waist and put his chin on her shoulder, a position that made him look slightly ridiculous considering the difference in their heights.
“Why are we fighting?”
“Because we’re tired?” offered Elphaba.
“Exactly,” agreed Fiyero. “Truce?”
“Bath!” suggested Elphaba with a smile. “And a promise not to hold anything shouted in the middle of the night against each other?”
“I promise not to hold it against you… but wouldn’t it be easier to promise not to shout in the middle of the… well no it wouldn’t would it?” he finished thoughtfully and gave her a teasing smile.
“Not unless you didn’t mind breaking the promise on a regular basis,” replied Elphaba with another brilliant smile. “I promise as well, I won’t hold anything against you if it’s shouted in the middle of the night.”
She looked for thoughtful for a moment then added:
“With the exception of another woman’s name, of course.”
“What?” spluttered Fiyero.
“It seems like a perfectly reasonable exception to me.” Elphaba replied as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.
“That’s not what I was going to…”
“I know.”
“Well then why are we still…”
“Because you thought…”
“I’d still like to know…”
“I hear things around the place.”
“But what made you say…”
“It was a joke?”
“Is that a question or a…”
“Statement definitely.”
“All right then, shall we?”
“Let’s…”
“Shall I carry your…”
“No, I can…”
“I really don’t mind…”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. I’ll just take…”
“Not the broom!”
“The bag?”
“Good idea.”
They walked down the dimly lit passageway in silence until they reached the bathing cavern.
“Sweet Oz this place is huge! I’ve never seen so much water in one place! And the castle is on top of this?”
Fiyero was pleased to see that Elphaba was now, more or less, her normal self and he happily explained.
“It’s actually to one side, the tunnel curves very gradually but the texture of the rock makes it impossible to tell. Now are you bathing or studying the architecture?”
“Well we came down here to swim didn’t we?”
The slight hesitation and the emphasis on the word ‘we’ caught Fiyero’s attention.
“Of course,” he reassured her as he looked around for towels and other necessary items. “But it seems the junior soldiers made certain assumptions and only left enough towels for one person.”
“Oh.” Elphaba looked dejected as she replied. “Well you don’t have to…”
“I can get more towels, there are always some stored in the men’s side, the side the soldiers use. You can lock the door behind me and open it when I get back if you like.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
Fiyero kissed her quickly then explained how to lock the door by dropping the heavy wooden bar down.
Once he left and the bar was down Elphaba wondered idly if she’d be able to lift it back up on her own. She put her broom down next to the bag and the towels then smiled as the answer occurred to her; even if she couldn’t lift the bar physically her magic was more than up to the task.
“And…” she finished out loud because she was so excited by the discovery. “I don’t have to wait for him to get back!”
It took Fiyero longer than he expected to get more towels, there were soldiers who’d finished their shift having a bath and Fiyero had to wait for them to leave under the pretence of wanting the bathing room (it sounded more civilised than ‘cave’) to himself. He knocked on the door one handed and called out to Elphaba so she knew who was there. He heard the lock snap open and pushed the door open.
“Elphaba? Are you in here?”
That, he decided as he looked around to see her dress and boots on the bench, was a particularly stupid question. Where else would she be?
“Yes.”
Her voice floated softly through the air, the echoes giving him no clue as to her location.
“Here,” she whispered and her voice echoed throughout the cavernous underground chamber.
Here, here, here, here…
Fiyero shrugged and smiled slightly at her playful mood then took off his shoes and shirt.
“Are you going to come over here?”
“Perhaps.”
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps… her words were echoed through the cavern again.
It seemed odd to Fiyero that the source of the echoes seemed to have moved but there was no splashing.
“Could you at least tell me what the game is?”
“Can’t you tell?”
Tell, tell, tell…
“I think you’re a wild water sprite, speaking in the voice of my true lover, come to torment me. Perhaps it amuses you to play a trick on me.”
“How do you know I am not your lover, playing tricks with you?”
Interesting how there was no echo this time.
“I cannot see you, how am I to know exactly who you are?”
Her reply was thoughtful.
“Could your lover be a wild water sprite if she wished it?”
“She could be anything she pleased, as long as she was still my lover.”
“ ‘A wild maid of water born, clad in night and all of daytime’s scorn’” quoted Elphaba softly, from the shadows. “Or in this case, clad in black petticoats and hair.”
“Where are you?”
“Everywhere,” replied Elphaba and stepped out of the shadows into the middle of the small lake that served as the baths in Kiamo Ko.
“You’re… you’re…”
“Stunning you speechless apparently.”
“Stunning is the perfect word,” agreed Fiyero.
“I was looking at the water and I decided to play at being a water sprite. You don’t think I’m childish for playing pretend and dancing around in my petticoats do you?”
“Childish is most definitely not the first thought that crossed my mind.”
“Do you want to dance?”
“With you?”
“There’s no one else here, my love.”
“Out there?”
“Why not?”
“I’m just a Prince, my beautiful, wild, water sprite. We mere mortals can not dance upon the water as if it were solid ground.”
“You are not ‘just’ anything,” protested Elphaba with a rather enticing toss of her hair.
She wasn’t joking about ‘clad in petticoats and hair’, noticed Fiyero appreciatively.
“Besides,” she continued. “Everyone knows that water sprites never let their lovers drown.”
“You just made that up!”
Elphaba shrugged and stepped from the water to the stone without a hint that she was now on solid ground.
“And?”
“I thought you wanted to bathe? And sleep?”
“I did. Now I want to dance over the top of the water with you.”
“Come on then, my crazy/beautiful water sprite, show me how to dance on the water.”
Elphaba smiled and held out her hand, which he took in his own.
“It’s very simple really… just follow me.”
Fiyero took the first step truly expecting to fall straight into the water and was already resigned to having to dry his trousers somewhere.
“I told you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Elphaba laughed softly and pointed down, they were standing on the water. Fiyero held both of her hands in his.
“I love the way you laugh,” he told her honestly.
“Even when I’m laughing at you?”
He pulled her closer, the way he might have in more normal circumstances with a woman he was dancing with, and replied.
“Especially when you’re laughing at me. It’s nice to know I have your attention.”
“I’d like to say ‘why wouldn’t you have my attention?’ but that question has a rather obvious answer… it’s too late for that conversation don’t you think?”
“Or too early?” suggested Fiyero.
“Or that,” agreed Elphaba. She slipped sideways, out of his grip, then behind him.
A moment later Fiyero felt her delicately tracing a finger over his bare back. He smiled because it was reassuring to know that she could be as easily fascinated by his Arjiki tattoos as any other woman he’d known. Her reaction wasn’t the curiousity about what they were and how he had gotten them, however, it was a rather smug declaration.
“I always knew you weren’t as much of a shallow, self-absorbed idiot as you pretended to be!”
“You’ve lost me.”
“These are Arjiki tribal markings are they not?”
“They are but how did you… you read about them in a book?”
“I did. And to answer your next question, the reason it proves that I was right all along is the fact that to get those you have to be a Prince and pass Arjiki warrior trials. I gather that such trials would be somewhat taxing, to say the very least, for someone like you were pretending to be. So what changed?”
“How do you know…?”
“I’m quite familiar with the symptoms of someone denying who they really are, dear Fiyero, I had rather a lot of practice.”
“Something happened when I was sixteen…” he began to tell her what had happened but the words caught in his throat. She rested her palms on his shoulders; he could see blurs of green on either side of his face.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
Her voice was soothing, a delicate whisper, he didn’t even realise he was tense until he relaxed against her and she pressed her cheek against his back.
“You’re tired,” she said quietly. “And so am I. Lets finish up here and sleep. The serious talks will keep as long as we need them to.”
“How do you do this?” Fiyero made a random gesture with one hand, that Elphaba felt but couldn’t see. “We’re standing on top of water that is, at the least, six feet deep and you act as though it’s perfectly normal.”
She slid her arms from his shoulder around his waist and sighed softly.
“For me this is ‘perfectly normal’. I travel on a flying broomstick, for Oz sake, walking on water barely gets onto my list of abnormal things I’ve done and if you want to get technical we’re standing about a finger’s width above the water.”
“Which explains why my toes aren’t wet I would suppose.”
“Precisely. If you really wanted to you could sit down, or lean over and touch the water.”
“How did you ever learn how to do this?”
“One day I was hiding in the forest from a patrol of Guards. I started imagining that there was a staircase wrapped around the trunk of the particularly large tree I was hiding in. The image was so clear, and I was so bored – how ever did you stand the tedium of listening to soldiers talk for hours on end? So I decided to step on one of the steps and see if it worked. I had the broom in my hand so it wasn’t exactly dangerous.”
“You are a wonder,” Fiyero informed her quietly. “Are there any other tricks you might surprise me with later on?”
“I can stop myself from getting burnt but not from getting wet. I can’t cook anything that isn’t extremely difficult to... break. Hmm… I think that’s about everything I can think of.”
“You can ‘break’ food?”
“It’s much easier than actually being able to cook it.”
“Well, you can’t be good at everything.”
“Or anything, some days,” she added morosely.
“What happened to not having serious conversations?” joked Fiyero.
“You’re right,” sighed Elphaba and shoved him with a playful smile. Fiyero was up to his neck in water before he knew what was going on. “That wasn’t serious at all.”
“Why you…” spluttered Fiyero, through a mouthful of water. “That was…”
“Completely unfair?” suggested Elphaba with a totally unrepentant smile. She knelt on the water without touching it and leaned down.
“Would you like to pull me in and get me back?” she asked him in a husky tone.
Her hair fell over her shoulders and her face when she leaned forward so he could only catch small glimpses of her face through it. Curiously he put his hand on the water just in front of one of her knees and felt a slight resistance to the pressure of his hand.
“What is it made of?”
“This,” she replied and he thought the answer was very ambiguous until she moved her hand and he looked up to see a small ball of dark green/silver/black light floating above it.
“That’s what magic looks like when it’s not all... you know, invisible?”
“More or less. Everyone has a different colour, usually only one but it varies.”
“Fascinating.”
“So captivating you weren’t even looking at my hands…”
“Wasn’t I?”
The mere fact he was staring straight into Elphaba’s eyes at the moment he asked that question made her smile.
“No, you weren’t,” she stated plainly. “So what are you looking at?”
“Your eyes.”
“I thought so. Why?”
“Why not?”
“I asked you first.”
“So you did,” agreed Fiyero with a smile.
Keeping his gaze fixed on Elphaba, to keep her attention focussed on him looking at her, he lifted his arms up to her waist and pulled her before she knew what was going on.
Naturally he let go before she hit the water so they wouldn’t get tangled up and Elphaba, spluttering and treading water, surfaced about a meter from him.
“You were right,” said Fiyero with a wide grin. “Definitely not serious.”
“It’s all very well for you,” remarked Elphaba in a tone of combined amusement and irritation. “You’ve clearly never had to try and swim in wet petticoats!”
Her voice trailed off into muttered remarks about insensitive males and Fiyero watched, first in amusement then in a combination of (almost) embarrassment and interest, as she somehow managed to pull off the offending garments and threw them across the water in the general direction of the bench.
“This is the part where you try and catch the water sprite,” suggested Elphaba, with a very flirtatious smile, as she started to swim away.
“And what do I do with the water sprite once I’ve caught her?”
Elphaba laughed softly and the playful sound echoed throughout the cave as she replied.
“Whatever you like!”
Fiyero grinned as he swam after her, but slowly so he could enjoy the brief glimpses of her skin as she splashed through the water. One of the splashes caught him in the eyes and he stopped for a moment, treading water and spluttering, until he could see properly.
Elphaba was barely a metre away from him, treading water with a smile on her face.
“For a minute there I thought you were gone,” remarked Fiyero, trying to move closer to her without being obvious about it. Not fooled for a moment, Elphaba laughed, splashed water at him, and pushed herself backwards through the water.
Undeterred he followed her, abandoning all pretence of subtlety in his chase – a fact that she seemed to enjoy because it made her smile even more, and laugh a little.
“I do believe you’re enjoying this,” Fiyero accused her teasingly, stopping for a moment after she eluded him a good five minutes.
“Oh?” said Elphaba, twirling a piece of her hair with one finger as it floated in the water. “Am I not supposed to?”
“Saucy wench,” muttered Fiyero, with a smile.
“I love you too,” retorted Elphaba without stopping to think.
Absolute silence descended on the room for what felt like, to both Elphaba and Fiyero, the world’s longest heartbeat then one of them moved… or perhaps both of them did – certainly neither of them would remember later.
They did move, that much they were sure of, because he’d been too far away to touch her and now she had both arms wrapped around his neck while he tangled one hand in her hair and used the other, pressed against her back, to pull her close to him then kiss her until both of them were so breathless they could barely see. Elphaba rested her head against his chest, fortunately the water was shallow enough for him to stand and she didn’t weigh much at that, and murmured something.
“What was that?” asked Fiyero quietly, not wanting to break the mood. Elphaba looked up at him and smiled like she’d been about to cry.
“I said: I never truly thought I would ever be able to say those words to you. And now that I have and it feels… so…”
She closed her eyes and leaned against him again, letting the sentence trail off into silence.
Fiyero pulled Elphaba close and she submitted willingly to his passionate kiss, an unspoken reminder that words weren’t necessary between them.