Present…
Present…
Toby turned to Jareth, "We can't just leave her! We have to go back. Now!" Jareth looked hard into the young man's eyes, so old for his age, then back to the castle beyond the goblin city, the same city which stood in flames around it, licking at the walls. Somewhere in the smoke lay his Sarah. With a silent vow to find his beloved at all costs, Jareth turned back to the boy, the pain of a thousand deaths etched clearly into his ageless face.
Wren rode up on the chestnut mount and swiftly dropped to stand beside her lord, her sparrow hawk, Kiris, landing on her shoulder. "Your majesty, Kiris reports the Standing Stones are ready to receive the refugees. Queen Tiriseelian herself will oversee their entry into Ravenscrie. Please your majesties," Wrenn's expression was tired, and stone cold, but driven as she addressed both the King and the boy, she had a duty to the young man and had made a promise she would keep "we must go now, they are not far behind and we are still an hour's walk away."
Toby's eyes pleaded with Jareth, but there was nothing that could be done. Summoning his strength, Jareth willed his Labyrinth to close the passages that had brought them to the outskirts of his beloved walled kingdom, praying the Wraithe would not be able to follow, praying all the more that his love was safe. Before he could take another step, and knowing in his heart what the boy would do before he would even do it, Jareth used the last of his strength to cast a simple sleeping enchantment on the boy, the word 'no' coming out only as a whisper as Wrenn caught him before he hit the ground.
With a final look to his where only months before he had been enveloped in the promise of life, of love, Jareth and his refugees began the march toward Elven Wood of Ravenscrie, as the sky began to weep for all that had been lost.