My Kingdom As Great
Summary: Sarah fought her way through the Labyrinth and saved her brother. But she didn't do it alone. A little book gave her an idea of what to expect, and told her exactly how to defeat Jareth. Someone had defeated him before. But who? And why had they written the book?
Prologue
Jareth sat is his throne room, steadfastly ignoring the milling crowd of rambunctious goblins that passed themselves off as his courtiers. As he mused, Jareth deftly tossed a crystal ball from fingertip to fingertip. Centuries of practice had gifted him with the enviable ability to be pensive under any circumstances, and this ability allowed him to tune out the excited shrieks of a newcomer. Until the newcomer tripped over himself and landed in a heap on top of one of Jareth's idly tapping feet.
Silence reigned across the room as Jareth slowly turned his gaze from the glimpse of the outside world he could see from a nearby window to land on the quivering ball of a goblin still on his foot. Pensive expression completely gone, Jareth tilted his foot up off the ground and allowed the goblin to slide off his foot before he kicked him in the gut.
The goblin coughed and pulled himself up into a sitting position. He fidgeted for a few minutes, trying to gather what little courage he had before glancing up at his king. Jareth's face was impassive, but the goblin could almost feel the ire radiating from him. The goblin gulped, and then muttered something under his breath. Jareth's right eyebrow lifted, and his mouth turned down into a small frown. The goblin blanched and muttered again, louder, "Ichibob says to tell you that he was told that someone saw someone else buy one of those books you wanted us to watch and that that person gave the book to some woman who gave it to a man who gave it to a young girl for her birthday and that the girl has been reading it and that he can feel something familiar about her."
The surrounding goblins tittered nervously as they tried to figure out what that meant; they shushed each other noisily when Jareth leaned back into his throne with a small chuckle. The goblin shuddered when Jareth suddenly leaned forward and grabbed him by the back of his shirt and hauled him forward until they were nose to nose. Jareth smiled and handed him one of his crystal balls. "Tell Ikybib to put this in the girl's room."
The goblin nodded eagerly, thrilled that his king was in a much better mood and that apparently he wasn't going to be punished. He yelped when Jareth dropped him, and scrambled to keep a hold on the delicate ball as he landed on his rump. When he stood up, ball still firmly gripped in his hand, the surrounding goblins cheered and someone threw a chicken at him. He bobbed respectfully at Jareth and, clutching the ball to his chest in as tight of a grip as he could manage without crushing it, ran through the gauntlet of curious goblins.
Jareth watched him go with his small smile still intact, before he glanced down at another crystal ball from his collection. The image of a young woman dressed in a white ball gown with long, dark hair glared back at him, her head held high, defiant to the last.
"Have you come back to me?" He whispered, as the goblins returned to their state of frenzied, and loud, merrymaking, "After all this time, will I finally have you?"
His smile faded as he rubbed the crystal, longing and rage filling him as the woman in the ball laughed derisively. He scowled at the crystal ball and allowed the image to dissipate. "You will not escape from me this time. I will not let you. You will love me."