Toby Williams looked around the throne room of the great Castle Beyond the Goblin City with undisguised delight. The mess! The noise! The goblins! It was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen.
The goblins, for their part, were equally delighted by the appearance of the small boy in his Superman pajamas. There were cries of, "Toby!" and "The Prince!" and also "There's that boy again!", but for the most part individual words were lost amidst the cacophony and general merriment that ensued upon his arrival. They swatted his bottom and pulled his hair and pushed him this way and that, laughing all the while. A squat, hairy goblin wearing a dented helmet pushed a tankard of ale into the boy's hands, but another, less squat but more hairy, slapped the tankard away before Toby could take a sip. The extremely drunk goblin that had proffered the inappropriate beverage was drop-kicked from the room by a truly enormous one that may or may not have shared some lineage with mountain trolls.
Toby had never been happier.
The same thing could not, unfortunately, be said of his sister.
Sarah faced the Goblin King with anger in her heart. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Bring Toby back here this instant!" Her green eyes were dark with rage and within them, little sparks caught and flared, giving her the appearance of being lit from within.
Jareth, King of the Goblins, was armored for battle; given the expression on his intended's face, he would be needing all the protection he could get. He sighed, letting the wind that whipped about them fade to a gentle breeze. "You know very well that I can't do that, Sarah." He couldn't look her in the eyes, preferring instead to pace about the confines of the small room. "What's said is said."
"Bull, Jareth!" The buzzing was much louder now, like the roar of a towering flame as it consumes the air around it. "We've already done this and you know I would never wish him away again." She tracked his progress around the room with her fiery eyes. The air grew warmer.
"It doesn't matter what I know," he said, voice just barely audible above the storm in her ears, "it only matters what you said." He eyed her warily, noting the steam rising from her hair and the warm glow of banked coals beneath her skin. Magic crackled in the air around them and not all of it was his.
"Jareth," said Sarah, reaching out to grasp his wrists with her hands, stopping his movement, "You can't have him. Bring him to me now." Her fingers glowed with heat and the leather of his gloves began to smoke.
"I can't, Sarah. That's not the way it works." The Goblin King winced at her touch but did not pull away. The pain in his eyes had nothing to do with his wrists. "Not for him, not for you, and not for me."
"Then take me to him," shouted Sarah. "Just bring me to the Labyrinth again. I'll run the god-damned thing backwards if that's what it takes." Her hands were lost in acrid smoke, the scent of burning leather and flesh rising around them.
Jareth shook his head sadly, beginning to lose solidity, his voice becoming hollow. "I can't do that either, Sarah. Not this time." He met her gaze at last, mismatched eyes full of the things he wished to say, but couldn't.
Sarah became aware that she was no longer holding onto anything, the Goblin King having become as insubstantial as the smoke around them. "Wait!" she cried, desperation making her shrill. "Don't go! It's not fa..." A ghostly hand shot out and covered her mouth, surprising her into silence.
"Don't, Sarah." His voice was ragged. "Don't say 'it's not fair', please, I can't..." The hand on her lips dissolved like the last of his words.
The Goblin King was gone and Sarah was alone.
Toby was having the time of his life.
Various goblins were giving him piggy-back rides, tossing him gently about the room and tickling him with their whiskers and spindly fingers. He was having a blast, but eventually, he began to tire. When the goblins noticed his droopy eyes and large yawns, they led him to a pile of pillows in a sunken area before the throne. Though he sleepily protested that he "wasn't tired!", the goblins managed to shush him and themselves and soon enough, he was sound asleep among a pile of them.
That was how Jareth found him, when he coalesced out of the shadows and stood frowning above the sleepers. The conscious goblins seemed alarmed at his appearance, gesturing to the smoke that still curled from the tatters of his gloves, but he waved them into silence. He stepped carefully into the small pit and squatted beside the small boy sleeping there. As if sensing his presence, Toby's eyes popped open.
"King Jareth!" Toby fought mightily against the tide of sleep pulling him. His arms reached up to grab Jareth around the neck.
Jareth grimaced, then gently disentangled Toby's arms from his high collar. "Toby," he said softly, "why?"
Toby yawned hugely and his eyes fluttered closed again. "I wanted to see the castle and the goblins."
Jareth pulled a crystal onto his fingertips and wove it into a warm blanket. "Already acting the prince..." he muttered, covering the boy.
Toby pulled the blanket around him like a shell, burrowing into its warmth. "And you," he whispered and then his words gave way to soft snores.
For the space of a heartbeat, Sarah blazed incandescent, her fury making her a pillar of flame that scorched the ceiling, set fire to her bed and caused the automatic sprinklers to turn on in her room.
It was the shock of cold water that brought her back to herself. That, and the piercing shriek of the fire alarms.
Ignoring the water pooling around her feet, she quickly grabbed her oversize backpack from its hook on the wall and climbed into her closet. It was a tight fit, both her and the backpack, but somehow, pressed flat against her winter coat and her roommate's shaggy bathrobe, head buried deep between the crammed-in shirts and sweaters, she was able to muffle the noise that assaulted her ears. She was able to think.
I am so completely and utterly screwed, was her first thought, quickly banished as unhelpful. I have to get to Toby, was her second, which while accurate, was still lacking in helpfulness. Gah! What is WRONG with me? She slammed her head against the back of the closet, trying to clear her mind. Outside in her room, the fire alarm was still blaring.
And then it stopped. All at once, there was quiet.
Sarah exhaled sharply, letting herself sink down until she was sitting on a stack of shoe boxes. Her wet clothes clung to her, making her shiver; little streams of water ran down her face like tears. I have to get out of here. Her eyes swiveled toward her dresser, invisible behind the closed closet door.
Slowly and painfully, she unfolded herself and climbed out. Ignoring the ruin of her room, she went straight for the top drawer of her dresser and removed something small and round, wrapped in a woolen sock. She shoved it, sock and all, into her backpack and stood still, listening. In the distance, she could hear voices; campus officials and maybe firemen. Damn. The last thing she needed was to be stopped and delayed. A cool breeze swept the room and she shivered and sneezed. I've got to get dry. She had a change of clothes in her pack, but everything around her was soaked. If I only had some of that heat now... she let the thought trail off as an idea crept into her mind.
She had never tried to focus her magic before. Since Jareth had helped her get it under control, she hadn't really thought about it at all. It was too weird, too frightening; easier to put it out of her head and concentrate on the things that made sense. Thinking about the magic brought thoughts of the Goblin King and all the confusion of the feelings he inspired in her.
Should she try it now? The sudden pounding of footsteps in the hall outside decided her. With a deep breath, she found her center and reached down, down, down...there, in the depths of her, fire slept. Eyes closed, arms braced and palms pushing against each other, Sarah imagined a very small breeze fanning that fire.
Whoosh!
Startled, she leapt back. Small flames danced before her eyes and a feeling of warmth permeated her limbs. Ignoring the shouts from outside, she concentrated on that warmth, nurturing it and encouraging it to grow. Her damp clothes began to steam. It was working! She was drying out! Elation swept over her along with a tickly feeling of power that acted on her like very strong drink. Giddy, she ignored the still-rising heat and the little sparks of flame that jumped from her skin to the surrounding room. A pounding on her door was likewise ignored. All of her attention was on the fire building within her. She was beyond dry now, her clothes beginning to smoke; the bitter smell of it entered her nose and from within her whirlwind of flame, she remembered what she needed to do. Toby. She must find Toby.
Reaching into her pack, she pulled out the sock, which flared in the heat and then crumbled away, revealing a perfect, solid crystalline sphere. She held it in front of her, eyes searching its interior for...something. What do I do now? she wondered. The sphere reflected her burning eyes and wild, heat-frazzled hair. Think, Sarah. This was supposed to help her call on the Goblin King and she knew he used these to channel his own magic. Could she do the same? Toby, she thought, take me to Toby.
Two firefighters burst into her room just in time to witness an explosion of flame that was oddly silent and silver in hue. They found no one inside.
The Goblin King shivered on his balcony beneath the stars. Frost rimmed the crystalline balustrade and glinted in the moonlight atop the Labyrinth walls. He felt that it would snow before much longer, the first real snow his kingdom had seen in a thousand years. If he didn't bring her home soon...
But no, it did not bear considering. What's done is done. Let those that came after him judge the rightness of his actions; let them decide whether or not the ends justified the means. He did not care to be bothered.
In the darkness of the room behind him, his chosen prince slept peacefully with a handful of especially furry goblins for company. In his sleep, the small boy reached out and patted one or another as though they were cats. The goblins purred obligingly, making the corners of their king's mouth turn up slightly with amusement.
Below in the dark city, various bonfires blazed in haphazard piles of wood and rock as creatures large and small, unaccustomed to the cold, tried to keep warm. Already, those that lived outside the city walls were moving within, finding warmth in numbers. Jareth sighed, his breath floating before him in a silver cloud. He moved to return inside and was just crossing the threshold when...
...an explosion of silver flame lit the room and its sleepers. The goblins leaped up chittering and wild-eyed, while Toby rubbed his eyes and began to cry.
For his part, Jareth could only stare, openmouthed, at the blazing figure that appeared in the center of the flames. For the space of a heartbeat, the unnatural fire burned without heat, then there was a brilliant flare and...
...nothing. The form in the fire became a dark-haired girl who slumped to the ground, all flame extinguished. "Sarah!" cried Toby, first to realize who it was and throwing himself across the prone figure of his sister.
Jareth rushed forward to kneel beside them, one hand pushing the tangled hair back from her face while the other birthed a crystal that emitted soft light. Toby was still crying, but the Goblin King gently passed the crystal over his head and he too, collapsed in sleep. He placed them both in his own bed and settled himself in a divan at its foot to keep watch through the night.
After a long while, snow began to fall softly over the castle and the city. At long last, he also slept.