Queen of the Goblins
by Ya Nefer Ma'at
Chapter 2
"Sarah?"
Sarah approached consciousness as if it would bite her. When she stirred fitfully, eyes open but not willing to see, the sound of restless footsteps roused her. Someone was calling her name, and his voice was familiar. Her brow wrinkled as she tried to remember whose lips belonged to the voice. As she tried to concentrate, a sense of unease set her heart pounding.
"Sarah? Are you awake?"
"I am now." she pouted, blinking slowly at the person beside her bed. 'Something's wrong here!', she thought, as the person came into focus. "Hoggle?!"
"No, don't try t'get up yet, Sarah." Hoggle coaxed her back against the soft pillows. "You don't look so good."
"I feel awful! Hoggle, where am I?"
"Here, smell this."
Sarah pushed his hand away. "Don't baby me!" she snapped, trying to sit again. The movement was rewarded by intense pain behind her eyes and a whirling pool of nausea filling her middle. Sarah gagged. Hoggle held a basin for her, patting her back awkwardly as she threw up. The effort seemed to rip her apart, and she fell back with a sob once the whirling eased slightly.
Hoggle pushed a posy under her nose, saying gruffly, "Smell this, Sarah: it'll ease your gut."
Sarah took the posy from him, smelling it cautiously. She did feel better with the thick scent of the flowers washing through her.
"Sorry, Hoggle. God, I didn't get you, did I?" Sarah was relieved when Hoggle chuckled.
"Just me nose! Here, drink this."
The brew looked evil, but the taste was fine, and the effect as quick as the flower's perfume had been. Sarah's headache receded, as did the sour taste in her mouth. She looked around hesitantly. Part of her was little surprised to find she was in an ornate bed chamber, tucked into the most luxurious bed she could have imagined. Meeting Hoggle's darting eyes, she spoke with anger edging her calm words. "Where am I?"
"Well, where you are ain't the point, Sarah." Hoggle stalled, patting her arm nervously. "How you're feeling is. You've been sleeping for three days straight."
"I'm in his castle, aren't I?! Hoggle, I'm back in the Underground, aren't I?!"
"Well, yes, I guess you are." Hoggle looked around the room as if discovering their whereabouts for the first time.
"He brought me here?!" Sarah found she was half sobbing and half shrieking, "How dare he?! What does he want?" She seized Hoggle's arm, making the dwarf jump, "Hoggle, what is he going to do to me?"
Hoggle stuttered, frightened by Sarah's panic. Before he could say anything coherent, Sarah collapsed back against the pillows. Hoggle jumped as an elegantly clothed arm reached past him. He looked up to discover Jareth's face close above him as the Goblin King leaned over, deftly rescuing the glass from Sarah's slack fingers.
"I ain't done nothing to her, your Majesty!"
"I know, Hoggle. I put her back to sleep."
"I din't want to upset her..." Hoggle continued nervously, aware of Jareth's frown.
"You didn't. She needs only her overactive imagination to become upset. Pity. I had hoped that she would be stronger by now." Jareth stroked Sarah's brow. "Be patient with her, Hoggle. She has truly suffered."
Hoggle glanced over at the picture on the bedside table, of Sarah grinning in the arms of a mortal man. Jareth had advised him of her loss. Hoggle was distinctly uncomfortable as he looked between the man in the picture and the man leaning over Sarah, both sets of eyes steadfast on her face, both smiles a caress. He wanted to ask Jareth bluntly what he'd done to Sarah- Hoggle was convinced something had occurred since Sarah's earlier meeting with the Goblin King, for the man to be looking at her with such light in his eyes- but Hoggle was certain that the King would not take kindly to a dwarf questioning his intentions. Even if the dwarf felt paternally responsible for the lovely woman sleeping before them.
Jareth straightened up, clapping for a pair of women to attend to Sarah. As they bathed her face with scented water and brushed her hair, Jareth murmured, "Perhaps it would be best if you allow Sarah to wake up alone tomorrow morning, Hoggle. Leave the elixir for her." With a wave of one gloved hand- yet Hoggle had noticed those fingers had been bare when touching Sarah- Jareth filled the room with the flowers that had eased Sarah's stomach. "She may still be unsettled, but you'll be next door if she calls. I will see to it that breakfast is here at 9:00: the aroma will likely wake her." Looking back at Sarah, Jareth continued, "Tomorrow, my Lady, I promise you that your appetite will return, and with a vengeance."
"What's wrong with her, your Majesty? Surely this goes beyond mourning." Hoggle ducked as he spoke, fearing rebuttal.
For a long time, Jareth neither answered, nor looked at Hoggle. When he drew his gaze from Sarah's still face to meet Hoggle's darting eyes, his countenance was troubled. He seemed as if to speak, then looked sharply at the women still stooped over Sarah. Their faces were carefully disinterested, but their hunger to hear Jareth's answer was obvious. Jareth straightened, dismissing Hoggle's concern. "She is mourning the death of her mortal husband. Is that not enough?"
'Not with you in her life, Jareth.' Hoggle covered his mouth to keep his ill-advised thought inside. Looking again from the King to the man in the picture, Hoggle felt distinctly ill. Things were rarely as they appeared in this castle, but the game the Goblin King seemed to playing this time looked especially dangerous to the dwarf.
