Sarah motioned for Toby to hold on tight to Garnet. Her gown seemed to take on a shapeless quality, billowing and unfurling in a wind that came from nowhere. Toby clung to Garnet's waist, his own hair tickling his face. Without even moving, he saw before him a lush emerald field leading up to a stone mansion three stories tall. Toby gasped at the…what had Sarah called them…turrets. Yes, the turrets painted their way up to a gray, cloud-covered sky.
"I apologize it's not the best of weather conditions," Garnet said, holding down her blowing hair with one hand and taking a chain that held a bronze key off her neck. "But at least if it starts to rain we'll be in the middle of a tour of the house." She unlocked the heavy front door. On the other side, a warm foyer greeted them, displaying a family crest among several other painting depicting eras in goblin history.
Sarah couldn't speak. Too many rooms begged to be entered and held her mouth shut. She wandered into a formal dining room, where a walk-in fireplace emerged from the jutting copper-colored stones in the corner.
"Welcome to the home that has housed Erol and his ancestors," Garnet said more to herself. "Sarah?" She peered into the dining room. "This isn't the Labyrinth, Sarah. I don't expect you to wander it alone."
"How did you know about that?"
"All goblins are made aware of who runs the Labyrinth and the babes they run for. But to hear you were the first and only one to defeat it, I found Hoggle to satisfy my curiosity. After he described you, oh, I can't explain what came over me."
Sarah let the matter drop, being led by Garnet through the first floor, not as complicated as she or Toby thought it would be, for a massive ballroom with a pinkish hue occupied most of the downstairs.
"Do you have horses?" he asked, remembering to hold onto the banister while climbing up the carpeted stairs.
"Something like horses, but you should like them. The second floor shouldn't take us long. With few exceptions, it's very dull."
A few rooms with long tables graced bare beige walls.
"They are for meetings," was all Garnet explained, sighing at the rooms. "The library makes up for all the bureaucracy that goes on elsewhere."
Shimmering swords hung on the library's walls above the shelves, contrasting well with the cherry wood walls and furniture.
"Are all these yours?" Sarah asked.
"Some of them. Some were your father's. Erol and I both enjoyed reading so. These books at your disposal while you're here—you too, Toby. Come and I'll show you your rooms." The tour went on until they came to two guest rooms on the top floor.
"For you, Sarah, the sapphire room." Sarah spun in a circle in a bedroom as wide as her entire apartment. The dazzling blues cascaded down the canopied bed and down into a soft rug that nearly reached the edges of the room. An oak armoire set against the wall opposite the bed with a plush armchair gracing each side. Best of all, at least in Sarah's opinion, there was a cushioned ledge at each window big enough for her to sit on and look out. Only more fields and the outlines of a few more country homes gazed back.
"The young mister is all settled, miss," a hunched woman about Hoggle's height croaked, entering the bedroom.
"Sarah, this is Aschenput. She'll be yours and Toby's chambermaid while you're here."
Sarah extended her hand.
"Oh, this is Mr. Hoggle's friend, every bit as sweet as he said!" Aschenput reminded Sarah of a dog too excited about going for a walk to stay still waiting for its harness to be attached. "Tis an honor, miss, truly. A great big honor. Of course we will send messages to Mr. Hoggle and his roommates at once. I know! We shall have a house party. You can teach us your native dances the good Mr. Ludo thought so highly of. What is it, the one like this." Aschenput threw up her chubby arms and made a face, making a few clumsy movements with her little feet. A frown ran over her wrinkled face at the silence, so she added, "He told me the young musician's name. Well, Sir Didymus did anyway. Sir Michael, son of Jack."
"Michael Jackson?" Sarah tried. "Oh, you're doing the Thriller dance."
"That's the one. But I'll tell you, Miss Sarah, at my age, the other one is much better on me bones. I don't know the name of who does this one." Without stopping for breath, Aschenput burst into the Electric Slide.
"I don't think Miss Sarah or Mr. Toby would prefer a party while they're here," Garnet interrupted.
"Just as well, though I will send out the message, madam." She stood on her tiptoes to reach Sarah's ear. "I really don't like strangers seein' me dance, anyhow. Might put inappropriate ideas in their heads." With that, she waddled off.
XXXXX
The next two days passed quickly at Garnet's house. She taught Sarah and Toby Canaperrin, which to Sarah's knowledge, resembled cricket and badminton. Toby, after lunch, grabbed the two of them and taught Garnet basketball using an old bucket and a ball that had to be coaxed into bouncing. Sarah usually saved her marveling at Toby for when he played sports. Three years ago, no one would have dared venture that he would be an athlete when he grew older.
"Ah, I will miss having all day with you," Garnet sighed, pouring herself some water when they went back inside, "but duty calls. Tomorrow it is back to work."
"When do you get done every day?" Toby asked in between bites of a moist, soft piece of brown bread.
"Late afternoon, I'm afraid. The king, and myself, have been worried."
"Worried?" Toby turned to exchange his worried look with Sarah, but she was already halfway up the stairs.
"Oh, nothing that can't be solved at boring meetings." She tapped his shoulder.
XXXXX
Garnet sighed to herself in her carriage. Sarah assured her she and Toby would find plenty to do in the house and on the grounds. Toby mentioned something about finding gifts for his parents, so she would take them to the markets in the evening. A week feels so short, she thought, especially since Sarah was everything Garnet had hoped her child would be. A little uncomfortable at times when others made mention of this world, but it was to be expected. She gave her the key before she left. Hopefully, that was the right thing to do…
XXXXX
"Talk with the chimeras is at an end!" Orion bellowed, pounding his fist on the table.
"If you want to be the one to go to war with an enemy who knows our secrets, I'll say you're the spy, Orion," Lysander answered.
Jareth tried to read the faces of his eight generals. Most of them usually looked at the table surface at these meetings, but a few outspoken ones (case in point, he thought) made their presence all too known. One of them had to be feeling some air of superiority, some smugness at outwitting everyone else. But he rolled his eyes instead. None of them could have achieved such impossibility if they chuckled to themselves as a habit.
"Then we must discover a secret or two about the chimeras. You're very quiet, your Highness. Perhaps you already know some." Garnet could stay perfectly calm when challenging him.
"Perhaps it is because I feel I won't be able to make myself heard over such cattiness some of my underlings display," Jareth said, glaring at Orion and Lysander especially. "We will plan a negotiation, during which we will conduct our own covert mission to discover some secrets." He made sure to look at Garnet for the last bit.
"May I share my sentiments about that, your Highness?" Orion requested, already red in the face.
"Please do." Jareth prepared himself for a laugh. He knew from experience to only half-listen to Orion's opinions since they last well into the subsequent hours if allowed. How the same person could be such an ingenious tactician on the battlefield and yet so dim in peacetime often made Jareth raise an eyebrow. However, Orion was not the first suspect in regards to the spy. His eyes wandered to Garnet, blushing at a secretive smile given to her by Aulis, sitting straight across from her. Apparently, they knew to half-listen to Orion as well. Ever since they announced their engagement, Jareth found most of their romantic whims annoying, but today, he was amused.
"Thank you, Orion. That was diverting but my ruling has gone unchanged. You're all dismissed. Garnet, stay please."
She blushed again, most likely fearing her previous blush would earn her some time in iron-heated shoes or maybe a few devices down in the Labyrinth created by the king himself.
"I want you to be our spy when we travel to see the chimera," he told her. "You'll have to be discreet. Can you do that?"
"Yes, your Highness." She nodded with a general's confidence. "It will be easy since they are an easily distracted species."
"Easy? If it were easy, I would send Hoggle." He waited for her to stop laughing. Garnet was his favorite of his generals, honest, reserved. She had secrets, he knew, but what they were obviously did not interfere with her work. He was actually quite pleased Aulis finally proposed to her. The dark hair, the shimmering eyes—he always liked that look. "You may go. Oh, why did you request a week? You know our time is valuable now."
"Does his Highness fancy me a spy?" she challenged.
"One does wonder what you do in your free time."
"Wondering is an exercise for the brain," she said and exited the castle, her swarthy lower-goblin of a coachman leading two fine furry beasts back to the country.
"Aulis," he called, knowing how the general liked to linger. The ridiculous, but still formidable Aulis tried so hard to read the ancient tapestries hanging on the castle walls.
"Oh! Forgive me, your Highness. I made out a sentence that started, 'in the time of,' and I was so eager to know in the time of what."
"Most likely 'time of a great war.' All eras are marked by their wars. You must understand I need to suspect every general, and when they loiter as you do…"
"Quite so! I would be most happy to gulp down any truth potion or spell you can muster, sir, or be crystaled if that were possible."
It had been Aulis' mission in life before the untold joys of translating ancient writings to find a way to engineer the crystals to be able to watch other goblins. Of course, they showed lower-goblins and humans, but none of that helped upon deducing the chimera learned of their Intelligence via a traitor.
"Why did Garnet request a whole week of leave? There is no holiday approaching."
"Oh, well, I shouldn't say, sir. She didn't want anyone to know. It even had to get approved for me to know."
"I can order you," Jareth whispered in a sing-song voice. "Coerce it out of you. There are only so many bones and teeth in a body. I could make short work of it."
"You force it out of me, sir!" Aulis wailed.
"Did I?" He grinned. No, he never touched the hairs on the heads of anyone as loyal to him as Aulis. No ruler should be that tyrannical. But teasing the poor soul did provide entertainment.
"It's her daughter, your Highness. She had a daughter when she was married to Erol and gave her up. She only wanted to spend time with her while she stayed at her house."
Only Jareth's eyes showed any relief at so natural and harmless an explanation.
"I had no idea. Does she plan to have the daughter live with her?"
"I don't know, sir. These situations always make things a little gray. I haven't even met her yet."
"I must go and pay my respects then." It seemed fitting to be extra kind to Garnet, at least until her job with the chimeras was done. Any incentive for her to not change her mind would be well worth it.
"She's having a small get-together tonight, sir," Aulis said. "Not a large party, more a, a…there's a human word for it…shindig! Such a funny word. I wonder the origin…but it is a few old friends and some of the neighbors."
"So I would be out of place. Is that what you're telling me?" He saw a speechless look of terror on Aulis' face. "You must learn to calm yourself, Aulis. I shall only stop by to bring her daughter a gift."
"Yes, your Highness, a most friendly idea. The little one must not know many here. Am I dismissed then?"
"Go on."
"Sir! Sir!" A pattering of flat lower-goblin feet echoed through the castle hall.
"What is it, Murk?"
"Sir, it's the baby, sir, Jason. He's climbing up the curtains!" The rat-like lower-goblin began pulling on his sparse mauve hairs.
"Twenty baby-sitters and not a brain among you," Jareth muttered to himself, making his way towards the throne room. This time of year it seemed more humans made that fatal wish. Oh well. Tonight would at least provide some peaceful, if not fitting, activity.
A/N: Dun dun dun! Have you figured out yet that the chapter titles were popular songs of the late 80s and early 90s? Just a way to make a conscious effort not to create any anachronisms. If anyone sees anything that wouldn't be said or done in that time, let me know. So...is this going to be the party from heaven or from hell? Find out, next installment!