Chapter Three: Failed Magic

The white owl flew over the vast Underground without a glance down at it.

He glided through the air and swooped down lower in order to fly through

one of the windows in the castle wall. The owl lighted on the ground and

immediately transformed back into human shape. The Goblin King glared out

of the window.

He swept his white cape behind himself with an angry flick of his hand and

stamped out of the room. Jareth threw open the heavy wooden door and it

slammed against the stone wall. Several goblins who had been enjoying

plucking feathers from a dirty chicken cringed at the sound and the sight

of their angry king.

He glared down at them and barely sustained an urge to kick them down the

hall. Instead he bent down by them and smiled. They smiled back at him with

their big goofy grins. They were both too stupid to understand anything he

might have tried to tell them.

"You bumbling idiots, go and make yourself useful with the rest of the

troops!" he ordered.

The two quickly rose to their feet and scurried down the hall. The chicken

was left forgotten. It looked at its attackers with stupid glassy eyes and

then headed the opposite way down the hall. Jareth watched it walk away

with little interest and then walked back towards his throne room. It

seemed that the goblins had forgotten their orders in the matter of minutes

he had been gone.

Jareth marched into his throne room and nearly fell into his throne. He

draped one leg over the arm and then put his face into his hands. He was

alone for the time being and it was just as well. He didn't know how much

more of the goblins he could take that day. His patience had worn thin and

the many problems that had begun to occur a few months earlier didn't help

his mood much.

Then there was the stubborn girl! He clenched his jaw slightly at the

thought of her attempting to defy him. It was unheard of. She would look at

him with an overwhelming anger burning in her eyes. However, she would also

bite her lip and tremble slightly in fear and anxiety. He smiled as he

thought of the fear he had forced upon her. He thought of the cruelty that

she had sustained.

Suddenly a deep pain gripped his chest in tight hands. Jareth's blue eyes

opened wide and he had to stifle a cry form the immense agony flaring

through his body. He placed a hand over his chest and felt his heart

flutter unnaturally. Jareth pulled himself to his weak legs and nearly

collapsed on the ground. He steadied himself with the arm of his throne and

staggered out of the throne room. The entire room seemed to spin in and out

of focus. He lunged at the doorway and gripped it tightly in one white

hand. A black shade dropped momentarily before his eyes and blinded him.

Jareth veered to the left and collided with the stone wall. He groped

blindly along the wall in search of his chambers. The doorknob struck his

arm and he pushed the door open violently.

"What do you want from me?" he demanded in a weakened voice.

There was no answer to his cry. He stumbled towards his bed and sat down,

holding his throbbing head in his hands. The pain subsided and vanished as

quickly as it had struck him. He brought his head up and gazed around his

chamber with bloodshot eyes. The room was finally in focus.

The mirror caught the reflection of a different man. The man was a little

thinner than he had been a few short weeks earlier. His face was white and

covered in a fine sheen of sweat. His intense blue eyes were rimmed with

red. Jareth took a deep breath and turned his gaze away from his

reflection.

He was silently joyful that the goblins had left to follow his orders. It

was better that they didn't see their king in such a weakened state. He had

been able to hide his mystery illness from them for the time being.

However, the attacks were progressively getting worse and they lasted much

longer than when he had first felt them.

His mind wandered slightly to his plan. There wasn't much time left until

he would be calling on her to assist him. Jareth could only hope that his

strength would hold up until after she had been properly controlled.

Jareth carefully made his way to his feet and walked towards the crystal

orb that floated in midair. He sat on the navy blue couch by it and stared

deeply into its clear surface. His magic was failing quickly. The crystals

no longer appeared all of the time. In fact, the faint blue glow that the

orb had emitted for so long had flashed off and on over the past weeks. He

didn't know why their power was dying and why he had acquired a strange

illness around the same time the magic failed.

"What is this strange plague that has struck the Underground and myself?"

Jareth asked the large crystal. It's glow faltered slightly and then

returned.

He shook his head and then rose from the couch. His gaze wandered over his

chamber and rested on the mirror. He had stood before that mirror often and

watched Sarah. It wasn't until today that she had seen him. He didn't

understand how she had used it. However, she had used it and she had seen

him, if only for a brief moment. Jareth shook the thought from his head and

then continued out of his room.

"Your highness!" a goblin soldier called as he bowed deeply.

Jareth stopped in the middle of his stride and looked at the small dirty

goblin. He crossed his arms across his chest and waited for the goblin to

continue. His strength was beginning to return and his bad mood had lifted

slightly.

"We was doing as you had told us and then something happened. The light

died! It died for a little and then came back and...and..," the goblin

stopped as if he was still in shock from the whole ordeal.

Jareth started walking again. He had no time for the stupid tales this

goblin was trying to tell him. They made no sense. The light died? It was

stupid and obviously something that the goblins would say. Jareth decided

that it would be smarter to just ignore them.

The goblin scurried after Jareth on its short, stubby legs. It tripped and

landed on its stomach. Jareth turned and looked down at the strange little

thing. His mood had improved, but his patience was starting to wear thin

from the ignorant beast.

"Your highness. I was sent to have you look at the moaning woods. There's

something wrong, I'm sure," It demanded.

Jareth sighed deeply and gestured with his hand. A crystal ball appeared in

his formerly empty palm. Jareth spun it in his fingers and watched as it

grew transparent and the woods appeared inside. He watched as the ball

scanned over the woods and revealed nothing out of the ordinary. If the

goblin had been lying to him he would soon find himself in the bog of

eternal stench.

Suddenly the crystal showed a break in the lush trees. The browns and

greens of the forest ended abruptly and formed into a horrible shade of

gray. Jareth stared in shock at the awful sight that was unfolding itself

before his very eyes. He abruptly ceased the spinning of the crystal and it

disappeared. Jareth attempted to pull another one from nothing, but he came

up with nothing. The magic was failing again.

The forest had seemed normal at first glance. However, there was something

very wrong inside its calm exterior. The trees had died and withered closer

to the spot that had shocked him so. There was one tree that stood apart

from all the others. It was the tree that had been very regular until a few

short minutes earlier. That one simple tree gave Jareth all the proof he

needed to confirm the fact that the magic was draining from the Underground.

The tree had turned to stone!