Sarah considered not changing for supper, but decided against it. He might think that it was due to her ignorance. It would be much more fun to play by the rules for a short while and then pull the switch. That would show it as a deliberate act rather than an oversight.
She pulled out a dark green gown that looked good with her hair left down and then had Crei'Tun show her to the dining room. She was informed that it was the informal dining room used for when the King wasn't entertaining. There was a rarely used formal banquet hall for that.
Sarah walked into the room and was surprised to find the King was not alone. A tall handsome man with dark hair—and obviously not of human origin—was standing by the fire with Jareth.
"Ah," Jareth said when he saw her. "Lady Sarah, allow me to introduce Lord Vandeele of Alfheim. Vandeele, this is the woman I was telling you about."
Sarah gave a small curtsy to the lord. "My lord."
"It is always a pleasure to meet a lady of such talents that she could beat this old cheat at his own game."
She noticed how Jareth was stiffening at the way Lord Vandeele held her hand and kissed it. Let the games begin, Goblin King. She smiled and hooked her arm in Vandeele's and let him lead her to the table. "And it is a pleasure to meet another so keenly aware of his majesty's lack of fairness."
Throughout the dinner Sarah put forward her best flirting with the visiting lord. He flirted right back. Jareth was often left out of the discussion as Sarah kept the subject to the lord and his country. She would often drop a remark belittling the Goblin Kingdom and over praising Alfheim from Vandeele's descriptions. But before the Goblin King could defend his kingdom she moved the conversation forward and left him behind, the King glaring fiercely at his dinner guests and his plate. When dinner was cleared, Sarah excused herself with one last flirtatious look at Vandeele and left the room.
Vandeele waited for Jareth's temper to break loose.
"That hussy!" Jareth yelled as he threw a pewter goblet into the fire. It merely bounced off the side and rolled under the table.
"I wouldn't really go that far," Vandeele said, not able to resist teasing his friend a little more. "She was just being pleasant."
"Pleasant? Just pleasant? If that was just pleasant then I would hate to see what flirting looks like."
"Only if she was flirting with any other male than yourself, you mean."
"She's mine, Vandeele! Mine!"
"If you think I am stupid enough to come between you, then you are very much mistaken. The girl was clearly doing it on purpose to annoy you. And on the bright side, after only one meal I may be able to fully concur that she is as cruel as you. She not only made you jealous, but she also repeatedly, not-so-subtly, insulted your kingdom."
"Don't remind me."
"All in all, I think it was a highly successful evening. I've been flattered by a pretty lady and am well on my way to witnessing the key part for the curse's end. Now we just need to get the girl to marry you."
"That may be impossible," Jareth sighed.
"Don't tell me that the mighty Goblin King is to be beaten twice by a mere mortal girl! I'll help you any way I can. You still have a little time."
"But anything could happen to her! Do you know how perilous the Aboveground is?"
"I have some notion. But it doesn't help to worry about it. Jehanna will be fine for a little longer. I'll try my hand at matchmaker and we'll see if we can't have you married by the next moon. Now if you will excuse me, I think I'll retire for the night."
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
After a bath and breakfast in her room, Sarah started to explore the castle. She poked her head in empty bedchambers and around corners to long dark passages. The castle seemed just as much a maze as the walls outside the Goblin City. Eventually she came to a long gallery with windows over looking the kingdom on one side and portraits on the other. She passed painting and tapestries depicting battles, portraits of kings—Fae, elf, dwarf, and faerie. Towards one side she came across a painting that froze her in front of it. There on the wall in a large and very ornate gold frame was the Goblin King, and next to him was a young girl with light brown curls. There was something familiar about the face that she couldn't place.
"I see you've found his majesty's portrait."
She turned away from the painting and curtsied. "Lord Vandeele."
"Please, call me Vand. And dispense with the bowing and such. I know you are new to our realms. It must be overwhelming for you."
"Not as much as you'd think. I have been here before."
"But how many of our secrets did you really see? There are many."
"All right. Maybe you can tell me one. Who is she?" She pointed to the girl beside Jareth in the portrait.
"That is the Princess Jehanna, the King's sister."
"He has a sister?" Sarah's eyes were wide with disbelief. But that would explain why she looked familiar. There was a slight resemblance, but the girl's features were much softer and rounder than her brother's.
"Yes, she'd be about the Fae equivalent to a teenaged younger sister."
"Where is she now? Will I meet her?"
"Perhaps these are questions better put to the King himself."
Sarah nodded, thinking there might be some argument in the family or something. Vand did, however, entertain her with stories of the other paintings as they walked down the gallery together and out to the castle gardens.
"I have some of my own questions for you, Sarah. How ever did you beat that old skunk at his game? I've heard his version, but I'd be delighted to hear it in full from you—not just the snippets I got last night."
Once again Sarah found herself describing her journey through the Labyrinth. It went much quicker without all the interruptions from her friends.
"So what do you think of the King?" the lord asked when she had finished her tale.
"Besides the obvious?"
"Yes, and no. Even the obvious. I've known him for so long that I'd like to hear an outsider's perspective, especially yours, all things considered."
"He's cruel, manipulative, completely unfair, a cheat, a liar, and a total bastard. He's all smirks and 'the Labyrinth brought you here, I had nothing to do with it,' but I know that's a lie. He just left things out so I would walk into my own trap. I spent half of last night working that out in my head. He's all riddles and puzzles. Nothing is just a straight line with him."
"Well, he is king of the Labyrinth."
"Yeah, a baby-stealing, criminally-too-tight pants wearing piece of sh…"
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
"She really said all that about me?" Jareth raised an eyebrow at Vand's report.
"She really doesn't like you. And for so pretty a lady has the mouth of a sailor."
Jareth chuckled darkly. "That part is new with her added years."
"How you are going to get her to trust you enough to marry you, I don't know. But it should be fun to watch. I've heard the line between love and hate is very thin, so let us hope that it is true. By the by, she's asked about the portrait of you and Jehanna."
"What did you tell her?"
"That she was your sister and that it was all for you to explain. I'd do that soon; it may make a start to earning that trust. Just tell her the whole truth. A good sob story to start the pity…"
"I don't want her pity."
"Well, it would be a start in the right direction for you."
"Just keep an eye on her and make certain that she can break the curse."
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
Jareth walked into the ice room, hoping that being near his sister's immortal body, empty and locked in ice as it was, would help him think clearly. Instead he found Sarah staring at the tomb again.
"I believe we are making this a habit," he said as she spun around to face him.
"Then we should keep with the habit. Who is she?"
"A trapped bird." Sarah rolled her eyes with a huff, but before she could say anything he continued. "She is a princess locked in ice due to a curse from a woman who even in your eyes would make me look as kind as Father Christmas."
"Your sister?" Sarah guessed.
"Yes, this is my sister Jehanna. Or at least this is her Fae body. Her soul is currently trapped in a mortal body Aboveground where I cannot find it. If the curse is not broken before that mortal body dies, then she is gone forever. My dearest little sister." He let some of the emotions of her loss show as he looked at her tomb.
From the softening of Sarah's features, Vand might have been right about using the truth and pity.
"Can you break the curse?"
"Yes, eventually I will. I must, and at a cost that will not give pleasure to the one who did this."
"How?"
"I think that is enough questions for now," he warned. "Come, let us leave my sister to her sleep."
"I'm not going anywhere with you again." She stubbornly crossed her arms. "Especially when there's a lot you aren't telling me."
So much for that plan. "Sarah, I wish to take my thoughts away from here. Will you not help me?"
"No, I will not."
"Just let me walk with you to the door."
"I don't think so."
They stood for several minutes just staring at each other.
"I'm not leaving so you might as well take your royal behind out of here," she finally said.
With one last glare at her, the Goblin King climbed the staircase and left her behind in the room.
"Well?" he asked Vand who had been standing out of sight to see the conversation between them. Vand was an expert at following people unnoticed.
"Aside from feeling a complete fool watching you, yes, that was rather cruel. Understandable behaviour, but after telling her about Jehanna like that and not being kind enough to at least just walk with you to the door… Cruel might well describe it. That still doesn't help with getting her to marry you."
"All in good time."
"I thought that's what you said we didn't have." But the words fell on deaf ears.
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
"Hoggle, what can you tell me about the Princess Jehanna?" Sarah was sitting outside the Labyrinth gates with Sir Didymus while Hoggle was spraying faeries. Ludo hadn't been able to join them.
"Why woulds you be asking about her?"
"Just curious." And she couldn't get the portrait of the tomb out of her head.
"She was a fair young maiden, my lady," Didymus said. "Just an innocent and happy child under her brother's care."
"How was she cursed? Why? Who would do that?"
"Amneris is what did it," Hoggle said. "She's wickeder than even that damn Jareth."
"Queen Amneris rules the Shadow Lands and is the Queen of Nightmares," Didymus added.
"She's wanted Jareth for a long time, and when he turned her down she went and found a way to get revenge using his sister."
"Hoggle, you almost sound sorry for him."
"It's not Jareth I'm sorry for. It's his sister. You would have liked her."
"And she you," Didymus said.
"But the curse can be broken, can't it?" Sarah asked, thinking back on Jareth's determined words.
"It doesn't look likely," Didymus answered sadly. "The curse can only be broken when the King marries a woman as cruel as himself."
"And those no good Fae decided centuries ago to get rid of cruelty in their women. Just look at the problems Amneris is causing."
"But they couldn't just decide to get rid of cruelty!" Sarah protested.
"Thems may not be nice all the time, but rules are just so that no woman could be as cruel as that Jareth."
"Yes," Didymus agreed with Hoggle. "There are still jealousies and plots, but nothing as are comparable with his majesty. Queen Amneris used the clause in the curse so that the King would have to marry her to save the princess."
Sarah's thoughts started to whirl in her head. "Does the curse say it has to be a Fae woman that marries the King?"
The two seemed to think it over. "Um… no?" Didymus said.
"What are you thinking of?" Hoggle asked her.
"Nothing yet. I'll let you know when I know myself."
What is she thinking? You can probably guess, but I like to have a bit of mystery here and there. Check out my deviantART for a picture of Jehanna (link on my profile).
