Chapter 5: A Respectable Side
August 12, 1992
Three hours he had taken, and three hours were all it would take.
Time was his domain.
Time, and luck, and hopes, and dreams.
Those fundamental forces driving the Above were not their own, not truly. His kind may have lost the humans' favor over the eons, but these gifts bestowed unto that world were the Others' life breath.
What happened to time taken or time lost? It became his. His to bend, his to shape, his to break, if he so chose.
Time Incarnate was the most fragile time of all, and he'd carelessly thrown Hers down the shaft and into the Dark.
Time taken and Time lost.
Time taken was easy. Once dismissed, it took barely a notion to recall.
Fetching lost Time was a far more perilous venture. His by right, but only in name. In actuality, all things irrevocably lost had one particular destination.
But for Her, he would brave the Between.
Three hours were all he had- an infinitesimal span in the scope of all things. But those three hours were his by right, were all he had to work with, if anything went according to plan.
He needed to be successful; any longer and the Girl was doomed to die.
No reordering reordered time- it would break then, and that had never been his intent. Not for Her, even in the face of Her defiance, or their shared history.
She carried on, living and being, blithely unaware of the mortal peril that lie in wait. And he was powerless to stop it, for by her own assertion he held no power over her, and her word was Law.
Save for those few precious hours he had taken. A safeguard they turned out to be. Or would be, once found.
If found.
The Between was gray and unforgiving- the land of time, things, and people, lost- never to be found again. Except by him and his, and even that could not be guaranteed. He was just as like to be lost as any other in the drab half-world.
No human that gained entry to this most insidious area of his Labyrinth ever made their way out again, except the one woman-child that should have never been able to find the way in, in the first place. Their magic might have had something to do with that. Such a pity-
He found the bauble before he could complete his thought. It remained remarkably intact, even after all the intervening years, sparkling innocuously amongst the detritus. Plucking Her Time from its prison of broken toys, the crystal danced across deft fingers, sparkling in recognition.
For Her, he would be both that which he Was and that which he Was Not.
As long as his endeavor insured her longevity, he cared little how the Girl perceived him.
Three hours were all he had, and three hours were all it would take.
"What the hell did he promise you?"
"I do not-"
Sarah rounded on the Dwarf Lord.
"Don't give me that bullshit. You two were all chummy making sure that I was out of the loop, while you made googily eyes at me. Now, that asshole left me with you, and you'd damned well better tell me why."
He clearly had not expected her temper and for the moment appeared suitably cowed. Or perhaps befuddled was a more generous term.
"You are more fierce than you have let on, my Lady."
"What the hell did you think I'd do? Accept being left here without question?"
It was foolish- the man was nearly two heads taller than herself, and were she not so royally pissed, she might have thought better of provoking him and used a more civil approach.
"I am not a slave to be sold. He has no power over me. And neither do you. Now, out with it."
Ferron's brow furrowed. He spoke, but not with words she wanted to hear.
"Bound below, she was terrible in her fury. Freed above, she flew. Bound for all time."
If the Dwarf Lord thought quoting poetry was the way to her good graces, not only was he terribly mistaken, but he was also doing a terrible job of it. Sarah had just decided to tell him such, when he continued.
"You are her, aren't you? You're the Goblin Queen."
It was so out of left field that it actually took her several seconds for her brain to register and properly respond.
"What?"
It was the proper response. Sarah never claimed to be eloquent.
"There is no other explanation."
"Whoa, whoa, back up. What the hell did Jareth even say to you?"
"It's true," He said with some conviction, "After all this time returned to the Underground."
The Dwarf Lord was ignoring her, and the woman clapped her hands in front of his face as though he were a disobedient dog. Probably not the best approach, but at least she had his attention again.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not her. If I were the Goblin Queen, why would the Goblin King leave me?"
Having been so sure moments ago, Ferron fumbled, at that.
"But you look like her. Raven of hair-"
Sarah snorted, "My hair is brown."
Ferron's eyes flashed. Brawny and pissed would not be a good combination.
"Sorry, but I'm just saying whoever she is, or was, or whatever, I'm not her. I'm just" Sarah.
Well that had been a close one.
"Me," she finished lamely.
He looked skeptical, again. Like he was trying to see her properly but was miserably failing at his self-assigned task.
"You will stay in the rooms prepared for you tonight. We will discuss this further in the morning. Come, I will lead you, myself."
Can't have the prisoner making a break for it after all.
"Like hell," she muttered. He clearly wasn't going to spill. She just needed to play along until she figured out her next move.
For the moment, Sarah allowed herself to be led through the twisting passages of the Ferron's stronghold.
If she could just get a moment alone to think, she could figure out how to get away and get back to wherever it was that she needed to be going. But the one person that was supposed to be leading her had ditched her, and Sarah wondered if she would actually be able to find her way without him. If she only knew her destination, she would be fine, but she did not, and her current predicament made her want to scream. She barely even knew what her actual goal was, and that was assuming that anything the Goblin King had told her was true.
Sarah was beyond angry at Jareth. Outraged did not even touch the scope of what she was currently feeling.
Nothing unjustifiable there.
Lost in her thoughts, the young woman lurched to a stop in order to avoid crashing into the Dwarf Lord's back. Being the weird pseudo-barbarian gentleman he was, Ferron caught her arm to steady her.
Her left arm.
Sarah froze.
He's touching the gauntlet. He feels it. Oh crap, oh crap, I'm doomed. Shit-hell!
Ferron's eyes widened in realization. The gauntlet could not be seen, but it was there all the same. His grip around her arm tightened painfully, until he let out a hiss and recoiled. Realizing what must have happened, Sarah yanked away from the slackened grasp he had around her other arm.
Finally, someone other than me gets acquainted with the damn sharp-ass strings from hell.
The Dwarf Lord turned to her in full fury and Sarah thought he would strike her down where she stood. She braced herself, ready to run in the next instant. Instead, the most curious thing happened: Ferron's eyes glazed and he stumbled away in confusion.
"My apologies, Lady Sabine. I am unsure what came over me."
It was as though the last minute had never happened.
"I am not well. You will have to excuse-"
Sarah never learned what exactly she needed to excuse because Ferron keeled over mid-sentence. Sarah was torn. Under any other circumstances, she would immediately call for help, try to help on her own, but this was her chance, maybe her only chance, to escape.
He seemed to be breathing fine and the dwarves would find him eventually, but she couldn't shake the feeling that just leaving seemed like a bad idea. She would inevitably be blamed for whatever it was that happened to him. It may have technically been her fault, or the glove's, but the idea of not being able to defend herself did not sit well with her. Leaving a note to try to explain seemed like an even worse idea.
I'm wasting time. I need to get out of here while I still can.
"Sorry," Sarah whispered to the unconscious man, hurrying off in the direction from which they had just come.
"There has to be another way out of here," Sarah groused some turns later.
Well there really didn't have to be. From what she could tell, she was hundreds of feet below the surface of the Underground with no way out other than the way she had come in, despite this she hoped she would find a way out soon. The Hall of the Dwarf Lord was labyrinthine- connecting and twisting in all sorts of interesting ways, but having made her way out of an actual living maze at fifteen, she felt that she was not too off her mark in aiming for the exits. She didn't think she was lost at any rate, and after fifteen minutes of speedy wandering, she had not even run into any guards.
She didn't know how long her luck imbued tic-tacs would continue to bring her luck. Though she had no evidence they were doing so now, and in fact, she had all evidence to the contrary. That was if Jareth wasn't lying to begin with. But he had wished her luck before he vamoosed. Did that mean something, or?
And then there was shouting vaguely from where Sarah had left Ferron. Of course, the moment she thought she was home-free on the guard front, they would start pouring out into the halls in droves.
Whel-p, guess there's no use in trying to be stealthy anymore.
As was her new favorite pastime, Sarah ran. At full speed, the stone corridors were even more confusing, and she made several twists and turns that she was sure would end badly. Luckily enough, they did not. She broke free of the small hallways and found herself in the big stone room where Ferron had first received them.
She startled several actual dwarves in the process, and may have drop-kicked one when he made a grab at her, but Sarah didn't slow her pace until she made it back to the makeshift city. It was night, she assumed. The hustle and bustle of earlier had tapered off and the streets were near empty. She kept to the shadows and picked her way carefully through the subterranean town. No one was scrambling about trying to find her out here.
Yet, anyway.
Nothing made sense. If Jareth wanted rid of her so badly, why work so hard to make sure she survived thus far? He wouldn't have even had to do anything. He could have simply not cleared her mind of the brain-draining mist, or better yet, never come to her aid in the mists at all. Or even that first night when she had been running from that thing. She still had no idea what had actually been chasing her and-
"It took you long enough."
As fate would have it, the Goblin King in question, and not the creepy mysterious thing from the forest, chose that instant to insinuate himself into the path of Sarah's most current grand escape.
Sarah had never been so happy to see the Goblin King in her life.
No, 'happy' isn't the right sentiment. Relieved. Yes, relieved.
Because she was still pissed the fuck off and markedly unhappy with the whole situation. Jareth realized this and raised his hands in what she thought was meant to be a placating gesture as he stepped closer to her.
"You." Sarah infused every ounce of venom she could muster into that single word.
"Now isn't the time, I'm afraid."
Jareth pressed one long, gloved finger to the woman's lips to forestall her oncoming tirade.
Sarah was hard pressed not to bite the appendage, stealth be damned. She stopped herself mainly because he was squinting thoughtfully at something in the distance. She thought she could hear a far off commotion reminding her that they were far from safe in their present location.
"You can extoll all my villainous merits later. You failed to make a clean break. Really, precious, I expected better." Jareth pulled her along, and she groaned.
"Yeah, well, next time I'm leaving you to the sharks without half a clue what's going on. And I'm holding you to that whole permission to yell at you thing. The minute we're in the clear."
The wayward king flashed her a grin, and Sarah was almost startled out of her run by his genuine mirth.
"But of course, it would only be fair."
"And just what have you been doing, anyway?" She huffed. It was hard to keep up with him; he had long legs and a stride to match.
Instead of answering, Jareth flung a bag at her. Sarah fumbled, but didn't drop it. He was lucky she knew a thing or two about catching a running pass from that one season of basketball. That was before she ran the Labyrinth and decided she really was not all that fond of running at all. Funny how the running thing seemed to be coming back to bite her in the ass at present.
"Why can't you carry it?"
"Because it's yours, of course. Come, now, Samantha, I do rather think we should get on before our luck runs out, don't you?"
She did stop mid-stride, then.
"Running out of two syllable names starting with 'S,' Goblin King?"
Jareth growled something incomprehensible before turning back and pulling her along again. The Goblin King ducked down one of the larger tunnels, and having little alternative, Sarah followed. He stopped after a few more turns. It was dim but not too dark to see, not that Sarah particularly cared; she was glad for the reprieve. When she did get back home, because she would and she refused to think that she might actually die from this little ill-conceived venture, at least she would be in awesome shape.
"I had hoped you would stay put until I was prepared. I rather suspected you would not, however."
"Stay put? How the hell was I supposed to know to stay put?" She thought better of adding: I mean, have you met me?, and ultimately settled for, "Just what the hell did you promise him?"
She lamented the fact that she was a bit too winded and far too tired to start yelling at him properly, regardless of the danger they still might be in. He'd stopped, so Sarah thought they were probably good for the moment.
He waved a hand in obvious dismissal.
"He wanted to court you, so I left him to it."
"Really," the young woman pressed, skeptically.
"He seemed to be deluded into the belief that you were docile and delicate. The fool actually thought he was rescuing you from my most nefarious clutches."
"Yeah, yeah, so Ferron's not the brightest crayon in the box. What did he promise you that had you so eager to ditch me? Hmm?"
Jareth huffed, obviously exasperated by her line of questioning.
"Supplies, naturally. Pity we had to leave the goats."
"You sold me for a herd of goats?"
The man was treading dangerous waters and stamped onward with a grin and without a care.
"Seven is hardly a herd, love. And it was more the other supplies I was after. You came to the Underground woefully unprepared."
Again with the pet names. She almost missed Sally and Saiorse and all the other ridiculous names he called her by. Except Sabine. She hated that one. It was easier to be annoyed by him when her was being purposefully infuriating. But things like, 'love' and 'precious,' almost didn't seem to be a conscious choice.
Sarah glared at him, and when he did not respond further, she glared back at the way they came.
"They can't follow us. We've crossed the Great Salt Gate."
"So, what, dwarves don't do salt?"
"As amusing as your erroneous conclusion could prove to be, we have simply moved beyond their territory. We'll stop here for the time being so that you may compose yourself."
Sarah was still annoyed by his very existence, but it was not as though she could just not acknowledge his presence for however long she was going to be stuck with him. It was, however, better to be stuck with him than stuck without him, Sarah reasoned. She settled against a wall some distance away from the Goblin King.
"Clue me in next time you plan on deserting me to fend for myself."
"It wouldn't have been believable had you thought otherwise."
I guess he has a point. She was a decent actress, but when it came to blatant, every-day lying, her poker face sucked.
"Aren't you honor bound to your agreement with him or something?"
"I offered only your time, the length of which was never specified. Furthermore, Ferron caused me great offense in the past. I am allowed reciprocal action." He blinked, and then sneered. "Such a pity I wasted it on that."
Sarah could quite literally see the mischief that crept into his expression, even in the gloom of the tunnel.
"There's still time if you want to go back and sack the market," Jareth offered.
"Are you insane? We'll get caught, for sure."
"Dwarves are more cowards than anything. And you've already given them more than proper motivation to steer clear of you."
"How do you even? Nevemind." He had been spying on her, obviously.
"If we aren't going to get our coin's worth with the market, we might as well be going. Territory disputes won't work in our favor forever."
"So, that's it, then? We just escape, and poof we're good to go? No repercussions?"
"Don't be daft. Ferron will try to curse you."
Sarah screeched incredulously.
"What? Did you not think that was worth mentioning before now?"
"Nothing will come of it. He lacks your true name."
Oh, well, that was oddly considerate. She filed that tidbit about true names away to examine later.
The more she thought she had the Goblin King figured out the more she realized that she didn't have a damned clue about him or his motivations. Wait. Did that mean he actually put himself at risk?
"But what about you? He knows who you are, Jareth. Who you actually are."
"Concerned, sweetling?"
Well, she had been kind-of, sort-of vaguely apprehensive right up until 'sweetling' had made a reappearance in his vocabulary.
"Call me sweetling again, and swear I'll bite you."
He paused, suddenly just behind her rather than in the lead, voice pitched low, as he murmured directly into her ear.
"Promise?"
Sarah let out a frustrated huff.
"You're insufferable!"
"And yet you must suffer me a while yet," the king called chuckling after her, "Nothing that fool could do would harm me."
The young woman stomped off in the only possible direction, not bothering to check that her traveling companion followed.
They wandered aimlessly for days.
Days.
"We're lost," Sarah deadpanned. It would have had greater dramatic effect had it not been the umpteenth time she made that particular assertion.
"We are not lost," Jareth growled. It also would have had greater dramatic effect had he not uttered that very same retort just an hour previous.
"What ever happened to 'trust in me and your direction will be true'?"
He stopped in front of her but did not reply to her goading. He was probably trying to blow her up with his mind, but at the current moment, Sarah was beyond caring.
Apparently men are the same everywhere: never stopping to ask for directions and not admitting when they are damned lost.
There had not actually been anyone to ask for directions, but Sarah felt that was beside the point because he still would not admit to being lost, in the first place.
"We are not stopping here."
For an instant, Jareth's tone reminded her of various ill-fated family vacations where her father would threaten to turn the car around if she and Toby didn't stop squabbling. She missed that. She missed the sun. She missed fresh air. But most of all, she missed regular baths. They had come across a spring the day before, so at least she did not reek, but the near constant dark was weighing heavily on her sanity. The company wasn't much help, either.
"Could've fooled me. I seem to have stopped. And oh, look! Now, I'm sitting down," Sarah quipped as she plopped gracelessly and began rifling through the magical supply bag Jareth had procured.
The Goblin King did not deign reply to her obvious defiance, not that she had really expected him to. After what she had viewed as a breakthrough in their mutual communication just days prior, they had almost completely stopped talking.
They at least had adequate supplies, but even with a bag that was bigger on the inside and deceptively light, their reserves would not hold forever.
The king worked his magic in bursts- complaining loudly at its lack and moaning about the time he had to spend recharging his metaphorical magical battery.
Now, it seemed, was one of those bursts, as light grew slowly from a crystal to stave off the inky black of their surroundings.
Much of their time was spent fruitlessly blundering forward in the dark. Either Jareth really did have a block on his magic while they were in the tunnels, or he was a damned good actor that lived to torment her.
With the way he constantly, 'accidentally', kept bumping into her, and her subsequent hyper-awareness of his presence despite the complete darkness, led her to believe the latter rang more and more true.
But the pair didn't talk to each other. Their only conversations were carried out in monosyllables when stopping for food or rest.
And 'rest' had her flustered enough without the addition of his sudden bouts of apparent clumsiness. Her sleep was hardly restful when he insisted on keeping so near to her. Sarah would swear that she felt his arms wrap around her at night, right when she was at cusp of falling asleep. But she always woke up alone with no proof of him being any nearer than sprawled by her side.
So, she never mentioned it, and neither did he.
The incidents could have merely been a delusion of Sarah's mind, but she somehow doubted it. She liked to think that the Goblin King was just as off put by their situation as she was, and was simply reaching out for whatever comfort he could get in an admittedly creepy and sneaky way.
But her musings on his behavior were neither here nor there because for the moment, they had light.
Light had become a precious commodity, and with its presence, Sarah compulsively checked the glove for changes. While she expected the fourth thread to appear after their escape from the dwarves, it never came. She was beginning to wonder if there was some disruption to the pattern she completely and utterly missed. The Goblin King had indicated otherwise at the beginning, saying that they would appear at random, but he had lied to her before. Why should this be any different? He always likes to have the upper hand. And the first threads all appeared after something happened. The fact that there were still only three felt left her feeling disconcerted.
Come to think of it, the light made her paranoid and waspish, and Sarah let her arm drop back to her side so she could be paranoid and waspish later.
It was good that she did as in doing so, she noticed that the air in their current location was different. It was less stale and-
"Jareth, it smells like salt."
"We have been wandering the salt mines. Everything smells like salt," the King groused.
He was being contrary because she made him stop. Sometimes, Sarah thought the Goblin King was moodier and more angst-ridden than she had been as a teen. She followed the scent and thought she saw a different, non-Jareth-sourced, light in the distance.
"Goblin King, send your glowy light ball over here. I think I've found the way out."
Jareth's face was caught in a disdainful grimace, as though he couldn't decide whether he was insulted or annoyed by her lack of respect for his magic.
Hmm. Probably insulted and annoyed. Serves him right, she thought uncharitably.
Sarah knew the crystal held far more dangerous potential than she had suggested, but at the moment it was doing little more than floating and glowing. It's not my fault that he's currently using it as a flashlight. And the lure of freedom from the tunnels had her more than a bit stupidly giddy.
She tried again.
"Oh, great and powerful Goblin King, will you please send your Glowy Light Ball of Doom over here to aid the failing eyes of a frail mortal girl."
It was suitably dramatic and expertly delivered. She may have only minored in theatre, but she was a damned fine comedic over actor when the situation called for it.
After an apparent internal war, in which he likely weighed the pros and cons of cutting his losses and deserting one sarcastic mortal female and finding his own way out, Jareth stepped up behind her and directed the crystal ahead with a flourish. Once doing so, even he saw the brilliance of her find.
No more than thirty paces ahead was a translucent wall. If it was salt-rock as she thought, then they should be able to break through somehow. It didn't seem to be terribly thick, if the sun could shine through.
The king examined the wall, scratching away at the surface with a knife he apparently had not thought to share earlier. He sniffed at the crystalline powder and confirmed her assumption.
"Clever girl," he said wonderingly.
After days of constant tension and lack of communication, Sarah could not help the laughter that burst forth.
If Jareth had said something like that to her just a month prior, she might have taken the compliment in stride. As it happened though, Toby had nagged, begged, and pled for her to take him to see the dinosaur movie Karen was certain would give him nightmares. Sarah, of course, thought that was complete nonsense and purchased a pair of tickets for an opening day matinee. She was a wonderful big sister, truly.
Sarah had nearly laughed herself out until she glanced up and took in Jareth's disgusted sneer. The thought that popped into her head was just too ridiculous, and she doubled over in mirth.
"I take it back," Jareth announced, turning back to prod and test the thickness of the translucent stone. "You're an addle-brained twit."
He began chipping away at the salt rock with what she supposed was magic and brute force.
Sarah finally sobered enough to join the king, making a show of examining his profile. This earned her a baleful scowl, which failed to stop her subsequent observation.
"You know, if I turn my head this way and look at you, you bear a striking resemblance to a velociraptor."
Sarah broke down into giggles again, leaning slightly against the wall to stop from completely doubling over. She really needed to get out of the tunnels of the Underground, if annoying the Goblin King was turning out to be the most fun she had in recent memory.
For his part, Jareth struck the stone with greater force than was entirely necessary and three things happened at once.
First of all, the first natural sunlight either of them had seen in close to a week spilled into the cavern.
Secondly, salty sea air rushed up to greet them as the outer wall of their modest little tunnel crumbled away to reveal a sheer drop.
Finally, Sarah had been leaning against that particular wall more than she had previously thought and tumbled out into the bright light. She imagined mocking voices from her childhood memory pressing around her, pressing for an answer, "Up or down?"
Any choice Sarah might have had was ripped away by gravity and the winds of a vicious sea.
"She chose down!"
"She chose down?"
As she fell away from him, Sarah could not decide whether the Goblin King's face was more relieved or horrified.
A/N since it's been a while: DUNDUNDUNdramaticreverb.
See? It was a good thing we didn't kill Jareth (and/or me) after the end of last chapter. Agreed? Agreed. Even if he is a pedantic, self-satisfied, rat bastard, he's not without a method to his madness. Probably. As a side note, the pedantic-ness is partially why you only get his POV in flashbacks. He can be a bit tedious to read.
Yes, I've literally been sitting on a Jurassic Park reference for over a year. You can thank that scene for actually making this story happen to begin with; it amused me when this story was little more than a couple of mental images and a smattering of scribbled dialogue. So, in essence, you have my love of dinosaurs to thank for this whole mess. I'm also probably the poster child for why one shouldn't start posting a story before it's one hundred percent written, but at the same time, knowing that others are expecting it makes me actually write it, rather than just thinking, 'hey, I should write that,' and never following through.
I will try to get the next chapter up in a more timely manner. (Though, I do need to get through the next chapter for SUSS, first.)
Chapter Title Reference: Until I realize that you've realized, I'm gonna say these words to you. –The White Stripes, "You Don't Know What Love Is"