Chapter Seven

The Labyrinths possession

When the first rays of the sun reached Sarah's face, fear sent a chill though her. The sun was up and she knew she must be late. Being late meant the King would have the right to take back the offered position. She tried to get out of bed, but her legs collapsed under her. She lay on the floor of her room, not able to stand, not able to cry out. The sun rose higher in the Underground sky and she was now panic stricken. He'd take back the offer. She'd be without a single hope of seeing the smalls.

Marg came looking for Sarah, screaming loudly for help when she found the child convulsing on the floor of the room. Candon was sent for.

Jareth waited for Sarah to be brought to him. Breakfast passed as did the noon meal and the children were now playing peacefully in the garden. Jareth looked out his window to see if Sarah were sitting in the garden sewing. As the hours dragged on he began to feel worry. Being with the smalls was too important for Sarah to have turned her pretty nose up at. Something was dreadfully wrong, and he was sure of it when he heard the lamentation start up. He left the children with their nanny. His powers took him straight to Marg, who was pacing outside the room she'd placed Sarah in when she was turned over to her.

Jareth didn't have to ask; the look on Marg's face said it all. Sarah had relapsed. Jareth cursed himself again, for not celebrating her return and showering her with the love he had once promised her. Jareth leaned on the wall and waited while the woman wore a path in the floor.

Candon came out of the room, "She's asleep." He said. "I had to put a spell on her. The girl is exhausted."

Jareth looked at Marg, he knew the woman would never work an invalid to death. He turned to Candon. "Why?"

Candon looked at the king. "Why what?"

"Why is she so exhausted? Why has she not healed? Why is she here?" The king went down his litany of questions.

Candon thought the questions over. "Perhaps we need to look at the questions better. Why is she here, or even better how did she get here?"

Jareth shrugged. "She called and the goblins took her and the smalls."

Candon shook his head, "No, my King. No goblin brought her here. No Goblin answered her call. In fact the ones who found her wanted her to die!"

"Except for Teak." The King said.

"Yes, except for Teak, who found her on that hillside."

Jareth looked at Candon. "Which hillside?"

"The one just beyond the gate of the Labyrinth."

Jareth closed his beautifully mismatched eyes. "The first place she stood that night so long ago." Then he looked perplexed. "If the Goblins did not bring her, and I know for a fact that I didn't…. Who brought her here?"

Candon and Jareth both looked deep in thought when Marg sighed. "Perhaps the Labyrinth itself reached out and brought her here."

Candon chortled. Jareth didn't, he leaned on the wall again, and went very pale. "Of course."

Marg frowned, "Of course what?"

"She was never suppose to win, she was never suppose to leave." Guilt, pain and anger met on his face. "She lost, and I let her go on."

"Lost?" Marg stepped to her king, "Tell me what evil you did to her back then!"

"I gave the dwarf a gift to give her." He pulled into himself. "A enchanted peach."

Candon fell back, "You let her eat Fae food? But it says nothing of this in the reports."

"Were it up to me, the entire incident would be struck from the journals." Jareth bellowed.

Marg's disappointment in him was written on her face. Her voice was like cold iron. "Thee did this to her? Fed her enchanted food, and let her continue… And even with the taint of an enchanted peach in her, she still beat you?" Her eyes burned like coals. "Thee is still holding back, what else is there we do not know."

Candon looked at Marg, "The Swarm Queen bit Sarah."

"When?" The woman looked at the king. "When was she bitten?"

"Before she entered the Labyrinth's gates."

"What else?" Demanded the woman.

"I sang to her."

Candon looked at the horror on Marg's face. "Is this of importance?"

"Fae song?" gasped the woman.

Jareth nodded, "As I held her in my arms and danced with her in an enchanted crystal ballroom I created for her."

Marg sunk to her knees, "Thee sang and danced… Oh Jareth, and then thee let her leave…"

"I didn't let her leave." He roared in a fury. "She spoke the words, and was within the time. She won the freedom of the child. I don't know how it was that she too was gone."

Candon listened. "The Labyrinth, it let her go home… for some reason, it let her go…"

"It returned her, but it never left her." Jareth said. "I watched… for a time. But I could not stand the pain of watching the woman…"

"She was no woman! She is barely one now!" Marg decried. "She was a child."

"The Labyrinth." Candon said. "The Labyrinth sent her home to grow up."

Marg narrowed her eyes on the King. "More likely it hoped you'd grow up in that time!"