Chapter 9.

Waiting on the crest of the hill that was above the glade, leaning on a tree, the Goblin King watched the girl struggle to keep up. She was tired, and weakening, and she was beginning to make bad judgment calls. All this was according to his plans, and it pleased him. Soon the weak mortal girl would be begging him for mercy, willing to give him anything he requested. How many tempting bits and pieces of her life he could dangle before her was anyone's guess.

"How much further?" she gasped as she finally reached the summit and collapsed in a heap.

"We're here," he said candidly enjoying her suffering. 'We'll see who exhausts whom, shan't we?' "Do get up," he commanded, "You cannot see from that position."

Sarah leaned on arms that refused to aid her. "Give me a moment to catch my breath," she requested in an out of breath timbre. "I'm mortal… remember?" Slowly she lifted her head to look up at him.

The pain in the green eyes was not supposed to move him, he told himself. So why was it seeing her brought low gave equal amounts of pleasure and frustration? "Take all the time you need," he responded. "I can wait."

A moment later, having caught her breath, and regained a measure of her faltering strength, Sarah stood on quaking limbs beside him. "What am I supposed to see here?"

Jareth shrugged, maddeningly, and crossed his arms, "I'm only the guide," he teased. "You tell me what you see."

Sarah heaved a heavy sigh before looking out past him at the path they'd traveled. "Everything is getting dark," she observed. "The swans…" she gasped before answering, "They've gone from white to black…" She looked at Jareth. "That's not possible."

"Isn't it?" He asked without expression or infection.

Sarah frowned, "You know it's not." Something else caught her eye before she turned to look away. A straight path; one that was dimly lit by the moon that was high above them stretched from the first layer wall. "Why didn't you take that path, it goes straight to the castle!"

"And miss all this wonderful alone time?" he scoffed.

"You bastard," she accused with flames in her eyes. "You're trying to wear me down!"

"Wear you down, wear you out, wear you…." He drew closer, precariously so, pursing his lips. "Yes, that I should very much like to try."

"You…. Pervert!" she pointed a long index finger at him. "That's obscene!"

"How so," he questioned without guilt, "I think you would look ever so enchanting draped over me." He once more looked mockingly at her garments. "Of course we'd have to dispense with these garments…they do not suit you." He motioned toward her poet's shirt only to have his hand slapped away.

"Hand to yourself if you please," she scolded.

Delighted at her reactions, and seeing he was getting to her, Jareth gave her a teasing smirk. "And if it does not please me, Sarah? What then?"

"I'll slap you," she countered, her head was held high, and her face became serious, but her eyes held doubt.

"I'll bet you would," he chuckled menacingly.

"I mean it!"

Jareth shrugged and looked away from her, "It does not change the facts, Sarah."

"What facts," she crossed her arms, trying to keep her knees locked and her body balanced.

"That you are a most intriguing and captivating young female," Jareth turned his head to allow himself the pleasure of raking her over with his hungry eyes. "Untried, untethered and," his voice dropped several octaves, and growled throatily. "Utterly charming when you want to be." Her face went crimson, and he repeated. "You would look so good on me."

Sarah's lips parted, her astonishment at his blatant statement registered in her eyes. "I'm a virgin," she whispered as if it were a shield of protection against the sexual advance being directed at her.

"All the better," he purred, "To not only be your first, but your only."

"Get your mind out of the gutter," she commanded weakly.

"Hardly in the gutter;" Jareth teased her with the knowledge he was frustrating her. "I would never condescend to rutting in the gutter… I prefer a bed."

Flames were dancing in her brain and she was no longer just bothered, she was vexed. "I'm not that kind of girl, Goblin King!" She looked at the path ahead, gathered her dignity and moved toward it.

"Perhaps you are and don't realize it," he teased as she passed, "Yet."

Ignoring his lusty suggestive words, Sarah moved to see where the path ahead was going. "I don't recognize any of this," she said aloud.

"Of course not," Jareth was at her ear once more. "It's the path of the future."

"Who's, yours or mine?" she demanded, twisting to avoid his touch.

"Ours," he delighted in giving her the news, it sounded so threading. "WE are intertwined you and I," he teased.

"Do you have to make that sound so….dirty?" she inquired rolling her eyes at him. He pretended to give it consideration and she turned away before he could catch her in a moment of weakness, "So where will this path take us?"

"Depends," Jareth dropped the boyish teasing; his voice was now all business.

"On what," the girl asked.

One gloved hand took hold of her elbow; easily he turned her to face him. "On how willing you are to accept responsibility for your actions," he warned.

Green eyes, filled with apprehension, looked at the gloved hand at her elbow; "Which actions?"

Fingertips tighten their hold. "You called me," his voice went deep, and emanated from within the depths of him. It was more than an accusation, it was an indictment.

Considering her options, the girl nodded, "Yes I did," she answered with remorse.

"You wanted the baby taken away," he continued.

"I was jealous," she admitted with more guilty repentance, and acceptance.

Jareth had not expected this, and his face showed it. His jaw tightened as he spoke again. "You are willing to face this?"

"Willing, yes," the girl answered carefully, picking and choosing her words, "Happy about it, not so much."

Fingertips tightened even more. "It does not require that emotion, only honesty."

Sarah winced, her elbow hurt under the pressure of the strong Fae fingers. "Yes, I accept what I did."

"I offered you an exchange," his voice became enticing, "Your dreams for the baby."

"Unacceptable then, even more so now," she wrenched her arm free of his grip. The flames that played in the heart of her emerald green eyes now became a raging inferno.

Jareth taunted, "Are you so certain?"

Reacting to what she perceived as a threat, Sarah advanced aggressively on the startled Goblin King. "I didn't spend eleven hours risking life and limb for nothing."

Her fire, her anger, and indignity stoked fires that he was keeping tamped down. "Magnificent," her praised before turning it on her as a weapon, "I would remind you that your journey before and this time are both your own doing." He spun from her and headed off on the path. "Come along, Miss Williams."

"Where," she asked as she found the strength to move.

Dramatically, and with a flourish he extended his arm. As if in answer to an off staged cue, lightning and thunder lit up the night sky. His hand was pointing toward a distant hill, where between the brilliant flashes of light and the roar of thunder she could make out the castle. Its turrets, massive walls and twisted spires and odd shaped domes clearly visible, awaiting her, "You know very well where," his chuckle was more sinister than before, he was enjoying this.

Sarah gritted her teeth, "Must we," she asked as the wind rose and whipped about them. Like snakes in a pit her stomach was churning.

Lowering the arm, he looked at her, his eyes filled with hunger that could not be met. "I ask for so little," he began.

"On word," she marched past him, not allowing him to finish his peal.

Watching her determined march, he whispered, "As you wish." From where he stood he could see more than just an outline. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, her form was completely visible to him. He watched for a moment, appreciating the form and fitness of the creature he craved. "There's still so much for you to see," he whispered; "So much to experience… before I crush you." Long legs and the stamina of the Fae carried him rapidly toward where she was trying not to stumble.

--

The flock landed, and Bran looked back toward the idyllic glen behind them. "Interesting game he plays," he observed.

"Do you see this as a game, my Lord," Crom asked also looking to the past.

"My Goblin King is not thinking of this as anything else," Bran declared. "He sees war and peace much the same way."

"This is no game," warned one of the other companions. "The outcome has serious ramifications."

"Jareth is a child who likes games," Bran mused delighted in what he was observing. "It is one reason he and the goblins as well as the Labyrinth gel so well… a thing some Fae creatures would do well to remember."

"Fae creatures," questioned Llyr-Bel skeptically.

"Oberon plots," Aericura agreed readily, "He's not fool enough to… put those plots into action."

"Is he not," Bran inquired with a raised brow. "Would he not be a fool not to do so?"

"He has no call," Crom argued. "The Labyrinth is part of the Underground… the Underworld is ours." His voice hardened like tempered metal. "Surely he does not think he has a right…"

"Matters not what he thinks," Bran informed them. "He sees only something he cannot control…"

"The Underground," Llyr-Bel agreed nodding his head sagely.

"Jareth," Bran corrected, "The child he could not deny as royal, the King he cannot sway."

Aericura snickered, "He resents this one Underworld King so?"

Bran shrugged, but wore a smile that was telltale. "He will not miss a chance to undermine the boy if he can." Surrounded by his companions he mused. "The games are afoot, and we for now must only observe. The boy, like a bird of prey, toys with the creature in his claws grasp. Oberon will try to press the demands of the Fae laws upon the lad…"

"You read your foe well," Llyr-Bel observed coldly.

"One should," agreed the Goblin High King. "It will be the true test of where the lad's authentic allegiance lies."

"And should he choose the light?" Crom inquired stubbornly.

Bran cocked his head to one side, "You doubt the boy?"

"I don't know him as well as you do," Crom explained as if it were of no matter either way.

"Jareth will choose what he desires most," Bran said in a tone that warned all to question no further. "Let us away," he instructed his court. "We don't want them to journey too far ahead of us." Once more the dark night sky hid the flight of the black birds of the High Goblin King's court.