Life Without the Sunlight
Chapter Ten
This was the most fun Jareth had had in years – centuries, even. For the first time as King, he didn't care one whit about the Labyrinth. The baby was asleep, the girl was for all intents and purposes a vegetable, and his goblins were so brainless he needn't worry. Life was sweet, easy, and a beautiful woman danced in his arms and acted as though he had painted the heavens for her. The longer she looked at him like that, the harder it was to believe he hadn't.
The dancers stepped and swished and spun across the marble, circles within circles, weaving in and out of each other. He and Linda moved within the centre, untouched by the others. He sang to her without pause. She shimmered in gold, the brightest star in their universe.
As time went by, her eyes lightened into yellow and her nose took on a flattened aspect.
He ignored this. Jareth – as with monarchs in general – was good at ignoring things.
What he couldn't ignore was a set of doors materialising in the mirrored wall and crashing open. Cracks split the mirrors and with a shatter and snap, they burst into stardust and the ballroom fell to nothing.
I stumbled, almost tripping, and used Sturgie's halberd to steady myself.
"Are you all right?"
"I think . . . I don't know." The shaking fear was back, same as in the forest. And my mind felt emptied, but of what I could not put my finger on. "Something weird happened, is all. Let's keep going."
"Miss . . . how are we going to defeat the snake?"
"Well, the mermaid said I have power of my own. I'm a Speaker, after all. I can wish things into happening. But she also said I can't use wishes against the snake because it's too powerful."
"Could you wish up a destiny sword? Or a champion to fight it in your place?"
"Maybe Jareth will have some ideas."
"Not far now, Miss. We're almost there. Let's hope the King comes soon."
"Hoggle!" Jareth roared. The King stormed through the sparkling remains of Sarah's deepest fears and grabbed the dwarf by the vest. "What are you doing here?"
"The girl sent me! Something about a snake and it eating the Labyrinth and a ring and your mother and a right mess she's made of the southern region –"
"Quiet."
Hoggle shut up. He tried to shrink into a space smaller than himself and found that with a head quite that large, it was quite impossible. He settled for studying the ground and imagining he wasn't held captive by his irascible King.
Linda and the other guests had dissolved with the mirrors. Hoggle and Jareth were alone in a tunnel of some kind, warm and dark and twice as big as Jareth remembered the snake being. Underfoot, the mirrored floor fractured and was overwhelmed by shifting hard-packed dirt and Jareth had to step onto a broken plaster bust to avoid being pulled under like quicksand. Remnants of Sarah's theatre warren hung as broken chandeliers and ragged velvet curtains being sucked into the shifting earth. The chandeliers' light faded more each moment. Jareth produced a glowing crystal ball. The air was close here, weighing upon them. The entire mass of the Underground seemed to press down from above.
"It's gotten worse," Hoggle had to say. "When I came through before it was mostly building." He didn't mind the change, really. It was almost like home in Mount Korrigan.
"A snake, you said," Jareth murmured.
"Yes, milord. She thinks its Apep."
"Who let it in?"
Hoggle hung his head, humming and hawing, and Jareth clicked his tongue and released the dwarf. Sarah's fears had changed again, which made Hoggle's story more likely. People didn't dread that which was mere hearsay, at least not enough for it to become their innermost terror. And he'd mentioned a ring, and his mother . . . No, it couldn't be. Calm, Jareth.
What to do? Find the girl, he supposed. And kick the blasted creature from his realm. Frustration of rule aside, the Labyrinth was still his domain and he'd be damned to let a slithering shadow monster take over while his back was turned.
"Sir . . . The Labyrinth is changing."
"I am not blind, Hoggle."
"It's changing because of her."
"What?" he hissed, whirling on the dwarf.
"The northern region has become some sort of fairy forest. And the houses are clean and made of wood."
"Wood." Jareth flung the crystal ball onto the last shard of mirror at their feet and they vanished in an explosion of light and glitter to reappear outside the coronation room entrance in the outer Labyrinth.
Sarah screamed.
The goblin screamed.
Jareth spied the ring and hissed, "Who gave this to you?"
Sarah glared back. "You mother!"
"You do not know what you are messing with. Go save your brother and leave."
"That's what I'm trying to do, except your mom told me to save your kingdom." She held up her left hand. The symbol of the Labyrinth glinted at the King, mocking him for his curse. The lack of logs and cleanliness of the maze corridor laughed with it, along with the flowers budding in the cracks at the edges of the wall.
His own kingdom was punishing him for . . . for what? For trying to be King to a broken kingdom? It was his father's fault, not his! Why must he keep paying for it?
Why was that goblin almost pretty?
"You, who are you?" he demanded.
"Sturgie, your Majesty. You put me on guard duty outside Miss Sarah's room." Her gaze was intelligent and she bowed with perfect respect, and Jareth felt the last nail in his coffin.
He held out his hand, fingers slightly bent, the claws of a bear trap waiting to stab. "Hand the ring over to me." It is my crown. I have suffered for too long for it to be stolen like this.
"No."
"No?"
Sarah shook her head and her expression said she couldn't believe herself for doing it. "That snake will eat Toby too if we don't get rid of it and this ring will lead me to it."
"We? You think you have the power to defeat Apep, the serpent of chaos, the enemy to order? If this snake is indeed Apep, then it wants to eat all of creation. How will you stop it?"
"I don't know but I'm going to try. Come on, Sturgie, we're almost there." She and the goblin – the little traitor – set off again, Sarah's gold cloak swishing with every step. The Labyrinth must have given it to her. Jareth glared at the sky and thought, Mother, how could you? The sky was blue, with puffball clouds. A cooling breeze swept along the maze and ruffled his hair and brought with it the scent of wildflowers and pine trees.
He reappeared at Sarah's side, leaving Hoggle to shout and run to catch up. "Sarah," he crooned. "The clock has started. Can't you feel it? You are running out of time. Give me the ring and I will find the snake while you save your brother. Or else he will become one of us."
Sarah glanced at him, then at Sturgie in front, balled her hands into fists and strode on. He sighed. "Princess, you are going to your death."
"It's just a snake," she muttered. "How hard can it be to kill a snake? My aunt cut off one's head with a shovel."
"Tick tock, Sarah. You have seven hours left."
She nearly tripped and stopped. "What? It can't have been that long. That's not fair!"
"Nothing is, Princess. That's life. Give me the ring and all this goes away." He held is hand out again, smiling, imploring.
"What's so important about this ring, anyway? All it does is show where the snake is, right?"
"Oh! It marks you as the rightful successor to the throne of the Labyrinth!" Sturgie piped up and Jareth could have killed her but that would not endear him to Sarah. Sarah, shocked, rubbed the ring as if it might burn her.
"But . . . why did your mother give it to me? I'm mortal."
Jareth scoffed and strode off towards the coronation room entrance. Sarah hurried after him. "Jareth? Why did she give it to me? She said something about healing the Labyrinth, but I didn't know what she meant."
"Here, my darling. The Labyrinth senses his end is soon. Take it. It's your rightful place."
Only his end hadn't been soon, had it, Mother? And you've done it again. How long until the earthquakes and storms? Either she gave up the ring or he, unthinkably, stepped aside. Healing the Labyrinth. His own kingdom was subverting him.
He finally understood his old man.
"Do not ask me what goes on in that siren's mind. Here. Let's go kill your snake." He clicked his fingers and his clothes transformed into the black leather and high-collared cloak of his battle armour. A blank section of stonework waited. The flowers at its base waved back and forth in the breeze.
"Are you ready, Sarah?"
Clad in silk and lace, she appeared ready for a bed.
The burning light in her eyes, however, told a different story.
"Open it."
Sturgie entered first, then Jareth, Sarah, with Hoggle reluctantly bringing up the rear. Jareth swore in an ancient tongue lost to the Aboveground. Sarah copied his sentiments in a modern fashion.
The coronation room was gone again. They stood in a tunnel heading in either direction that could have been the same one as in the southern region. Curiously, Sarah's eyes shot upwards to the ceiling and she relaxed when she saw nothing but black and trickles of falling dirt.
Jareth created a light orb for each of them in different colours; red for Hoggle, green for Sturgie, silver for himself, and pink for Sarah. When he placed it in her hand, it turned gold. He rolled his eyes.
"What now?" asked Hoggle.
"We find the snake," said Sturgie with practical simplicity. "And we kill it."
"But where is it?"
"Sarah," said Jareth. He gestured and she, inhaling deep, stepped forward and swung her hand in either direction.
"Left."
"After you."
She glared, motioned at Sturgie, and the two struck out together.
As much as walking along the tunnels of an ancient snake was invigorating in its own way, Jareth grew bored within a few minutes. He started singing the tune as he'd made for Linda, lilting through the passages and enjoying the tightening of Sarah's shadowed shoulders with every word.
"As the world falls down –"
"Shut up!" she snapped over her shoulder.
"Are you scared, Sarah? If you gave the ring to me, you need not concern yourself with any of this."
"Aren't you scared?" she retorted. "This is the snake that eats worlds and we don't know how to stop it."
"Oh, Sarah, you don't know what my powers are."
"What are they, then?"
"You'll see."
She groaned and picked up her pace. Sturgie, in an act of cunning that took him by surprise, slowed and allowed her King to take her spot beside the Speaker. He grinned and slipped over the undulating earth to her shoulder.
At that moment she whispered, "I wish I had a drink of water," and a goblet was in her hand. She sculled it and asked for another and sculled that too. Done, she said, "I wish the goblet to go to someone who needs it," and it disappeared. She paid him no attention.
That show of power shook Jareth more than he could say. Never in his reign, or his father's before him, had a Speaker known of their power as a Speaker. Nor had a Speaker ever made it to the shadow realm, much less escaped with their life. No Speaker had met his mother, and certainly no Speaker had been granted the ring of ascension by her.
Perhaps she could defeat the snake. If she did . . .
What choice did he have? He'd step aside and allow Sarah Williams to cleanse the Labyrinth and save his people.
Underground monarchs who lost power over their kingdom tended to fade into legend. For that to happen, they tended to die too. That was all right, he told himself. He wasn't anything if he wasn't the Goblin King.
Sarah sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. The toe of her shoe hit a protruding root and she stumbled. He caught her by the shoulder, holding her until she was steady.
"Thanks," she muttered. "Where are we?"
Roots, lit in a sphere of red and gold and green and silver, dangled from above and stuck up from below, thin, spindly, with dozens of worm-like offshoots to brush against the face and trail dirt into the hair. Jareth frowned, waved a hand, and the roots moved aside and buried themselves into the walls. He still had some power, then. "Under the Fiery Forest."
"Your mom said the snake's will was strong. Do you think the Labyrinth has started creating these tunnels for it?"
Ah, here was an option he hadn't considered; the snake becoming ruler of the Labyrinth through sheer willpower.
"If so, we are in trouble."
Right. Kill the snake, let Sarah take the crown.
There was silence for a time, naught but breath and footsteps, clanking armour and jingling of jewels and Sarah and Jareth's cloaks rustling. The oppressive warmth and heaviness of the earth bore down and, between all four, the breathing became shallower, steps faster. None of them could see beyond the tiny multicoloured universe they walked in. The pitch-black air outside it shifted and poked at the universe and tried to get in. It wanted to trap, to terrify, to torment. Sarah kept her wide eyes fixed forward, following the curves and dips and rises, Jareth a half-step behind. Her globe cast weird radiance upon her face.
"We could work together, you know," whispered Sarah. "Combine wills to defeat it."
Jareth sent her a sidelong glance and said, scorn well-rooted, "You and I are at cross-purposes, Sarah. I have my doubts that collaboration will work between us."
"Cross-purposes? We both want the snake gone, don't we?"
"I am the Goblin King. You are a Speaker. I want you trapped in a dream of my design, never again to return home so that your brother may become part of my kingdom. You have been proclaimed my usurper and the Labyrinth would have you take my throne."
"Can't we, I don't know, not care about that for a while? Until we defeat the snake."
"It is what it is, Sarah." He gripped his cloak and pulled it free from a snagging tree root. With a glower, he swiped his hand through the air and the root fell in two. Sarah did not slow for him. He lengthened his stride and heard the jingling and clanking speed up behind him.
"Why do you even steal children? What's in it for you?" She sounded in earnest.
"Ask your ancestors who invented the role for the Goblin King. And look to yourself. You were the one who wished your brother away. It is a mercy that I provide a way to remedy your impulsiveness."
"I wish you wouldn't –"
Jareth slapped a hand over her mouth. "Careful, Sarah." Threat stained every syllable of his words. "A wish is no trifle here."
She yanked him by the wrist and tried to storm off as before, except the tunnel split in two. She used the ring, pointing at either black fork, and cried out.
"It's not working!"
TOWRTA: Yaaaas, Jareth and Sarah dynamics for the win! Honestly, I love these two together. Can't take my eyes off them when I watch the movie. It is ~perfect~ (Now imagine it being Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Jackson. Hehehe. What.)
I kind of feel sorry for Jareth in this fic. I mean, he's trying his best to be the Goblin King in a Labyrinth that's falling apart around him and then this girl shows up and his mother chooses her over him. Dude is having a bad day.
Let me know what you thought (especially you, Guest 2019, can't wait to hear your thoughts), and I'll see you in a few days.
Later!