Chapter 11

My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. (Troilus and Cressida, )

The room she had been given, Sarah noticed, looked out over the eastern portion of the Labyrinth. So Jareth wasn't going to give her even the opportunity to study the western quadrant beforehand. Well, she supposed that was fair. Besides, she thought, if it were anything like the last time the Labyrinth was bound to change as she passed through, so seeing it now really wouldn't give her much of an advantage.

She sat on the window seat for a while looking out into the dark. The stars here were so bright. She was struck by the notion that if she were only tall enough she'd be able stretch out a hand and pluck one from the sky.

She thought back over the events of the day and the first lines of a poem she had read in English Lit began echoing through her brain: Ah, Love, but a day / And the world has changed!

To think only yesterday afternoon she had been sitting in a café with Emily, talking about Rob. Well, to tell the truth she had been trying not to talk about Rob. Strange, she couldn't even muster up the memory of his face. She thought that she could remember an vague impression of him, but the details were strangely blurred.

So unlike the way that the Goblin King's features had been irredeemably burned onto her consciousness. She just had to close her eyes and she could see him in full Technicolor. Glaring, usually. Or looking at her in a way that even in memory made her heart beat faster. Funny, she had always thought that particular phrase was a bit cheesy. Nothing and no one had ever given her the flutters. Until now.

With a jolt she was catapulted back into re-living the events in Jareth's work room. Even the memory sent delicious shivers running across her skin. What on earth had she been thinking?

"Stupid, Sarah, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

She could still feel his lips caressing her neck. And then when he had kissed her- She took a deep breath and attempted to banish the memory of how Jareth's mouth had felt on hers.

Then, resolutely, she kept her mind blank and got ready for bed.

Trying to sleep was an exercise in futility, she decided an hour or so later. She lay there in the dark, staring up at the canopy above her head. In the dim moonlight, she could just make out the embroidered constellations worked in silver and gold thread into the tapestry. She wondered what the groups of stars were called. Did they have myths attached to them like those in at home?

The constellation above her began to swirl, slowly at first, but picking up speed in an alarmingly fashion. It seemed to advance toward her and Sarah realized that she was somehow falling upwards (or was it down?) into the vortex forming above her.

The garden she stood in was bright in the moonlight, so bright that the hedges surrounding it cast long, crisp lines across the lawn. Little white and silver flowers were sprinkled like stardust in the short grass and glowed faintly in the shadows under the trees.

Sarah found herself standing beside a sundial in the centre of an Elizabethan knot garden. She noted that the shadow on the dial lay across the one.

Movement under the trees caught her attention. A woman in a silver grey gown emerged from the shadows and moved lightly across the lawn toward her. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and she wore a silver coronet. With a sinking feeling, Sarah recognized, once again, herself.

The other Sarah smiled, the same predatory smile as before.

"Kissing the Goblin King, Sarah?" She remarked, her voice silky, but charged with enmity. "How unwise. Don't you know there are terrible consequences for such blasphemy? He doesn't belong to you."

Sarah tried to reply, but her mouth would not cooperate. The other woman laughed at her consternation and continued,

"Oh yes, he's mine, Sarah, mine forever. And I cannot allow you to be seducing his attentions. Oh no, that will never do."

The woman had been moving ever closer as she spoke and Sarah found herself moving backward, step by step. Then suddenly the other woman reached out and caught her by the wrist.

"You shall never have him," she hissed. And then she let go.

Sarah was falling, falling, falling. Would nobody catch her?! The water was closing in around her, her lungs burned, ached to breathe, but she couldn't get her feet to move. She fought to reach the surface, but something was pulling her down deeper and deeper. She tried to call his name, but her mouth filled with water and then everything went black.

Sarah! Sarah! Wake up!

With a sobbing gasp, she sat bolt upright in bed. Sunlight streamed across the floor and up onto the bed. She blinked and looked around. The room was empty. But hadn't someone had been shaking her awake? Maybe she had dreamed it.

She took a deep breath and swung her feet over the edge of the bed.

It was time to start running.

After a quick wash, Sarah dressed in the clothes she had worn the day before. They were a bit dusty from her adventure in the snake pit, but it wasn't as if she had a choice. Jareth hadn't provided her with anything else. At some point a tray with cheese and toast had appeared on the table in her room. So, she thought, she wasn't going to breakfast with the Goblin King again. She supposed it was just as well. Meeting Jareth across something as intimate as the breakfast table might have weakened her resolve even farther.

Half an hour later she discovered that she needn't have been worried about her resolve. Jareth was a egotistical, conceited, narcissistic bastard and she hated him!

Jareth's face when she entered the throne room was mask-like, but his eyes glinted with mockery. He lounged negligently in his chair, surrounded-for the first time since Sarah had returned Underground-by his goblins. She hadn't realized until that moment that she hadn't seen even one of the creatures the day before. What was that about? She wondered. Was there a reason they had stayed away or had they been there the whole time, just keeping out of sight?

"I trust you slept well," he said. The commonplace was rather incongruous coming from the Goblin King.

Sarah snapped, "I would tell you if I thought you truly cared." She was herself surprised by the bitterness in her tone, and she saw the anger flare momentarily in Jareth's eyes and then the mocking glint returned.

"Bad dreams, Sarah? How sad."

"I would like to get started on this quest of yours," she said coldly. "Please tell me where the Opal is so I can be on my way."

Instead of answering her, Jareth rose from the throne and came across the room toward her.

"Forget the quest, Sarah. I have an alternate offer to make you."

She glared at him suspiciously, "And that would be?"

"Stay here with me and be my consort."

She gaped at him. Finally, managing to overcome her shock, she asked, "What ever made you think that such an offer would ever be palatable to me?"

All he did was look at her from under a raised brow, but it brought back to her the memory of his lips on hers. The way his hands had-She drew a deep breath and added,

"I don't believe for one second that you would make good on such an offer."

As soon as she said the words, she regretted them. It implied that she would possibly consider the offer if he proved she could trust him. She saw that he had the same thought. In fact, he was practically purring with self-satisfaction when he replied,

"Come, come, Sarah. Have I not proven that I keep my promises? Have you no faith at all in my word?"

"None whatsoever! You bend anything you possibly can to suit yourself."

"Harpy." His amusement at her discomfiture was plain.

"Lout!"

"Lout?" He questioned. "Really? Is that the best you can come up with? I may be many things, but a lout is not among them. Satyr? Unquestionably. Cheat? Possibly. But lout? Absolutely not. Of course, I would be quite willing to-" here his lips quirked with a suggestive smile, "-inspire you to discover more appropriate appellations."

"You're disgusting."

Jareth shook his head. "Tch, tch, tch. So unimaginative. However," his voice took on an even silkier quality than usual. "Enough with the name-calling. We have other things to discuss."

"Such as?" She inquired. He was getting very close indeed and she found it difficult to keep eye contact with him.

"Do not pretend that you do not entertain certain feelings for me, Sarah. Had we not been so inconveniently interrupted, we both know where our actions last night would have led."

"Excuse me?" Sarah pretended ignorance, but she could feel the embarrassment begin rising. It would have been bad enough, his making these kinds of comments, had they been alone, but in front of the goblins. . . She hoped they were stupid enough not to catch on to what he was implying.

His voice in her ear made her jump. "Don't play coy, Sarah. Your . . . response was unmistakable. Very gratifying indeed, the way you pressed yourself against me so urgently. And here I was, thinking you didn't like me."

Sarah felt her bile rising and regretted eating quite as much cheese and toast. He made their kiss sound like some lewd exchange, some sordid encounter in the night. Was this his idea of revenge?

As he watched her, his smirk had taken on that feral quality she remembered from her last trip, his pointed eyeteeth particularly pronounced. It was his Cheshire grin and she could hardly keep from smacking it off his face. He leaned in close again and his whisper hummed in her ear in a most disconcerting way.

"There is only one, inevitable, conclusion to this particular dance."

"And that is?" she asked, barely able to keep her voice from betraying the effect his proximity was having on her. She hated that he could make her feel this way without even trying.

"Queen or no, I will have you in my bed when the music ends."

She rounded on him, eyes blazing with green fire.

"Never!"

His response to that was sharp, mocking laughter. His goblins joined in and Sarah felt shame rush over her in a flood. Her face burned.

"Give up, Sarah." As he spoke he circled around her, forcing her to turn dizzily to keep him in view.

"I won't!"

"Such petulance, Sarah. Surely you want to embellish this display of childish obstinacy with a foot stomp or two?"

"I am not being childish."

He barked a short laugh and said patronizingly, "Of course not. Sarah Williams never throws temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way."

"You're wasting my time, Jareth. Are you going to tell me where to find this Opal of yours or not?" She demanded, turning the subject back to her original question.

"You would do best to remember that I am King here, Sarah, and address me as such."

"Oh, but pardon me, your Majesty. Pray tell me, where is this Opal which I am to retrieve for you, your Majesty? Or is that information which your Majesty considers confidential?"

Jareth didn't reply, but instead prowled back to stand on the dais of his throne, the picture of cool, taunting elegance. His eyes flickered up and down her for several moments and she felt her nails biting into her palms. His eyes seemed to strip her and she felt the angry flush on her cheese deepen. She did her best to match him stare for stare. Then finally, he said, a disdainful smile on his face,

"Just admit it: You'll never defeat me again. And I will have you, one way or another. You're no match for me, Sarah."

"How much do you wanna bet?" She said, keeping her voice frigid despite her rage. "I will find your stupid Opal on my own, I will beat you again, and I will make you eat those words, you arrogant son of a bitch!"

The Goblin King's mocking laughter followed her as she turned on her heel and strode down the passage.