A/N: This chapter contains some strong language.
The bottom of the stairs seemed so vast, so empty. Sarah sighed, her heart finally reaching a calm pace. She'd heard the voice too, at the worst of times. The intensity vanished, but she was left with a feeling of the deepest dissatisfaction. What would she do when he came back?
"Sarah!" someone screamed from the sitting room. The sound of glass shattering broke her private world.
XXXXX
"Toby," Jareth began, struggling to maintain his composure, wanting nothing more than to take out this little boy that took him away from Sarah at the worst possible time. "Why did you call me?"
"I missed Sarah. I want to know if she's okay."
"She's fine," he growled. She had been fine, and she would have been even better once he was finished with her. But the boy's eyes twitched at his raised voice, as all frightened humans' did when they found him in their room. He sighed, still able to feel Sarah's fingers running through his hair, such an addictive sensation, but Toby crossed his arms and waited for him to say more. "What troubles you so, Toby?"
"Why did you send me back if she's fine?"
"Things have grown complicated in the Underground. It's no longer a place for you."
Just as he finished saying it, Jareth felt a pull, so similar to how he felt when someone called him to come and take a child off their hands. But it was backwards, a call to come back. Sarah. Sarah calling him? He could sense a panic, terror, in her.
"Toby, I have to leave. I will not take you with me."
Letting the pull take him to where he needed to be, he closed his eyes. The best way was to just let it happen.
Even a small child could detect worry in an adult's voice. Shaking at the thought of Sarah in trouble, Toby ran and gripped the goblin king, and saw his room fade away before his eyes.
XXXXX
"Sarah!" Pasia yelled, stepping in between her and a growling chimera, its foam dripping down to the floor in a wiry string. Taking aim, Pasia shot one of the beasts.
A pack of chimeras circled them all, each one as long as a lion. Fighting her ever-increasing inhales bordering on hyperventilating, Sarah concentrated on summoning a crystal. Like before, it heated in her palm, its orange glow radiating stronger and stronger. She hurled it at the chimera nearest to her, hearing the whimpering sounds of an animal. The creature rolled around on the floor. Aulis, fighting off the one that had cornered him, spotted the injured chimera writhing and drove his sword into it.
Suddenly, Toby dropped down from midair, plopping down on his tailbone. A familiar snow owl screeched, clawing at the face of one of the chimera, droplets of blood landing on the floor.
"Toby!" Sarah ran into the center of the room and scooped him up in her arms. She ran with him through the main hall into the kitchen. A chimera followed her with its eyes and gave chase, its stride gigantic. It cornered her in the kitchen in seconds, stalking back and forth, waiting for her to move first so it could take her throat in its fanged mouth.
A knife was what she needed. Balancing Toby, she freed one hand and slowly moved it inches away from him. She pictured the shininess of a straight knife, jagged edges at the ends. A crystal formed in her palm, but instead of heating, seemed to stretch in her hand.
She threw the knife just in time to wound the chimera in the leg. Throwing open the pantry door, she pushed Toby into it and closed the door, pulling open every drawer until she found a long, dagger-like knife among the rest of the silverware. Not stopping to think if it ever carved human flesh, she ran back out the door where her wounded chimera tried to limp away.
Diving onto it, she drove the knife into its back. A loud roar echoed throughout the main hall.
"Lady Sarah! Help me!"
Jerking her head, she saw Lysander underneath one of the chimera, his teeth gritted trying to push it off of him. Just as she was about to run to him, her chimera bucked and threw her off of it, driving her underneath it.
She took the knife with her, tearing away at the flesh of the back of the monster. She thrust the knife into its underside, all four legs surrounding her. Lying on her back under it, she twisted the knife out and stabbed it again. Blood poured out of all its mouths, a shrill yelp from its goat head the worst of all to Sarah. It soon lay still, her knife all that propped it off.
Wriggling free, she crawled to Lysander. The snake part of the chimera coiled around his leg and began to drag him.
Finally finding an opportunity to take back his true form, Jareth unsheathed his sword at a second chimera coming at him. The screams of one of his generals caught his attention, but he couldn't dare turn. Faren knocked up against him, his quiver almost emptied.
"Arrows!" he cried.
Pasia tossed a few arrows from her quiver to her brother. He quickly stored all but one and fired the sharp arrow at his opponent. His sister did the same to hers.
Sarah ran after Lysander, but the chimera jumped over the broken glass of the window and landed outside. Unable to free himself, Lysander hit his head on the ledge of the window and disappeared through the gardens and out of Sarah's line of sight. She stood frozen, imagining the horrible things they could do to him, that they would torture out of him just to learn the whereabouts…
Her hand flew to her key; by some miracle it had stayed on its chain, only now she saw on the key a word she made sure she could read in the ancient language: Sarah.
What sounded almost like a bullet firing woke her. She turned to see Jareth just pull his hand away. She followed his gaze up to the massive chandelier hanging above the main hall, constructed of what Sarah hoped were not human bones. He had shot a crystal at the rope holding it. The rope unraveled and the massive chandelier crashed down on top of the last chimera in the castle.
"Toby," she said to herself and ran back into the kitchen. Opening the pantry door, she gathered Toby into her arms and jostled him up and down, just as she had when he was a baby. "Are you all right?"
"I knew you were in trouble," he whispered.
She cradled his head, carrying him back to the main hall. Orion nodded, acknowledging the chimera she finished off while wiping some blood from a cut on his chin. Everyone seemed to just be standing, waiting for someone to speak. Pasia and Faren lifted the chandelier off the chimera corpse and set it in a corner, their heaving breaths the only sound throughout the hall.
"Lysander is gone," Sarah said, flinching at her own voice.
"Just as well," Orion said.
Setting Toby down, she marched up to him.
"What were you talking about before? I heard it."
"What?" Orion's face grew red. The rest surrounded him, their faces eager to hear more. "He wanted to talk where it was secluded."
"Answer."
"He wanted to tell me he openly suspected me. He became quite offended when I said I suspected him in turn and said I didn't want him for an enemy. Absurd, empty threats from an idiot, Lady Sarah, I can assure you."
"You mentioned bronze at the table," she said, narrowing in on him, hoping she could make some attempt to intimidate an older, more magical, more experienced general.
"Because bronze was one of the words Intelligence found!"
"You wanted to discuss Intelligence at the table?" Faren asked.
"In an indirect, covert way, yes."
"Lysander called you out on it and now he's gone," Sarah said.
"I am not a traitor. I'm not, your Highness!" He turned his attention to Jareth, staring intently at him. "Tell him! If you overheard, you know what all was said."
"I recorded what I heard," she said with a purposeful vague tone.
"We all heard you mention bronze," Aulis said, taking Orion by the shoulders. "If you had anything to do with Garnet's death."
"I respected Garnet! She was a worthy general, she was. I would never have done such a thing!" Orion blasted out. "Did it occur to anyone maybe Lysander wanted to be overheard?"
"He just said what we were all thinking!" Aulis cried out. "Why did you mention bronze? Why?" He started shaking Orion.
"Because it was an important word, you fucking idiot!"
Aulis stepped back, the color gone from his face. His hands flew up to the sides of his head, deep inhales following.
"What do you mean meant to be overheard?" Sarah asked. "You just said he took you somewhere quiet."
"Which would look suspicious! What better way to throw suspicion off himself than to make me look even guiltier?"
It was like a slap in the face to Sarah. Just when she thought she had narrowed down her suspicions to one person, more theories and doubts accompanied the concrete conversations and notes in her notebook. Her memory had no talent for remembering words verbatim, but she wrote it all down, fact. But the speculation of everything going on made her head spin. Pasia fortunately brought her out of her inwardness.
"Jareth, have your army meets us here and we will go at once to the chimera kingdom," she said. "Your war has also become a rescue mission, suspect or not."
"Where is Hoggle?" he asked the room.
"R-right here," Hoggle said, hobbling out from under a dead chimera, a dwarf-sized club in his hand. "Should have thought the thing would fall on top of me."
"We will keep General Orion under your constant supervision," Jareth said with a grin. Pointing at Orion's arms, something like a bracelet clamped over Orion's wrist. An identical one appeared on Hoggle's.
"What is this?"
"That will let Hoggle know the minute you try to take off. You cannot take his off of him, either. It's not that I've already found you guilty, but I do admit I take some pleasure out of you being bound to a dwarf," Jareth said. "Once we find Lysander, we will solve this once and for all and if innocent, you will be promoted for cooperating so well." A sneer shone on his face.
"I take that as a promise, your Highness!" Orion yelled, grimacing at Hoggle pinching him to move.
"Aulis?"
"Your Highness?"
"You will lead both yours and Garnet's brigades. Go back and alert the others. Now. By this afternoon, we will be at war."
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A long formation of armed goblins and Sidhes marched along the paths. Sarah led one of the fur-covered horse creatures pulling a wagon of supplies near the back. Her legs thanked her for changing back into her jeans and running shoes, feeling pounds lighter after shedding the long skirts of her dresses and boots. Surrounded by soldiers with leather quivers and sleek swords, she still felt alone.
The sparkling, fertile hills along the sides of the paths reminded her of the stone house in the country where she started this "vacation" to the Underground. Those few days with Garnet differed so much from now, about to go to war, mentally practicing her manipulation of the crystals for mere survival. She had just been beginning to think this world safe, a nice place where she could trust everyone and let Toby run around to his heart's content. Strains of "This Used to Be My Playground" played in her mind.
"Just checking on you."
Pasia rode up on what must be the pony version of the animal Sarah led. The gorgeous queen in her leather uniform would have been the epitome of a classical warrior if not for the searching, hesitant look on her heart-shaped face.
"I'm fine, thank you."
"If you need anyone to help you with the wagon, any of my soldiers would be happy to assist you." She snapped her eyes shut at such a futile attempt.
"I can pull a wagon, Pasia," Sarah said, looking ahead of her. Please go. Please don't say anymore.
"I came to apologize to you." Her composure broke. "I only gave you the sangmagis to test a theory. I know it was thoughtless and I shouldn't have done it. You and Jareth seemed to be so comfortable with each other and…I don't claim to watch, but if I made things awkward or destroyed your friendship…I was hurt and my curiosity has often been my undoing." She continued rambling, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I felt like you had poisoned me," Sarah said, feeling the other woman's torture.
"It's true. Forgive me, Sarah. I only thought that if I could not have what I wanted, which I promise you is a passing fancy, you should take it and I wanted to see if I was right that, that you wanted…Oh, I'm so sorry!"
Sarah hated to just say, "oh, it's all right" and share some sort of girlish sigh before each one would almost kiss the other's cheek but stop just short of it.
"I think we'll eventually be all right, Pasia," she said, thinking that salvaged their fledgling friendship and her dignity.
Toby sat in the wagon, placing the food into packages to be dealt out at the next stopping point. He was safe and so content to be useful. Sarah sighed looking back at him. She would have to ask Jareth for more lessons to guard her brother…of course, she knew he wasn't her brother by blood anymore…and if she ever felt up to approaching Jareth again.
A/N: I do promise some eventual fluff, but no fluff is worth it without some angst. "This Used to Be My Playground" is a song by Madonna that was one of the most successful songs of the early 90s. I don't own Madonna, wouldn't want to, but I do want to own Labyrinth. Please leave reviews, people! Reading without leaving a review is like not flushing the toilet in the lady's room just because it's a public restroom and no one will be the wiser.