Chapter 21 – The secrets behind the King

Sarah was awoken by a sharp pounding in her head, it felt like the worst hangover she'd ever had, but there was no sick feeling in her stomach and instead of the fuzzy memories of the night before, she was suddenly assaulted by the very vivid memory of what she'd done. Sitting up straight in bed in shock, she found Jareth sat on the window ledge, knees drawn up to his chin. As she looked at him he seemed to have aged years, there were bags under his eyes and his whole face looked strained. For a while there was silence as they both tried to find words to take them past this moment. Eventually all it took was a simple gesture, Sarah stood up and walked over to him. When she reached the window she simply sat down beside him and laid her head against his hip. The motion was enough to let the Goblin King know that his shame was not enough to drive Sarah away. Almost trembling in relief Jareth lowered his legs, placed a gentle hand on Sarah's shoulder and then tenderly kissed the top of her head. Knowing things would be okay, Sarah placed her hand over Jareth's and looked up to smile at him, but both their smiles were tinged with melancholy and as much as they knew they'd survive this, they knew they had a long hard talk ahead of them.

It was Sarah who eventually started speaking "Jareth, I'm sorry but I have to know. We're getting married, I thought I could carry on not knowing your past but I simply can't. I need to know what happened to you, without it, I can't know who you are. I'd be marrying a stranger, because if you don't tell me now, you never will. I love you, and you have no reason to feel ashamed by what has happened to you, none at all, but I need to know…"

For a while there was silence as Jareth steeled himself for the disgust he was sure he was about to get off Sarah once she knew his history. Yet she was right, it wasn't fair on her to go into this marriage not knowing his past. So slowly he began to tell her of the events that had led to his being king.

"Remember back when you were running the Labyrinth the second time?" He paused whilst Sarah nodded, then turned his head to look out the window. "Sir Didymus told you I was human. He was right, or at least I used to be. I was born a mortal Aboveground, but not long after my tenth birthday I was wished away by my mother. I was born out of wedlock and back then that was unforgivable. After years of scorn she finally wished me away and the Goblin King took me. Back then the Goblin Kingdom wasn't part of my father's Kingdom. The King took the children, set the wisher in the Labyrinth and that was pretty much all the participation he had. He was more interested in court life in the various realms and spent very little time here. The Labyrinth was left to tend to itself and as the King couldn't be bothered to set tasks, most children got taken back. But my mother didn't want me, I had no one to run the Labyrinth. Usually in that case the servants would have adopted me out to a Fae family, but that was not to be my fate. The Goblin King was Gerard's brother and the day I was brought to the Labyrinth Gerard was visiting. He decided he needed a new servant and so he took me. I was a slave there until I was fourteen. By that time Gerard felt I was… tame enough to be allowed to serve in public." He said the word tame with such disgust in his voice that Sarah physically winced.

She knew exactly what he meant without him having to say it, although he'd been spared the sexual abuse Kara had been subject to, there were a whole host of physical and mental tortures Jareth had been put through. But he wasn't going to dwell on that.

"He threw his annual ball, and that particular year it was in honour of High King and Queen of the Underground's three hundredth anniversary, so they were in attendance. It was my first time serving at a formal occasion and I was so nervous I dropped a pitcher of wine as I was serving one of the Lords of the Caves. He was so angry he picked up the pitcher and threw it at my head before slapping me. The High Queen saw this and stood up, saying to Gerard 'This is an outrage! What do you intend to do about this?' I still remember her words clearly, I remember seeing her and thinking she was a Goddess"

He stopped at that point to smile to himself at the memory.

"Gerard misunderstood though, he thought she was outraged at my behavior, not the lords, so he sentenced me to ten lashes." This time he let out a small chuckle.

"You should have seen my mother's face. I remember blinking and all of a sudden she was beside me and had her arm around my shoulders. She berated Gerard for his treatment of an innocent child and took me away, right there and then, in the middle of the banquet. At first I was simply a page in the High Rulers castle, but I was fairly treated, and always given the choice to leave. Then I became a personal page to her, soon I was no longer a servant but a friend of the Princes. After a year or so of being there the High King and Queen formally adopted me. To this day I don't know why she chose me, I was nothing, a mere slave in a foreign King's castle. All my mother will say about it, is that she saw great potential in me, potential that she now knows relates to the Labyrinth Until I became King here I had no powers, but the second I walked through the doors of this castle I gained my Animalanis form and the power over crystals. Mother always says when she saw me sit on the throne for the first time, it was like I was coming home."

Jareth was silent for a while, lost in memories, but pleasant ones now. Sarah was afraid to shatter the peace but there was something else she had to know.

"Jareth, why did you hide this from me?"

Jareth looked at her with anger in his eyes, so fierce that Sarah shrunk back in fear.

"I was nothing Sarah! He took me and made me a slave, I was less than nothing. How can you say there's no shame in that? I'm King now, and for a King to have that kind of past is beyond shame! Being the youngest male wasn't the only reason I was given the Labyrinth to rule, no other Kingdom would have me, how could a man who used to be a slave, a human slave at that, be King over true Fae creatures?"

Sarah knew that how he felt was unjustified, he had no reason to be ashamed of events that he had no control over, but she knew nothing she could say could change that. She also knew he was right about one thing, the Fae were not the most forgiving creatures, and although the Goblins had easily forgiven his past, the high born Fae probably never would…

"Jareth… I know I can never convince you that you've got nothing to feel ashamed about, what Gerard did to you goes too deep for mere words to cure, but I will say this. You are King! Whether of Goblins or Fae you are King, and the respect that affords you comes not from your title, but from the way you rule your people. You are a fair ruler, kind to your people… kinder still to those whished away. Your people respect you, you may not realise it, but they do, and so too do those of other Kingdoms. Look at what happened back in the Caves, that hall was half emptied, all those creatures wishing to be a part of your Kingdom, because of the King that you are. Your past is a part of you and always will be, but stop looking at yourself through the eyes of the child you were then, and look at yourself, your kingdom and your subjects, through the eyes of the King you are now."

Her words had a profound effect on him. Although he doubted he would ever be free of the shame of his past, he knew what she'd said was the truth. More than that though, was the relief from the worry that had been torturing him since he'd first received the invite from Gerard. Sarah still loved him. Almost instantly his face broke into a grin and he pulled Sarah into his lap before kissing her. When they pulled apart Sarah's smile matched his, but Jareth's was soon to fade.

"Sarah we need to talk about what you did last night."

Sarah's smile faded in response to this. "I'm sorry, I know you told me to leave it, but Kara was my best friend, and he took her, he used her… I couldn't stand by, I couldn't leave her there…"

"I know." He said kissing her gently on the forehead. "You did the right thing, its how you did it that's the problem." At this Sarah frowned in confusion. "What you did was evoke the very power of Arnagoth itself. I know you didn't do it on purpose" he said quickly as he saw her open her mouth to speak "because it's not something you can do on purpose, you don't choose to have that power, the power source chooses to give it to you."

He paused as he could see the light begin to dawn in her eyes.

"Sarah what did has been done by so few people over the ages, it's a sign that the Source respects you… it's a sign it chooses you as its ruler. Over the years the laws have been twisted, it happens so rarely that no one really understands it, and because wars are so easily started between Kingdom's and worlds… What you did was forbidden Sarah, in essence you tried to claim Gerard's throne through the usurping of his world's power. You made him powerless against you and therefore unsuitable to be a ruler. Wars have been started over much less and the few times this has been done in the recent past, it's always come off worse for the perpetrator. By law… Gerard can ask for you to be punished."

"Punished…?" It was almost a whisper, the fear now beginning to grow inside Sarah.

"In order to stop Gerard starting a war with my Kingdom over your supposed insult to him, the High King will grant him a boon. I don't know what this will be, but considering this is Gerard… I think we should plan for the worst."

"Is there nothing you can do?"

"I'm going to go speak to my father now, at least this way he'll be prepared for when Gerard contacts him. Other than that, all we can do it wait"

At this Sarah became silent, overwhelmed by his words. Yet soon a question began to haunt her and she had to break the silence.

"Jareth, if Gerard hates humans so much, why did he invite us, both ex-humans, as guests of honour?"

"It's not that he hates humans, like most of the Fae he simply feels they are below him, an inferior race, one he does not feel fit to rule a Kingdom… The Goblin Kingdom was not always ruled by my family, neither has it always been part of The Underground, though its lands always bordered ours. Not long before my mother took me from Gerard, my father declared war on the King of the Goblin Kingdom. The King of the time, and indeed the Kings of the past, kept the Goblins as slaves, and they were treated worse than Gerard treats his slaves. Incensed at how the King treated his subjects, my father sent his Fae army into these lands to stop the slavery."

Drawing Sarah closer to him, Jareth gathered his thoughts before continueing.

"With Gerard the situation is different, he has an army, a fairly grand one, none of who chose to come here. Were my father to declare war on him, many hundreds, possibly thousands of Fae lives would be lost in the fighting. It is a dilemma my father has thought on for years, but he will not send so many of his people to die, no matter how just the cause. The previous Goblin Kings' army consisted of the Goblins. Goblins that, when sent out to face the opposing army, simply laid down their weapons and surrendered. With the lives they lived at the hands of their King, they felt that whatever treatment they got at the hands of the enemy had to be better. With no army to fight for him, the King fled. To this day he hasn't been found, but when I came of age my father handed the rule of the lands to me, knowing that, having been a slave myself, I would never mistreat a single subject."

He paused to look out of the window once more, at his lands and his subjects that so loved, and had sworn to protect. After a few moments he turned back to look at Sarah and continued.

"Gerard invited us because the previous Goblin King was his brother, and he has never forgiven my father for usurping him. Even worse, I was once a human, once his slave, to see his brother' lands in my hands grieves him beyond endurance. It is my belief that he invited us in expectation that you would discover my past and be shamed by it, shamed into leaving me. I suppose he hoped that by doing so I would weaken and possibly allow him to claim these lands back. Who knows?" Smiling with a fierce pride Jareth laid his hand on Sarah's cheek. "He certainly didn't expect you to lay claim to his throne."

Sarah smiled back slightly, but a fear had now clutched her heart. "But now I've given him even more reason to hate you. What if he asks for this Kingdom as my punishment?"

"It is likely that my kingdom will be the boon he asks for, all we can hope is that my father comes up with something to placate him that does not require too much of a sacrifice…"

Sarah lowered her head and once again leant into Jareth. The guilt for the situation her actions had placed them in was taking over her, but Jareth was right, all they could do now was wait.