Twenty Five

The price of peace

The King started to bark orders in two different languages. One was Goblin, and Sarah understood every word. The other language was Domovoi, and Sarah thought it was most likely the same orders he had given the Goblins. Yuri and Willa took the children back to the nursery.

Jareth looked at her trampled garden. "I'm sorry about this." He said pained. "You worked so hard to bring it back."

Sarah's eyes widened slightly. Jareth was apologizing? For someone else? Sarah looked at the mess Grizbine's horse had made. "I think it's Master Theo who is going to be the most upset." She stooped to pick up one of her trampled plants. "Who is that ass, anyway?"

"His name is Grizbine, and he's a distant cousin."

"My condolences." Sarah let the plant fall to the ground. "Who the hell does he think he is, trampling into my garden?"

Jareth looked troubled. "He thinks he's to be the next Goblin King." He turned away not wanting to look at Sarah. "He's made a claim to my throne, and is receiving support from my beloved Stepmother."

"What kind of claim?" Sarah asked.

Dark storms gathered in the mismatched eyes. "Sarah, we best take this to a place where I can give you all the answers you are going to need." He held out a hand. Without hesitation, she placed her hand in his. The next instant, they were in his private office. Jareth led her to the divan, "You may as well be comfortable, Sarah. This is going to take some time."

"You have my attention." She watched him move, and wondered how he, always so graceful, could be related to that clod, Grizbine.

"You've been reading the history of the realm," Jareth stated as he placed a hand on the shelf of books just behind him. "But there are things that are not printed, for a good reason. Words have power."

"I understand that," she whispered.

"I am not in favor with some in my father's court," he stated flatly. "My father's wife has no affection for me, not that I can blame her. I am rather a nasty reminder of my father's passion for one who was not his wife. She objected to having me raised at court, and she'd have preferred if my own mother and I were both banished. My father however would not have that."

Sarah looked up to the portrait over the mantle. "He kept your mother at court under his wife's nose?"

"Yes." He too looked at the portrait.

"Ballsy… stupid, but ballsy."

Jareth looked at Sarah and smiled buoyantly. "Precisely." He chucked, then continued. "I was, and still am, my Father's fair haired boy. Among my kind I'm considered a youngster, barely out of my adolescence. When the last king of this kingdom abandoned his throne…"

"Wait!" Sarah interjected hotly. "What do you mean abandoned? The book says he abdicated."

"That's a bit of a white washing." Jareth admitted.

"Back the train up," she looked at Jareth. "The book is a pack of lies?"

"Well not a pack… more like a…small… tiny… group of well placed lies." Jareth sighed. "I learned about it the hard way right after I got here." He took a seat beside her. "The last king hated this place. Can you image that? He found things here not to his liking. He could not control the Labyrinth and it went wild, nearly eating up the entire realm. The things he did in just sixty years of rule were obscene."

Sarah pointed to the books. "Those say that the kings who came before only lasted a short time, is that true?"

"That's true. None ever went beyond a hundred years."

"How is it you've managed to last for over four hundred years?" She questioned suspiciously.

"Because I was younger than all the rest, and I saw the realm and the Labyrinth as a game," he chuckled. His features went from amused to pained instantly. "And for that reason, claimants are trying to wrestle my Kingdom from me. I can not let them take it away, Sarah."

"That's why the house and grounds were in such a mess?" she ventured. "You were concentrating on rebuilding your game board."

"The last king dismantled large portions of the safeguards, unwittingly I think," Jareth mumbled. "The Labyrinth is alive; you saw it in the moonlight. You saw it breathe. The kings who were given rule here didn't…until I came along. I thought it was a game, and I love to play games…hence the Labyrinth and I joined forces to rebuild."

"Whose idea was it to stick a kid in the seat of power?" Sarah asked quietly.

Jareth sniffed, "That would be my Stepmother's doing. The one and only good turn she's ever done me."

"I'm confused."

"I was a thorn in her side; somewhat my own fault, I'll admit," Jareth stated. "When the last King abandoned the kingdom, she suggested very strongly to my father that it was time that I be given a taste of responsibly. See, she thought I would fall flat on my face. She thought no one could tame the Labyrinth, as none ever had."

"So she looks to shame you in your father's eyes? In addition, tosses you to the wolves? She expected you to fail and come back to court with your tail between your legs…" Sarah felt the resurgence of anger she'd felt at Karen years ago when her father had remarried. "And I thought I had it bad with my stepmother."

Jareth nodded. "I was sent here with a handful of servants, the same handful that you have met. Carlin was hand picked by my Father, much to my Stepmother's ire. She wanted to pick the servants, and place her spies. Father would not have that, and told me he had faith in me. I don't go to court much, preferring my little goblins to the Fae."

"If Grizbine is an example of the Fae at court, I don't blame you." She smiled. "At least you're madder at him than you are at me."

"It's a different kind of mad." Jareth leaned toward her. "I would never want to bond to him."

"I should hope not." Sarah teased back lightly. "I credit you with better taste."

Jareth chuckled. "Thank you, I think."

"Ok, she has you… more or less exiled from Court under the banner of giving you your own Kingdom, what next?"

"One of the things that's not written in the histories. Every king has a little over four hundred years in which to produce an heir to this throne. None of the other Kings wanted to give this throne to their off spring. In fact, they don't even want anyone to remember they sat in the throne."

"And that's where these claimants come in?" she asked.

Jareth nodded, staring at the portrait of his father. "I managed to get the Labyrinth back to its original proportions and dimensions, and now they want to take it from me, saying anyone can control this … beast." He pinched his nose. "They called this wonderful creature a beast," he moaned. "Grizbine is the only one of the claimants who has any real clout."

"And what kind of clout does the lout have?"

Jareth faced her. "He's the High Queen's Godson."

Sarah shuddered. "Oh you poor child." She took a deep breath. "So where do I come in to all this mess?"

"Twenty years ago, I felt a force pull me, draw me to your world. I can pass though portals and in owl form I can freely roam your world," he began. "I was drawn to a park. Day after day, I saw a creature that fired my soul. A girl on the verge of womanhood…playing pretend games in a glade… reading the words of a book from my realm…"

"Don't say it…" she cautioned, "don't say you fell in love…"

"Fae don't love easy, and are not easy to love, Sarah." He rose from the divan and paced. "Your wishing Toby away was the perfect excuse to bring you here. If you lost you were too old to turn to goblin, and yes some are turned… not all, but some… and you were too young to keep… but I would have kept you anyway! I was so besotted! Even the Labyrinth itself was besotted with you! You invigorated us both. In you I saw what no other female, Mortal or Fae, could offer me, an equal."

"For my will is as strong as yours ... and my kingdom as great ..." Sarah said as if in a trance.

Jareth turned and nodded. "And you turned us down," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"I had no choice!" Sarah cried out. "Surely you understand."

"No! I don't…" Jareth roared. "Because to me, the choice is the Kingdom."

"What we have here…is a breakdown in…mindsets." Sarah offered weakly. "Jareth, I was fifteen! I didn't even have a boyfriend. You're romancing me in that ballroom scared the shit out of me!"

"Women," He muttered. "Give them what they want and they still find fault." He moved to the window. "My Father, in his wisdom, years ago set up a time of cooling, twenty human years. If a mortal female or male, as the case may be, refuses a Fae suitor, they must keep apart for twenty years. If in that time the mortal calls the Fae to them, the Fae is free to pursue the Mortal again. However, should that mortal not call, then at the end of twenty years the Fae is free to use whatever means it deems necessary to …obtain said mortal." He sniffed. "You didn't call."

Sarah blinked, "Why is it no one gives us on the other end the rules?"

Jareth looked at her with a look that could have frozen lava. "You read the book! That one and others like it, you knew of our realm…."

"And I was trying to forget it!" Sarah rose to her feet.

"Had you done as you were supposed to …" he began.

"Hold it!" she fired back. "I did do as I was supposed to! I was to win back my brother. You have the nerve to hold that against me. How dare you?"

Jareth opened his mouth, but no sound came forth, and he closed it with a snap. Time passed while they both glared at the other. When he had recovered his composure, he began again. "You ran from the crystal ballroom, before I could bestow my kiss. Then you spoke the words that broke the spell and set you and your brother both back in your own world…And your first act is to throw a party with the traitors…" his teeth clenched. "Leaving me out in the cold…"

Sarah shook her head, "They came to say good bye…it turned into the celebration you say you witnessed."

"Planned or not woman, you left me out." He sniffed again. "I had twenty years of being on the outside, Sarah. Twenty!" His voice went up an angry octave. "At first I was going to force you to come back. Then your darling ex husband supplied me with a far better enticement, I was going to come to you and say if you wanted to be with them you'd have to come back to the Realm with me…. But you are defiant! Telling me I had nothing to make you ever come back… I did not have to offer you a slim chance…" He pounded a fist on the desk. "Damnation!"

Sarah looked at the man now holding his fist to his chest with a wince. "Let me see, that." She took his glove off and frowned. "Beating up a defenseless piece of furniture is not going to help matters."

"Sarah …" He began to speak when alarms went off all over the palace. "Blast! We've got company."

"Are we being invaded?" she looked at the man.

"More or less," he pulled her chin up in the air. "Follow my lead. Remember what is betwixt us…"

She nodded, "Is betwixt us alone. I understand."

Jareth looked remorseful for an instant, "I wish we'd had more time to prepare, more time for you to..."

Sarah looked at him with the same defiant look she had worn in the tunnels, "It's a piece of cake," she said in the same way she had before.

"That remains to be seen," he said, then clasped her hand in his and pulled it to his heart. "My will is as strong as yours."

Sarah nodded clasping the hand hold hers with as firm a grip. "My kingdom is as great."

Jareth placed his forehead to hers. "It has to be." He stepped back, raised his arm. "I think a grand entrance down the staircase is called for to greet our unwanted, uninvited, guests."

Sarah looked at their garments, "Jareth, could I make a tiny suggestion? Would you mind dressing us…in something a bit more flashy? I think we should go to the throne room looking the part of King and Consort. They think they are dealing with a spoiled child... Let's show them a glimpse of whom they are really dealing with, shall we?"

Jareth smiled wickedly. "Carlin says you have a good head on your shoulders, that you see things with a fresh perspective….he's so right. All right, Sarah… you think of how we should look and I'll make it happen." He placed an ungloved hand to her temple. "Just close your eyes and see us in your mind's eye."

Sarah closed her eyes, seeing him first. He was in the wonderful owl cape she'd seen him wear in the broken Escher room. Dove gray breeches and boots, pale gray lawn poet shirt over which was an ecru jerkin. The only adornments were the amulet he always wore and a crown made of the living branches of the Labyrinth.

Turning her vision to her own garments, she envisioned herself in garments that reflected his. She was in the colors of a Barn Owl, in an Empire gown with vines from the Labyrinth woven into her hair.

Sarah opened her eyes, and looked at Jareth. "Now we're ready to take on anyone!"

"Madame, you may yet earn that kiss," He teased as he held out a regal arm.