Chapter 37

She had only been gone for two days, but it looked like all hell had broken loose. Running from one area to another, the Cook belted out orders. He had Sarah watching over the ovens as they backed meat pies and watching over the soups. It was truly a mad house, and now she wouldn't get another rest day till who knew when.

Sweat continued to pour off of her. Who ever had gotten the army inside the Labyrinth was going to pay. Personally, she was beginning to want to hang them up in the Kitchens and watch them slowly sweat.

"Jenna, I need you to go get a fresh supply of vegetables."

Sarah nodded as she moved away from the steaming pots, "anything we need in particular?"

The Cook shook his head, "no, get what you can."

After quickly grabbing two empty baskets, Sarah made her way out of the hot kitchens to the closest exit to the Gardens. Hopefully, Hoggle had harvested a good amount already. She needed to get back as soon as possible. The Castle Kitchens were almost feeding the entire kingdom now. Sarah wasn't sure how many still roamed the Labyrinth freely. Even Hoggle was staying at the Castle now.

Rounding the corner and nearing the fence of the Gardens, Sarah stopped. Hoggle and the other gardeners stood outside the gates with empty crates at their feets.

Hoggle looked up at here, "sorry, Jenna. There's nothing." Sighing, he shook his head, "we don't even have anything in the stores, either."

Sarah frowned. She couldn't ask if Jareth knew because of the others, but this was bad. Really bad. With no vegetables, they only had bread, but that was slowly being drained, too.

Hoggle looked at the other gardeners before walking towards her, "I'll go with you to tell the Cook myself. Can't allow you to be yelled at cause we need more time."

Sarah nodded as he walked past her. She then followed after him. Once they were out of sight, she whispered, "does he know?"

Shaking his head, Hoggle whispered back, "no. I'll tell him after I speak wit the Cook. This is bad."

"I know."

As they reached the stairs leading up to the Castle, Hoggle stopped and looked at her, "have you seen him today?"

Sarah shook her head, "not yet. He sent a note down to the Cook saying not to send any meals up to him until further notice. That worries me."

Hoggle raised an eyebrow, "so he's keeping you away now. That's not good."

"There's no way I can sneak off to talk to him either."

Nodding, Hoggle glanced around them, "well, let's get at least the first half done. I'll see if I can convince the Cook to allow you to come with me to tell him."

The duo entered the Castle to deliver the bad news.

XOXOXOX

Even a day later, he was in shock. Sitting behind his desk, Jareth looked down at the copy of the pages, heavily magicked, his mother had given him. The Labyrinth had been compromised by his uncle. An uncle he had not known about till now. Not that was necessarily a bad thing from what his mother had told him.

His mother turned away from the window to face him, "we removed all record of him. You won't find even his birth recorded in the version of my father's log that is kept within the walls. His original log as well as my own is locked inside the vault at the Palace."

Jareth frowned, "why would you banish your own brother?"

Tears filled her eyes, "he killed my father."

"What?" The official record stated his grandfather had passed in his sleep.

"He wanted to take the throne sooner than my father's life would allow. So he slowly poisoned him. We didn't discover the plot until it was too late. With your father's blessing, I banished him from the Labyrinth. Then your father in turned exiled him from the all the lands he ruled," she wiped her eyes. "I had hoped he had gone Above, but it seems he has been hiding in the Dark Lands, waiting."

"Why didn't you execute him?"

His mother looked him in the eye, "even after knowing what he had done, I couldn't kill him."

"But now he has returned and is trying to not only take the Labyrinth by force, but also the entire Underground?"

His mother sighed, "yes. This war wasn't started by the fools we thought it was. It was started by him. He no doubt offered them, I have no idea what, but he offered them something to align themselves with him."

Anger began to coarse through his veins. All of this was because his mother hadn't been able to... He couldn't actually blame her. She no doubt loved her brother, once. Slowly, Jareth calmed down, "Mother, is Sarah in danger?"

"I don't know. My spell should protect her identity, but it would be a good idea if she doesn't take off her coat until this is over. Also, no using your powers to create a bubble. That was foolish."

"I wanted to spend time with her outside this damn Castle."

She smiled slightly at him, "I know, but no more."

Jareth frowned, "Mother, what am I to do? They are almost to the City Wall."

"I closed most of the passages we knew as children and opened new ones, but you know as well as I that there is no passage from outside the walls into the city. Man the walls and prepare for a siege." His mother frowned, "I need to return to the Palace. Be careful, my son."

He watched his mother disappear in a shower of glitter.

Jareth groaned as he leaned back into his chair. His so called uncle needed to be found. The sooner the better. He had sent a select few of his best agents into the tunnels and out into the Labyrinth. Even though his mother had closed most of the ancient passages, he now had guards at those. He would not be surprised by anything.

A knock came at his door. He had let it be known he did not wish to be disturbed. So he ignored the knocks as they continued, but he quickly hid the pages inside a drawer of his desk.

Finally the knocks stopped, but then the door flew open, slamming against the wall.

Quickly standing up, Jareth turned to deal with the intruder.

In walked Hoggle and Sarah, in that damn coat. He hated that coat.

Jareth frowned, "I gave the order I was not to be disturb."

Hoggle huffed as he and Sarah walked into the room, "well, sorry, Your Highness, but I've got some news to deliver."

he moved slightly towards them, "close the door please, Jenna"

Sarah shut the door and turned towards him, "it's bad, Your Majesty."

Jareth nodded, "deliver your news, Dwarf."

Hoggle glanced over at Sarah, sighing, "we've run out of food stores. It's going to be weeks before we have a harvest, but we won't have enough to feed everyone."

Damn. This was bad. He might as well be under siege already. This war needed to end.

Sarah looked at him, "the Cook said he'll start rationing today. Even grains and meat are getting dangerously low."

Jareth groaned. Things were becoming dire.

Sarah glanced at Hoggle, "what are we going to do?"

He wanted to tell her everything, but knowing what he did now, he couldn't chance the enemy over hearing them.

Sarah frowned at him, "has there been news, Your Majesty?"

Nodding, he turned towards his desk, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."

He glanced towards her, seeing the anger growing in Sarah's eyes.

Glancing between his king and Sarah, Hoggle began to pull on her arm, "Jenna, we better get back to our duties," but she remained in place.

"Jenna, it is best you go with him. I have to prepare a royal decree to the kingdom."

She nodded, but the anger hadn't left her eyes yet.

Sighing, Jareth looked away from her, "Lady Sarah may be in great danger. The person who has allowed the army to enter the Labyrinth knows more than I had originally thought."

Sarah frowned at him, "what does that mean exactly, Your Highness?"

"Lady Sarah is to remain in hiding for her safety, until the war is over."

Sarah nodded slowly, "I'll tell the Cook."

Again Hoggle pulled on her arm, "we better allow His Highness to return to his work."

Slowly the duo walked out of the room, leaving him alone once again.

Okay, the italicized portion of this chapter is a flash back. I for reason you can guess, didn't have it written for the last chapter. Nothing new to report on my dad, but again thanks for all the support.

I have applied for a new job. I know I haven't been at my new one for not even a month yet, but this company offers mostly full time positions, which is what I really want. Now I have to wait to hear back from them on what will happen next.

I actually wrote this chapter in about two days. That's rough and second drafts. I hopefully caught all of my errors, when I edited.

Also, I am now on Facebook. Just search for my name or click on the link on my profile. Mostly I'll do quick little updates there and share vids and pictures.

Thanks for all of the reviews, faves, and follows.

Review if you please.

CL