The tension around the breakfast table was thick. Sarah shifted uncomfortably, and her father and Karen both watched Howl intently. Sophie looked calm, but there was worry in her eyes.
"What is it?" Jareth asked, setting aside his plate.
"The situation I find myself in is somewhat compromised," Howl explained. "I am born a Welshman, grown in the United Kingdom and a citizen of that country. Yet I live in Ingary and am resident and registered as a Wizard in that country. As Sarah and Toby are family, I am obliged by my oaths to train them to a certain level of competence with their magic. You'll agree that Sarah at the very least is in desperate need of training."
"Yes."
"Tell me about it," Sarah cringed just recalling the last few days. Karen nodded rather too vehemently.
"However because there is no society of practising Wizards in this plain, the training I received is that of Ingary's Royal Sorcery Academy. My uncle sponsored my application, as I am obliged to sponsor that of Sarah and Toby's. By entering the Academy, or as they are currently doing, studying correspondence, they will become citizens of the Kingdom of Ingary."
"Oh," Karen perked up, "duel citizenship could be a useful thing,"
Sarah shivered at the sudden dark expression that washed over Jareth's face.
"No, not in this case," Howl said gruffly. "We are at war."
Silence fell at the table and Sarah felt a shiver run down her back. Jareth gripped her hand tightly in his. All Sarah could think about was that poor desperate mother hiding with her children under the table. She fought not to cry.
"Toby, like Michael, I could hide for another three years at the very most, but Sarah, she should have entered the Academy four years ago. Madame Suliman takes a dim view on hack witches, which she will be accounted if she does not register."
"Why tell anyone of her?" Jareth asked shortly.
"Binding oaths, you know the magical consequences of breaking them," Howl grimaced.
Jareth glowered at him.
"Why did you agree to teach her then?" Robert Williams asked harshly.
"He's bound by two oaths," Jareth interjected. "That to the order of Wizards, to train those he finds with magical talent and that to the Academy who trained him to work in service to their country."
"Robert, I told you what she did that night. If Jareth hadn't been here–" Karen eyed Sarah apprehensively.
"There is no question of not training her," Howl said with a sigh. "Only, I am summoned to the palace and must go, and I must take Sarah with me."
"No," Jareth said flatly as Robert thumped his fist onto the table.
"You want to take my daughter into a war zone?"
"I don't have any choice!" Howl ground out.
"What would happen if you didn't go?" Karen asked, Sarah was quite surprised when her stepmother grasped her arm as if she would vanish before her eyes.
"He would possibly fracture or lose his magic," Jareth explained. "Either way he would be severely compromised and be little more than a magical sensitive once the oaths were done with him. It is not an option."
Howl rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"Have you registered them with the Academy?" Jareth asked, his voice suddenly smooth as if an idea had occurred to him.
"No, I've been delaying it as much as I can; I've held back all correspondence with the palace since I met her. However, the moment I step either into the Academy or into the Palace, I need to do so. I've perhaps two or three days before I must go, or face a squad dragging me out as defaulting on my oath."
"So they don't yet have any official documentation," he checked.
"No, what angle have you seen?" Howl looked as if he were a drowning man who had just touched a rock underwater.
"They cannot insist that a queen and heir of a foreign nation become subject to their own."
"What?" Sarah gasped at Jareth and Robert slammed his hand down with even more ferocity.
"I will not have my son and daughter sold off to one kingdom to save them from another! They are Citizens of America, they have rights!"
"Yes, within the realm of America and this plain they do," Howl agreed, "however I'm tangled up with Ingary and that drags them right in after me."
"So," Karen patted Sarah's arm absently, "Sarah needs to marry Jareth and Toby is to be adopted as his heir, so, so they won't be our children anymore?"
"That is about the only thing that will save them," Howl declared.
"This is positively medieval," Robert breathed in horror.
"It's a fairly good deal, all things considered," Sophie spoke up from beside Howl for the first time. "I heard that some wizards sign generational oaths, so that any Wizarding descendents they have to the second and third generation are automatically drafted."
"My uncle bribed Madam Sulieman to cut that out, as his father had done him. He said it was to each man to choose if he were to live and die by his own oath, not a father to make his son or grandson suffer."
"Neolithic then," Robert grated.
Howl gave a nod as if he agreed.
Silence fell around the table.
"Sarah, what say you on all this?" Robert asked gruffly.
Sarah clutched at Jareth's hand she could feel him trembling and trying to hide it.
"Could you excuse Jareth and I for a few minutes? We need to discuss this in the den."
.
Sarah shut the door behind her and turned to the Goblin King who now stood all haughty and proud in the middle of the room, watching her like an owl viewing a tasty mouse. If she hadn't felt him shaking earlier she might have been fooled.
"Jareth?" she whispered.
"What would you say, Lady Sarah?" he asked sharply.
"I, er…"
"I am not over fond of rejection that I need to hear it a second time!" He snapped.
"Jareth, what?" Sarah blinked at him as tears stung her eyes. She had hardly seen him this angry since she had run the Labyrinth.
"We barely opened betrothal negotiations with your cousin, and I know you, you dislike being forced into things. Your stubbornness is legendary."
"Jareth!"
"Am I wrong?" He leaned forward, his eyes narrowed into a filthy glare.
"No, but–"
"Then why are we here?" He shook his hand at the walls of the den. "There is no point to this!"
"Jareth just shut up and listen to me!"
"I don't need to hear it!"
"Aaagh!" Sarah stamped her foot. "I love you, you fool and yes I will marry you, is that what you are so afraid to hear?"
Jareth was left with his mouth open and his hand in the air.
Sarah grabbed his cravat and dragged him down to stare him straight in the eye.
"On one binding condition," she growled at him.
He blinked, then nodded hastily.
"You listen to the words coming out of my mouth rather than the words you think I will say."
He flushed pink at that.
"Sorry," he mumbled in a small voice.
Sarah stood on her toes and kissed him. After a moment he kissed her back then gathered her in his arms.
"Sorry," he breathed into her hair.
"So," she prompted and poked him in the ribs, "do I get my wedding proposal?"
He blinked.
"You just asked me and assumed I'd agree with it. In fact, you've done it twice," he scrunched up his nose as the idea occurred to him, "now and the betrothal contract –which I've yet to see a single letter of; that Wizard cousin of yours is slipping."
"Jareth?" she said warningly.
He gave her a shameless grin.
"My precious Sarah, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife for the rest of your days and all eternity, so that I may be beside you as your husband in the same?"
Sarah put her finger to her lips and frowned at the carpet.
"Sarah?" he prompted.
"I'm thinking," she said.
"What's there to think about, you already said yes?"
She gazed up at him.
"If Howl has three days, how much time can you rewind if goblin tradition requires a year?"
He blinked.
"It can happen the year after? Goblins are flexible."
"Who are you obliged to invite to your wedding and how much of the treasury will you empty because it is such short notice?"
"Gold is of no issue. I'll owe the High King a rather large favour, he is the only one I am obliged to invite," Jareth ground out, sourly.
"Why?" she exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you were not his subject."
"I am not. However he is my closest living relative and I need his witness."
"You're related to the High King?" Sarah sounded intrigued. "So you are part elf?"
Jareth scowled, thoroughly disgruntled.
"Half elf, half, well, no one knows. Not even my bloody father."
Something clicked in her mind.
"You're the son of the high king?" she breathed incredulously.
"Seventh son, as he himself is a seventh son" Jareth sneered, "were I born to an elf maid I'd have inherited his throne, but as it stands I am a bastard and thus by quirk of magic, only inherit his power, not his privilege."
Sarah dragged a hand down her face as her stomach sank.
"And I just sent a really snotty note to him," she breathed faintly.
Jareth let out a shout of laughter at that.
"We're in a pickle, aren't we?" she fretted.
He reached out and hugged her.
"I'd not want him to discover you in any other way," he kissed the top of her head.
"Yes," she hugged him tightly.
"Hmm?"
"Yes, I will marry you."
He let out a huff of a laugh, then kissed her. She grabbed his face and covered it with kisses, the resulting power struggle ended with her pinned up against the wall and him grinning in triumph.
"Any more secrets of that magnitude that you've got hidden in your closet?" she asked as he teasingly kept his lips just out of her reach.
"None that you don't know," he promised.
She sighed in relief.
"We'd better return. Howl's probably doing his head in."
"I'd have my money on your father," Jareth corrected.
"Too true," Sarah slumped.
