WARNING
THIS IS A SEQUEL
WHICH MEANS
UNDERSTANDING THE EVENTS THAT ARE ABOUT TO UNFOLD
IS PREDICATED ON YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE EVENTS THAT HAVE COME BEFORE.
SO
PLEASE READ
THE FURTHEST STAR
FIRST
THANK YOU
Chapter One
The scrying pool showed a watery, upside-down impression of the fair-haired brother of the Goblin Queen.
A hooded figure shifted, and the sound of scales sliding against fabric made the air seem alive with an alien magic. The seer tightened her grip on the bowl of clear, dark water and waited. Her eyes focused on the image within.
"It is nearly time," the figure hissed.
The seer licked dry, cracked lips. The only water available was not to drink.
At least, not yet.
To drink meant death, after all.
"He may need… a push." the seer said, hating herself as she did. He was just a boy.
The hooded figure chuckled, and the cavern filled with the sound. It was bare branches against a pane of glass. Cruel talons on a sheet of steel. The hair along her spine stood on edge. "It is already in motion, my pet. Now watch, and tell me all of what you see."
The last word was breathed out like winter wind through a chink in a window frame, and the seer shivered despite her own heavy clothes. There was no fire allowed within.
She skimmed the side of her thumb along the surface of the pool.
The image wavered and shifted outward to encompass the other two mortals who played nearby.
Lips moving, she told of each movement as it unfolded. Her companion remained silent, but the seer could feel energy building in the air. Tendrils of magic seeped through the thin spot between the worlds toward the Goblin Queen's adopted kin.
###
Something hit the back of Toby's head with a dull thwack.
Cursing under his breath—just in case his mother could hear through the back door—he whirled, lips pulled back to snarl at the twin menaces. The two 6-year-olds were under his care while his mother treated Aunt Irene to a tall glass of mulled wine.
Whatever angry words he was going to shout died, however, when he saw that Taylor and Bree were on the other end of the backyard, stalking one another around tree trunks, too far away to have hit him with another one of their many snowballs.
Frowning, Toby looked around for the source of what had hit him, and then he spotted it.
The book was the same red cover with the black vines he remembered seeing in Sarah's hands all those years ago. He scooped it out of the snowbank it had landed in after bouncing off his skull. Snow coated the pages and spine, but the air was so frigid that it did not melt.
He ripped off his gloves, knuckles pink in the pale blue light of near-dusk, and thumbed through the pages. This is what he had been looking for, at last!
He had been caught snooping through Sarah's things several times in the last three years. Ever since she brought home her husband, Jareth Lúbra. At first something he could chalk up to missing his sister, he had needed to come up with some embarrassing lies on the spot when his mother found him absorbed in rummaging through Sarah's things in the dimly lit attic.
But he knew that there was something going on. Ever since Sarah had dumped her ex-fiancé and taken up with this Jareth character, she had changed. Something about her was almost… predatorial.
And it was his fault. Jareth, her husband, and maybe The Goblin King. Toby thought the sorcerer's name was the same one he remembered from the book, but he was not wholly sure. He needed proof.
"I know it's the same," he muttered out loud.
But just as Toby's eyes caught on the familiar name written in the book, his heart giving a little stutter, the thought came brilliant and loud. Where did the book even come from?
Fantasy doppelgangers forgotten, Toby whirled, looking upward and around.
There was nothing. Just the deepening sky, and a small group of ravens perched in the winter-bared branches and crisscrossing power lines. One was enormous, with a gray band around its throat. As he stared at it, it ruffled its feathers and partly spread its massive midnight wings, head tilted in such a way that Toby wondered if its beady eye was fixed on him.
A screech jerked his attention away. Taylor and Bree. The brother had pushed the sister down and was kicking snow over her before bolting away. Bree sprung up, a packed ball of mud-mixed snow held high as she screamed her vengeance.
Toby rolled his eyes. "Children," he muttered.
His thumb rolled along the leather cover of the book he still held clasped in his hands, and Toby looked down at it.
Thought of all else fled. He opened to the page his finger had kept open.
There it was.
Jareth, the Goblin King, sat upon his horned throne…
He wanted to crow. Over two years, and he had found it at last.
Proof that Jareth Lúbra was a lie.
###
"What was that?"
Jareth looked up from the report.
His wife and bondmate, co-ruler, the very first Goblin Queen, stood between his desk and the door to their shared study. The sickle-shaped pendant—made somewhat smaller by what magic he knew not—gleamed at her throat where she wore it on a short, thick chain. Her head was tilted to the side, her gaze fixed out on one of the many windows open to let in the cool springtime breeze.
Jareth glanced at the window, and then back to Sarah. He set the parchment down. "What's wrong?"
She reached up, fingers stroking their talisman. He still yearned for it, but he could access most of its powers through the unity of their bond; the bond which now sang with fear and confusion and something else. The same something that Sarah had lashed out at him with when she realized the terms of the challenge, back when their love was fragile and new. It was a kind of power that he had tasted now and again from her. A wellspring, cool and potent.
It tempted.
"I think…" she murmured, then said something he could not catch, even with his exceptional hearing.
The Goblin King rose, unfolding his long legs to stride over to his queen. He ran a hand down her arm to her elbow but even his touch, which typically did wonders for her attention, did not make her look at him.
Eyes searching her face, he noticed she had a faraway expression, as though she were listening to music only she could hear. Through the bond he only felt that same sense of cool dark, but there was no stir of magic, no sense of malice.
"Sarah," he said, pitching his voice low enough not to startle her. "Talk to me, my love."
Her head turned, and then her gaze followed, doll-like. He shuddered.
Tears gathered in her mismatched eyes—one blue, one green, just like his own—and she reached for him at last.
"Jareth," she whispered, the sound almost frantic. "Someone is attacking my family."
###
A packed ball of mud, snow, leaves, and some chunks of ice hit Toby square in the face.
Spluttering, he wiped the mess from his stinging eyes and glared at his cousins, who were hanging around just long enough to see what reaction they had gained before zipping off into the back of the yard, shrieking like wild animals.
"Hey!" he shouted after them. "Don't do that again, you brats!"
He knew that his mother wouldn't take kindly to him calling his cousins brats, but at the moment it was the least offensive thing he could think of.
Luckily, the book had been spared most of the projectile's shrapnel of ice and detritus. He glanced down to the pages, nose dripping, and immediately forgot the twin six-year-olds and their games.
"I've brought you a gift," Toby murmured some time later. He frowned and flipped back a few pages. "Tall, lean, wild, silvery hair and upswept—what do they mean, upswept eyebrows?" His scowl deepened. "This makes little sense."
The book described his sister's husband, Jareth, yet not. There were a few key differences, only—
Smack.
This time the snowball caught him in the ear, the sudden concussion of sound making him jump and whirl, the words flying from his mouth before he could think. "You little—I wish the goblins would come and take you both away, right now!"
###
Jareth felt the pull, just as Sarah did.
Her eyes widened, and she clutched at his arm. "It's Toby," she hissed. "I just know it. Jareth, please, someone is doing this. We can't!"
He pressed his palms to the side of her face and leaned his forehead against hers. The tugging was growing more insistent, the sense of a whirlwind buoying him up, as though he could float up to the ceiling. "We can't ignore a summoning, my love. We took a vow."
"You took the stupid vow," Sarah muttered. "I only—oh." She grimaced and clutched at her stomach. "Bonded to you. It hurts," she hissed.
"Only because you fight it, love." He felt his armor come to call, flowing across his skin to encase every inch of him, save his head. Even as the leather encased his fingers, he missed the feel of her skin beneath him. "Sarah," he murmured. "I must go, and you must come with me."
She shook her head, eyes glimmering like diamonds and jade. "I can't. Don't you know I can't?"
"Take to your other form," he said. "But you must. You know that this is how things must be done."
She glared at him for a moment before she sighed and pressed lips briefly against his. The lightest of paper kisses. Then an owl was taking to the air before him, flapping her dark wings until he held out his arm for her to perch on.
Glaring at him with pumpkin-amber eyes, her feathers ruffled, and she made a soft coo before settling firmly on his forearm, gripping it tight.
Jareth swallowed the impulse to stroke a hand down her feathered back. He could still feel her distress and, now, anger. He had the feeling he'd get an up-close and personal look at her talons if he attempted to touch her.
Closing his eyes, he followed the summoning to the mortal world.
###
Toby crouched behind the covered patio furniture.
He could still hear the scuttling and high-pitched laughter of the creatures hidden, always just out of sight. His heart pounded in his chest as the wind picked up again, howling as it ripped through the bare branches of the trees and kicked up spiraling columns of glittering snow.
Inside, the sounds of the adults had faded away to nothing. Glancing through the glowing window, he witnessed his mother's arm frozen in a toast, wineglass in hand. His father had his hand on her shoulder, leaning in to say something. Aunt Irene and Uncle Fred were reclined on opposite ends of the couch, still as statues.
The sight made his heart beat faster. He was sixteen, but he was still young enough that he knew he could always turn to adults when you needed them.
Or maybe not. He thought, noticing a fly suspended in mid-air between his aunt and uncle. Everything inside the house, everything in every house around him, felt empty. Still. How he could sense that all over the howling of the wind he was not sure, but he knew it to be the truth.
Something was happening, and he was alone.
The wind let out another terrible, harsh screech, and then the world hushed.
Toby blinked against the sting in his eyes, then rose from behind his protective crouch.
And for the fourth time in an hour, something came right at his head.
Letting out a yelp, Toby ducked, but not soon enough to avoid feeling a hot sting across his scalp. He whirled, then stumbled back, and almost fell as he beheld Jareth.
No, he thought.
"You're him, aren't you?" he said, trying to sound brave and knowing that he failed with every word. "The Goblin King."
Jareth tilted his head and then lifted his arm. Toby flinched, thinking that perhaps he was going to throw a spell or some kind of weapon, but a large, dark bird came to rest there. It swiveled its round head to look at Toby with eyes of a burning burnished gold, then beat its wings and shrieked.
He jumped, and Jareth laughed. Despite the momentary mirth, however, his tone was solemn. "It appears the time for deceit has passed. You have called upon the goblins, young Tobias, and we answer that call."
"You admit it then? You're the Goblin King?" His voice shook.
Jareth bared pointed, sharp-looking teeth in a wide smile. "Yes, gladly. I am he."
Toby took a step forward. "Where's my sister?"
The owl screeched again and swayed from side to side, its wickedly curved talons digging deep into the leather of Jareth's armored forearm. The man smiled again. "Your sister is safe. Happy, more or less. She was distressed when she heard your summoning."
Toby paused, his mouth open to let fly another accusation, and then his frown deepened. "What summoning? What are you talking about?"
The Goblin King gave a lazy gesture, and an upraised eyebrow, indicating the yard.
The silent yard.
Toby whirled, choking. "No—"
"You wished the goblins to take away the children under your care. You summoned us here to fulfill that call, and we have." There was a deep chuckle and Toby turned back to look at Jareth, feeling as he did like he was in a horror movie. "You're welcome."
"I didn't want this!" he yelled, not worried any longer that the adults inside might hear. They were still a frozen tableau in the living room. Whatever was happening, magic was afoot. "I didn't mean it! Please, give them back. They must be so scared."
"What's said is said," Jareth mused aloud with another smile. "But there is a choice before you, young Tobias."
"What choice? What is it? I'll do anything, just bring them back, please." He couldn't imagine it. He didn't know the complete story, but he knew that Aunt Irene and Uncle Fred had tried for a long, long time before Taylor and Bree came along. They were spoiled rotten as a result, his mother always said, but still… without them? He couldn't imagine his family without them.
"Know if you let me keep them, no one will even know they were there to be missed in the first place," Jareth said, and there was a gentleness to his tone that made Toby look up at him, lower lip trembling. "You would know. Your sister and I. But no one else." He stroked the owls back and its feathers ruffled before it snapped its beak at him. He withdrew his hand.
Toby gave a fierce shake of his head. "No. I have to get them back."
"Very well. Then you will become a runner, and enter my Labyrinth to conquer whatever challenges it places before you until you get to the castle at its center. There, you will find your cousins."
As Jareth spoke, something peculiar happened in Toby's middle. It was as though something had hooked him and was giving a gentle tug, like a test. Then there was a sharp, almost tearing pull, and as he gasped, lunges suddenly filled with heated air. He looked around to see they were no longer in the backyard of the Williams family home.
"This is my Labyrinth," the Goblin King said. "You have thirteen hours to find your way to the castle at its heart, or your cousins will become one of us forever." The words had the sense of the familiar, but Toby wasn't paying attention.
He thought it was going to be something difficult, but not like this—
The Labyrinth was huge.
It sprawled from one end of the horizon to the next, and as he watched, he noticed some of its walls rearrange themselves, sliding from one end of a corridor to another. "No way," he whispered.
An ornate golden clock was now suspended in midair, depicting thirteen hours instead of the usual twelve. Already nearly four minutes had gone by. "Do you understand the terms, young Tobias?"
"I—yes, but—" Toby sputtered, sensing that Jareth was about to go. "What do I do? How do I get in?"
"That is for you to find out. Your sister has been our sole champion. Proceed wisely."
Toby glanced up, expression sharp. "Sarah? She ran the Labyrinth?"
The Goblin King nodded. "To retrieve you, some sixteen years ago."
Toby swallowed hard. That was something Sarah had never told him as she read the story to him all those years ago. Why would she wish me away?
Then again, he hadn't meant to wish away his cousins. The words had just come out. How was he supposed to have known they would work?
They must be so scared.
Toby squared his shoulders. "I'll beat your maze. You'll see. And when I'm finished, I'm taking back my cousins and my sister."
The king's eyes glittered with something Toby didn't recognize, but which made him take a step back. "We'll see." The owl shrieked once more and beat its wings, making like it would dive for Toby's head again.
"Hell," he swore. "You need to get another pet. That thing is wild."
Jareth let out an amused sound. "Wild? Yes. But what is wild, if not free? And she is angry with you."
"What—"
"Thirteen hours," the Goblin King intoned, and as he spoke his image faded, the owl and the clock alongside him. "Before your twin cousins become one of us, forever."
Then he disappeared.
Toby blinked, then shivered despite the warmth of the foreign sun, unzipping his fleece jacket and knotting it around his waist.
"Alright," he said, trying not to think of what the next half a day would contain. Trying not to think of rescuing his sister, his elder, as well as his two young cousins, all while defeating the monolithic structure before him. He blew out his cheeks and gave a single nod. "Come on, feet."
Author's Note:
Hi everyone, back again.
This is an in-progress story. I have NOT fully written it like I did with its predecessor prior to upload. With that in mind, you're going to need to hang on and be patient with me because I have a lot of irons in the fire right now and this project was supposed to start next year.
However, I've had a bit of an Ongoing Crisis as of late and realized I needed a brief vacation into this world again. I love it so.
Jareth's human last name is Google-translated Irish for maze. I thought that was kind of clever :3
I've also taken some liberties with the text of the Labyrinth book. I was going to go hunting through the A.C.H. Smith book to see about some lines, but then I got lazy. Lazy writer, right here.
Another chapter of 31/32 is forthcoming, it's just a doozy. Coming up on nearly 10k words.
I hope you all are well.
Love.
xoxo,
CrimsonSympathy