Chapter two: The Looking Orb
It had been three days since Hoggle had left the orb on her vanity table. Sarah had managed to resist its siren call, although Toby was fascinated by the bloody thing, and would keep pointing at it going, "Jaa, jaa!" She would patiently correct him, saying, "No, it's an o-r-b." At which point, Toby would change to, "Gob, gob!" Sarah would then give up: it was fortunate that Toby hadn't been too old when his little abduction had taken place, otherwise she wondered what her father and stepmother would have made of words like 'goblin', 'bounce bounce', 'king' and most importantly, 'bad wish!'.
For the fiftieth time, she looked at the innocent crystal object. Colours played over its surface, as if it were made of oil or inlaid with mother of pearl. But no: it was a crystal, 'nothing more' in Jareth's words. She slapped the side of her head: she shouldn't be using his words. She shouldn't even remember anything the bastard had said to her. So why did she remember absolutely every single word?
Sarah sighed and turned on her stomach, gazing at the orb. It was time to face facts - well, some of them. She remembered everything he'd said to her because he was the first person in her life to actually pay attention to her. Her father was always too busy. She barely saw her mother in between rehearsals, plays and tours. And Karen.well, Karen's attention was the kind she could do without. It focused on the little things, not the important ones. She could still hear her stepmother's first remark to her today: "Warner Stockton called just before you got in, Sarah, something about a study group in the library tomorrow?"
Karen had lowered her eyelashes in what she obviously thought was a playful look: "Have you been listening to what I said about dates?"
Privately, Sarah had thought, 'I never listen to anything you say if I can help it', but she bit her tongue and said sweetly, "It's just a study group, Karen. Anyone would think you were desperate to marry me off."
She had left her stepmother indignantly protesting that Sarah was part of this family, it hadn't even been in her mind, how could Sarah think that.In reality, Sarah knew that Karen hadn't meant anything by it: why should she marry Sarah off when her presence gave Karen such a cheap, convenient babysitter? If Sarah wasn't there, Karen couldn't go out to half the dinners and parties that she attended at the moment. Sarah smirked: ever since her triumph in the Labyrinth, her stepmother's motives and words had become like glass to her. She was no longer a threat, therefore Sarah treated her politely but with a secret contempt at Karen's lack of imagination.
Her eyes were drawn back to the orb. Since Hoggle's exit, she had heard no word from any of her Labyrinth friends, not even a small greeting from Sir Didimus; he usually sent a daily note, even if it was just, "My lady, I send you my most humble greetings and pray you enjoy good health." She was worried. What if Hoggle had been right? What if the Labyrinth had already fallen? How much time had passed in the Underground? Toby's rescuing had taken only five hours of this time, but who was to say that time didn't speed up once you were here and not there? Sarah tried to remember examples from the books she'd read, but the only one that came readily to mind was the Narnia books: hardly reassuring. One whole day meant hundreds of years.
"Oh alright!" she said, leaping up and walking forward. Her mind was obviously not going to settle until it knew for certain. That much hadn't changed: besides, wasn't she taking things for granted? Everything was probably just fine.
Sarah picked up the crystal in her hands and fixed her gaze upon it, slowly she saw clouds inside the orb they parted to show a view of the Labyrinth, it was a mess, parts had crumbled away, others were over grown with plants, the image grew closer and as it did Sarah could make out children all over the vast expanse of the Labyrinth. The crystal then zoomed in on her friends who were desperately trying to keep the rampaging children in cheque. Sarah's heart went out to them, one baby was lots of trouble but that many must be hell to cope with.
The crystal moved its view point to the castle, it was still standing in its full glory against the sky, she watched fascinated as the crystal view took her up the side of the castle and into a room through a pair of open doors that led onto a balcony were she had seen white roses growing the symbol of purity in mind, body and soul. The view before her became all too familiar from her dreams, a light, airy room and those same curtains, around the big beautiful bed, she had never noticed in the dream, it had four white posts up which there were wound art Nouveau leaves and flowers on delicate stems. The curtains still hid the occupant of the bed from the world, the crystal flew under the curtain and inside, there he lay sleeping, his face was different in sleep soft and even gentle, a small smile on his lips. Which made Sarah wonder what he was thinking about, he held a sword in his hands, in the top of the hits handle there was a round crystal orb, in which Sarah just caught a glimpse of something, the sword ran down the length of his lower body on top of the silver sheets that covered him, the symbology was not lost on Sarah a protector a knight a king, but why all three she wondered, there was no crown on his head instead there was a simple silver circlet with crescent moon shaped jewels set in it. His hair was spread over the pillows white against black a stunning contrast. Sarah was enchanted by him she mentally slapped herself for thinking like this, she should think about HIM in that way, he wasn't worth it, or was he.
Suddenly it all fled backwards, blurring Sarah blinked, and sighed, she had to do something, just because he was asleep it didn't mean she had to kiss him to get him to wake up, maybe there was some other cure in the Labyrinth. Besides which her friends needed her help and she wasn't going to let her personal feelings about that SOB of a Goblin King get in the way of her helping them out.
It had been three days since Hoggle had left the orb on her vanity table. Sarah had managed to resist its siren call, although Toby was fascinated by the bloody thing, and would keep pointing at it going, "Jaa, jaa!" She would patiently correct him, saying, "No, it's an o-r-b." At which point, Toby would change to, "Gob, gob!" Sarah would then give up: it was fortunate that Toby hadn't been too old when his little abduction had taken place, otherwise she wondered what her father and stepmother would have made of words like 'goblin', 'bounce bounce', 'king' and most importantly, 'bad wish!'.
For the fiftieth time, she looked at the innocent crystal object. Colours played over its surface, as if it were made of oil or inlaid with mother of pearl. But no: it was a crystal, 'nothing more' in Jareth's words. She slapped the side of her head: she shouldn't be using his words. She shouldn't even remember anything the bastard had said to her. So why did she remember absolutely every single word?
Sarah sighed and turned on her stomach, gazing at the orb. It was time to face facts - well, some of them. She remembered everything he'd said to her because he was the first person in her life to actually pay attention to her. Her father was always too busy. She barely saw her mother in between rehearsals, plays and tours. And Karen.well, Karen's attention was the kind she could do without. It focused on the little things, not the important ones. She could still hear her stepmother's first remark to her today: "Warner Stockton called just before you got in, Sarah, something about a study group in the library tomorrow?"
Karen had lowered her eyelashes in what she obviously thought was a playful look: "Have you been listening to what I said about dates?"
Privately, Sarah had thought, 'I never listen to anything you say if I can help it', but she bit her tongue and said sweetly, "It's just a study group, Karen. Anyone would think you were desperate to marry me off."
She had left her stepmother indignantly protesting that Sarah was part of this family, it hadn't even been in her mind, how could Sarah think that.In reality, Sarah knew that Karen hadn't meant anything by it: why should she marry Sarah off when her presence gave Karen such a cheap, convenient babysitter? If Sarah wasn't there, Karen couldn't go out to half the dinners and parties that she attended at the moment. Sarah smirked: ever since her triumph in the Labyrinth, her stepmother's motives and words had become like glass to her. She was no longer a threat, therefore Sarah treated her politely but with a secret contempt at Karen's lack of imagination.
Her eyes were drawn back to the orb. Since Hoggle's exit, she had heard no word from any of her Labyrinth friends, not even a small greeting from Sir Didimus; he usually sent a daily note, even if it was just, "My lady, I send you my most humble greetings and pray you enjoy good health." She was worried. What if Hoggle had been right? What if the Labyrinth had already fallen? How much time had passed in the Underground? Toby's rescuing had taken only five hours of this time, but who was to say that time didn't speed up once you were here and not there? Sarah tried to remember examples from the books she'd read, but the only one that came readily to mind was the Narnia books: hardly reassuring. One whole day meant hundreds of years.
"Oh alright!" she said, leaping up and walking forward. Her mind was obviously not going to settle until it knew for certain. That much hadn't changed: besides, wasn't she taking things for granted? Everything was probably just fine.
Sarah picked up the crystal in her hands and fixed her gaze upon it, slowly she saw clouds inside the orb they parted to show a view of the Labyrinth, it was a mess, parts had crumbled away, others were over grown with plants, the image grew closer and as it did Sarah could make out children all over the vast expanse of the Labyrinth. The crystal then zoomed in on her friends who were desperately trying to keep the rampaging children in cheque. Sarah's heart went out to them, one baby was lots of trouble but that many must be hell to cope with.
The crystal moved its view point to the castle, it was still standing in its full glory against the sky, she watched fascinated as the crystal view took her up the side of the castle and into a room through a pair of open doors that led onto a balcony were she had seen white roses growing the symbol of purity in mind, body and soul. The view before her became all too familiar from her dreams, a light, airy room and those same curtains, around the big beautiful bed, she had never noticed in the dream, it had four white posts up which there were wound art Nouveau leaves and flowers on delicate stems. The curtains still hid the occupant of the bed from the world, the crystal flew under the curtain and inside, there he lay sleeping, his face was different in sleep soft and even gentle, a small smile on his lips. Which made Sarah wonder what he was thinking about, he held a sword in his hands, in the top of the hits handle there was a round crystal orb, in which Sarah just caught a glimpse of something, the sword ran down the length of his lower body on top of the silver sheets that covered him, the symbology was not lost on Sarah a protector a knight a king, but why all three she wondered, there was no crown on his head instead there was a simple silver circlet with crescent moon shaped jewels set in it. His hair was spread over the pillows white against black a stunning contrast. Sarah was enchanted by him she mentally slapped herself for thinking like this, she should think about HIM in that way, he wasn't worth it, or was he.
Suddenly it all fled backwards, blurring Sarah blinked, and sighed, she had to do something, just because he was asleep it didn't mean she had to kiss him to get him to wake up, maybe there was some other cure in the Labyrinth. Besides which her friends needed her help and she wasn't going to let her personal feelings about that SOB of a Goblin King get in the way of her helping them out.