Chapter 14: Mireia Underground

By Emer

"What is doing that?" asked Mireia.

"If I knew, I'd have stopped it by now," replied Jareth calmly.

"Well can't you just magic us out of here--like when you brought us to visit Michael the first time?"

"It doesn't work like that, Mireia. There are rules. I can only "magic us" to the challenger or the wisher. As we don't have either one of those anymore, I'm afraid we'll have to travel the old-fashioned way.

"Oh," she said. The ground continued to shake and little bits of rock started to fall.

"I think, perhaps, it's time to leave," said Jareth. "This way." He walked quickly to one of the walls, tapped it imperiously with a gloved hand, and then walked through it.

Mireia scrambled to catch up to him, feeling rather dubiously along the wall to make sure she went through at the right place. It was a very weird sensation, going through a wall. She could tell it was still there and yet it didn't seem to exist where her body went through.

On the other side, Jareth was pulling down a ladder. He turned to her and steered her up the ladder, hands gripping her shoulders.

"Up you go. And rather quickly, if you don't mind." Mireia began to climb. A moment later, she could feel Jareth join her on the ladder. The whole thing creaked omniously.

"Are you sure this thing is going to hold?"

"We'll find out, won't we?" said Jareth with a hint of irriation. "Just climb."

Up and up and up, they climbed. Mireia's legs burned and her hands complained. Worse, she couldn't see the end in the dark. She came upon it rather suddenly and had a moment of panic when her hand met empty air. Then she pulled herself onto the platform at the top. They still appeared to be underground. This didn't seem to faze Jareth, however. A moment after Mireia, he climbed up beside her.

He knocked briskly at the wall and it swung open. Stepping out, Mireia saw that they had been in a hollow tree. It's door swung closed promptly after they stepped out and then the outline disappeared. The ground continued to shiver under them.

Jareth was already taking big, long strides, and once again Mireia was forced to jog to keep up with him. She didn't, however, complain. The situation was clearly more serious that Jareth had been letting on. Her little brother was in that castle while something was disturbing the Labyrinth and subverting it's creatures. Since Jareth was leading the way, she had quite a lot of time to think.

Her mind gravitated back to her earlier thoughts about magic. The crystal still bobbed along against her thigh. She slipped her hand in her pocket to hold it for inspiration. Where could she acquire magic? she wondered, as she watched Jareth's legs for direction. The Labyrinth seemed to be made of it. Surely she could find it if Sarah had found it. But that's silly, she thought. Sarah had it before she came to the Labyrinth.

And then something clicked.

If she'd had it before she came to the Labyrinth, then perhaps it wasn't something to be acquired after all. Perhaps she'd just had to figure out how to use it. Wishes seemed to work rather well here.

Fingering the crystal, she phrased the wish carefully in her mind. It took a little bit of doing and she took her time, because wishing was a tricky thing. She didn't want to get it wrong. The crystal grew warm, and if she had looked down, she would have seen it begin to glow very faintly. Then she was ready.

"I wish," she said clearly, putting every ounce of will into it that she possessed. "That Jareth and I were at the source of the Labyrinth's trouble, right now!"

Jareth stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her in surprise. Then as they both began to fade, his look turned to one of annoyance.

"So you've discovered your magic," he said softly. "Pity you got the wish wrong."

Arlena: Hi! Glad you liked it. Well, you're reading it now :) And you get a ton of chapters in one go! SilverQuick has prodded me into action, I am updating. YAY! Of course, it's a little bit of cliff hanger, but hopefully soon I'll put up the next chapter. Thanks for the review.

SilverQuick: So it's half way through tomorrow, but here it is, as promised. Good, you should prod me :) Being reminded that there are others who want to know the end (like I do--I have no idea what's going to happen) makes me want to write the story faster. My roommate has been busy and hasn't been bugging me. You should get that non-J/S story up. I'm always for reading those and there is a pitiful lack.