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Sarah pulled out of the Goblin King's grasp quickly and glared at him. Red spots stained her otherwise pale face and her green eyes fairly sparked in anger. Her chest heaved and her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find something to say that adequately expressed her outrage.
Jareth looked at her, waiting for the inevitable outburst. It was with some surprise he noticed the fine trembling of her body. "You're shaking." He said and moved forward towards her once more. "Sarah – "
Oh how she hated the way her name rolled off his tongue so smoothly. She raised her chin, nostrils flaring.
"Are you scared of me?" He grinned suddenly at her discomfort.
Promptly she lied bravely. "No."
Jareth grinned harder, his pointed teeth making a subtle appearance, and cocked an eyebrow in an obvious show of disbelief, a smirk gracing his arrogant features.
Sarah seethed and then began. "You bastard! Who the hell do you think you are?! You can't just abduct me and not expect – "
A hand over her mouth cut her tirade effectively short. Jareth's eyes were serious, not a hint of good humour was apparent on his narrow face and his jaw was twitching in anger. "I," he began, "am the Goblin King and to save my kingdom I can abduct whomever I please and expect them to listen to my explanation." He looked at her significantly and as Sarah realized his seriousness she relaxed and gave a small nod.
The gloved hand was gone from her mouth. He swung back and forth between moods like a clock pendulum in double time.
Sarah rubbed her jaw idly and looked speculatively at the Goblin King standing stiffly in front of her. "Why – why didn't you just explain that before you took me here?"
"You were about to scream." He said pointedly.
"Oh. Yeah." She shifted nervously.
Jareth moved suddenly and walked towards the exit of the throne room. Which was, strangely, without goblins though the grimy evidence of their presence was everywhere.
Jareth paused and looked over one shoulder. "Are you coming?" He demanded and Sarah, with a crinkle of her nose, followed him.
"Where are we going?" She asked as she trotted behind him to keep up to his long strides, wincing when her bare feet stubbed on the flagstones of the castle halls.
"To where we can discuss things without interruption."
The westernmost wall of the castle was deserted and provided a place where questions and answers could be as frank as Jareth and Sarah wanted them.
Of course, it also served to provide a position that was not easily spied on without the detection of such spies. And Sarah's lack of respect for Jareth would not damage his reputation and the loyalty of his goblins. It was perfect.
And it had a stunning view of the sun setting.
Sarah shifted nervously in her pyjamas and rubbed her shoulders. The wind was surprisingly chill and strong on the top of the castle. She leaned over the wall and gasped. The Labyrinth lay sprawled surrounding the castle in all its complex glory. From this height it really was a work of art, not just a maze of immense proportions.
"Amazing…" She breathed out unconsciously, almost forgetting where she was and whom she was with, and revelling in the familiarity of the place.
"It is, isn't it." His voice was close and she started. He was braced against the stones, staring out at the Labyrinth. The sun cast a golden hue to his pale hair and face. "Lately, the Labyrinth has not been doing its task."
Sarah furrowed her brow; she was smart enough to realize that this was the explanation she was waiting for though and didn't interrupt.
"The Labyrinth is a complex structure, woven with magic as it is. Its purpose is rather simple however. To bring mortals to the Underground." He cast a sideways glance at her and continued. "I lied to you last time you were here. I told you that if you failed Toby would become one of us forever."
Sarah felt a spark of anger, but curiosity overwhelmed her sense of indignation. "Why did you lie?" She asked after a moment.
"Because a lie was kinder than the truth." He clenched his jaw and steeled himself. "Because mortals are not privy to the motivations of the Fae. Because you would have fought harder to keep him if I'd told you the truth. There are many reasons why I lied. But it was necessary."
Sarah felt a coil of anger unwind in the pit of her stomach, but then another thought struck her and she laughed. It was a nasty laugh. "It didn't matter anyways, I got him back."
Jareth turned to her and she immediately regretted speaking in such a superior tone. He levelled an icy gaze at her and she flushed but tilted her chin defiantly. Jareth refused to be baited and resumed. "The Labyrinth was designed to bring mortals to the Underground because every seven years someone must be sacrificed." And here he told another lie. "A mortal must be sacrificed."
Sarah blanched. "You would have killed Toby."
"Perhaps. There was another mortal in the Underground, but she was not as young as your brother. But it doesn't matter because he is Aboveground now."
"Then why are you telling me this?" Sarah demanded quickly.
Jareth straightened. "There are no longer any mortals in the Underground and the Teind must be paid."
"The Teind is…this sacrifice?"
Jareth nodded.
"I still don't see…" Comprehension dawned on her face and she paled. "Oh god. I'm going to be killed." She stumbled back from Jareth and frantically looked for escape.
"No, Sarah, not you." he stepped forward but she didn't hear him. Jareth sighed and grabbed her. He was beginning to sense a distinct trend in their interaction.
Steel fingers dug into her shoulders, holding her still. Jareth grasped her chin with one long hand and forced her head up to meet his eyes. "Not you." He repeated and stepped back once he was sure she had heard and perhaps understood..
Toby didn't really know what had woken him. Yawning he tried to close his eyes and fall back to sleep in the warm darkness of his room. The clock down on the landing chimed and made its way throughout the house. Toby flipped off his sheets with a scowl and brushed blond hair out of his face. He felt so, energized. Like electricity was running through his veins or something. He softly hopped out of bed and crept stealthily out of his room. Maybe he just had to pee.
On the way back from the washroom he noticed something odd. Sarah's door was open. She NEVER slept with her door open; ever since Toby could remember she'd always been slightly scared of monsters under the bed and in the dark corners of halls. She was very imaginative. So was Toby for that matter. His grandmother said he was out of time, and belonged somewhere much different.
In Toby's opinion his mom's mom was just a bit batty. She called him 'Chime Child' was always telling him to make sure to leave milk or wine out for the Faeries. Toby tolerated it, Sarah always smiled and laughed and promised they would.
Sarah. Toby pushed open Sarah's door a bit more and peered into the moonlit room. Her bed was empty. He frowned and turned quietly. She was probably in the kitchen getting a drink of water. Toby made his way down the stairs, carefully circumventing a creaking stair so his parents would stay asleep. At the top of the stairs he paused. He thought he heard a whisper of voices from the kitchen. Toby stilled but the sound didn't repeat and so he continued down.
Just before he went through the door jam to the kitchen he froze. Toby's eyes widened and then narrowed. He inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring as he smelled something familiar. Something he couldn't quite peg down.
Toby stepped through the doorway and his sight was greeted with…nothing. On the countertop beside the sink sat a glass of water, full of liquid and slightly shaking, as if it had just been set down. The medicine cabinet was open. Toby sniffed again. That smell…and no Sarah.
He frowned and touched the glass absently and peered out the kitchen window into the late summer night. A small saucer of milk was on the sill outside, Sarah always laughingly put it out before bed, knowing that the neighbourhood cats would take it. "But still, they could be real and we wouldn't want to be on the Good Folk's bad side right Tobe?" Toby always groaned at the horrible pun.
He cocked his head. It was funny that the milk was still there. The cats usually came by as soon as she put it out. Maybe there was something to the whole Faery thing. Faeries drinking milk and dancing in Faery Rings, dragons in the sky and goblins under the bed and all that crap.
Toby whirled suddenly. Goblins under the bed. Goblins. That was the smell. He'd smelt it when he was…he was what? He frowned and concentrated. It was connected with that story Sarah used to tell him; the one she'd pretended was real. Toby had always laughed at her and lately he'd decided he was getting too old for stories, especially fairytales.
But now, now…without a doubt he knew that she'd always been telling the truth. Toby sniffed again and could tell the scent was fading. But he recognized what it was; it was the smell of Magic. It was the smell he recognized from, well from when Sarah wished him away he supposed.
Toby scowled suddenly, a little irate that she'd actually wished him away. But his quick anger soon faded when he recalled how she had always started the story. "Once upon a time, a very foolish and silly young girl did a very stupid thing…"
Toby pushed away from the counter. It smelt like magic, yes, but the thing really worrying him was that Sarah wasn't in the kitchen. He began to search the rest of the house, but he already knew that he wouldn't find her. Sarah had disappeared, only lingering odour of magic giving a clue to her whereabouts.
"Sarah who?" Robert rubbed sleepy eyes and looked at his eight-year-old son's distraught face.
"Sarah! Sarah Williams. My sister, your daughter. She's not in her room. And not in the kitchen and – "
Robert looked over at Karen and they shared a concerned look. "Toby, you must have been dreaming that you had a sister. There isn't a real Sarah." Karen spoke gently.
Toby scowled, the epitome of a spoiled youngest child. "No! I wasn't dreaming! She really – " He stopped suddenly and sniffed experimentally. There it was. He was beginning to truly hate the summer sweet smell of magic. "Oh." He immediately grew apologetic looking and sleepy. "Sorry mom, dad. You're right. I was dreaming. It just seemed so real and everything. Sorry for waking you…"
His eyes grew big and dark and he smiled contritely, the picture of sweetness.
"It's okay Tobe. Just go back to bed now, okay kiddo?"
Toby nodded complacently and for good effect added a yawn and turned from his parent's bedroom.
Toby paused outside the door to Sarah's room and looked at it with his jaw clenched. His eyes skittered away from the portal and if he hadn't known that it was there, his gaze would have passed over the doorway without a second thought.
For an eight year old Toby
appeared remarkably grown up as he stared hard at the glamoured doorway, a
flinty look in his grey green eyes; the only physical trait that he and his
sister undeniably shared. His face, still surrounded by baby fat, twitched and
he turned to his room. He was going to ride his bike to his Grandma's tomorrow
and if she didn't know anything, then, well, he was going to get answers in any
way possible.
He just wanted Sarah back.
Meanwhile as Toby lay in his bed thinking furiously, the Goblin King and Sarah were finishing a much needed explanation. But the time between the two worlds was already shifting and become displaced. Time ran differently Aboveground and Underground, and one could never be sure how long you really spent away from one or the other. A day could be a mere minute or a hundred years passing in the other world.
Regardless of intricacies and mysteries of the time, explanations were still in the air between the King and the young woman.
Sarah furrowed her brow. "If not me, then why am I back here?"
Jareth drew himself up stiffly and his face became unreadable. "Because if I hadn't brought you back now, in a little while I would have been forced to bring you back as payment for the Teind."
Sarah looked confused. "So, wait. Let me get this straight. You brought me here because if you hadn't, I would have been sacrificed, killed, or whatever for this teind thing?"
Jareth nodded stiffly, and clasped his hands behind his back, dreading what he was sure would be the next question.
Sarah's eye grew speculative as she looked at him. "Why did you care? Don't you hate me?"
Jareth shifted imperceptibly in discomfort. "You made it to the centre of the Labyrinth Sarah. You made it further than anyone who has ever run it before. You don't deserve to die because of that."
Sarah narrowed her eyes but didn't press the issue. She didn't want to anger him and provoke his apparently volatile temper. But he was being evasive. No matter, if he wouldn't tell her, she'd find out on her own. "Fine, I beat the Labyrinth so I don't deserve to die, so you brought me here on your own. Who would have forced you, and why the hell did they pick me?" Exasperation and barely concealed anger laced her tone.
"The Fae, cannot enter your world any more. Iron is much too pervasive to allow anyone other than me to cross the boundary between Aboveground and Underground. I however have the protection of the Labyrinth that allows me to move between realms when necessary, without any harm."
She narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't you just take some one else then for this Teind? Why did you have to take me?"
"No one has been wished away for quite some time. The Labyrinth won't permit me to cross to anyone who is not…connected to the Labyrinth in some way. You are connected so I could cross to you."
Sarah looked at him steadily. "Lots of people have run your Labyrinth, Goblin King." She spat his name from her lips. "You're not answering the question."
She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes further in a frighteningly close imitation of Jareth when he was determined and angry. "Why me?"
Jareth moved his jaw forward angrily and his eyes snapped cold fire. "You never completed the Labyrinth. You have to make it out again to win." His words were oddly close to Hoggle's words of so long ago.
Sarah was about to question his motivations when she saw his face. Stormy and as furious as she'd ever seen it, daring her to provoke him further. She didn't make a sound as long ago words of a wildly strange declaration of…feeling whispered across her mind.
Slightly bewildered she looked down at the Labyrinth and when she turned to the Goblin King once more all she saw was a cold face and crystal flying at her. She thrust a hand out to block too late and her skin prickled like her whole body had been asleep and then she knew no more.
Kaelyn, the fair Fae who reigned as High Queen, listened quietly to her husband. Her face was smooth and untroubled, only the very subtle flicker in her eyes betraying her true thoughts.
Damon looked at her perceptively. With a hint of sneer in his voice he questioned her. "Tell me what goes on in that beautiful head of yours."
Married for a millennia, or so it seemed, the two had long since lost all vestiges of love or affection between them. Privately at least. Both needed their power, it was an addictive drug, and neither could do without it. So they carefully and meticulously maintained their façade of civility and affection before the court.
Kaelyn shrugged elegant shoulders and glanced at him coolly. "Such venom in your tone, dear husband."
A half-hearted glare shot from Damon's eyes. "Kaelyn, in the name of all that's sacred, while our kingdom faces such a time as this can we not at least attempt to work together? If our games should get in the way of any solution…"
Clear knowledge of the consequences was in Kaelyn's impassive eyes as she glanced at her husband. "I know. We destroy the faith of our people in us. We destroy our kingdom. We lose what means the most to us, both of us. Dire consequences etc, etc. The whole 'evil unimagined' bit too."
Dryly, "You're stretching it a bit far."
"Indulge me." She looked at him haughtily. "I will suspend any private plans I have at the moment that entail the acquisition of power from you, and you will do the same and we will work together. This situation will not defeat our kingdom."
Damon nodded in brief thanks at her apparent suspension of games. "And now, lady love, I must ask what you think of Tiernan's motivations."Though not always on the same page, each monarch had learned to value the other's opinion and insight. If they could trust it of course.
Kaelyn looked at him scornfully. "If you think he seeks anything less than the downfall of Jareth you're very much mistaken. Friend of yours or not, he's much too confident in his own importance and cunning."
Damon looked at her, a surprised but pleased look on his face. "I always thought you liked him."
A sly grin graced Kaelyn's features, emphasizing an otherworldly appearance. "Oh I do. But that doesn't mean I'm blind to his faults. Or attributes. Whichever you prefer."
"But what do you think of his idea of bringing the girl here?" Damon queried with a slight frown.
Kaelyn sighed in all seriousness. "It's entirely true and feasible. It's only the fact that Tiernan brought it up that disturbs me. Makes me wary."
"My thoughts precisely." Damon said with a sharp glance at his wife. "Then we shall wait several days before presenting the idea to him."
"And Tiernan?" her delicate brows arched in curiousity.
Damon scowled. "Tiernan believes me a friend and senile fool. I will not be considered a fool by such a man. He will be dealt with eventually."
Kaelyn nodded calmly and then turned to leave, a brief flicker in her eyes unnoticed by Damon. Their games were still afoot. The King remained in intense contemplation within the small chamber buried deep inside the magic of the High Palace, impenetrable to the most persistent of beings except the high King and Queen.
But listening ears and spying eyes are everywhere.
Disclaimer: *bitterly* If I owned the Labyrinth and all related characters that you recognize, well I'd be a much happier person. Not mine.
AN: Hmm. This one seems very "filler"ish; full of explanations and such. Such an obvious device. I hate doing things like that. But really, it was just the way it came out. I think there was too much Jareth/Sarah interaction or something. I don't know, there's something wrong with it. Please tell me what you think. Oh, The High King may seem different here, almost OOC from the brief character I gave him in the previous chapter, but it's intentional. It should become apparent later in the story so bear with it.
My deepest apologies for all typing and transcription errors and grammar mistakes, though I did proofread. I have no beta so if anyone is willing to beta this, drop me an email at robynmaddison@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you! Until then, please point them out to me in reviews.