Chapter 19: March on Goblin City
They held forth in the castle, the king and his queen, looking down on the peasants as they began to revolt. She spoke quietly, "So this is what death looks like from the other side." He nodded his head heavily; "All they will be left with is a torn and corrupted nation. To govern themselves, they must learn to let go." Side by side, the ghosts turned and walked away.
The unevenly-cobbled streets of the Goblin City were strangely deserted, and their footsteps echoed oddly through the narrow alleyways. Sarah reached for Ludo's hand, the furry warmth of it closing around her fingers comfortingly— and then for Erik's. His skin was cold, and she clutched him close.
"— so quiet," she said.
"I know."
"Is it usually like this? Oh, sorry, Ludo."
He shook his head slightly.
"I don't believe so, no. Seemed as if things were extremely busy when last I was here—"
He didn't mention that the last time he was here, it was just before her brother was stolen, and Jareth had already sent him out, already decided on his plan. It led him to wonder how much of what had happened was simply part of Jareth's purpose, his plot for them both— and to begin to wonder that was enough to give anyone a sense of futility, of pointlessness.
They needed more than that, now.
They needed strong wills and brave hearts.
They were out of luck, Erik thought wryly, in that department. Currently all they had going for them was a stupidly optimistic refusal to give in and give up— and that was mostly Sarah's. Ludo was perfectly content just to follow her around and do whatever she bid him, and Erik himself—
—was pretty much operating on automatic at this point. He could hear silent cries from Christine, far above him in the castle, willing him to come and rescue her. She was all he could think of, and if he thought of her he would lose all functioning intelligence— and so he simply shut down his brain and looked on with a detached cynicality, almost amused by their progression down the empty streets. He caught his foot on a slanted cobble, and gravity took hold and pulled him down.
Sarah cried out and bent over him, rolling him to his back and peering anxiously in his eyes.
"Are you alright?"
Erik stared upwards. Beyond her he could see the sky— nearly black now as night had taken possession. He had always loved the night, never been afraid of the dark like a normal human, rather, relished it and befriended it and employed it—
"Erik? Erik, come back to me."
Her face swam into view and he focused again on her eyes.
She shook her head slightly. "Where did you go?"
Erik breathed in a deep and ragged breath. Once again he was a man walking the line between sanity and madness— a wayward breeze and he could fall irrevocably to one side or the other. But for now, he put it all aside and remembered what he was—
Just a man.
"Lets go find Jareth," he said.
He let her help him up, though he didn't need any assistance, and they hurried on their way. The streets were narrow and confusing, the buildings leaning over them like beasts over their prey. Every once in a while, as they took another turning, they saw some part of a creature disappearing around the far corner— this was enough to make them highly nervous, anticipating an attack of some sort. But they reached the entrance to the castle without incident, and stood finally in the last stretch of ground, looking at the castle doors. They were quite prosaic, actually, heavy dark wood with metal strips, of no more than average size. Sarah breathed out a sigh of disbelieving relief, and ran forward.
And suddenly there they were, the hundreds and hundreds of goblins, all servants of their King, all seeking to do his bidding, standing between them and the castle as the last barrier to success. Halfway to the door, Sarah stopped still, and Erik and then Ludo caught up with her. They stood together, the three of them, utterly at a loss.
"Is there any other way?" asked Sarah tightly.
Erik shook his head.
"No— only the one door," he said.
She let out a sob. High above them, the great clock clicked on, shoving, enticing, moving time forward—
They had five minutes.
Both Sarah and Jareth could think of nothing.
Ludo said, "It."
They swung startled gazes at him, and watched as he completed the transformation in record time, obviously trying to hurry at along as he grunted and frowned in concentration. Soon enough he stood there by them, a beast once more, giant and hairy and—
And oh so much bigger than the miscellaneous goblins that stood in their way.
He clasped an arm around Sarah and picked her up off the ground, holding her to his side. He tried to do the same to Erik but the masked man fended him off. With a grunt, he began to run.
He hit the massed goblins like a bowling ball, and they went flying every which way. The furred juggernaut carried on through them, plowing them out of his way, Erik running close behind. They reached the door just as the goblins started to recover and close in again.
Ludo put Sarah down, and pulled the door open for her.
Erik pulled her towards him and his lips brushed her forehead— his good luck charm to her. Then he shoved her at the door.
"Go," he whispered urgently.
She took one last terrified glance at him and the goblins that advanced on them, and ran.