Chapter 18: Sarah, Queen of Denial
No one said anything as they walked to the park. Toby kicked along a rock, and Sarah and Jareth walked side by side without touching. As if by mutual consent, they followed the path that crossed the bridge and went into the part of the park where Sarah used to practice her lines from "Labyrinth."
Sarah sat down on the park bench, while Jareth leaned against the edge of the fountain. Toby, grinning, stood up on a rock as if it were a podium. "All right," he said. "Anyone want to tell me why my sister is hanging out here on a Sunday with the Goblin King?"
Jareth burst out laughing, and by the time he'd composed himself he had changed into the Goblin King. The changes were subtle, since he still maintained his modern dress, but suddenly his hair was a little longer and there was a cold darkness in his eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Always said he was a lively little chap," he told Sarah mockingly. "I should have raised the stakes and played for a week!"
Sarah buried her head in her hands for a moment, then looked up pleadingly. "Toby, it's not what you think!"
"It's not?" Toby said sarcastically. "So you're not bringing the Goblin King to meet your family like he was a new boyfriend? Not to mention it certainly looks like the two of you are wishing I was somewhere else so you could suck face a bit!"
"Toby!" Sarah said, scandalized.
The king laughed again and strode over to Toby. He placed a royal hand on the boy's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "You're a very astute young man, Toby." The Goblin King let out an evil chuckle. "I knew I should have kept you."
Toby blinked as a hazy memory popped into his mind -- of this man smiling into his face before, and singing to him... but he looked different then. "Can - can I see the way you looked then?" he asked, awed but excited.
The king glanced around and, seeing no one but them, transformed in a swirl of glitter into the old Goblin King that Toby had seen. He wore the grey tights and black vest, along with the billowy white shirt, and his hair was once more long and wild, framing his face like a lion's mane.
"It's you," Toby whispered. "It's really you!"
Sarah, behind them, groaned and hid her face again, muttering, "Oh, tell me this is not happening!"
They both ignored her. Toby gazed at the Goblin King with an ever-broadening smile. "I remember you!" He burst into a delighted laugh. Then he frowned thoughtfully as he realized that he was eye to eye with the king. "You're a... LOT shorter than I remember."
"Oh, I am not seeing this," Sarah muttered. "I'm not up to seeing the Goblin King making small talk with my little brother." She was once again ignored.
The king raised an eyebrow. "I haven't shrunk, I assure you." He cast a sidelong glance at Sarah, to see if she'd caught the dual entendre.
"I am not hearing this," Sarah chanted to herself. "La la la la la!"
"So what are you doing hanging out with my sister?" Toby asked.
"Oh, so protective of her, aren't you?" the king mocked him lightly. "Worried I'm going to whisk her away to the Underground with me?" He leaned closer and whispered, "It's a valid concern."
"Oh, no," Sarah muttered. She looked up, finally. "Jareth!" she chided.
The Goblin King changed to once again appear as Sarah's college friend. Toby looked a little disappointed. "So... do you wish I was somewhere else so you two could suck face?" he asked, smirking.
Jareth chuckled. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for that later," he assured Toby but with a another quick glance at Sarah. She flushed.
"So that story you told me in there was true?" Toby asked Jareth. "About you and Sarah? You're not enemies?"
"We never were, really," Sarah stood up and finally joined the conversation. "We were opponents only because of what I did. Never enemies, no matter what."
"But Hoggle said that -- " Too late, Toby stopped talking and turned red.
"Hoggle? What do you know of Hoggle?" Sarah demanded. Toby cringed. Sarah advanced on him, biting off each word separately. "How. Do. You. Know. Hoggle?"
"He comes and visits me sometimes," Toby told her fearfully. Jareth gave him a little smile and Toby felt a little of his courage return. "I heard you call him once, a long time ago, and when I tried it he came to see me. We're friends, Sarah."
"But -- Hoggle, here? With me away at school? How can he -- " She turned to Jareth for answers.
"Sarah," he said gently. "Hoggle became friends with Toby because I wished it."
"What? Why--why?" Sarah barked. Angry now, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shot green sparks.
"I've been using Hoggle to watch over Toby," Jareth said. "The same way I use my crystals to watch over you."
Sarah took a deep breath and asked Jareth in a low, dead voice, "Why, after all I went through to protect Toby from the Labyrinth -- from you! -- would you sneak around behind my back and introduce him to it all over again? And... what do you mean, 'watch over'? You mean you spy on me with crystals?"
"If you knew of a treasure, Sarah," he explained, "A precious thing that you knew you had no business keeping in your possession but was still the most valuable and beautiful thing you'd ever seen, wouldn't you want to keep track of it? Make sure it didn't get tossed into the rubbish heap or something? Try and take care of it as best you could?"
Sarah, thinking he meant her actions with Toby, turned away still fuming.
Toby touched his sister's sleeve. "Hoggle doesn't have any other friends, Sarah, and neither do I." He stepped back and glanced at Jareth. "If you're really the one who sent Hoggle to me, Jareth, then thank you."
"You're welcome," Jareth said sombrely.
"Will..." Toby dropped his eyes. "Will you come and visit me sometime too, Jareth?"
Jareth bowed in assent. "I'd be honoured."
Sarah turned blazing eyes on him. "You leave my brother alone!"
Jareth smiled and clucked his tongue. "He's just invited me, himself, Sarah." He cleared his throat and gave her a lazy smile, making sure she felt the impact of every word he spoke. "You have no power over me!"
He saw she was still furious, so he relented. "To set your mind at rest, though, I give my word that I won't take him unless he asks me to." He waved to Toby, blew Sarah a kiss, and disappeared. A white owl flew away, dipping its wings at them in a cocky way before it vanished through the trees.
"Whoa!" Toby said. "He is so cool!"
"Yeah, right," Sarah muttered. "So cool, telling me my job and jabbering about treasures..." She shook her head and glanced at her brother. "Toby, you know I would never let you get 'tossed on the rubbish heap,' right? Jareth doesn't know what he's talking about! I'll always take care of you!"
Toby looked at her in disgust. "Sarah, you can be pretty thick sometimes. You're the treasure, you moron! Come on, let's go home."
"Where's Jareth?" their father asked when they returned home without him.
Without even a moment of hesitation, and with sang-frois far beyond his years, Toby replied, "Oh, he had to take off."
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