The silence in the room, while not especially uncomfortable, was rather deafening. Pandora couldn't take her eyes off her daughter, newly returned from the dead, and Jareth was still in a slightly foul mood from his conversation before. Toby just kept a respectful stillness.
"This is turning into a wake," Jervohl eventually said, "Jareth, amuse us with stories of your friends."
The Goblin King's eyes flickered but he obligingly put down his knife and fork. Pasting a smile on his face, he nodded to the quiet mortal at the other end of the table. "You should ask Toby, Jervohl. He shares a bed with Luka, after all."
"Luka?" Jervohl squeaked. She spun in her seat and fixed a fascinated eye on the young man she'd been briefly introduced to.
Toby rolled his eyes and sighed. "Yes. He is my boyfriend; what of it?"
"Nothing," the fae woman said quickly, "Nothing at all. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply…"
"That there was something wrong?" Pandora said sharply. Strangely enough, she glared fully at her son instead of her daughter and shook her finger at him. "Jareth, behave. Toby does not need to be burdened with your prejudices."
"I apologise," came the smooth reply. "Jervohl, I took the liberty of inviting Crase."
Jervohl nodded and refused to react. Pandora put a hand on her knee and squeezed comfortingly.
Jareth gave it a moment and then leaned forward, softening his voice in deference to the delicate subject. "He has never married, Jervohl, and I know he feels the need to beg forgiveness from you."
"Bah!"
"Jervohl…"
"Excuse me, Jareth, I've eaten enough. I'll wait for you all in the sitting room." She escaped as soon as she could.
Jareth shook his head. He could hear the Lady Pandora's mournful sigh and shared her grievances somewhat. Then he looked to Toby, dispassionately noticing that the mortal hadn't turned a hair. His blue eyes were turned down and he was eating steadily as if the awkward conversation before this had never taken place. Jareth shrugged and followed his lead.
Pandora looked from one to the other and bit her tongue- hard! Men! Did they never notice tension until it came in the form of a blow to the head? She thought not. Jareth never had been sensitive to the feelings of others. And Toby was the most unflappable creature in the world when he was in that mood. Which he was; she could tell. His grip on the cutlery would have broken something more delicate.
Seconds ticked by, until the only sound left was the soft slip of liquid in the glasses.
"Your Majesty," Toby said quietly, "I haven't yet thanked you for your kindness today."
"Eh?"
A small grin whispered over the 'regular' features. "Your kindness, Your Majesty? Our conversation in the throne room?"
Pandora turned in her seat and glared. "What did you do now, Jareth?"
"Nothing, mother," the Goblin King snapped, "I'll thank you to keep your nose out of my business." His bad mood was ruined when he saw a spasm of disquiet race across Toby's face at his manner of answer. It was very intriguing.
"Toby, what did Jareth say this time?"
"Hmmm? Oh! Nothing of great importance. He just asked me if I were happy," the mortal said easily, "He informed me of the other options I could choose in order to live my life and I turned them down,"
Pandora nodded her blond head in satisfaction. "Good."
"Yes, well, the offer stands until the end of the ball," Jareth interrupted. He got to his feet and motioned to the others to do the same, "I will not take your answer as final, Toby. Not until you have thought about it."
"Oh, for the mercy of peace, Jareth, will you stop…"
"No. But that is neither here nor there. Shall we join Jervohl in the sitting room? Or shall we proceed to the library?"
"The sitting room, Jareth. It is not good taste to take your guests to the library."
"I can't see why. The library is a much more amusing place," the fae remarked.
Toby caught a teasing grin on his face. A gentle look, really, and one that seemed quite at odds with the words that accompanied them. The puzzle was answered when Pandora took his arm, ruefully demanding an apology from her son for teasing her so. Jareth laughingly obliged, pointing out that only she would ever really believe him capable of impropriety.
Mismatched eyes suddenly glanced over a black-clothed shoulder and met a pair of blue eyes. A slow, measured look and then Jareth turned back to speak with his mother, deftly smoothing the feathers he had ruffled with his bad temper. Toby slowed himself even more, deliberately falling behind as far as was possible. He didn't want to intrude. This was for family and he wished he had gone with his first instinct to stay in his room. He should not be here.
"Toby, dear, be careful," Pandora called behind. The lady stopped and held out her other hand with a smile. "You'll get lost in Jareth's great rambling castle and then we'll have to look for you."
"Oh, Mr. Williams won't lose himself so easily," Jareth smiled, "He seems to have an uncanny sense of direction."
Toby recognized an olive branch when he saw one and he offered a respectful bow in return, taking Pandora's hand and drawing it through his arm. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Toby, you really should just call him by name, you know," Pandora said severely.
"What have we said about familiarity, My Lady?" Toby whispered, leaning down in a mock secretive way. He refused to even look down at Jareth's knowing eyes, to catch the glimpse of keen observation in them. No doubt Jareth had already guessed whatever it was he kept hidden behind his wish to keep his place.
"Stuff and nonsense," Pandora replied, taking her hand from Jareth to smack his arm. "In public, I can understand. But in private? You're as much a part of this family as I am."
"I think you should speak with the family before making such remarks," Toby said. This time he couldn't resist and his eyes slid to Jareth's. The Goblin King, far from adopting a superior mocking attitude, seemed to be watching the little argument with some enjoyment.
Jareth didn't smile but his eyes danced as he shook his head. "Far be it from me to counter-act my mother's whims," he sighed, "I fear for my safety if I do."
"Yes, yes, make fun of me, the both of you. But I will remind you that I brought the both of you up! Jareth, if you even want me to start…"
"For pity's sake, no!" The Goblin King's enjoyment fell away like a cloak, revealing a very real alarm behind it. Baby stories were not, nor had they ever been, his most treasured way to spend an evening. And in front of the mortal! Now that was too much.
"And Toby…"
The mortal hurriedly tapped a finger on his closed mouth. "As silent as the grave," he agreed.
Jervohl looked up as the door opened, startled and unable to move quick enough. Jareth was laughing at some joke with their parent, while the mortal was smiling quietly to himself. Pandora took one look at her and dropped both males.
"Jervohl, my dear, come here."
Warm arms around her and it had been so long since that had happened. The younger female tried to hold back the tears, but she couldn't. She cried, clutching at her mother's arms and unable to stop the sobs from shaking through her slender frame.
Jareth set his jaw and turned to Toby. But the mortal had already vanished; clearly believing it was not his place to intrude into what was essentially a family matter. But Jareth himself felt suffocated by female hysterics, much though he loved his sister, and while he was very sympathetic as to her evident distress he did not particularly want to have anything to do with it.
"Toby! Wait!"
The mortal turned around and raised an eyebrow.
The Goblin King caught up with his and gestured helplessly. "The shock, I think, has finally gotten to her."
"I didn't think it was my place…"
"No, it wasn't. But I think if you are to stay here, you will need to be told a few things about this peculiar family that you've adopted." The wry words didn't go unnoticed.
The Goblin King reached up a hand for Toby's shoulder, silently cursed the height that put him four inches below the mortal, and wished them to the gardens behind the Castle. Then he let go and motioned to a seat.
"Sit."
Toby sat.
"Crase was Jervohl's intended. They split apart when she left."
"I see. May I ask why she left?"
"Not really."
"I just wondered, Your Majesty. Forgive me, but I don't want to say the wrong thing to her. She seems to suffer enough without that."
Jareth was forced to cede that point.
"Twenty years ago my sister and I had a fight," Jareth began, "I banished her from my lands and so she left the Castle. To cut a long story short, she disobeyed my mother's express commands and went out with one of the patrols that guarded the quarry on the southwest border of the Underground. You have heard of Gildred of the Sky?"
Toby nodded, eyes narrowing somewhat. Everyone in the Underground had heard of Gildred of the Sky. He was an outlaw leader beyond the civilized lands. According to legend, he held the sister to the powerstone that passed from Goblin King to Goblin King. As one of Gildred's political passions was to rid the Underground of its connection with mortals or other 'impurities', Toby had felt justified in learning a bit about the fae.
"Jervohl fell into his clutches. Her identity could not have been hidden because he had seen her before, on one of the few negotiation meetings that we arranged between us. She agreed to work under his command for a set time, and she did. Jervohl has no brains. Plenty of courage, but I suppose it was too much to expect her to sabotage his plans properly."
"I don't think she could have done that," Toby pointed out, "Gildred isn't stupid; he would have seen through her. Besides, she gave her word."
"I suppose you keep your word, Toby?" Jareth smirked, still leaning against the trunk of the tree whose shadow they stood beneath.
"I do keep my word."
"Ah, yes, my mother had mentioned that you are an honourable man."
"Is it so wrong?"
"An honourable man will die with honour," Jareth agreed. He paused for a moment as if in thought and then reached up a hand to push a lock of hair behind his ear. "But a less honourable man will live to save the world. It always happens. Fairytales have it all wrong. One has to cheat just a little to win the race."
Toby tilted his head as if to observe this strange creature before him from another angle. "Just as you do in your Labyrinth."
"Just as I do in my Labyrinth. Of course, I do keep certain promises, but the majority of them I do not hold to be sacred. Perhaps it makes me a less honourable person, but it keeps my people safe."
"I suppose if you had been taken captive by Gildred of the Sky, you would have sabotaged his plans quite recklessly," Toby enquired.
"I would have. It would have weakened him, and it would have played havoc with his plans." Jareth left his tree trunk to sit down. "Don't tell my sister that. She isn't ready to hear it yet."
"No, that would be cruel." Toby thought back over the conversation, finding it stranger than he had first given it credit for. "Your Majesty, there is a matter that I did mean to discuss with you, but I'm not sure how you will react to it."
"I told you that I reserve the right not to answer. But ask me anything."
"What exactly did you promise my sister?"
The Goblin King stiffened to carved marble. For a long time he said nothing as Toby held his breath beside him, waiting for a word, for any sign, to answer his question. Nothing seemed forthcoming.
"What did you…"
"I heard you the first time," Jareth snapped, rising to his feet restlessly. He paced for a minute, hands clasped behind his back and uncharacteristically biting on his lip. "Why now? Why do you want to know now?"
"All my life, Lady Pandora has introduced me to people and the minute they hear my name they know me as Sarah's half-brother. She's a legend in the Underground for- for being the girl you fell in love with, the girl who beat your Labyrinth. They ask me questions and I can't answer them."
"Naturally," Jareth said dryly, "You were only seven when she killed herself."
Not a flicker of emotion changed in Toby's face as he nodded. Jareth really couldn't fault the man; he never had known his sister for more than a few years in his early childhood. He could not expect him to understand the sharpness of the blade that twisted in his own heart whenever another person mentioned that name.
"Will you tell me about her? I'd ask her ladyship, but she doesn't like to talk about Sarah."
"No, she doesn't, does she?" Jareth took another two steps and then looked up. "She thinks I was a fool. They all did. For loving her."
"She was only fifteen, Your Majesty."
"A child, yes, I know. I told myself that often enough, Toby. I didn't expect her to say yes when I first asked her. She was too caught up in the game as well to really hear me out. By the time she did, it was too late. She took the pills to stop the depression, called me and told me she still couldn't accept me."
"Why?"
Jareth shrugged. "Who knows? I never did. Maybe she hated me more than she loved me. I don't know. She certainly never forgave me."
"For what?"
"For obeying her, for dancing with her, for trying so hard to tell her how I felt."
"Which was when you promised."
And just like that the Goblin King's mind was swept away to another age.
An open window… Sarah's voice… the drowsy woman lying on the bed in a simple nightshirt…
"Jareth, I called." She was so sleepy. Jareth hadn't known what was going on until he heard that note in her voice.
"Sarah, what did you do?"
The empty bottle on her bedside table, the suicide note under it. Sarah explained as best she could, fighting sleep and toxins to talk to him. Jareth grabbed at her, stroking her face and her hair, trying to get her to stay awake.
"Come with me," he'd urged, "Just wish yourself to me and I can take you away. You'll be cured and you can live forever. With me. I will make you happy, I swear."
Sarah had refused, and then rambled away on another point, her eyes closed and her voice getting softer. Somewher along the way she'd ordered him to take care of her little brother. And then sleep. It took a while for the pills to work, but Jareth had stayed throughout.
"Jareth? I'm sorry, I should not have brought this up."
The Goblin King shook his head and blinked the haze from his eyes. She was dead. There was nothing he could do and she was dead. "No. You should not have brought it up." He swallowed. "I have a right to refuse you answers. Excuse me."
The owl flew away on the night, heading out over the Labyrinth itself until it dipped down into the secretive twists and turns of stone.
Toby took off his coat and looked up accusing at the dark sky. The first night in the Castle at the Centre of the Labyrinth and it would have to be filled with drama. Ah, well. There had been no help for it. He had questions. Someone was sure to have answers.
Toby stood up and made his way back to the Castle, confident that eventually he could glean whatever information he wanted out of the Goblin King.
