Toby was beginning to panic just a little. He was lost in a gigantic labyrinth with no guide, no sense of direction and a winged horse. Some might have reminded him that all he needed to do was to ride the damned horse out of there. But he would have reminded them in his turn that the Labyrinth had very skilfully led him through various tasks until he was in a fully enclosed corridor with no recourse to the sky.
And the mare was getting restless.
"Stop fidgeting," he snapped, tangling his fingers in the dark grey mane in order to keep a hold of her. "I am sorry we're in this mess, but this is partly your fault."
Serenity tossed her head and pulled away.
"No, you don't! Come back here! A fine thing if I were to lose you in the Labyrinth. Jareth would kill me if one precious hoof were touched. Not that he would need much reason."
He sank into another irrational sense of depression, only a tiny part of his brain wondering why he was behaving this way. Toby wasn't used to such an influx of emotion. But at that moment all he could think of was his dead family, his troubles with his new life, his lonely childhood and the very thought that everyone assumed he had the best of both worlds when he was really only walking a tightrope of annoyingly dangerous strain.
He had rolled back his sleeves a while ago- when he'd fallen into the river- and his hair was still wet. Worse, it was colder in this part of the Labyrinth than the Underground had ever been. The temperature in the Underground was usually stable; every day was a cool summer's day with a warm wind and every night was a cool autumn night with a star-jewelled black sky. No rain, no snow, no winter's day or summer's night…nothing to upset the perfectly modulated weather.
Perfectly modulated! Crap! Nothing about it was perfectly modulated. Toby missed the snow, missed spring, missed getting wet in the rain and then getting whacked on the back of the head when he trekked mud into his mom's kitchen.
"And I miss my mother," he mused aloud, "Can you imagine the stupidity? A man my age actually misses a woman who has been dead since he was nine?"
Serenity nudged against his shoulder, hungry and unimpressed by his ramblings. She wanted food, not words.
"And I miss the snow. And rain. And school! Is it even possible to miss what one cannot really have known?"
"Talking to yourself again?"
Toby looked around quickly, even before it registered that he knew the voice. He barely had time to add 'though not for many years' when his eyes widened and he dropped the leading reigns in an unnerved start.
"You used to do it all the time when you were a baby," this vision of Sarah laughed, walking forward in that light way of hers, hands clasped behind her back, "We couldn't get you to shut up!"
"Sarah?"
"Actually, no." If anything, she looked regretful, as if she was very sorry about it too. "Just her spirit. But you're real," she added, looking him up and down with another grin, "Gee, you're tall! Like granddad."
"I, er…" Toby contented himself with staring. Serenity trotted a short way forward and then came back to nudge him irritably in the back. "Stop it! Stupid horse."
Sarah laughed and came forward curiously, reaching out a hand to touch the charcoal coat, green eyes sparkling with anticipation. Toby let her, held his breath as she came so close he only needed to reach out a hand and he could have her arm.
The spell, whatever it was, was bewitching. Long dark hair, pale skin, innocent green eyes… Toby had a sudden heart stopping moment of wondering what it was Jareth had seen when he'd first seen Sarah. Certainly there was no one like her in the Underground. She wasn't pretty enough to be fae or elf or even centaur. Maybe a sprite? No, she was too sturdy for that. Certainly not a dwarf or goblin or mermaid. And so unbelievably innocent!
The spell broke when the apparition got too close to Serenity and the mare bucked and danced away, snorting as if to rid herself of the not-quite-there smell. Sarah pulled her hand back with a small cry and took a step away.
Toby started and put out a hand to calm Serenity down. The mare trembled but seemed alright so long as there was a distance between herself and her fear. And then there was Sarah's spirit.
"How old are you?" Toby demanded.
"How old am I now?" Sarah clarified, "Um, fifteen. Pretty young, huh? What can I say, when they say the Labyrinth takes a part of you, they're not kidding. There's a ton of people here, from everywhere."
"Here?" Toby looked around, expecting to see a headless ghost come gliding through the stone walls. He didn't scare easily, but the thought was so ludicrous that it was- for the moment- quite revolting. "What do all of you do here?"
"Walk. Get lost. Walk some more. There's no days or anything, so I don't really know. We talk sometimes, and tell each other things. Oh, I learned Dutch!"
"Dutch?"
"Yeah! There's this girl here, that wished her cousin away two months after I did, and we're sort of friends now. She taught me how to speak Dutch and then I taught her Double Dutch." The apparition giggled and shrugged. "We were bored, so… but tell me about you! What've you been doing?"
What had he been doing? "I live here," he said abruptly, "In the Underground."
Sarah's face frowned, incomprehension written all over her face. "Not possible. I got you out in time. I'm one of the few who did. The only one under Jareth." An unconscious kind of smile tilted her mouth as she mentioned that particular name. "He took you back?" She latched onto the thought like a lifeline. "That rat! He cheated!"
"Sarah, Sarah, calm down," Toby soothed, "He did nothing. You may not know this, but you died."
A kind of shocked tremor ripped through the figure in front of him.
"You were very depressed and the doctor gave you sleeping pills. You overdosed on them one night and died. You were sixteen or seventeen. I can't remember now."
"But… I didn't know. I… this is weird. I'm really dead? On earth, I mean?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
Sarah's frown deepened as she stared intently at him. "Toby, you talk funny. How come?"
"I told you, Sarah, I grew up here. We speak a different form of English, for the most part, more formal. Perhaps I should say, more grammatical. And English is only one language. I'm twenty-four years old, now. I will be twenty-five in a few days, though, damn my luck."
"Twenty-five? Wow. Karen and Dad must be so proud of you."
Karen and Dad… a flash of memory. An arm and shoulder that felt too heavy. The flash of memory in his mind and he saw the bodies twist once more. He heard the scream and shout and felt the car crunch as it impacted. The hard yank on his shirt snapped him out of the daze.
"Sarah, do you know the way out of here?" he asked meekly, fondling the mare's long nose, "I need to get this young lady fed before she eats me. Hmmm? Would you, Serenity? Or would the Labyrinth protect you still? She is Jareth's, you know. His mare."
"Is she? Looks a little like him, too, now that you mention it. I think it's the mane," Sarah laughed.
Toby grinned as well, unable to believe in the surrealism of the situation. "I see what you mean," he agreed peaceably, "But I really do need to get out of here. You see, we're all at the Castle at the Centre of the Labyrinth for a ball that Jareth is hosting and I need to return fairly soon. The Goblin King doesn't like to be inconvenienced."
"I can imagine," she replied dryly, "So how come Jareth brought you down here? When I told him to look after you, I didn't mean him to literally look after you. Dad must be sick with worry."
"No, Jareth took care of that," Toby said quickly.
"Oh, then that's fine. It must have been so cool, growing up here in the Wishing Lands," Sarah chattered excitedly, "Did you know that's what they used to call the Underground- the Wishing Lands? I said once that I wished I knew what was going on and someone smacked a hand over my mouth and said wishing was bad luck here. Apparently, everyone down here has this little grey pebble called a powerstone and whenever they make an actual wish, it comes true. Do you have a powerstone?"
"No. Mortals can't use powerstones. We do not have the ability."
"Oh." If anything, the vision of the girl seemed crushed with disappointment. "So you can't do magic, huh?"
"No. I never need to, though. I live a quiet life with the Lady Pandora- Jareth's mother- and…"
"Woah! Jareth has a mother? What did the poor woman do to deserve him?"
"Everyone has a mother, Sarah," Toby smiled, "You can't be born from nothing. Jareth has a mother, a wonderfully kind female fae named Pandora. The Underground has no use for last names or family names. Jareth even had a father, but his father died a century ago. He had a brother named Dieter, but he died as well- on a hunting accident with his father- and a sister named Jervohl. Jervohl was meant to be dead by a raiding party against Gildred of the Sky, but it turned out to be false. She has just returned after some twenty years away and Jareth has only reintroduced her two nights ago."
Sarah was nodding gently, her eyes a little glazed with the glut of information her brain was trying to process. "Geez. I suppose he'll also have a pretty little blond wife that thinks only of dresses and her husband and half-a-dozen children?"
"No. He is unmarried and he has been known to want nothing to do with children. The Lady Pandora says he doesn't hate them- she says he has always enjoyed playing with children- but he doesn't like the rigours of being a parent."
"How odd. I guess he'll change when he has one of his own," Sarah dismissed, completely unthinking of the irony of her discussing the Goblin King's love life. "What about you? You're twenty-five. Do you have a wife and kids?"
"Actually I'm homosexual."
"WHAT?"
Serenity snorted and twitched, jerking under Toby's absent-minded petting.
"Are you mad! Dad would have killed you!"
"He isn't here, is he? For God's sake, do not tell me you were a raging homophobe."
"N-no, I-I… if- if you w-want to be- be… one of them, sure. Heck, why should I care? It's just a shock, you know? I never thought… do you have a boyfriend or something?"
"I do. A fae named Luka."
"A fae?" She seemed enchanted again. "What does he look like?"
Serenity suddenly lifted her head and squealed, plunging away from Toby back down the tunnel. Toby shouted and made to follow her, when a quiet telepathic explosion seemed to rock through the very air itself.
"What the devil is going on, here?"
Toby was bereft of words as Sarah jumped and turned around, green eyes wide in a mix of apprehension and wonder.
"Jareth!" the spirit cried, taking a step back, "How… nice to see you again."
"What are you doing?" Jareth asked, not speaking to Sarah but to Toby, "Do you plan to stay here the rest of your life?"
"I wandered in here," the mortal explained, "Sarah just appeared. Well, Sarah's spirit."
"She isn't," Jareth said shortly, still not looking at the wraith beside him, "Come." He beckoned with an imperious finger and made to go backwards. But the walls had moved once again and his way was blocked. He swore and turned to the front. The dark corridor stretched on to shadow. "That way, then."
"Don't you know the way through your own Labyrinth, Goblin King?" Sarah asked timorously, a timid smile glimmering on her lips.
Toby held his breath and looked from one to the other.
Jareth's fists were clenched by his side and his breath was caught in his chest. Forcing himself, he turned around and laid eyes on the spirit. "Take her away," he breathed, "Or I will tear this section down and curse the land."
Sarah shuddered and went to the wall, gnawing on her lip in that nervous way she had. She looked back with a glance of hate in her green eyes. "I should have known," she snapped, "The Goblin King just hates to lose." And she vanished.
"We can't waste any more time. The Labyrinth will not be happy now. Give me your hand." Jareth placed a hand on Serenity's neck and took Toby's hand; taking them all back to the entrance they had started from. "Wait here and do not move."
He vanished elsewhere, leaving Toby to the mercy of a few others that had either made their own way back or were successful in their returns.
Toby looked from Serenity to the Labyrinth to the fairly near shape of the Castle just beyond the village. "Garlo," he called.
The water sprite looked up and waved, pixie-ish face good natured and vacuous. He came over, leaving his lamed koern to settle down in the cool shade of the wall and nurse its hurt paw.
"Garlo, could you please tell His Majesty that I have taken Serenity back to the stables at the Castle?" Toby asked, "Thank you. You won't forget, will you?"
"No, no. You're taking the mare back to the Castle. Will do. I shall be your truest messenger." Garlo offered another large smile and wandered off.
Serenity snorted.
"I feel the same way," Toby sighed. "Come along, Serenity. I think we've had enough of the Labyrinth for now."
