Lady Saffron: I truly did consider throwing Daniel's father in the Bog, but since Jareth had to hurry to the Council and Sarah cannot travel the Labyrinth easily, there would be no one to watch him suffer and die... ;-) Besides, it would be out of character for the father to even try to get his son back.
Sanguinepetal: Unfortunately child molesting is more common than any of us wants to think about, and an unprotected child whose body would heal and whose memory would be wiped the next day, would be an extremely likely victem. About your uploads - are you using the right browser version? There are comments on the front of this site about Macs, OS X and IE?
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Taking care of Daniel made Sarah able to push aside the thoughts about her own situation and the dangers threatening Jareth and the Labyrinth. He was so like Toby, except more shy and polite, and she fed him and held him and told him fairytales to keep him happy. Fanny and Fenella came to help her as she sat with him in the large kitchen, and they showed her and Daniel to the large nursery in the castle, where they often brought the children whose parents did not even wish to try to take on the Labyrinth. Sarah and Daniel marvelled at the huge room full of toys and stuffed animals and at a separate room with three imaginative children's beds, shaped as a carriage, a swan and a teddy bear.
"I can't believe it," Sarah said to the twins as they watched Daniel run around the room and try to see everything at once. "Has this room always been here?"
"Well, there's always been a nursery; of course," Fenella answered, "but in His Majesty's time we've added a lot of new toys. And he's designed the beds. They were meant for his little nieces and nephews, but now that they are grown out of them, we have them here for the sake of the mortal children."
As Sarah sat by the teddy bear bed that evening and told stories from Peter Pan to the sleepy Daniel, she kept thinking about Jareth and how he was doing at the High Council. Would they be able to help him? And if not, what would she and Jareth do? They'd have to get all the goblins away, of course, but where on earth would they find room for hundreds of goblins and what would Jareth do without his beloved kingdom? No, the thought alone was too dreadful to contemplate – they just had to help him! After all, this business with the Bog was crazy! The kingdom had been safe for hundreds of years – to think that all this could be undone in just a few days was impossible.
When Daniel was finally sound asleep, Sarah quietly left him and went to the library of the castle. Hoggle was there, and at the sight of her crestfallen face, he hurried to her side and patted her gently on the hand.
"Ye know, don't ye?" he said kindly. "He showed ye the map of the Labyrinth and how close that damned Bog is coming."
"Oh, Hoggle, isn't it awful? Do you know anything about the High Council – will they be able to help him?"
"Of course they will, me friend," he reassured her awkwardly. "The Council knows everything. They will see that the Bog goes away and stays where it should! Too bad it's part of the Labyrinth, so they can't get rid of it completely."
Sarah smiled. "Yes, that is too bad. Hoggle, did Jareth read about the mists only or about the Bog as well? Maybe some of these books could tell us something about the Bog that would help him and the Council defeat it? Even if it is Corran, there must be some way to counter it."
"No, I don't think he did," Hoggle mused. "He only asked for the mist books. But I have a few about the Bog if ye would like to see them?"
"Yes, please. I can't stand just sitting around and doing nothing!"
By the time Sarah went to bed, she knew more about the Bog than she had ever wanted to know. She knew how large it was supposed to be, she knew how many had been exiled there during Jareth's father's reign, and she knew that it had been there ever since the beginning of the Labyrinth. There wasn't much in the books about the creation of the Labyrinth and the Bog, except that she had been able to find references to three different kings before Jareth, and hints that the first one had been involved in the making of it. A copy of an ancient scroll revealed an early pact between the King and the Labyrinth, stating the "Laws of the Labyrinth" in flowery old-fashioned words, and this mentioned the Bog, calling it "Ye Mist-kept Marsh of Malodorous Essence", so she could tell it had been there already then. But it did not seem to have changed sizes before - at least if it had, it had not been written down.
Sleeping restlessly in her large bed, she awoke at dawn to the sound of Fanny calling for her.
"Lady Sarah, the King is not back yet, and he must still be outside the Labyrinth for we can't find him. The new goblin has been created. We need you!."
The new goblin? Sarah thought sleepily, but then remembered. Daniel! Of course, Jareth had said 15 hours, and this must be around now that the child would be claimed by the Labyrinth and turned into a goblin. She was suddenly wide awake and threw on some clothes without even taking time to bathe, and ran after Fanny down to the nursery. She felt all funny inside and didn't know what to think. Even though she had accepted the idea of children being saved from a miserable life above by coming down here, she couldn't imagine the sweet little boy from yesterday as a goblin and was afraid what she would find.
Fenella waited for them outside the nursery. "Remember, Lady Sarah, do not use his old name," she warned. "His Majesty never does – it would not mean anything to the goblin anyway. He has forgotten all about his past now. He might remember a bit from yesterday, but no details. It really should be the king taking care of him right now, but since he isn't here…"
"What do you want me to do?" Sarah asked nervously. "What does Jareth usually do?"
"You welcome him to the underground," they explained, "and then you give him a new name - whatever you see fitting. Jareth touches them, when he's thinking of a name. And then you take him to the throne room and present him to everyone."
Sarah slowly opened the door and went into the large nursery. A small figure was huddled in the middle of the teddy bear bed, but it was much smaller than the boy she had left there yesterday.
"Good morning!" she said, trying to sound more cheerfully and confident than she felt. "Are you awake?"
A small grey figure slowly emerged from under the covers and looked at Sarah with bewildered eyes. It was about the same size as all the other goblins and had smooth grey skin and large round yellowish eyes. Its hair was snow white and tousled and the ears were large and pointy, swooping upwards and framing the round face. It did not look one bit like the boy from yesterday, and yet there as something in the look, something in the posture and shy smile, that left out any doubt about who this was.
"Who are you?" the goblin asked timidly in Daniel's voice. "Where am I? I'm so confused."
"Welcome to the Labyrinth." Sarah squatted beside the bed so she was the same height as him. "Welcome to the Castle beyond the Goblin City. I am Lady Sarah, soon to be married to His Majesty, the Goblin King."
She hesitated a moment, but then held out a hand and placed it gently on the goblin's head. Something that felt almost like an electrical currant passed through her body, and she could see the goblin was affected in the same manner.
"You must be… Felix." The name came to her from nowhere, but the little goblin smiled in relief. "Yes, that is my name, I'm sure of it!"
"Come, Felix," Sarah said and removed her hand to grab his instead. "Let us go meet all your friends."
The throne room was filled with goblins, who were all chattering excitedly. At the sight of Sarah and the new goblin entering, they all rose and stopped talking, and the room became unnaturally quiet. Felix tried to hide behind Sarah, but she smiled and lifted him up on Jareth's throne for all to see.
"Good morning, everyone," she said and looked around at them. "Please welcome our newest little goblin – Felix."
Everyone rushed at them, and Felix was hugged and talked to and suddenly swept away in a crowd of goblins who wanted to show him the City. Sarah was left behind and stared after them with a smile. That had gone well, she thought, and she felt certain that the boy would be much better off here than at home with his abusive father.
"You did well," a familiar voice agreed from behind her, and she whirled around to see the Goblin King leaning against his throne looking tired and distant.
"You're back!" she breathed and wanted to run into his arms, but he seemed so royal and unapproachable that she didn't dare and almost thought she must have imagined the kinder side of him. "Did the High Council help you? Will they come? Was it Corran?"
He stared at her in silence for a long time with an odd and unreadable expression. "Yes, no and no," he finally answered in a strained voice. "They helped me, but it will not be necessary for them to come here and fight the Bog. And the reason for this mess is – amazingly enough – not Corran. I have received the means to drive back the Bog and return the Labyrinth to its normal condition on my own."
Sarah could only think of one reason why he didn't look happy about it, if it was true that they could all be saved. "They asked something terrible of you," she guessed and the pained look that swept across his face for a fleeting second seemed to confirm it. "They asked a price so high that you are not sure it's really worth it..."
"Go back to your room, Sarah," he said firmly, but not unkindly. "Stay inside and away from the Labyrinth. I need to rest and to prepare in order to save my kingdom."
She wanted to comfort him, not leave him, but the direct order could not be ignored, and she turned and walked away, trying to keep her head high. What could they possibly have asked of him that had hurt him so? And what could he do to save the Labyrinth that he had not already done before? She really wanted to be there for him, and she hoped he would share his feelings with her later, once he had had time to think about it.