Whee - I got the wireless internet to work! Here comes the long awaited chapter 19 - hope you'll like it as much as chapter 18.
Tiddlywinks: Thanks, have corrected it. No, I don't really have a story plan and usually only see about 3-4 chapters ahead. But that's why I don't publish chapters as soon as they're finished - I always end up correcting in them when a new idea strikes me.
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The time passed unbearably slow during the day, and after taking a long hot bath and trying on different dresses to look at nice for Jareth as possible, Sarah couldn't think of anything else to do in her room, except to sit in the window and look at the Labyrinth. Whatever Jareth was doing, it didn't show at the moment. The City was quiet and the closest parts of the Labyrinth seemed no different. At the very edges of the parts visible from her room, however, she could see the ugly brown border of the Bog which clearly showed that the danger had not yet passed away.
Fenella came into the room late in the afternoon, carrying a huge white box which was almost as big has herself.
"His Majesty requests the pleasure of your company at dinner tonight," she said and smiled at Sarah. "He sends you a dress to wear."
"Dinner?" Sarah was surprised. "He has time for dinner? Then it must have worked and whatever he's done to the Labyrinth, will make it go back to normal."
"We don't know," Fenella confessed. "He's locked himself in his room and we don't know what he's doing. Except that…" she looked carefully around to see if anyone was listening and crept closer to Sarah. "I think I heard him cry earlier today."
"Cry? Jareth? I don't believe it!" Sarah whispered in an equally hushed voice. "Are you sure?"
"No, but that's what it sounded like," Fenella looked sad at the thought. "Please be nice to him tonight, Lady Sarah, we all just want him to be happy."
"Oh, Fenella, I know you do. So do I!"
Sarah opened the white box and caught her breath at the sight of the exquisite dress that was revealed. It reminded her of the white dress she had worn in the ball room when dancing with Jareth, but this one was more elegant and adult, and not the puffy-sleeved glittery gown, that she had adored as a teenager. It had a low neck-line and was embroidered with real pearls and gold thread, and the skirt was full and with a suggestion of a train, almost like a wedding gown. As she held it up before her and looked at herself in the mirror, she knew it was the perfect gown for her and that tonight would be very special. It had to be a celebration for saving the Labyrinth.
After spending an hour setting her hair in an elegant hair-do and applying make-up to look her absolute best, Sarah carefully slipped on the dress and let Fenella stand on a chair to close the small buttons on the back from her neck to her hips. They both stared in silence at the beautiful Sarah in the mirror, and she could feel her stomach flutter in excitement at the thought of what Jareth would think of her in this gown. She hoped it would soften him up and make him Jareth again, not the distant and fearsome Goblin King that he had been ever since he had shown her the disaster on the map. After a moment of consideration, she took the necklace he had given her the first night and fastened it around her neck. It fitted perfectly in the neck-line of the dress, as if they had been made for each other.
She walked silently and smiling through the hallways, until she reached the dining room. Was it really only four days ago that she had come here first? It seemed like an eternity now. As she entered, she looked searchingly around, until her eyes focused on the man she had been waiting to see. Jareth. He had his back towards her, but turned as he heard her enter. He was clad completely in creamy white in an outfit that matched hers and a long feather cape swirling around him and Sarah found him achingly handsome. His mismatched eyes widened at the sight of her, and the look he gave her thrilled her to the core and made her blush. She curtsied and then slowly went to join him at the table.
"You look even more beautiful than I had imagined," he greeted her huskily and took her hand, kissing it gently. This was not the Goblin King speaking, she thought happily, but the Jareth beneath the façade.
"Thank you, Jareth," she said and smiled brilliantly at him. "Please do tell me – are we celebrating the victory over the Bog? Will the Labyrinth become what it was before?"
"Yes, it will," he assured her, but the hint of sadness crept back into his eyes.
"Tell me all about it," Sarah pleaded. "I know something is wrong, please confide in me and let me help you."
He took her other hand and held them both in his warm ungloved grip. Then he slowly stepped even closer and kissed her lightly on the lips. "In a moment", he said and led her away from the table and towards the doors. "I have something I've wanted to do ever since you came back to me…"
They entered the ball room, and Sarah gasped at the sight. There were candles everywhere in the grand hall, white fluffy pillows along the walls and soft music playing somewhere in the background. Except for the fact that they were totally alone in here, she felt like she was back in the dream again.
"Will you do me the honour of dancing with me?" Jareth asked quietly, and when she nodded breathlessly, he held her close and swept her around in a slow waltz, that made her dizzy and completely unable to sense anything in the world but him. And as he spun her across the floor and locked her eyes with his burning gaze, he started singing softly to her:
"There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel, opened and closed, within your eyes, I'll place the sky, within your eyes…"
And when the song ended and he held her closer and kissed her again, fiercely and passionately, Sarah finally admitted to herself that she loved him and would never love anyone else again.
She looked breathlessly up at the Goblin King with shining confident eyes. "Jareth, I…"
"Shh…," he said and placed a finger on her lips. His voice was filled with sadness. "Don't say anything, my precious. I had to get one last dance with you, don't spoil the mood for me."
"But I…" Sarah started, but then realised what he had said. "Last dance? Why ever would it be the last?"
He took her hand and led her back to the dining room, having her sit down on a chair, while he remained standing, looking very serious. She felt apprehensive and didn't have a clue to what was wrong with him.
"You asked me what the Council said and what they asked of me in return for advice," he started slowly. "They listened to my description of the Bog's behaviour and one of them remembered that something similar had happened before. I had no idea, but then again, since my father died so young and abruptly, he might not have had time to tell me everything he knew about the Labyrinth, before the fateful night. As they only needed to give me advice and not directly intervene, their price was not as high as it could have been. I have paid them already with a magic mirror I inherited from my grandmother."
Jareth poured himself a cup of wine, but Sarah politely refused a cup. She wanted to keep her mind as clear as possible for whatever he was going to tell her.
"When it happened the last time," Jareth continued heavily, "it was because the Laws of the Labyrinth were broken. Apparently the Bog is the centre of darkness of the Labyrinth and it is only held back by the strong mists of magic. A woman was Questing for her child in the reign of my grandfather, but due to a civil war in the Dryad kingdom, he was distracted and forgot to keep track of time. When she reached the Castle and he became aware of her, seventeen hours had passed. By Law, only one must remain more than fifteen hours, but both she and the child were still in the kingdom and the mists became impure and tainted. They lost their strength and immediately the Bog started to spread. My grandfather sent the woman back home and kept the child and order was quickly restored."
He sighed and let his fingers trace the rim of the cup. "Actually, my grandfather might not even have realised that he had been in a dangerous situation. The High Council have great powers and saw the disturbances at once. But as you know – you were there – this time the Bog had spread for four hours before I was informed."
"So the Council told you the mists have now been tainted again?" Sarah asked with concern, but then blanched. "It's me, isn't it? It started right after I came here!"
"Yes, Sarah," the king sighed. "The Labyrinth is dying because you are here."
"But why?" she cried and began to shiver. "It is because I'm not good enough to become Fae? Or to become your wife?"
"No, my dearest," he smiled sadly. "You would make the most beautiful Fae queen the kingdom has ever seen."
He began to pace the floor and the silence hung between them, until he stopped and looked directly at her.
"When you came here the last time, you were strong and wilful and desirable. Despite your young age, I felt myself enthralled by you, captivated and besotted. When you left me, I could not stop thinking of you. I wanted you. I needed you! Of course I knew about the strict Laws of the Labyrinth, but I had no idea that breaking them could be the undoing of the entire kingdom."
Suddenly he kneeled down before her and took her hands in his, holding her gaze with his fascinating mismatched eyes. "I knew you thought of me as a villain, but I had hoped that once you got to know me, your feelings might change. So I broke the Laws."
Sarah stared at him uncomprehending, but jubilantly at the thought that he might love her as she loved him. She started to tell him that her feelings had indeed changed, but he silenced her by squeezing her hands and continued in a broken voice. "Sarah, my sweet love, I have spent the entire day thinking about how to confess this to you, but have found no easy way. So I'm just going to say it. You did win the last time. You did get through the Labyrinth and you rescued Toby from staying in the Underground. On your birthday I lied to you and the memory from the crystal was false. The mists have been tainted and the Bog is spreading, because you are not supposed to be here at all."
Sarah blinked and tried to understand what he was saying. She had won? She had truly beaten the Labyrinth and the king back then, like she thought up until her birthday? And yet he had come to her and forced her to come back with him, to choose between herself and Toby, although he had absolutely no right to claim Toby. She felt like Jareth had slapped her and slowly drew her hands away from him, as a cold hurt spread inside her. He had lied to her! She trusted him, she had allowed herself to love him, and all this time, he had LIED to her?
"Sarah, please forgive me," he started, but she jumped to her feet and away from him.
"YOU LIED TO ME?" she screamed and felt some satisfaction at seeing him cringe at her words. "How could you! You would never have told me, if the Bog hadn't spread and ruined your plan, would you?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe in a few hundred years…"
"No! How could you, Jareth? Forcing me to stay here under false pretences? Forcing me to marry you?" She tore off the emerald necklace around her throat and threw it in his face, feeling nothing but pain and betrayal and an immense sadness, because he had turned out to be the villain after all. She was blinded by tears and didn't know what to do, except that she couldn't bear the sight of him, because the love she felt was still there and she didn't want to love that cruel conniving inhuman Goblin King.
He tried to approach her, but she backed away to avoid his touch. "Sarah, I know it sounds bad, but I was right, wasn't I?" he asked persistently. "You do care about me, don't you?"
"Take me back!" she demanded with a cold voice ignoring his question. "Take me back and let my family remember me again, do you hear me?"
There was a long pause. "Of course, my lady," Jareth answered in an equally cold voice then, and suddenly they were back in her old room Above, and all her things were there as they had been on the night of her birthday. "I had to take you back anyway, Sarah. That is the only thing which would save my Labyrinth. With you gone, the mists will resume their strength and drive back the Bog to where it belongs."
"Good!" Sarah shouted angrily. "Then you get what you want, and I get what I want!"
Jareth stared furiously at her, but then his face fell and the despair returned to his eyes. "No," he stated flatly. "Know that I do this for my kingdom and its subjects only, not because you ask me to. And not because it is what I want. It seems I will never get what I want!"
He suddenly grabbed her and kissed her brutally, penetrating her defences and making her respond involuntarily to the violent passion that soared between them. But then she came to her senses and started fighting him, and he immediately let go.
"Goodbye, Sarah," he whispered and then he was gone, and she was alone in her room. The absence of his arms around her made her shiver with cold, and blinded by tears she threw herself on the bed and sobbed desperately into her pillow. Why did he have to be a villain? How could he have done this to her? She had left her heart in the Underground and she could never ever return.