Glad you liked the chapter :-) Here's another one to get us closer to the final confrontation...
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"When do you expect Corran to be back?" Sarah asked, as she put down the brush and started braiding her hair. Jareth, who had just returned fully dressed from his room next to hers, was sitting in her window, looking out over the Labyrinth. It was cloudy outside and the air was heavy and stifling, as if a thunderstorm was approaching.
"When it gets dark," he said slowly and toyed with four crystal balls that he had conjured. He looked younger today, more relaxed and self-assured. He was dressed in his white shirt and trousers, and a bright red scarf was slung around one shoulder. "He will arrive believing me to be ready to surrender the throne, but he's not an idiot, of course, so he'll take his precautions as well."
"If there's anything I can do to help…" Sarah started, but Jareth whipped his head around and held up a hand to stop her.
"You must stay away!" he said savagely. "Do you think I could bear it if anything happened to you now? Besides, he's not supposed to know you're free."
"What will it be like?" she asked quietly. "Will you fight with swords or magic? And will he not just run away like the last time after your father's death?"
Jareth turned back to look at the Labyrinth. "You know, I've asked myself that as well. What I really want is to keep him in one place, and then it won't matter whether I kill him with blade or crystal."
"So you will have to take away his ability to transport. Can you do that?"
"No, that's his birthright as being a Goblin prince. He can still control the mists as he like."
Sarah pondered about this for a moment while tying her braid with a green ribbon. The mists again… "Jareth, how about exploiting what is happening to the Labyrinth…? Luring him out into the mist-less rim around the growing Bog? Your transport magic didn't work there – why should his?"
Jareth was dumbstruck for a moment, but then smiled at her and jumped up. "You're right, that could work! He doesn't know exactly how the Labyrinth mists are reacting to your presence – he only thinks the Bog is growing. If we fly out there as owls…" He excitedly started pacing the floor, discussing the various options with himself. Sarah looked tenderly at him, hoping and believing that the encounter tonight would turn out as planned, as the alternative was simply too dreadful to contemplate.
"Sarah," Jareth suddenly stopped and turned to her, coming to stand behind her and placing his slender hands on her shoulders. "I need to prepare in earnest for this duel. I would love nothing better than to spend the entire day with you, but half a day is all I dare give you. After we have had lunch, I will leave you, and you must promise to stay here. In your room or in the library with your friend, but it must be far away from the throne room, so you don't risk running into Corran."
She nodded compliantly, but the seriousness in his voice made her spontaneously jump up and throw her arms around his neck. "Oh, sweet love, I wish you didn't have to do this!"
Suddenly their attention was caught by a polite knocking on the door, and when Jareth reluctantly answered, the door was flung open by Fanny and Fenella, who threw themselves at Sarah and chatted eagerly to tell her how happy they were she was back. Behind them, little Felix was waiting with a huge tray with breakfast, that Jareth quickly went over and relieved him of, while Sarah was busy with the twins.
"So, Felix," Sarah said when she could finally be heard over the noise. "Jareth tells me I have you to thank for finding me? You are so clever, and I'm very grateful."
Felix blushed and cringed under her words, and shuffling his feet he quickly retreated and almost ran out of the room. Jareth and Sarah laughed and started on their breakfast, patiently answering questions from the twins about the rescue.
What they most wanted to do that morning was just to be alone and spend time together, but with all the eager goblins around, they didn't get much of a change. Instead they walked slowly around the castle, hand in hand and occasionally stealing a burning kiss in a corner. Jareth told Sarah more about his upbringing at the castle and his sisters in the Dryad Woods.
"When all this is over," he said, "I will take you to them instead of back to the Above. It might just work, so the Labyrinth will believe you gone. After all, it works for the babies I bring there to get them out of the influence of the mists."
He stopped and held her head between his hands, forcing her to look directly into his eyes. "And if everything else fails, Sarah, I will build you a palace there, I swear. And we will be together as often as possible. And the next full moon is only two weeks away – that is when we will marry."
"Marry? Aren't you beginning to take everything for granted…?" she teased him, but as his look darkened, she quickly added. "Of course, I'll marry you, my love. I thought I made it quite clear tonight how much I love you."
"Oh, you did indeed…" he smiled wickedly and caressed her face with small lingering kisses that made her quite dizzy. "But I'm afraid it wasn't enough. I think you will need to repeat that as often as possible after we're married to make your point."
She pressed herself against him and smiled. "As Your Majesty demands…."
A few hours later, Jareth had taken Sarah back up to the panorama room for lunch. The light and view through the windows was not quite as spectacular as the last time, since the heavy grey clouds were still hovering over the Labyrinth, but the map was still clear and Jareth outlined his plan for her. He would greet his brother with disbelief and insist that it was a trick – that the Bog was not spreading again. Corran would have to prove it. After they transformed into owls, he would then fly ahead and guide Corran to the mist-free zone, most likely the raft labyrinth, since as far as he could figure out, this was where the Bog would have extended to at that time. Since no magic could be used, the fight would most likely be a sword duel.
"Jareth, I don't like it," Sarah said concerned and looked at the Bog spreading on the map. "He'll try anything to trick you or kill you – he's surely not planning to let you live, even if you surrendered the throne willingly!"
"I know, love," Jareth sighed, "but what else can I do? At least I know I'm a much better swordsman than he is. Or I was when we were young anyway. And if I don't take care of him now, he'll always be there to threaten us. Once he finds out I'm actually going to marry and start a family, he will be even more persistent."
Sarah sighed. "I wish I could send an army with you to help you, but without the mists, the goblins won't be of much use."
"I'll be fine," he promised and kissed her reassuringly.
Sarah clung to him as they said goodbye, and reluctantly stayed to stare after him, as he walked away to prepare himself. She could do nothing but wait and stay away as he had made her promise, but it felt horribly frustrating not to be able to help and make a difference. With drawn face and clenched fists, she went back to her bedroom and threw herself on the bed, where she lay back and stared up at the ceiling, trying very hard not to think of all the things that could go wrong.
Being alone and relaxed she slowly became conscious of a strange warm feeling inside of her. It felt like she had been drinking something very warm, but the sensation wasn't just centred on her stomach but mostly around her heart. She stayed very still and tried to think about what it could be, and whether it was getting worse. After five minutes she thought it possibly was, but it was growing so slowly that she was almost sure she was just imagining it. Dismissing it and getting restless with just lying here, she jumped up and went to the library to see Hoggle.
The feeling did not go away. When she returned a few hours later, the warmth had spread and now stretched all the way from her shoulders and chest to her hips. And it was very gradually increasing in both strength and extension. She stripped in the bathroom and examined her body, trying to see if anything was different, but she looked mostly the same, except perhaps a bit paler. She wished she could have asked Jareth about it, but she didn't dare disturb him. She was probably just coming down with the flu or something, she tried to convince herself. Suddenly her vision began to blur a bit and she got quite dizzy, having to cling to the wall to stay upright. Her legs felt weak and alarmed, she tried to drag herself into the bedroom again. However, before she reached the bed, her knees buckled and she fell to the floor and couldn't get up. She called out for help and thought she saw Fenella and Fanny hurrying towards her, but her vision faded completely and then she fell into oblivion.
When she awoke again, she noticed through the windows that the gloomy sky had grown even darker and felt a pang of fear. Corran would be here soon! Then she remembered the strange sensation that had made her pass out, and to her relief, she could feel that the warmth had disappeared and she felt quite normal again. Sitting up, she looked right into the eyes of the goblin twins who were sitting on her bed, and staring at her with wide eyes and shocked faces.
"What?" she asked and felt a pang of nervousness. "Is it Jareth? Has he left with Corran yet?"
"Not that we know, Lady Sarah," Fenella whispered in a strangled voice and kept staring at Sarah.
"Then what?" she asked confused, until she suddenly looked down at herself. She was only wearing her underwear, and the lack of clothes clearly revealed that her body were a shimming smooth pale white, even paler than Jareth now. The body hair on her legs and arms had paled, too, and grown so thin and transparent it almost wasn't there. She lifted her hand in wonder and saw the same colour there, and her fingers looked a bit longer and more slender and graceful than usual. Sarah felt a chill running through her. What had happened? Then an explanation struck her, and almost afraid of the answer, she let her hands touch her ear and follow the curves. This was not a mortal ear but definitely a bit pointy.
Sarah yelped and jumped off the bed, running to stand in front of the full-size mirror. Her reflection confirmed the obvious – the pale smooth skin, these ears, fuller more lustrous hair and a shimmer of fairy dust on her more slanted eyebrows. She had become Fae!