DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this. (Bummer) All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.

Chapter 9 - Facing the King

Sarah woke, feeling uncomfortable for some reason until she saw that Jareth was sat, as he had been earlier going through papers and documents. She watched him silently working away with curiosity. She had never once thought that the Labyrinth would need 'running', or that The King of the Goblins would have to do anything other than punish the disobedient creatures that roamed his lands. Whatever it was he was reading was certainly making him cross.

"Blasted High King." He snarled abruptly slamming the papers down on the desk. Sarah jumped and tried to pretend that she hadn't been watching him. "You'd think that the least he could do would be to control his own vermin offspring without coming to me for help." He grunted, looking up and motioning towards the papers littering the desk. He sank back into his chair and pointed vaguely at the half lit chandelier above them. One by one the remaining candles lit themselves, lighting the room up and casting more shadows across the walls.

"You must be hungry. Dinner will be served in 20 minutes if you would care to join me?" Sarah nodded, unable to make herself speak. She jumped again as Jareth stood up and strode around his desk and flung open the doors scowling. "Isenith, escort Sarah back to her rooms and then on to the dining room please." He said summoning the Darkling.

"Of course My King." Isenith nodded to Sarah who slowly got up from the chaise longe and unwrapped the blanket from around her.

"I don't have anything to wear." She whispered, not wanting to annoy Jareth further.

"There should be clothes in your closet by now." He said returning to his desk. She nodded and left quietly, feeling her nerves thump in pain with every step from her headache.

Isenith left her at the entrance to her rooms and she quickly made her way to the closet.

"Why am I not surprised?" She asked the world in general looking through the line of dresses, all much of a much ness, and every single one either black, dark blue or dark red. She finally chose a midnight blue silk affair with a low neckline and extensive embroidery around the bottom of the voluminous skirts. Taking the dress and some fresh under things into the bathroom she quickly washed herself and brushed her hair out, taking the time to check out the strange and exotic looking bottles on the shelf. Getting into the dress was a bit of an ordeal, but she finally managed to get to grips with the fastenings.

She had to admit that she rather suited the colour as she checked herself one last time in the full-length mirror. Jareth's sister had made her a perfect body to replace her broken one…

"And why is it that I'm OK with the fact that this isn't my body? None of this belongs to me. What did they do, borrow somebody else's spare body that they weren't using? Ylack." She shuddered and touched her exposed chest and cleavage again, feeling the perfect roundness and smooth skin in wonder. "Well, I don't mind these additions so much…" She said walking away from the mirror and remembering her own, slightly gawky body. "At least the body fits the dress." Sarah smiled grimly to herself and went to meet Isenith who was still waiting outside the main doors.

He led her silently down the never-ending corridor, and down a large flight of stairs to yet another corridor. At the end he took her through a beautiful courtyard, filled with the scent of roses and the splashing sound of water from the fountain in the centre. She wanted to stay there, intoxicated by the peacefulness of it all. Isenith coughed politely and indicated to the doors at the other side of the courtyard.

"Sorry." She smiled catching up to him and following him into the beautifully lit and decorated dining room. "This is where he eats every meal?" She asked looking around at the massive proportions of the room. "You must be able to seat over 200 people at that table!"

"260 My Lady." Isenith corrected her proudly.

"Wow." There really was nothing else she could have said. "Well you wanted to live your dreams Sarah." She muttered to herself as Isenith pulled out a chair for her to sit down on at the top end of the table. "Thank you." Isenith nodded and then left through another door, leaving her alone with the faint smell of roses and the sound of faint chiming as the huge chandeliers above her moved in the breeze. She felt small and insignificant in the huge room, as though she truly did not shine enough to be allowed into such a beautiful place. "Nothing like what his throne room was like." She whispered to herself, hearing her voice echoing slightly. She sat and waited, and waited, and waited, until bored of playing with her empty crystal wineglass she got up and wandered back out into the moonlit courtyard. Stepping up to the edge of the fountain she looked down at her glassy and distorted reflection, seeing not the beautiful fae like woman staring back at her, but a deformed creature, unwanted, dirty, and scarred.

"Nothing is ever what it seems. Don't ever take anything for granted here." The reflection next to her said, his eyes bright in the moonlight. She looked up at him and nodded, taking his arm as he offered to escort her back into the dining room.

Spread out before them were several different dishes of food, everything from bangers and mash just as out of place here as herself Sarah noted, to gourmet dishes of caviar and pate. Jareth served her plate from several of the selections on offer and watched cautiously as she picked her way through the offered food. He ate sparingly himself, and grew more and more concerned that although she moved the food around on her plate, very little of it passed her lips.

"Tomorrow we will begin your education in the art of magic, and also how to be seen in polite society. If you are to live here you must abide by the rules of the Underground and be able to hold your own at any occasion." Sarah nodded mutely and forced down the mouthful she had absently put into her mouth.

"Can I really do magic?"

"You will be able to perform acts of magic once I have taught you yes."

"So what was it that I did yesterday, in the labyrinth?"

"You did nothing except become the catalyst for the Labyrinth. Without me, the Labyrinth becomes wild. All you did was force the magical flux around you to resemble something from your memory."

"Oh. Like glamour then."

"No, far from it. Glamour only fools the senses. The magic of the Labyrinth is much, much more elemental and complex than throwing some glamour about."

"You must be very good at magic then if you repaired the Labyrinth in one night."

"I am quite well accomplished. My father however, could always better me when it came to using the very nature of the Labyrinth to change it into something darker, and more wild." He could tell that she wasn't really listening to him, as she stared across the room into nothingness. He sighed and placed his napkin down next to his plate. Hoping that her natural curiosity that he had always found so endearing would assert itself he sat and watched her, feeling time slipping past them in the silence.

"I'm sorry." She said finally looking round at him.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I don't deserve everything that you've done for me, and you certainly don't deserve all the hassle of me being here."

"Who are you and what have you done with Sarah Williams?" He asked smiling as he stood up and waited for her to rise also. "Come, walk with me." She nodded and took his arm. They left through the far set of doors into a dimly lit sitting room, small in comparison to the dining room. They walked on through other rooms until they came into a marble throne room.

"This isn't like what it was before." She said turning and looking at him, confused.

"You didn't really think I lived in squalor did you? That was your interpretation, not mine. I was rather put out at you for that. To think that you thought I'd let those dirty creatures into my castle."

"Don't you?"

"Only when I have to. Just because I rule a cruel and debase race Sarah, does not mean that I am one of them. Something many people forget." He said bitterly as they walked on out of the throne room and into yet another corridor.

"Why do you rule over them? Why don't they have their own goblin as a king?" Jareth snorted at her suggestion.

"You're letting your ignorance show again. Its not a good trait to have." He said opening a black panelled door into his library. He suppressed a grin at the look on her face as she walked past him and into the room. Reaching the first shelf she ran a finger wonderingly along the spines of the books she could reach, trying to read the archaic runes on them. She sighed in frustration, trying to find one in English.

"I can't read any of them!" She wailed turning back to where he had sat down, swinging one of his legs over the armrest.

"Your first lesson."

"What?"

"You must learn to read and speak the Fae language perfectly. You will not survive for long if you can not understand what the others are saying to you."

"But I can understand you, and those people in the court room."

"Learning tomorrows lesson today is not a good idea. They charmed you so that you could understand what they were saying, and I speak in English for your benefit."

"Oh." She said any placed the book back into its position on the shelf. "How long will it take?"

"That entirely depends on how much you apply yourself. The Fae language is complex and demanding, like our rules and laws. You have to understand them all before you can twist them, and break them." He watched her as she nodded and continued to investigate the library, smirking to himself as she gasped in surprise at finding the map hung against the far wall, hidden by years of dust.

"It needs cleaning. She said touching the canvas gently with a finger. "You can barely make anything out on it." She continued to smile as he negligently waved a hand and the map began to clean itself, the dust, dirt and yellowing fading from view, leaving the map of the Fae kingdoms as perfect as it had been on its creation. The candles in the brass wall holders also sprang into light before she had a chance to ask.

"Its so big." She said finally, shaking her head in fascination. "The labyrinth is in the centre of the whole, but you do not rule over all of it."

"It is the centre of all and serves none. The High King lives to the east of here at the banks of the great river that divides our lands and at the edge of the sea. There is the Seelie Court held, there is where our laws are made."

"You didn't answer my original question." She said letting her fingers trace the paths of the labyrinth etched onto the canvas.

"Goblins and the other creatures who inhabit my kingdom do not live very long. It is the nature of the Labyrinth, and in particular the nature of goblins. To rule the Labyrinth takes a firm hand, and a strong will. No goblin has those traits."

"For my will is as strong as yours…" Sarah whispered turning back to watch him in the candlelight.

"Indeed." He replied scowling.

"What was the power of the words? What did I truly say?" She walked up to where he was sat and waited for his reply.

"You claimed the Labyrinth for your own. You made yourself my equal, your will and kingdom as strong and as great as my own. By denying my power over you, you made yourself immune to my magic. One day you will either have to defeat me, or give your will to me so that one of us can continue to rule."

"But you wouldn't give your will to me?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"I couldn't ever give my will to another. I am Fae. I do not have that option. You would have to defeat me in order to control my will, or that of the Labyrinths."

"The Labyrinth has its own will?"

"It is a thing of magic. To possess magic you must have a soul, and a will to direct the magic."

"And there was me thinking all these years you had no soul…" Sarah said grinning at him before walking away.

"I am so misunderstood." He sighed getting up out of the chair and following her. He led her back to the rose courtyard where they sat in silence for a while watching the reflections of the moons in the fountain until Sarah's belly rudely interrupted them by grumbling loudly. Jareth hid a smile as she blushed.

"Here." He said holding out a crystal to her.

"What is it?" She asked, hesitating to take it from his gloved hand.

"It's a gift." He replied smirking. Sarah scowled and took the globe from his fingertips. As she took it into her own hand it changed into a peach.

"You really expect me to eat this after last time?"

"This time is different. You will have to learn to trust me Sarah if you are to survive in my world. I am the only one in the whole of my kingdom, or indeed anywhere in the Underground who can protect you." She looked at him for a moment before nodding and silently bit into the peach. She paused after taking the first bite waiting to see if the world went wonky. When it remained stubbornly the same, she continued to eat. Jareth laughed.

"You really are something else."

"Its called self preservation. Or at least mind preservation since this body isn't really mine."

"This body is as much a part of you as your previous one. It was created in your likeness, using your elemental essence to shape and form."

"Mind over matter and all that." She said licking her fingers from the peach juice. She sighed and stood up. "If you don't mind, I'm going to retire. I'm exhausted." She said turning to wait for his permission. He nodded.

"Goodnight Sarah."

"Goodnight Your Majesty." She said and walked away towards the long corridor and the stairs. She stopped as she got to the doors.

"Jareth?"

"Mmmm?"

"Thank you." He nodded and watched her leave through the doors into the darkness, feeling as though he had already lost a part of himself as she moved away from him.