Chapter Eight: Serious Moonlight

It had taken, Sir Didymus was quite convinced, far longer to find Ambrosius than was strictly necessary. But find him he had, eventually. Sir Didymus approached the figure that was seated at the water's edge, apparently lost in thought.

'Ambrosius,' he called softly.

The figure didn't stir.

'Ambrosius!' he called, a little more loudly.

Still there was no answer.

'I know that you can hear me, Ambrosius!' Sir Didymus snapped irritably. 'I need to talk to you urgently, and if you don't answer me this instant, I'll… I'll…'

'Never feed me again?' Ambrosius asked, finally turning around and fixing the little fox with fond, amused eyes.

Sir Didymus drew himself up to his full height. 'Thou knowest full well, Ambrosius-'

'Oh, Didymus, there really is no need for that sort of language!' The old man stood up and, leaning on a heavy staff, walked toward the fox.

Sir Didymus glowered at him. 'I think that I preferred you when you were a dog,' he muttered under his breath.

'I heard that,' Ambrosius commented dryly. 'I may be old, Didymus, but my hearing hasn't gone. At least, not yet.' He leaned against an old stump and sighed wearily. 'I may still have that pleasure to come.'

They were standing in a place of remarkable beauty and serenity – even by the Underground's standards. The air was filled with the gentle sounds of birdsong, the soughing of the trees and the lapping of the lake. It was far beyond the limits of the Goblin City, and the mighty Labyrinth itself was barely distinguishable in the distance. Sir Didymus squinted up at the figure standing over him. The sun was behind Ambrosius, casting a deep shadow across his face. But even so, Didymus knew that those penetrating eyes were focused directly on him.

'His Majesty came to me,' he said quietly. 'He warned me that there is a threat to the Underground.'

'Yes,' Ambrosius said slowly. 'It is an ancient evil. Jareth will have felt it growing for some days past, as I have.' He gazed out over the lake for a few moments before turning back to Didymus. 'The Princess has returned to the castle.'

'Really?' Sir Didymus's ears pricked up – literally. 'I had no idea! I must go thither forthwith and give unto her my-'

'Didymus!' Ambrosius exclaimed patiently. 'There will time enough for that later.'

'But…but…' Didymus' sense of propriety was so offended that he could barely speak. 'But we should, at the very least, go to the castle. His Majesty will be in need of your counsel!'

'We will go when we are summoned. Jareth knows where to find me.' He examined the little figure before him for some moments before speaking again. 'What else did Jareth speak to you of when he visited you?'

Sir Didymus hesitated for a second. 'He… he asked after the Lady Sarah.'

'Ah,' Ambrosius rejoined softly. 'I guessed as much. Why is it, I wonder, that our kind is so fascinated by the mortals? I was exactly the same – investing so much time and energy and power in that boy. But then I had done the same with his father. I could hardly expect Jareth to learn from my mistakes when I didn't.'

'I would hardly call them mistakes,' Sir Didymus said consolingly. 'The mortals have not yet forgotten that time – they still speak of it as an era of chivalry and heroes. It gives them hope, Ambrosius.'

Ambrosius smiled slightly at these unexpected words of wisdom from the excitable fox. 'Perhaps you are right. Come, my old friend,' he said, seeing that Sir Didymus was itching for action. 'We will go and find Ludo and Hoggle. Then perhaps you will stop hopping up and down for five minutes.'

'Finding them is not an easy matter, Ambrosius!' Sir Didymus stated, with an air of self-importance.

'Of course it is,' the old man replied. 'We'll simply follow the trail of unconscious Fairies until we find Hoggle; and as for Ludo,' he chuckled to himself, 'we'll simply ask the rocks!'

As the two friends began to follow the path back toward the Labyrinth, Ambrosius turned to his companion and said lightly, 'Jareth went Aboveground recently. He brought back Sarah's brother.'

'The child! Why?' Didymus stopped and looked up at him – he remembered well the baby that he had helped Sarah 'rescue' from Jareth.

'That fascination with mortals again,' Ambrosius answered, sighing slightly. 'I wonder,' he said some moments later after they began walking again, 'if I should take on my dog form again, for old time's sake. In honour of the mortals' return.'

'I don't understand why you had to be a dog in the first place,' Didymus muttered.

'It was my idea of a joke.'

ooOoo

They had returned to Jareth's study, away from the raucous noise of the Goblins' party. Toby, once more ensconced in the depths of an armchair, watched the couple standing in the middle of the room. Delaine's eyes travelled over the room, taking in every detail.

'It's so long since I've been in here!' she laughed slightly. 'It doesn't look any different. Just a bit more full.'

'It's been far too long,' Jareth replied – his gaze was fixed on his sister. 'You look wonderful,' he said, but then suddenly caught her chin in his hand and looked earnestly into her face. 'But what have you done to your eyes?'

Delaine laughed at his consternation and released herself from his hold. 'I thought that the family feature was a little too conspicuous, so I borrowed a human invention.'

With great care, she pulled a tiny, gleaming disc from each eye. Where she had had a pair of deep, chocolate-brown eyes, was now one of blue-grey and one of gold-flecked hazel. Jareth examined the minute lenses balanced in the tip of her finger and shook his head.

'What strange beings they are,' he said softly.

'The contact lenses or the mortals?' Delaine inquired.

Jareth glanced at her reproachfully, but then his face softened. 'That's much better.'

Delaine turned her attention to Toby, who felt his face go red when she looked at him. 'Well, Toby, how do you like the Underground?'

'Everybody keeps asking me that!' Toby responded. 'But, yeah, I like it a lot. It's really cool.'

She looked pleased at his answer. 'And have you seen everything that you wanted to?'

'Well, I've seen the Goblins-'

There was a snort from the other side of the room, in which the word 'Goblins' was barely distinguishable. Delaine glared at her brother and then turned back to Toby with an expression that seemed to say 'just ignore him'. Toby was reminded irresistibly of his mother.

'That was what I wanted to see more than anything. But I bet there's a lot more things out there…' he added wistfully. It was almost embarrassing to remember that a short time ago the most exotic place he knew was the park. This final thought reminded him of something else. He sat more upright in his chair.

'Jareth, I forgot to thank you for my birthday present.'

'Birthday present?' Jareth rounded on him, frowning. 'What birthday present?'

'The globe,' Toby continued, not noticing Jareth's concerned expression. 'The one I found in the park, in the little bag. I figured it must've been from you 'cos of the Goblins inside it. I showed it to Sarah and she went all weird over it.'

'Toby, I didn't give you anything of the sort! When was this? How did you…'

'Um, actually, that was me.' Delaine's voice interrupted.

Jareth stared at her. 'You?'

His sister returned him a sweet smile. 'Well, I felt that one of us should acknowledge Toby's birthday, and-'

'You interfered,' Jareth stated flatly.

'I did not interfere!' Delaine objected. 'I just thought that proceedings needed a little nudge, so I thought that I'd give something to Toby that might resurrect some of his old memories. Not to mention Sarah's!'

'So, in other words, you interfered.'

'If you're going to be like that…' she began airily.

'I am not being like anything.' Jareth's calm voice was somehow more menacing than had he been shouting. 'You do realise that those memories that you were so set on 'resurrecting' may very well have-' he broke off, casting a look at Toby and then met Delaine's eyes. A silent communion flowed between them for a few seconds.

Toby sank back into his chair – his limbs felt incredibly heavy, and it took a great effort just to hold his head up. He didn't know how long it had been since he had last slept, and had no idea whether it was day or night outside. Jareth and Delaine had started discussing something, and the drone of their voices only seemed to increase the waves of fatigue washing over him. He tried to stifle an enormous yawn, but the sound attracted Jareth's attention.

'You should be in bed,' he informed his young guest.

Toby struggled upright. 'No, I'm fine. Really. I was just…' he broke off as another yawn overtook him.

'Toby, you need sleep and you are going to bed.' As he was speaking, Jareth produced a crystal and, gently blowing on it, sent it towards the boy. Toby gazed at it as it floated closer and closer to him – even had he wanted to, he couldn't take his eyes off it. As it touched his forehead, his eyes closed immediately and he was enveloped in a heavy, dark sleep.

Delaine watched as Toby's figure was surrounded by a hazy light and then slowly disappeared.

'Where have you put him?' she asked Jareth.

'In the east wing.'

She nodded and then settled herself in another of the deep armchairs, her eyes following Jareth as he paced the floor.

'I've seen her – your Sarah,' she said after a while.

'She is not "my" Sarah,' Jareth retorted.

'Oh?' Delaine rasied an eyebrow.

Jareth stopped pacing and faced her. 'It's my fault, Delaine. It's all… Khazad has her; you know that, don't you?'

Delaine's expression betrayed nothing. 'How?'

Jareth took a deep breath. 'He tricked her – obviously. He disguised himself as the King of the Goblins. Sarah thinks that she's here, in the Underground, with me.'

Delaine considered this for some moments. 'Then she must have wanted to go with him. At least, she must have wanted to be with you.' Her keen eyes picked up the slight spasm – as if in pain – that crossed Jareth's face.

'I should have kept a closer watch over her!' he said bitterly. 'I'm the one who put her in danger, I should have realised that something like this would happen.'

'But how could you have known?' Delaine's heart ached at the sight of her brother's distress. 'You did everything you could….'

'I left her alone! Still keeping to those stupid damn rules that only existed in Sarah's head, because I thought that was the best way to… I should have gone to her when I first felt her reaching for me. He must have been watching her too, waiting. All he had to do was appear before she called. All of this could have been avoided.'

'Could it?' Delaine asked quietly. 'Sooner or later… Jareth, Khazad has been planning to make war with us for as long as I can remember.'

'And I've given him the perfect ammunition. I know that some of the others think that I'm crazy – that we're crazy to entwine ourselves with the mortals, but I wouldn't change that decision!' He was pacing again, his tone almost frenzied. 'I'd just change…' he took a deep breath, slowing down. 'He must have known that I was watching over Sarah, just waiting for when I was distracted. I thought that I was doing the right thing by keeping away from her, I thought…'

He broke off, his face suddenly contorted by a nameless emotion. Delaine stood and put her arms around him, pulling his head down onto her shoulder. They stood, silently, like that for some time, before Jareth pulled away. He looked at her gratefully and then turned back to the fire.

'We can only reach her through her brother,' Jareth continued, avoiding Delaine's eyes. 'That's one of the reasons I brought him here… And also because I thought that it would be safer for him.'

'We'll have to move quickly.'

'I know. Everything is at risk, Delaine. You returned just in time – but of course you would have seen that it was time,' he smiled slightly.

'What do you mean?' she asked suspiciously.

'I mean, dear sister, that you have been watching me very carefully in your crystals.'

She stared at him. 'I have not – how did you know that, anyway? You can't know when I'm watching you!'

Jareth laughed. 'And it never occurred to you that while you were watching me, I was watching you? I saw you.'

'Well, you really do have some nerve…' she muttered, folding her arms.

'Where did you see her?' Jareth asked suddenly.

Delaine looked up at him. 'In a bookshop in Boston.'

'How did she look?'

'Very beautiful.'

Jareth nodded. 'Yes,' he said gently, more to himself, 'she always was.' For an instant, the vision of a girl in a sliver gown dancing through a crystal ballroom appeared before his eyes. He let out a heavy sigh, the fire dying down once again with the exhalation. 'I think it is time that we, too, slept. We will have need of all our strength tomorrow.'

Delaine took the hand that he was holding out to her and stood up. A second later, the room was empty.

To be continued...