Here we go then, as promised, the next Chapter. Hope you all like it and thanks so much for the reviews so far, keep them coming, I can't live off air you know... Anyhooo, enjoy the next installment, there's only a few more chapters to go so make the most of them and as always please please pretty please R&R.
Camulus:
He caught her as she fell, her mortal body heavy in his Fae arms. Sarah had never been like this. Sarah had been almost Fae from the second that she had left the Labyrinth, it had joined with her, it's first mortal heir, and given her what she would need to survive if she ever chose to return. He looked down on Karen with disgust. Her mind had been easy to fool, easy to deceive, fooling her into believing that she had seen the face of her husband, the man who had died six years before in a car accident, an accident that Camulus had worked very hard to orchestrate, worked very hard to ensure that Sarah had also been in the car, so that she would survive and blame herself for living, a guilt that had allowed him easy access to her life as a kindred spirit. Unfortunately for Sarah, guilt was an unknown emotion for the Dark Elf, but it was one that he could spin to his advantage. The kingdoms of the Underground were preparing for war, but if he did this right, he would have control of the Labyrinth, giving him unlimited access to the Aboveground, for him and all of his subjects. He just needed Karen to help him, he needed her to come close enough to winning to make her desperate, desperate enough for the Dragon Lord, Jor'yl, to have to kill her, desperate enough to distract Sarah's attention from Toby for long enough for the Shadow Lord to snatch him from Sarah's grasp. With the boy, he could easily control Sarah, could easily use her guilt to control that which he coveted.
Karen stirred in his arms then came fully awake with a startled cry.
"Robert?"
"No, Karen, I'm sorry. It was Sarah, she's trying to use her magic to stop you. I think that she may have lost her mind."
"Cam?" She let out a shuddering breath. "What's made her like this?"
"Jareth, his Labyrinth. I thought killing him might break his hold on her mind, but she's just getting worse all the time. I fear that if you lose she will do something terrible to your son." She began to sob in his arms and he resisted the urge to flinch away from her. "Karen I need you to help me to help her." He used as much of his magic as he dared, knowing that if he used too much Sarah would sense him, to cast a web of calm and belief over the scared mortal.
"I don't know where I'm going and I have so little time."
"You have seven hours, that's all that we will need." He assured her. Karen sniffed and stood.
"You'll help me?" She sounded surprised
"Yes. I need to do what is best for Sarah and I need you to defeat her. Maybe that will bring her back enough for me to help her. She thinks that I want to kill her you know," Karen nodded as he lead her to an opening in the wall, deliberately choosing the wrong path. "I don't want to hurt her, I want to help her."
"What if we lose?" The fear in the woman's voice was painfully obvious and Camulus did not have enough magic at his disposal to wash it away.
"We won't," he promised her.
They walked in silence for a long time, Camulus lead her sometimes wrong and sometimes right but always closer to the castle, always knowing that the closer he got, the more that Sarah would be able to sense his use of magic, sense the glamour that he had woven around himself for Karen's benefit. He begrudged using even that little magic on a mortal, putting himself in even that much danger, but he had to open her mind just enough so that when the time came, her would be able to push Karen over the edge.
"What will she do to Toby if I lose?" Karen asked finally
"Best case? Turn him into a goblin," he had learnt the speech of humans easily, "and worse case? Hand him over to Jareth's twin sister, the Dragon Lady, she's more insane than him and Sarah combined. I dread to think what she might do to that poor innocent little boy." To his pleasure, he saw Karen shudder. They only had three hours left, they were still an hour away on the right course. He had to take them the wrong way, they had to be at the steps of the castle when the thirteenth hour struck, she had to be close enough to die.
OoOoOoOoOo
The ring on her finger kept pulsing. Every now and again at first, then more and more insistently as the hours passed. By the time the seven hours were nearly over, the ring was pulsing almost constantly.
The clock chimed the thirteenth hour and she could feel Karen's presence, she was on the steps to the castle, so close yet so far, nearly there, but too late. There was someone else, too, someone who should not have been there, it was a familiar presence but she could not place it. She shrugged it off and looked at Toby.
"Mommy's too late, isn't she." It was not a question.
"I'm sorry, Toby."
"Can I say goodbye?" Sarah nodded and held out her hand to the little boy. After thirteen hours in the Labyrinth he had become almost resigned to his fate. He seemed to have always known that it would happen.
Hand in hand, the pair vanished from the throne room. As always, Jor'yl followed
OoOoOoOoOo
He was hidden by the steps, waiting for the one that he knew was bringing danger to her. He had waited patiently for nearly four hours and now he could feel his wait drawing to a close. He knew that it was over when the couple set foot on the bottom step and the clock struck. The clock struck thirteen times.
OoOoOoOoOo
"No!" Karen shouted, suddenly aware of the clock chiming. In front of them, Sarah appeared on the third step, Toby's hand held in her own.
"I'm sorry, Karen," she said, "you're too late. Toby, say..." she trailed off when she saw her stepmother's companion.
"Hello, Sarah," he drawled in an almost perfect imitation of Jareth.
"You! What in the seven circles are you doing here?" She demanded, taking her eyes off Karen just long enough for her stepmother to take the sword from Camulus' side. With a scream of rage, fear and utter insanity, Karen threw herself at her stepdaughter. Sarah did not think and did not reach for her magic, she turned and pulled Toby into her protective embrace, even as Jor'yl raised his own sword. In moments, Karen was lying on the steps, her lives blood pooling around her as Camulus' glamourie evaporated from around her. Without thinking Sarah let go of Toby's hand.
OoOoOoOoOo
The instant he had seen the woman's companion, the man without a name had known something was wrong. The face of him had stirred some deep untouchable memory and he kept his eyes trained on the strangers every move.
Only one thing had distracted him. Her. She had come to consol the woman and brought a child with her, her child? He wondered it idly until he unintentionally caught a glimpse of her eyes, green eyes filled with sorrow and loss and grief, hard earned and unshakable. Did she grieve for him? Or was it this unknown man, Jareth, that her grief was for?
With that thought he knew who she was, knew who he was and knew who the stranger was. With that thought he knew without a doubt what the stranger would do. He positioned himself, ready, and the instant Karen fell he was beside Sarah. He was beside her as she let go of the boy's hand, of Toby's hand, he remembered. He swept the boy up and handed the shocked child to Jor'yl, who stared at him, wordless, until he mouthed a single word to him. The Dragon Man nodded and vanished and he realised that he had his back to his enemy, an enemy that was howling with rage and reaching for him.
"No," Sarah spoke, "no more, Camulus. This is the end of it. You've taken from me everything that I have held dear. It ends now."
He turned.
Bum Bum Buhhhhhhhh, don't you just love a cliff hanger? Any guess now as to who the mysterious stranger is? All answers in the next Chapter and as always I ask tat you review before I update, it only takes a moment and they mean so much to me.
Artemis
