Chapter 3: Who is the trickster and who is the tricked?

A/N: Thank you to my anonymous reviewer. And to answer the question of Guest 2021, biological royal bloodlines aren't the most important thing underground. Especially if you are exceedingly old and the only person to ever hold the role that you do, there's no one you could inherit it from :-). If you're concerned with having heirs, what is more important is the compatibility of the candidate I suppose and acceptance from your realm.

~*o0o*~

"I don't get it," Hoggle complained. "Why are you moving the pieces like that?"

"It's part of the rules," Sarah shrugged.

"You said there was only one rule."

"It's a very all-encompassing rule."

"I'd cross this game off the list if I were you." Hoggle shook his head, giving the lines in the dirt another dubious glance. "It's not really worth playing with the challengers if they won't be able to understand it. It'd be like teaching the Fierys to play Twister without disconnecting their limbs."

"You're probably right," she agreed. Secretly, she found it quite amusing that he was having so much difficulty with a game that any human could see through in a matter of minutes.

~*o0o*~

"There's a st-aaa-r man, waiting in the sky..." Sarah belted out.

The Champion blinked in surprise as her surroundings shifted, gone was the dingy living room and the microphone held together with two pieces of scotch tape.

Oh, dear...

She should have taken notice of the lurching sensation in the pit of her stomach earlier, but after all those glasses of wine she'd had, she had wrongfully mistaken it for nausea.

Well...It looked like Stacy might be moving out too, with this most recent disappearance.

A young man stood on the central platform, just staring at her in astonishment. Given his defensive stance and the decadent clothing he was wearing, she could assume he was the newest challenger.

She goggled at the pair of horns sticking out from his curly mop of carrot coloured hair. They were so shiny. She liked shiny things.

Sarah stepped towards him, trying to walk steadily and with as much dignity as she could muster. After all, she was the Champion.

"Hi," she beamed. "Are you here to play a game with me?" Game, game, so many games to play, which game to choose?

"Oh, um," he responded inarticulately, taken aback as she bounded towards him. "I heard it was a bit different nowadays. How do we go about this?"

The throne room was so bright; dreadful light poured in through the mosaic-like glass panels of the ceiling, set in stone. It was cold too. Why was she so cold?

"Are you cold?"

He took half a step back, eying her warily, "No, not particularly." He cast a sceptical look at her clothing. She followed his gaze, noting that she was indeed wearing a flimsy nightdress. "Is this part of the test?"

"Ah yes, the test!" She winced as she noticed how loudly she had been speaking. "What do you fancy? We could do Charades, haven't done that in ages." Sarah continued to speak rapidly, "Or Wink Murder, it's been a while. Then again, your lot would take it literally."

"What was that murder one?"

Sarah jolted in surprise as she found an arm linked with her own. Not my arm...nice arm though...all strong and leather-clad...

She refused to acknowledge the alarmed squeak she emitted as she found herself pulled back and twisted around against the solid column of a blisteringly hot torso.

"Don't mind us, Cedric. I just need a word with my Champion." The Goblin King purred in a low voice. "Come now Champion," he urged, tugging her forwards with him. Unfortunately, she still had her face buried into the smooth silky layers of his shirt and made little attempt to move with him.

"You're really warm, you know." Sarah commented, "Like really, really, unnaturally warm." She frowned as she noticed him stiffen when she pressed herself closer. Cautiously, a hand rested upon the back of her head.

It felt quite nice actually, to have fingers running through her hair. What was she supposed to be doing again?

"Oh right, challenges!" She blurted out, trying to twist back around again, out of the King's grasp. "Cedric, was it?"

Jareth's latest fiancé shifted uncomfortably, eying the Goblin King with a dismayed expression. "It's Simeon actually."

The room spun around for a moment and she almost lost her balance. She reached out for the closest thing to steady herself.

Sarah beamed at the Goblin King and gratefully squeezed his hand; he gave her an unsettled look before hesitantly returning the gesture. Maybe he doesn't know how to smile properly. Maybe he's only used to sneering and baring his teeth like he's going to eat someone.

How sad, I should try to teach him to smile normally.

"What game should we play Jareth?"

She heard the sharp intake of breath from Cedric-or-Simeon.

Jareth's expression fractured, the thinly veiled amusement gave way to something deeper bleeding through the cracks, something raw and desperate and not unlike a wounded animal.

"I-I need to speak with you." The Goblin King forced out, through gritted teeth.

She blinked at him owlishly, and instantly started to giggle at the thought. "I like owls."

He shot her a bewildered look, "As pleased as I am by that revelation, I really do need you to come with me."

He looks so pretty when he's confused, all wide-eyed and soft.

"Champion?" He questioned.

A dark scowl took over her face, "That's not my name. I don't like it when you call me that."

He returned her glare with equal fervour. "It is hardly my choice."

"Sa-rah, not Champ-i-on."

"Say that again for me, precious thing." His expression was positively lethal, he made a dismissive gesture with his hand and she briefly noticed the suitor fleeing for his life in her periphery.

"Sa-rah, Sa-rah, Sa-rah," She repeated it dramatically in different pitches.

His eyes bored into her as he scrutinised her mouth; Sarah shifted uncomfortably under his attention. Why was it was so hard for him to just use her name? Wasn't she important enough for him to remember it?

She was still holding his hand.

Sarah made a valiant attempt to squirm free but he was quite unwilling to release her. So she started to swing her arm back and forth, not unlike how Toby did when she held his hand to cross the road.

"Precious thing, you cannot engage my suitor whilst inebriated." The Goblin King reasoned, in a low voice, one pleading that an iota of reason would blossom inside of her head.

"Why not?" She demanded petulantly. "I could beat anyone while in-eb-in-eb-re-ee-ate-ed." How many syllables were there in inebriated? She should add an extra few just to cover her bases.

"Let me take it away." It was more of a demand than a plea but the pained twist of his features conveyed the urgency of his request in much the same fashion.

"You can't un-drink wine, silly." Sarah laughed, "You took me away from my party, that wasn't very nice."

"I will throw you as many parties as you desire, but I must ask that you allow me to return your sobriety." The Goblin King hissed.

"Fine, fine...buzz kill, literally a buzz kill." The fearsome Champion grumbled.

He tugged her forwards, finally releasing her hand. Sarah rested her head against his chest once more. He did smell so good, like something sweet but somehow mixed with the crisp scent of freshly fallen snow. She hoped she hadn't said that part out loud, but given the way, his chest vibrated with laughter she feared she wasn't that lucky.

Swiftly he placed the pads of his fingers against her temples. When had he removed his gloves?

His skin was so hot, burning her. No human was that hot.

Not human.

Not anything she had ever encountered before.

In juxtaposition to the searing temperature of his skin, something cool and tranquil slide into her head, flooding her with serenity. She was oddly passive as something poked around in her mind, restoring her functions like she were a rusty computer, several updates behind.

It was so nice to bury her face against his chest, with her head cradled in his hands. There had never been a calm moment between them before, where they had simply coexisted in a peaceful state.

In a way, it was oddly jarring.

The swirling mass of something, squirming its way into every inch of her mind was incomprehensible in size. What was it doing?

It was too much effort to think.

Her head was so full; it was easy to just become lost.

It is okay to be lost.

If she stayed like that a little longer than strictly necessary, it was just because she was trying to be thoroughly certain she was sober enough for the challenge ahead. Besides, Jareth was hardly complaining.

~*o0o*~

Sarah had been set alight with a new determination to ensure her enemies fell. She did a quick mental double-take as the thought registered. Enemies, that was rather drastic. She didn't have enemies, just annoyances that needed to be crushed as efficiently as possible. She could no longer rely on luck declaring her the victor.

She needed something that would ensure her victory.

I think that's called cheating... a small rational part of her mind chipped in. She abruptly told it to fuck off.

Is it really cheating to challenge someone to a game they were exceedingly unlikely to win?

No, of course not. If her traipse through it was any indication, the Labyrinth seemed to operate upon this principle.

It wasn't even a difficult game.

But she'd run pilot studies with her friends and several other Underground residents and they just couldn't seem to grasp what the game was about.

Prince Nazir of the Silver Desert hadn't done a great deal to endear himself to Sarah. He had swept into the room with an entourage of fifty-two men and women in stunning mirror-like armour and immediately complained he didn't like the shade of blue that had been chosen for the flowers adorning the throne room. Unlike the majority of the times where she had to be summoned, she had already been present for his arrival, having just returned from a game of Scrabble with Sir Didymus.

All she could say was it was a good job that Didymus had had no intention of marrying the King.

Jareth had been surprised when she had announced the newest challenge would take place outside. Urgent business involving a hedge fire called him away from observing the proceedings. That was okay; she thought she would prefer to play the game without those predator owl eyes observing her every move.

Nazir had been thoroughly dismayed when the Champion had seated herself on the grass and begun to draw lines in the dirt with a knobbly stick. She looked at the crisscrossed lines thoughtfully and placed two twigs within the grid at perpendicular angles.

"What challenge is this?" Nazir asked with a grimace as he followed suit, conjuring a jewel-encrusted cushion to ensure his beloved armour remained unsmeared with dirt. His attitudes seemed rather impractical, what was the point of wearing armour if you feared it becoming dirty?

"This is the Game with One Rule," she announced with a wide sweeping gesture and a subtle hint of melodrama.

Okay, it wasn't that subtle.

She motioned for Pipet and Mimi to stop cartwheeling and repeating her words. The two goblins relented with a whine and craned their furry helmet-clad heads over the game board she created. They clunked together with a deafening bang.

"We couldn't play something proper, like Chess?"

"But you've never played Chess, dearest. Why is that?"

"Perhaps I was tired of protecting Kings from well-deserved attacks."

"Everyone knows it is the Queen that is the most useful piece on the board. Some would say the game is really about her. She has all of the power."

It would be just her luck that the one mortal game that the challengers were familiar with, was Chess.

It wasn't exactly a great secret that Sarah couldn't play Chess. She was familiar with the pieces and their movements but had no understanding of strategy. Hedging her bets against immortals that had been playing the game before she was even born would have been a decidedly unwise move.

"Do you even want to be married to him?" It was a question that had been playing on her mind for a while; not in regards to Nazir specifically, but to all of them.

"Married to who?" Nazir frowned.

"The Goblin King of course." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Of course I want the Kingdom." He gave her a perturbed look. "It is an infinite well to drink from. I wouldn't risk everything if I didn't want it."

That wasn't what I asked, she thought frustratedly.

Sarah withdrew a smooth grey river stone from her pocket; it had faint white lines running through it like a spider's web. "This'll be my playing piece. You can choose whatever you want, as long as it roughly the same size."

Nazir sneered at her and twisted his fingers to produce the head of a periwinkle flower. "Will this suffice, Champion?"

"I'm sure it will." Sarah nodded. "Okay, like I said, this is the Game with One Rule. I'm going to use my piece to make movements across the board. The key thing about this game is there is one rule that governs my actions, but I can't tell you what it is."

"That hardly seems equitable," he glowered at her, tossing his long dark curls back out of his arrogant face.

"You can make a movement on the board with your piece as well. It might be right, it might be wrong. I'm not going to tell you." Sarah continued, ignoring her opponent's protests. "To win, all you have to do is uncover the rule and use it."

Nazir shot her a dubious look, shifting uncomfortably atop his cushion as he stared back down at the lines drawn in the mud. "That's it? It sounds simple enough."

"Oh, it is." Sarah agreed cheerfully. "Ready?"

~*o0o*~

Much to her consternation, Jareth hadn't acquired any new furniture. He had made the concession of allowing her to sit on the arm of his throne but the dirty look she shot him had made him refrain from repeating the offer.

"My, my, another challenger. We are popular." Jareth drawled; he shared an amused look with her as a young woman with glistening golden scales and irises that shifted between different sunset hues, stepped forward.

The woman arched an eyebrow at the King, before lowering her head almost unwillingly into a gesture of respect. As she looked up once more, she locked eyes with Sarah and grinned at her brightly, her whole body thrumming with nervous anticipation.

It was quite a welcome change actually, considering most of the challengers tended to sport a look of grim determination.

It was a good job that Sarah had overruled physical combat as a challenge, as she was sure that she could snap her like a twig, given how strong her arms looked from beneath the complicated leather folds and braids of her outfit.

"I, Nessa of the Lethe, do beseech you most humbly, your Highness." Her eyes darted to Sarah's again, almost bashfully. "I wish for your permission to marry a member of your court. That is to say, it is my deepest desire to marry your Champion."

If she hadn't have been standing so close to Jareth, she wouldn't have noticed the clench of his jaw or the tension in his otherwise relaxed stance on his throne.

It took her a moment to realise just what the Fae had asked.

"I'm sorry; did you say you want to marry me?" Sarah blurted out incredulously.

She nodded her head earnestly, "Oh yes, you would make an exceptionally powerful and ruthless mate."

"But I-I don't even know you?" She wasn't entirely opposed to the heated way Nessa was staring at he; she was rather beautiful after all. Her dating life had dried up considerably, given that her dual citizenship meant she neglected most non-essential areas of her life Aboveground. That didn't mean she was willing to jump straight into marriage with the first attractive person she came across. "Are you sure you're not here for the Goblin King instead?"

Her suitor giggled lightly, "What would I want with a ruined Kingdom?"

She didn't see the expression of utter loathing upon Jareth's face. "Sometimes, I come to watch you destroy the challengers." Nessa admitted, "You defeated my sister, Marietta, two years ago. The hierarchy changed shortly after, in my favour," she winked.

"Why are you asking his permission?" She jerked a thumb behind her dismissively, "Instead of mine."

Nessa shot her a puzzled look. "You are of his Kingdom. This is the way of things."

"I am not of his Kingdom!" Sarah protested.

"And do you wish to marry her Champion?" The Goblin King's smile twisted into something terrible.

Wish. That dreaded word.

It seemed impossible that she had found it amusing to be in control of whether or not Jareth married. If he felt one modicum of the sheer terror that surged through her blood at the prospect of being married off against her will, then she truly had been exceedingly cruel towards him.

"No," she mumbled quietly, feeling rather humbled.

"No?" He repeated playfully, "Well, that's that I suppose. I'm afraid I have to decline."

Sarah sucked in a shaky breath, unaware of how badly her legs had been trembling before she fell back against the side of his throne for stability.

He could have lorded that power over me. He could have used it against me as much as he liked.

But Nessa was not to be deterred, in fact, she looked delighted. "Oh, that's okay. I didn't expect you to accept my proposal without proof of my might."

"Ah, that's okay, I really don't nee-"

"I invoke the Right of Fallon."

Jareth barked a short laugh of surprise. "Do you now? How unexpected. I suppose I have no choice but to accept your challenge."

Spoke too soon.

"What exactly is the Right of Fallon?" She feared the answer.

The Goblin King's gave her a look of patronising sympathy. "There was once a mortal woman named Rina; she spurned the advances of a young Prince who wished only to give her his heart." Something cold flickered past his face, "The Fates gave him thirteen hours of starless night to pursue and capture the mortal in a Hunt." His grin widened at her appalled expression, "That's Common Law, to you dearest. I'm afraid the precedent stands."

She didn't want to think about what other outrageous laws were in place down here.

"So a person, high up in society, decides to do something morally despicable," Sarah spat, "And a law is created to justify it?"

"Is your society any different?" The Goblin King rose a mocking eyebrow, "When you have power, the world will bend and warp to suit your desires."

She swallowed loudly, certain that fear was excruciatingly evident in her eyes. She was a horrible, horrible person to think this kind of conduct was okay until it implicated her beyond her control.

"She's going to chase me, for thirteen hours?" How long had it been since she had run? Actually properly run for any length of time? "And I'll be forced to marry her," her voice wavered on the end, utterly disturbed by the fascinated gleam in Nessa's eyes as she drank in her dismay.

Sometimes she ended up winded just by running for the bus.

"No, not necessarily." Jareth soothed, he leaned over his throne to cup her face in one hand, examining her expression intently. As captivating as it was to be caught in his gaze, it also hurt. It didn't seem to matter though, not when she was searching him for any ounce of compassion he may or may not possess. "You are under my...protection," he finished with an oddly wistful tinge to his words. "I may intercede on your behalf."

"Intercede?" Nessa squawked, her irises turned overcast as all of the colours bled away.

"J-Jareth," she stumbled over his name, feeling it burn across her tongue. His eyelids fluttered shut for a moment, as though savouring the sound of it. "Please, promise me, you won't let her catch me."

Jareth...Jareth. Her mouth had felt clumsy as it wrapped itself around the sound of his name. How often had she refrained from using it? Why had she refrained from using it?

His fingers tightened around her jaw, as he searched for something in her face. She barely dared to breathe, heart pounding hard enough to shatter her ribcage.

"I promise." Jareth intoned lowly, a strangely fevered light entered his eyes. "Upon myself, upon this Labyrinth. I shall allow no other to catch you."

~*o0o*~