Sally Ho!
The Demon King smiled as he watched Sarah in his onyx orb. She probably assumed she was up against an opponent similar to the Goblin King. He smiled. She was in for a nasty surprise.
A small cry made him look up. Sarah's daughter sat in a pit in the center of his audience chamber floor. The pit was covered in dark silks and filled with satin pillows. The child looked around with frightened eyes and emitted another whimper.
"Don't be scared," the Demon King said. "Your mother is on her way to save you." He turned back to his scrying orb. "She won't get far though." He chuckled.
After watching Sarah and her companions for another moment, the Demon King banished the orb and stood.
"I suppose I should go introduce myself."
He vanished in a rain of black and red glitter.
Sarah stood up from Ludo's lap and met Hoggle's gaze. The years had not been kind to the little dwarf. His face was even more wrinkled than she remembered and only a few iron-grey strands of hair were left of his once thick white mane.
Not far behind Hoggle, Sir Didymus stood next to Ambrosius. The diminutive knight's pelt was silvered, but he stood straight and proud.
"Thou hast returned to us fair maiden," the fox-terrier knight said with a bow.
Sarah looked down at her flannel pajamas. She didn't feel like a fair maiden. She felt like she'd entered a bad dream and wished it would end. Now. Her fingers tightened around the sphere in her hand and she felt only marginally reassured.
"It's good to see you again, Sir Didymus. Hoggle." She felt Ludo lumber up behind her and gave him a smile. "Good to see you too, Ludo."
Hoggle eyed her pajamas and lack of shoes. "Ya don't look ready to travel. What d'you think this is? A sleepover?"
"Sir Hoggle," said an indignant Sir Didymus. "That is no way to address Lady Sarah. Thou didst not even give her a greeting."
Hoggle muttered something that sounded like 'hi' and turned toward the shattered gates that had once guarded the Labyrinth.
"Do you know why I'm here?" Sarah asked her friends.
Ludo nodded his shaggy head.
"Thou hast come to solve the Labyrinth again and depose this new threat," said Sir Didymus with great confidence.
Sarah shook her head. "Someone stole my baby. I have to–" Sarah stopped as she felt the crystal in her hand pulse. She thought she heard a whispered plea in her mind. "I guess I am here to help Jareth too. But I have to find Ashley."
"Who's Ashley?" asked Hoggle.
"My little girl. She's only a baby. She must be frightened. When she was taken, I asked Jareth for help and he sent me here."
Hoggle raised his eyebrows, then sighed. "Well, I guess we'd better find ya somethin' suitable t'wear," said the dwarf. "Then we'd better get goin', if we knows what's good fer us."
"I can take care of the Lady's clothes right now," said a voice.
For a moment, hope swelled in Sarah. The voice sounded so like Jareth's. But then she turned, and dread filled her. It was the man from her dream, or vision, before she'd awakened in the Labyrinth.
His hair was styled much like Jareth's but where the Goblin King's locks had been blond this man's hair was dark as midnight. His poet shirt was scarlet silk, his ebony cloak lined with silver. Tight black leather pants sheathed well shaped legs and black leather boots touched with red and silver scrollwork covered his feet.
Before anyone could move the stranger waved his hand. Sarah found herself attired in a white button down shirt with puffy sleeves gathered at the wrists. A vest of dark green went over the shirt. Brown cloth pants covered her legs and knee high boots encased her lower legs and feet. A heavy cloak of forest green settled on her shoulders and her hair was pulled back in a braid.
Sarah's hand tightened around the crystal ball she held.
"Does that suit you, my lady?" the man asked.
"Who are you?" Sarah asked, not ready to accept a gift from the stranger.
The man smiled mockingly and bowed. "I am Iribo."
Sarah's friends gasped and backed away.
"I see that I am known to some of you," Iribo said with a smile.
"We was just leavin'," Hoggle said.
"We're going to solve the Labyrinth," Sarah said, holding her head high. She wouldn't show the fear she felt in Iribo's presence.
"You're going to attempt the Labyrinth without even knowing the rules?" Iribo inquired.
"Why should we know the rules when you'll probably just change them as it suits you?" Sarah asked, guessing correctly that this man was her enemy.
Iribo smiled more broadly. "Jareth always spoke highly of you, my dear. Now I begin to see why." He paused. "Unlike a former ruler of this Labyrinth, I do not intend to change the rules I set down. I'm even willing to let you have a say in them."
"You're very magnanimous," Sarah said, mocking.
Iribo gave her a small bow before he spoke again. "There is no time limit. Your goal is the castle at the center of the Labyrinth. You may ask aid of any creatures that you come across."
"I don't want any of my friends hurt," Sarah said.
Iribo tisked. "Who do you think I am? Your fairy godfather? I am not here to ensure you safety, only to achieve my goals. If that means that there must be sacrifices, then all I can say is, better you than me."
"Bastard!" Sarah yelled.
Without thinking she hurled the crystal sphere at him. Thunder shook the ground, sending Sarah and her friends to their knees. Several portions of the Labyrinth wall collapsed. Iribo disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Sarah swore that she saw shock on his face before he vanished, though his mocking disembodied laughter filled the air.
"I guess you'll have to figure out the rest of the rules on your own. Fare thee well, Lady Sarah."
There was silence as the companions stared at the broken Labyrinth doors.
"Well, good riddance," said Sir Didymus.
"We really oughtta go," said Hoggle. "Who knows what nasties ee's sent our way."
"Just let me call Ambrosius," said Sir Didymus. The small fox knight whistled. "Here Ambrosius. That braggart is gone. 'Tis time we started our quest."
Timidly, the Old English sheepdog came out from where he'd run to hide in a clump of tall grass. He walked to Sarah and dropped something at her feet. It was the crystal ball. Sarah stooped to pick it up and scratched Ambrosius' ears.
"Thanks boy," she said.
Ambrosius barked happily and went to Sir Didymus. Sarah looked at the crystal and smiled.
Still with me, eh, Jareth? she thought.
The ball pulsed and Sarah slipped it into her pocket.
"Let's go," she said, walking toward the gates of the Labyrinth.