We Have You Now!
Sarah was in Jareth's arms and they were dancing. The ball room was just as she remembered it. All gilt, silk, and show. The only difference was that the guests had beautiful masks, not the horrible goblin-like faces that they'd worn before.
"You look perplexed," the Goblin King said with a soft ring of laughter in his voice.
Sarah brought her attention back to her partner. "I was just thinking that the masks are different from the last time I was here."
Jareth laughed. "This is you dream. You control the details."
"Dream?"
Jareth spun her out to arm's length and then pulled her back in close, wrapping his arms around her. He pressed his cheek to hers.
"Dream," he whispered into her ear.
Sarah's leg started throbbing and when she looked down she realized that she wasn't in a ball gown, but her traveling clothes that Iribo had given her. A sluggish flow of blood came from a small wound on her thigh. She looked at Jareth in confusion.
"Perhaps it is time for you to wake up," the Goblin King said.
He knelt at her side and, after wiping the blood away, kissed the wound on her leg. The throbbing stopped almost immediately and was replaced by a warm sensation. Jareth rose and took her face in his gloved hands.
"I'm counting on you," he said.
Sarah's breath caught. He's going to kiss me.
Jareth released her and took a step backward. The ball room and its occupants faded around her. She reached out to Jareth.
"Wait!"
"I am waiting, Sarah," was the faint reply.
Something brushed Sarah's leg. She opened her eyes—and screamed.
Iribo watched Sarah's reaction with great interest, while trying to ignore the wailing of the little girl whom he had kidnapped. Finally he ground his teeth and yelled for Richard.
"Take that child and do something to make her shut up," the irritated Demon King demanded.
"My lord, I know nothing of children," Richard protested.
"I don't care. Go let the Fierys play with her or toss her in the Bog of Eternal Stench."
"I don't think that's such a good idea, my lord."
Iribo fixed Richard with a glare. "I was being facetious. Take her away. I don't care where."
Richard bowed and walked to the depression where the child sat, crying. He gingerly picked her up and bounced her a bit. The little girl quieted and clung to Richard.
"Well done," Iribo said.
Richard bowed and left the room.
Iribo turned back to watch Sarah. The spiders had caught the girl and her friends and now held them captive in a huge web. The queen spider was advancing on Sarah with the intent of eating the girl.
"We can't have that," Iribo said.
He sent a mental command to the queen telling her to leave Sarah alone. The queen hissed and seemed to look directly at him. Iribo gasped. On the queen's brow was a circlet of black diamonds with a ruby at the center.
"I took that from her," Iribo fumed. "How did she get it back?"
A dry chuckle resounded in the chamber and a ghostly Jareth appeared near where the child had been a moment before.
"You," the Demon King spat. "Did you give the queen her diadem?"
"Perhaps," the Goblin King said.
"You idiot!" Iribo raged. "Do you want to see the girl killed?"
"Please," Jareth said looking hurt. "Have a little more faith in me."
The Goblin King laughed again and disappeared. Iribo cursed and turned back to his orb.
Sarah was facing the ugliest creature she'd ever seen. It looked like a giant spider and it was at least three or four times bigger than Ludo. What made the creature so ugly was the human-looking head and torso that protruded from where the spider's head should have been.
The features of the face were feminine except for the mouth which sported huge fangs. Long black hair flowed down the creature's back and hung around the junction between the human and spider parts. Upon the woman's brow was a tiara of black diamonds and a huge ruby. The thing advanced toward her and Sarah screamed again.
"Ludo scared," came a voice from above where Sarah hung.
Sarah kept her attention on the spider-woman not daring to look and see if any of her other friends were nearby. She struggled furiously and managed to get one leg free. She lashed out at the spider queen.
"Back off," Sarah yelled.
The spider queen blinked at her and then smiled. "The more you struggle the better you taste," she hissed.
Sarah was taken aback. "You speak?"
The queen laughed. It sounded like dry scales rushing over sand.
"Of course I speak. Continue your struggles girl. I will feast on your flesh and blood before going to the castle and destroying that pompous upstart, Iribo. He stole my diadem and thought to control me and my children, but we will have the last laugh. Then I will rule the Labyrinth."
"You'll have to deal with Jareth first," Sarah reminded the queen.
"The Goblin King is nothing but a quickly fading memory. He poses no threat to me."
The queen's eyes flashed red. "Enough talk. I'm hungry."
Sarah flailed with her free leg as the spider-woman reached out for her. managed to kick the spider-queen in the face but Sarah couldn't hold her off for long with just one leg.
The queen suddenly pulled back with a cry of surprise. Black blood flowed from an arrow wound in her abdomen. Another arrow flew out of nowhere and struck the queen near the junction of her human and spider parts.
"Who dares?" the queen roared.
A dozen of the spiders that had been chasing Sarah and her friends gathered under and around the queen. A lone figure appeared between some dead shrubs and shot another arrow, this one taking out one of the drone spiders. The queen screeched and sent all her drones after the figure.
"Bad move, Highness," a voice next to Sarah said.
As if the speaker's words had been a cue, a band of twenty armed and armored goblins charged the queen with swords and spears. Sarah turned her head to see who had spoken. A goblin in what looked like samurai armor stood on the webbing at Sarah's side. He wore a horned helmet and a grimacing mask covered the lower part of his face. By the twinkle in his eyes, Sarah guessed that he was smiling.
"Shall I free you, my Lady?" the samurai goblin asked.
"I'd appreciate it," Sarah said.
The goblin nodded and drew the longer of the two swords at his hip. With three swift strokes he freed her from the web. She dropped a few feet to the ground, her right leg buckling under her weight.
"My friends—" Sarah gasped.
"Already taken care of," the samurai goblin said.
Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus crowded around her. Ludo offered Sarah his hand, and she stood with his help, keeping pressure off her injured leg.
He's got a bit more initiative than your usual goblin, Sarah thought.
Sarah turned back to the fight between the queen and the other goblins. The queen was losing badly. Five of her legs had been hacked off, and she sported numerous arrows and spears in her bulbous body. But the goblins had suffered casualties too. Three goblins lay unmoving under the queen and two more were backing off, nursing broken limbs.
With a war cry the goblin who had freed Sarah launched himself at the queen. He landed on her back and sunk his long blade into the junction between her two parts. The queen shrieked and tried to buck the goblin off. Sarah's rescuer held on and managed to pull his short sword which he plunged through the queen's back. She reared up leaving her belly exposed to the goblins on the ground who darted in, skewering her with swords and spears. The queen let out a long high pitched keen as the goblins around her scattered. The queen crashed to the ground, dead.
"Sarah, y'okay?" Hoggle asked.
Sarah finally looked at her leg. There was a tear in her pants where a black stinger poked through. She pulled the stinger from her leg and inspected the wound. It was shallow and not bleeding. Sarah nodded to Hoggle.
"I'm alright. What about you?" she asked as she looked over her friends.
"Never better," Sir Didymus said.
"Bumped and bruised a bit, but I'll live," Hoggle replied.
"Ludo scared," the hairy beast moaned.
"What about the drones," Sir Didymus asked turning to the samurai goblin. "Do they not still pose a threat?"
The goblin who had freed Sarah strode up wiping his swords on a cloth. He sheathed the swords and threw the cloth over his shoulder.
"My warriors took care of the drones that were here. There may be a few more running around the Labyrinth, but they most likely won't be a problem."
"Who'er you?" Hoggle asked.
The goblin loosened the ties holding his mask on and lowered it. Sarah was surprised at how human-looking his features were.
"My name is Kenji," the goblin said. "One of His Highness' elite warriors."
Hoggle looked at the warrior with suspicion. "His Highness being—"
"The Goblin King of course."
"How is it thou doest not look more like a goblin?" Sir Didymus asked, saving Sarah from trying to find a polite way to ask that very question.
"I was an older child when His Highness took me. The change to goblin was not as successful, leaving me with more intelligence and human-looking features."
"Why didn't you help defend the castle when I was here the first time?" Sarah asked. "If you'd been there my friends and I never have reached the castle."
Kenji's back stiffened. The subject was obviously not one he liked to discuss.
"His Majesty ordered me not to harm you. I could do nothing but sit in the castle and watch."
Sarah nodded and let the subject drop. "Thank you for your help today." Turning to her friends she said, "We'd better get going."
"Wait," the samurai goblin said.
Kenji went to the fallen queen and took the diadem from her head. He walked back to where Sarah stood and held it out to her.
"If you take this, then the remaining spiders will leave you alone. They'll think you are their queen."
"I'm thinkin' that's not such a good thing," Hoggle said. "What if they want her ta, I don't know, lay eggs or somethin'?"
The samurai goblin gave Hoggle a withering look. "The drones do not make the queen do anything. She commands them."
Hoggle harumphed and crossed his arms over his chest, still not convinced. Kenji turned back to Sarah. "I cannot make you take this diadem, but I think it will be in your best interest to do so."
Sarah stared at the thing for a long moment and felt the orb in her pocket grow warm. She sighed. "I might as well."
She held out her hand, but Kenji withdrew the tiara. "May I?" he asked"
Sarah nodded and knelt. The samurai goblin placed the tiara on her head and she stood. The assembled goblins, who had gathered around the group, let out a collective gasp.
"What is it?" Sarah asked.
"The diadem—" Hoggle began.
"It hath changed color," Sir Didymus finished.
Sarah pulled the tiara off her head and looked at it. All the black diamonds had become white and the red gem at the center had become a blue-green color.
Almost like his eyes, Sarah thought as she stared into the mesmerizing gem.
Kenji cleared his throat to get Sarah's attention. She gave herself a small shake and put the tiara back on her head. Kenji handed her a small wooden whistle.
"If you ever need us, just give one long blast on this. We will never be far."
With that, Kenji and his little band disappeared into the ruins of the Labyrinth.
"Jareth, you bastard!" Iribo howled.
"Ah, ah," came the calm disembodied voice. "My parentage is not in question. But yours might be."
Iribo roared like a wild animal and created vast amounts of his onyx orbs. He began hurling them at every shadow and anything that moved.
"I will be rid of you!" the infuriated Demon King screamed.
When all the orbs were gone, along with quite a few of Iribo's unlucky minions, the exhausted ruler walked to his throne and slumped into it.
"Do you feel any better?" Jareth's voice inquired.
"No, damn you. Why won't you just fade away?"
A ghostly Jareth materialized next to the throne. "It's too much fun tormenting you. Your temper tantrums are spectacular."
"I guess it all hinges on that girl then," Iribo said softly.
Jareth grew serious. "You can't win, you know."
"We'll see. I may just sway her to my cause yet."