CHAPTER TWO

She had at first, presumed the blonde man approaching her was Jareth and then her very next suspicion was that it was one of her kidnappers.

But this man was neither. Her conceptualisations were dashed to the winds as she gazed upon the man in front of her. He appeared older than both the blonde men she assumed he was. His straight blonde hair was tied up in a long ponytail. Compared to the Goblin King he looked almost human. Was everyone in this World a tall slender blonde? Were they all cut from the same cloth and mixed into the same mould? Her dark raven hair felt too distinct and otherworldly at this juncture.

"You're human," blurted Sarah, blushing at her own rudeness.

"I am, as are you," the man laughed. "Though you're dressed rather like a cat."

"I was at a party, a celebration," Sarah blushed, smudging the whiskers on her cheek with the back of her hands.

"It is Samhain, to be certain," the man nodded. "What are you doing out here in the wilderness?"

"I was kidnapped from Aboveground and then left here," Sarah told the man honestly, looking into his brown eyes, that widened as his eyebrows disappeared into his stray hair, falling over his forehead. "I didn't expect to find a human here."

"I didn't expect to find an Aboveground human on my journey home either," chuckled the man warmly. "These parts are the outlying lands and they're pretty secluded and desolate. Not many people, if any, travel these roads. And Aboveground humans have not been seen for many a year. Tell me who kidnapped you?"

"I don't know," Sarah shrugged, still violently trying to wipe her face clean of her cat features. "A blonde couple. One male and one female. That's all I know. I saw them for mere seconds before they brought me here and I didn't see them again."

"Not many fae live around here, and they are most likely fae if they brought you here from Above," his brow twitched as he rubbed his chin with his hands. "My cart is over the hill, if you need a lift somewhere."

"I need to get as far away as I can from here and quickly," Sarah wasn't sure she trusted the man but it had to be better than being found by her kidnappers or the Goblin King. "In case they come back."

"Well I live in a pretty remote village to the east of here," he claimed. "I can tell you all about the humans of the Underground while we travel. Then you can have dinner with my family and a place to stay until we can get you home."

"That's too kind," Sarah was blown away by his kindness. "You don't even know me. I am a stranger."

"Everyone is a stranger until they're not," he smiled broadly. At his words, Sarah couldn't help but hear a voice in her head singing, 'though we're strangers until now…' She grimaced and threw herself back into the present moment, ignoring any paths leading through the stars.

"Knew as soon as I saw you that you weren't from around here," he eyed her up and down, as he started leading her towards his cart. "We help each other here Underground. The King will want to help you."

Sarah took a minute to realise she was still in her catsuit and blushed furiously at the thought of the Goblin King seeing her like this. She had to resist the urge to openly scoff at his mention of the King. There was no way he would want to help her. Completely the opposite, she was unequivocally positive. Not wanting to spend her the rest of her life in the Bog or an oubliette, was high on her priority list right now. Also not letting anyone know that she was responsible for the destruction of the Goblin City rated highly too, especially not knowing people's levels of loyalty to their king. She did not want to be turned in, and she simply did not want to draw attention to herself.

"I'm not sure that he wasn't the one to get me into this situation to begin with," mumbled Sarah, making the man roar with laughter.

"No young lady, he wouldn't kidnap innocents without warning and leave them to rot outside his great maze," the cart was in view now. Sarah eyed it with apprehension, still uncertain whether to trust this man. He could easily be a spy for the Goblin King or her kidnappers. She wouldn't just go home with strange men in the Above, what was possessing her to even consider it now?

Hoggle's words voiced in her head: "Look at it this way, what other choice have you got?"

What choice did she have? She refused to enter the Labyrinth, and she couldn't stay out here to be discovered, especially with no food or water or shelter. She could wait until Hoggle made an appearance but she dreaded being discovered by others first.

"It doesn't mean that the couple who brought me here aren't his henchmen," Sarah pointed out as they descended the other side of the dusty hill.

"Did they have goblins?" He asked.

"No, I only saw the two of them," Sarah replied. "And I think you must be right that they were fae. They did look otherworldly, but it was a party where everyone was dressed up and wearing makeup so it was hard to tell."

"There are only a handful of fae our King associates with," the man informed her. "And they'd not be the kidnapping kind."

"Yet your own king is the kidnapping kind," Sarah gritted her teeth with indignation.

"He never takes what isn't freely given," the man helped her onto the cart and he followed suit. "Have you met our King before?"

"Once, a long time ago," Sarah's feelings of guilt flared up at the memory of wishing Toby away. She hoped he was OK where he was now. She missed him like he was her own child. Now wasn't the time to think about him though. "In passing, nothing of significance."

"Perhaps you can tell me your story after I've told you mine," he suggested. Sarah was not planning on telling him anymore than what he already knew. Explaining that she wished away her brother would lead to more questions that she didn't want to answer. Already she had said too much.

The road was rough and bumpy, if you could even call it a road. It was more a dirt track through the wild terrain. Sarah sat in silence for a while, her hands gripping the side of the cart for security.

"The name is Liam Sprigget from the village of Ghent," Liam told her after the silence had reigned for minutes. "I am a sixth generation human. One of my great great great grandparents was a wished away child who came to live here instead of being adopted by a fae. That was the old way of doing it you see. The wished away children were sent to villages all around the kingdom, until one day the fae decided to keep the children for themselves and set about converting them to fae. We live longer than Aboveground humans but not as long as the fae raised babes. The first wished-aways created new families and we continue to increase our population, but a lot of us feel that the fae should stop stealing the babes for themselves and let them live their natural lives with us."

"Doesn't that power rest with your king?" Sarah asked.

"Indeed, you'd think so," Liam shook his head. "He is answerable to the High King and the High Court. They dictate that he brings our Stolen Pearls to the fae to adopt. He has to follow the rules. It is common knowledge he doesn't like what he has to do. Not a huge supporter of the fae is our king."

"Isn't he fae himself?" Sarah pressed.

"Indeed," Liam laughed. "Doesn't mean he has to like them."

Sarah thought about her own view on human beings, her own kind, and she acknowledged his point. She was slightly nonplussed that The Goblin King of all people would be so heedful and mistrustful of his own kind, however.

"What are Stolen Pearls?" Sarah addressed another point.

"Ah," Liam frowned. "Fae never used to have issues with conceiving children. Until a few centuries ago, they were most likely cursed. You see pearls are extremely rare in the Underground."

"A lack of oysters?" Sarah inquired.

"Oysters?" asked Liam. "Nah, pearls are created by magical creatures like a phoenix that cry tears of pearls. The rumours are that for years the fae hunted these creatures for their pearls. You see pearls themselves have magical properties to do with prophecies or healing but especially matrimony. They were largely in demand. However the story goes that the Spirits ended up cursing the fae for hurting their children, but preventing them from having many of their own. So we humans call the wee wished away babies stolen pearls, because the fae just do the same thing but with a different element. It's not certain if this is how it began, but fae did suffer from more infertility than they used to. The pearls are all kept safe somewhere in The Labyrinth, but no one knows for sure how they all got there. There are myths and legends aplenty."

"That's so sad," Sarah sighed. "Why do you dislike the fae having human babies so deeply?"

"Fae are cold, hard creatures," Liam explained. "They are a corrupt bunch. After all, if the rumours are to be believed, they hunted magical creatures so they could take their tears. If they're lucky enough to have their own offspring, they treat the human borns wickedly in comparison. To me that doesn't sound like a moral bunch of beings you want raising wee human babes."

"Which may explain why the Goblin King is responsible for my kidnapping," Sarah implied yet again, wishing she had learnt to bite her tongue.

Liam just chuckled. "You sound like my wife. She believes that we should govern ourselves and we don't need a King to tell us what to do."

"Maybe your wife is right," Sarah smiled to show she meant no harm. She was vaguely becoming aware of how many times she had already mentioned the Goblin King in an antagonistic manner.

"You wait until you meet her," Liam laughed. "She is all piss and whinge, and truth be told probably besotted with the King."

Objectively, if you ignored all the child stealing and death threats, then in a roundabout way Sarah could see that Jareth was quite good looking. But found it hard to imagine anyone would be besotted with him. However if what Liam had said was all true, it was painting a different picture than the one that had been in her head for 13 years. And if she was going to be honest with herself, actually meeting the Goblin King had changed her perspective on what his book depiction had been. From the age of 10 when she first acquired the little red book, she had had a crush on the Goblin King. Reality definitely changed that adoration. They do say to never meet your heroes.

The miles passed on with Liam chatting about his home and asking about hers. Sarah learnt that Liam's grandfather had worked at the Goblin Castle and had taught him all about pearls and their significance. The dreaded question of her family had come up and explaining that her parents were both dead, and her brother had been adopted out to a relative of his mum's on the other side of the continent, so she hadn't seen him in years, had left her feeling raw and subdued.

"You only had the one brother?" Liam asked gently.

Sarah sighed fighting back the tears. "Yes and I wasn't allowed to see him. His aunt didn't like me or my father so that was that. He is only 14, so still too young to really strike out on his own."

The irony of this all was the villain wasn't the Tina Turner-hair sporting, tight-trouser wearing, glitter obsessed child stealer, but Toby's own aunt that kept him and turned him into "one of them forever". Sarah often wondered if it would have been kinder to let him turn into a fae than to be kept prisoner by his own family.

"Helena and I have 8 children," Liam said. "We both come from big families. It must be hard only having one brother and losing him."

Especially when I had fought so hard to get him back, Sarah thought peevishly.

"And you would have lost a brother or sister once before, as you said you have met the Goblin King once?" Liam pressed.

She did not want to tell him she had actually beaten the Labyrinth as she trusted his loyalties were stronger to the king than to her, and she was still convinced he would rat her out, if he knew who she was. It occurred to her briefly that she may be inflating her own importance. Surely others had beaten the Labyrinth before and after her.

"No indeed," Sarah didn't want to lie. "Our meeting was inconsequential; fleeting."

Liam nodded but didn't say anything, urging the horse on towards a valley dotted with houses and buildings. That must be where they were heading. They lapsed into silence again as they travelled on.

The owl had flown for hours and there was no sign of Sarah. His wings ached and he needed to rest urgently but he pushed his slight body even harder. He would not admit defeat. He had lost the battle but he wouldn't lose the war, when it came to making Sarah his wife.

Justifying his reasons for even chasing her occupied a lot of his flight time. She interested him like no fae had ever done before. Of course the High Court were unhappy with his lack of a wife and had been pushing Forsythia onto him. He'd had had a quiet word with the High King saying he had a Prophetic Pearl, and this placated the High King for the interim. It showed Jareth had at least an intention to marry.

But was a pearl, High Court pressure and a growing interest enough to warrant a marriage? For nigh on 13 years he had thought of little else save reclaiming Sarah. He pondered whether something more was driving him to find her. He certainly had never chased any of his other paramours to this extent.

But then he'd never been challenged and defeated to the extent he had been when she ran the Labyrinth. He found, against his better judgement, that he wanted to get to know her on a deeper level than just a figurehead or placeholder that most wives filled. He kept seeing her in his mind's eye as she was now, an adult, dressed as the black cat swaying in time to the music and he found himself captivated by her.

And eventually he did need an heir. If Jareth looked at it objectively that was his main reason for not defying the High Court in their order, because he knew they were right. He wasn't eligible to adopt a human child unless he had a wife. But Sarah being human meant she wouldn't suffer the fae's legendary infertility. He wondered now if this had been his subconscious realisation the whole time. Wanting Sarah for her baby making ability seemed more natural to him than wanting her for his feelings. His pride could remain intact if his feelings could stay out of the picture. The image of her dressed in skintight clothing at least consoled him that he'd enjoy the baby-making process with her.

He had by this time completed the loop around his Labyrinth's border with not a single hint as to her whereabouts. He realised with some measure of concern that he was resting in the tree next to where Sarah had stood as she had taken her first survey of his Kingdom. He wondered what she had truly perceived. Her statement about it not looking too hard was more to boost her own self confidence and to goad him, than a reflection of her true feelings, he was assured.

He let out a shriek of annoyance. Why should he care what her impression of his Labyrinth was? He doesn't. He couldn't. She was to be his wife in name alone. Produce a child and then they would live separate lives in separate wings of the castle, only making appearances together for formality. That's how his parents did it, that's how most fae royalty did it. Why should he do it any differently? There was no place for love in a marriage. Love? Love? Who said anything about love? He rebuked himself for such inconceivable thoughts.

It was all worthless introspection if Sarah had met her demise anyway. His next port of call was to go and see the Pinnsburrs and find out what they knew.

The manor was devoid of any sign of the human.

"She's not here," Meffod growled as she clenched and unclenched her fists.

"I don't understand why it matters, Meffy," observed Yarbro. "How would a chit of a mortal girl be in any way useful for leverage to the Goblin king?"

"Do I really have to explain this to you again?" his wife threw a vase across the room in her exasperation. "Remember Gilb the Goblin?"

Yarbro affirmed that he did, with a brisk nod of his blonde head, not even reacting to the shattering vase.

"He told us that snippet of information concerning the girl and the Goblin King when he eavesdropped on the meeting with the High King," Meffod reminded him with a healthy lashing of derision. "What did Gilb overhear husband mine?"

"That The Goblin King had found a Prophetic Pearl," recalled Yarbro, his eyes going wide. "And he knew who his intended was to be but he had to find her again, so we assumed he meant the human girl he had seemed so enamoured with."

The Goblin King hadn't been aware but thanks to Gilb, the Pinnsburrs had been able to watch her run via a mirror in their manor. It was how they knew he'd been defeated so soon. They'd seen him offer marriage to the girl. She was their leverage for revenge on Jareth for scuppering their chance at being parents.

They'd hoped by kidnapping her they could ransom her back to the king for the next wished away baby.

"Don't know why he'd go for that," shrugged Yarbro. "She is just a pathetic mortal."

"That's why we have the back up plan," sighed Meffod impatiently. "Forsythia is a good match for him."

"That plan hasn't really worked for the past 13 years though," Yarbro pointed out. "He's not interested."

"You dolt," Meffod reprimanded. "We know Jareth has been instructed to wed. If he refuses to pay the ransom for the human, Forsythia can take her place, as he'd have to produce a wife very soon. It's not like he has any better options floating around. As Queen she'll be our Puppet. If he doesn't claim the girl, we can at least train Forsythia to be just like her. That's got to keep him interested."

"I hope you're right," Yarbro responded. "The High King won't be happy if he finds out we have kidnapped a mortal."

"Then we give him no reason to find out," she hissed back. "Unless we find her, then it can't be traced back to us anyway."

"What if he has her?" Yarbro pondered. "That's why she's missing. He took her."

"Only one way to find out," Meffod indicated her spying mirror. "Summon Gilb and ask him."

Before they had a chance to there was a knock at the door.

"Enter," Meffod boomed.

"My Lady, My Lord," the servant elf bowed low. "The Goblin King wishes to speak to you. He's in the hallway."

Husband and wife exchanged looks before Meffod nodded her acceptance. "Send him in."

The elf scurried off and the two fae took themselves off to the settee in the centre of the room. Without saying a word to each other they knew that this meeting was unprecedented.

The elf came back and announced the Goblin King who came striding in wearing nothing but black, down to the boots, his belt, his cape and his riding crop. Even his eyes looked ominously black.

"Goblin King," Meffod nodded without rising from her seat. "Your arrival is unexpected."

"Is it?" he responded in a distracted manner as he looked around. Being nobles they were not as rich as he was but they were certainly more showy with their rich tapestries and garish priceless art. Jareth considered their ostentatious show of wealth as quite vulgar, and that was saying something considering his penchant for glitter. "I thought it was about time I checked in on how childless couples are going. Are you still requiring my services?"

"Have you a new baby?" Yarbro inquired hopefully.

"No but we haven't had a wished away child for 13 years," Jareth disclosed in a calculating manner. "You see the way that people wish away their offspring is by storytelling. A little red book exists and usually when the wisher loses, they discard the book, for others to pick up. However, the last person to wish away a child won the Labyrinth. So she didn't have the same drive to get rid of the book. And instead she kept it."

Here Jareth paused and glared at the pair of them who had paled significantly at the royal fae's commanding presence.

"I have been unable to go to her for these past thirteen years. It seems that not only did she win her brother back, but as a result also prevented anyone else from being wished away at the same time. She has well and truly defeated the Labyrinth. But defeated our kind too. She kept that book. Imagine my surprise when I could finally go to her, that she had disappeared. In fact my crystals showed me she was back Underground."

He paused again waiting for a response from the married couple before him. They just stared back at him, after a few shifty glances between them.

"I imagine you can see my problem here with sourcing a new baby for you," Jareth drawled with complacency oozing out of his every pore.

"We haven't got her, if that's what you're implying," professed Yarbro shifting in his seat.

"I know," Jareth asserted, darkly scanning the pair in front of him. The scowl Meffod gave her husband didn't go unnoticed. "Your magic isn't strong enough to conceal her. She isn't here."

"You say you saw her Underground then you should know where she is," Yarbro insisted.

"She disappeared from my sight, from my magic," Jareth admitted albeit reluctantly. He didn't want to show this noxious couple any weakness what-so-ever. "So she is either dead or hidden by incredibly strong magic."

"If she is dead, then you should have no reason to suspect we know where she is," Yarbro expelled in one breath. "And if you claim strong magic hides her then we are clearly innocent."

Meffod gave her idiot husband a scornful look. It was common knowledge they were not a powerful family, but it was not usual practice to boast of it.

"If she is dead, I can not find the book, then the story ends," Jareth continued coolly after another heavy, tension laden pause. "If the story ends, there will be no more Stolen Pearls, no more babies for the fae."

"Why don't you just send a new book out into the Aboveground?" Yarbro suggested with a smirk.

"The book is older than I," the King informed them. "I believe that the Council of Beasts and Magical Creatures gifted the book to the fae around about the same time the supposed infertility curse was released upon our world. But there is nothing written in the annals. I base my opinion on hearsay and supposition. It is not as simple as sending a new book Aboveground as you suggest."

Jareth wanted to use Yarbro's weaker and more ignorant personality, in comparison to both himself, and the fae's wife, to his benefit. Yarbro twitched uncomfortably like he had something to say. Meanwhile, Meffod remained stony faced and aloof. However she was the one who spoke first.

"Let's hope you find her then," sneered Meffod, with a curl of her thin lips.

Jareth had hoped he could sense Sarah here but there was no trace. With his subtle threats he had hoped they would buckle and reveal the truth.

"And if you find her, be sure to inform me so I may retrieve the book," Jareth insisted. "If we ever want wished-away babes again, we need the book, but I need the girl first."

"Noted," acknowledged Meffod tautly, with a tilt of her honey blonde hair and a glare from her shaded deep-set eyes. "If she happens to stumble into our Manor in a kingdom far from the one you claimed she landed in, then we will let you know."

"Forsythia is not here today, which is a pity," threw in Yarbro. "We will let her know you called in. She would be so disappointed to hear she missed you."

Jareth narrowed his steely blue eyes, but kept his mouth closed on the subject. He had no interest in Forsythia. She was just another fae. No different from the rest of the cruel, calculating fae that existed out there.

Without any further communication to impart, Jareth spun on his heel and headed towards the door. He stopped briefly to bid farewell before he took his leave. Back outside, he transported himself magically back to his castle.

His plan B had yielded no results and he was still no closer to finding Sarah. He suspected the Pinnsburr's of some involvement but they were not powerful enough to hide her from his magic. They were stupid enough and spiteful enough to want revenge for things not going their way, but why would they have harmed Sarah? It didn't make sense. She was his most deeply kept secret. No-one but Sarah would ever know what he had offered her, and no-one would ever know how she had rejected him without a care. The only thing they knew of her was that she had won back her brother. They had no reason to suspect his attachment to her. None at all.

One thing was for certain though. He wouldn't cease looking until he found her. Without a body, he had no proof she was dead. He would keep an eye on his crystals and his Kingdom until he found her again. And he would find her again. No matter how long it took.

A/N: I am sorry this is so delayed. I tried to finish the next chapter before I posted this one but I am struggling with it big time. And then I accidentally started a Jareth and Sarah isolation one-shot that may turn into a two-shot. So before you see the next chapter, I will probably post that one and get it out of my system.

But then I will focus back on this one. I think I know how I want to move the next chapter on, so hopefully it won't be a long wait. :)

Again thank you to everyone. It means so much to me.

Usual disclaimers apply.