Janus is the keeper of doorways.
I met him sophomore year of college in a night club of all places, a club my roommate had dragged me to.
The exit was calling my name. An hour of frat boys making grabs for me beneath the multi-colored strobe lights was all anyone could reasonably expect from me. I was halfway to freedom when I saw him sandwiched between two dark haired vixens.
A smarter girl than me would've run when he slide off the barstool and headed my way. But, I'd been keeping my eyes open for just such a thing, for a glimmer from the otherside, and I wasn't going to run from an opportunity.
Reckless.
"I thought I'd be seeing you," Janus says as I step off the path in my small wood and into his domain.
"So you too knew of my problems before I did?" I ask, hands on my hips as I stare out into the darkness surrounding the temple the god calls home. Marble pillars run on for as long as the eye can see, each space between a star filled pathway to a different place.
Janus smiles, but his blue eyes are hardly amused. "You know I see all things, the comings and goings, the opening of the doors, the shutting. I know when Jareth slips from one world to the next and when the leader of the wild hunt is on the prowl. You've got yourself into quite a pickle."
"A pickle?" I say before dropping onto a cushioned bench opposite the god. "I'd call it a catastrophe myself."
"You always did prefer to look on the bright side," Janus grins before he snaps his fingers summoning a tray of god-approved snacks and a couple glasses of wine. As a rule, I do not accept food from the realms beyond my own, but Janus' is the exception. There is something I trust in the old god's steady gaze and quick smiles. He has allowed me to venture into the places beyond my own world. We've been on many adventures together but there is one doorway he has never permitted me to enter. It is an unspoken agreement between us. I am not to go into the world of Twilight, into the Labyrinth. Not that he has placed such strictures upon Jareth—not that he could if he wished to.
And, I'm about to challenge that unspoken understanding.
"I need to return to the Labyrinth," I say the words fast, before jamming an olive into my mouth, steering clear of the dormice.
Janus sighs.
"He took my dog," I say.
"I know," Janus replies, running one hand through his dark curls. "He wont play fair, Sarah. He never plays fair."
"You think I don't know that?" I ask. "I don't particularly mind playing dirty," I quip. "Besides, when Old Hallows Eve arrives a full month beyond the equinox, when the Autumn Court's power is full and Gywn is able to cross the veil and collect his souls I'm going to need help. If I can't find a way to free Asher on my own, I'll need an ally, one I don't mind sacrificing to the Autumn King's fury." Of course right after that I'd have to worry once more about Rachel and Frost. My worries never rested.
"I could be a better friend to the girl than he," Janus replies. "You know I'm a better friend to you."
"We don't need a friend. We need a devious, conniving, alliance. It's best to fight fire with fire in this case at least," I say. "I read a book once you know. A girl was trying to hide her lover from the hunt and learned from these lizard people that she could hide from them within a mirror maze*. A labyrinth sounds even better."
Janus seems unconvinced.
"I don't want to make a deal with him. I don't wish to interact with him at all, " I lie. "But, he's our best chance, and I've beat him before."
"You're playing right into his hands, Sarah. He won't underestimate you again, he won't hold anything back."
"He doesn't have anything I want this time," I say, picking up my wine and taking a sip. It tastes divine as it rushes over my fumbling tongue. Even I know I'm grasping at straws and making illogical arguments.
"He has your dog, and you certainly have something that he wants, which is even more dangerous," Janus grumbles.
He is kind to say it that way. We both know that what Jareth wants more than anything is me. It is a truth that both terrifies and excites me, reckless creature that I am. The Goblin King's notice is something I can't even begin to understand, but it is a heavy thing. I'm not sure if he hates or desires me, if he's angry or amused. Love and hate are so similar, perhaps he doesn't know his own mind any better than I do. But, a Goblin King can afford to be fickle. I can't.
"I have to do what I can. I've never asked you to open that door for me—not in all the time I've known you. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing," I say turning my most beseeching face on the god.
"Fine," Janus stands. "Come along, we'll do it now while the noon day sun still shines on your world. It will be better than meeting him when you are both aligned in twilight. But, I do not like it, Sarah."
"Thank you," I say coming to my own feet. Truly, I'm not ready to face him just yet, but I can't give Janus time to think it over and change his mind.
We hurry down a never ending hallway and I watch as the dark world beyond the pillars begins to lighten into that nondescript time between night and dawn. The doorway we stop in front of is full of dusky pinks and oranges, purple threatens its edges and I know this door. It calls to me—a sharp tug just behind my ribs.
"It won't be the way you remember it," he warns. The fey have rules about innocents and children. Not nearly enough of them, but still. We both know you're no child now.
"I can handle it," I lie.
"You'll have to," Janus steps back. "I'll be here waiting when you need to return. I cannot follow you into his court."
Stepping between the marble pillars into nothing nearly robs me of breath. It's a sensation I've experienced many times before, but this is different. The air is cloying and expectant as my feet touch solid ground.
Eyes shut tight, I tell my lungs to pull air in, to push air out, as I give myself a moment.
Blinking my eyes open, I know where I am—the same place it all started—on a hilltop over looking the labyrinth. Hung low in the sky, to the east, rest two pale discs, two suns. And, to the west—two moons, one waxing one waning. Between the two extremes lies the labyrinth bathed in the dusky tones on the edge of day or night. It's beautiful in the bizarre way of a Dali or a Van Gogh, although neither one resembles the other.
Giving my head a shake, I run down the hill. Time is a weapon in the Labyrinth and I don't have any to waste. What if I left and found that three or four months had passed? That my world was on the cusp of autumn? I couldn't think about that.
And, of course, I shouldn't have suspected that the gateway would drop me right in front of the castle. It could never be that easy. There is no friendly face to meet me at the labyrinth's entrance, no fairies either—those are probably all flitting happily about my roses.
It is too quiet.
Once my steps carry me into the labyrinth itself I feel my hair stand on end. It is the same feeling you get at night in the worlds when something's eyes lock on you. To feel alone is better than to feel watched. Not that there is anything that can be done about it. I stretch out my hand, running it along the sandpaper walls and wait to find a break, not that I have time to traverse the entire thing.
Finally, my fingers run out of wall and slice through air.
"Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be…" I mumble, crossing into a different piece of the puzzle.
This passageway is new, made entirely of dark hedges which arch above my head. Their branches wave threatening in a nonexistent wind as shadows cling to the stepping stone strewn path.
It doesn't matter which way I go. That's not how a labyrinth works. I didn't know that as a girl. A maze is multicursal, but a labyrinth is not. It always leads one to the center although in as roundabout and confusing a way as it desires.
The only sound I hear is my own footsteps as I hurry down the row of trees, eyes open for the next path. I feel something snag my hair and turning, find nothing at all behind me.
Heartbeat picking up, I walk even faster. The effort is in vain, the branches lash out at me, scratching my arms, reaching for my face, tangling in my hair. One manages to trip me and I tumble to the ground. Eyes gone wide with fright, heart beating in my throat, I scramble on hands and knees trying to get out of their willowy clutches, but they are everywhere.
"Stop!" I shout, knowing it's ridiculous to plead with them.
They stop.
Something is awake within me. I can feel it stirring behind my ribs and suddenly I'm not afraid.
Standing, I dust the dirt off my jeans, and try to beat it out of my faded black tee-shirt. My hair has come loose from its braid and is tumbling about my shoulders as something that feels suspiciously like power pools in my belly. I don't move, I just let whatever it is grow. I wait even though it's hard to be patient when there is so much I must do. So much I can't trust.
Taking a deep breath, I turn toward the nearest tree and I will the path to break. "I want to go to castle beyond the Goblin City," I whisper the words, unsure of myself.
The trees jump out of my way. I step into another section of the labyrinth and head straight for the opposite wall, toward the castle. Every obstacle I encounter falls beneath my will. Nothing reaches for me, nothing morphs into a dead end, nothing moves if I do not will it. The realization is heady as I cut my way across Jareth's world. In time the labyrinth gives way to the ramshackle city and the castle at its heart.
It wouldn't do to hesitate outside, facing the labyrinth is one thing, its king another. He will not fall at my feet. He will twist words, curve his lips, trap my eyes with his own haphazard ones. Who could resist that consistently blown out pupil, wrecking his lovely blue eyes. I suppose I have to.
Like everything else, the castle is deserted. No chickens, cats, or goblins. It's disheartening to know I'm about to face Jareth with nothing separating us but this unnameable emotion that exists somewhere between love and hate.
*Cold Magic (Lovely book if you get the chance to read it)
I waited so long between this chapter and the last...forgive me please.