Chapter: Some Dreams Do Come True
A slender long fingered hand, wrapped in ointment soaked silk rested against her cheek, as she blinked against the bright dawn light. A thumb rubbed soft patterns on her cheekbone, while a voice so achingly familiar, and yet utterly alien murmured hoarse words into her ear, pleading for her to wake.
"Please Sarah, wake up.. please look at me... I .. don't be a dream... "
The last four words carried such desperation as he pressed his forehead against hers with a low groan, that Sarah could do nothing but smile up at him as she met his pale fever bright eyes.
" It's not a dream, I'm here, and so are you, you are safe now, I won't' let anyone hurt you anymore... Oh god I missed you so much and I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry. I know that there is nothing I can do that will ever make this okay, but I have to try, please let me try Jareth.."
Tears fell from her eyes soaking into his bandages as he wiped them away, before letting his hand fall to the furs when his strength reached its limit, it was too much too soon, and as his head began to swim, he couldn't hold back a moan of pain. It hurt so bad, everything hurt, yet the knowledge that she was here with him was enough to make it bearable, at least for now.
Genteel hands helped him onto his back, and pulled the heavy furs up to cover him as he shivered with fever induced cold. Blinking against the waves of darkness that threatened to engulf him, Jareth ground his teeth together, only to be reminded forcefully of the fractures in his jaw.
" Sssch please Jareth, just rest, you need it, just rest a few hours, we have the rest of our lives to make up for my immaturity, please, just sleep and regain your strength, and I promise to be here when you wake up."
He didn't want to, but the demands of his weakened body forced his eyes shut, and made him slip into a deep dreamless sleep.
Sobs of joy and regret rippled through Sarah as she sat beside him, watching as his chest rose and fell in the gentle cadence of true sleep. He was safe now, Gaia, had restored him to her, and this time she would not fail him, this time she would stay by him no matter what the future held for them.
. . .
" My Queen I must inform you that his majesty the Goblin King is now in recovery, I am not entirely certain how the Mortal whore managed such a feat, but he has nonetheless been awake and coherent."
" Hmm that is interesting but, too late, once the trollop is alone on the throne we will simple eliminate her if she decides to show any inclination towards free thoughts. Now did you at least manage to infuse the wenches paltry attempts at herbcraft with the iron infusion I procured?"
The healer bowed with a sound like creaking wood, and rustling dry leaves.
" I did my lady, though I had to spread it out more than you specified, to hide the taste. But I am wholly confident that it will still be potent enough to ensure her majesty of her goal, even if it may take a few weeks longer. "
Nodding the ethereal queen rose from her plush chair, and floated gracefully to the tall window overlooking the seelie end of the labyrinth.
" Good, I have waited for neigh on four thousand years, I think that I can wait a few more weeks if needs be, just make sure that that mongrel travesty is good and weak, when the time comes."
" Yes, my queen."
. . .
Glowing light spilled from the dozens of candles filling the room, lending a fleeting radiance to his pale waxy skin. Kneeling by his side Sarah gentle rested his left hand in her lap as she dabbed more ointment on the deep burns left by iron chains around his upper arm, the same chain, that according to the healer had broken the bones beneath.
Gently smoothing the aloe soaked silk over his too thin arm, Sarah fought to ignore his laboured breathing and strained hisses of pain, as she fastened the linen strips with practised ease.
" There that was the last for now, are you alright or do you want something to help you sleep? you look like you could use it."
Letting out his held in breath Jareth sighed. "No thank you, I do believe that I have slept quite enough for now... please Sarah, would you just sit with me? I... I .. have so many questions."
" Sure, I'll sit with you, and I'll answer any question that you may have to the best of my knowledge Okay?"
Nodding he let himself sink deeper into the heat of the fur, with a soft sigh.
" How long... have I been ...absent?"
Settling on the furs, Sarah gentle stroked a stray lock from his forehead, as she counted backwards in her head.: "You've been gone almost seven years... , we are not really certain how long..."
" Seven be damned... I feared... as much... it is Samhain... tomorrow... is it not?"
" Well close, the day after, how did you know?"
Raising his left eye brow in an elegant mischievous arch, that made him look almost like Sarah remembered him, he chuckled softly: " Ah Love, after being bound to the wonders... of the labyrinth, for millennia... hmmm...you develop a... feel... for the... ebbs and flows... of his strength... He is vanning. ... and so it must be close..."
Coughing weakly, his eyes closed for a few seconds, as he obviously struggled to control the pain of something he had agitated.
" Jareth, please you need to rest, you'll just hurt yourself! Please..."
His eyes flashed open, to freeze her in place with a wild determination and burning need, his voice dropping a full octave, becoming darker and somehow elemental, like the groan of mountains settling: " you can not even begin to comprehend the severity of what will happen if the Labyrinth has no one to bond with, if he is not grounded properly, then he will bleed out! and all you know will perish! every goblin, card dog, firey and monster EVERYONE. Because once it is dead and gone then the four realms will melt into each other, and mankind will once more be at the mercy of creatures who styles themselves gods or WORSE! It is my responsibility to keep that from happening! it is my sole reason for existing... I Aargh"
Pain filled his wide eyes as he doubled over clutching his stomach, and gasping for breath as blood trickled from his lips.
Her arms were scalding against his icy skin, as she wrapped them around him, forcing him to unfurl despite his pleas.
" No you don't, lay back, and let me see, I'm pre-med at college, so just relax and let me help you."
" No.. No please it... hmm It hurts too much, please I can't... I..."
Pressing him back into the furs, Sarah shuttered at the ease with which she held the Goblin king down, as she peeled the bandages covering his torso back. revealing the pus weeping holes left by the nails, and deep equally pus-filled burns.
" I need you to tell me when I touch anything that hurts more than... Okay I know how that sounded but you really need to help me... Jareth? Oh god no.."
His eyes had rolled back into his head, leaving him limp on the bed with blood staining his lips, as it trickled down his chin.
" Oh gods Jareth no, oh no what do I do? Jareth? Okay okay if he is bleeding internally, then his abdomen will be distended and hard, or is that soft? shit I don't know, I'm only in my first semester... shit Hoggle if ever there was a time I needed you, it would be now..."
Words have power, or that was what her father had always told her, though it had most likely not, been the very literal power that words had here in the underground that he had been talking about. Nevertheless ...
" Sarah? Little miss what ar yer doing here? and oh blessed seven is that? Oh my ! that's. ... Sarah what are yer doing with my king, how did he get here and what in the seven hells happened ta him, did he cross a battalion of cleaners? while landing in an oubliette? "
Staring at the burly dwarf in stunned disbelief Sarah blurted out.
" Hoggle? How the Hell did you get here? you are... here right?"
Grinning his customary wide grin, Hoggle swept his battered hat of his head, and into a deep if somewhat clumsy bow.
" Yes m'Lady I'm rightly here, aint no creature here in the whole labyrinth who can resist a summons spoken here by the lord or lady them high selves, nope aint no'one. Long as yer know them names mind yah. But listen to me babbling on, what yer need m'Lady? I don't expect this to be no social call seeing as the young king pup is lying there all bloody and broken."
Shaking her confusion at the dwarfs rant, Sarah ran her bloody hand down her blue dress, staining it: " I don't know what to do, he just started bleeding and then he passed out, look I'm pretty sure that he is haemorrhaging internally and he needs a doctor, a real doctor, and a hospital. Not these fucking herbs... and aaargh"
Screaming in frustration Sarah didn't even blink as a perfect crystal ball blinked into existence at her fingertips, and were smashed as she hurled it against the rough golden stone wall. Three more balls appeared and shattered in rapid succession, before Sarah froze with an shocked look on her face as she stared at the flawless crystal ball resting in her palm.
" Did I do that? "
" Yeah of course yer did little miss, and about time that, how long have yer been lugging his magic around, near seven years now? About time yer figured out how ta use it I say..."
Gaping at his casual words in stunned silence, Sarah could almost feel the little gears in her head working as she realised what this might mean to the man fading before her eyes. wetting her lips she fought that little voice of disbelieve in the back of her head, that kept screaming at her that magic tricks couldn't save anyone... But what if it could...
Holding up the crystal, Sarah meet Hoggle's patient expression as he waited for her to connect dots that were painfully obvious to him.
" Can I use these to locate the damage inside him, and then repair it? "
Hoggle's face looked like the huge grin was about to split it in two, as he all but jumped up and down like a proud parent watching his dim child take the first stumbling steps: " yer got it little miss, that's exactly what yer can do with them, now do it, only don't do more than you need ta, cause it will drain him too, and the poor lad don't have too much left too spare.. what with the iron in him and all..."
" Okay, okay here goes..."
Her fingers shook as she gentle rested the sphere on Jareth's trembeling abdomen, and kneeling she lay a slender hand on either side of the orb, as it seemed to melt slowly down through his skin.
" Don't let me kill you... "
Closing her eyes before her courage deserted her, Sarah leaned her forehead against his cold skin, as she let her consciousness follow the orb into Jareth's body.
Time slowed to an agonising crawl as Hoggle paced before the fur bed, watching the daughter of his heart as she fought to save his king. sure Jareth could be a trial to end all others. He was arrogant and proud, terrifying in his rage and unpredictable at the best of times. Yet he was also kind to those under his care, he was fiercely loyal and generous to those who dared to see beneath the skin deep guise of the Goblin King, to Jareth beneath. And despite his kings mask of cold indifference Hoggle knew that Jareth cared as deeply for him as he did for the child he had raised from infancy.
The last of the candles flickered and died as Jareth's pained gasp rang through the dark room, instantly ripping Hoggle from his worried vigil.
" Jareth?...yer with me young pup? oh my, young king yer really have got yerself inta quite a rough spot there hmm? Yer are lucky that the young miss is such a quick study, or yer would be dead by now... "
" Hoggle? ... When... how..."
Sitting down on the opposite side of Sarah, Hoggle gentle lifted one of Jareth's bandaged hands, quietly marvelling at the size difference as his gnarled sun browned hand swallowed up his king and foster sons comparatively delicate pale skinned one.
"Welcome home, Youngling... yer gave us all quite a scare there...Oh and little miss called me here, using that lovely little summoning spell of yers, right after yer decided ta throw yer little tantrum, and rupture some already weakened blood vessel. Damn yer boy! yer almost died!...if it had nay been for the little miss here being such a quick study, well we would nay be having this conversation now would we."
It took him a few seconds to make his dry lips work, but Jareth finale managed a soft sounding: " Hoggle, they. ... hmm they want..."
Patting the limp hand in his grip, Hoggle smiled reassuringly at the pain in Jareth's eyes: " I know youngling they want the Labyrinth, but there aint no way in the seven that they will ever get it, yer hear me? ain't no way we will let them... Now yer just rest 'kay, Cause little miss will need yer, if she's ta do what we all need her ta.. "
Nodding as the bone wrenching fatigue washed over him, and made the world all fuzzy around the edges, Jareth sighed: " Yes Rest...: As his eyes closed once more, leaving Hoggle alone with his thoughts, as he stood watch over the sleeping pair."
The coming time would hard on them all, and those still alive at the end of it would be marked and bound together for eternity, and all Hoggle could really hope for was that he would still be here once the dust settled down.