Chapter: Sticks and Stones...
Cool fingers stroked his scalding cheek, as Jareth blinked against the pounding headache threatening to make him throw up again.
Curling up he coughed softly, as the movement contracted his chest and sent fresh agony out through his frame.
"Ssch here drink this, it will soothe your pain, come now..."
The cup was cool like the fingers, as the blurred form pressed it against his dry lips, letting the thick liquid flow into his parched mouth, and down his throat, drawing soft sighs of contentment despite the aridly bitter and metallic taste of the brew.
But taste aside the potion worked wonders as the world bleed back into focus, and Jareth could not stop a truly happy smile from creeping onto his features, as Morgaine beamed down at him.
" Did that help? hmm, child?"
Giving a faint nod Jareth let his head rest heavily in Morgaine's silk clad lap, as his thoughts drifted along winding paths.
He was safe now, Morgaine would take care of him, she would chase the fears and pain away, with her softer than silk hands, as she always had.
She had always been the one to sooth his hurts, and help him succeed. She had as long he could remember accepted him, and guided him until he became a grown man, a king in his own right. Even then she had helped him to find his way through the twisted corridors of kingship. Had he ever thanked her? Ever told her how much her support had meant to him, and to the Labyrinth. Well that was something he needed to remedy at once.
" Mother I..."
Shivering he gasped as fresh pain flared unexpectedly in his stomach, instantly robbing his limbs of the ability to move.
" Mother? what... "
Pain flared once more drawing a cry from him, as he pressed his hands against his abdomen, trying to hold in the sudden burning sensation.
"Mother... help..."
Her voice was like ice and sleet whipping against him, as she glare at him with such venomous malice, that it stole his panted breath away.
"Why? It is just a little fey tincture, if you were not such an atrocious mongrel, it would not cause you any discomfort... but no, you are just such a pitiful runt, aren't you... do you know what we unseelie do with such weak offspring.."
" Mother!?..."
The words were like cold iron daggers thrust into his beating heart, and the sheer agony of them sent his mind reeling as he pushed himself up off her lap, and tried in vane to make his shattered legs move.
She towered over him in her dark and terrible glory, as her hand turned to obsidian tipped claws and descended towards his unprotected body.
Incomprehension slowed his movements, this was his mother, Morgaine! why would she do this to him?
"We cull them Jareth, we scour our blood and purge it from the runts that disgrace it. And we remain strong.. "
" Mother why?"
Pausing above him she grinned flashing silver white fangs, dripping black venom.
"You are in my way child, with you gone I will once more be feared by mortals, revered and showered with the souls of the sacrificed. With you gone the wild hunt will once, more fill the darkness with terrors and death... with you gone, I will once more be the goddess hag of deep winter"
Lines creased her face, melting the glamour of youth away, revealing the hag of winter, in her repulsive splendour. Limp black hair veiled the sunken face before him, as her gnarled fingers curled around his throat like steel bands cutting off the air, with complete disregard for his frantically scratching attempts of holding her back, even as her words shredded his soul.
" Die Jareth... Just let go... Sarah is already waiting for you in the veil... "
" No...Mother... please"
"Yes by now Gafael will have consumed what paltry power she possessed and have discarded the husk of her spend body..."
Eyes blacker than black burned him, Ripping at his sanity with poison tipped words.
" I should have known when that frail bitch was chosen to bear you, that you would be just as fey, just as weak... you are no child of mine... You are not even pureborn.."
Claws of midnight slivers raked his chest, tearing the bandages and flesh, ripping him open again spraying crimson blood across the room. Yet the pain did not compare to the hurt crushing his heart, as his mother's words turned it to brittle ice.
Gagging on the blood filling his throat, Jareth reached desperately for the power he had once had inside him, the power that now resided in Sarah, The power that was the only thing that could save him. If Sarah was dead then it would have reverted to him, it had no choice, nowhere else to go, gasping he plunged inwards, grasping desperately at the void in his core, begging to find it still barren, despite his own need.
Relief flooded through him as he found nothing in that aching empty place in his soul, nothing but cold dead darkness, darkness that called to him, to allow his mind to dissolve and bleed away like the blood in his veins...
Gripping her descending claw in hands strengthened by anguish, Jareth held on holding the bloodied talon mere millimetres from his heart pounding in the ruin of his chest, with renewed strength... Sarah lived, she lived and so he could not let go...
He had to hang on to fight, he had to be worthy of her...
"NO! ..."
Blood spewed from his lips at he cried out, trying against hope to stall and let Sarah do what needed to be done.
He had barely thought the thought to an end before the world wavered around him, like thunder without sound.
The world ground to a sudden holt, suspending all like glittering gems from a chandelier.
He was a cup, a chalice, and as the power of the Labyrinth filled the emptiness with glowing strength, Jareth knew only one thing, Sarah lived... And she had succeeded, she had bound them both... Reconnecting him to the living power that was the realm he ruled returning what was stolen.
The wicked gleam in her black eyes faltered and failed as his grip shifted and strengthened. Slowly he pushed back, pulling Morgaine's claws from his flesh, canceling out the damage as the shimmering claws withdrew.
Rage flower through him as he grasped Morgaine's stick thin wrists in hands burning with magic strength, forcing her up and off of him. Gold and black fire flared where their flesh met, the power of the Labyrinth flooding him with clear burning fury, as his grip shattered her birdlike bones like a crystal goblet.
How dared she!
How dared she trample his heart like that, how dared she betray him in such cruel a fashion, and make a mockery of his life up until now! Tears burned his eyes as the claws of betrayal sunk home, where the physical claws had failed to skewer his heart. Morgaine had been his mother, his haven and now she too had discarded him. But he did not need her, nor any other fey, he needed only Sarah.
"You are no mother of mine... I reject your tainted blood.. Morgaine, winters hag...you have no power over me!"
Pulling his power to him like a well loved and used garment, Jareth smiled with cruel intent, as her furious screeches accompanied the force of his rage pulling them apart, smashing Morgaine up against the golden stone wall with a sickening thud.
Hatred filled him, warming his icy heart as his power lifted him gracefully upright, while swirling around him in solid shadows until his armour once more covered him in royal grace hiding his vulnerable wounded body from sight.
Crystals danced from his fingers as he landed lightly on the floor mere meters from the pinned Fey queen.
His eyes twin mirrors of ancient cruelty when he glided towards her, the proud powerful Goblin King once more, his gloved hand pulling his shimmering smokey steel blade from thin air, with liquid ease.
"Your words have no hold over me, you poison is impotent.. You call me weak.. let me show you weak..."
A crystal of utter perfect beauty appeared above her dangling clawed hand as her face contorted into a mask of evil, with black eyes burning with soul-destroying hatred as Jareth raised his sword to strike.
Her voice was a gravely snarl of darkness:. " Mongrel Bastard..."
The crystal smashed into the floor before her as golden armoured seelie guards poured in through the door, lead by Hoggle, the shimmering crystal smoke enveloping her pinned body, and in that instant she was gone.