Chapter Twenty Three

Retribution of the Kings

Arawn looked to the morning skies, knowing his guest would soon arrive. The Lord of Annwn always knew when to expect a visit from the Goblin King. He had seen to the soul sent him, and now awaited the other King to decide the retribution. Arawn did not have long to wait. Jareth, in owl form, could been seen in the distance.

"I bid ye welcome, Jareth." Arawn greeted his guest.

"I thank thee." Jareth brushed imaginary dust from his impeccably clean garments.

Arawn gestured toward a banquet table. "Can I off you refreshment?"

Jareth didn't appear amused. "I think not." He took a seat at a round table with some kind of board on it and two cups containing dice. "I have pressing duties at home. Let us get this over with."

"Yes, I've heard of your…pressing responsibility." Arawn took his place at the table, raised the dice cup and began to shake it. "News travels quickly, my friend. Is it true, you now have the only Champion of the Labyrinth under your… subjugation?"

"Sarah is mine." Jareth shook the raised cup. "What of it?"

"Fascinating." Arawn cast his dice.

Mismatched eyes watched the dice roll and come to a halt. He counted the points and jotted something down on a parchment. "I don't see what could possibly be so fascinating for you." He rolled his own dice and counted the points.

Arawn sniffed the air, and leaned back in his chair, amused. "You have given your seed to the woman."

"Don't be boorish," Jareth warned. "I have no intentions of discussing this with you, Arawn."

"Ah, I take it the word has not yet spread." Arawn rolled the dice in his cup again.

"No." Jareth counted the second roll cast by the lord of the shadow land.

Arawn looked at the younger Fae. "What are you up to?"

"Securing my kingdom, as is my duty." Jareth took his turn and counted the points.

Arawn looked at the points as they stood, "Does the woman have any idea of what is at stake?"

"She knows what I tell her." Jareth motioned the other to roll again.

"Knowing you, that is not much," Arawn rolled the dice again.

Jareth frowned; the points were low, and he wanted more retribution heaped upon the one who had ended the short life of the child. "She knows what she needs to know. She is my consort and carries my child, my heir."

Arawn placed his cup down. "Consort?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing on the younger Fae. "You are joking."

Jareth shook, and cast the die; a much higher score this time. "No, I'm serious."

"Why?" came the astonished question. "Is this not the woman you desired? Is she not the one you marked?"

"She refused me, turned down me and my kingdom. Or have you forgotten that fact?"

Arawn picked up his cup and shook it, "She was a child," he rolled the dice, and smiled at the high score. "Surely you can forgive the stupidity of youth."

Jareth tallied up the score so far, "Can I?"

Arawn watched as Jareth rolled. "Surely you are not still bent on retribution on this woman."

Jareth looked from the die to the older Fae man. "Retribution, no. Revenge."

The elder placed his hand over his lips. "Boy, let me understand this. You raged twenty years ago. Cried out that you … what…loved her beyond all loves."

"Don't remind me." Jareth leaned back.

"Now you tell me she carries your child as an act of revenge?" The elder placed his cup down refusing to continue.

The younger Fae rose and paced. "Twenty years of waiting… thinking she'd call. I could see her, I witnessed the events of her life…. And was left out." He slammed his fist to the table sending the game pieces flying. "Have you any idea of what watching the woman you've marked give herself to another does to you?"

Arawn sighed, "I have an idea, yes." He leaned on his elbow and placed his chin in his hand.

"All she ever had to do was call my name, and this stupid 'cooling' of Oberon's would have ended. I would have been free to…" Jareth was shaking with fury. "So I had to wait, and plan." He threw himself into the chair, "What I had not planned on was her ex husband wishing away their children because they were…inconvenient."

"The father wished them away?" Arawn frowned. "Stupid mortal. I suppose you were only too glad to answer that summons."

"All I had to do was tell her, watch her break…"Jareth covered his eyes with one gloved hand. "Twenty years to the day…and that wretch she married wishes her children into my hands.…All I had to do was gloat and go… but no!"

"You offered her a chance to win them back?" Arawn shouted. "Unheard of!"

"I had not planned on giving her that option. I was going to tell her I had her babies, and there was nothing she could do about it." He lowered his hand, looking at the elder. "But there she was, so beautiful. Even more so than that spoiled whiney brat she had been. She stood there looking at me with those green eyes, like hot pools of emeralds with such fire. I could not help myself, I taunted and teased, and touched her. No, make that pinched her… I pinched her. Then I touched her, slid one hand about her waist. She was not a child any longer! Touching her sealed my fate, and hers." He thought of the events of the past week. "I told her to run the Labyrinth or surrender to me and live as my slave the rest of her days."

Arawn leaned on the table; "You spent too much time at your father's knee, boy," he snickered.

"All I was going to do was gloat!" Jareth muttered. "I've got your babies, ha ha ha. Moreover, you will never see them again! It was the perfect revenge. Then I had my hand at her waist…"

"Gloved?" When the younger man nodded, the elder frowned. "I've heard of cases like this." The shadow lord leaned back, "I know a thing or two about your Labyrinth… it's not what it appears to be. Did you warn her that children are safe and adults are fair game?"

Jareth shook his head. "I only told her it was different from before," the younger Fae whispered.

"And still she took up the challenge?"

"I told her I was being generous in even making the offer," he sighed. "I knew there was no way she could win. Even without my throwing anything and everything I could at her. I reminded her at every turn of her first visit." He took off his gloves. "Arawn, I even had ammunition from her own child I used against her." He called the sketchbook to his hands. "Look."

The elder opened the book and looked up at Jareth. "Interesting." He leafed though the pages. "Sexual tensions and frustrations, I'd say." He leafed though more. "You seem to be her obsession as much as she's been yours."

"Seeing those," Jareth tapped the book, "Formulated the plan in my head to…use her to secure the throne."

"I know claims have been made." Arawn returned the book to Jareth. "I also know Oberon has refused to give any credence to them. Has that changed?"

"My stepmother has suggested the claims have validity," the Goblin King snorted.

Arawn rolled his eyes. "So you let her fail, and then charmed her into your bed…"

"No, I seduced and raped her in the crystal ballroom I created for her. Costing her time she could have used to win back her children." Jareth closed his eyes. "And I'd do it again, given the choice."

"Why?"

"It was her time… she was fertile." The younger Fae said with hot emotions blazing. "I could smell it on her… it was like an intoxicating perfume. She was nearly broken… I'd seen the sketches and decided to give her what her dark desires wanted. And I'd take what I needed. What I had not known was how much of my soul she'd become. Damn the woman."

"You bonded," suggested the elder.

"We bonded twenty years before in that blasted crystal room!" Jareth stated. "It seemed the perfect place to exact my revenge."

"But, twenty years ago, you didn't consummate." Arawn rose and began to pace. "Oh this is very interesting. Boy, you've been caught in your own web!"

Jareth nodded. "I made her companions of the last visit witness me impregnate her with my seed."

"Diabolical!" Arawn snorted. "But brilliant. No one can question the validity of the child. Not with witnesses to its creation." The elder looked down at the lad. "But to make her consort only…"

"She refused me! I offered her a Kingdom…and she turned me down…I don't make the same offer twice!" Shouted the younger king.

"Pride goeth before a fall," warned the elder. "Listen to me, Jareth. No matter how you feel about her…You have to warn her of what could be ahead."

Jareth shook his head. "No….but I am getting her ready for a battle. She thinks things were tough in the Labyrinth…Moreover, she is now the Chatelaine and my subjects are turning to her as they should. What surprised me was how quickly she accepted her role…and how good she is at the tasks a Chatelaine must perform."

"She is not the fifteen year old child you knew," cautioned the elder. "She's a woman now."

"Yes…" Jareth smiled wickedly. "And what a woman! She wears her age very well."

Arawn lifted the parchment and looked at the score. "I think this is enough." He handed the parchment to the younger Fae. "Let us look up the payment."

Jareth didn't rise to follow. "Arawn, I may have to ask your support."

"You have it."

"Even with my…" the younger fumbled for words.

"Even with your lack of sense in the handling of the situation. Yes." Arawn looked up the payment for the deeds done against the dead child. "I prefer you as Goblin King to any other of the claimants…especially Grizbine." He handed the document of payment to the King.

Jareth looked at the parchment. "Grizbine has the support of the High Queen."

The Lord of the Shadow lands shook his head. "Boy, I support you for reasons having nothing to do with my…arguments with the good Queen. Do you know my history? I too have been known to use sexual persuasion to secure the throne. What a King does in the name of the Kingdom is sacrosanct." He placed a hand on the shoulder of his young friend. "I should like you to consider me as a god-father as it were to your Heir. If nothing else, it will cause the good High Queen to have fits."

Jareth laughed. "Consider it done." He clasped hands with the Lord of the Shadows.

"Be careful with your little Consort, should Grizbine hear about her too soon…" warned the elder.