CHAPTER VIII
Soon after Eir had met the goblin king in the market, Sarah first joined the war council. While the attacks on the goblin kingdom had greatly diminished in the last years, they had not ceased, and the threat to the goblin kingdom and its citizens was not vanquished. Sarah knew that the days of keeping herself apart were over, the labyrinth and its chosen needed to stand together to fight the darkness that threatened them, and it was time to begin working with the goblin king. She didn't have to like it though.
And indeed she did not. It had been any bit as infuriating as she had expected. Jareth had long accepted that the labyrinth's human chosen was as powerful as she was resourceful, and his close bond with the labyrinth made him realize that her human background added a layer of experience and depth that, while alien to the underground, was invaluable and precious to the labyrinth. None of which made a whit of a difference in his demeanor towards her. Sarah never realized that Jareth's highhandedness and his unconscious arrogance had nothing to do with any personal disdain for her, but was rather the natural if overbearing behavior of a supremely confident and self-assured man who was used to things going his way, a man who had everyone falling in line with his wishes mostly because it was easier to give in to his overpowering personality than to fight. He certainly was not used to anyone his equal in power who would not cede a single step to him, nor to any woman who would not be seduced if he but gave it a try.
Sarah's first council meeting could not be called productive. She arrived in the goblin throne room arrayed in the finery the goblin queen wore to face a runner, darkly alluring, menacing and powerful, as always surrounded by a passel of goblins. As far as she was concerned, she needed any advantage she could get, and a look that screamed 'goblin queen' just had to be better than one that whimpered 'human'. A few decades bound to the labyrinth had given her more than enough confidence to forgo the goblin mask to cover her features - if they didn't like it, sod 'em. She knew that compared to fae she still looked like a scrub, but she had the confidence of her power and her position. Sarah schooled her face to be cold and give away nothing. She was the queen, and they better gave her that respect. Her entry was suitably impressive as far as these things go, the councilors knew her in their very blood for who she was the moment she walked in, and without a moments' delay they fell into the obeisance due the goblin queen, their faces aglow with honest joy. The goblin king was another matter. Rising from his chair, he walked over to Sarah with the grace of a hunting panther, radiating predatory charm as he smiled at the queen with intent. Sarah felt the same frisson she had in the market when Jareth came close to her and she pulled back her shoulders, her back ramrod straight, and smiled her brightest, most insincere smile at the goblin king.
"We are honored by your presence, my queen," he purred with a silken voice that raised every hair on her body, closing in on her and invading her private space without a second thought, stilling but a step away from her motionless form. "To what fortunate circumstances do we owe the pleasure of your presence?" Sarah felt his honeyed voice caress her as his mismatched eyes looked her over appreciatively. His mouth curved into a seductive smile as he raised his hand and brushed away a wild lock of short dark hair that had fallen over her cheek, his fingertips brushing completely un-accidentally against the skin of her cheek bone. Sarah felt the heat rise in her face as the feathery brush of his fingers left her skin tingling and ruthlessly squashed a sudden impulse to lean into his touch.
Outwardly calm and unperturbed she stepped back a step and smiled mockingly at the goblin king. "It gladdens my heart to receive such a ... warm welcome, goblin king. I had certainly hoped that your manners had improved since your unwarrantedly rude letter, after I so politely introduced myself to your court all this time ago. Had I but known that you were able to be so gracious to the labyrinth's queen, I should have come to the war council much earlier." The smile on Jareth's face lost all seductiveness and became downright threatening. Sarah kept her face impassive as she hid her inner turmoil behind the most formal words she had ever used in her life to anybody's face. She threw her head back slightly and shifted her weight, resting her hand on her hip. She coolly assessed the goblin king from head to toe and, hoping that her acting skills would not betray her, made her face show a hint of disappointment, as if in her mind she had weighed an adversary and found him lacking.
Jareth was furious beyond words - how dare this human chit scold him and worse, judge him? He conveniently choose to ignore the niggling voice in the back of his mind that told him that she had a point. The goblin queen's unexpected arrival and her subsequent show of obeisance when he had sat in court soon after the binding had disconcerted but impressed him, and it had wakened a sudden desire in him to keep her close. A woman who could impress him would most certainly make an excellent goblin queen at his side in the castle beyond the goblin city. Useful. On his terms, of course. Sarah's fears of the goblin king, when she had first come to the goblin kingdom, had to some degree been correct, for while Jareth was not an evil man and would not have forced or mistreated her, he would have used all his considerable experience, his charm and whatever manipulations he'd consider necessary to have the goblin queen do his bidding. For her own good, of course, for an inexperienced human would obviously need help to adapt to her new life as the labyrinth's chosen. And who better to shape her than the goblin king?
Sarah's cool disdain and her careless defiance as she faced him now was not something Jareth had encountered much in his life. The son of the Ard Ri and the queen Eriu, a powerful mage in his own right even before he had been chosen, he was accustomed to respect and admiration and had rarely been crossed in his desires, and the goblin king had never faced any resistance in his demesne. Jareth did not take well to being crossed, and he was not planning to begin now.
With a practiced guileless smile that would have made a lesser woman shake in her shoes, he offered his arm to the goblin queen. "I shall consider myself grateful that you have forgiven me, my lady. Let me introduce you to the councilors."
Sarah resolutely kept the smile glued to her face as she gracefully laid her fingers on the offered arm of the goblin king as they walked to the councilors who seemed clearly amused by their exchange. Jareth's introductions were graceful and imparted just the right amount of information and praise for the councilors, and Sarah accepted the introductions with equal aplomb. Porr was painfully polite and accommodating, and Sarah realized that his friendship with the king inclined him to treat her with some weariness.
No such reservations were discernible on the part of the other councilors. Sarah recognized the quiet, unassuming beauty of the dwarf lady that had accompanied the king in the market, the lady Sindri, the dwarf woman's courtly demeanor belied by the laughter in her eyes and the smile on her generous mouth. It seemed that she might find an ally there, as Sindri seemed amused at her little altercation with the king.
Sarah saw the young fae Toby among the councilors, and while she was surprised that a young, and as he had told her unimportant, member of the court should be a councilor, she was glad to know him there as she had taken a strong liking to the young man. She had seen a good bit of Toby in the preceding weeks as he had become a regular visitor to her market stall for long afternoons, and not only had he as much a liking for her pastries as his direwolf, he was a bottomless source of good-natured information about the fae and the court of the goblin king. It pained Sarah that she had to deceive him, but of necessity she kept her life as Sarah and as Eir strictly apart.
She had not met the lord Ningyo nor the odein 'Lo lani before, but she was well inclined towards their open smiles and honest welcomes.
Accepting Ikiaq's bow was the hardest - when Sarah worked in the kitchens as Eir every sennight, to bake pastries for the king's table, the castellaine welcomed her and made sure she never left the castle without generous provisions and small practical gifts that she valued highly, like a jar of fire ointment or a bag of lillok seeds. As Eir she had had many long conversations with the castellaine and found her herb lore and her knowledge of the ailments of many kindreds an valuable resource for her work as a healer on the road.
So, when Ikiaq and Toby addressed her as "your majesty", as probably was her rightful title, Sarah objected. "I would ask you not to address me as majesty. It is the title of a ruler, which I am not. I am the goblin queen, but the ruler of the goblin kingdom is the goblin king. I have no part in the ruling, nor do I want it. I would beg you to call me by my name, Sarah." She obviously had not thought this through completely, she thought with gritted teeth as the goblin king smiled at her possessively. Her attention riveted on Jareth, she missed the shadow of sadness that crossed Toby's features.
"Sarah suits you very well, my dear. A strong name for a strong queen," and he put his hand on her bare shoulder. Sarah fought a strong spell of dizziness threatening to overcome her and glared at the goblin king. She was glad that her voice sounded unaffected even though she had to force the words out of suddenly dry mouth. "Considering that I had no choice in my naming, that strikes me as a rather senseless remark, goblin king." She stared pointedly at his hand on her shoulder. "Are you quite attached to this hand, or will I take it off?" It came out more of a snarl than she had intended.
With a taunting smile Jareth slowly moved his hand off her shoulder, caressing the skin down her arm as he did so. "Do I make you nervous, my dear Sarah? Nothing could be further from my intentions."
Yeah right, Sarah thought furiously. I am sure it's all in my mind. What big teeth you have, goblin king. But she put on her best scornful smile and spoke in a voice cold enough to freeze water. "No, not nervous, goblin king. Revolted, perhaps, but not nervous. It is rather that I am afflicted by a most tiresome reaction to fae that I do try to minimize." All eyes on her, Sarah went on in her best I-just-have-to-make-the-best-of-it voice. "One of the more inconvenient side effects of being human is our reaction to fae. I believe we were bred to be attracted to fae, for how else could it be explained? I have found that however much I might loath a fae," and she kept her face pleasant and her eyes on the councilors, "my body still reacts to their presence. Male or female, kind or offensive, the beauty of the fae draws humans and causes us to react to them with pleasure, whatever I might personally think of them. Thank the night I have found that my mind is not so afflicted, and my judgment and behavior is not controlled by these rather unpleasant urges." Well, it was not technically a lie. She had found that all humans in the underground, including herself, were strongly attracted by the beauty and the allure of the fae, but she herself had never found it really difficult to deal with this appeal. For her, this glamour did not amount to more than a deep appreciation of their beauty and a tendency to instinctively think well of them, an inclination she fought by automatically assuming they were a bunch of bastards with pretty faces. It was only with Jareth that she found her physical reaction to be so overpowering.
"What a terrible affliction, my dear Sarah. How can you defend yourself against being overwhelmed by you own desires, well neigh against your will?" Jareth's solicitous voice did not match the barely concealed triumphant amusement in his voice.
"You should really try to listen to what people tell you, goblin king, and not only to what you may want to hear, " Sarah answered coldly, looking straight into his eyes. "It is a pity you cannot tell desire from a unwanted and purely physical reaction. I feel sorry for your paramours." A fleeting look of anger passed over Jareth's features. "You seem to be under the impression that base desire cannot to be dealt with, but I can tell you from experience that revulsion is a stronger emotion. And I have found that throwing up on a fae who will not understand a no is a powerful way of reducing their allure. And their desire. It is not even necessary to ask the labyrinth for help in these situations." So what if this part of the story was pure confabulation, it should work well enough to shut him up.
The meeting went downhill from this point on. It was obvious that Jareth did not believe that the goblin queen had anything to offer that he might be willing to accept. After another hour or so of trading insinuations and barely veiled insults with the goblin king Sarah had enough. "I believe, goblin king, that you may want to re-consider your attitude. I am not a mindless human doxy looking for a protector, nor a contender for any of your power. I do not need to be. Whether you like it or not, goblin king, I am your equal. My will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great. I am the chosen of the labyrinth, and you have no power over me." Jareth looked at her with undisguised fury on his face. "What matter are our childish dislikes and prejudices? In these last months I have held the body of a slaughtered shedim in my arms, goblin king, and I have cradled the pitiful remains of a dwarf child that had been murdered by the white Babdh." Sarah looked Jareth straight in the eyes and stared down the wrath in his face. She did not like him anymore than he did her, but what did it matter? "I am human, and my powers are different from yours, goblin king. I do not want to be here in your castle, and I know you do not want me to hold power apart from you, yet I will do whatever is necessary to protect my own. All I said to you when you held court was true. I do not desire worldly power nor position, but I will do anything at all to protect those sworn to us." Sarah looked at him entreatingly, her voice shaking with emotion. "I swear I will give you all in my power to give, Jareth, I will go to any length necessary to keep our oath to those who swore their lives to us. Will you not do the same, goblin king?" With these words she bowed deeply in a formal curtsey, and when she rose she gave him a tired smile as she turned and walked out of the room quietly, her head held high.
Her leaving ended the meeting, the councilors left the throne room subdued and did not look into their king's eyes as they bid him goodbye. Porr alone seemed inclined to linger on, but the lady Sindri was not minded to let him, and with a sweet smile and few words she had him offer her his arm and gallantly accompany her out of the room, any words he might have had for his friend wiped from his mind as he did his best to charm the lady.
/
The goblin king took to pacing around in the throne room which was rapidly filling with goblins, called to their king by his roiling emotions and by the labyrinth who wished to give him what consolation it could. SARAH IS PART OF ME, AS ARE YOU.For the first time in eons the mind touch of the labyrinth was diffident and unsure. YOU HAVE TOUCHED HER PRESENCE IN ME, YOU HAVE REVELLED IN HOW I AM MORE THAN I WAS. The labyrinth would not betray its promises to his human chosen, but there was much truth that could be shared. I KNOW SHE DOUBTS AND FEARS YOU, CHOSEN, BUT SHE IS YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED STILL. SHE BELIEVES THAT SHE IS WRONG AND SHE TRUSTS SHE WILL LEARN TO ACCEPT YOU. SHE HAS GIVEN OVER HER JUDGMENT OF YOU TO ME. The mind touch revealed to Jareth all the confusion and the anguish the labyrinth felt, new and unfamiliar emotions to a being that had never felt these particular notions before. DO YOU NOT TRUST ME ANY MORE, CHOSEN? SHE HAS NOT LIED TO YOU.
Jareth grabbed several goblins who had decided to crowd together on his throne and threw them into the crowd, then dropped into the seat unusually quiet. I am yours forever, and I will trust your judgment before any evidence my very eyes could ever give me. I will believe in you before anyone else I have ever loved or trusted. Without even noticing he called five crystal balls into existence and began to juggle them in his hand, the intricate movement calming him. It was a long time until he continued. I am not used to anyone being my equal, anyone not giving in to me. She might be more than me. He ground his teeth - he did not like to admit this even to himself.
YOU DO NOT THINK I AM YOU EQUAL?
The goblin king laughed out loud. No. You are so much more than I or anyone could ever be. I am not YOUR equal, nor could I ever be. Your power is beyond imagination, the depth of your mind is beyond reckoning, and your fate is beyond the ken of anything as puny as me. You have honored me beyond my wildest dreams, and I will do anything you want me to if you but ask me. There is nothing you may not have of me.
I DO NOT WANT YOU TO DO ANYTHING SAVE WHAT YOU WILL. YOU ARE MY CHOSEN, AND I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. AS I KNOW SARAH FOR WHO SHE IS. I WISH NOT FOR MY CHOSEN TO BE ANYTHING BUT THEMSELVES.
Jareth smiled to himself at the renewed vigor in the mind touch, the doubt gone, the touch full of the curiosity and wonder that were ever the mark of the labyrinth. MY KING AND MY QUEEN ARE WELL MATCHED YET DIFFERENT. YOU FEED MY SOUL BOTH, AND EACH OF YOU GIVES ME WHAT THE OTHER ONE CANNOT. I AM CONTENT. There was but a moments hesitation before the next words, and Jareth knew this for the influence of another mind's touch. For the first time since the binding he did not mind. SARAH NEEDS TO DO WHAT SHE MUST, AND FOLLOW HER OWN PATH IN OUR BINDING. SO MUST YOU. ONLY BELIEVE THIS, CHOSEN: YOU MAY NOT LIKE HER ACTIONS, BUT YOU MAY TRUST THAT SHE IS AS TRUE AS I AM. MY CHOSEN AND I ARE ONE.
Jareth leaned back in his seat and idly added another crystal to his hand. So then, work with Sarah. There was a lot to be achieved with the cooperation of another like him. This might actually be interesting, as unpleasant as interesting could be at times. He smiled into the crystals with predatory calculation. She was a woman still, and would not victory be even sweeter but for her powers? She would be his, he vowed, the queen to his king, as his mother was his father's helpmeet. In hugely improved spirits he began to banter with his goblins, and as the afternoon progressed, he sang to them. At length he noticed the queen's own among the goblin crowd, the goatish little Eek. As he called the goblin over, he knew the path he would be taking.
/
In the months that followed the war council took to meeting in one of the reception rooms, the need for maps of the land, tables for the piles of reports they were pouring over, and comfortable chairs to make the long hours of meetings more bearable made the goblin throne room a less than stellar choice, even if it looked more impressive. And as Ningyo remarked somewhat sourly, it was a lot easier to keep the crowd of goblins to a manageable number. It was a gray day in the goblin city, a slow, tepid rain had begun in the early hours of the day and gave no indication of planning to finish anytime soon. Yet still the weather was rather more cheerful than the mood in the council. They met several times a week now, and the duties the councilors had taken upon themselves left them increasingly exhausted. While the attacks on the goblin kingdom had ceased for a long time after the goblin queen's arrival, the violence had finally picked up again, ever more insidious. None but a few delayed stragglers arrived from Ardar Iforas any longer, but the prior considerable influx of members of many refugees of all kindreds to the goblin kingdom had proven more of a blessing than a burden, with so many new territories in the goblin kingdom begging to be cultivated and explored. The labyrinth was forever desiring more people to bind to, and its quiet physical expansion, which had been brought to pass by the queen's arrival, had still not ceased, but continued in spurts and leaps.
The few dark rumors that escaped from Ardar Iforas hinted that the situation there had gone from bad to worse for its citizens, but as the demesne was effectively closed to the outside world, little could be confirmed. The last refugee to find her way to the goblin kingdom had been a terrified dwarf woman who had been kept in Tahat as a personal cook to a fae lord. Her master's ability to protect her had ended quickly when Lleu had taken a liking to the lord's art collection. Bergljot looked like the quiet and harmless cook she was, rather than a hardy warrior woman who could brave all the deprivations she had gone through, yet against all odds she had managed to escape Ardar Iforas and the reach of white Babdh with her blood-beaked crows who was still haunting the borderlands. Babdh was no longer confined to the winter border but flaunted her savage presence in all neighboring borderlands, a scourge of all travelers to the goblin kingdom yet still leaving the oathbound unmolested, but her far-traveling ways might have well been the salvation of Bergljot. The councilors had given silent thanks to the Queen's Palisades at the winter border to Ardar Iforas, an impregnable barrier against any foul intentions Lleu might have had. Bergliot had been questioned before the council in depth and her stories made the councilors' blood run cold. Her terrifying tales of oppression and death in Tahat plainly told that the fae in Ardar Iforas had been broken to the heel by threats and violence, and no uprising could be expected in the demesne. It seems that even the fae themselves were not save any longer. If Lleu desired anything in the possession of a courtier and could not find an easy way to get it, a mysterious, violent illness would kill the unlucky owners within hours of being afflicted with a blinding headache, and none had ever recovered. In tears Bergljot told of a rare dwarf poison Lleu had torn from the mind of her father, a dwarf healer, under extreme torture; a poison that invariably killed unless the freshly prepared antidote was given within hours of the first symptoms. Since the preparation of the antidote required unusual ingredients and seventeen full days to prepare, this was of a rather theoretical interest to Lleu's victims. When at length the young woman had disclosed all she had known of the events in Tahat, the goblin king offered her the free choice of her life in peace, a house and a new life in the dwarf towns in the Simien mountains or a place under his protection, free to be what she wanted in the castle beyond the goblin city. The dwarf woman chose a life in the palace, under Jareth's protection.
But despite the protection of the Queen's Palisades, even the precarious safety for the bloodsworn against attack seemed to be waning. Strange beasts that had no place in the order of things had taken to hunt the labyrinth, mauling and killing its citizens, and since the beasts were just mindless animals and possessed of neither reason nor magic, the labyrinth could not detect and dispose of them before they had killed, and even if they left death in their wake it was exceedingly difficult to track them if they left the kill spot. It was like expecting a woolly mammoth to be able to keep track of the fleas that lived in its thick coat, for even magic as powerful as the labyrinth possessed was limited in its ability to deal with certain problems. Yet these predatory animals had no place in the labyrinth, they were not native to the land and had not hunted it before, and none knew how they came to be here.
But even worse fates began to touch on the oathbound. No blood was ever spilled on the ground, no mind screams alerted the labyrinth of an attack on its sworn, yet the lifeless bodies of dwarf and pixie, huldra and odein were found in all parts of the goblin kingdom, their faces contorted in a rictus of horror, without any mark on their bodies to explain how they met their end, their deaths an inexplicable riddle.
To top off their mounting problems, the weather in the last few seasons had been most unseasonable, too dry when rain was needed for the seeds to sprout, too hot when the tender seedlings began to grow, too cool and wet when the wheat and corn was ripening, and what little had grown in the fields was flattened by cruel cold hailstorms when it was time for the harvest. Since he had come into power, Jareth had been building and keeping granaries all over his demesne to provide for just such eventualities, and his foresight had saved his subjects from famine before. Yet three years of bad harvests had taken their toll on the granaries, and especially in the cities food was running low, and famine threatened. When the weather had proven detrimental for farming again this year, for the fourth year running, it had finally dawned on the council that malicious magic was at work, not just a really bad streak of luck. They could be forgiven for their oversight since controlling the weather required such strong magic that the thought had simply never crossed anybody's mind. Once the labyrinth realized what was going on, it had concentrated its strength to help along this years' plantings, using much of its power to influencing the weather over the central plains to a mild spring most favorable for the growth of grain, and as the water from the Haliakmon and the Tanais irrigated the rich black soil of the fields, the ground was neigh humming with magic, the seedlings growing fast and furious, helped along by the magic of the labyrinth. This years' harvest would be plentiful and early, allowing for another planting that would be made successful as well, but the months until the first harvest threatened to be hungry ones for many citizens of the goblin kingdom. Yet the effort to control the weather and the sheer amount of magic the labyrinth expended to protect this years' harvest also reduced the amount of power available for other projects the council had conceived of that relied on the labyrinth's magic.
Jareth leaned into the corner of his chair, his left foot drumming an aggravated rhythm on the floor, the other leg over the armrest. His eyes were narrowed and black with barely suppressed fury as he listened to Porr's dense explanation.
"As I am sure you all know, the ambassadors of the other demesnes of the underground have met with me in the last weeks, and I have received countless heartfelt assurances of friendship and assistance. They are horrified of the senseless attacks on our citizens in their demesnes, doing all that is possible to bring those responsible to justice if they can find them. They obviously utterly reject the evil that is visiting the goblin kingdom, slaughtering our people. They talked and talked and talked," Porr said with tired disgust in his voice. "We may rest assured that they wish us all the best."
He looked at his king with resignation in his eyes. "They will not do anything to help us, Jareth. As far as they are concerned, better us than them. They will simply look on, whatever happens, praying all the while that the attacks do not spread to their demesnes. We cannot hope for help from anyone outside. And that would be the good news." Porr was growling now. "As far as I can tell, the growth of the goblin kingdom has wakened the covetousness in a good many fae courts. They feel we are getting to big for our britches, and why should they not get a bit of all this new wealth? If there ever were a successful attack on us, I feel sure that several of our concerned neighbors would not mind picking over the corpse, after giving it a good kicking beforehand, of course."
The lady Sindri raised her quiet voice from the seat next to the chancellor when Porr fell silent. "However, Arrawn of Annwyn has given more than but a token of help. He has dispatched eleven fian from Annwyn to the goblin kingdom, and he has send word that more will be at our disposal should we need them. Over ten men and women in each fian, so more than one hundred Fianna, well-trained in arms and magic, are waiting in the guards' barracks to swear their service to you. They have sworn their lives and their honor to Annwyn, but they are prepared to swear their service and their loyalty to the goblin king for the duration. Those mage-warriors will be of much help in our fight against the darkness that threatens us.
The Ard Ri and queen Eriu have been similarly generous. Danu has sent many dozens of fae to our aid." Her voice shook with mirth. "And those are well-chosen fae indeed, Jareth. Your parents must have scoured Falias, Gorias, and Murias from top to bottom to find such as them. We all know that the high king and his queen do not truly approve of the way of life in the goblin kingdom as they cannot completely shake the fae disdain for those not fae, yet they seem to have managed to find those in their demesne who would not fully share their prejudices." She was laughing openly now.
"I do not know whether this was not rather a purge of potential discontents, but they have sent us truly superbly trained and equipped fae, powerful and strong in their magic, all of them sworn to help the goblin king with all their abilities. I believe whatever happens in the future, only very few of them if any will want to return after they have lived here for a while. Yet whatever the secondary intention of your parents' help, Jareth, they have given us strong fighters and courtiers well versed in diplomacy and politics, all of whom are sworn to absolute loyalty. The Ard Ri's and queen Eriu's endorsement and aid will discourage many other courts to commit any rash acts against the goblin kingdom."
Sindri's news had lightened the mood in the room. Encouraged, Toby spoke up. "Tiernan and I have been traveling the width and breadth of the goblin kingdom these last years. He is an amazing weapons teacher, best fighter I ever sparred with. He is driving himself ragged, he works like a man possessed. He throws himself into his work with all he has, and more, his hair is turning white already. It's all I can do to keep up. He's shown me so much, I can't even begin to tell you," he gushed excitedly. He blushed when he realized how much of his hero worship he shared.
"And imagine my surprise when I realized that I have some real skills in organizing people. It seems when I talk to people, someone will always tell me some bit of information that comes in most handy to solve another problem further down the road. It's not so much anything that I do, actually, but somehow I am really good at getting the people who know what needs to be done to actually share the information and we end up with a solution that truly works for the people we are trying to help."
He smiled shyly. "We have spend time in all the bigger settlements of all kindreds along the goblin kingdom's borders. Between Tiernan and me, we have managed to organize militias throughout the demesne, although that is a rather big word for some of these mobs. Many of the villagers have no use for any formal weapons training, they are experienced hunters and trappers and they know the land. They have no intention to face an enemy if they are able to kill him from the behind. However, Tiernan knows some exceptionally nasty tricks that impressed even the most hard-bitten of them. So we were happily able to teach even those who already able to fight pretty good some more ways to wreak havoc. The peoples of the border country are no soldiers, but I believe that we have managed to at least begin to organize them to a force to be reckoned with if we get attacked."
Toby grinned at Jareth. "Especially since their king can mind-touch them through their blood-ties to the labyrinth. This is an advantage none of our foes have, only the goblin king can communicate instantly over distance with his subjects. Whomever we may face in battle, we have this working in our favor. Now, I know that the communication is far from perfect, but we still can share more information than they can."
Jareth gave him a grin in return. "I understand that Tiernan's tireless work in training my subjects has already paid off handsomely. I hear the recurring fights in the more ill-reputed taverns of the goblin city now tend to break up as soon as the city guards enter the offending establishment. It seems my guards' newfound ability to break up altercations with minimum fuss and maximum pain on the receiving side has hugely increased their peace-keeping abilities among the more unruly of my subjects. And even my army finally deserves its name - Sed has been trying to get me to spend the time to properly train my soldiers for longer than I can remember, but I just never had the patience. Have you ever considered how much mind-numbing labor is involved in the training of an army consisting of too many willing, stupid and utterly useless goblins, each cursed with two left hands and ten thumbs, into anything resembling a fighting force? Tiernan's efforts in getting my soldiers to live up to their wages have finally shut Sed up. And when even Sed approves of my worthless army, it cannot be worthless any more. I do not know how Tiernan found the strength of spirit to kick my goblin troops into shape, especially since his opinions of goblins could hardly be lower, as he has always been at pains to make clear. But not only has my brother trained my goblins into a true army, after he went for a bout with Sed he even admitted to me that my goblin was better than he was. I believe he is getting sentimental in his old age. The alternative is that we are corrupting him. I hold out hope that Tiernan is ready to settle down. The goblin kingdom seems made for such as him."
Jareth smiled at Toby with approval. "And I want to commend you for your work, Tobias," he said warmly. "Your work in organizing our people has been most helpful. And do no deceive yourself, it is you who brings together all the different people and makes them work together effectively. You may not know yet how you are doing it, but you will find out over time, and get even better at it. Until you coordinated the spread-out peoples of the borders I had no real knowledge of how many of my people are worth a damn in a fight, or what their capabilities are. There has never been a need for it - the labyrinth and I had never encountered a foe before we could not deal with on our own." He smiled wryly. "Now it seems we will need all help we can get to keep us safe. Until we know our enemy, how can we fight him? I will need you, Tobias, to extend your efforts. We need some way to get the various militias' to work together in some at least half-way efficient way should the need ever arise. Now, you have proven most apt in finding ways to get people to work together well, so I will leave it up to you to find a way to achieve this."
And with this the council began its work of discussing in depth the various avenues of inquiry and work that needed to be done.
/
Well over an hour later the council was arguing about the possibilities of drawing out the enemy to put a name and a face to the darkness they were fighting, but this topic raised the tempers, as always. As the argument degenerated into a shouting match, as had happened before, the goblin queen quietly entered the room, with a smile and a gentle touch for the goblin guards as she passed them, leaving them grinning after her in maudlin ecstasy. Unnoticed by the council she sat down on a spot on the floor against the wall, with a view of the windows opening to the inexhaustible rain, rendering them an appropriate frame for the shouting councilors. Sarah leaned wearily against the tapestries that covered the walls, unmindful of her rumpled skirts, simply glad to be off her feet for a while. Long gone were the days that she wore the royal robes to the meetings, and much to the distress of the councilors she donned the everyday clothes of a working woman, a simple linen shift under cotton skirts and bodice, the only luxury the fitted boots of dragon leather and Eek's necklace with the labyrinth's medallion. Like a cat Eek slipped onto her lap in one practiced move and leaned into her unconscious pet. Fully become Eek was every inch the queen's goblin, her first advisor and her most trusted friend. Fainthearted he was still, and always would be, yet he could be trusted to follow any question his queen laid on him to its conclusion, however hard and dangerous the finding might be, and his advice was as true as his love. He was the queen's own, and he would lay down his life for his Sarra without hesitation or regret. Yet here in goblin throne room, in the heart of the castle beyond the goblin city, surrounded by an incensed group of oathbound councilors screaming at each other and at their goblin king, he could let go of his vigilance for his queen, for she was safe, and with this thought Eek leaned into Sarah's gentle pets and fell asleep in her lap.
Sarah smiled as she felt the small body relax and let the raised voices of the council wash over her. She gave a start as Etain and Cuchulain pushed their long muzzles against her face and neck, half climbing over each other in their eagerness to get as close to her as they could, as she had not noticed the animals leave their masters' sides. She felt her body unbend as the warm bodies of dog and direwolf lay down pressed closely against her and wondered idly how long it would take before anyone else noticed her, but she was in no hurry.
Her days of peaceful learning and exploring were a thing of the past, her quiet days as the dwarf trader and healer Eir shattered with the attacks on the goblin kingdom. She was ever more grateful to be able to function on very little sleep, for she had little time left for such niceties. She still traveled the goblin kingdom as Eir with her hundun companion Ankimo for support and protection, yet no more was she helping farmers stomped upon by their cows or children with broken bones from falling off a tree. Instead she grimly treated badly savaged villagers set upon by vicious animals, with deep wounds infected with rot, and children sick with illnesses that their small bodies, weakened by malnutrition or outright hunger, could not fight. Sarah's healing magic, drawn directly from her bond with the labyrinth, had become stronger with every year and she had become apt at consciously shaping the power to her need, but her control was visceral and instinctive as she lacked the formal training any bearer of magic received in the underground. And yet, even had she had full conscious control of all her magic, she still would not have been able to save many of those who turned to her for help. So despite all her desperate efforts she had amputated too many limbs from people who needed to be whole to survive their lives, she had held too many children as they died from diseases they should have been able to fight off on their own, and her spirit was weary.
Yet she soldiered on, for such was the responsibility of the goblin queen, in plenty or in need, in peace or in war, in living or in dying, until she might depart the throne, death take her, or the world end. And so she traveled the back country with her cart and gave food to the needy, most often for a promise to help their neighbors when they could, since the most desperate had nothing to pay her yet they were not beggars, and proud, and she healed the sick, and comforted those she could not heal. And with gritted teeth she observed and remembered all she encountered, to make use of in the nights when the labyrinth and its queen were laboring to the best of their abilities to make the goblin kingdom safer for their subjects, and Sarah's imagination would dream guardians into existence, protections shaped into being with the power of the labyrinth.
And sometimes on the road, when her strength ran low and her spirit was sapped, the labyrinth would spirit them away from the road and deliver them to the mists, to create a space of quiet and isolation for them, rendering them apart from the rest of the goblin kingdom. Back home in the mists Nehorai who sang of the night dropped his hundun disguise and changed back to his shedim form, and Sarah regained her human shape. They joined their voices in the consolation of dreamsong with the shedim brethren, creating peace and beauty in an outpouring of need. The song of joy bereft of life in his heart as were his mate and his son, Nehorai could not join in with the goblin queen's passionate rendition of the song as she infused it with a power far beyond that of the other shedim who shared in the singing with her, yet he always felt its' peace envelope him, beckoning to him stronger every time. The songs of power gave Sarah and Nehorai the strength to face another day, their spirit renewed by the promise of hope, and the labyrinth would return them to the road, dwarf woman and hundun. Sarah had become ever closer to the shedim who had joined her to revenge his dead family, and had instead found himself entrusted with the goblin queen's spirit and trust. He shared the travails and worries of a war with a human woman who had become his unlikely family, his friend and confidante, when he had been sure that loneliness was his only fate after the death of his beloved. And so they traveled on, sharing their food, their healing and their love with those they met on the road in the goblin kingdom, and made their way into the fairy-tales of the underground, as in the great years to come mothers would tell their children about the dwarf lady and her Hundun companion who would give them their blessings and a gift if they were a good child.
Sarah was leaning half asleep against the wall and so missed the goblin king's sharp eyes alighting on her relaxed form, crowded by goblins, dog and direwolf. Sarah did not know that the goblin king had long been observing her closely when she came to the meetings every few weeks. She had become thin and tired in these last months, Jareth thought with a start. He wondered how he could have missed the extent of it, but then, it was hard to get a good look at the queen at the best of times, for she never stilled enough for quiet observation. Sarah was like fire, in constant motion, her dark, low voice doing but half of her talking as her hands accompanied her speech with graceful counterpoint, restless like flames, never still. Now, as she leaned against the wall exhausted, her fire died down to barely flickering embers, he noticed how colorless and blotchy her skin was, not the pearly pale perfection of a fae lady but the unhealthy grayish tint denoting a lack of sleep, the shadows under her eyes like purple bruises, making her thick dark eyebrows stand out in stark relief. Her short curls hung limp and dejected around her head, flat and matted like a goblin's, the rich dark-chocolate brown hair with chestnut-lights dulled to a muddy brown. Her face was much too thin, the eyes huge in the narrow, peaked face, and even in repose a worried line showed between her brows, her thin lips pale in her face. With dismay he thought that her body looked much like a fae woman's now, willowy and narrow, with nary a curve to break the smooth and exquisite fall of her plain clothes. What had happened to the soft curves that had graced her body? Gone the inviting swell of her hips, setting off her narrow waist most becomingly, and he mournfully doubted that she was as pleasing to the eye in her low-cut leather cuirass as she had been. Jareth set his jaw and decided there and then that Sarah needed to be taken care of better than she was obviously willing to do herself. At least there would be no problem to draw the labyrinth or the goblins into helping him in this endeavor.
Sarah had rightly observed the perfection of fae beauty and the chasm between their glamour and a human's comparatively meager charms, and she had concluded that by comparison humans were lacking. The beauty of fae was absolute and unchangeable, for thus they were created. Their hair grew in silky, rich manes of absolute color, no mousy browns or dishwater blond for them. Black hair was as black as soot, so dark it reflected light in blue flashes; if they were blond, their hair was as the midday sun on a lake, or the color of rich honey; while redheads shone with the light of bright copper or the hue of flames. Their eyes were the colors of gemstones, their skin porcelain perfection, smooth, even, and immaculate, and their bodies absolute symmetry and elegance. No human could look at fae and not be drawn to them, as their beauty was the primal fantasy of man.
What Sarah could not fathom, being human herself, was the allure that humans held for fae. And yet the fae were powerfully drawn to human imperfection, for it was endlessly diverting and new, ever unexpected and surprising. Even more than their appearance the very nature of humans was impermanence and change, their emotions volatile and ever-developing, their minds unknowable and chaotic. To an immortal kindred slow to change and resistant to transformation, these were irresistibly seductive traits, promising endless diversion, a pleasing antidote to boredom. Thus humans were desired as lovers and companions by the fae, yet for all the attraction the fae did not trust humans as the very traits that attracted the immortal kindred rendered those they desired untrustworthy and unreliable in their perception. Of all fae Jareth was one of the few who had given his life to wild magic, chosen of the labyrinth as he was, and joyfully accepted change, impermanence and even chaos in his own life. It had made him an outsider among his own kindred, a position he laughingly embraced, but still his desires and proclivities had been shaped by his background and upbringing.
So he watched Sarah with fascination, and while he never let it on, he admired the strength and the stubbornness with which she threw herself into the protection of her subjects, without concern for herself. She made an admirable goblin queen, even though she was nothing that he could have imagined.
/
In a moment of quiet during the argument Jareth leaned over to Ikiaq and murmured into her ear. She smiled at him and got up, dragging Toby with her as they left the reception room. They returned a few minutes later accompanied by goblins carrying tablets laden with food and drink. When Toby saw Sarah leaning against the wall, he gave shout of surprise and ran to her, squatting before her as he told her to get a seat at the table, he and Ikiaq had brought sustenance to get them through the meeting. Sarah smiled and held her hand out to Toby, who got to his feet with the agility of youth and pulled her up in a smooth movement, walking her to the head of the table with the eagerness of a puppy. Jareth gave her a deep mocking bow and a wide grin and motioned to an empty chair next to him.
Sarah looked at him with a wry smile. "I cannot help thinking that sitting next to you might just kill my appetite, goblin king. Perhaps I should move to another seat."
With blatant and undisguised insincerity Jareth gave her a slow smile that held more indecent promise than she would have considered possible, his voice caressing and intimate. "Ah, my dearest Sarah, of course you should loose your appetite when seated next to me. Who can think of food when one's ... other desires have wakened? But just think, Sarah, isn't it easier to concentrate on the food if looking up does not bring the object of your deepest desires into your field of vision? You doubtlessly have the strength of character to stop yourself from turning your head, but how could you possibly stop yourself from devouring me with your eyes, when all it takes is looking up?"
Sarah laughed out loud and sat down next to Jareth. "How could a woman resist your charm, goblin king, or your powers of persuasion? You have made the seat next to you the inevitable choice."
Sarah had not been eating regularly for months, too distracted with the worries of her daily life, too guilty with the sight of hungry children going without meals. Not eating had become a habit she was barely conscious of after all this time, and she might have eaten only a few bites had Jareth not raised her ire with his curt behavior. She knew the burdens that weighed on his mind, heavier than hers as she well understood that the ruler of the goblin kingdom had more responsibilities than she did. She could not find it in her to be distrustful of him and furious any more, for she knew that he did the best he could, even if his ideas about what was best might veer wildly from hers. But she had no problems at all to get mad at him when the situation required it. So what if he was tired and cranky? Sarah knew how much Ikiaq worried about her milk-son, always looking out for his well-being as best she could, and one of her ways was trying to feed him. Jareth usually dealt with it gracefully and with humor, but today he was short-tempered and disagreeable, and it seemed he found something to criticize about any of the dishes that Ikiaq put on his plate. Sarah tried to make up for Jareth's ill behavior by eating of all the dishes and effusively thanking Ikiaq, but she felt that she probably did not make up for the disappointment the castellaine had to feel. At length she felt she could not eat another bite, and realized that she had been very hungry indeed. As she turned to Ikiaq, she caught a smile on Jareth's face that gave her pause. She looked at him suspiciously. "You were in an unusually critical mood today, goblin king," she inquired sweetly. "Is there any special reason to why this would be?"
Jareth schooled his face into a study of unconcerned surprise. "I beg your forgiveness if I was not the companion you had hoped for. But do not worry yourself, my dear Sarah, it must have been something I ate earlier today. "
"Of course it was. And now, goblin king, how about offering me the other cheek?"
Jareth just laughed and turned the conversation to some juicy gossip making the rounds at court, and Sarah let herself be distracted. It would not do to think that he might be looking out for her.
After they all had eaten their fill, the goblins refilled the mugs with steaming larak and took away the plates. An easy camaraderie had long sprung up between the queen and the councilors, and they were easily talking about some topic or other when Sarah leaned back into the corner of her chair, her feet tugged under her skirts. "I would be grateful if someone could explain to me why our neighbors seem to be so willing to set all ideas of self-preservation at nought ? They may be greedy, but I did not think that they were stupid. The last time a goblin king was murdered, the labyrinth closed itself down and left the fae courts childless. Aren't they worried about the consequences of an all-out-attack on the goblin kingdom?"
Ningyo smiled warmly at the goblin queen. "As you may know, lady Sarah, I am of the Maighdean-mhara, the children of Llyr. I had come to the goblin king's court bearing a warning from the Sao Llyr, yet was waylaid before I could make my way back." He could not continue for a few moments as he laughingly fought off a veritable tornado of papers that 'Lo lani lobbed at him in a storm of protest. "Yet swearing myself to the labyrinth has not weakened the bonds of kinship or friendship that I have with the people of the sea. I am in regular correspondence not only with my family but also with the lady Morveren, whom I have known since she was a child. I have been honored to have Sao Llyr's trust, and he has not withdrawn it." His face grew serious. "There had long been unsubstantiated rumors, loose talk on the wind, of a contender to the goblin throne, but it might just have been the imagination of a suspicious mind. Morveren has but recently sent me a long gossipy letter about the events of the last months at court, funny, smart, and completely harmless even if you read it with the most suspicious mind. Unless you know the cipher it is not possible to read the true content. Only the Sao Llyr, his daughter Morveren and the head of his armies know the cipher. Nykr leads the armies of the sea now, but it was my honor to serve the Sao Llyr as his commander before. It is a rumor no more, my queen." The room might have been empty for all the sound it held. "A man without face or name has laid claim to the goblin throne. He promises what the fae want to hear in return for their acquiescence. The knowledge of this touched the minds of the fae rulers without their recollection, as one morning they woke up knowing. Heart magic has touched the underground again, but the fae willfully shut their eyes to it in their greed. The contender cannot know about the labyrinth itself, else he would not act as he does. I believe he has an inkling of the power of the goblin kingdom, but he does not realize what it is, nor that he has made an eternal enemy of the labyrinth."
The deathly quiet that followed these words was broken by a malicious laugh from Sarah, who had sat up regally in her chair. Her words made no sense. "Do you realize how utterly repellent some of the runners are, councilors? What it takes to test the mettle of those who have wished away a child, and to suffer the nearness of those who do not care to make up for their misdeed, who feel no guilt, no responsibility? Having to breath the same air as they do is a violation. I always need a bath after one of those. The children we take are precious, and isn't the price we pay for the future of the underground much too high for the children to be given away as if they are worthless?" and Sarah smiled at Jareth without reservation, her eyes black with emotion, undiluted anger writ large on her face.
Yet Jareth understood immediately, agreeing to her words joyously and without hesitation. "I beg to differ, Sarah, as even the runners who truly deserve to get their wished-away back are usually rather tiresome to deal with, wouldn't you agree?" Jareth took the goblin queen's hand. "But apart from this little misconception of yours, I quite agree. Re-appropriating children is a demanding business, and why should it be wasted on those who will not appreciate the trouble we go to?" His smile was as malicious as Sarah's. "I foresee a sudden population explosion in the goblin kingdom, Danu, Annwyn and among the Maighdean-mhara. I believe having two or three children at a time might change the mind of some of our subjects who keep begging us to be blessed. I have high hopes this experience will seriously reduce the demand on our time in the future, don't you think, Sarah?" Jareth gave Sarah an exultant smile and raised her hand to his face, turning it and kissing her palm and the inside of her wrist. Sarah felt the touch of his lips like fire on her skin and it took her breath away, yet she looked at him in delighted complicity and winked at him as looked up at her with a beckoning glint in his eyes.
The councilors stared at their king and their queen in confusion and awe. Their fae king and their human queen looked eerily similar this instant; wild, cruel, and with more than a touch of goblin in their demeanor, unrestrained by rules and conventions, uncaring of anything but their desires.
Yet the goblin kingdom bred stout souls, so within a short time they objected with raised voices. However, neither Jareth nor Sarah would change their minds about no longer sending children to those demesnes who did not support the goblin kingdom. In a most unusual display of agreement they insisted that the present state of affairs could hardly be worse - the other demesnes not only were refusing to offer any kind of assistance to the labyrinth, but many of them could be assumed to be actually quietly abetting the man without face. Only the lady Sindri supported her lieges' stance, and when she ceased to argue the case, Jareth and Sarah looked at each other united in the assumption that the lady was doubtlessly planning on the best way of profiting from their decision. The only objection they gave into was Ningyo's. The former lord of the sea pointed out that any demesne that was granted children would de facto have publicly declared its loyalties. He argued that it would be preferable to have an ally among one's enemies, disguised as one of them, as a source of information that might prove vital. Ningyo was a proud man, yet he humbly asked to remember the people of the sea once they had defeated their enemies. Without a second thought Sarah rose from her chair and walked quickly to the councilor who hailed from the sea himself. She kneeled in front of the shocked man and took his hands, smiling up into his eyes, and swore to him that the population explosion in the sea was delayed only, not cancelled.
/
Soon they were discussing the potential fallout of the decision not to send children to the uncooperative demesnes, and the growing restlessness at the borders came up. As always the discussion turned to the protections and guardians that had been installed since the queen's last attendance of the council.
Sarah was quite miffed when Jareth began to mock the floaters. Calling them sky sheep was downright insulting.
"I will admit, my dear Sarah, that they are quite pretty to look at, like banners of brightly colored silks floating in the sky above the clouds, and even though their bleating is not utterly unmelodious, it is not exactly the most riveting music to listen to. In small doses, that is. Too much of their songs, and I would seriously consider drowning myself. You have created the very first instance of depressed sheep. And in truth, it strikes me as a pointless exercise to create a fluffy bit of beauty and call it protection."
Sarah gritted her teeth, why the night would he not stop calling her "my dear Sarah" in these dulcet tones? It should sound ridiculous and yet, the way he caressed her name with his lovely voice made her quite weak in the knees, not that she would ever have admitted to it. Thus, properly incensed she ripped into him. "Pray tell, goblin king, have you ever heard of reconnaissance? What would you do if you ever found yourself in a battle in bad terrain and you needed to know the enemies' positions?"
Jareth looked at her with a studied expression of patience on his face. "As I am sure you know, Sarah, we fae can shape-shift. There is not a battle when some of the birds in the sky are not our spies."
Sarah grinned at him in a way Jareth did not like at all. "What kind of idiot would not prepare for this in a battle, goblin king? I mean, if I were to run interference I'd make dead sure that nothing at all flies around in the sky - I'd assume any sparrow to be an enemies' spy. I'd bloody well stop anything fluttering around, and the labyrinth and I have come up with a splendid way of doing just that."
"So it was YOU," Jareth could not stop himself from shouting, out of his chair in a heartbeat and looming close to Sarah's unconcerned face. "I was frozen in midflight for hours, just hanging there, and ..." he stopped himself mid-sentence at the guffaw from the councilors. He stared at them furiously, but then the humor of the situation got to him. "Well, Sarah, you just may have a point here," he admitted somewhat grudgingly as he sat down again. "But how could those sky sheep be of any help?"
"The floaters aren't sheep," she growled at him. "They are a sentient kindred. They are blood sworn to the labyrinth, so you know they will be helping us should we ever need them. At least try to be nice, especially as they might save your ass at some time in the future. I cannot really tell much, for not everything the labyrinth and I find in my dreams I can explain, and I don't know where the floaters came from. But they are always in the sky now, over all the demesnes in the underground, and nobody the wiser. They always congregate high up over crowds - fairs, harvests, celebrations, and people are getting used to them. Who will think twice if they are in the sky over a battle? But even so, their bright colors are a choice, and they can change them as they please, to anything, or nothing at all. They are so high up that any magic weaker than the labyrinth's cannot touch them, and the labyrinth and its chosen can touch their minds as they hover over the earth. Tell me, goblin king, is this not a protection? Deny an enemy knowledge of our positions while we know theirs?" Pressed, Jareth admitted was that perhaps the floaters were not a complete waste, but Sarah took her victories where she found them.
Not all guardians were as well received. Sarah had been rather proud of what she come up in the Naryn delta, in the border province of Quaraghandy. The Naryn was the border of the goblin kingdom to Makgadikigadi, and while the ruling Archon had never been an enemy of the goblin kingdom, as Makgadikigadi relied on heavily on trade with its bigger neighbor, the fae court of the Archon was rather proud of the fact that they were not of the goblin kingdom but pure fae. As far as the goblin queen was concerned, securing the borders against such as those was a good idea, and since the river was the border, securing the river marshes was the most logical solution. But just the mention of Quaraghandy got Toby riled. "That place is horrible. I just want to burn all that grows on the banks and sow the marshes with salt." He looked at Sarah with a mulish face. "I am sure that the Archon hates us and already cooperates with the man without name. He has already crossed the Naryn and planted horrors in its marshes," he declared with conviction. "When Tiernan and I went to Quaraghandy I went fishing, and suddenly I heard Cuchulain bark like mad, and scream in distress. When I ran to see to him, I found him fighting with a monstrous plant I have never seen the likes of. It looked like a monstrous bulb the size of a human body, with a red-lipped mouth the width of its whole head full of vicious teeth, and it was trying to eat him. The stem of that thing was small by comparison, with many tendrils growing of it, but it used its tendrils like ropes and its leaves like hands trying to hold Cuchulain down." Toby saw with some satisfaction that Sarah looked properly horrified.
Much longer experience, however, informed Jareth that the goblin queen's look was not horror but rather shock and guilt. He leaned back in his chair in anticipation. This should be good.
"And it was not only the big head trying to get Cuchulain, but here were many small mouthy buds nipping him, not that he seemed to care much," and with pride shining in his face Toby petted the direwolf on his side who yawned disinterestedly. "You should have seen him, lady Sarah, he had torn of many of the small buds off and had closed his jaws hard on the lower ... lip of that huge thing when I came close, and that thing was screaming. It was shaking its head and was flinging Cuchulain about, but direwolves do not let go easily. I took out my dagger, and this plant creature hissed at me and shouted. It had a man's low voice, and it asked me to call back my dog, how could it have known the dog belonged to me, it would never have attacked him. I was quite taken aback, and Cuchulain let go of him and came to my side. He had a few scratches, but that plant creature was in much worse shape. But I don't think I would have fared as well had that creature attacked me." The direwolf sidled up to Sarah to see whether he could wheedle a couple of treats out of her as he usually did, and he rather hit the jackpot this time. Guilt-stricken, the goblin queen petted him vigorously and kept feeding him treats as she addressed Toby with a smaller voice than Jareth had ever heard her use before. He just had to come up with a way of making her talk to him like that.
"Am, you see, Toby, I... say, did you kill the Audrey?" She sounded rather frantic suddenly.
As Toby's eyes nearly bugged out, Jareth had to use a long life's experience to keep his face neutral and refrain from laughing out loud. What had Sarah come up with now?
"No, Cuchulain was hurt, and I needed to look after his wounds, so we left as fast as we could. But back in the village, after I had tended his wounds, I went to the nearest sanctuary and shed my blood. The labyrinth took the knowledge of what I had seen out of my mind and comforted me. I thought those abominations were long destroyed. Who is Audrey, lady Sarah?" His voice had gotten ominous.
"Ah, yes, ... the plants. Their name is Audrey. The one who attacked Cuchulain is one of the guardians I put into the marshes." The goblin queen shouted down the ensuing cacophony with a bellow. "Night sake, do you take me to be an idiot? The plants are fully sworn to the labyrinth, and while I'll admit they aren't exactly the nicest kindred, they certainly cannot be even counted among the ten worst things that live in the goblin kingdom, so get off your high horses. They are oathbound, and they are additionally magically bound to the labyrinth - they cannot break their oaths even if they want to. I figured those things might need an extra layer of security as they are rather greedy and constantly hungry. Not to mention amoral. They cannot attack or hurt any of the oathbound, on punishment of immediate destruction. And as to the why, you know as well as I do that Quaraghandy is not densely populated, and the Naryn is bloody long, an open invitation to any uninvited visitors." She grinned nastily. "I have seen one of the Audrey's make short work of an adult wild boar, and I sleep much better knowing that Quaraghandy is save. Any crossing without invitation will face an opponent that is as deadly as it is unobtrusive - or probably not face, as the Audrey's prefer to take a bite out of their dinners from behind ." She looked at the councilors with apology in her face. "I didn't think to include lifestock and companions into the list of things to be left uneaten, I mean, they need to eat something and I only thought of wild animals. I am sorry, I will make sure to fix the unfortunate oversight. I am so sorry, Toby, it just never crossed my mind that they might go for Cuchulain. Although I think an Audrey is no match for a direwolf." She hesitantly put her hand on Toby's sleeve. "Forgive me, Toby, I never meant for anything like this to happen." She looked at him hopefully. "You know, they are nasty, but they are really quite funny. And you should hear them sing."
That was the final straw for Jareth who broke down in helpless laughter on his chair. Life had certainly become far more entertaining since the goblin queen had begun to bring her dreams to life. He hoped that once this war was over he would have the leisure to experience the less deadly variety, but really, it was all good.
This final piece of unpleasantness however had convinced Sarah that now might be a good time to call it a day and hope that everyone's ruffled feelings would have calmed down the next time she could make it to the council, and she took her leave very soon afterwards, not as graceful as she might have wished, but she just wanted to get away from the highly amused face of the goblin king.
/
Later in the afternoon Jareth walked back to his quarters from lunch with Ikiaq and Nerromiktok in his milk-sister's rooms when his curiosity was roused by a loud and not very good chorus of voices in the distance. He followed the raucous laughter towards the kitchen and walked in just as everyone there went into the final rousing repeat of the chorus of some tavern song. It was a masterpiece of astounding lewdness that would have made a sailor blush, and it had a most catchy tune. Jareth just knew that he would hear this one again and again - his goblins could never resist a rousing song.
He leaned in the doorway with a grin and looked at the chaos the kitchen always presented to the uninitiated eye. As a child he had trailed behind Ikiaq enough to see it for the intricately choreographed scene it truly was, with the many people hurrying around knowing exactly where they were going and working together in well-practiced movements. The dwarf woman Bergljot had proven herself to be a gifted pastry chef, and she, several other cooks and the head cook were in deep discussion at the stove, no doubt going over the perfect pairing of courses for tonight's dinner.
He scanned the kitchen for the short curly head of the dwarf trader Eir, for if his kitchen servants were singing dirty songs, he knew she could not be far. She had increased the song repertoire of his goblins and servants, as well as his own, even if only a few of those songs were fit for polite company. They were all very entertaining, though. Not that he was going to tell her. She was conceited enough as it was. When he saw Eir kneading dough at one of the low work tables, he walked over and greeted her. "So, you could not resist searching out my company again? Very commendable, but we have to be careful, Eir, or people will talk."
The older woman lifted her face to him quickly, a sudden smile on her face, clearly surprised by his unexpected presence, but that did not slow her response. "As well you know, goblin king, your money is lovely beyond compare, and how could a poor woman resist its lure? And you know us dwarves, we keep our deals. You pay me lovely money, I bake unusual breads and pastries for your tables. And now, why don't you get this oversized body of yours out of the light and park yourself somewhere you're not in the way?" Jareth moved to the corner of the work table she had pointed to and rested his foot on the edge. "I hope you know where you have been walking around in these boots of yours," Eir promptly berated him. Night, sometimes she sounded exactly like Ikiaq. "I am beginning to be glad I don't have to eat the stuff I bake here." He laughed, but did not move his foot, and watched the woman as she efficiently kneaded the dough. They spend a while in companionable silence, until a last Eir stretched her back and looked him over carefully.
"Nice pants you have there," she said with a grin. "Don't leave much to the imagination, but real nice and tight indeed. Must be great to have magic to burn."
Jareth realized that he would doubtlessly regret opening his mouth, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Pray tell, what would magic have to do with my choice of clothes?" he inquired amusedly.
"You know, I'm a pretty good seamstress myself, and I've made all kinds of clothes in my day. But good as I am, there's just no way I could have completely hidden the padding you're obviously using. Hard as I look, there's nary a wrinkle anywhere, no lumps, no seams, so obviously the stuffing has been magically disguised to not destroy the illusion of reality. Real good job, goblin king. Did you do it yourself?"
Jareth was torn between the desire to laugh and to strangle the smirking woman, but as always around Eir, laughter won out. As he had long discovered, a twisted sense of humor and a very thick skin were pre-requisites when dealing with her. She did not seem to understand the concepts of either tact or respect and was the most enjoyable sparring partner in conversations he had for a long time. Eir considered talking a competitive sport, and she played to win.
"You know, I've always wondered, does your voice go up when you sit down?" Eir asked him with an air of innocence that did not fool him for a moment.
"You do realize, Eir, that you exhibit an interest in my private parts that is rather unseemly in a woman your age?" he inquired in his most quelling tone.
As usual, it did not quell the cheery woman in the least. "I wouldn't call it private, boy, not judging by the way you are advertising. And my recurring comments about the family jewels", and she blithely ignored Jareth's cringe, "have nothing to do with obsession - I doubt you have anything I haven't seen before. Many times, as a matter of fact. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
Jareth laughed out loud. "Despite you calling me boy, my dear Eir, I am far older than you are, and I believe you are seriously overestimating your experience. Perhaps, just perhaps, your observations may be true for dwarves, but lady, there is so much more to experience than you have seen yet," he purred at her with a wicked grin.
"Don't squander your charm on an old woman like me, boy. It's a waste of time. And just imagine the bind you'd find yourself in if I actually took you up on your shameless offers."
"Ah, my dear Eir, do not worry yourself about my shameless offers," Jareth murmured sweetly, leaning close to the dwarf woman kneading the bread dough with an exaggeratedly seductive smile. "I have never, pace my detractors, seduced a woman unless I was sure of an enthusiastic response, so unless you give me a far more energetic invitation you may rest assured of a good nights' sleep." Eir looked up at him with laughter on her face and wiggled her behind. Jareth grinned and continued. "And believe me, charm is not pointless. Really, you should try it sometime. Honing one's charm is never wasted. I would consider it practice, my lady Eir, if only there were a woman who would not look at me with disdain if I addressed her the way I always seem to end up talking to you. But hope springs eternal, and a king must be ready. Who knows, the ability to trade insinuations and insults might just come in useful at some point in my future. I like to be prepared for all eventualities. "
Eir grinned up at Jareth. "I live to serve, goblin king. And if you want me to keep my mouth shut about your - pants, you might want to stop dangling them in front of my eyes." As Jareth closed his eyes with a pained expression, Eir went on undeterred. "Have you ever given any thought to what the world looks like to a poor dwarf woman surrounded by fae? At this point I have a crick in my neck just to make sure I don't constantly stare where you wear your padding. It's not my fault that my eyes are not at a polite level. Night knows, I mostly stare up at you, as well you know. And I am damned sure you like it that I have to look up," she finished huffily.
The goblin king winked at the woman who now busied herself with the loaves she was shaping. "Ah, but admit it, Eir, it is worth looking up at me. Such an uplifting sight, isn't it? And by the way, I do not believe you should harp on about shamelessness, Eir, such hypocrisy does not suit you. After all, are you not the woman corrupting the tender minds of my innocent goblins with the bawdy songs you teach them? I am rather tired of being asked to enlighten them about the words they don't understand. Which would be most of the verbs, nouns and adjectives. Especially since some of these words are rather difficult to explain even for me."
"Innocent goblins? Come on, pull another one, goblin king. I imagine they are no more innocent than their king. And don't try to tell me you don't have first-hand knowledge of pretty much everything my songs go on about, so you should find it easy to explain it to your goblins, no?"
Jareth looked at her with a wicked grin as he sat down rather elegantly on the edge of the table. It seemed he was unable to do anything but graceful. "You do understand, my lady Eir, that in just about any other demesne your king would have you hide if you dared to talk to him this way. Yet you persist in talking to me with shocking familiarity, and there is no lese-majeste you are not willing to commit. You seem to enjoy a life on the edge."
For a moment Eir looked up sharply from the loaves she was putting on the baking tray for the second rising. "Blaming the victim, are you? You do understand, goblin king, that it is you who keeps coming to the kitchen to talk to me, don't you? And considering how much you pay me for the pastries, you're pretty much guaranteed that I am coming here every bloody sennight. So it stands to reason that the problem is you, not me. And that shite about insulting my king - you are not my king. I have no king, as I am sure I have told you many times before. I don't have to give account to nobody, and that suits me just fine. I don't take orders well, never have, and I am too old now to change. And I also never been able to believe that I am worth less than anyone else. Course, neither am I worth more, but I do my best to ignore that part. Swearing fealty to anyone, giving up my own free will, giving in and calling it a compromise - well, it just goes against the grain."
"I take it then that you've never been married, Eir? Unless of course dwarfish courtship asks for a cudgel over the head and a dragging of the hapless mate to a cave?" Jareth inquired with utmost politeness which was rather belied by his taunting tone.
"Hah, just goes to show how little you know," Eir answered with some heat. "Just because you like your women docile, sweet and accommodating does not mean every man does. And anyways, ..." and suddenly she stopped and stared at the bread loaves on the baking tray in deep concentration. "You know what, goblin king? Damn it, I think you are right." Jareth grinned rather self-congratulatory. "In the end, my man did trade me for someone who was a lot more docile and accommodating after all." She looked up at Jareth with a true smile. He smiled back, a bit sheepishly, as it had not been his intention to actually insult her. She seemed to take the memory in her stride, however. "Who'd've thunk I'd agree with you on anything," Eir said with some wonder. "I guess someone like me doesn't do too well in marriage. Had I been born a man, nobody'd consider me selfish or unacceptable, but a woman who won't put her own priorities lower than her man's desires probably is most successful on her own." She grinned. "On the other hand, goblin king, despite all those beautiful fae ladies bending over backwards to please you," and Eir pointedly talked over the goblin king's groan at her words, "I've noticed that these days you seem to be spending more time with me than with any of those desirable ladies."
For a moment Jareth felt his temper flare, but he stomped on it resolutely. He had to admire Eir, it had been a while since anyone had been able to endanger his countenance. Well, anyone but her. And the goblin queen of course. "And I would have believed that an experienced woman like you did not jump to conclusions, my dear Eir. Since after all, how would you know what I do after nightfall?"
Eir had a very ribald laughter, deep, loud and without any touch of restraint, and Jareth found himself laughing with her. The woman picked up the baking tray with the loaves of bread - night, but those dwarf women were strong - and carried the tray to the heat shelf for a second rising until they were ready for baking, calling out to him over her shoulder: "And anyway, d'you think me stupid? I wouldn't talk to you at all if you were the kind of prick that cannot take as well as he gives. Playing with fire is not one of my pastimes, much too easy to get burned. And as to why I keep talking to you - well, you're an arrogant bastard, but I must admit, you're occasionally entertaining. Not quite as stupid as most of the fae hanging about at your court, and you actually seem to care about people. And you even occasionally say something I didn't know before, so talking to you is not a complete waste of time."
Sarah thought that her words were surprisingly true. The arrogant goblin king she knew in the council meetings was heartbreakingly beautiful, viciously charming, maddeningly seductive and made her so angry at times she could have screamed, she rather loathed the supercilious bastard, as she firmly told herself. The only reason that she was able to deal with him at all was that he was also a brilliant ruler, with an absolute and single-minded determination to protect his chosen and his people, and she whole-heartedly shared this determination. So they worked together for a common goal if grudgingly, forever testing each other, forever sparring, their guards up and their selves carefully shielded, just about tolerating the other for the common good.
The man she talked to when she was Eir however was nearly a friend. The goblin king Sarah knew in the castle kitchens was a very different man from the one she knew in the war council. She'd seen him drag the castellaine Ikiaq into a laughing dance through the kitchens as the servants had been singing some silly song they were fond of, or join them in a supremely obscene ballad that had they had taken a fancy to on another occasion, as he was visiting to help himself to some morsel directly from the simmering pots. Everyone working in the castle not only gave him his due as the king but seemed to genuinely like and admire him. He knew everyone's name and circumstances, easily inquiring about families and unobtrusively offering help when necessary, with a devil-may-care sardonic grin. Sarah thought that, for a blessing, unlimited memory capacity seemed to go along with immortal life, but she had still been surprised to find that he had been bothered to know those of no importance as much as the powerful courtiers. She had been jolted out of her complacency by his quick wit and even more by his amused und utterly unaffected poise when the joke was on him. Over time she came to understand how he was such an effective ruler, as he was endlessly curious about anything happening around him and had an astounding breadth and depth of knowledge about any number of topics, and always trying to learn more. As Eir she felt at ease with him, not measuring herself and finding herself lacking in some respect, and since she felt no obligation to be nice, she was herself instead when she bantered with him, smart, sarcastic, and unrestrained. And while even as a nearly-friend Jareth sent her hormones into overdrive, she could ignore that and just enjoy his company - even back in her human life she had had crushes on unavailable men, so it was nothing she could not deal with. Her reaction might be stronger than she had ever experienced in the past, but then again, she was not just the veterinarian Sarah any longer. Being an elderly dwarf trader allowed her to feel relaxed around Jareth, as she was confident he was not going to make her do anything she'd regret. She enjoyed his company, and maybe, just maybe, she might occasionally fantasize about him, but only as Eir, for she kept her adolescent daydreams strictly apart from Sarah, who remained wary and not completely trusting of the goblin king. Sarah had once tried to explain this strange mental arrangement to Nehorai, but he had just looked at her uncomprehendingly and declared her mad.
While Eir was finishing her baking, she told the goblin king of what she had seen in her travels, and her sharp observations and clear-sighted evaluations of the conditions faced by the denizens of the goblin kingdom wove reality on a much more personal level than the dry facts in the war council could. For this was what the goblin queen did best. Hers' was not the talent, nor the wish, to shape the fate of the kingdom among the great, but to see and participate in what came about as it happened. She shared the joy and the suffering of her people, and she understood politics and policies as they were experienced, not by those who made them, but by those whose everyday lives' were affected. Her blunt depictions of life in the goblin kingdom for those not blessed with power, wealth and magic were exactly the counsel that the king had been lacking. Jareth had found Eir's stories enlightening, to say the least, and his fondness of her as well as his respect for her judgment had made him consider asking her to join the war council. He came to his senses in time - not only was the trader on the road much of the time, he doubted that she had the patience or the manners to deal with the council. He shuddered to imagine a meeting with both Sarah and Eir in attendance, for while it likely would be entertaining, he doubted that he could face both women at the same time and escape unscathed. He had however begun taking the woman's advice into consideration when he thought about possible ramification of whatever decisions he took, and found that her advice, while rarely something any of his councilors would have thought of, often opened an avenue of inquiry that had not been explored before. Jareth was well pleased with the state of affairs, and the time he spend with the irreverent woman always passed quickly.
/
The goblin king strolled next to the dwarf trader as she left after finishing her day's work. His stride much longer than hers, he shortened his steps while sneakily keeping them just a breath too long for Eir, and she hurried along next to him rather ungraciously. He inconspicuously kept an eye on her while they were chatting, so when she realized what he was up to, her kick to his ankles missed completely as he laughed at her, keeping the infuriated woman well away from him as he held her at arms' length until her anger had run its course. When they finally made their way to the courtyard where her cart stood, as always Ikiaq had made sure that her hundun companion Ankimo had filled it with as many sacks of grain, dried meat and fruit as could be fitted in. Actually, rather more. Magic allowed for far more supplies to be loaded into Eir's gypsy wagon than would have been possible otherwise, without being too heavy for Lazarus to pull. Without the matter ever being discussed, the goblin king and the castellaine had decided that the dwarf trader made an excellent distribution system for food in the goblin kingdom. It was an arrangement that suited Sarah admirably, and all parties involved were well content.
Eir merrily cracked the whip over Lazarus head and the caravan rattled over the cobblestones of the court yard when Jareth's voice rang out over the din. "And Eir, since you tend to get around, be careful if you get to the Naryn. Should you travel to Quaraghandy, don't leave the roads. Actually, if I were you, I'd stay well away from any lush, high growth at all, grass is the highest green thing I would get close to. The goblin queen has been putting some very unpleasant guardians into the marshes of the Naryn, so don't even consider a bath in the river. I would hate to have to do without your pastries." With a grin Sarah lifted a hand to a not-so-polite salute over her head as the caravan left the courtyard and left the castle beyond the goblin city behind her.