Confrontations
Brunga extricated himself from Ambrosius and a dwarf. He scuttled away from the group, all of whom were still recovering from the drop. His eyes adjusted to the gloom and he saw they were in a rough stone cavern. Low tunnels led in many directions.
"Which way to the wall?" the goblin asked.
One of the dwarves walked to a wall and tapped it. The others spread out, investigating the tunnel. Sir Didymus stayed in the center, calming his steed.
After a few moments, the dwarves gathered to confer.
"None of them go toward the wall," Hoggle announced.
Brunga slumped. "Are we stuck?"
The dwarves smiled. "How can we be stuck?" Hoggle asked. "Did you think we're a bunch of fairies or something? Who'dya think built all the rock parts of the Labyrinth in the first place?"
The dwarves gathered at one wall. They seemed to be pushing the stone out of the way — a tunnel opened before them. "This way," said Hoggle.
The party's progress was slow as the dwarves took turns creating the path before them. Even Didymus, following slowly on the limping Ambrosius, was silent.
Finally the dwarves pushed through into an opening. A voice boomed. "Who goes there?" Brunga began to scuttle back into the tunnel. Hoggle grabbed him and sighed.
"They're false alarms, ya dumb goblin," he said. "You never see them before?"
The party made their way through the corridors, setting off cries from the alarms.
"Beware for the path you will take leads to certain destruction."
"Darkness, darkness will cover you forever!"
Brunga, Sir Didymus and his steed crept along, cowed by the shouting. Hoggle and the other dwarves roundly ignored the warnings while tapping on walls, checking side passages, leading in a circuitous route.
They passed a section of collapsed wall and Hoggle jumped.
"All right, I knows how to get out from here," he exclaimed.
He quickly let the party through a twisting series of tunnels that seemed to circle in on itself. But at last Hoggle opened a door to filtered sunshine.
He turned to smile at them smugly. "The way out of the Labyrinth," he said, walking into a small room with a ladder that led up. They climbed.
"Now where are those pesky fairies we is supposed to meet?" he said, looking around the dank foliage at the foot of the wall.
A crystal floated just above their heads. Hoggle turned pale as he turned his head to watch it draw near a tree. A bird was perched on it. An owl.
Jareth fluttered out of the tree and Hoggle, Brunga and several of the dwarves fell shaking to the ground as he transformed. Even Didymus seemed to quail as the Goblin King advanced upon them.
"Did you think you could just walk out of my Labyrinth without my noticing?" the Goblin King asked, stalking toward the group, the crystal snaking through his fingers.
Jareth placed the tip of his boot under Hoggle's chin and tilted his face up.
"So my faithful dwarf isn't dead after all," he mused. "I would have thought your brothers would have seen to that. You did betray them, though not thoroughly enough, it seems."
Hoggle steeled himself and rose to his feet to face the king.
"All that's over and done with," he said. "I don't obey you anymore and I'm not scared of you neither."
The other dwarves stood behind Hoggle and glared at Jareth.
The Goblin King strode around the party.
"What shall I do with this band of traitors?" he said. "How interesting that there are still dwarves alive. The bog is too good for all of you, particularly you." He snatched Brunga up.
"You couldn't even keep your mouth shut, could you? You led her right back home," Jareth demanded, dangling the quaking goblin by one ear. "Perhaps you'd all like to join my other guests."
The Goblin King held up the crystal. Brunga and the other could see fairies huddled inside. Jareth smiled.
"No," a voice commanded.
Jareth turned and gaped. Sarah walked toward him, clad in a flowing white gown and accompanied by the fairy court, no longer garbed in rags but also in pure white.
"That's enough, Jareth," she said.
She gestured and the crystal leapt to her hand. She tossed it into the air, still holding his gaze. It burst and the fairies swarmed forth, joining the court.
Sir Didymus stopped trying to calm Ambrosias and strode toward Sarah.
"Your Majesty," he said, kneeling. "How can it be that I knew you not? For though thou art the mortal maid who bested the Labyrinth, yet thou art also the Fairy Queen."
Sarah smiled at the fox and bid him arise her knight.
Hoggle gaped.
"How touching," said Jareth. He glared at the company of fairies behind Sarah.
"I said enough, Jareth," Sarah said.
A light flashed, and the Goblin King and Fairy Queen were gone.