Chapter 46. Unpleasant surprises
Something about this tunnel seemed awfully familiar, and Sarah could feel her skin start to crawl. There was a scent in the air that triggered a memory, like it had happened the day before instead of years ago. Sarah stopped, looked behind her to find the passage had turned into a dead end. "Oh no," she lamented.
--
Jareth formed a single orb large enough to fill his outstretched hand. He watched her movements with the horde of goblins gathered about him. "I told you she'd head for the tunnel," he muttered.
"Won't she realize where she is?" Daisy asked looking at the orb.
"It will be too late," Jareth informed the guard. "I've seen to it that the tunnel is programmed to impede her progress. It will allow her to go forward, but only until she reaches the False Alarms." He chuckled darkly, before he looked at the blank faces about him. "Well, laugh" he commanded humorlessly. As the nervous goblins began to chuckle he looked once more into the orb. "Daisy, make it look as if you are all seeking her," he ordered over the chucking. "I want my guests to believe I'm furious, and that you are in hot water;" He nodded to her. "Talagon or his daughter or both will approach you."
"Talagon has his hands full with Lady Rosalind," the captain reported. "Last I saw them he was trying to unfasten her bodice and help himself to her bounty." She rolled her eyes.
"Remind me to replace her gown," Jareth sighed. "She'll never want to wear that one again." The goblin horde still tittered with forced laughter. Jareth sighed and looked at the Hobgoblin Captain. "Take control of these imbeciles," he tossed the orb up and it shattered into millions of flecks of glitter. "I go to remind that girl just who is King around here."
"Sire," Daisy cautioned. "Don't go off half cocked… we need both you and the Tagaan or Rhuukarlaan," her voice was respectful but firm.
"I understand my duty Captain," Jareth assured the Hobgoblin woman. "You don't have to remind me."
"You're a man," Daisy shrugged; "One whom this woman has wounded in many ways… seen and unseen."
"True," Jareth agreed without lamentation or expression of grief. "However what is about to happen will punish her and bind here far better than I could ever have hoped to."
"You understand that it binds you as well?" Daisy cautioned.
"I am content and accepting," Jareth stated. Goblin eyes watched with nervous twitches the conversation between the King and the Captain. Jareth looked at the subjects for whom he was willing to sacrifice everything. "Go; seek that which cannot be found."
Daisy sighed watching the horde flee the King and head off screaming into the darkness of the Labyrinthine night. "Great, now I have to round them up," she moaned.
Jareth placed a hand on her arm before she could leave his side, "Don't bother, let them seek to and fro," he suggested. "Make it seem like you have them under control."
She bowed. "Good hunting, Jareth Tuatha Dé Danann Huukec Mec, Warrior King."
--
Devon sat on a rack looking bewildered and bemused. The Hobs that had escorted both him and Bryn to the dungeon were standing off to the side casting lots and laughing. He looked over at the young woman who looked shell shocked. "Did he touch you?"
Bryn looked over at the man; she was hugging a wall trying to keep her feet. "No," she shook her head. She had not moved from the spot since they'd been unceremoniously placed in the large space outside the dudgeon cells. She'd lost track of time, but was certain that something was as a matter of fact up.
"He didn't touch you?" Devon asked again.
"No," Bryn snapped. "He didn't touch me."
"But you screamed…." Devon stood up, for a moment it appeared he was going to step closer to the young woman.
"He told me to," she admitted. "And right then it seemed like an offer I could not refuse." The latest bout with shivers passed and she looked at the Baron with wide eyes. "He never touched me."
Devon began to pace, "Why would the King need to create such a scene?"
"Why indeed," a voice entering the dungeons asked mimicking the Baron.
Devon looked at the entry where Master Sade was strolling in calm and collected. "Donatien, what is going on? He ordered us taken to the dungeons and yet we are not imprisoned…. What is going on?"
"That explanation will have to await the King," the master stated walking past the Baron and heading toward the mortal witch. "I really must get to know you mortals better." When Bryn moved back, he smiled coldly. "I have no intentions of partaking your pleasures child. I merely wished to observe you."
"Could you do so from a distance?" she suggested. "No offense, but you give me the creeps."
Donatien offered her a wise smile before he turned to look at the Baron, "For now, I'm afraid you will both be guests of the dungeon. We cannot have you wandering about and mucking up a well planned out campaign. The King asked me to see to your needs if you have any."
"My need is to know what is going on," Devon repeated. "Where is the King right now? Why is he not seeing to our needs personally?"
A wry smile came to the lips of the Master of the Guild. "He's tracking down his Tagaan or Rhuukarlaan," Donatien looked at Bryn knowingly. "She seems to have gone… what is the mortal term he used? Ah yes, MIA during the little argument over whom the Lord Baron should have asked permission to wed the mortal witch he keeps."
Bryn gasped. "Jareth wanted a distraction so Sarah would run off? Oh that's insane."
"On the contrary my dear," the master sighed. "That's Goblin." Donatien looked amazingly pleased with himself. "And our beloved Goblin King is just that…"
"He's tracking her," Devon looked at Bryn. "What was it you read in the library; something about goblin courtships?"
Racking her memory Bryn went over passage after passage she'd read, "Tracking… courtship… oh lord," she slapped her forehead. "He's planning on mating!"
Amused by the reactions of both the Fae man and the mortal girl, the Hobgoblin snickered. "She is his equal after all," he reminded them.
"She hates him!" Bryn stormed closer to the master. "She's libel to remove his liver and eat it before his eyes!"
"You underestimate the King," Donatien purred.
"He underestimates Sarah!" Bryn roared.
"Hardly," argued the Hobgoblin with a grin. "Jareth Tuatha Dé Danann Huukec Mec, knows exactly who and what Sarah Williams is. The real question here is does she?" He watched Bryn's facial expression shift from fury to questioning. "Sarah Williams is Tagaan or Rhuukarlaan, she belongs to the King as he belongs to her. It is the will of the Labyrinth, there is no stronger will at play here." Impatiently he tapped his staff on the stone floor. "Once more the Labyrinth shall have an heir."
Shaking his head, Devon disagreed. "The law states no child born of a slave can rule," he sighed.
Once more the Master looked at the Fae man with disdain; "Whose law?"
"Whose law," Devon repeated blinking furiously. "What do you mean whose law?"
Bryn's dropping jaw made a gasping almost strangling sound; "Seelie law? Seelie laws don't count here, not now!" She looked over at the Master of the Guild. "I'm not entirely sure they ever did count."
Donatien cocked one brow upward, before looking at Devon. "Where do you live? To whom do you owe your allegiance?"
Bryn could almost pity Devon; his state of confusion was heartbreaking. "Devon," she murmured. "You don't know…"
"No one seems to have made the connections," Donatien boasted brashly. "It's as if there's been this amazing conspiracy of silence. I'm surprised that you, an outsider see it so clearly."
"What are you talking about?" demanded the Baron. "Jareth cannot go against the court…his father is the High King, he's a Royal for Goddess sake."
"He's a Goblin," Bryn groaned burying her face into her hands before she dropped her hands down at her side in capitulation.
"Goblin King," Devon corrected not nearly as gently as he'd have liked. "Goblin King."
Master Sade yawned, looked at Bryn and bored to tears instructed, "See if you can make him comprehend. My time here with you is limited, I have other duties to see to while the King is on his hunt."
Nodding, Bryn moved closer to Devon. "Devon," he was still muttering about the High King and his fears of what this was going to do to their already tumultuous relationship. "Devon," she gripped his jacket. "Who was Jareth's mother, do you remember?"
Devon stopped his prattling, stared at Bryn for a moment, "No one mentions her by name." he stated as if that answered everything. "It was a scandal how she just dropped Jareth into Oberon's lap and vanished. My own mother never speaks her name," he lamented.
Gently she touched his face. "Devon, did you ever once bother to crack open even one of the books you own?" He looked at her in scandalized astonishment. "Devon, Jareth's mother was the child of a Fae and a Hobgoblin the Hobgoblin was a King A Goblin King Devon; The last great Goblin King."
Blue eyes stared blankly for a moment before they registered what was being said. "Are you certain?" Clearing his throat, Donatien nodded. Devon's knees buckled and he collapsed onto the rack. "If truth be told," his voice shook. "I think deep down I've always known."
The Guild Master placed a hand on the shoulder of the shaken Fae. "He is still whom he has always been," his words were meant to give comfort. They did anything but.
--
The orb in her hands began to vibrate, and Sarah found she could hardly hold the object. It seemed to have developed a mind of its own suddenly. It was as if the orb had ideas of its own and didn't wish to be handled not even by Sarah. The colors swirled, turned and spun about wildly as did the images in the perfectly formed crystal sphere. Had the girl been looking at the changing walls of the tunnel rather than the orb she would not have jumped and nearly dropped the orb when she heard a loud voice cry out.
"Go no further!"
Jumping violently the girl nearly tripped and fell, she spun around but saw no one standing near her. She then shivered forcefully as she turned to look at what she already knew was there. A great mouth carved into the wall, part of a face staring at her from only a few feet away. Just beyond this face were others lining up against the walls of the twisting corridor. She would have to make it past them, and she already knew that was not going to be easy. Their loud voices were programmed by something more powerful than she was. They would shout out to put fear in her, and she was already afraid.
"Go back the way you came," the great face commanded.
"This way shall bring you only heartache," warned then next face.
"Oh do be quite," Sarah snapped at the third before he even got a word out.
"How rude," he quipped.
Sarah inched her way into the area of the tunnel with the rest of the faces, the orb in her hand now getting very hot and hard to hold onto.
"You'll be sorry," one voice echoed from where she'd started inching in.
With the passage twisting, turning and going on and on, Sarah wondered if she were really going forward or just being led in a frustrating circle. If her hands had not been full she'd have liked to have used her hands to stop out the loud voices and their warnings. She inched past each of the faces using the glowing orb to light her way in the dim passage.
"What's that you got there, girlie?" one face's eyes were moving and looking at the glowing orb. "Stolen one of the King's crystals? Not a good move," he warned.
Without thinking Sarah glared at the face and growled. "It's not his orb and I didn't steal it!"
Another of the faces ahead started laughing, "Touchy isn't she?"
"Must be feeling guilty," the one she was standing before claimed.
"Shut up!" Sarah demanded moving on.
"Not very good at disguises either, is she?" a new face asked as she approached. "Not only does she steal the King's crystal, she steals the very shirt off his back," it scoffed while it laughed loudly causing the floor to rumble.
Sarah moaned, "Please, you'll give me away…"
"You don't really think he doesn't know you're gone, do you?" snipped another face.
"She thinks she's smarter than the King," laughed another.
"Sure she does," insulted another of the faces in what was now a cavernous chamber that seemed to be encircled by the yapping faces.
Sarah looked at the orb in her hands. "I just have to figure out how to open this orb," she said aloud to herself. "Once my dreams are back where they belong… everything will be fine…."
"Fine," mocked one stone face jeeringly.
"Fine," growled another.
Sarah looked at the orb, "How do you get these things to open, I wonder?" She turned the perfect sphere in her hands, over and over. "There has to be some way to… trigger it…" She was shivering with fury and agony. Being so close to her precious hidden dreams, and yet unable to retire them fully.
Jareth licked his lips, watching her made his mouth water. He wondered if he'd ever tire of her, but doubted it. Sarah was always Sarah. She fired something deep within him that no other woman, Fae or Mortal, had ever fired. He was certain it had been lust that had drawn him to her at first, then love, ever so briefly. Now it was something more powerful, a need that was primal. He hungered for her. He had watched her progress, watched as she worked her way down to this the deepest core of the Labyrinth. Here where no other Fae had ever been, where only he and other Goblins came. Here in the soils of the kingdom… in its heart…. Here, he smiled, it was time.
Sarah, hair disheveled, face flushed with frustration and tiny beads of sweat appearing on her brow shook the orb trying desperately to force it to trigger.
"Well," a husky voice said pleasantly, "If it isn't you…" Jareth looked fiendishly handsome in the muted light of the tunnel. "And just where do you think you're going?" he asked in a sugary congenially tone. He stepped out of the crevice that had hidden his presence. "What have you there in your hands, duulkac?"
His eyes devouring her, Sarah almost like a guilty child tried to hide the bubble behind her back. "Nothing," she gasped.
"Nothing?" he mused menacingly. "Nothing tra la la?" His steps were unhurried, graceful and sinister. His body radiated a heat, and his scent filled the cavern room. "Why don't I believe you?" he asked mockingly.
Sarah looked over her shoulder, wondering if she could out run him to the next chamber or the tunnel.
"Don't trouble yourself;" he stated as he stopped his movements. He raised his hand and commanded. "Here!" The crystal in Sarah's hand behind her back wrenched free, flying swiftly at the King's command. He gloated as he held the orb for her to see. "Once more we see that there is nothing you have that I cannot take away from you."
Sarah's hands looked like claws as she lurched forward, with her hands outstretched toward the King. A snarl ripped from her throat as she lunged toward the man intent on removing his eyes and regaining the orb. Jareth left the orb floating in the air above them as he began to wrangle with the enraged female. Like tigers they fought one another, the sounds that emitted from them were primal, and rough.
"A kopek on the girl," called out a face. "I say she rips out his eyes."
"A Copper on the king," bet another of the faces.
"They're just getting started," yet another called out. "But I say the King takes all. Put me in for a farthing."
"Is that as good as you've got?" he taunted needing her to be fully incensed, and needing her essence to be aflame.
"You fucking bastard!" she growled.
"You didn't like the pretty garment I gave you?" he taunted, "Had to replace it with rags that I've discarded?" His hands easily tore the breeches turning them into rags. He was trained in the art of warfare of old, she was not, and he used his leverage to knock her from her feet. He made sure as she fell that the cloak and the rags that had once been breeches protected her tender skin from being disfigured by the jagged floor of the cavern. Her wrists were captured in his vice like grip. She screamed like a banshee, her legs still clad in his discarded old boots kicked about wildly. The leather of his armor flexed and she gasped, he bent forward, growling in her ear as he nuzzled her upper throat.
"No," her eyes opened wide, knowing he was becoming aroused. "No, not here, not here!" she begged.
"I should have taken you that first night, there in the tunnel with that dolt Hoggle watching," he answered as his teeth scraped against her skin. "You were young, but you wanted me"
"No," she denied weakly as tears burned in her eyes.
Jareth worked his way, wormlike down from her throat to the beasts that were no longer covered by the opening of his shirt. "You want me now… or at least your body does," he crooned as she shivered under him. "Don't you?"
"No," she moaned, knowing her body was once more betraying her.
She squirmed under him, only enflaming the already furnace of heat building in his loins. "Fine," he said with more ease than he felt. "I'll leave you than," his hands eased their grips on her wrists and he began to roll off her.
Sarah's freed hands shot forward, gripping his collar, "No," she begged, as the flames began to surge through her body with a ravaging heat. "Don't leave me"
Bending forward again, he growled into her ear. She arched to him, her booted legs winding over his as he began to ground his hips into her. His rumbling tremble in his throat was rewarded with a parallel rumbling from the girl. He could feel the breath in her change, it became a shallow, low pant. Her eyes were glazing over with need, and she was fully aflame. He held back looking at her coolly. "Tell me what you want, woman…."
"You," breathed Sarah darkly. "I want you."
"You'll need to be clearer than that my girl," he warned as he pretended he was going to rise.
"Take me you bastard, fuck me! Rape me… do whatever you want... But God… take me now!" she cried passionately. "Don't leave me like this… hungry and hurting…"
Jareth whispered something, his garments vanished and he lay naked perched above her. "Whatever I want?" he repeated.
"Yes," she pulled him to her. "Yes, Jareth, yes anything, everything," she felt his engorged manhood pressed close to her. "I need you." She moaned.
"Then have me," he breathed as he shoved hard, fast and deep into her. "Have all of me, Sarah."
She had expected him to be cruel; she'd expected him to be brutal and pitiless. She'd expected vindictiveness and heartlessness. She had not expected him to be satisfying and congenial. Nor had she expected him to be tender or to take his time in inflaming her passions. His hands moved over her possessively and yet more gently than ever before. In the back of her fevered brain something told her this was different. Something primal and feral in her would not allow her to sort it out, not now. Her hands lost some of the tension; they relaxed and were no longer like claws. Slowly they moved over the smooth taunt skin of the king, skimming until they moved over his rippling muscles of his chest. It had started out to be brutal, but had quickly shifted, for both of them she could tell. She lay beneath him, her body arching to his movements and her breathing echoing his. He paused, bracing on his arms, looking down at her. She read in his eyes that this moment was going to change them. Written in his eyes was more than the possessiveness of a King over a slave. It was not love, but it was perhaps more powerful. He caught her attention with his eyes and held it. She arched as she knew he wanted her to, but her eyes were locked with his. His hips moved and he was pressing deeper into her.
"Ghec duulack," he growled in the oldest of Goblin dialects, and then growled in English; "My woman, always."
"Yes," she capitulated. "Yes."
He pressed deeper. "I'll never let you go."
Sarah moaned as he moved deeper still, she could feel the King filling every inch of her. "Jareth," she breathed uneasily.
Lowering himself he pulled her even closer. "All of me, Sarah." He warned, she nodded against his shoulder as he pulled back only to shove himself deeper. She cried out as he began to quicken the pace of his thrusts. "Forever," he growled.
--
Donatien had acted as the perfect host, upon his return from the dungeons. He'd allowed the minerals to play on, watched as the Fae guests and the Goblins alike danced in gay abandon. He made note of the fact that Lady Rosalind seemed to be flirting outrageously with Talagon. He was sure she would glean information of importance. He also made sure that Circe was not given the chance to interrupt the King's spy.
It had been hours since the King's slave had gone missing, and only once or twice had a stray goblin entered the great hall. The Guild Master watched with amused eyes as some of the Fae guests cowered away from the little grotesque forms. Hobgoblin guests looked at the common goblins with amusement and a nearly affectionate expression. As if they all were party to a special little secret.
--
Jareth lay spent still cradling the woman, and still embedded within her. "We have to go back," he said in her ear.
"Must we?" she looked at him with a pained expression on her pretty face. "I can't go back into that great hall… not looking like this, and I won't wear that vile thing you had me wear."
"No, you don't have to return to the feta," he nuzzled her cheek. "I'm sending you to your tower for safe keeping." He stated gently. "I know you have no reason to, but trust me."
Sarah breathed a heavy sigh. "What are you going to do?"
"Make it look like I'm punishing you, of course." He gathered her closer. "We have reputations to uphold and standards to keep."
"Are you going to punish me?" she asked sounding a little worried.
"Of course," he murmured. "However the world need not know just how, when or why."
"Why here," she asked quietly.
"Only my magic is strong enough to reach the heart of the Labyrinth," he responded without hesitation. "What we created is between us for now… you and I and the Labyrinth. It is her will, and we will honor it."
"I understand," she murmured against his shoulder.
"Do you?" His brow rose, as he pulled back to study her face.
"You are bound to the land," she rephrased it. "You and the land… are one."
"Yes," he agreed.
"Jareth, I read the scrolls…" his fingers on her lips silenced her words.
He looked at her not with love, not with sympathy but with commanding eyes. "Do not trouble your-self," he stated softly. "Trust me, my woman."
"You ask a great deal," Sarah lamented.
"I'm not asking," he stated caressing his possession. "I'm commanding you."
"Yes, sire." She sighed lowering her eyes, veiling them with her lashes.
"Pity we must bring to an end this evenings little rendezvous," he pulled back from her. "However, you must go to the tower and I must be seen reveling with the fools in the great hall." He rolled off her gently reluctant to part with her.
"You're up to no good," she accused as she sat up. "A lot of people could get hurt."
"I'm very careful," he argued lightly.
Without thinking she grabbed his arm, "Jareth I read the scrolls," she was adamant. "You need to be a lot more than merely careful."
He looked at her, at the hand holding his arm tightly. "I assure you, Sarah," he said at last. "I know what I'm doing."
"Promise me you won't try to avenge my death…" she said in a quick after thought. Jareth looked at her, thoughtfully and she added; "I am not Queen, I am only your slave."
Taking her face into both his hands, Jareth knelt up and pressed his lips to hers. "You are my woman, my Goblin woman… don't tell me what to do." He stood up and was instantly dressed again in his fine garments and his circlet. "Come, Sarah… time to put you on ice."
She stood up, ripping the tattered remains of the breeches from her legs. "Yes, sire."
He watched, amused, "And Sarah, don't ever dress like this again."
She looked down at her scruffy appearance. "It didn't seem to bother you before, in fact I think it turned you on," she replied a bit too saucily.
One ungloved hand snaked into her hair; he pulled her to him and kissed her roughly. "Don't tempt your sovereign," he commanded in a guttural growl. "Pull in those pretty claws, kitten… Daddy has work to do."
"Daddy," she growled back into his mouth, as she felt his magic carry them out of the cavern.
Daisy stood with a griffin's reigns in her hand she bowed toward the King. She didn't speak, there was no need. Jareth turned Sarah over to her without a word, knowing for now his treasure would be safe until it was time to bait the trap that would change the future of the Kingdom. He watched as Sarah mounted the griffin behind her guard, her eyes looked at him only once. He read what was flaming in the lava green pools. Something more important to him than love, he read trust. He watched his Tagaan or Rhuukarlaan and her escort until they disappeared into the tower. He smiled, knowing the plan was working. He snapped his fingers, and his hands were clad in leather gloves. With a breath he reappeared in the chamber connected to his great hall. Vociferously he strode into the space and moved toward Tanya purposefully. "I believe this is my dance," he stated taking her hand from a young Fae lord's. "Come Tanya…" he purred. "I want to feel how warm you are."
--
Sarah removed the last of the rags, and cleaned up quietly. She could hear the sounds of the feta still taking place in the great hall. The music carried up to the tower, filling it with its splendor. Donning a long flowing robe of green silk, she wandered over to the opening she and Daisy had just entered. "Do you think Della is alright?" she asked.
"Do mean do I think she's still alive?" Daisy asked pointedly, nodding in the positive. "For now, they need her… or so they think."
"What do you mean?" Sarah looked away from the opening to her guard.
"The Harpy was part of the plot," Daisy explained. "When Talagon and his cohorts tried to destroy the kingdom the first time."
"You know it was Talagon?" she questioned.
"We know a great many things," Daisy affirmed. "However we kept our voice quiet." She joined Sarah at the window, looking down at the great hall able to see dancing bodies in the room below. "For the sake of Zoltarie's Fae Queen and the treasure she kept for us." She looked sideways at the girl who was less and less mortal. "Vengeance is best served cold, don't you agree?" Her toothy grin was dangerous.
It was matched by one on the face of the Tagaan or Rhuukarlaan, "Oh yes," she agreed in a purr. "Mistakes are made in the heat of passion."
Daisy reached over, her touch didn't cause even a flinch in the girl. "You're more and more goblin; soon you'll be one of us."
Sarah looked out the window and breathed deeply. "Forever."