Chapter 2.
"Uh ...," Toby cleared his throat having for a moment forgotten all about Sarah. "Who are you?"
"Don't you know?" The man's voice was calm, almost kindly. Lightning traced the veins of the sky and lit up his face. He was not smiling, as one might smile on greeting a stranger, nor was his expression fierce. His eyes were fixed upon Toby's with an intensity he found compelling. When he took a step toward the boy, into the light shining from the doorway, Toby did not retreat. If his eyes and voice had not hypnotized him, the golden chain around his neck might have. A sickle-shaped ornament hung from it, upon his chest. His shirt was cream-colored, open at the front, loose-sleeved, with silken cuffs at the wrist. Over it he wore a tight, black waistcoat. He was shod in black boots, over gray tights, and on his hands were black gloves. Accompanying him was a very strong scent, one that lingered like spices and fresh air.
"I ...," Toby answered. "I ..." The humming that he had thought he heard in the air was now quite distinct, and musical. The stranger smiled at his hesitancy, Toby had not expected that. When he spoke, his voice was a whisper. "You're ... him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King..."
The stranger bowed, "King Jareth, at your service," he said in a crisp accented voice.
Toby blinked, "Do I know you," he asked trying to rack his memory.
"In a manner of speaking," Jareth teased. "We met once before, in this very room." He informed the boy, "However you were quite young at the time, I doubt you'd remember."
"We met in Sarah's room," Toby questioned, in a confused manner. "I don't recall ever meeting you… and not here in Sarah's room." Now doubt filled his features, and suspicion.
"Sarah's room," it was Jareth's turn to be surprised. "This is Sarah's room? Since when?"
Toby nodded, "For as long as I can remember," he said shoving his hands back into his pockets.
"Indeed," Jareth looked at the room, noticed the missing things that had been here five years earlier. "Well, imagine that." He chuckled, Toby shrugged lightly. "Well, no matter," Jareth continued. "I have saved you," he said. "I have liberated you from those bonds that distressed you and frightened you. You're free now, Toby."
Toby looked at the stranger cautiously, "Free," he questioned, "Free from what?"
The Goblin King cocked his head to one side, raised an elegant brow and urged, "Look about you boy, what's missing…"
Toby gasped as if the air was being sucked from his lungs. "Sarah!" He spun about looking for his sister. "Where is she?"
The handsome features on the face of the Goblin King turned smug, "You know very well where she is," his voice was a bit too pleased and the words sounded much too well praticed. "I really must thank you, young man for delivering to me my foe."
"Hold it, I want my sister back," Toby demanded hotly.
Amused Jareth chuckled. "What's said is said." He crossed his arms and smiled even more smugly.
"But," Toby sputtered, "I didn't mean it."
"Didn't you," Jareth asked the other brow now joining the one that was already raised. "Didn't you just?"
Guilt filled the boy, "Not entirely." He cowered slightly under the gaze of the Goblin King. "Well, maybe just a little, but not really…"
Clicking his tongue, the man in the midnight cape shook his head, "Bad habit you and your sister have, speaking without thinking." He looked at the boy and shrugged. "This time its cost you, perhaps next time you'll think first."
"That's cold," barked the boy, and added. "I want my sister back."
Jareth, amused that the child had no idea of how to ask for the challenge, baited the child. "Why, so she can disappoint you again?" He watched Toby's eyes become large. "I was listening, I heard the whole thing." He took another step toward the child. "Do you really want her back? No one will ever miss her; it will be as if she never existed." Jareth promised hoping it would ease the boy's guilt.
For a moment it appeared Toby was satisfied, but then the shadows crossed his face. "No, I can't do that to her… I don't want to be free," he answered. "I mean, I do, but -- I want my sister back. Please," he gave him a tiny smile; "If it's all the same to you."
Whatever warmth Jareth felt initially for the lad was quickly fading, "Well it's not all the same to me," he growled lightly. "In fact, I mind very much, so forget about your sister!" Jareth frowned, and shook his head. His expression was once more all concern for the boy. "Go back to your room. Read your books. Play your games. That is your real life now. Forget about the girl, she's no longer your concern. You've delivered our foe to us and we are most grateful." He headed toward the window, wanting to make a quick escape before the boy could prevent it.
"No, I can't just forget about her. And I didn't mean to deliver her to you, and I don't care if she's your foe," Toby protested before the man could reach the open windows. "Please bring her back, please;" he heard herself speaking in a small voice. "Please!" Toby hated to sound whiny, but there was no way he could help it now, he was feeling that desperate. He only understood one thing, he'd done something wrong and this stranger was the only one who could fix it.
Jareth paused, turned and looked at the boy for a moment; they regarded each other, adversaries trying to size each other up at the outset of a long contest. Thunder rumbled, distracting the king and breaking his concentration. Jareth raised his left arm, and made a large gesture with his hand, a grand gesture if somewhat reluctantly made. Toby looked around, thinking that he was summoning assistance, and expecting a horde of goblins to appear. When he faced him again, a glowing crystal had appeared in Jareth's hand. "I've brought you a gift, in exchange for Sarah," he said, holding it out to the boy enticingly.
Toby paused, "What is it?"
"A crystal, nothing more," Jareth said in his most enticing tone, moving the delicate orb to and fro, "Except that if you look into it ... it will show you your dreams." He watched as the boy reacted much the way Sarah had five years earlier. His eyes widened while he watched the orb with an expression of awe. Toby's lips parted involuntarily. With a teasing smile, Jareth watched his little face, while the shining crystal spun around in his long elegant fingers. Toby's hand started to reach out for it. He smiled a little more, and withdrew the crystal from him.
"This is not a gift for an ordinary boy," His voice warned, quieter now, and huskier. "Do you want it, Toby?" He held it out toward her again toward the entranced boy. His eyes were fixed on the dancing, flashing glints of the crystal. Jareth smiled, this was nearly too easy. "Forget Sarah," he urged gently. "Forget her."
While Toby hesitated, another bolt of thunder and lightning illuminated the sky behind the Goblin King. He was torn, The gift was not only seductive, it was also the choice of someone who understood , someone who cared about the secret places of his imagination of secret memories that were just beyond his fragile reach. Of how infinitely much more they meant to him than anything else. In return, he would have to trade his irresponsible sister who couldn't keep a simple promise! Who was, after all, only his half sister; the crystal was spinning, glowing filling his head with thoughts he'd never had before. He was angry with Sarah, and the orb's energies were playing on that anger.
Toby willed his eyes to close, and thought again about Sarah, who had spent countless hours talking to him. Taking him to the park, reading to him from her books, books she kept locked in her room. The times she'd taken him to the park with Merlin and let him play her secret games… From behind shut eyelids, he heard a voice answering. It was his voice, but it seemed to be a memory. "I -- I can't. It isn't that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do for me ... but I want my sister back," he opened his eyes again to find the Goblin King staring at him oddly.
Jareth experienced an odd sort of feeling of betrayal by the boy; his mouth had dropped open in surprise at the response made by the lad. "You'd defy me?" he asked incredulously. "Toby, think what I'm offering you. It is more than an fair exchange, that I can promise."
The boy heard the gasps that had to come from goblins gathered in his sister's room, "If I think about it," he murmured, "I won't be strong enough to resist."
Jareth lowered his arm, taken aback by the boy's honest reaction to temptation. He didn't have the heart to change the orb into a snake as he'd done to Sarah years before. Nor to toss the snake at the lad, he lowered his arm and winced. "Toby," his voice was shaking with emotions kept on a tight reign. "Don't defy me," Jareth sounded impatient, pleading but impatient. "Take my gift, forget your sister. I will not offer it to you again." He tried to sound firm, to sound insistant, but was having difficulty he had not expected.
Toby shook his head, backing away before Jareth could produce the crystal, and told him, "No." he paused. "Thank you all the same, but I can't do what you want. Can't you see that? I must have my sister back."
Unexpectedly, Jareth took a seat on the bed, and demanded, "Why?"
Toby reached up and his fingers raked through his hair, "I just do…"
"Not good enough," Jareth snapped.
"It's her wedding day, oaky," the boy raised his voice. "She's got to get married in two hours… She's going to be so mad at me…" he began to pace, and missed the expression of the face of the Goblin King go from confused to angry. "How am I supposed to explain this to my parents, or to Jeff…"
"Jeff," Jareth asked tightly.
"The jerk she's marrying," Toby shoved his hands back into his pockets once more. "OH I can't stand him… I don't know why she'd ever want to be married to him… he doesn't really listen to her… he just likes the attention he gets being with her…But he's waiting at the church, and he doesn't like me to begin with… If he learns that I wished her away…" the boy rambled on guiltily.
Holding up one gloved hand Jareth cleared his throat, "Am I to understand that you don't even approve of this match, and yet you're trying to get her back so she can go ahead with it anyway?"
Toby paused, "Sounds crazy to you too, eh?" He stopped pacing, shoving his hands back into his pockets, "It sounds crazy to me."
"Demented," Jareth airily agreed as he stood up. "Request denied," he sighed. "I'm not going to let you run the Labyrinth to bring Sarah back to marry Jeff the Jerk." He crossed his arms adamantly. "You would never find her, not in time."
Toby blinked something Jareth had just said had his attention, "Run the Labyrinth? Why does that sound familiar? I know this…I know this, but where from?" He swallowed the lump in his throat. "There is a place than, a place to look for her? Is this Labyrinth it?"
Jareth heard the wheezes of the goblins and looked about to utter a curse. Just for a moment, Jareth's face flinched. Toby saw it, the merest trace of apprehension and dread fleeting across his eyes. Was it possible? His nostrils tightened, and appeared to hesitate slightly before answering him. He could not quite believe it, but the suspicion that the Goblin King could be troubled, even if only momentarily, was encouraging. Optimistic the boy pressed again, "There's a way? There's a way and a place to find her and get her back?"
Jareth sighed and made a gesture toward the French windows, muttering to himself. "What is with this family," he twirled his hand and pointed through the window. "There!" He announced theatrically. "She's there."
Lightning flashed and thunder roared, as if on cue. Toby moved past the arm and toward the window, leaning out he stared into the dark storm, the sky was dark as night now. On a distant hill, brilliant in the flashes, he saw a castle. Leaning further on the windowsill, trying to see more clearly the boy gasped. There were towers with turrets, massive walls, spires and domes, a portcullis and drawbridge. The whole edifice was built on top of a sharply rising mound. Around it the lightning flickered and forked like snakes' tongues. Beyond was blackness. "Wicked cool," he muttered in awe.
From just behind his shoulder, Jareth murmured tightly. "Do you still want to look for her?" He rolled his eyes upward as the boy answered.
"Yes." He answered quickly, almost excitedly. "Is that ..." he remembered the words, words spoken long ago when Sarah had told him a wonderful tale. " ...the castle beyond the Goblin City?"
Jareth did not answer at once, and the boy turned around. He was still there, watching intensely, but they were no longer in the house. They stood facing each other on a windswept hilltop. Between them and the hill on which the castle stood was a broad valley. In the darkness he could not tell what was down there. The wind blew hair over Jareth's face, a face lost in a melancholy memory.
Jareth's voice came from behind her. "Turn back, Sarah. Turn back, before it is too late."
"I can't. Oh, I can't. Don't you understand that?" She shook her head slowly, gazing at the distant castle, and to herself, quietly, repeated, "I can't."
"What a pity." Jareth's voice was low, and gentle, as though he meant it.
The tightness in his throat made it hard for Jareth to speak, "Toby," he pleaded, "Turn back~ turn back now, before it's too late."
Shaking his head, his mane of hair moved wildly about, "I can't," he turned to look toward the castle in the distance. "Is that where Sarah is? It don't look that far," he muttered trying to sound brave.
"Doesn't," corrected Jareth at his elbow now. "It doesn't look that far," he looked at the boy with a smile that was icy. "It's farther than you think." Pointing at a tree, he added, "And the time in which to find her is short."
Toby saw that an antique wooden clock had appeared in the tree, as though growing from a branch. It looked very much like the one his mother prized so much. On it were marked the hours to thirteen, as on the antique clock in the lightning in Sarah's room.
Jareth looked at the clock as well, remembering another Williams, and the words he'd spoken to her.
"You have thirteen hours to unriddle the Labyrinth," Jareth told her, "before your baby brother becomes one of us."
"Us?"
Jareth nodded. "Forever."
When Jareth spoke again, his voice came out harsh and raspy, "You have thirteen hours to unriddle the Labyrinth," Jareth told the boy harshly, "before your sister becomes one of us."
"Us?" Toby questioned in confusion. "Who's us?"
Jareth added painfully. "Forever."
Magic still hummed in the air, now almost at a painful pitch. Toby was standing still, hair tossing in the wind, looking out across the valley toward the castle. After a while, he said, "Tell me where to start, what do I have to do."
Jareth sighed as he had once before on this very hillside, "Such a pity."
"What?" he turned his head to look up at him, but the Goblin King was not there. Toby spun all around he was alone in the night, on a windswept hilltop. The Goblin King had vanished as had the clock in the dead tree. He looked across again at the castle. The storm was passing away, blades of clouds sliced across the moon. Above he glimpsed the figure of an owl, wings spread wide on the air, as he flew steadily away from the hillside toward the castle. Toby took another step forward, down the hillside. But there was no ground beneath his feet and he began to fall.
The owl paused in mid flight, turned to look back, hesitated a moment then returned to his course. For now the boy would be fine, there were more pressing matters to take care of. There was a bride waiting in the throne room, and Jareth was sure she would be expecting answers. Answers he was not sure he was able to give.
--
From the moment she'd heard her brother utter the words, to the moment the darkness that had surrounded her had passed Sarah was sure of one thing. She was screwed. The fact that she was now standing in the circular throne room of the Goblin King convinced her, she was indeed screwed.
The room had not changed much in five years, with the exception of her recalling it as being much larger. Her appearance had been met with as much enthusiasm from the goblins as it had from her. Six had let out a blood curdling screech, two fainted dead away, four ran for cover behind a leaking ale keg, and one armor clad old fellow set off an alarm crying out, "She's here!"
Sarah calmly walked over, took the mallet he was striking the gong with and threatened to put it where the sun doesn't shine. The elderly goblin guard cowered and covered his head. She looked about, and knew the only safe place to sit was upon the massive throne belonging to the Goblin King. "This is just great," she muttered as she ascended the stairs to the throne. "What else could happen, and what is taking Jareth so long… he should be here by now."
--
Jareth didn't fly all the way to the castle, but took time to stop in his garden. He paced back and forth, mulling over how best to proceed. So lost in thought was he, he missed the entrance of the old wise man, and his bird beaked hat. The elder sage meandered up to his favorite seat in the garden and once he was comfortably seated waited for the Goblin King to notice him.
"He's going to wear a path," muttered the hat. "If he keeps pacing like that."
"He's got a great deal on his mind," cautioned the elderly goblin sage.
"What great deal, there's a wished away, and a runner… it's very simple," the hat glowered. "This is not rocket sicence."
"Not so simple," corrected the sage watching the handsome Goblin King pace. "Not so simple at all."
"Ha," the bird spat. "He had the perfect chance for revenge, and did nothing to bring it on! It has all fallen into his lap, and what's he doing about it… Nothing!"
"There's revenge, and then there's revenge," mused the sage.
Peering over the hat's brim at its owner, the bird beaked being narrowed his eyes, "Oh that's deep."
The sage shrugged, "Deep or not, it's true." He pointed in the direction of the King. "Here is a clear example of the caution one should use when making a wish. Old truths are still truths… one should always exhibit caution when making a wish, for you just might get what you wish for…"
"Ha," the hat exclaimed. "He's looking a gift horse in the mouth, that's what he's doing!"
Jareth stopped pacing, lowering his arms, he turned to face the pair. He had heard every word, even if he'd ignored the speakers up until this moment, "Theo," he addressed the old sage. "How are you?"
"I'm exceedingly well, and you Sire," his merry old eyes danced with mischief.
"Fine," Jareth said guardedly. "Just fine."
"So I would imagine," the old sage pulled lightly on his snowy white beard, "One does wonder though what you are doing here in the garden when there's a lovely young lady awaiting your presence in the throne room."
Eyes narrowing, the Goblin King frowned, "How would you know that," he demanded.
"One hears things," Theo the sage chuckled.
"Such as," Jareth inquired coolly.
The hat snickered; Theo looked up toward the brim, "Such as there's a young boy trying to make his way to the gate, and a familiar young lady in the throne room… I don't think she's going to be happy about being kept waiting, do you?" He looked at the King, "Or is there a reason you don't wish to reacquaint yourself?"
"One or two," Jareth sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. "I confess I'm in no hurry to return to the castle. This is not proceeding as I'd planned… I mean what's wrong with that family... Can't they just wish each other away, except the gift and go on with it like everybody else? No, she wishes the baby away, and then has to get it back… Now the boy wishes her away and instead of just letting it go at that he insists, no, he demands, the little monster demands her back!" Jareth turned to his old tutor with an expression of utter dismay. "What is wrong with that family?"
"A word of caution," Theo said rising to place a hand on the shoulder of the being who'd once been his student. "If I've heard of the girls return, it's only a matter of time before others know…" Jareth looked blankly at the elder for a moment. "Or do you want the boy to meet up with the gardener at the gate?"
"Hogsteeth!" cursed the King. "Blast, I forgot all about him…He'll go on some stupid quest to save Sarah," he changed to an owl and was gone, headed back in the way of the entrance of the Labyrinth.
--
Sarah listened to the murmurs and whispered voices. She could not blame them; her return was nothing short of serendipity. She looked about the throne room, wondering how anyone could live like this. Even as a teen she'd kept her room better than this!
"What's she doing here," a goblin asked watching her with big eyes.
"I don't know, ask her," was the reply.
"I'm not asking her, you ask her!"
"Not me, I want to live to see tomorrow!"
"Well I'm not gonna," the first one snapped.
Sarah was beginning to worry, what could be keeping the Goblin King, why wasn't he here to gloat about her being the victim of being wished away by the very child she'd risked life and limb to retrieve? By her recollection it had not taken this long for her to get stated… but then she was never sure about the differences in telling time here… Was it moments or hours that had past? And if it had been hours here, was it hours back home… If it was hours, could it be perceived that she'd left Jeff standing at the altar?
--
Toby felt himself toppling forward into the vast darkness. Only by swinging his arms wildly did he manage to keep balance. The hillside was very steep, slippery and the wind blowing was like a hand shoving him forward. His mouth had gone dry with fright, and his heart was now pounding in his chest. Carefully, he sat down feeling safer, but could not afford to sit there long, with only thirteen hours to get through the Labyrinth and find Sarah in the castle.
Toby tried slithering down the hillside on his bottom, but that was no good either. Rocks and little shrubs impeded his path and began to tear at the fabric of the rented tux pants and he dared not stand up to get past them. He felt tears rising, but blinked them away; no one was going to make him cry. Not Sarah, not Jeff and most certainly not this Goblin King.
He could do this, he told himself; he would do it. There were no limits to what he could do, given the determination, the ingenuity, and maybe a little luck. He would do it, he vowed as he sat on the black hillside with no idea how to move another foot. If he could get though the Cub Scout initiation he could get through this! This was a piece of cake….
High above, where the owl had flown, he heard a lark sing. He peered up at it, and by taking his eyes off the blackness below became aware that a hint of light was staining the rim of the dark sky. In awe he watched the light grow brighter, changing from red to pink, and then pale blue, and saw the edge of the sun inch up over the horizon. It was the most beautiful thing he could ever remember seeing. Nearly painfully so, Toby shut his eyes and took a deep breath, felt the sun warming his skin. With the warmth of the sunlight came confidence, it was then he knew; he would do it.
When he opened his eyes again, Jareth's castle was shining before him, its spires and turrets rimmed with the reflected sunlight. It was glorious, the most wonderful structure he'd seen in his young life. Wonderful, strange and yet oddly familiar, and calling to him like an old memory. He looked at it, watching the sunrise bath the Goblin castle in a wash of pink light. It didn't seem nearly as frightening as it had with flashes of lightening. Not at all, in fact, it looked~ familiar, it looked like home. He felt a strange pull in his soul and wanted to reach that wonderful castle, quickly. Anxiously he scrutinized the valley, which, like a developing photograph, took longer to reveal itself.
Everything about the hillside and the valley that lay between him and the castle seemed more than oddly familiar. Toby couldn't place where he'd remembered this from, but hoped it would all come back to him. He stood up, dusted off his frayed pants, and took a careful step and headed toward the all-encompassing wall that stood between him and the entrance of the Labyrinth.
--
In the dawning light Toby could see below a path that zigzagged down the hillside, he picked his way to it through the rocks and shrubs. At the foot of the path, he came to a great wall, strengthened with buttresses. It stretched as far as he could see to the left and right. Uncertainly, he approached the wall, with no idea what he might do when he reached it. As he got closer, a movement just at the base of it caught his eye. There was a little man was humming absentmindedly as he relieved himself into the murky and smelly green waters of the pond that had long ago gone stagnate. "Excuse me," Toby said slightly embarrassed at having witnessed the man's moment of privacy.
The little man nearly jumped out of his skin, covering himself quickly. "Just going," he said, before he had even looked around to see who it was. When he did turn, he had his face down so that he regarded him from under thick, bushy eyebrows. "Well!" he exclaimed, looking cross and astonished at the same time. "Well!" he said again.
Toby looked about himself, wondering who it was the little man was addressing in such a huff. The man was an odd little person, a dwarf but the strangest misshapen dwarf Toby had ever seen. He was not particularly friendly, but not hostile either. He seemed to be avoiding the boy's eyes, and Toby noticed that whenever he moved his hands the man's gaze would follow them. On top of his head he wore a worn red leather skullcap. From the belt that held his breeches up, he had a chain on which was a purse of ornaments dangling, costume jewelry as far as the boy could tell, not good stuff like his mother or Linda wore. On one wrist he wore a odd plastic bracelet. Toby saw the man's mouth moving to say "Well!" again and interrupted quickly. "Excuse me, sir, but I have to go through this Labyrinth. Can you show me the way in?" He tired to be polite.
Mouth frozen in the formation of a W, the dwarf blinked once or twice. Then his eyes darted to one side, and a faint buzzing noise could be heard. He rushed a few steps toward a bluebell; at the same time pulling a spray can from under his jacket, now forgetting and ignoring the boy. As he aimed the spray, Toby saw that a diaphanous little fairy was emerging from the bluebell. The dwarf sprayed it, with a couple of quick bursts. The fairy at once wilted, like a shriveling petal. Let out a faint cry and collapsed to the dusty ground. "Fifty-seven," the wee man said with some satisfaction, kickin' soil over the fallen form. "That'll teach ya!"
Toby blinked in surprise and gasped loudly. The dwarf answered with a grunt as he hunted down his next victim. Toby looked to where the fairy was lying on the ground, wings quivering and shriveling. He knew Sarah's instinct would have been to exclaim, "Poor thing!" and to pick it up gently in her fingertips and turned accusingly to the fairy-slayer of being a monster. He was also sure that if she had, she would have felt a sharp pain, as from broken glass as the fairy had bit her finger. This was all too familiar. "I know this," he said aloud wagging a finger in the air as if it would aid him in finding the memory… "I know this, but what is it?" He pointed to the fairy quivering in the dust, "They bite, they bite don't they?"
"'Course she does, they all do," the little man chuckled. "What do you expect fairies to do?"
Toby stammered, "Sarah thought they did -- nice things like granting wishes." Even as he repeated the words he'd heard time and again from Sarah he felt uncomfortable. This was from one of Sarah's stories, but he couldn't place which one.
"Ha!" the dwarf's eyebrows went up, and he chortled. "Shows what she knows then, don't it?" He raised his spray can and casually hit another bluebell with it. "Fairies doin' nice things, ha!" A second shimmering fairy fell down, turning brown like a leaf in autumn. "Fifty-eight," he said, and shook his head and complained. "They breed as fast as you can spray." He stopped, "What did you say just now? Who thought they did nice things?"
"Sarah," Toby said quietly, distractedly looking at the writhing fairy and then at the little man. "She called you a monster…" he whispered to himself, "Then… said you're horrible…" the boys voice was a whisper, as his eyes opened wide… "You…your Hoggle!"
The dwarf opened his mouth and no sound issued.
From somewhere hidden blue stormy eyes watched, and a voice full of hopelessness moaned softly, "Just great," the Goblin King sat down to brood, "Just what I needed."