Seven

Chapter 9: The Greatest Freedom

The dying fire crackled in the hearth while Jareth and Hoggle sat huddled over the Book of Secrets. The pages had turned themselves at Jareth's command to show him more about the sorceress's curse. He had read carefully again and again, disbelieving the truth that the book laid out on its pages. The Wiseman had told him that the book would reveal the truth to him and it had. Jareth desperately wished it hadn't. He sat back with a groan and looked at Hoggle, who gave him a wary sideways glance.

"It can't be true," Jareth sighed to the dwarf.

"I warned you," grumbled Hoggle. "That woman is no good. Never has been, never will be."

"Thank you for being so sympathetic," Jareth snapped. He put his head in his hands. "There has to be more than this," he said wearily. "Surely she doesn't know. She wouldn't do this—would she?"

"She would and she has," replied Hoggle. "Face it, Jareth, she played you for a fool."

Jareth looked back at the page, searching desperately for some clue that Sarah might not know the full truth of her curse, but there was none. She had had the book in her possession for ages. She knew what it said.

Jareth groaned again. The dwarf was right. He had fallen for her tricks and would have to pay the price. He read the terrible passage from the Book of Secrets again.

The curse of the Morrigan upon the sorceress Sarah shall be unbreakable but by death or redemption. The answering of the questions of Men shall loose the power upon the answerer. By acceptance of the power, the answerer binds himself as redeemer and releases the sorceress of her bonds.

The truth was there in black and white. He had unwittingly given Sarah the means to free herself and bind him in her place.

"No," Jareth said, shaking his head. "I never agreed. I never accepted that power. She can't bind me."

"You used the power, didn't you?" asked Hoggle. "Use is acceptance."

Jareth slammed his fist down on the table, rattling the dishes on it. He stood and stalked angrily to the fireplace, kicking his chair as he went. It was unfair. He had read the final question of Man:

What gives Man his greatest freedom?

There seemed to be no way for him to win his freedom. If he refused to answer the riddle and give the sorceress her song, she would enslave him. If he gave her what she wanted, he would be bound in her place. No matter what he chose, he would lose.

"Why didn't the Wiseman tell me that?" Jareth wondered aloud. "He said my choice would be between love and death, not captivity and a curse!" He sat down listlessly in front of the fire and stared into the flickering flames that were dying in the hearth even as his hope dwindled to ash and smoke. His heart ached with the burden of the awful truth. Sarah had not only betrayed him, but cursed him as well. A cold tear slid down his cheek.

"There must be more," he whispered. "There must be a way out of this. How can I free myself?"

Unseen by him, the book on the table flipped its ancient pages. Hoggle looked at the page and his eyes widened.

"J—Jareth," he called. "You should look at this." Jareth didn't hear, lost as he was in his heartache and regret. The dwarf hauled the heavy book off the table and turned to where the distraught man sat at the hearthside. "Jareth," he said taking a step toward him.

"JARETH!" echoed a booming voice from outside the shack. The walls shook, knocking books and boxes from the shelves and loosening plaster. Dust rained down around Hoggle and Jareth as the voice called out again.

"JARETH! COME OUT HERE AT ONCE AND FACE ME!"

"Stay here," Jareth told the dwarf as he moved toward the door of the shack to obey the sorceress.

"Wait!" cried Hoggle. He shoved the Book of Secrets in Jareth's hands. "Take that. Read it. There's more you should know."

Jareth nodded and accepted the book before opening the door and stepping out into the clearing. He looked up at the shadow-draped figure standing before him.

"Hello, Sarah," he said with a haughty snarl.

The sorceress narrowed her eyes at him and scowled. Her face was ghostly pale in the moonlight, but her green eyes flashed angry fire. Lightning split the sky behind her, signaling a coming storm and her dark hair billowed wildly in the gathering wind. She was beautiful and terrible and Jareth feared and loved and hated and pitied her all at once.

"How dare you greet me so casually," she spat. "You who have defied and fled from me!"

"You lied to me Sarah," Jareth shot back. "You said you loved me, but you lied about me being able to free myself."

"I did not lie to you, Jareth," answered the sorceress, her tone softening somewhat. "If you answer the questions and give me the songs, you will be free from me. You will owe me nothing."

"You neglected to mention the curse!"

"My dear, Jareth," Sarah smirked. "You never asked."

"How can you say you love me and then betray me like this?" Jareth growled. His jaw clenched in rage and he could feel the pulse of the cursed power strengthening within him, aching to be unleashed. Around them, the wind grew wilder and the lightning zigzagged across the inky sky as the storm brewed in the sky and on the ground between the sorceress and Jareth.

"Hmph!" grunted Sarah. "This is coming from the man who drugged me and stole my property. You haven't trusted me from the beginning."

"And rightly so, I see!" retorted Jareth.

"It seems we are both at blame here, my love," Sarah told him softly.

"Don't call me that. It obviously isn't true," Jareth replied. He looked at her pitifully and she sighed.

"I admit Jareth," she began, "when I saw you that first day I knew you would serve my purpose. I knew you could free me. But-" She paused and gazed at him with tears in her eyes. "I never counted on loving you."

Jareth grunted and she gave him a small smile. "I do love you." She pointed to the Book of Secrets. "Please, give me my book, Jareth."

"No," Jareth answered, holding tightly to the thick tome. "I must know the truth, Sarah. I must know the full truth at last." He moved to open the book, but Sarah lifted a hand and released a searing bolt of energy at his center. It hit him with tremendous force, knocking him backwards onto the soggy ground. The book flew from his grasp, landing several feet away. Jareth watched, dazed, as the sorceress advanced toward the book. Finding his strength, he focused the roiling magic and called the book to his hand.

"Show me the truth of the curse!" he cried over the raging storm.

"No!" screamed Sarah as the book flew open, pages flapping and tearing in the whipping wind.

Jareth stared down at the page before him, the page Hoggle had tried to show him earlier. His heart clenched in his chest and his bowels turned to ice as he read the truth:

The holder of the cursed power shall be given power and authority of judgment. If he judges the sorceress worthy of redemption she shall be released from the curse and he shall bind himself in her place. If she is judged unworthy he shall destroy her and relinquish the power and he shall be freed and the curse lifted from the land.

He read the passage again as the wind ebbed and the thunder died down to a distant echo. This was the choice the Wiseman had spoken of: the choice between love and death. He could destroy the sorceress and free himself, or he could bind himself in her place. As the answerer of the riddles he had been given authority to decide his fate as well as hers.

"You knew this?" he asked without looking up.

"Yes," she replied solemnly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would you have told me that you were giving me the power to destroy you?"

Jareth remained silent, mulling the question over in his mind before deciding he couldn't answer. He didn't know what he would have done if the choice had been his. How can one ever fully know whether to trust one's heart to another? How can one judge the intent and feeling of another soul except by one's own heart? Was it not always a wild and blind leap of faith to hand one's heart over to the uncertain care of a potential lover?

"A leap of faith," thought Jareth. He looked at Sarah and she seemed smaller than before. Her hair hung limp over her shoulders, her emerald eyes were sad and shining with tears and her beautiful red lips quivered as she awaited his judgment and the answer to the final question of Man.

What is Man's greatest freedom?

Jareth pondered the question as he studied her. What judgment would he lay against her? What freedom would he grant her: the freedom of love or the freedom of death?

She looked at him pleadingly. "Jareth," she whispered. "Have mercy. Have mercy on the one who loves you."

He paced around her frowning. "You have lied, Sarah. You have stolen. You have brought ill upon this land and its inhabitants. Why should I show mercy to you when you would have enslaved me?"

Sarah bowed her head before him. "I have no answer for you, my love. I did what I must. Now do what you must, but know this: destroying me and removing the curse also destroys the power you have been given. You will once again be no more than a mortal human. And you will be alone."

"Very well," answered Jareth. He waved his hand and his guitar materialized. With tears in his eyes and his heart falling to shreds in his chest, he began to sing.

How does one measure the depth of a heart?

With a notched pole or a knotted cord?

How does one judge the truth of a love?

With a swipe of the slate or a swing of the sword?

Freedom of Love or Freedom of Death?

Unfettered to fly or unchained from Life's toil?

Freedom of Love or Freedom of Death?

Let you rest in my bosom or under the soil?

A gift in each hand I bring to your feet

My heart in one, in the other my pride

And ask myself which carries more weight

Which shall be cherished and which one denied?

Freedom of Love or Freedom of Death?

For the theft of my heart and the theft of my songs?

Freedom of Love or Freedom of Death?

Mercy or Justice, Forgiveness of Wrongs?

By the cursed power, by the bond of the land

I give you my judgment and open my hand.

Hoggle emerged at the doorway of the shack, drawn out by the song. He watched in awe as the song ended and the power took its full hold on Jareth. Jareth's eyes closed in ecstasy while the magic swirled around and through him, transforming him. His mud-spattered clothes changed into a sinister ensemble of black leather and cold, dark armor. A flowing cape the color of ink swirled around him and ebony gloves appeared on his hands. His hair lengthened and flowed wild about his face, gold and white with streaks of black braided with feathers and bits of bone. His brow narrowed and arched in colorful markings, the markings of the immortals, above his strange eyes.

He loomed menacingly over Sarah as she knelt before him and glared down at her, shaking with unbidden emotions and his newly gained magic. He felt his power flood through him, giving him authority to exact his judgment and rain down punishment. The power was heady and sweet and as intoxicating as wine. He burned with it, relishing the thrill of it beneath his skin and in his fingertips.

Sarah bowed her head solemnly, awaiting his wrath and her swift destruction.

It never came.

"I release you, Sarah," Jareth declared.

"No!" cried Hoggle from the doorway. "You have to destroy her Jareth! It's the only way to remove the curse that we're all under! Destroy that evil witch!"

Jareth looked down at the woman on her knees and sighed. "I can't," he said. "I love her. I love what she has made me." He pulled a shining orb from the air and in his hand it became a spinning wheel of colors. "I can call forth what I wish," he told the dwarf. "I can transform and fly and shake the earth and swell the tide. I can move the very stars if I so desire!"

"You selfish bastard!" the dwarf cursed. "Don't you know what this means? It means you're cursed as well. We all are. This whole land is!"

"I don't care," Jareth said, reaching down to take the sorceress by the hand and lift her to her feet. "I cannot destroy Sarah or the gift she has given me. Not for you, not for anyone."

Hoggle cursed again and spat. "Damn you, you rat! Damn you both!" he railed before storming off into the dead forest.

Jareth ignored the dwarf's cursing and wrapped his arms around Sarah, drawing her to his chest. "My love, we shall rule this land together," he told her. "I have given you your freedom and choose you to live at my side, unbound."

Sarah leaned forward and kissed his lips. "I knew this would be your choice," she said with a smile.

"Because you trusted that I truly loved you?" asked Jareth.

"No," replied Sarah. "Because I trusted that you were a fool."

"What?" Jareth questioned, looking down into her frigid stare.

A wicked grin spread across her lips. "You thought you could have it all, didn't you, my love?" she asked. "You thought you could make your play for power and that would be enough to hold me to you."

Jareth stared at her, bewildered.

"You just couldn't let us go, could you?" Sarah continued. "You couldn't let me or that dark magic out of your grasp. Well, guess what, my love? It's yours for eternity and so is this cursed place!"

"I know that," Jareth told her. "I accept that and I forgive you for what you did to me."

"Pah!" spat the sorceress. "You forgive me? You've accepted cursed power, Jareth. Stolen magic. I stole that magic and I was bound to this land." She laid a pale hand against Jareth's cheek. "No longer," she whispered. "I am free."

"But—but Sarah," stammered Jareth. "I thought... I thought you loved me. I freed you because I love you. I bound myself to this place for you. All of this...I've done this all for you."

"No," said Sarah. "Not all for me. You got a taste of power and me and you wanted us both. It's not surprising really. Men always want it all." She spun in a mocking circle around him. "I'll make one admission," she told him, stopping to touch his face again. "I could have loved you. I wanted to."

"Sarah," Jareth whispered as a tear slid down his cheek. He knew she spoke the truth. He had arrogantly assumed she would stay with him and that he and his newly acquired magic would be enough for her. He'd been willing to forgive, but unable to truly let her go.

"Don't take it so hard," Sarah said. "You thought you were being noble. I give rewards for nobility." She entwined her arms around his neck and kissed his mouth. Jareth felt a heaviness fall over his breast as if a weight had been laid upon his heart. He looked down at his chest where a strange medallion lay shining against his skin. The sigil on the chain was triangular, with two golden scythe-like horns curved inward toward one another. A round crystal rested in the center. Jareth fingered the golden sigil, feeling its weight in his hand and upon his soul.

"This is the seal of your bond, Jareth," the sorceress answered his unasked question. "It ties you to this land. You may leave this place only when summoned, and even then only for a short time."

Jareth looked at her pitifully. "Sarah, please," he desperately begged. "Don't leave me here alone in this place." He reached out his hands to her and she held them in her own for a moment.

"You won't be alone, my love," she replied somewhat wistfully . "You'll have the dwarf, and the beasts, and the fox, and the other disgusting creatures that inhabit this place. And you'll have the imps as well."

He shuddered at the thought of the imps screeching and shrieking and flapping their leathery wings over his bed.

Sarah noticed his shiver and laughed. "You can destroy the winged fiends if you wish, Jareth. After all, you have the power now. You are their Master." She let out a shrill call and Jareth recoiled as the air was filled with the sound of bat-like wings and ear-piercing cries. The swarm of imps flew down, alighting in the trees and on the rocks and the ruins of the stone wall, their eerie gold eyes shining out through the dark.

Sarah turned and smiled coldly at Jareth. "See? I haven't left you in solitude. Goodbye, my love," she whispered and blew him a kiss as she began to fade from view.

"Sarah!" Jareth wailed as she vanished into the ether. "No! Please, Sarah!" The imps echoed his panicked cries with their high-pitched shrieks. The noise reverberated over the hillside shaking the ground and driving those dwelling in the cursed land out of their homes to see what was making the heart-wrenching, mournful sound.

Blind with grief and fury, Jareth threw himself at the sky. He burst upward, trying to follow after Sarah, but the sigil burned against his breast and dragged him back to the earth. Again he tried, and again he fell to the ground. Over and over he hurled himself to the heavens only to crash back to the soggy plain in a miserable heap. At last, exhausted and unable to breathe between choking sobs, he curled into a ball beneath the trees and allowed the darkness to claim him.

A/N:

If you haven't guessed, we've moved out of AU mode and more toward Prequel. It just kinda... happened. Anyway, there's still more, so don't despair too much for poor Jareth. He does still have phenomenal cosmic power after all.

And now we know what Jareth's amulet is for! It's a magical...um...shock collar. I'm gonna hear about this. *sigh*

Thanks for reading and commenting!