Chapter Thirteen: Love

The Lady sat in the throne, cooing at Brian and make faces at him. When his little laugh bubbled out of him, she giggled right along with him.

"You sweet little thing," she sang. "I'll teach you everything you need to know. Most importantly, I'll teach you to love me more than anyone or anything. Then you will rule beside me over the Labyrinth."

Across the room, the Goblin King sat on the floor, clutching the Goblin Queen to his chest.

"Jareth," she muttered in her sleep, "Jareth...Jareth..." Her face contorted with the terrors of her dreams.

"Oh, my Sarah," Jareth mumbled into her ear, rocking her gently in his arms, "I love you, Sarah." He kissed her lips softly. "I love you."

***

Sarah ran down the endless corridor of doors. As she passed them, each door flew open, revealing a new variation of Jareth's death. Always, he reached out to her. Always, he told her he loved her. Always, he died by some manner or other, whether by falling rocks or monsters out of the Labyrinth. He never screamed. He never pleaded with her to save his life. He never called out to her. It might have been easier for Sarah if he had. Instead, he only ever told her he loved her, and she understood that he knew it was her fault he was about to die and he wanted her to know that he forgave her and still loved her anyway.

But I'll never forgive myself, Sarah thought as she ran, this whole thing is my fault, and I'll never forgive myself. The Labyrinth will be destroyed and the Lady of Night will come to power, and Jareth will...Jareth will...Jareth... She couldn't bring herself to think it. She only cried as she ran, feet pounding the hard ground, the corridor going on forever ahead of her. There has to be an end to this eventually. There has to be. I have to get out. Maybe there's something I can do to save him and the Labyrinth or at least one of them.

Suddenly she realized there was a figure in the distance, standing in the middle of the corridor. The doors ahead of her all opened and shadows crept across the floor toward her, wrapping around her ankles, weighing down her feet. The figure was getting closer, and she could tell that it had crazy blond hair that stood in tufts at the top of its head and hung long around his shoulders.

"Jareth!" She shouted as she forced her legs to move forward, the shadows continuing to climb higher up her body, clinging to her waist, reaching up and over her shoulders. "Jareth!" Her voice cracked under the weight of her desperation, the tears flowing down her cheeks.

She flung her arms out in front of her, hoping that if she could just reach him, then maybe she would be freed. The shadows covered her entire body except her face, and they filled her ears with mocking laughter.

"You'll never reach him!" The shadows hissed, "You'll die before you reach him, and he'll die because of you. You don't love him. You never really loved him. He tricked you. He trapped you. He forced you to love him. You did this on purpose, to get revenge. You hate him." Then the shadows laughed at her again.

"No!" Sarah yelled as her muscles finally gave way and she collapsed on the floor just a few miserable feet away from him. "You're wrong!" She choked out, half-sobbing. "I love him!" Her fists clenched and her elbows bent. "I was mad at him at first," she admitted, remembering their early fights as she forced her knees to bend and her legs to move. "but then I got to know him." The image of Jareth's face streaked with vibrant blue blood flashed behind her eyes. "He saved my life!" She felt as though she was pushing against the weight of the entire world, but she knew that she was getting closer, inch by excruciating inch. "He learned how to take care of the Goblins." Slowly, she crawled closer to the familiar black boots. "He's changed so much in the last few years! He's so different now." Finally her fingertips grazed the back of his shining boot.

The man before her turned and knelt to bring his face closer to hers. Sarah looked up and saw not the mismatched eyes of the Goblin King, but the black and deadly eyes of the Lady of Night.

"Don't be so foolish, Sarah." The Lady of Night smiled. "He doesn't love you." She placed her hand on Sarah's forehead. "Jareth, the Goblin King, isn't capable of love."

Then the shadows crawled over Sarah's face and she was surrounded in darkness. Her eyes wouldn't open, her limbs wouldn't move, her thoughts seemed muffled and she felt as though her body was a long way away.

He does love me, Sarah protested within her own head, remembering how he'd first tried to please her by giving her a room that was identical to her old bedroom. She'd told him she wanted a castle bedroom, and when he'd given that to her, she still hadn't been happy. Then he'd given her a blended version of both rooms and it had made her laugh. It was the first time she'd laughed in front of him. Her mind scrambled for more memories, more proof that he loved her, and it dragged out an old conversation when she'd spend her first year in the Labyrinth and Jareth had been obligated to allow her a visit hom:

When can I leave? She'd asked him eagerly

As soon as you want. His voice had come in a husky, low tone.

How long can I stay? She'd barely been able to catch her breath.

Jareth had hesitated, and then said something that had sent her heart soaring. As long as you want.

What about the wish? I thought it was binding.

It was.

What do you mean 'was'?

Love changes things, Sarah. You may go and stay with your family as long as you like.

Love changes things, Sarah. The memory echoed in her mind. Love changes things.

Love changes people, too. Sarah added to herself, you were a very different person when we first met, Jareth. And so was I. The Labyrinth changed me, too, but mostly it was love. Love...wasn't there something else you told me about love once? Her mind reached more deeply into her memory, searching for the relevant conversation.

Then it came to her. They'd been talking about a boy named David who was trying to solve the Labyrinth to save his baby sister. By beating the labyrinth, Jareth had patiently explained, he's proved that his love for the child is stronger than his desire to wish her away. He's too weak to beat the city or the castle, but if he faces me and is able to recognize that his love for his sister is stronger than my power over her, then he can have her back. And David's love had been stronger than Jareth's power, just as Sarah's love for Toby had.

The only thing that had ever been stronger than Jareth's power was love. Until Sarah broke the rules and the Lady of Night was able to free herself. Sometimes, the Wiseman's voice whispered from the back of Sarah's mind, to love is to be cruel.

Sarah remembered disciplining Toby when she'd been watching over him. It had been cruel, from Toby's point of view, but there was a lesson she'd been trying to teach him at the time. That's why the rules are so important. Sarah realized, wishes have power because they're wishes, and the Labyrinth has power because it's the Labyrinth. Jareth calls on the power of the Labyrinth, but he has to follow the Labyrinth's rules, because the Labyrinth is always fair.

And the Labyrinth knows that love is always stronger.

Suddenly, as if she were looking far into the distance, Sarah saw a pinprick of light. She focused on it and pulled her consciousness toward it.