Chapter Eighteen: Perfectly Prepared
So the months passed, Sarah sent her invitations to her immediate family members and announcements to everyone else on her list. There weren't many besides a few friends from high school she was still vaguely in touch with, but even those few would be too many for her and Jareth to bring to the Labyrinth. Meanwhile, there was the goblin council, the goblin petty court, and occaisonal babies to look after. Since her encounter with the Lady of Night, Sarah had gained a new respect for the way Jareth did things, working within the binding wish to somehow help these people prove themselves to the Labyrinth. She also noticed that he stopped working quite as hard to get in their way, and was almost willing to be helpful. As a consequence, nearly half the people who wished away their infants were able to retrieve them, and Sarah felt confident about the statistics improving in the future.
Finally, the day of the wedding arrived, and Sarah felt as though she were constantly standing in a cloud. Middleweed helped her with her make up and hair and dress after lunch. They were standing together in her bedroom, putting together the finishing touches, relaxed in the knowledge that everything was going according to plan, anxious that the momentous occasion was about to begin.
"There!" Middleweed stepped back to admire the bride, her purple horns glowing. "I don't think we could make you any more beautiful than you are right now."
Sarah smiled and turned to examine herself in the mirror of her vanity table. "You think Jareth will like it? The dress was my design this time." Her fiancé had a habit of magically depositing beautiful dresses into her closet on almost a daily basis so that her closet had adopted extra rows of hanging bars and an impossible depth.
"Oh, I think-" the goblin was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Isn't it traditional that the groom not see the bride until the ceremony?"
"This is a special situation," the Goblin Queen informed Middleweed. "It's open," she said louder so that the person on the other side of the door would hear her clearly.
"Sarah," Jareth's melodic voice filled the room, "it's time."
Middleweed slipped past the Goblin King out to the hallway.
"Alright." The Goblin Queen took a deep breath and turned around to face her fiancé.
The first thing Jareth noticed was her hair, moussed and fluffed to perfection with curling white ribbons clipped in behind her ears. Then he saw the subtle color on her gray eyelids, rosy cheeks, and pink lips, emphasizing the paleness of her skin. The dress was ivory with a low V-neck and long sleeves that were parted to reveal her slender arms and had holes at the top that exposed her white shoulders. Directly under Sarah's bust was a layer of ivory lace that hugged close to her frame until just below her hips, where the lace opened and parted to let three layers of skirts to explode around her legs, the final length of ivory silk trailing out around her feet. Her two-inch heeled, peep-toe shoes looked as though they were made purely of diamonds and refused not to sparkle. The last thing he noticed was that her fingernails and toenails had been covered in a sparkling silver polish.
Sarah watched him cross the room in three enormous steps, wearing a slim black tuxedo with a ruffled white shirt underneath. Jareth took his fiancé's chin between his finger and thumb, stared deeply into her gray eyes, and gently wrapped his lips around hers. Sarah responded in kind and tried not to pout when he pulled away.
"You look beautiful," he whispered, running the fingers of his other hand from her temple to her jawbone.
Sarah's back shivered pleasantly. "Thank you." Her faced burned. "But we should probably get my family here. They're all waiting at Jeremy's apartment."
Jareth cleared his throat and took a step back. "Yes, of course." He pulled a crystal into existence, looking in at Jeremy's apartment, where Sarah's family had filled the couches and chairs, all dressed in their best attire. He and Sarah listened as the apartment phone rang.
"Hello?" Jeremy snatched the phone before Linda could reach it, grinning at her with a wink.
"It's Jareth. If you get everyone into the cars now and just start driving, I believe we can handle it from there."
"Okay! That's great! We'll see you soon!" Jeremy hung up the phone and announced to everyone that it was time to go. With a certain amount of grumbling about 'odd ways of doing things', the family followed him out to the two SUVs that would carry them to the wedding.
Jareth and Sarah closed their eyes, linking their hands, both concentrating all their energy on bringing two enormous vehicles filled with people who didn't know anything about the Labyrinth into their castle courtyard. There, the goblins, enchanted to look like humans, would help them find their seats under the large white tent that had been erected for the ceremony. The Wiseman was already there as well, standing at a small podium under the peach trees, his hat gagged and carefully decorated to look like an extremely tall black top-hat.
The cars barely reached the end of the apartment complex parking lot before the scenery around them morphed into the gardens of the castle courtyard.
Jareth staggered back a step and Sarah touched the back of her hand to her forehead, huffing as though she'd just run a mile. "Will it be that hard to send them home?" She asked, looking up at the groom.
The Goblin King shook his head. "They believe in home. It won't be quite as hard."
"Good." Sarah sat down at her vanity table. "I don't think I could do that again today."
Jareth nodded and smoothed down the front of his tux. "I'll just go down and get everyone settled."
"Yeah," Sarah smiled up at him, "I'll be down in a minute. Just start the music when you're ready for me."
