Chapter 7:
The world grew still, and despite her throbbing head, the bruises she could feel, and the trickle of blood from her nose, Sarah smiled.
A light susurrus rippled through the air, and then suddenly she could feel his presence beside her.
Jareth...
"Tell me, Sarah, just what-"
"Hey! Where the fuck did you come from?" one of the younger thugs demanded, interrupting what sounded like the beginning of a practiced speech.
"Ah," was all the Goblin King responded, and then suddenly there was a sound like glass breaking, (a crystal? Sarah wondered) and then the sound of three bodies impacting the floor.
Sarah moved, thinking to pull herself out of the chair and sit upright, when suddenly the chair rocked forward without warning, and she had to grip the arms to prevent herself from tipping out of it. The motion caused her head to throb harder, and she moaned, pressing one hand against the growing lump she could feel.
"Sarah?" Jareth's voice sounded odd.
"Hi Jareth," Sarah said. "I'm sorry to call on you again, but I was desperate. They said they were going to hunt Toby down and kill him, and I thought..."
"Better a goblin than dead," Jareth finished for her, his tone unreadable.
"Yes," Sarah replied simply.
There was an uncomfortable pause. Sarah was unsure what specifically made it so, but there was definitely something awkward about it.
"Well?" said Sarah. "Aren't you going to transport me Underground now?"
She couldn't know how she looked then. Strangely fixed eyes that were a far darker, less clear shade than he remembered. Scars, fine and thick and jagged and speckled, marring her once clear skin and fine features. Legs that clearly ended just above the knee. Clothes that were clearly worn only as a functional covering- a plain linen skirt and cotton t-shirt in pastel colours that weren't particularly flattering to Sarah's colouring, but otherwise looked comfortable enough. Even her hair, that he remembered as reaching most of the way down her shoulder-blades had been cropped close for easier maintenance. And all of this, covered in splatters of what he could see from his brief survey of the room was clearly the blood of her father and step-mother.
To say that this was not what Jareth had pictured Sarah's appearance to be when he next encountered her was an understatement of epic proportions.
Sarah wondered why the Goblin King was being so silent. That wasn't how she remembered him. She remembered gleeful taunting and melodrama. The silence was unnerving.
She felt a rush of air, and then suddenly, she could tell she was outside. A light fragrance of flowers, earth and freshly crushed grass filled her nose, and she could feel the sun on her face. She sensed, rather than saw, the huge vista that rolled in front of her. The scent of damp stone and lichen blew towards her, and she knew she was facing the labyrinth.
"I assume the same rules as last time apply." Sarah rolled her shoulders, sitting up straighter in her chair. "13 hours, if I don't make it, Toby becomes a goblin forever, and I forget he even exists, right?"
Hands suddenly gripped her shoulders, and Sarah jumped a little.
"If you don't make it?"
Sarah wished she could see the expression on the Goblin King's face so she could better interpret his tone. As it was, she guessed from the pressure on her shoulders that he was... well, not happy was the only clear impression that came to mind.
She shrugged in response to his question, in part to ease the tension now developing in her shoulders. "I could get lucky," she replied. "But it doesn't matter, because that's what the rules of the game are, right? I have to at least try."
"Actually," came the slow response, "no you don't. I could still offer you your dreams."
Sarah opened her mouth to respond to that, but the Goblin King cut her off, "But it's not in you to just give me the child, is it. Even now." It wasn't a question.
Sarah shook her head. "I will always fight for Toby. I showed you that last time, didn't I?"
"How exactly," Jareth asked her, spitting out the words as though they tasted foul, "do you think you're going to manage to cross the Labyrinth in your condition? We don't exactly have," Sarah could hear his sneer, "wheelchair access."
Sarah smirked. "Well you could always carry me."
The silence that followed was stunned, and Jareth's hands loosened from her shoulders.
Sarah started laughing. She knew it was slightly tinged with hysteria, but she ignored that in favour of the bristling she could feel coming from the Goblin King. She knew that he could hurt her, but thus far, he never had. She knew she shouldn't poke the angry magic user, but the idea that this time, it could be her confusing him even for a little while struck her as hilarious.
"I'm kidding you. Honestly, don't you think that it's my problem how I get across?"
"Indeed, mortal." Jareth's voice was chilly. "But even in jest, why would you think that I'd carry you?"
Sarah shrugged uncomfortably.
"I don't pretend to know how you think, Jareth," she said, wondering why she'd heard a slight intake of breath when she'd said his name. She put that observation aside for a moment. "But I'd think the most likely reason why you'd carry me through would to get rid of me and Toby as soon as possible, before I cause too much trouble again."
There was a brief silence, and then Jareth started to laugh.
"Trouble? A mere mortal like you causing me, the Goblin King, trouble?" Jareth stopped laughing, and suddenly, Sarah felt hands under her armpits lifting her so that she dangled helplessly.
"A Runner without legs, causing me trouble?" Jareth asked her, his tone suddenly smooth and calm and malicious. "And how do you suppose you could do that? You're helpless. If I dropped you now, you wouldn't be able to do a single thing about it."
Sarah shrugged, feeling her body dip slightly as she raised her shoulders. Jareth's almost bruising grip did not falter. "No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't be able to stop you doing almost anything to me. I wasn't able to stop those men from killing my father and Karen. Right now, if you had not come, I would be either dead, or on my way there in some of the more creative, violent ways possible." She snorted. "One of them talked about raping me, but I suppose I'm too ugly as I am, because then he said he was probably just going to put a bullet in me, because he was feeling a bit pressed for time."
She felt Jareth's hands go rigid.
"You do realise that that going into the Labyrinth as you are, especially as it has been of late amounts to suicide," he said, in conversational tones.
Sarah was not fooled. She could feel how tightly he was holding her. She had only the vaguest ideas as to why, but she was getting the distinct impression that something bothered Jareth about her situation. It was then that she suddenly realised something.
"My thigh... I was shot in the thigh," she murmured. She reached down to feel, and abruptly found herself dropped in her chair. She ignored the sudden change in altitude, and gently probed where she knew she had felt the bullet go in, hiking up her skirt to feel the smooth skin above her stump.
"Magic?" she guessed. Well, perhaps it was obvious. "Thank you. But why?"
"Why do you not simply look?" Jareth asked, ignoring her question.
Sarah froze, for a moment.
He didn't realise...?
Had he never seen glass eyes before?
"These aren't my eyes," Sarah said. "They're prostheses. I lost my sight in the crash, because there was too much damage."
A quick intake of breath was all she could hear of his reaction.
Pity, she thought. I could have handled any reaction but pity.
She clenched her fists, and then began to wheel herself down the hill. She didn't know how she knew what direction the Labyrinth was in, all that mattered was that she did.
"Sarah! You are blind and crippled. You only barely made it last time within the time limit. How do you expect to manage it this time?" Jareth demanded.
Sarah paused, and turned, so that he could see her sneer.
"I don't," was all she said. She rolled a little further forward, and felt dirt under her wheels.
It was a start.
...
A/N: I'm Baaaaaaaaack! :P