CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Games We've Played 'til Now
"Past the point of no return,
No backward glances.
The games we've played 'til now
Are at an end.
Past all thought of 'if' or 'when,'
No use resisting.
Abandon all thought
And let the dream descend.
We're past the point
Of no return."
-"Point of No Return" from the musical "The Phantom of the Opera" by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber
The silence of the hall was broken by the steady clicking of Sarah's boots as she strode down the length of the hall.
The Goblin King lounged on his throne, garbed in his intimidating black armor, seeming as though he was completely unsurprised to see Sarah standing before him, bedraggled and dirty.
"I see that you were able to find your way through my Labyrinth, not withstanding your little detour this morning. What a strange thing to do on your last day through my Labyrinth." He smiled at Sarah, a knowing look in his eyes.
"Seeing as it was you who decided that I was to start all over again from the beginning, the strange decision to do so can hardly be attributed to me, Goblin King."
"Oh, I have missed this!" said the Goblin King joyously, nearly clapping his hands in his obvious glee, "This was always my most favorite part of the story. The brave, downtrodden heroine vigorously defies the villainous fae king with open disdain and much verbal bravado. Please, educate me on how wicked and evil I am and how what I have done is wrong. This seems to be our lot in life, is it not my dear; to be continually on opposite sides of the playing board."
"And what a good lot it is," replied Sarah acidly, stopping just a few meters in front of the handful of steps that lead up to the throne.
"Come now, that is no way to start our time together, Sarah. After all, we shall be seeing each other for quite a long time. Forever, as a matter of fact. We must learn to be civil to one another."
"You are very much mistaken in that, Goblin King. I have won. Your Labyrinth has been beaten and my family and I shall no longer be subject to your whims. You have been defeated. There shall be no 'forever' between you and I, other than our mutual antagonistic views of the other and the memories of what horrific nonsense has occurred in the past few days."
"Are you quite certain about that? I would not be so confident, if I were you." The Goblin King rose fluidly from the throne, his black cloak swirling around his ankles as he did so.
"What are you talking about?" asked Sarah, a note of uncertainty creeping into her voice. Was there something that she had forgotten to do? Had she not completed the Labyrinth after all? What was the Goblin King going on about?
Sarah suddenly heard the soft, wailing cry of a child. Her heart froze mid-beat. It was not possible. She looked almost pleadingly at the Goblin King, as if wanting to have him confirm that her suspicions were false.
"I had not foreseen your inexplicable luck when traversing my Labyrinth," replied the Goblin King softly, ignoring Sarah's frantic looks.
"Luck? What kind of luck would you call getting harassed by pixies or ensured by a incubus or kidnapped by trolls?" Sarah was all but screaming at the Goblin King.
"You know nothing of my Labyrinth, Sarah. You only saw but a fraction of what it contains, a mere sampling, if you will, of its creatures and its horrors and its mysteries. Yes, the fates favored you and took you under their wing. Any other human would not have done half so well as you." The Goblin King looked thoughtful for a moment, as if trying to decide his next words carefully. "Dare I say I am a bit perversely proud at your success at my little game? I am not so proud as to be disappointed at your accomplishments, but as you know, I am quite fond of winning, and your luck with my Labyrinth was throwing a wrench into my plans. I needed something to even the odds, as it were."
There was another cry. This time Sarah was able to get a general location from where the noise came. It was then that Sarah noticed how strangely the Goblin King's cloak was draped over one shoulder, and how his obscured arm seemed to be oddly positioned beneath it. It was almost as if he held something. Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
"No," the word came out in a strange mixture of distress, anger and sadness. "You—you cannot have…"
The Goblin King shifted his cloak to reveal a baby nestled in the crook of his arm. Aubrey.
Sarah was stunned into silence for a few moments by the unabashed gall of the Goblin King.
"You cheated," Sarah said, in a sort of strange, strangled tone, staring unbelievingly at the Goblin King. She was trying to stop herself from launching herself at the Goblin King to get back her brother. Just when she thought that she had outsmarted the Goblin King, Sarah found herself hopelessly outmatched. He was always just a few steps ahead of her.
"As I said, I like to think of it as evening the odds. You did well in my Labyrinth, yes, but you had much help. You talk so often of fairness. By comparison, you are as much of a cheat as I am."
"Be that as it may, I only received help from others when they offered it willingly. I did not go back on my word, unlike some. You keep changing the rules of the game, quite unfairly, I might add."
"It is my game, after all," said the Goblin King delightedly, smirking at the angry look that dominated Sarah's face.
Sarah squared her shoulders and looked defiantly at the Goblin King.
"Give me the child."
"Now why would I do that?" He looked at Sarah calculatingly, leaning forward slightly. "What would you give me in return? Everything has a price, you know."
"I will strike no more bargains with you, Goblin King. Give me my brother."
"You know that I cannot do that." The Goblin King straightened up, looking quite impassable.
"Why not? Why do you continue to antagonize me? I do not understand you at all. Everything you do or say can be twisted in every which way, and mean half a dozen different things. Why give me the choice to run your Labyrinth for my freedom if you were going to take my brother to force my hand either way? Why me?"
The last two words were more than just a plea for answers, those few words held the emotion of all of the despair, frustration, anger, terror, wonderment and heartache that Sarah had experienced in her short life, all due to the actions of the Goblin King.
"Why indeed. I have asked myself that very question many times over the last few years. It is perhaps that I find you a kindred spirit, and that I see the world as you do. I have found myself growing to be very fond of you, in my own way. I have watched you more often than you know, and I have seen your struggles and your triumphs, wishing vainly that I could share in them. But how could I? I, the source of all of your discontentment? The monster that stalks in the shadows? The honorless beast? The fae king so foreign and incalculable?" His voice was soft, and he absent-mindedly stroked Aubrey's pale downy hair. "Perhaps I chose you because I am lonely, as are you."
The Goblin King turned and sat back down upon his throne, cradling Aubrey in the crook of his arm, looking almost tenderly at the child, letting his words sink into Sarah's mind. He suddenly broke the silence, as though he could not hold back his words any longer, the stiff and formal mask of the Goblin King broken to reveal the wild and untamed fae beneath.
"Tell me Sarah, do you not tire of playing the wide-eyed heroine with such lofty morals?" He leveled a look at Sarah that would have made any lesser heroine quake in her mud-caked boots. But not Sarah.
"Just as much as you tire have playing the villain."
"Touché."
The Goblin King did not seem particularly pleased at admitting such to Sarah's words, but as the pleasantries had been dispensed with long ago, Sarah did not much care. She surged forward, unable to stop the barrage of words that tumbled from her lips.
"And what a villain you are, Goblin King. Bravo. You curse generations upon generations of a family, and because of what? A girl refused you. A mere human girl, of no great importance or wealth. A girl whom you had just met. What stupid vanity. Because of your hurt pride you decided to abduct hundreds of children, ripping them from the breasts of their mothers, destroying countless homes, rending holes in the Guillemin lineage. What mighty villainy. And yet you accuse me of cheating for the sake of ending this reign of terror. Forgive me Goblin King, but this strikes me as childishly ironic. A bit like the pot calling the kettle black, if you will."
Sarah breathed deeply, trying to catch her breath after her furious declaration. She hardly allowed herself time to regain it before launching into speech once more.
"You were lonely? Don't make me laugh Goblin King. What of the children you stole? What of their loneliness? A loneliness brought on by your actions? What a hypocrite. You became a monster because you were lonely. You abandoned all morals and reasonable thought in the pursuit of lessening your loneliness and engendered more loneliness than your own. As you said, Goblin King, a beast has no honor."
The Goblin King was silent for a few moments, processing Sarah's words. Sarah continued on.
"I trusted you, Goblin King. I trusted you to keep up your end of the bargain. I should not have done so, but I did. Of course, like all fae, you cheated. And why? Because of some strange affection that you seem to feel for me? It is more likely that you just want me to entertain you, to distract you from being lonely? If you were to truly care for me, why make me stay here with tricks and deceit after the lure of a possible escape?"
The Goblin King paused before speaking, as though he did not want to divulge his words, as if them cost him some of his dignity.
"Have I not been exceedingly generous up until now? You feared that one day I would come and take your brother, yet I took you instead. You spoke of my cruelty and yet I spared you from countless horrors within my Labyrinth. You were lost and alone, I allowed you to be aided and put back on to the right path. Everything that you have wanted I have done. I have done it solely for you. Is that not generous?"
"I never asked for any of it!" cried Sarah, startling Aubrey into wailing once more. If she had been frightened before at the prospect of spending an eternity with the Goblin King, it was nothing now compared to the fact that the Goblin King had somehow inexplicably fallen in love with her. That made him all the more dangerous. Trying to win out of chauvinistic pride was one thing, but to win to keep that which he loved?
Sarah tried to hide her sudden trembling. She looked at her brother with a heartrending expression.
"What is it that you would want in return for Aubrey? Clearly this is your trick to keep me here. Would you like me to offer myself up as your captive in return for my brother's safe return home, despite the fact that I defeated you and your Labyrinth? Perhaps my ancestor was wise to snub you, in spite of the consequences that followed. You are a child, you play with a toy, you use it and abuse it, and then after you have set the toy aside and forgotten about it for a while, leaving it battered and broken, are surprised to find it gone later. You say you love me, well, what kind of love is this? My family will not be your playthings, to amuse you when you are bored and then tossed aside when you no longer have use for them, for me! I will not be your toy. I will not allow it."
"Won't you?"
A wicked grin spread over the Goblin King's face as he turned, depositing the squalling Aubrey on the pile of cushions on his throne. Spinning quickly, he looked at Sarah, never breaking eye contact as he descended the steps of the dais, stalking towards her.
"I find that I rather like your brother. He is not half so damned stubborn as you are, he is quite a bit quieter, and he does not think it necessary to defy me at every turn in the conversation. I have grown rather attached to him in the short time that I have had him."
"Don't you dare think that you can keep him, Goblin King," Sarah said, trying in vain to think of a way to bypass the Goblin King and get to Aubrey. He was far too clever and fae for that. He would stop her before she had even taken a few steps, damn him.
"Does that mean that I get to keep you instead?"
Sarah growled at him, not deigning to give him a response.
The Goblin King sighed, as if he were quite put out by her disapproval of his words.
"Alas, you are right. I cannot keep him. He is more of my...insurance. My guarantee that I shall get the ending that I want. I have grown quite fond of you Sarah Guillemin, and I cannot bear to think of what my life would be like without you here with me in the fae realm. It would be quieter, for certain, and no one would be constantly defying me, but I cannot seem to be able to let you go, despite my loss of quiet and patriarchal control. You are mine until the world falls down. It would be better for you if you accepted that now and stopped this charade of ours."
Sarah was quiet for a few moments, as if mulling something over in her mind. Finally, she spoke.
"I solved your Labyrinth and won, Jareth."
The Goblin King's head snapped up, looking daggers at Sarah. She had spoken his name aloud. Names held power, and that power was not so easily relinquished by those who had clung to it and possessed it for so long. She should not know his name.
The Goblin King swiftly hid his displeasure beneath a mask of insolent indifference.
"How is it that you came across that name?"
"The Labyrinth saw fit to give it to me," she replied, crossing her arms.
The Goblin King laughed humourlessly and looked snidely at Sarah.
"The Labyrinth is mine and it abides solely by my will. The Labyrinth did not give it to you. Who did?"
"Give me the child, Jareth," Sarah replied stubbornly, refusing to let the Goblin King distract her from her objective.
The Goblin King ground his teeth, holding back a snarl. He seemed to struggle with himself for a few moments before rising swiftly to his feet, glaring at Sarah all the while.
"Very well, here is the child." The Goblin King stalked up the stairs of the dais, lifting Aubrey gently from the cushions of the throne and carried him down once more to stand before Sarah. The Goblin King proffered Aubrey. Sarah warily took a few steps towards the Goblin King, her deep-seated mistrust for the fae warning her to be wary. However, the Goblin King merely handed Aubrey to Sarah and clasped his hands behind his back while Sarah made a hasty retreat with her brother. Once she had gained a few feet of space from the Goblin King, she set about inspecting Aubrey, looking for any sign that he had been harmed or mistreated in any way by the Goblin King.
"Peace, my dear girl. I did not harm him. What would I have gained by doing so? I merely took him to even the odds, as I said before. Now, you have your brother, now it is time for you to keep up your end of the bargain."
Sarah panicked.
"What bargain?" She tried vainly to keep her voice steady.
"I gave you your brother's freedom in exchange for yours, my dear. I thought that we were quite plain about that."
"I promised no such thing!" said Sarah, trying ineffectively to calm the wailing Aubrey.
"You say you are not a fae? Nay, I think that you are quite fae indeed. Trickery and lies come naturally to those such as we. The Labyrinth did not teach you that, I can quite assure you. Very well, go on. You have my full and undivided attention. Do not think that our little encounter is over quite yet. You and I still have a score to settle. About your promise…" The Goblin King smiled at Sarah with a look that was at once benign and vengeful.
"I promised you nothing, Goblin King!"
Sarah clutched Aubrey to her breast with one hand while fumbling with the filthy and frayed ribbon that tied the iron amulet around her neck. Once she had it free, she wrapped it around Aubrey's tiny wrist. The Goblin King watched her with a strange look on his face, looking almost as though he was feeling a mix of pity and envy for Sarah and Aubrey. This was of course masked almost immediately by his normally blasé Goblin King demeanor. He laughed coldly.
"That amulet holds little to no power over me. It does not work, Sarah."
"What little power it still holds, I give to Aubrey. I am no longer scared of you Goblin King. Little power you say? Then it is enough. It will protect him even still."
The Goblin King glowered at Sarah; his impish delight all but vanished at this point.
"Sarah, don't defy me."
Sarah laughed, her mirth bordering on the maniacal.
"Why not Goblin King? Have I not been doing so ever since you decided to change my life for me? Why fix that which is not broken?"
"You will not leave this place, Sarah. I can assure you of that. You will stay here forever."
"I will do whatever I damn well please, Goblin King!"
"Do you not see what you have done, Sarah? By defeating my Labyrinth, you have proven yourself worthy."
"Worthy of what, dare I ask?"
"Why, worthy of being the Goblin Queen, of course."
"No!" cried Sarah, losing what little remained of her self-control, "I beat your Labyrinth! I am now free of you! Forever!"
"Your bargain that you just made for your brother proves quite otherwise. All of this," he gestured his arms in the air, "This was your test. Do you not remember my curse? 'I shall spare the second-born child in favor for the first-born daughter. I shall test her, and if I deem her worthy of my affection, my heart, and kingdom, I will take her to be my queen, and it shall cause her more heartbreak and woe than it would have ever caused you had you chosen to accept my most generous offer.' The Labyrinth was your test. I must say, you passed it quite splendidly, despite a few minor hiccoughs."
"No."
The Goblin King drew himself up, glowering at Sarah.
"Are you rejecting me?
"Why on earth would I ever choose to stay here with you? I have made it quite plain that you have made my life a living nightmare!"
"Think again Sarah. Your life would be dull and monotonous without me to liven things up every now and again. Where would you be right now if it were not for me? Living in some dreary castle as an old man's wife, dutifully obedient and demure, with all thoughts of valor and adventure quite lost in the trickling monotony of every day existence? At least I have added some spice to your life. I have shown you things more fantastic and wondrous that even your overabundant imagination could have dreamt up. I have marked you out as quite a the singularly extraordinary girl, proving to yourself and to others that you are capable of facing great deeds with courage and solving a plethora of enigmas with single-minded wit and cleverness. Is that not generous?" He spun a crystal and began to twist it through his fingers, spinning it faster and faster, making Sarah a bit dizzy as she tried to follow its progress.
Sarah was quiet, unsure of how to respond. The words clunked into place eventually in her brain, and she spoke, hesitating as she did so.
"I won Jareth. I am leaving," she clumsily raised her sword while still clutching Aubrey, "You cannot stop me. I am going home. Our story is now finished."
"Stop! Wait. Do you not see, Sarah? Look at what I am offering up to you: your dreams!" He proffered the crystal in his hand, the tone of his voice verging on desperation.
"What do you know of my dreams, Jareth?"
"More than you would care to admit, Sarah."
Sarah flushed, her cheeks growing a bit pinker than they should have been in the presence of the Goblin King.
"You presume too much, Goblin King. Now, it is long since I should have left. Goodbye." Sarah began to turn away from the Goblin King, only to stop at the sound of his voice.
"Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave!"
Sarah stood where she was, half-turned away from the Goblin King. She was standing quite still. The Goblin King continued on, holding nothing back. It was his last chance, as well as hers.
"I ask so little of you. Just rule with me, and you can have everything your heart has ever desired."
"You know what I want, Jareth." Sarah did not turn as she spoke, not trusting herself to look at the Goblin King.
He smirked at Sarah and spoke quietly.
"Oh, how you turn my world, you precious thing."
He looked at Sarah, her steely resolve plain on her face. He sighed sadly.
"Sarah, I love you. Please."
Sarah closed her eyes. Despite everything that the Goblin King had said and done, how could some small piece of her heart somehow still manage to feel pity for the Goblin King? She could scarcely imagine how centuries of loneliness and self-loathing would affect her. The Goblin King deserved a great many terrible things, but most of all, perhaps he deserved just a bit of pity. She could never forgive him for what he had done, but she could now see why he had done what he had done, even if he had become a villain in the process.
"I can't. Don't you see that I can't?"
"I know."
Sarah squared her shoulders. She needed to finish this. She could not bear to hear any more of this. She could not refuse the Goblin King for much longer, though she knew that she must. Empathy and pity were dangerous weapons against a heroine's resolve. Finally, she spoke.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great…"
Sarah paused to draw in a breath. It was past the point of no return, too far to turn back now. She turned and took a step forward, staring intently at the Goblin King, who stared just as intensely back at her.
"You have no power over me!"
The Goblin King closed his eyes, letting the crystal roll from his fingertips. It dropped to the floor, clicking down the dais steps and rolling towards Sarah's feet. It bumped delicately against the toe of Sarah's boot.
Smoke began to fill the room, swirling around Sarah and Aubrey. Sarah felt herself slipping away, and looked up quickly once more at the Goblin King, whose eyes flicked up to meet hers one last time. Then Sarah and Aubrey disappeared from the throne room, leaving the Goblin King alone, staring wretchedly at the spot where Sarah had stood moments before.
And with that, Sarah had finally defeated the Goblin King.
AN: Hooray! Sarah wins! I hope everyone liked this chapter! It was a bit difficult for me to wrangle, to be honest. There were so many things and emotions that I wanted to happen in this chapter, that is was hard to get it to flow correctly. And our story rapidly draws to a close, ladies and gentlemen! We have only Chapter 18 and the Epilogue left, and then "The Labyrinth" will be complete!
Also, a bit of a random side note, I just realized that though I include quotes from many a book, movie, song and musical at the beginning of each chapter, I don't think (and correct me if I am wrong) that I have ever used a Labyrinth song as my chapter quote for any of my fics! (A bit too on the nose, perhaps?) I just thought this was a bit funny as I liberally quote musicals such as Phantom and Tanz der Vampire and books such as Harry Potter and LOTR for the chapter quotes, but never the source material. I just thought that it was interesting how my mind didn't reach for Labyrinth quotes when the stories were alternate universe Labyrinth.
Disclaimer: Labyrinth and its characters do not belong to me. Quotes from the movie belong to Henson, Froud, and Lucas. Quotes from the book belong to A.C.H. Smith.