A/N: I profusely apologise to you all for taking SO long to update! I really didn't intend to delay the new chapter for that long, but you'll understand why when you read it, I'm sure :). I wrote it, edited it, then rewrote some of it, then edited it. It's extremely important, so I had to get it right. Plus the holidays were crazy busy, I shot another wedding, I'm preparing Lightroom/Photoshop seminar curriculum for a first-time try, and deep editing stories for publishing. Yep. It's been a wee bit busy around here...
You all have me a little freaked out over the kiss anticipation and expectation. Seriously. I'm really nervous at this point, haha! *deep breath*
You all are amazing and just blow me away with your feedback. I really appreciate all of you so much. Honestly. I'm blown away after every chapter by your responses. My deepest thanks and appreciation to all of you lovely people! Thanks to my reviewers: XXPay4XtraShippingsXX, The Queen of Water, PheonixBreaker90, CompleteBookworm2, Kaytori, willowrain, ButterflyOnTheWall, Moia Starchild, Redglade, BadWolf49, FallenAngelVamp, ZayZay1221, JigglyJelloWithCoconut, Kinzichi, Kara-lija, Melissa72, KawaiiScorpio, and hotforteacher3.
FallenAngelVamp: Thank you! Glad you found the story again :)
Kara-lija: Wow! That would be pretty awesome if you did some fanart :). I looked at your page. You do some good work :)
Melissa72: Thanks so much! Glad the relationship is realistic but enjoyable. Oo yes, lots on the line now for them all ;)
Go for the plunge! Enjoy this chapter :)
Chapter Twenty-one: You'll Find Someone True
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"Hoggle!" Sarah leaned down further, and the dwarf's outline emerged. He was sitting on the ground with his hand raised against the abrupt light. "Are you all right? I was worried about you."
"Eh! Don't worry about me. I'm a terrible friend, terrible. Hoggle's done a bad thing. Oh he certainly did it this time."
"Hoggle...I forgive you. I don't want you beating yourself up over it from here on. It was a mistake, but we'll move on. Besides, nothing really happened because of it."
A heavy sigh echoed from below followed by some cloth rustling. "Thanks, Sarah. You're a true friend. But until Jareth feels the same way, I'm not gettin' out of here unless he tosses me in the...the Bog. I'm doomed!"
"You're not doomed," Sarah insisted. "When he cools down a bit, I'm sure you'll be out of here and back to it in no time. I tried talking to him and changing his mind, but he was still too upset after all that had happened. I'm sure if I try again..."
"No one can sway Jareth," Hoggle grunted. "He's as likely to change as a rock."
A smile crept onto her lips. "Well, things aren't always what they seem here."
Hoggle lifted his head to look up at her again with a frown of bewilderment. He squinted. "Uh, Sarah? Be careful with him. I don't know what's going on, but he's likely to tie you up in chains you can't see if you're not careful."
"Don't worry about me," she said softly. "He is your king, but to me something entirely different. He treats me like...like an equal. He wouldn't bring any harm to me on purpose, so you don't have to be afraid for me. But right now there is someone who wants to hurt us both, and that dwarf you let in might be working for him, so that's why Jareth got so angry with you. Why did you do it?"
The faint outline of him kicked at the dirt with his shoe. "I haven't seen another dwarf in years I can't even count, and he seemed all right. I asked him all sorts of questions, see, but nothin' seemed off when he talked. You both were gone, and he just wanted to have a chat and some rest. Nothin' wrong with that, I thought, so in he came with me. Oh...what have I done? I messed up again, didn't I?"
"Yes, but stop thinking about it. Just be more careful from now on and do what Jareth tells you when we're telling you about someone dangerous being around."
"Do what Jareth says...Sarah, has he done something to you?" Hoggle struggled to his feet and stretched his neck as far as it could go. "If he has, oh I'll...I'll..."
"No, Hoggle," Sarah sighed. She pushed aside some of her hair and looked down at her friend. "Like I said before, he's helping me. You may not believe me, but he is. You'll have to trust me if you can't bring yourself to trust him. I'm sorry. I have to go now. But I'll come back to see you tomorrow, okay?"
He nodded and slumped back to the ground.
"Here," she said lowering the torch as far as her arm could reach into the hole, "take the light. At least you'll have it for a little while." She dropped it somewhere beside him with a thud.
"Poor Hoggle would be in trouble without you," he said.
She smiled, waved, and backed away from the oubliette. It was time to find Jareth and figure out what was going to happen.
Gerdol scratched his head and shifted on the ground. He also was in an oubliette in the dungeons, but he noticed that when the Goblin King had tossed him in here he must have added some ward to it after lingering another few moments at the top; especially since he couldn't hear a single sound even though he knew the other dwarf was somewhere nearby. And so in utter darkness and complete silence he sat.
The course of events was not entirely unforeseen or unexpected. It was clear that Fiachna sending him to infiltrate the walls of the kingdom would arouse suspicion and maybe even imprisonment for they knew the blonde king would not just let him go free without trying to get answers from him first. Any who entered the labyrinth never just went free. There was always a price to pay or a test to endure, and now he waited in the dark belly of the castle. It did not bother him much since he had gotten used to darkness. The Raven Mage was not renowned for kindness or mercy.
Convincing the dwarf named Hoggle wasn't very difficult since he was a bit simple-minded and more trusting of his fellow kin. And yet it had pricked Gerdol somewhere deep inside to connive against another dwarf after so many years separated from his kindred or anyone else that mattered. Those distant feelings soon were snuffed out when he envisioned the face of his Master with the eerie golden eyes and dark aura that could lash out at any moment.
There was a job to be done. And Gerdol intended to see it through.
His swarthy hand dug around in one of his pockets and came out fisted around something. Although he could see nothing, he knew exactly what it was for his Master had given it to him with specific instructions.
With a few tosses and flinging of his arm a fine black powder scattered over the ground all around him. A black powder from the very hand of his Master.
His task was done. His Master would be pleased.
Now all he had to do was wait till the Raven Mage arrived.
The daylight waned, the sun descended, and twilight fell over the Goblin Kingdom. As the sunset blazed bright in the West, stars began to appear one by one against the blue-grey sky between the clouds forming a gradual canopy. The wind shifted and blew now from the North with a crisp chill on its wings and a scent of dampness.
Sarah sat in the Tower reading yet another book of Underground history while the skies grew darker and the air colder. Generally it was fairly warm here since it was summer, but this wind brought a sense of autumn with it as though it were about to rain.
It was here she had been waiting for hours for Jareth to arrive. So far he hadn't shown up and might not for all she knew. She took a long sip of hot black tea and glanced out one of the tall windows where the stars were faint and the clouds growing. It certainly appeared a storm could blow in soon judging by the darkness of the canopy and the scent of the wind. She found herself wondering if storms were the same here as in the Aboveground in her world.
The door opened on creaking hinges.
And so the Goblin King found her with the face-shaped mug warm in her hands and a book lying in her lap.
"I suppose giving you that book really was the most fitting thing I could have done considering your love for reading," he remarked casually.
"What book?" That statement alone set her curiosity afire and gave her a momentary lapse of determination. Did he actually mean...
"The Labyrinth," he said with a smirk. "Did you really think it came to you by mere chance? I didn't write it, mind you, but I did make it for you after seeing you so miserable in that park."
The tea almost slipped from her hands. She gaped at him with her lips parted in pure astonishment. "I can't believe it," she murmured. "That was from you? You said you'd seen me a while before that night I wished Toby away, but...I didn't realise how…how much you were involved in my life. For that long…"
I will never be free of him, she thought. Even if I went home tonight, I would never be free of this man. We've both left such a mark upon each other that will never be erased, and he's entangled his life with mine so much that I don't even know what it would be like if he hadn't. But it seems I keep finding out how he's helped me more than I ever knew when times were hard back at home.
"Does that trouble you?" he asked as he moved further into the room, the firelight from a few lamps flickering shadows over him and turning his pale skin a warm hue. He was in grey breeches, a white ruffled shirt, and a black leather vest. Of course his black gloves covered his hands as well.
"Oddly enough...no."
"But my choice today troubles you?"
"Partially," she said. "If I could convince you to shorten his time in the oubliette, I'd be less troubled. I saw him earlier and he seemed pretty miserable for more than one reason."
Jareth didn't react harshly like she half-expected. He seemed a lot more resigned than during the morning. "And how long would you leave him in there, Sarah? What do you think would be proper punishment?"
"Oh. Uh...I'm not sure I'm the right one to ask. You know it wouldn't be hardly any time at all."
"I'd like to know."
She tried to think of an answer that he would agree to. "Three nights?"
The only response was a derisive grunt.
"Five?"
A quirk of his arched eyebrow.
"All right, how about seven? That's a week. Don't you think a week in a completely dark, isolated, and small oubliette is enough?"
After a pause, a slow smile spread across his face. "Then seven nights it is for Higgle."
"Hoggle."
"Details," he said with a wave of his hand.
In her heart, she understood that this was his way of apology without speaking the words. He would do as she requested.
"Sarah, there is something I must ask you in light of recent events."
"All right..."
"How much did you tell Fiachna while you thought he was your friend?" The word was on his tongue like a bad taste.
She thought about it as she fingered a silver ring of hers on her right hand that Amber had gotten her on her birthday a couple years ago. "Nothing about you or this place of course. Just menial stuff about that life."
"Did he happen to ask you about your dreams in life? Your desires?" Jareth questioned with an intent gleam in his eyes.
Her heart stuttered an instant, and she turned towards him. She suddenly was glad she hadn't answered "Bran" when he did indeed ask that question.
"He did. How did you know? I didn't tell him."
"Good." His shoulders relaxed and he leaned a hand on the large table in the middle of the room scattered with star charts. "If you had, he would have a certain power over you, one that could be extremely dangerous. It is different for him than it is for me, but if you willingly give him the answer, he could manipulate you a great deal. I had to be certain."
"It's so strange to think that he used to be a friend to me," she said quietly. "He's a really good actor. He played the part so well; most of the time anyway."
"He has fooled many of the Sidhe, so do not be ashamed of the deception."
She threw a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. Sometimes she wondered how he understood her so well. No one had ever known her quite so intuitively, not even Amber who was her best friend. It made it difficult to uphold the walls she tried to keep around her heart, the walls that had been built since Christopher and a few years before when she finally saw her mother again in an encounter that dashed any last vestiges of hope that she could have a real mom. She hadn't talked to anyone about it, so she wasn't sure why she wanted to tell Jareth what had happened and how Christopher had broken her heart, an account of all the times someone had betrayed or hurt her throughout life. Maybe because he understood so well about the walls built up around one's heart.
It reminded her of one of her many questions.
"Jareth, what happened to your parents?"
He sighed. "Sarah, I don't think now is the time."
"But it seems to be common knowledge to the Fey and here to people in your world, so why can't I know?" she said as she thought of Queen Ètaìn who had been so kind to her. "Is it really so terrible?"
"It is a tragic tale, nothing more." He subtly pushed away from the table but didn't move forward. "Why do you so stubbornly wish to know?"
"I want to know you better. You're still such a mystery," she answered in a quiet voice, although she refrained from mentioning why she wanted to know him.
Ever since those intimate moments on the shores of the lake under a starlit sky, Jareth's allure had transformed into something more than simple physical attraction. The draw was at its greatest, and she didn't know how long she could resist it or if she even desired to. Would they just pretend nothing had happened? Because she wasn't going to have it. But what if he thought she wanted to act as if nothing was happening between them? Her behaviour hadn't exactly been clear since she herself struggled with the barriers set around her heart. Sarah looked upon him and imagined what it would be like.
Sarah thought of her life back in the Aboveground. There were people she loved—her family, Amber, and some other friends—but so much had changed there in the last few years. What made her tremble inside was the silent answer echoing from the greatest depths of her heart to the question she continued to ask herself: did she want to go back home?
That faint whisper of an echo said "no."
There was a sense of belonging here in the Underground, a sense of something more finally laid out before her where she could see it and be a part of it. Her soul felt more at home here than in the world she'd grown up in.
And there was a man here who continued to prove himself someone she could love. Someone she would give up the old life for…
Whatever he planned to say was stopped by a roll of thunder rumbling across the heavens. They both looked out the windows and saw that the clouds had grown even darker and thicker as they filled the sky. Not a star was in sight, but the moon still shone bright through the gloom for a time, lining the black clouds in silver. Sarah set aside her tea and book and rushed to the open windows to see if there was any lightning. Thunderstorms were one of her favourite things.
"You're not afraid of storms. Good."
"So you have a lot of them?" she asked.
"Yes. The summer storms can be the worst."
A thrill ran through her. There was a small balcony over the window ledge where Jareth had said he'd place his telescope in the summer. She swung her legs over and stood out beneath the open sky as the wind slowly burgeoned and the special smell before a rainstorm tickled her nose. Jareth joined her on the balcony even as another peal of thunder roared. A few silent moments passed as they admired the storm headed their way.
"My father was King Taylen," Jareth's soothing voice stilled her thoughts as he began the tale she'd longed to hear. He crossed his arms and looked out over the skies that roiled with black clouds, and a flash of lightning lit his face. "He was a very powerful Fey who was on the Sidhe Court for over a thousand years, but it was when he was still considered of a somewhat young age that he met my mother, Vielenna. Her father was impressed by Taylen, but her brother wasn't so easily charmed and caused some contention amongst them all when they began courting. Eventually my father saved her brother's life when he was attacked by a tribe of our own kindred from the far East who thirst more for blood than most of us. Then he had the approval of all, and so they wed. Their love was of a pure greatness. They had the admiration and respect of thousands of the Tuatha De Danaan all over the Underground for many long years, except for some who were either envious, didn't like anyone in the first place, or were just plain evil. After a while they faded from popular eminence, and it was then my own story began." He paused when he looked over at her. "And no, I did not have brothers or sisters. I could see you were going to ask. I alone was heir to King Taylen, but they did not mind and neither did I. Things are different here than in your world, Sarah, so it will suffice to say that my parents and I had good relations most of the time."
"Most of the time?" She sniffed and rolled her eyes. "If you were from my world, you probably would've been one of those rebellious teenagers wearing leather and black nail polish who defied society and became a loner."
It was clear he didn't fully understand some of the things she referred to, but he got the general idea.
"Continuing on," he said with raised eyebrows directed at her, "a long time passed and the story of my father and mother at last takes its tragic turn. The Sidhe are not all a peaceful people just as humans certainly are not either, and so particular tribes of Fey sometimes fall into war with each other—whether small assemblies or entire kingdoms. It's not as often as in the Aboveground, but it does happen. The last of these battles in recent history was around four hundred years ago—a small amount in our reckoning. Taylen became involved because of a bosom companion who asked his aid, but he was killed in one of the attacks."
Sarah gazed intently upon him just as intently as she listened to the words rolling off his tongue. The only sign of past mourning were lines that formed on his brow.
"When Vielenna heard the tidings, it was not long before her heart gave beneath the anguish. She died as well."
Thunder rattled the shelves and the brass telescope. The storm was moving slowly, yet it was moving straight for the Goblin Kingdom with its coiling arms and terrible roaring. The sounds and flashes of its fury punctuated the grief of the story now unfolded before Sarah. She had no words to say since she knew they would avail nothing, so she reached out to place a hand on his arm. The white linen was cool to the touch even though her fingers felt the warmth of his skin beneath.
Jareth glanced down at her. "You need not worry. What is passed is passed."
Sarah frowned. Again she felt her own youth and inexperience as he showed great wisdom for she herself hadn't dealt with certain affairs in the past, the very ones that had been on her mind before he told the story. "You know what. You're right. You've learned to move on and accept things the way they've happened because nothing can change the past. I've let people affect me in ways they shouldn't because I've let the past chain me up."
"And who might that be?"
Lightning forked across the sky followed a few seconds later by more thunder, this time a little closer.
"Last night I talked about my mom and how she wasn't the mom I wanted. I started learning and getting better about our relationship. My heart really was healing. And then there was Christopher. We were..." At the sharp expression on his face, she stumbled with her words to find the right term. "He was my boyfriend—uh, a lover I guess you would say here—for a long time and I thought we were in love; but he wasn't. At least not towards the end. I'd poured out so much into him and given him my heart, but he left me for someone else so suddenly. Since he was the first real relationship I'd had, it hurt so much. I trusted him. It was like my mom leaving all over again, but in a new kind of heartbreak I hadn't felt. I immediately built up all sorts of walls around my heart so that no one else could betray it like that again, but of course that never works out in the end. You just go down a dark path with a cold, hard heart." She looked him in the eye and glimpsed a spark of emotion that she hoped to see. He did understand. Perhaps she had done that very thing to him those seven years gone right after scaling those imposing walls of stone he'd set about himself both physically and emotionally.
"He didn't deserve you," Jareth murmured in his smooth, charming tones that set her on alert. "What a fool! Only a ridiculous boy would give away a treasure of such value."
And in her mind she heard him singing the words from Midsummer's Eve when they stood alone under a crystal moon:
Down in the Underground,
you'll find someone true.
Her body began to tremble a little. They were here alone again with masks and pretences stripped away. The storm raged outside, but another storm was raging within the Tower as the seconds ticked away.
Seven years later, Jareth the Goblin King still waited for her love. He was someone true.
He had been ever patient, ever persistent, and ever faithful even to only a memory and a faint hope of return. It was more than she could have dreamed from any man. Maybe the Goblin King truly had become the man of her dreams...
Telling her his parents' story had been an unspoken vulnerable divulgement. In response, she had bared herself to him, also with an unspoken statement: I walled up my heart, but not anymore.
Sarah's heart leaped to her throat when she noticed his pale eyes watching her keenly. Without another moment's hesitation, he moved away from his side of the balcony and came near to hers. Her breath caught when he leaned his arm on the wall behind her in a casual posture reminiscent of her first time in the labyrinth in the tunnel with Hoggle. That same smirk graced his lips as he leaned close.
"And how are you liking my labyrinth this time, Sarah?"
What she would have liked to say was, 'I'm not sure since there's an evil mage after me wanting to kill or torture me,' but what actually came through her muddled thoughts was a whisper of, "It's still a piece of cake."
His smirk grew wider into a smile.
They were barely a foot apart. Although it was rather dark, the firelight from the window cast one half of him in warm light and the other was bathed in cold shadow occasionally lit with white from the lightning streaking through the clouds. It was like the two sides of the Goblin King: one almost caring and warm and the other harsh and cold. They called him the Lord of Music and Mischief. How well it fit him: a heart of great depth but a character full of mischievousness that could do harm. And with one face aquiline and sharply sculpted with the perfection of a statue for he was not only a man but one of the Sidhe of myth and legends.
Dangerous. But caring. No longer dangerous for her.
His warm breath softly touched her skin as he leaned toward her. He lifted a hand to finger a tendril of her shadowy hair and caressed the soft skin of her face with his eyes. Although the thunderstorm grew louder, Sarah couldn't hear the rolling thunder over the pounding of her heart. Neither could she feel the cold wind whipping at the folds of her dress but only the heat creeping upon her skin as her cheeks turned the shade of a rose.
The storm rolled in directly over the labyrinth. Thunder rumbled with a loud crash.
And Jareth finally stopped teasing, closed across the gap, and pressed his lips to hers.
NOTE: *silence*
You know what to do...