Chapter Six:
Jareth was upon her in an instant, his body towering over her in what she was sure was meant to be an imposing manner. Yet his eyes held a kind of compassion she hadn't believed he possessed. It was almost as if a fear had spread through the Goblin King. But a fear of what?
"I've chosen." Sarah repeated, taking a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm her rapidly beating heart. She still was having a hard time understanding everything that had been thrown at her in the last hour, but the Queen Mother's words had been simple enough to understand.
If you choose to leave the Underground or if your runner succeeds, his magic will slowly rip you apart from the inside out.
The Aboveground is toxic to those afflicted with magic.
The more she thought about it all, the more it made sense. For months she had been feeling ill, worn down, as if her body was too heavy. It had almost felt as if gravity itself had increased upon her, threatening to force her through the Earth. That's exactly what it had been doing, after all. Jareth's magic had slowly been trying to influence her to return to the Underground.
"Do not choose out of fear, sweet dove." The Queen Mother soothed, her voice filled with compassion and sadness.
Jareth tilted his head slightly, a childishness possessing his dark and haunting eyes as he surveyed her features. He said nothing.
"You still have much to see, young one." Farnig offered, standing stoically behind his King. "The Fireys, the fairies, the dwarves, the worms, the banshees and the labyrinth guards."
Sarah's eyes were trained to those of the King. She felt like she could hear him, deep in the confines of her heart. It was as if he were whispering into the darkest recesses of her being.
Choose wisely, Sarah. Choose for yourself. Choose for Toby. Do not be afraid. The choice is yours and I will not let harm befall you.
Toby?
"I haven't chosen a magic yet," she finally spoke, watching as a collective sigh seemed to run through the Fae before her. "But I have chosen to stay in the Underground. I want to keep my memories, I want to continue to be me."
The fear in Jareth's eyes seemed to melt away to once again be replaced by the darkness she was accustomed to. "Very well."
"Jareth, I want to-" She began, but the Goblin King held his hand up to silence her.
"Your time with Farnig is far from over. My time will come when all of your options have been placed before you." He explained.
"Fairies and dwarves and banshees and things?" She asked, trying to keep the excitement from her voice.
Smirking slightly, the Goblin King took her hand in his, lifting her knuckles to his lips. "Until then, Sarah."
She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could Jareth had vanished into the darkness. Once again she was alone with the Queen Mother and the Fae General.
"A wise choice to remain, if I do say so myself." Farnig smiled, holding his hand out to the small human girl.
"A choice?" The Queen Mother scoffed. "I would hardly say the child was given a choice. Had she left the Underground, she would have forfeited her life. Such a choice you have bestowed upon her."
Sarah reached out tentatively, taking Farnig's hand in hers. "I appreciate your time, my lady, and your honesty. But death or no death, my choice would have been the same. Giving up my memories would never have been an option. I would have lost everything that made me who I am. I would have lost Toby."
"You would chase down the moon for that child." The Queen Mother smiled sadly. "He is lucky indeed to have you fighting for him, child thief."
A wider smile crossed over her lips as Farnig's teleportation began to settle over her again. "He is my brother."
When her surroundings settled again, she was standing in a familiar forested area. She remembered feeling alone, she remembered the fear, remembered the bright red fur and the bouncing heads as she tried to find her way back to her friends.
The familiar cackling echoed in the darkness around them.
"I hate these guys." Farnig huffed, crossing his arms adamantly over his chest.
A light giggle escaped from Sarah's lips at the Fae General's but quickly turned into a startled shriek as the first of the familiar Fireys jumped from a tree to stand before them.
"We remember you!" One of the Fireys chuckled, kicking his foot against the leaf covered ground. The quick motion sparked up a fire in the middle of their clearing.
"Yeah, you threw my head!" Another Firey cackled, lifting his head off his body and bouncing it on his elbow.
"My head, too!" Yet another Firey smirked, bouncing up and down on his head.
"I do apologize." Sarah chuckled, standing closer still to Farnig in case any member of the Fire Gang decided to try to take her head from her shoulders again.
"That's okay! You can play with us now!" A new Firey grinned, tossing his neighbors head in Sarah's direction.
"Catch!" Cried the original Firey.
"That is disgusting." Farnig frowned in disgust, stepping out of the way as Sarah caught the head.
The head in her hand cackled, his ears fluttering as it hummed out a happy tune. "Throw me! Throw me!"
"Over here!"
"Toss him over here!"
"No here!"
Sarah chuckled, passing the Firey head to another one of his friends. "You don't seem to think much of this lot." She smirked, turning her attention back to where Farnig stood. A look of disgust and disinterest crossing his features.
"No. I don't. They spend all of their days tormenting the more productive members of the Labyrinth. Once a month, they set everything in their path on fire and they think it's the funniest thing. Burning down peoples homes." He huffed.
"It is funny!" One Firey smirked, bouncing his head off Farnig's back.
"We just want to have some fun."
"Yeah man, where's your sense of fun?"
Farnig let out a growl, his hand falling to the hilt of a bladeless sword that was tacked to his hip. "Are you done, Sarah? Can we move on now?"
"Don't go."
"We're just getting started."
"Yeah, take off your heads."
"Relax!"
Sarah chuckled, reaching out and placing her hand on Farnig's arm. "We can go."
Farnig let out a humming sound that she took for gratitude as the dark forest of the Fireys faded into the large stonewalls of the Labyrinth.
"Where are we?" She asked, spinning delicately on the balls of her heels as she took in the familiar sand stone and the smell of the Labyrinth. "Are we near my stepmother?"
Farnig shook his head. "Your runner is still along the outer edge of the Labyrinth. She is nowhere near."
Sarah nodded her head gently. "And who are we meeting now?" She asked, nibbling worriedly at her bottom lip.
"Less of a meeting and more an explanation of employment." Farnig smirked, leaning his back against one of the large stonewalls.
"Employment?" She asked, watching as the wall to her left shifted to reveal two very familiar doors. "Its you!" She grinned, moving forward quickly to greet the familiar knockers.
"What?" Yelled the left knocker.
"I said hello." She giggled, stepping forward to free the ring from the right knockers mouth.
"No. No good. Can't hear you." The left knocker stated dejectedly.
"Still as stubborn and stupid as ever." The right knocker chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Are you still trapped in the Labyrinth, dear?"
Sarah shook her head, a wide smile upon her lips. "I'm a wished away now."
"Ah. I remember when I was first wished away." The right knocker smiled.
"What?!" The left yelled.
"You do?" Sarah asked, ignoring his deafened counterpart.
"No. But I know it happened once." The right knocker chuckled.
"Seven hundred and twenty-seven years ago." Farnig rolled his eyes from his place against the wall.
"Lord Farnig! What a pleasure." The right knocker greeted.
"Mumble, mumble, mumble! All you ever do is mumble!" The left knocker yelled angrily.
"Give him back his ring, Sarah. We have much to still discuss." Farnig demanded, waving a dismissive hand in the knockers direction.
"But I don't want it back!" The right knocker sighed, his voice sounding more like a petulant child than a knocker that had served for over seven hundred years.
"You can take it back willingly, or I can force it into your mouth with magic and freeze you both for the next hundred years." Farnig threatened, his eyes dark.
"What? What is that?" The left knocker yelled in confusion.
"Fine." The right knocker sighed, opening his mouth wide as Sarah popped his ring back into place.
"Goodbye." She grinned. "It was nice to see you both again."
Farnig frowned, motioning for Sarah to take a few steps closer to where he stood before the wall closed between them and the knockers again.
"Are they an option?" Sarah asked. "Can I become a knocker?"
"No." Farnig chuckled lightly. "Most likely not a knocker. But there are wished aways who volunteer to become part of the Labyrinth Guard. All of those obstacles you met along your journey were once wished aways themselves. The helping hands, the four guards, the wiseman and his hat They are all meant to either deceive a runner or help them along on their way. It depends on their mood."
"I get it now." Sarah smiled brightly. "Employment. It's a chosen job to guard the Labyrinth."
Farnig merely nodded.
"They're like teachers, aren't they?" Sarah asked, brushing her hair back from her eyes.
"How do you assume?"
"They all taught me lessons while I was running; to be brave and kind and smart and to think things through before making rash decisions. They make a runner wiser." She offered, reaching out to take his arm again as he offered it.
"While most wished aways are not sent back with their runners, it is the hope of the Fae to teach a runner something. Something that may stick with them and make them better for the experience. Surely you learned something that made you a better sister when you returned to the Aboveground?" Farnig offered.
"I think I was." She smiled fondly. "I never really thought about the Underground in this way. Of all the people it saves and all the good it does for both worlds."
"We're not the monsters you once believed us to be, are we?" Farnig offered with a light smile.
"Even my friends once believed you all to be monsters." Sarah said sadly, remembering the ways that even Hoggel had once reacted to the mention of the Goblin King.
"When Jareth wants something, he can be quite persuasive." Farnig shrugged. "Hold tight."
The pull of Farnig's teleportation radiated through her, silencing the sound of the bell tolling eight times.