Chapter Eight:
Jareth didn't push. He didn't want to make Sarah uncomfortable or have her misconstrue his intentions. He wanted her to make the right choice, the choice that would make her the happiest. He had known almost immediately that Sarah belonged in the Underground, but he had been unable to prepare himself for her spirit.
She loved so fiercely. She had been willing to give up everything in order to save her little brother and to right the wrongs she had committed. That kind of loyalty could not be bought. He knew. He had tried for years to build the bonds he now shared with all of his subjects.
He knew her.
Since her escape from the Underground, he had made nightly trips to visit her. He had watched her as she slept, fascinated by her spirit, strength, and courage. He had always believed humans to be weak and vile creatures. It wasn't until they accepted magic into their lives that they changed their dangerous outlook on life. Magic opened up their minds and their eyes. It made them realize they were not the center of the Universe, but instead a very small piece to a much bigger whole. Magic stripped them of selfishness, pride, greed and rage.
Sarah, however, already lacked many of the negative traits of humanity and she had intrigued him. Farnig had been right, Jareth had condemned her to death by flooding her with his magic, but none of it had been intentional. It had happened over time, accidentally, during his nightly visits to watch her. The first time he had offered her the aid of magic, she was running a high fever. Her brow was drenched in sweat, her face scrunched in discomfort. He wasn't used to this. Illness simply was not a part of the Underground.
He had crossed over to the side of her bed, crouching down so his chin rested upon its soft edge. First he had listened to her heart, contented by its strong beat albeit a bit faster than it normally was. Accompanying her strong heartbeat came her rattled breathing. Whatever was making her sick had housed itself inside her chest and was pressing against her lungs. The discomfort was evident upon her soft features.
Without a word, Jareth rotated his wrist and conjured a crystal. The small glass ball balanced between his fingers, practically humming with its unseen power. Rising to his feet, he placed two fingers upon her shoulder and gently coaxed Sarah to roll onto her back. His every movement was careful and calculated so as not to wake her. The last thing he needed was to be bothered erasing her memory. The crystal rolled across her collarbone, humming slightly as it absorbed whatever illness was ailing her. Slowly the crystal began to cloud, a darkness swirling within it until Sarah's breathing no longer rattled and the once clear crystal had become completely black.
Jareth would heal her of human illnesses a total of six more times before her stepmother would wish her away.
The second time he had offered her his magic, she had been plagued by nightmares. He had been hidden upon her bookshelf, magically transformed into a snow-white owl so as to better blend in with the many stuffed animals that lived there. Sarah confused him. She was unlike anything he had ever imagined humans to be. She had whimpered once, forcing his attention away from his confusion and back into the present. For the moments after her whimper, everything was silent. The Goblin King dared not breath as he watched her.
Sarah cried out, clutching at the blankets that swaddled her.
Rage flooded Jareth's features as his body transformed back to its natural state. What dared hurt his curiosity while he watched over her? He could not see the culprit. No dragons or harpees or Djinn. No tricksters or goblins or even a crawling creature of the Aboveground.
His rage melted into concern as Sarah cried out once again.
"Don't hurt him." She practically whispered, the fear lingering in her tone. "Please leave him alone."
A sigh of understanding fell over Jareth's lips. "A nightmare." He breathed, his features contorting into a slight smile. An enemy he could vanquish, but a nightmare he could cure. Slowly he lowered himself, placing two fingers from each hand upon each of her temples. For a moment he was flooded with images of Sarah, brandishing a broadsword, squared off against a monster made seemingly of darkness. Behind the monster and out of Sarah's grasp, Toby wailed hysterically.
"Save your brother, Sarah." Jareth willed, his magic spiraling out of his fingertips and radiating through her nightmare. A roar echoed through the darkness as a huge boulder slammed into the darkness, knocking the monster off balance. Before she could rationalize it, her friends from the Labyrinth were standing beside her.
"Strike now, M'lady!" Sir Didymus instructed.
"Right!" Lifting the sword above her head, Sarah swung the heavy blade, vanquishing the nightmare that plagued her. The darkness shattered and Sarah fell, landing safely in the Labyrinth. Toby clutched to her chest as she lifted him into his arms and both fell, landing safely in the Labyrinth to the cheers of her friends.
Jareth would use magic to influence her dreams more times than either of them would have ever been able to count.
Had he known that his mere presence was influencing her, he might have stayed away. But he had never cared to watch over a human before and he had never imagined his magic had the same effect in the Aboveground as it did in the Underground. By the time he noticed the signs of her affliction, he had come to visit her every night for eleven months. Her symptoms had come on too quickly and too strong for Jareth to correct his mistake. If he had stopped his nightly visits then, Sarah would have fallen ill and died within a week.
It was the same night that Jareth first noticed her symptoms that he really came to understand her stepmother. He was in the middle of berating himself for his selfishness when he heard the shrill voice of the elder woman.
"I swear I will never understand that girl!"
"Now darling," Sarah's father interjected. "I'm sure it is just a coincidence. Sarah would never."
"A coincidence?" Her stepmother scoffed. "A coincidence is running into someone at the grocery market or buying the same gift for a friend that they bought for you. It is not a coincidence to draw a picture of a fire breathing dragon with a face that looks just like your mother!"
Jareth was intrigued now. He slid through the floor effortlessly, standing invisible behind Sarah's stepmother and admiring the drawing in Sarah's sketchbook. It really was quite good.
"Sarah is just having a hard time adjusting. It can't be easy on her, loosing her mother at such a young age and having to adapt to our new family." Sarah's father tried to rationalize with the irate woman.
"It's been years!" She should be done adapting already! I'm her mother now!" Brushing her hair out of her face, Sarah's stepmother tried to calm herself. "You need to get this behavior under control, sweetheart. Or I will. She will not be allowed to treat me like this forever."
Jareth took a sharp intake of breath. A light at the end of the tunnel… Sarah's stepmother would crack under the weight of Sarah's independence and one day she would wish her away. Her life would not be lost, not because he had been so selfish. He would just have to wait until that time and then he would need to convince her to stay in the Underground beside him.
"Jareth?"
Shaking the memories of the last few years out of his head, he focused his attention in on the tall man standing in front of him. "Farnig. You've returned. How were your travels?"
Farnig smiled knowingly, rolling his eyes slightly as he bowed low and respectfully to his king. "Let's not pretend you were not watching us every step of the way."
"Maybe I was." Jareth's lips pulled up into a slight smile. "I see she's made her choice?"
Farnig laughed, nodding his head slightly. "She's made a choice. I can't be sure as to what it is going to be. But I think she is going to be happy here. Will you be, sire?"
"Will I be what, Farnig?" Jareth asked, glancing out the window of his throne room where Sarah happily paraded herself around the courtyard below with her friends. He hadn't seen her smile like that in a long time and it lifted the darkness that had settled over her heart.
"Be happy with whatever her choice is? You know very well she could refuse your advances and choose someone else." Farnig explained, frowning slightly. "What if she gives her heart to another?"
"You think I have competition for her heart in whom? The dwarf?" Jareth laughed at the very idea of it all.
"It is a rational question, Jareth. You may have had the last few years to figure out who Sarah really is but when she makes her choice to stay she will be seeing you as her King for the first time. She may not reciprocate your feelings and if I may speak frankly?"
"Do you do anything else?" Jareth asked, an eyebrow rising slightly.
Farnig chuckled and continued. "It is such a short time for a human, thirteen hours. It is all of the time and no time all at once. You can't expect her to understand everything your heart is capable of in that time. She's going to have a hard enough time adjusting to her new life."
"I've considered this."
"And?" Farnig asked, pushing his King into opening up about his true thoughts and feelings.
"And I will not push Sarah into anything that she doesn't want or isn't ready for. If she picks another, even if she picks the dwarf, I will support it. So long as she lives." Jareth explained, once again turning his attention out the window to the small girl still dancing around with her friends.
"You really do love her…" Farnig whispered, watching his King in fascination.
"I've been captivated by her from the moment she wished her baby brother away. A product of the Underground in so many ways who had yet to be touched by a drop of magic." Jareth explained.
"I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, my liege." Farnig smiled knowingly and the bell tolled.