“Don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You told me you’d keep an eye on her.”
Hoggle flopped into his favorite chair and stared straight ahead, ignoring his wife stooped at his side, “She never called me. How can I keep an eye on her if she doesn’t call me?”
Drema put her arms around him, “Oh dear, I’m so sorry. You must be worried sick.”
He was, more so than he cared to admit. “I don’t want to think ‘bout it anymore. Let’s just go to bed. The sooner tomorrow comes the happier I’ll be.”
“You can’t do that. You can’t just hide in bed when Sarah might need you. You’ve got to go find her.”
“I can’t. If she don’t wish for me I can’t go to her.”
Drema looked away as her tears began to well up, “Well what good is magic if you can’t do anything with it?”
“Come on Drema. Let’s sleep this night away. When morning comes I’ll find an excuse to make my way into the Labyrinth for somethin’ or another and I’ll find her. She’s a smart girl. I’m sure she’s fine.” He took his wife’s hand and they settled into bed, neither one slept nor did they speak. Morning might as well have been a week away.
***** ***** *****
Arulan came into Jareth’s chambers unannounced. Fortunately he was dressed. An elegant pair of black silk pajamas draped him as he sat on the green marble settee, the fire ablaze. “Your highness,” she called as she entered.
“What is it?” In the soft glow of the fire she saw his lips just barely moving to let the words out.
“I’ve a matter I wish to discuss with you?”
“Can it not wait until morning?”
“No your majesty I do not believe that it can wait another moment.” She joined him on the settee. Her shoulders square with determination. “I wish to discuss what transpired between you and the mortal.”
Jareth rose an eyebrow wondering how why she would come to him to discuss a topic he thought he had clearly closed. “Really then?”
“I know that you went to see her. I’m guessing you couldn’t keep up your charade of coldness and you told her once again of your feelings for her.” She noticed him glancing away into the flames and surmised she was correct. “You know you can tell me Jareth. I’ve never betrayed you and I don’t have any intention of starting now.”
“Dear lady, I beg you not trouble yourself with ills you can not mend. The mortal has denied me again. Yes, but don’t you see in doing so she has set me free to better focus my energies on ruling my kingdom.”
“Is that how you see it?” she barked at him.
“As a matter of fact.”
“Well, if you think that sending out your goblins to spy on the Representatives and turning yourself into some evil beast is for the best king...”Arulan gasped at her own outburst. “I figured she had denied you Jareth, but I fear it is something more that has been said or done,” she accentuated the latter, “to put you in a mood as foul as this one.” The king continued staring into the fire “You must love her very much.” This time her words were gentle and kind.
“Not at all,” he said gazing deeper in the fire, in his minds eye he saw the dancing flames as reflections of him with his mortal. The way they blended together into one large fire, the way they seemed to grasp at one another and then draw back. ‘Arulan, you have no idea just what had happened between us that day,’ Jareth thought as he lost himself further and further into his daydream.
“You don’t want to tell me and that’s fine, but I’ll be here, ready to listen when you need to talk.” Her hand reached out for his shoulder. “I wish you wouldn’t keep things all bottled up inside this way.”
“I don’t believe in wishes anymore.”
“No wonder your kingdom crumbles down around you. How long are you going to let your foolish pride keep you from being king? You can’t go back to her and she has no power to call upon you. You must put the past behind you. What is said and done is said and done,” the elf reminded him. Jareth rose an eyebrow at her indicating just how unwelcome her words were. Arulan rose and left. She didn’t care what Jareth said, he still loved the mortal and probably always would, but he had a kingdom to run not ruin.
***** ***** *****
“Who’s stepping on Ludo’s bed,” a rough voice came from behind Sarah but she remained motionless. Ludo let out a tiny howl and two flint rocks brushed themselves together igniting a small pile of kindling encircled with stone. The tiny fire was no good for heat, but it nicely lit his little corner of the Labyrinth. He lay the creature in his arms in the glow of the flames. “Sar - rah?” he tilted his head looking at her as if he remembered the face he was looking at and yet didn’t. “Sar-rah,” this time he shook her gently.
Her vision was blurry when she came to. All her life Sarah laughed at women, like Karen, like her mother who actually passed out from fear, and now she was one of them. What on earth had made her react that way? Then she remembered what had frightened her in the first place. Ludo bent down so that his face was illuminated by the fire and she could see his comforting smile. “Ludo! It was you who grabbed me and scared me half to death.” The beast shook his head up and down fiercely. “Ludo!” Sarah gave him a gentle slap on the arm.
“Ludo sorry.” He sat facing her looking more sorrowful than any beast should.
Unable to resist any longer, Sarah flung herself into his arms and became lost in his sheer massiveness. She hugged him tight, happy as ever to be with him again. “It’s okay Ludo. I’m okay.”
“Sar-rah still Ludo’s friend?”
“Of course I am,” she soothed him as her hands stroked his thick fur. “I’ve missed you terribly.”
“Ludo miss Sar-rah.” He looked at her curiously with his head cocked, “Where Sar-rah come from?”
“It’s a long story,” Sarah practically moaned, exhausted from all the day had given her. “I’ll tell you about it in the morning. Right now I’d just love to get some sleep.”
Ludo pointed toward the make shift mattress pushed up against what had once been a complete wall. His huge paws gently edged her closer to the thing. ‘It was big enough to sleep her whole family,’ Sarah thought as she crawled onto the mattress. It was soft and not very supportive, but it would do fine for a night’s rest. Almost as suddenly as her head hit the pillowy softness, dreams took her over. Ludo curled beside her their two backs rested together for heat, “Night Sar-rah.” He whispered. The sleeping mortal never even stirred.
***** ***** *****
Ludo moaned as morning’s first rays stung his sensitive eyes. Funny that a beast such as he would have anything sensitive about him, but Ludo’s eyes were second to his heart. He nudged Sarah forcing her to stir as well. “Sar-rah? Sar-rah?”
“What is it Karen?”
“Kar-ren?” He shook her again, “Sar-rah?”
This time she opened her eyes wide and her pupils shrank in the sunshine. Her first night in the Underground had come and gone and she was still here. “Ludo?” she called rubbing her eyes “Is it morning already?” Ludo just shook his head. “I feel like I only just fell asleep.” Sleeping on the cold floor of the Labyrinth, even despite the mattress, was uncomfortable, but at least she had the safety of Ludo’s nearness.
“Ludo, do you know how to get to the castle from here?”
The beast shook his head side to side.
“Oh, you never were good with directions.”
Still shaking his head side to side Ludo told her, “King smash door.”
“What do you mean, Ludo?” He wasn’t much of a conversationalist either if Sarah remembered correctly.
“Ludo show Sar-rah.”
“Okay Ludo. Show me,” she took the hand he offered and let him drag her along the way. After a number of turns and double backs, Sarah was getting hungry. She took two apples from her bag and offered one to Ludo. He accepted and swallowed it whole. Sarah nibbled on hers nearly choking on a bit when she saw Ludo fall into a hole up ahead. In the seconds it took her to reach the spot he’d vanished, the hole was gone. “Great!” Sarah cried up toward the sky, “How in the hell am I supposed to follow him now?”
Without warning the same patch of land opened up and swallowed her too. ‘Why did I have to ask?’ she thought as she hit the bottom. Now what would she face? For a land that had no idea she was returning, it certainly seemed ready for her. “Ludo?” she called out into the darkness.
“Sar-rah?”
“Ludo where are you?”
“Sar-rah?”
“Just keep talking Ludo and I’ll find you.” A few more calls of her name and Sarah managed to wrangle a few handfuls of his fur. “Okay Ludo, now listen, I want you to walk with me to the wall. We’ll go to my left Ludo, so your right. Ready?” He immediately began to move as she directed. They slid toward the wall and felt the earth against their shoulders. “Good Ludo, good. Now you go right and I’ll go left and we’ll feel for torches or something on the walls. If you find any tunnels or doors you call me, okay?” The beast was unresponsive. “I can’t see you if your shaking your head,” which is exactly what he was doing, “so if you understand me you have to tell me, okay Ludo?”
“Okay.”
Minutes later the duo rejoined with one another on the other side of what they now knew was an oubliette, a dark, cold, terrible oubliette. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Sarah kicked the wall. “Feel around on the floor Ludo, for anything that feels like it’s a door or might have a door hidden under it.” The search went on for what seemed hours until she swallowed her pride and shouted, “Hoggle I need you!”
***** ***** *****
Mason was just catching up with his old pal, telling him about the girl he’d met who had magic to rebuild the Labyrinth. “Where?” Hoggle asked, desperation straining his voice, “Where did you send her?”
“I sent her to the shrine. Why’s it matter so much to you?”
Surely the shrine would do her no harm. Sir Didymus was there and he would undoubtedly direct her somewhere safe. “I’ll explain later,” he shouted back over his shoulder as he ran off in the direction of the shrine, fear and anxiety making him forget that he could have as easily transported there. Minutes later he stood before Sir Didymus breathless, holding his side and attempting to catch his breath in short gasps. “Where...is...she?”
“Where is whom?” the tiny knight replied.
Didymus seemed edgy even for Didymus who hopped around like a mad squirrel even when nothing was wrong. Hoggle narrowed his eyes at him, “You know who. Where is she?”
“I assure you Mr. Hoggle, that I have no idea of whom you speak.” His words came out slowly, each with some strain or accent attached. The cream plume which extended from his floppy blue hat pointed toward the tomb as he gave his head a tilt and jerk.
At last Hoggle understood what he was trying to tell him. Jareth was at the tomb of the Leanan Sidhe. It wasn’t wise for them to continue their conversation. This time very quietly he said, “Where did you send her?”
“No where,” he replied. “Milady took off when it started getting dark.” Didymus repositioned the direction of his hat’s feather, “She went that way.”
“And what are the two of you discussing?” Jareth had appeared abruptly behind them a scowling look on his face. Their quiet conversation had very much peaked his interest.
“Nothing.” Hoggle offered up in a weak voice.
“Come, come Hogbrain, you wouldn’t abandon your post at the gates for nothing, would you?” the king continued to interrogate.
“No, no I wouldn’t. It’s just that...” At the blatant lie he began to stumble.
“Mr. Hoggle was just asking me if I had noticed the direction in which his daughter wandered off.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was wonderin’.”
“Why would you bring your child here, you repulsive little creature?” Jareth was less than pleased with Hoggle for his decision to bring his daughter to the Labyrinth, but it was far better than his reaction to knowing Sarah was in the Labyrinth would have been. “Well don’t just stand there. Get to finding her before she winds up stuck in some oubliette somewhere and you go blaming me for your own indiscretion.”
“Yes yer majesty,” Hoggle replied as he headed off in the direction Didymus had indicated softly calling, “Sarah? Sarah sweetheart?” for fear that the older Sarah might reply to his cries.
The riding crop Jareth carried in his right hand slapped against part of one of the stone topiaries surrounding the fountain in the garden outside the tomb. “Why don’t you just transport in on her you idiot?”
As he felt the tug of Sarah’s call pulling him toward where ever she was Hoggle couldn’t help thinking someone wanted him to find her, for Jareth’s question gave him the means for an easy escape. “Your right yer majesty. I’ll be doin’ that now.”
***** ***** *****
Sarah was slunk down against one of the walls of the oubliette and the moans that she was making could have easily compared to Ludo’s any day. “Sar-rah?” he called to her but no reply came. Sarah was busy trying to hold her head together for it felt as though it were going to split wide open and it seemed squeezing her eyes shut like a vice still didn’t make the visions go away.
‘Hurry Hoggle, please,’ she thought just before she gave in and let the images take her over. It was a child, not much older than she had been when first she had come to the Labyrinth. Sarah’s body felt her immense exhaustion, her hunger, her fear. It was definitely a girl. She was wearing a dress, strapless and yellow. Sarah could tell it had been a very bright yellow at one point only now it was grubby with smudges of Underearth. In fact, the girl was layered in it, it dug under her nails and marked her face. Her hair had been neatly braided and tied with a ribbon, but wild strands hung loose around her face and in her eyes. The girl was quickly growing tired. Thoughts of her brother faded away, her family seemed like a dream, her life Aboveground a fantasy. Brown eyes fell closed and she faded into unconsciousness. In moments the feelings seemed to end even though the vision was still strong. Sarah could see the oubliette and she could still see the little girl. Her mind’s eye walked her over to the sleeping child as Sarah drew her strength from Hoggle’s words. ‘You’re in control,’ he had told her. Her shaky hand reached for the soiled dress and gently shook the sleeping child. She fell to her back and glazed eyes stared at the earthen ceiling above them. Sarah screamed and threw open her eyes, a bright yellow ribbon clutched in her fingers.
Quickly Hoggle grabbed the small lantern from his belt, the one he was suddenly thankful Drema made him take along this morning. A sad sight came to light before his eyes. “Hush now,” Hoggle said as he swept her into his paternal embrace. “Hush.”
Sarah sobbed into his small shoulder. She wept for the girl, she wept for herself and she did so uncontrollably. Jareth was capable of being cruel but not even her most awful nightmare depicted him as a killer. “He left her here to die,” the mortal choked out between sobs.
“It’s not what you think,” the dwarf tried to tell her.
Thrusting the ribbon before his eyes, “Not what I think! It’s not what I think! I think he locked her up in here and forgot all about her until she was dead.” Sarah noticed Ludo looking particularly frightened as he watched them carefully. “Hoggle,” she pleaded before lowering her head to his shoulder and once more began to rain her tears over him.
Jareth actually had forgotten about the girl and so it could be said that inadvertently he had left her to die, but there was more to it than that. There was the fact that this girl had come after Sarah and by then the Goblin King was not keeping quite such a close eye on his opponents. It wasn’t like he didn’t have any remorse over what had happened. Cruel, yes he was cruel but not cold blooded. Thick fingers rode over waves of Sarah’s black hair. “April was gonna be sixteen before the month’s end when she wished her little brother away.” Sarah’s eyes met his exposing the scars her tears had left upon her cheeks. It felt even worse knowing this girl had a name, but she continued to listen while doing her best to not interrupt with another hysterical outburst. “She ran the Labyrinth quite well at first, but she had trouble with the riddles and made a few bad decisions. Well you know yourself that this place has a way of catchin’ up with you. April landed here in this oubliette. There were nine hours still left on her clock.”
“The king, he didn’t use crystals much with mortal woman after you Sarah. Besides by the time the goblins claimed the child and the Christenin’ was over, April was gone.” Hoggle had been with the king when they discovered her. As gruesome a scene as he’d ever witnessed, Hoggle recalled seeing her so still, so cold and yet at peace. What’s more, he saw his king nearly as devastated as he had been by the woman the dwarf held in his arms this moment. It had not been an easy discovery for Jareth who had never killed a human before or since. “You must believe me when I tell you that his majesty was positively beside himself at his own irresponsibility. He assumed full blame for what had happened and immediately set out to the Triumvirate to make a request that had never before been made of the fey.”
Behind them Ludo came nearer and sat himself down as if it was story time. Hoggle sighed before he continued, “Jareth asked them for permission to reorder enough time so that the girl would be returned to livin’. Worried more about the reputation of the Underground than the state of its king they agreed; however, the child had already been christened and so it was too late to restore the parents as well. April was sent home to her parents and the history of their lives rewritten so that they no longer remembered a tiny boy who had once been a part of it with them.”
Feeling a little more composed Sarah choked out, “And he can just do that?”
“With the help of the Triumvirate, Jareth can do just about anythin’ he pleases. He is king you know.” Hoggle told her.
“Even play God?” What he had done disgusted Sarah. Not only did he let this girl die down in this terrible dark and nasty place, but then he just manipulated time to bring her back as if that made it all better somehow. “And what about her brother? If he was being so generous, he should have sent the child home as well. He’d give them all back!” Memories of Toby came flooding into her recent recollection forcing Sarah to admit there was still a lot of resentment and distrust when it came to Jareth. “What does he need another goblin for anyway? All he does is kick them around or toss them back and forth.”
“He gave that family back one child rather than leavin’ them with nothin’.”
“But Hoggle that doesn’t make it okay!”
“To Jareth, it does,” he found himself explaining. That was a new twist. He hated the idea of Jareth being with Sarah. He was furious that they had kissed, annoyed with the idea that Sarah would have let him go on and do whatever it was he would have. Is this what it was going to be like when his own daughter was old enough to attract the opposite sex? And yet there was that nagging something that couldn’t bare to see the two of them at odds with each other again. “To him, it was the best he could do. Look Sarah, Jareth is the Goblin King. It’s his lot in life. No one would fault you if you had to play the Wicked Witch or the Evil Step-Mother in a stage play because that’s just your job. Takin’ babies that are wished away, that’s Jareth’s job, that’s what he does. Some things you just can’t change.”
In her heart, Sarah knew he was right. Jareth was who he was and changing even one thing about him might have taken away the things that made him cruel but it was to risk taking away the things that captivated her about him. There was that air of overconfidence she would have hated for him to lose, that smooth way he could take control of almost any situation that she was awed by. The Goblin King without his royal charm, why that was no Goblin King at all. She hadn’t seen that until now, hadn’t wanted to admit it was that piece of him which was bad that also made being with him feel so good. “Damn it!” she let out as she began to sob into Hoggle’s shoulder again.
“Women,” he said shaking his head. He let her cry for a few minutes, let her get as much as she could out of her system before it occurred to him that it was getting later. “Now whattya say we get out of here?” the dwarf asked.
“Out,” Ludo said
Sarah nodded.
“Well then, did you look for doors like I told you?”
Sarah nodded.
“Where’d you come in from?” Ludo held up the lantern so they could look for the hole that they fell through. They could see an opening and just inside the rungs of a ladder. “How are we going to get up there?”
Ludo wrapped his large hands around Sarah and lifted her up to the rungs. She grabbed hold and pulled herself up. “Now what? I can’t pull Ludo up, so Hoggle will have to come?”
“Well I can’t lift him up?”
“Ludo stay,” the beast offered.
“No Ludo,” Sarah cried out. “ I won’t let you stay down here.”
“Listen Sarah, you haven’t the time to argue about this. I’ll come with you and once we know you’re safely back on your way, I’ll have time to find a door and come back to get him loose.” Hoggle offered.
Large blue eyes pleaded with her as Ludo was already lifting Hoggle into position at the bottom of the opening. Sarah had to reach down and help him get some footing, but the tiny dwarf made the climb. “Hoggle will be back to get you soon,” she shouted back down to the beast they were leaving behind.
“Okay,” they heard him moan.
At the end of the rather long climb, Sarah stepped out first, into the late afternoon sun that was still potent enough to warm her skin. Gentle hands reached out to help her friend resurface as well. “This isn’t where we went in,” she told Hoggle.
“So often happens here that where you go in is not where you come out.”
“Now which way do I go?” she wondered out loud looking all around.
“There’s only one way into the Goblin City now. Jareth reconfigured the maze after your victory.” Sarah looked away when Hoggle called it that. It certainly didn’t feel like a victory, not now anyway. “He made it so as there would be only on path to lead into the Goblin City and no one could sneak up on him again. If I could only remember how to get to that door.” His feet seemed guided by a memory his mind couldn’t find as he began strolling down a corridor he seemed to choose at random.
Sarah followed behind, gazing around at how ruined everything appeared, dilapidated and old. Not just old in the sense that it had existed for a few millennia, old in away that made it seem useless as if it had been a doll house that was played with for years and then shoved in the back of some closet and forgotten about when roller blades were invented. She wondered when she’d see all her “magic” start working here where things had been their worst. “It’s no use,” Sarah muttered when they’d been walking quite some ways and dusk was beginning to settle upon them.
“Too late now,” her companion said matter-of-factly. “I warned you before you came here that this wasn’t a good idea and you came anyway.”
“Yeah, well, now look at what I’ve done. Jareth isn’t going to want to see me. He’s going to be angry that I’ve come, angry that you’ve helped and I’m tired Hoggle. Too tired to fight. He’ll probably send me home the minute he lays eyes on me without even giving me a chance to apologize.”
“Can’t do that.”
Her feet stopped their forward momentum, “Why not? I thought he was king and he could do anything he pleased. That’s what you told me.”
“I said with the help of the Triumvirate he could do just about anythin’ he pleased. He has no power over you remember? He can’t send you nowheres.”
It certainly sounded wonderful. She’d have a chance to apologize, time to tell him that her magic was restoring his world, the world she helped to destroy and she could make her peace with him before she returned home. Sarah looked at Hoggle and a smile overtook her lips.
“Don’t know what yer so happy about? Just because he can’t send you home don’t mean he won’t try and kill ya or lock you away or somethin’. He may no longer be a magical fey in your presence, but he is still a man and he will still have all the capabilities any other man would when it comes to you.”
That explained why he could so easily seduce her and why it could so readily effect her without it being a confession of his fey power over her. “Thanks Hoggle.”
“Just don’t want you lettin’ your guard down and gettin’ yourself into somethin’ I can’t help you get out of is all.”
“But he’ll see all the good I’ve done the Labyrinth, done the Underground...”
“And do you think he’ll want to send you away when he realizes that it’s your magic what’s restored all of it?” Hoggle interrupted. “He asks the Triumvirate to send you back Aboveground and this place is a shambles again in a month. Keeping you here is his only guarantee that won’t happen.”
“I’m sure there’s another way?” She seemed almost cavalier about it, as if there were always options to every scenario.
“You can’t give him what he wants.”
“What does he want?”
“You,” the dwarf told her before he turned and continued on their journey. “All he’s ever wanted was you.”
Remaining motionless, Sarah stood open mouthed and watched Hoggle head further and further away from her. Suddenly the whole maze seemed to spread out and she felt small and insignificant. Ideas flooded her mind from all sorts of angles, down all sorts of venues and she couldn’t clear her mind, not even enough to ask Hoggle to wait. The songs of the birds overhead faded and the light seemed to fade very quickly until everything was dark.
***** ***** *****
It wasn’t long afterwards that Hoggle had found the door that led to the only remaining length of maze to reach the Goblin City. A black onyx door polished to unbelievable smoothness so that it almost looked like glass marked its entrance. Only now there was no door. No mirrored surface that reflected back the images before it. Only a frame. A gold frame open with a dead end just a few steps inside. On the ground around his feet were shards of what had once been the door. Some pieces were large, others mere slivers of glass. That’s when he realized that Sarah was no where to be seen. Quick as his stout legs could carry him he ran back to find her passed out where he had turned his back to her and confessed Jareth’s desires. Gently he knelt and cradled her head in his lap. “Forgive me,” he said fiddling in her backpack for the water bottle and emptying almost half of it in her face.
Sarah sputtered back to life spitting the water in all directions, shocked at what was going on. “Oh don’t tell me I fainted again,” her hands wiped at her eyes and face. “I don’t understand why I keep doing that.”
“I think I do,” Hoggle told her. “If you’re okay to walk, I can show you.”
She struggled to her feet and brushed herself off. “I’m fine.”
Hoggle still stayed close by, just in case she were to relapse. “The door is just up ahead, but it’s been smashed to pieces. Your fey magic must have sensed it and tried to give you a bit of a rest before we got there.”
‘Really,’ Sarah thought. She’d have put her money on her knees giving out at the very idea of Jareth wanting her, but whatever. Hoggle knew more about this magic thing than she thought she ever would. Step by step Sarah had to force her feet to move, she felt incredibly weak, more so than she had on her entire journey thus far. By the time she reached the door she had to sit. There was a small piece of ground where no shards were lying about. Her legs folded beneath her and instinctively she reached for one of the pieces of onyx.
Much as she thought she never would, she was getting used to the sudden headaches that accompanied the visions. Images swam around in her head and it was difficult to focus. It took a great deal of concentration for her to make out Jareth raging and pacing back and forth in what appeared to be the throne room of his castle. He wore a long sword at his side, something Sarah had never seen him do before. Storming out the castle doors and down the streets of the Goblin City his sights set on the Labyrinth. Before long he reached the onyx door. A moment’s clarity came over him and it seemed as if he might turn and walk away, but then he drew the sword and with a guttural, low and pain filled cry, the kind a wounded animal lets out, Jareth rose the iron blade and struck through the door sending an array of shards splintering to the ground. For a brief second, Sarah’s magic took her inside his mind and she could hear him thinking, ‘They can take away my power over mortals, but the Labyrinth is still mine. I may no longer be able to fight them, but I can still ensure they won’t succeed.’
Aware that what she held was quite fragile, she gently placed the onyx shard back on the ground. Hoggle was watching from not far away, most impressed with the control Sarah seemed to be developing over her mortal magic in such a place where it should have been getting weaker and fading away it was flourishing. He couldn’t help but wonder what it was the Labyrinth needed her to see that kept her magic developing. “What is it Sarah?” Hoggle asked.
“Jareth. He smashed the door so that the mortals couldn’t reach the castle to challenge him. The Triumvirate, he was thinking about the Triumvirate and how they had taken away his power over mortals, all of them.”
The first shadows of night were falling around their feet forcing fear in Hoggle’s heart. We’ve got to get you through this door Sarah, or you’ve got to return home with me where you’ll be safe. We can’t take chances that you would so easily survive another night in this Labyrinth.”
“I’m not going back now. If I go back then when I return everything will switch itself around. I’m too close to go back now. And Ludo, Hoggle you’ve got to get Ludo out of that hole before nightfall.”
“Well I ain’t leavin’ you here.”
Sarah thought a moment about all she’d done to get to this spot, in the Labyrinth and in life. It had been good to see Sir Didymus and Ludo again and she had loved the warmth of Hoggle’s family. If she failed now it would not have been a completely useless venture. Something in her thought of the new faces she’d encountered and the ones she had yet to meet. The good and the bad, the head made of stone and Mason. “Mason,” she cried, “I need you.”
The goblin appeared before her, trough in one hand, bucket of concrete in the other, “What in the name of the king?”
“Good idea,” Hoggle smiled. She really was adapting well.
“How’d I manage that?” Mason was looking all around himself, “See here, now did you pluck me out of my repairs young lady.”
Sarah smiled wide happy to see him again and certain that he would help her. “So I did Mason, just more of my magic.”
“You’re probably the one whose been fixing all my holes. Why I went all they way out to the Labyrinth’s edge this morning looking forward to a nice easy day and I wound up trudging back to the center to work on some real whoppers.”
So Sarah’s magic had worked it’s way into the Labyrinth. Even if they didn’t get this door fixed, Jareth would find her soon. Better she confront him rather than be found like some sort of prey she wagered. “Mason, I could really use your help with this door.”
“What door?”
Hoggle pointed at the ground, “that one.”
Mason’s fingers loosened from the bucket handle and it fell to the ground in a thud. “Have you gone mad?”
“Mason, we must,” Sarah pleaded.
“Well my lady, if we must, then I shall do my best to help you.”
“Thank you,” she turned to Hoggle. “And you, go and get Ludo back to his corner of this maze and then get home to your family. I’ve got Mason to look after me and then I have myself a king to find.”
The dwarf stood, his hands on his hips, offended that he could be so easily replaced by someone who should have meant very little to her by comparison. He was about to blast her for taking him for granted when sense got the better of him making him realize that her short tongue was equal to the short period of daylight which remained available to her. “Just be careful,” he huffed before leaving.
“I will,” she told him as a reassuring smile came over her face. He glanced over his shoulder upon hearing her voice and saw the tears that held up in her eyes. It made his feet move faster for fear that he would mirror her if he stayed.
Four hands worked at the pieces with desperation as light got low. It was Sarah who handled most of the pieces, attempting to use her magic to help her guide them into their appropriate position. Mason worked the joint compound into the gaps between each piece. Before long there was a half a door beginning to take shape inside the frame. Seeing their goal taking shape only encouraged them to work harder. Just as it was becoming impossible to tell the difference between the pieces of onyx and the ground, the duo completed their second project together. Sarah smoothed her hands over the door and it seemed to fuse together into the rich black pond it had been in Hoggle’s memory. She thanked Mason for his help and inhaled sharply as she grabbed the gold fixture which had appeared on the finished door.
“Are you sure, this is what you want to do Lady Sarah?”
“Sure as I can be.” A charming smile lit her face, making her seem so self assured as if she were only going on a leisurely stroll. The door opened with relative ease and the dead end which only hours ago occupied the other side was now a corridor that stretched out before her.
***** ***** *****
Jareth sat in his bed chamber watching the moon rise. It had been another difficult to visit his mother’s tomb and he was wondering why he continued to force himself to go there. His thoughts wandered to all the oddities of late. The daisy on his breakfast tray. The little fox who had seemed awfully jumpy, even more so than usual. And the dwarf. What possessed him to bring his child to the Labyrinth. “Fool!” he let out.
Removing his robe, he took a seat on the edge of his bed watching the moon rise in the sky. Something was wrong. He knew it because he felt tranquil for the first time in years. To most beings that was a welcome relief, to the Goblin King it was like smelling blood on the wind. A heavy sigh escaped him and he thought about settling in early. Slowly he rose and began to turn back the duvet. One of the goblins he sent out on a fact finding mission came running into his chamber unannounced. The king gave him a look of extreme annoyance.
“Your majesty, it’s her!”
“Her who?”
“The girl who once ate the peach and forgot everything. She’s made her way through the onyx door and is headed into the Goblin City.”
“That’s not possible!” A wave of his hand and his black silk pajamas were instantly replaced by Jareth’s more typical attire. “I smashed that door!” It was as those words feel from his lips that he realized the bigger impossibility. “Sarah Williams could never return to this kingdom.” The Goblin King stormed passed the goblin shoving him aside. He attempted to transport to where she was but her words kept him from doing that. Jareth grabbed a crossbow from the armory on his way out of the castle. “Suppose I’ll just have to walk then.” A crystal orb spun in his palm until it began to glow. Jareth gave it a soft toss in the air and it hovered just above his head lighting the area around and immediately in front of him as he left the castle doors and began charging through the Goblin City shoving or punting at anything that dared to get in his way.
***** ***** *****
Sarah could still see her hand before her face but just barely, as a kind voice offered her tired feet a welcome ride. She followed the voice until she was able to make out a friendly looking sway backed pony. “I’m sorry,” she spoke softly to him stroking his mane, “was it you I heard talking.”
“It was,” the pony said.
It seemed strange to hear a pony speak to her, even here in the Labyrinth where little surprised her, this had managed to make her feel odd. For a long while she stared at the creature running her fingers through it’s thick midnight black hair that mimicked her own.
“It’s getting late,” the pony reminded her. “I thought you might like a ride into the Goblin City where it would be safer for you to spend the night.”
“Well that is the way I was headed. Is it all that much further?” she asked, puzzled because Hoggle indicated that once through the door it wasn’t much longer.
“Much, much further than your weary mortal legs can carry you,” the creature replied the, tone of his voice filled with concern.
Hoggle had told her not to take things for granted and back in her mortal world they had a saying, ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’. Never had one of the Aboveground colloquialisms she grew up with better fit a real life situation. “Do you think you could bear my weight?” After all this creature seemed not much larger than a Shetland variety pony and Sarah was slim, but tall and broad. She carried a bit of weight on her, perhaps more than she’d have cared to admit.
“You’re a mouse!” the pony assured her.
“In that case, I accept, but please, what might I call you?”
“You Sarah, may call me Pooka.”
‘How did he know my name?’ Sarah thought. ‘I hadn’t told him my name.’ Then again so many creatures knew of her in the Underground that it shouldn’t have been surprising. “Thank you Pooka,” she said gratefully as she situated herself on the pony’s back.
“Hold tight,” he growled
Like a lightning bolt the equestrian began to dart through the remaining maze, Sarah couldn’t tell which way they were headed, but a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it wasn’t the right way. Pooka whinnied and it echoed in the black of the night. As the ebony skies enveloped her, Sarah began to feel as if she were floating in space. The sky. Pooka. The walls of the Labyrinth were all black, blending together in a dark sea she felt herself drowning in. What had she done now?
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