“Yes well, they are much older than you realize and I’m sure they tucked themselves into bed right after we left,” Jareth explained.
Sarah wrinkled her forehead, “It was barely after six when we left. Gwendolyn had made dinner and you told her we couldn’t possibly stay.”
“Well, you heard Oberon, they didn’t have enough food for both of us.”
“They had four Cornish hens!”
“And you heard as well as I did when Oberon announced he intended to eat two of them on his own.” The king managed to counter each of her points. “Besides, we were already there a day longer than had been intended, we do still have the northwest to visit.”
Finally something she couldn’t argue with. Jareth breathed a sigh of relief. “Well I still think we could have at least stayed for dinner when we were invited.” ‘No harm in saying it just once more,’ she thought. Arulan had chef prepare them a lovely bisque and for the main course some pasta. Sarah shoved her noodles around her plate, only now beginning to notice that no one was at the dinning table with her besides the king and his servant. “Where’s everyone else?”
Arulan spoke up, “Lots to be done around the castle I’m afraid. Deverell has been doing quite a bit with the goblins in response to their requests. It’s all busy, busy, busy ‘round here these days.” She followed her comment with nervous laughter. “Speaking of busy, I really ought to see to cleaning my room.”
“Arulan, I’ve been in your room, it’s pristine.” Jareth looked at her with suspicious eyes.
“Well as busy I’ve been these last couple of days, I’ve let it slide. If you’ll excuse me your grace, milady.” With a slight curtsy she left the two alone to finish their meal.
“Do you get the feeling that someone is trying to see that we’re left alone?” Jareth asked.
“Nonsense,” Sarah replied. “Why would Arulan want to do that”
“Why indeed?”
***** ***** *****
Sleep was restless that night for both the king and the mortal. It had only just occurred to Jareth when he was with his great grandparents, that he had been hiding more from Sarah than just his love for her. He was hiding his lineage, keeping her from seeing his mother’s pension for mortals had been passed on. It was all making him feel rather burdened. He’d been working hard trying to find the right way to finally confess to his mortal. After a week of testing and tampering with words, the Goblin King decided that he would never find the right way, the right time. Tonight’s fiasco only made the fact more glaringly apparent. As he’d told Sarah at his great grandparents’ house, the Triumvirate had made their rules. Made it so a marriage like his parents’ could never exist in the Underground again. No matter the circumstances, they would never allow a fey to marry a mortal again. Jareth sighed as he rolled onto his side. Looking across the mattress, it occurred to him just how big this bed was when he was in it alone.
For Sarah it was a bit different. Jareth had said something which struck her oddly at first, but with all the excitement of the shop and meeting the first king and queen she’d forgotten. Now lying in bed, she had nothing to do but think and think she did. Jareth had told her that none of what Tiberon did had been her fault, that she was under the influence of some very powerful magics. At first she found herself acknowledging his expertise in this area. After all Jareth did use magic, rather regularly as it were, now that his powers had been fully restored. A wave of his hand to finish dressing, if they were out and forgotten something, poof, and it was suddenly with them. ‘Oh yes, he had used an awful lot of magic,’ she thought. The next idea to cross her mind was that Jareth had somehow managed to use his magic in order to manipulate her feelings for him in some manner.
It didn’t make sense to her. The Goblin King had abducted her brother, tricked her time and again inside the Labyrinth, dropped her in the bottom of an oubliette where she could have easily ended up like April. Then, in a radical change of heart, he offered her all the dreams her active teenage mind could generate. Since then he’d been a lingering fantasy, tucked in the back of her mind, just practical enough to be lucid, just dream like enough to be accredited to the subconscious. Fifteen years later, the king returned to validate his tangibility. Sarah could no longer deny him. Not when, even as she lie in bed all these weeks later, she could still taste that first kiss, still feel his gloves on her skin, still recall the sensations his body could evoke from hers. Despite wanting to hate him, there was this kinship she felt towards him, this haven-like comfort that lulled her into a security she loved. A time or two she’d struggled with the difference between loving the feelings he gave her and loving the king himself. The first she would admit to, the later she would vehemently deny. Why would she find herself having those thoughts if he hadn’t used his magic on her? How could she love a man who tortured her?
Tomorrow they’d head for the northwest, she would ask him there, she decided. At some point, Sarah would level him with an inquiry that would stop him from continuing his charade, then maybe they could move passed these generated feelings, do her job and return home. Tomorrow they would return to the sector where everything had begun. Their ride to the Triumvirate, seven days, spent nearly alone. There had been moments when he’d acted civil, short periods when he let down his guard enough she was able to notice his gentility, his noble qualities he kept so well hidden beneath his arrogance, sentineled by his pride. “Damn him,’ she thought. ‘Damn him for not just being himself and allowing nature to run its course.’
Though they both fought sleep, it eventually claimed them. Restless and filled with dreams, it was sleep nonetheless, well deserved and much needed. Even as the sun came streaming through the east windows, the pair yawned and stretched and fought the call to rise. Sarah covered her head with the duvet. Jareth opted to bury his head beneath his pillows like some mythical ostrich. Try as they might, morning was determined to come with or without their consent and they were doomed to the ritual visit from the perky elf who brought their silver breakfast trays together with her optimistic charm that was more admirable than it was welcomed.
Mechanically, they ate. Mechanically, they dressed. Jareth even found himself performing his tasks manually. When the couple met at the front door, there was a heavy weight which seemed to sag their shoulders and pull down the corners of their mouths. “Look at you two grumpy pusses this morning,” Arulan said before seeing them on their way. “The sun is bright and warm, you are going to the king’s favorite sector, the air is light and breezy, what’s got you two acting as if the world might end any second?”
“Just tired of zapping all over the Underground,” Sarah lied. Shooting a quick glance at the king, she noticed he seemed to grow even more disappointed at what she’d said.
“And you,” Arulan turned to her king, “what’s your excuse?”
Jareth looked from the girl to his servant and back again, “Suppose I’m just tired of having to zap her all over the Underground.” He settled his eyes back on the elf, “You know what a home body I am.”
Arulan nodded. Something was not right between them, but neither of them had come to her with any sort of details and she was no mind reader. Had she not been raised with such respect, she would have grabbed both of them by the shoulders and shaken them until they came to their senses, but rather she bid them good day saying only, “I hope the majesty of the northwest will shake the two of you out of these doldrums.” Jareth closed his eyes this time, as he transported them.
When the spell had ended, Sarah and Jareth stood before a large rock wall. She could assume they were close by the waterfall where Sarah had found the leprechaun’s gold, where Jareth had claimed her the night before returning to the castle, for she could hear the water caressing the stone before it carelessly slipped over the edge and dove into the pool beneath it. High above their heads rose the rock structure which spurned the waterfall. It extended on towards the mountains in a huge plateau where Sarah assumed it would eventually meet the river and begin to climb the mountain to its source. To their left the rock dwindled into a less and less impressive height which wrapped around southward in a cape, separating the area around the falls from the grove. Sarah recognized the shorter portion of the structure as the area she had climbed in order to mount Chataigne. They were facing the ledge just behind the falls. Praying the structure was comprised of thick stone, Sarah thought of all she and Jareth had done and just what close proximity it had been tot he home of the Representative. The rock they faced was misshapen in a very unnatural way, if such an idea made any sense. The stone became flat in areas, carved out, like a mining site from Sarah’s world might appear. Jareth approached a flat portion of the wall and ran his hand across it. “It’s here somewhere,” he muttered.
‘What’s here?’ Sarah thought as she listened to him grumbling while he examined spot after spot on the rock. Her mind was preoccupied by the warm sunshine that seemed to tug the corners of her lips upward as it kissed her cheeks. It was far too magnificent a sky to look upon one so sad. Arulan was right, this was too majestic a place for gloom.
A door in the rock face slid open, jerking Sarah back to the here and now while it managed to startle even the king a bit. “Hope you didn’t have any trouble finding me?” Elbereth said as he emerged from within the wall.
“I’ve been feeling for the door for fifteen minutes,” Jareth told him.
The Representative laughed, “Cave trolls, Jareth. They love to mine. Besides, their tinkering keeps me from getting too bored with my castle’s facade.”
The king rolled his eyes. His castle hadn’t changed in ages, that is to say, unless you counted the presence of the mortal and her shattering his Escher room. “I have brought the girl with me,” he announced, forcing the two, who had only briefly encountered one another at the ball held in the Sarah’s honor, to direct their attentions to one another.
“It’s lovely to see you again milady,” Elbereth took up her hand and placed upon its back a quick kiss.
As she’d been taught, Sarah bent her knees into a curtsey. “My pleasure to accept your invitation,” she said. Her eyes smiled at the Representative who she found familiar. Perhaps it was his salt and pepper hair, which he wore short, a rarity in this world, that reminded her of a method acting professor she had in college. As she imagined wire rimmed glasses balanced on the bridge of his nose, slightly magnifying his sky blue eyes, Sarah knew that were he to don a tweed jacket and carry a snuffed out pipe filled with cherry vanilla tobacco, the two could have passed for identical twins.
Elbereth returned her smile before he allowed her hand to fall. “Well then, I’m afraid there isn’t much to be done around here. My wee ones tell me that you two have spent quite a bit of time in this sector already.”
“Aye,” Jareth confirmed. “Seven days.”
“Yes, well they must have been a extraordinary seven days.” Sarah blushed and turned away pretending to take interest in a passing fairy. “Every last corner of my sector is alive and buzzing. It’s rather a perfect thing to be quite honest. So,” he paused, “I excuse you, Sarah, from your duty to the northwest as your duty has been done here tenfold.”
“Yes my lord,” Sarah curtsied again.
Her skill for socializing with royals did not go unnoticed by the king whose eyes were pulled from her when Elbereth directed his next words to him directly, “Jareth; however, has a might of a task to complete before I can let him go.” The king raised his eyebrow in surprise, “There is the matter of a certain leprechaun who’s in the market for a new place to hide his gold.” Jareth chuckled. Even Sarah had to hide a smile behind her palm. “Yes, well, I know they can be spirited little imps, but the fact is this, you torment him. Constantly harassing him and mucking up his treasure. Quidam is particularly upset with you and I can’t say as I blame him. He feels you should be the one to drag his treasure from beneath the fall. Naturally he’ll assume the responsibility for its being hid once more, but by retrieving his treasure Quidam feels, and I agree, you would have shouldered your portion of the responsibility for his most recent inconvenience.”
“Used to be the little four foot pile of paranoia could take a joke.”
While the representative attempted to reprimand him, his face could not resist lifting slightly at his comment. “Be that as it may, he’s quite upset and I’ll expect you to remedy the situation. Sarah and I will wait for you inside.” Elbereth motioned for her to follow him.
“This will just take a second with my magic,” Jareth said raising his hand and preparing to cast a spell.
“Oh, Jareth, just one more thing.” His hand covered the glove of the king. “Quidam requested you not be allowed to move the gold by magic.” Jareth’s face screwed up, his puzzled expression asking, ‘Why?’ “He’s worried that allowing you to use your magic would defeat the purpose of the lesson you’re to be taught. The gold pieces must be removed by mortal means.”
“That’ll take hours!” the king cried. “Elbereth, come now, let’s not forget that I am your king. This is a disgrace.”
“Yes and as my king you made me responsible for Quidam and all my other residents. If this small favor will keep them happy with me and obedient to you, your majesty, then is it not in the interest of the greater good?”
Jareth stood, his mouth agape. There was no acceptable answer, so he relied on the honest one, “Aye,” he conceded his defeat.
“I could help,” Sarah offered.
Both men looked at her, questioning her eagerness. “Well?” Jareth asked Elbereth, seeing as how he was the one making the rules after all.
“I suppose it is the mortal way for them to assist one another and she did offer freely. I’ll allow it. If the two of you are diligent enough, you can be finished by noon. It would be my honor to host your midday meal.”
Sarah looked at Jareth, her somber expression reminding him of their hasty exit from his ancestor’s home. “We’d be delight to join you for lunch,” the king committed to the appointment. “Sarah,” he extended his hand, “shall we?”
Only because the rocks they’d climbed up had felt so uncertain beneath her feet, Sarah placed her tiny hand trustingly into his as they began the descent. Elbereth smiled widely. “My little spies,” he whispered as several tiny fairies fluttered near his head and shoulders. “I can’t say as I approve of your voyeurism, but even if you had not told me about their stay here, I could have guessed it myself. The Underground is about to see more upheaval then it has in quite a number of centuries and you know how I love a good show.”
***** ***** *****
“You know you didn’t have to offer to help me,” Jareth told her as they stood by the water’s edge.
“I know.”
“Then why did you?” he asked a bit more sharply than he had intended. “Wait. Before you scold me for my tone, I apologize. That’s not how I meant for my inquiry to sound. I was merely curious as to why you would donate your time to manual labor when Elbereth would have been satisfied to entertain you while I milled about for hours on end.”
“Because,” she smiled, “watching you mill about for hours on end is far more entertaining than anything Elbereth could show me.”
“Of course it is,” Jareth huffed. His leather gloves wound around his hips as he stared down into the pool at the bottom of the falls. There was only one way to get to the gold if he was to be held to the caveat of not using magic. Dive in. Yet, the idea of brazenly jumping, nude, into the cool water didn’t seem entirely appropriate given his and Sarah’s history.
Intrigued by what it was holding the king’s attention, Sarah leaned over for a look into the pool. “What are you waiting for?”
“You don’t expect I’m going in like this do you?” He swept his hands over the elegant layers of his royal get up.
“So go in your underwear,” she suggested. She and her friends had done it Aboveground rather frequently.
“If I were wearing knickers I might consider it; however, I’m afraid I’m lacking that particular layer.”
“So summon up a bathing suit.”
Jareth turned his attention to her as he removed his jacket and began working his painter’s shirt out from the waistband of his deep red breeches. “Your kind wears a suit to bathe? That seems a bit ridiculous. After all, the point of bathing is to be able to reach all of one’s parts, is it not?”
“A bathing suit isn’t for bathing, it’s for swimming.”
“Then why not call it a swimming suit.”
“Well it is a swimming suit, but,” Sarah began to wonder if they would ever engage in a conversation during which he wouldn’t manage to unnerve her, “some people call them bathing suits.”
“Well here we don’t have such a thing.”
“So what? Under normal circumstances you’d just strip and dive in.”
Jareth smirked at her, “Under normal circumstances I’d use my magic! But I haven’t had the pleasure of a normal circumstance since your arrival.”
Sarah wondered if that was supposed to be some kind of an insult or merely Jareth being Jareth. So as she wouldn’t have to bother herself to be offended, she chose the latter. “You’re the one who can’t use magic.”
“Oh well thank you very much for pointing that out,” the king huffed.
“What I’m saying is that I never agreed not to use my magic. I could whip us up some bathing suits right now, if you wanted me to.”
“I suppose that would be a good idea.”
Sarah liked having the power. “Are you going to ask me?”
“Your serious! Unbelievable. Fine, fine, I’ll ask you. Sarah,” he rolled his eyes, “Would you...”
“Nicely,” she added.
“Be so kind as to assist in this matter by preparing these swimming suits you speak of?”
Her hands smoothed over the shift dress she wore and the fabric began to change, becoming more stretchy as it conformed to the curves and divots of her slender frame. When her clothes had completed there metamorphosis, Sarah reached up and pulled her hair loose of the chignon she had wound it into earlier and shook her curls free. Jareth watched her every move with heightened interest. What was it about her that he couldn’t ignore? While he was busy pondering, the mortal moved in on him, gathering up his shirt and slipping it over his head. Jareth’s eyebrows arched. ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘this was what he couldn’t ignore.’
“Do you mind sitting so we can get those boots off?”
“Huh, my boots?”
“Unless you want me turn them into flippers?” she asked.
Jareth sat on one of the rocks and pulled off his boots. Standing in nothing but his breeches and gloves was an odd sensation, but it was nothing compared to the feel of Sarah’s hands as they settled on his waste and began to slide over his hips preparing to refashion him into one of these mortal bathing suits. “You know, I wonder if this is really necessary?” he asked as he felt his member begin to stiffen.
“Fine, wear your tights.” Sarah backed away
“They’re not tights,” he growled. “They are breeches.” Jareth knew how much they showed of his physique dry, he could only imagine what would show wet and with Sarah in this suit of hers, hugging her hips and showing the swell of her breasts and the narrow of her back. There was no sense taking chances. “Never mind, just finish what you were doing,” he snapped. Before Sarah could criticize he added a semi-sincere, “Please.”
Reluctantly Sarah stood before him and placed her hands back upon his hips. This time as she began to work her magic, the mortal kept her eyes locked with the king’s. He watched intently as Sarah slid to her knees before him. Had she bothered to break the stare they’d established she’d have been eye to eye with a rather obvious expression of his excitement. When she was done, Sarah backed away. “Now that is you!” she cried.
Knee length baggy trunks covered the king’s partially erect penis. They were black to match his gloves, but it didn’t help to keep him from looking out of place in mortal clothes. Sarah smiled. “What?” Jareth asked before looking down to see just how oddly he looked. It was no wonder she was fighting back a smirk. “Yes, well, let’s not postpone our duties any longer.” With his hand Jareth motioned that Sarah should get in first. “After you.” Before she could make it to the edge and dive in, the poor girl erupted in a hysterical fit of laughter. “What is it now?” Jareth asked impatiently.
“I was just picturing you in Speedos,” she choked out between chuckles.
“What are Speedos?”
“Are you serious?” She examined his blank stare. “Oh you are serious. Okay, well they’re like your tigh...I mean your breeches, only they cut off at about...oh, here.” Sarah’s fingers slipped along the edge of the leg opening in her suit. “And the waist is low...around here.” She placed her palm parallel to the ground and indicated a line low over her hips.
“Honestly Sarah. I’m a bit surprised at you. Ogling me like I’m some slab of meat. Picturing me next to naked for your own amusements. I feel violated.”
Pursing her lips, she grunted at his overdone method of chastising her. Then in perfect form she jumped from the water’s edge, disappearing head first into the liquid blue. When she resurfaced, her hair stuck to her scalp, wild strands clinging to her shoulders. Long fingers smoothed the hair back down, as “This feels fantastic,” slipped between her droplet covered lips.
Rather than jump in, his majesty walked into the shallow water and continued to step further and further in until the water covered his pale chest. “Let’s get on with it then. Take me to where you found the pot of gold.”
“Can I ask you a question?” she said in response to his directions.
“Can I stop you?”
“If you don’t want me to ask, I won’t. All you have to do is say no.” Sarah dove under the water and through the foam created by the falling water. She resurfaced on the other side and immediately began to leave the grotto and head toward the huge black pot filled with the stamped gold coins. “How are we moving these things?”
“By hand,” Jareth answered. “Was that your question?”
“No and what do you mean by hand?”
“Was that your question?”
“Knock it off!” Sarah’s scream echoed against the rocks.
Jareth’s neck snapped, shocked by her sudden authoritarian attitude. “There should be a sack on the ground some place, ‘bout so big,” he motioned with his hands, “brown.”
“Got it. What are you going to use?”
“Was that your...”
“Don’t! Just don’t. You know damned well that’s not my question.”
The Goblin King grew very serious at her outburst. “I’ll use the pockets in my suit,” he said flapping the tags of two velcro pockets in the trunks legs. As soon as you teach me how to open them.”
At his cluelessness, Sarah softened. She reached out a hand for one of the tags and yanked it open. It took Jareth a minute to realize the pocket had opened and his trousers hadn’t ripped. “I see. Now look, I’m sorry if I offended you. How about this? I’ll ask you a question and then you can ask me this question of yours. Fair?”
“Mine was kind of personal.” It did sound fair, but she wasn’t so sure she really wanted to ask him anything anymore. She began filling the sack with the gold coins.
Jareth’s hands dipped into the cast iron pot, “Then I shall personalize my question as well. Have we a deal?”
“Fine. You first.”
“No ladies first. After you.”
“Never mind.” Sarah threw her hand’s up in frustration, “It’s not that important.”
The Goblin King sighed. “By the Underground woman, you make me crazy. I was trying to use my manners, but since you insist on my being uncouth, I shall join you. His right elbow rested on the rim of the pot as he lowered is eyes even with Sarah’s. “The other night,” Jareth began, “after the ring, when you didn’t want to come home right away, were you ‘turning to me for comfort’ then?”
“What do you mean asking me a question like that?”
“You said you’d just been turning to me out of comfort, I’m just asking if that was one of those comforting proposals of yours.”
“Never mind what it was. I probably wouldn’t have asked at all, if you wouldn’t have gotten me exposed to so much magic. You know I’m allergic.”
“Allergic? To magic? You have magic of your own, how in any world can you say you’re allergic?” Jareth asked.
“You saw how sick I got from what Maeve and Tiberon did to me.”
“Sarah, they drugged you. It’s very different from magic.” His hand reached for her shoulder, but she shrugged him off. “What? You’re afraid of me now.”
“How many times have you used magic on me?” she asked through tears.
“What?”
“You heard me. How many times have you used magic on me? To make me find you desirable, to convince me that you were trustworthy, to make me care about you. How many times?”
It had been a number of years since Jareth’s eyes had managed to appear so sad. “Other than transporting you Sarah, I have only used my magic on you twice. Once to give you magic and the second time when I enchanted the peach. Your trust, your desire, your capacity to care for me, those have all been yours to develop.” He finished filling his pockets and headed back into the water. Just before he submerged the king looked back at the weeping girl who had managed once more to break the heart she held in her palm. “I would have never wanted you to have those feelings for me if they couldn’t have been your own.”
Every time, every time she struggled to let out the feelings she had locked inside, Sarah managed to unleash even the smallest confession, it became a disaster. As Jareth reentered the grotto, she tried once more to make things right. “You have to admit, everything between us last time we were here wasn’t exactly our typical treatment of one another.”
“The last time we were here in this waterfall or here in this sector?” Sarah didn’t answer. “No matter,” he went on, “either way. I hate to remind you, but I didn’t have my magic when we were here last time. Not here in this waterfall, not here in this sector.” Jareth filled his pockets once more, “If you’re not going to help, give me the sack so I can get this done.” He held out his hand palm up.
“I said I’d help and I’ll help, if you’ll stop yelling at me.”
“I’m not yelling. Would you like for me to yell?” he asked.
Sarah looked at him as sheepishly as a kitten in a roomful of pit bulls, “No. It was just a question. I didn’t even want to ask it anymore. You kept pushing the issue until I had no choice.”
“Choice? Choice! Well let me tell you this, if it were my choice I would use my magic on you...to send you back to your world, right now.”
Chin to chin, she faced him, speaking sternly from beneath her tears. “Go on and do it then, send me home. Do you think I care?”
“No, I suppose you don’t really mind one way or the other, but the Triumvirate won’t let me send you home so I guess we’ll both just have to be miserable.”
Those were the last words they spoke to each other until the pot was empty. “How do you suggest we get the pot out of here?”
“Magic,” Jareth said plainly.
“But Elbereth said you weren’t allowed to use magic,” the mortal reminded him.
“You really must learn to listen more carefully, Elbereth said the gold had to be removed by mortal means, he said nothing about it’s container.” The king snapped his fingers and the pot disappeared. “I’m sure you’re as anxious to leave as I am, so if you would.” Jareth motioned to the water, “I can change us into something dry and suitable for dining with the Representative when we get ashore.”
Back on shore, he did as he had promised by restoring Sarah’s dress and his usual royal attire. From behind the pot they heard a small voice, “One hundred nine, one hundred ten, one hundred eleven.”
“Are you counting those?” Jareth asked the leprechaun.
Quidam looked up from his spot on the ground, “Your damned right I am. I don’t trust you no further than I can throw you and that one,” he indicated toward Sarah, “that one’s a mortal.”
“Have it you’re way,” the king stretched out his riding crop and caused the neatly stacked coins to topple over.
Tiny legs kicked at the air, “You scoundrel!” he shouted. “Even when you’re made to pay for your wicked ways, you managed to infuriate me and you do it all for your own amusement.”
Kneeling to help him tidy up the piles, Sarah told the tiny man, “There now, I’ll help you get it all straightened out.”
“Get your paws off my coins you filthy mortal.”
Sarah’s eyes filled with tears. Even the king had to feel a bit bad for the way she’d been treated. “You listen to me Quidam. I may have listened to Elbereth because he asked me a small favor for the greater good of his sector and therefore of my kingdom, but I am still the king around here and the mortal is my,” Jareth looked at Sarah and said, “guest. I won’t have you treating my guests that way. Now apologize.”
“He doesn’t have to...” Sarah attempted to drop the topic.
“I said, apologize.” Quidam looked from Jareth to Sarah, wrinkled his nose, giggled wickedly and disappeared taking all of his gold with him. Such was the way of a leprechaun. “Never mind the fool. He didn’t mean what he said. He was trying to be spiteful.”
“He was just saying what everyone else has been thinking only too afraid to say it because of your being around. I know I’m not like anybody else here. I know my kind isn’t thought much of Underground. I...I wish I hadn’t ever wished..”
The Goblin King pressed his index finger against her lips, “Don’t Sarah, don’t do anything we’ll regret. It was one remark, uttered in anger by a tiny man with a big mouth. It is neither truth nor popular opinion. Elbereth is expecting us. Let’s not keep him waiting.” Without argument Sarah let Jareth lead her around the rock structure and back to Elbereth’s castle.
“That barely took you two anytime at all,” he remarked as they entered the castle. “That’s what I call team work.” When no one responded, Elbereth took the hint. “Well then let me take you for a quick tour before lunch.” The Representative led them quickly through the castle sensing that neither of them was all too interested. Sarah took note of the way most everything was fashioned from rock or accented with water. It got to be feeling as if she were walking through a piece of art. When their tour had ended, Sarah excused herself so she could ready for dinner. “Something’s not right between you two.”
“What’s wrong between the two of us is none of your concern, but you should know Quidam called her a filthy mortal.”
“He did what? Why I’ll go out and find his gold myself if he wants to behave that way.”
Jareth folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in one of the dinning room chairs, “You told me I had to do as he asked. Greater good you said.”
“Quidam is my responsibility Jareth. I’ll talk to him. He was wrong for what he said, but perhaps you ought to try not giving people such a reason to turn hostile in your presence.”
Although it was particularly out of character for the Goblin King, he couldn’t help thinking, ‘perhaps Elbereth had a point.’
***** ***** *****
Before they left his sector, they each thanked Elbereth for him for his hospitality. In an instant they were back home. Just the two of them, standing in the foyer. Arulan hadn’t been there to greet them, then again she probably hadn’t expected them home so early. “It seems we’ve surprised everyone,” Sarah said when she was finally able to open her eyes and look around.
“Yes, well, we’re home and I’ve got matters to attend to I’m certain. The first of which will be reacclaimating myself to my throne and seeing that Deverell hasn’t settled into my office too comfortably.”
Almost pathetically, Sarah asked him, “What about me?”
“What about you?” That wasn’t how he’d meant it to sound, “Your last two weeks here are to be spent rebuilding the castle and the Goblin City. Why don’t you go see Hoggle? Have him get you together with Mason and see what you two are able to get done in the time you have remaining.”
“Am I that big of a bother to you?”
Jareth sighed. He tried to keep her under his wing and she wanted to run. He let her run and she wanted him to pull her back in. How was he to win? “I merely thought you would enjoy seeing your friend.”
“I thought I was doing that here, with you.” Before he could situate his jaw, which hung to the floor, Sarah had already turned and run out the front doors of the castle. Without making eye contact with any of the goblins, she fled their city and stalked undaunted towards the interior Labyrinth gates.
Hoggle was there, spraying for fairies. “Not surprised to see you,” he said.
“Really?”
“Nope. Knew Elbereth wouldn’t want anything from you. Knew why. Know how come, so don’t bother with the details.”
“I suppose you know everything, then,” Sarah said as she plopped down on the ground before him and began twisting a blade of grass around her finger.
“Not everythin’,” Hoggle admitted looking at her with a great compassion is his huge round eyes. “Don’t know why you don’t just tell Jareth that you love him when it obviously makes you so miserable not to.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” the point of her index finger was beginning to grow dark from lack of circulation. “I don’t love Jareth. What would make you say such a thing?”
“Just a feelin’. I seen how you get around him, all blushy and swoonin’ like you do.” The dwarf preformed a crude imitation that got Sarah smiling again. “Likes I said, I know why it is the northwest sector didn’t require your attention. You were there seven days and in those seven days, let’s just say the lands reflected yer feelings while you were there.”
Sarah wondered if he meant her physical feelings or her emotional ones. Either way, they were both fairly spectacular. “So you figure that my pleasant mood must be a direct result of my love for your king?”
“Listen here, have I ever lied to you?” Sarah grimaced in his direction. “Since we been friends I mean.” She moved to open her mouth and Hoggle cut her short, “Since you been back Underground?”
“No.”
“Well I ain’t about to start now then am I. If you don’t tell him, yer gonna regret it. Yer time here is short Sarah. You’ve got 15 more days, my little girl, she’s been keepin’ count. Now I don’t want to tell you what to do with yer time, but well I’m just encouragin’ you to make it count. Be a little selfish. Do somethin’ for yerself?”
“You don’t get it.” The familiar drops of water which Hoggle had grown used to seeing in her eyes and had come to expect were forming. “Someone like Jareth could never love me Hoggle. I couldn’t even get someone like Christian to love me, how could you imagine that I could turn Jareth’s head?”
“Girl, you sure those fireys didn’t get to your noggin? ‘Cause I get the feelin’ they done turned yer head ‘round backwards! Christian was a damn fool for not treatin’ you better and I venture Jareth is no less a fool for treatin’ you as he has. But Sarah, what’s the worst that could happen? You tell Jareth how you feel and the absolute worst he could do is,” Hoggle shrugged, “dip you in the Bog of Eternal Stench.” Sarah laughed. “Honestly, the worst he could do is say he doesn’t feel the same way. You lie low for the next two weeks, then home you go and you never have to see him again. At least you never have to live with the regret of not knowin’. Ain’t it worse to say you don’t know, that you were too chicken to try?”
Raising to her knees, she clutched the small dwarf in her arms, thankful that he seemed to perpetually have the right words at the right time, every time. “Hoggle, you’re a pretty smart dwarf, did you know that?”
“Of course I did,” He said as he patted her back and prayed that Jareth was half as smart.
***** ***** *****
Upstairs, Sarah drew a hot bath. Into the water she put a few drops of the perfume Arulan had made for her. Was she really about to do this? Indeed. She’d show up for dinner, smelling just right, looking just right. At dinner she’d remain very quite, stealing long glances at the king whenever possible. When the meal was through she’d ask him to go walking in the garden. First she’d apologize for the fighting they’d been doing lately, then, she’d remind him how much she was enjoying being Underground and lastly, she would tell him that she’d been hiding certain feelings for him because she was worried that she might offend Arulan. Prefacing her confession, she’d let him know up-front that she was aware how little time they had and that she only wanted to go home knowing that she had at least told him how she felt. The idea alone sent chills up her spine, even as it was submersed in the hot water.
She rose up out of the tub and folded a thick terry robe around her frame. She wished for a stereo because it would have been lovely to hear music playing while she readied herself. Sarah hadn’t brought a radio with her, the Underground had never seen such a creation and so none appeared, but music played in her head. The same wordless song she and Jareth danced to at the ball. Sorting through the wardrobe, she found a blue dress, one which matched Jareth’s eyes. It was longer than the other dresses, just about to her ankles. A spray of glitter that only caught in direct light, making it a subtle shimmer that teased the senses enough to make the voyeur wonder if it was even really there. The back dipped low, almost as low as the dress she bought for the auditions, but not quite. Her shoes had heals, covered in satin which matched the color of her dress, the tops were see through and hinted with rhinestones, making it appear as thought the heals merely clung to the bottom of her foot. Before her vanity, she applied her make-up. A touch of blue shadow, some eyeliner, mascara until her lashes looked like they were built to be an awning for her nose. Just enough foundation to cover the red blotches crying had put around her eyes, some powder to even the whole look and a dust of blush on the apples of her cheeks. Shaking hands prepared to smear lipstick across her partially open mouth. Sarah waited a moment until she was more steady and then stained her lips so that they were nearly blended into her face. A very natural, clean look she thought as she sat back to admire her work.
Stepping into her dress, Sarah slid it up over her hips and fashioned her arms through the thin straps. It fit her well. Slipping on the shoes she began to feel a bit like Cinderella. ‘This is what I’ll be wearing when I tell him I love him,’ she thought. Could it all be real? Not just this moment, but the whole scenario, the Underground or it’s king. How will she do it? Should she practice what she would say? Just let it come naturally? “No time,” Sarah said as she stepped into her shoes and took one last check of herself in the mirror. She’d done up her hair in a quick twist, leaving some stray tendrils to dangle around her face. Everything was perfect, from her highest plucked up hair to the open toe of her almost invisible shoes.
Down the hall she stepped, a bit more quickly than she thought natural. A couple of deep sighs and she started off again, this time much slower. Knowing strides carried her through the hall, down the stairs, across the foyer and down the long hall which led to the dinning room. ‘Get there early,’ she told herself and it’ll give you time to have a drink before dinner. Off to the left of the hall was a sitting room. Sarah could see the door was just slightly a jar, which intrigued her. For an instant she thought she heard the drowning echo of guitar strings. Her interest in placing the fading sound ebbed when she heard voices engaged in conversation.
The first a lilting female voice. “Jareth, it’s lovely!” It could only have been Arulan and in revealing herself she had uncovered Jareth as well. As Sarah slid along the wall, closer to the door she overheard their conversation more clearly.
“I could only ever confess these things to you Arulan. Only you know of my particular circumstance. It has not been easy, living my life with my secrets, never being able to love as I have desired to love,” Jareth said.
“I know how difficult it has been, but this will be your new beginning, this will be your chance to make up for all those years you lived without someone returning your feelings,” the elf consoled.
Sarah’s eyes welled with tears. She had come and destroyed them. Now, Jareth, who was furious with Sarah for insinuating that he would have to use magic on her in order for her to be attracted to him, was doing his best to beg the forgiveness of the woman he truly loved. Or so she thought as Jareth continued his impassioned speech. “I’m not free to love many woman, but I love you Arulan. I love you like I have loved no other woman who has held your spot in my heart.”
Arulan audibly choked back tears, “I know that’s not true, dear. I know that the woman who rightfully holds my spot in your heart will always be your true love, but I am just happy that I have you now, that I have had you all these years while she could not.” There was a period of silence between them during which Sarah assumed that Arulan had lost her battle to hold back tears or the two were exchanging some sort of tender closeness. She wanted to walk away, but her own face was marred with tracks from crying, her make up smeared to her jaw line. Where would she go? Besides, best she hear the words coming from Jareth’s lips so she didn’t justify them later when he saw fit to have her back in his graces. It was Arulan who shattered the silence. “I have loved you like I have loved no other boy.”
The earnest with which Arulan spoke hit Sarah like a boulder. She felt the heavy weight on her chest. But it was Jareth who replied with an appreciative, “Thank you,” that turned all the hurt to fury.
Though her fists wanted to burst through the door, the mortal only pushed the already gapping door open, easy like a midday breeze, and stepped inside. Her hands folded delicately in front of her, the knuckle of her thumbs stained with mascara. “If only Tiberon had really cared about me,” she began. “But even if he had, you wouldn’t have allowed me to see him, would you? Because like mortal men, you acquire woman. Surely there is always the one which they hold dearest above all others, but there are a great menagerie of suitable substitutes allowed to gaggle in the wings.” Her eyes rose from a spot they had chosen on the floor. Arulan’s mouth fell open when she saw the mess crying had made of Sarah’s beautiful face. “I apologize to you. It was never my intention to hurt you. After all, you have been perfectly hospitable to me during my stay. Perhaps I’m being too bold, but you deserve better than to be the chosen among many. You are a beautiful woman who deserves to be someone’s true and only,” she stressed, “love.” Her eyes then turned on Jareth who was riddled by her words as much as, if not more than, the elf. “I have been someone’s second choice for too long. I won’t allow someone to be second choice to me nor will I remain part of some harem.” Had she really just chosen that word? Regardless, she went on. “Try to be good to her, try to love only her. Make me as much a figment of your imagination as you were once of mine. I’ll be gone soon and you’ll have no reason to think of me. You should have let Tiberon have me when he had the chance. It would have been better for everyone.”
“To hell it would have been,” Jareth was on his feet and crossing to her. “If ever I heard a more asinine suggestion I can’t recall. Letting Tiberon have you would be like gifting rare orchids to a squallering hog. Sarah, I don’t know what your thinking of, but I’m certain you have something grossly askew.”
“Do I?” Her voice was deeper now as hurt and rage united. It was far easier for her to hide the anger than the pain. Through sobs she admitted, “I heard you two, just now, from the hall. Confessing your love for one another. I didn’t ask for anything to happen between us Jareth! Well, I did, but not this. I don’t know what I expected, don’t know what I was hoping for, but I don’t want anything from you, not if it hurts Arulan, not when I am only a temporary part of your life and she has stood by you for so long.”
The king was near laughing, but remained stoic as not to further upset the girl. “You’re worried about Arulan. This porcelain face of yours, which I can only assume was dazzling at one point today, this marvelous dress, all so you wouldn’t upset my servant.” Sarah shook her head, side to side. “Then what was it for?” She looked away, hoping to find that spot on the ground which had served her so well earlier, but the Goblin King captured her chin in his hand and rose her bloodshot eyes to meet his intense stare. “Sarah, what was it for?”
“I felt badly about what had transpired between us these past few days. I wanted to apologize for all the hateful words. After dinner I was going to ask you to walk with me in the gardens so we could talk. I thought if I looked pretty, you might be more inclined to agree.”
Waving his hand only a fraction of an inch before her face, Jareth reset her hair and make-up to near perfect. “So it seems, with you standing there looking just so, I am unable to deny you a thing.” His hands fell upon her hips, a handsome smile lighting his face.
Sarah battled within herself. She loved to hear him talk to her this way, loved the feel of his hands on her, but Arulan watched on from the settee, smiling. Smiling? Indeed, a grin had turned up the corners of her thin lips, a twinkle reflecting from the tear in her eye, “Jareth, I said…”
“Hush woman.” Sarah’s voice cut off, but her mouth remained open. “Allow me to synchronize that which you have heard and that which you have thought. The relationship between Arulan and I is a special one, unlike any other relationship I have had with any woman. It is a very deep and, as per your instructions, true love, as any boy should love his mother. Do you understand?” Unable to produce sound and confused by his words, Sarah only shook her head. “When I was born, my mother handed me to her servant, a young and lovely elf with fair skin and blonde hair which shone as brightly as her heart of gold asking that I be immediately taken from her.”
“Arulan?” Sarah asked meekly, new tears welling in her eyes.
Jareth nodded, “For reasons I still do not fully understand, my true mother, the Leanan Sidhe, chose to have no additional contact with me once I had been born. We sometimes shared the same room for meals. If I was playing in the garden, occasionally, she would sit and look on, but that was all. It was Arulan who saw to it that I was fed, bathed, amused. She was the woman who raised me. In order to keep her near, I hired her on as my servant. Much of my early life was, and remains, well hidden giving the right people very little cause to ask questions.”
Wearing a proud smile, the elf met Sarah’s eye, “It’s true. You asked me once if I had any children and I told you, none of my own.” Coming to stand at the king’s side, she pushed away a stray hair that covered his eye. “But for all intents and purposes, this was my boy. My first, my only, my favorite.” Was that a tear rolling down Jareth’s cheek? Through her own wet eyes, Sarah couldn’t tell. The king made a subtle gesture and Arulan left his side. She walked to the settee and from it’s far side picked up Sarah’s guitar and returned it to the king. “Here you are my grace. I’ll leave the two of you be.” She attempted to take her leave.
“Sit. You and your persistence are the reason for what is about to happen.” Arulan obeyed the king’s command. Sarah was slightly frightened by the way he had spoken to her, but it took only a glance at his face to see that it had been said in jest. “I hadn’t intended this moment to happen this way. I was going to wait a few days, until I thought you might be willing to speak to me again and take you out the glen, or the waterfall, but it seems that now may be a better time and place.” Jareth situated the guitar in his arms and cleared his throat. “Sarah, I have the most difficult time speaking to you. My tongue seems to curl up and my mind doesn’t seem to work the appropriate way. My lips have entirely different thoughts where you are concerned. So with a bit of help,” he acknowledged Arulan, “I wrote you this song, except I don’t want you to listen to the music, I want you to hear the words, just as if I were speaking them to you.” Sarah nodded.
The strum of the first chord echoed in the room as Jareth began to sing. “Don’t say that you hate me till you listen to my song. Love’s lost broken promises for us have all gone wrong. Long, lonely, cold winter nights without your tender care, it’s more than a heart can bear. I wish my heart could speak to you the words alone it feels. My thoughts I want to come from my lips and this rift between us healed. Angry words that were said in haste were forgotten in the night, but I see that they’ve hurt you ‘cause no love shines in your eyes.” How wrong he was for, through the tears, it shone like the prettiest star in the sky. “I never thought before I spoke these hateful words to you. The painful damage words can do. I wish my heart could speak to you the words alone it feels. My thoughts I want to come from my lips and this rift between us healed. I guess that I find it hard not to be such a macho guy. Love brings out some feelings in me that I cannot understand. I have to try a lot harder if I want to keep your love. Please try and understand me, love. And now, my heart, it speaks to you the words alone it feels. My thoughts are coming from my lips, oh, my love for you is real. So now I am telling you that I love you with this song. The angry words that I yelled at you have never been so wrong. Well can we take just a little time, this argument to heal, ‘cause my love for you is real. My love for you is real.” While he continued to play, Jareth spoke in time to the music, with so much sincerity it made Sarah feel weak, “I love you.”
Upon seeing how unsteady she had become, the king abandoned the instrument to the waiting hands of the elf, who then quietly made her exit while the two were busily engrossed in one another. “I don’t know what to say,” Sarah told him when the power of speech returned to her.
Jareth gathered her hands into his. Resting his forehead softly against hers, he whispered, “Say nothing, not right now. Listen and let it sink in before you speak, if it is a day, if it is a week, I will wait as I always have. I love only you, Sarah Williams. I always have, from the moment I knew you existed, but none of that matters if you do not truly love me as well.”
“How,” she stammered, “how can you love me when you don’t even know me?” Sarah’s face was wet again, with a different kind of tear than had come before and miraculously these torrents had less of an effect on her make up, mostly due to Jareth restraining her hands from grinding at her eyes.
“I have had fifteen years to get to know you. I have watched you all this time. That which remains a mystery I will come to learn if you will allow me.”
Suddenly, all the courage she had rallied after her talk with Hoggle abandoned her. She began doubting that her conviction was as strong as the king’s. And what did he mean nothing could come of it if she didn’t truly love him in return? “But I haven’t had fifteen years to get to know you Jareth.”
“And so we begin now.” Jareth pulled back from her and touched his lips to her forehead, “We’ll take things as slow as you want. I’m not asking you to tell me anything you don’t honestly feel, but can you say truthfully that you feel nothing for me?”
Tilting back her head, she took him in, that raw, vulnerable king she had only seen when they were alone in the Northwest traveling together for the first time. “I can’t. You know I can’t.” For a moment neither spoke. Then Sarah pulled his arms around her and rested her head against his chest. She heard his heart beating fast as he held her. Wrapped around his waist, her arms were actually trembling as were her legs and she was glad that his embrace kept her from sinking to the floor. “I don’t know exactly what I feel for you, but I know that this feels good and right, even if I don’t know all that much about you. I know that I like you, like being with you, most of the time I like talking to you.” Jareth felt her smile against his chest as she repeated his words from a few days earlier. “But I’m terrified to say I truly love you when I feel unsure. You seemed so confident when you sang to me. I want to be able to say those words to you with equal confidence.”
“I understand,” he said. “Then allow me what time we have left to court you, properly, in an attempt to help you make up your mind.”
Almost shoving him back at arm’s length, Sarah looked at him, fear dilating her eyes, “Jareth, I have to leave in two weeks. Two weeks! What if after two weeks, I discover that I do love you?” To hear these words, even in this context, Jareth’s heart skipped a beat. “Once I go home, how will we…what can we…” Since her lips would never find the question her head intended to ask, Jareth pulled her to him by the waist, covering her mouth with his.
It was a deep kiss, a warm kiss, conveying as much of his heart as had his song. From within he felt another piece of his soul break loose and escape him. This time Jareth didn’t care. He only let it go. He would have let his whole soul go. In all his years, he’d never found someone he loved like he loved his mortal and he no longer desired to search for anyone who might, for no such woman existed. Sarah clung to him like a child with a favorite rag doll, fearful that if the kiss ended, he would disappear and she would find herself in some state of semi-dress having fallen asleep while readying herself for dinner. When Jareth finally ended the kiss, Sarah licked her upper lip, the taste of the king still prevalent on her skin. “Let’s not worry about what has yet to pass Sarah,” he told her softly. “We’ve wasted so much time already. Concentrate on what we have and trust that what is meant to be will come to pass.” His palms engulfed her jaw, “After all, we should have never met again, you and I, and yet, as sure as sunrise, here we are. Nothing more than a grateful king and his magnificent mortal.” Unmistakably, there was a tear coursing from his eye when he spoke those words to her. She felt it join with her own tears as he pressed his lips to hers once more. Finally, the king was free to kiss her with all the love that was in his heart…and that is what he did. From now on, that was the only way he could.
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