Shadows, Whispers and Destruction

Chapter 2

A Destroyed Labyrinth And Its King

 

   The Labyrinth was in ruins. Where there was once a twisting, magical labyrinth that stretched as far as the eye could see, there was only a bleak expanse of black, charred ruins and toppled walls. It was as though someone had dropped an atomic bomb there. The Labyrinth was more broken than Sarah could have possibly imaged. Hoggle squeezed her hand comfortingly, which only made Sarah cry harder since she knew she didn’t deserve to be comforted, especially by the friend she’d abandoned.

   “D-d-did I do this?” Sarah stammered, wiping her eyes with her free hand. “I k-killed it?”

   “Yeh were a part of it,” Hoggle said discreetly. “When yeh said no to His Majesty.”

   Sarah turned to her old friend with her mouth open in horror, silently asking how on Earth she could have done this destruction by simply saying no to an impossible offer from an impossible man.

   “It’s a long story,” Hoggle mumbled, and immediately the ruined Labyrinth scene vanished to be replaced with a hard stone wall. Sarah blinked the rest of the tears out of her eyes and look around confusedly.

   “Are we in Jareth’s castle?” she asked, reaching out to touch the gritty stone as if confirming it was there.

   “No, we’re far from the Labyrinth now, in the Fae Kingdom,” Hoggle said briskly.

   “The Fae Kingdom?” Sarah repeated confusedly. “There’s more than just the Labyrinth?”

   “Of course!” Hoggle exclaimed, still clutching her hand tightly. “The Labyrinth and His Majesty’s castle are in the Goblin Kingdom. He himself is Fae.”

   “Jareth is Fae…” Sarah repeated in a murmur. “How many kingdoms are there, exactly?”

   “Well, there’s the Dreamcaster, the Fae, the Syren, the Elfin, the Rock Callers, the Dwarf and the Goblin Kingdom… so I s’pose there’s seven,” Hoggle listed, before gently tugging her hand.

   “Where is Jareth?” Sarah asked suddenly, noticing Hoggle hesitate to answer.

   “We’ll discuss that later,” he said softly, leading her down the hall. The two or them climbed a pair of beautiful, golden spiral steps up to a second level, where Hoggle led her down a dusty, empty hallway. The moment Sarah turned the corner she spotted something down the hall, something that looked suspiciously like a man.

   “Hey, wait!” Sarah called, starting to run down the hall toward the figure. Her hand left Hoggle’s and she heard his hoarse voice cry out to her. The man, who apparently had not heard her calls, turned to his left and disappeared around a corner. She took a sharp turn and rammed into the man’s back, the impact throwing her back and making her tumble to the floor. He looked back down at her with crossness reflecting in his pale silver eyes, but it gradually faded, and instead of helping her up he stepped to the side a few feet away and took place in the corner, hands behind his back.

   Sarah immediately heard hushed, confused voices murmuring, echoing through the room, and she looked up to see several people staring at her, some with horror, some with confusion. One old woman in the corner had clearly been weeping, since her eyes were puffy and red and her face was tearstained. Sarah couldn’t help but notice she was rather pretty even though she was elderly, with long white hair piled in a mound on top of her head and twined with lilacs. Her gown was a pleasant tint of lavender, and her eyes were violet, completing the general purple look. The man she’d seen walking down the corridor now stood a few feet from her, his face bearing neither horror nor confusion, but a cross between an amused smirk and intrigue. All of the people had the same eye markings as Jareth had. Sarah scrambled off the ground, feeling embarrassed and frightened.

   “Hello, child,” said an old, frail-looking man kindly, stepping towards her. He had a crown on his head, so Sarah had clearly interrupted some sort of court meeting between a king and his subjects.

   “S-sorry to interrupt,” Sarah stammered, bowing her head to indicate respect to the apparent king.

   “What is your name, little one?” the king asked, smiling at her kind-heartedly. “I am King Minos.”

   “My name is Sarah,” she said, a little less nervously. Her nervousness immediately flared up again when the Fae in the room burst out in shocked gasps and murmurs.

   “The Champion of the Labyrinth?” King Minos said in astonishment, his face now devoid of the smile. The woman in the corner who’d been weeping stormed over to Sarah, who retaliated in a panic at the furious look on the woman’s face. King Minos captured her in his arms quickly before the woman could take a swipe at Sarah.

   “You,” the old woman snarled. “You killed my son!”

   “Wh-wha…?” came out of Sarah’s mouth stupidly.

   “Hush, precious, the child is not at fault,” King Minos said hurriedly, in a hushed voice. “She did not know the consequences of her actions.”

   “My… actions?” Sarah repeated blankly, before tears welled up in her eyes again. “I killed someone? Please, Your Majesty, you have to tell me everything I’ve done! I have to fix it… it’s all my fault!” Sarah wailed, the tears spilling over her cheeks. The old woman, who’d been looking hell-bent on destroying her only moments ago, suddenly stopped looking angry and looked blank at the guilty tears that fell down Sarah’s face. Hoggle suddenly ran into the room, bowing hurriedly to the people in the room.

   “Sarah!” he panted, but Sarah waved him off and sniffled.

   “I’ve seen what I did to the Labyrinth,” Sarah mumbled to the King. “If I caused more damage than that… if I honestly killed somebody…”

   “Relax, my child, you did not kill my son,” King Minos said reassuringly. “My wife overreacted.”

   “Your… wife…?” Sarah repeated, staring at the defiant old woman still wrapped in the old king’s arms. “Then you’re the queen…”

 

  “Yes, this is my beautiful wife Lavender,” King Minos said happily, looking down at the queen with a face full of adoration. Sarah couldn’t help but smile through her tears at the look he was giving her; it was so loving, so adoring.

   “And your son… then your son must be…” Sarah said, before gasping. “Are you Jareth’s parents?”

   “Indeed,” said King Minos happily, while Queen Lavender just looked at her with a sour look.

   “I… killed Jareth?” Sarah said blatantly, somehow unsure whether to be horrified or slightly proud of herself.

   “No child, my son is not dead,” King Minos said quickly.

   “He’s as good as dead, thanks to you,” Queen Lavender snapped.

   “Would you like to rest, my child?” King Minos said, ignoring his Queen’s last comment. “Jace and Hoggle will show you to your room.”

   The man in the corner that she’d followed, the one that had been watching her the entire while, immediately stepped forward and bowed to Sarah, making her flush confusedly. When he rose she saw that he was almost a head taller than her… rather the same height as Jareth.

   “If you’ll come with me, princess,” the one called Jace said quickly, sweeping out of the room. Sarah quickly gripped Hoggle’s hand and followed the servant back down the hall.

   Princess? Sarah thought to herself confusedly, as they turned corner after corner and climbed several sets of stairs. After a while, Sarah was beginning to wonder how big this castle really was.

   “This is your room, princess,” Jace said airily, turning the handle of a black wood door and swinging it open. Sarah obediently stepped into the room, which was majestic and pristine. An enormous canopy bed with blue velvet drapes sat in the corner, and on one side of the room there was a black marble fireplace surrounded by a couple of stuffy, faded indigo armchairs. An enormous black wood dresser sat in one corner. At the far edge of the room, there was another door.

   “Thank you,” said Sarah. Jace’s face immediately reflected pure shock, which confused Sarah. 

   “The Fae don’t normally, er, thank their servants,” Hoggle explained quickly. Sarah turned to Jace and said firmly, “I’m not Fae, and I don’t care what they do or don’t do. Thank you, Jace, for bringing me to my room.”

   Before she closed the door, she said, “And I’m not a princess.”

   Jace’s face still reflected shock when she closed the door behind her.

   “Uh oh,” Hoggle grunted, and Sarah turned to him. “I think yeh might have made friends with Jace.”

   “Why is that a bad thing?” Sarah asked confusedly. “I think that’s good, since all the other Fae here seem to hate me. Except the King, but I don’t think he hates anything.”

   “It’s a bad thing, because Jace’s got a reputation,” Hoggle said quietly. “If he likes yeh, he’ll eh, bed yeh,” Hoggle added hesitantly.

   “Bed you…?” Sarah repeated. “Oh Hoggle, you don’t have to worry about that.”

   “Yeah, I do,” Hoggle mumbled. “’Cause the Fae are different from me and yeh. They’re more interested in pleasure than love, so they pretty much… do what Jace does ‘til they find love.”

   “They’re all like that?” Sarah gaped, and Hoggle nodded.

   “Not just that, but he’s got such a reputation with beddin’ all them girls that they pick him every year for the breedin’ ceremony,” Hoggle explained quietly.

   “The what?” Sarah gawked, before shaking her head vigorously. “Er, never mind, I don’t want to know.”

   “He’s a horny git, let’s just go with that,” Hoggle said.

   “Hoggle!” Sarah gasped, shocked.

   She suddenly blinked at the décor of the room, realizing that it held too much of a male taste for it to have been prepared for her… and not just that, but it held a familiar scent.

   “Who’s room was this, Hoggle?” Sarah asked, looking over the room again. “Was it Jace’s?”

   When Hoggle didn’t answer, she bit her lip and guessed, “This was Jareth’s room.”

   With a heavy sigh Sarah dragged herself over to the welcoming bed and flopped onto it, suddenly feeling exhausted.

   “Where’s Ludo and Didymus?” Sarah asked Hoggle, suddenly remembering her two other friends

   “Back in the Rock Caller Kingdom,” Hoggle said softly. “And Sarah?”

   “Yes?”

   “I forgive yeh.”

   Sarah was silent as she sat up and stared at Hoggle in shock with her mouth dropped to the stone floor.

   “Hoggle, I don’t deserve your forgiveness—” Sarah began to say.

   “I didn’t neither,” Hoggle interrupted with a smile. “After I abandoned yeh and gave yeh that peach. But I got it anyways, and now yer getting’ it anyways too.”

   “Oh Hoggle!” Sarah wailed, and she flung her arms around her friend’s neck and promptly began crying for the third time that day.

   “There, there, now,” Hoggle said, patting her shoulder awkwardly.

   “I should have never, ever tried to forget you or this place,” Sarah whimpered, pulling away from him to wipe her eyes. “I’m going to fix everything I’ve screwed up here.”

   She suddenly remembered what Queen Lavender had said. “Hoggle, what exactly is wrong with Jareth?”

   “That can be discussed in the mornin’,” Hoggle said kindly. “Yer tired. Get some sleep.”

   “Mmkay,” Sarah mumbled, lying back down and smiling at her best friend. “Don’t go far.”

   “I won’t.”

   In this dream, Jareth was lying unconscious on the grassy hill before the Labyrinth. Sarah, who was once again wearing her old homemade gown, was shaking his shoulders desperately, trying to get him to wake, but he would not. Sarah was worried that he was dead.

   “Wake up, Jareth!” she wailed, giving him one last shake. He still didn’t stir. On the verge of tears now, Sarah tried one last thing— she leaned down and softly kissed his lips. His eyes fluttered open and Sarah would have cried out with relief, except that Jareth kept her mouth captured and kissed her ferociously, his tongue exploring the soft skin of her lips. Instead of a cry Sarah managed out a reassured whimper, at which Jareth let out a low growl and shoved her onto her back, pinning her to the grassy ground. His hands ripped open the bodice and then shoved the skirt of her gown up, revealing her areas to the world. Jareth immediately straddled her waist, and after giving her one last kiss he thrust himself into her. Sarah’s mouth flew open for a gasp, and her gasps turned to moans and cries as Jareth made passionate love to her.

   Sarah once again woke, sweaty and heart racing… and embarrassingly wet. In fact, Sarah realized this with a ferocious blush, she had no choice now but to change. It seemed that being in Jareth’s home (and in his room)  made the dream more intense, even more so than usual, because in this one instead of being merely captured in a fantastic kiss, or being touched and introduced to carnal sensations with Jareth’s talented fingers, she’d actually let him take her. Sarah got up from the bed, feeling uncomfortably hot and wet from the dream, and started toward the door on the far side of the room. She opened it to see an enormous bathroom, even more elegant than her room. The bath, built into the stone floor, seemed more like a small pool, and she was pretty sure it was made of gold. The walls were entirely covered in mirrors, making Sarah feel surrounded by herself. Sarah was just thinking about taking a bath when the tub suddenly filled itself entirely was water, steam raising it hypnotic swirls from the surface. Sarah quickly tore off all her clothing, the bath looking too inviting to pass up, and slipped inside.

   The bath was heaven to Sarah. It was like the savoury warmth of the water was making everything go away— the shock of being yanked back into the place she’d tried for two years to forget; the destruction of the Labyrinth; the stress of knowing that something was horribly wrong with Jareth and it was definitely her fault. For a few moments Sarah closed her eyes and just sat there in the warmth, with a blissfully blank mind, not thinking about anything.

   And then her dream of Jareth exploded back into her mind. Sarah shivered despite the acute heat of the bath water as the events were replayed in her head. She couldn’t help but like that this time she and Jareth had actually gotten to second base, instead of having Jared to wake her up before that had happened (she also noticed that, despite being a virgin in reality, in her dream she clearly wasn’t). Sarah pushed the thought out of her mind desperately when her lower regions began to throb with complaint.

   Sarah nearly had a heart attack when a piercing scream suddenly echoed through the whole castle. She jumped out the bath quickly and grabbed a fresh new nightgown that was conveniently hung on a hook (Thank God for magic, Sarah thought) just as Hoggle burst into her room.

   “Oh, you’re awake,” he said quickly, looking nervous.

   “Hoggle, what the hell was that?” Sarah asked in astonishment, as she stepped into the room.

   “Nothin’ to be concerned about,” Hoggle replied dismissively. “Jace is takin’ care of it.”

   Sarah’s eyes narrowed at the dwarf, who was clearly hiding something from her. She opened her mouth to demand what it was, but Queen Lavender’s words suddenly popped into her head.

   “You killed my son. He’s as good as dead.”

   “Hoggle… that was Jareth, wasn’t it?” Sarah said quietly, and when Hoggle looked genuinely taken aback Sarah knew that she’d guess right. Jareth was honestly in that much pain…

   Sarah turned away from Hoggle and swept out of the room into the hall, just as another scream reverberated against the walls followed by a distinct sobbing. Sarah, feeling more and more frightened as she approached the source of the sobbing, began to power-walk, and then broke out into a jog. She turned the corner to see a door standing ajar at the far end of the hall, light spilling out of it. Sarah approached and heard Jace’s voice calming the sobbing person inside the room.

   “Jace!” Sarah called out, panting just as Jace whirled out of the room and closed the door behind her. His face reflected the same as Hoggle’s had: shock that she was there and then worry that she would discover the truth.

   “That was Jareth in there?” Sarah demanded, just as Hoggle caught up with her panting hard.

   “His Majesty is ill,” said Jace, in the same dismissive tone that Hoggle had used. “It is only dawn, princess, perhaps you’d rather catch up on your rest—?”

   “No, I want to see Jareth,” Sarah said firmly, shocking both Hoggle and herself. In all of her years of knowing him, Sarah had never once wanted to see Jareth— the exact opposite, as a matter of fact.

   “I’m afraid he’s in no condition to have visitors at the moment,” Jace said, still with that flippant tenor that was starting to annoy Sarah.

   “How ill can somebody get where it drives a man like Jareth to scream?” Sarah demanded angrily.

   “He’s ill,” repeated Jace simply.

   “Like hell he is,” Sarah snapped, before shoving Jace out of the way and barging into the room.

   What Sarah saw made her scream.