The Tale of the Labyrinth By Eamane-Shu

 

 

 

 

Sarah walked up the stairs and into the throne room where Jareth was sitting, talking to Aldous. Seeing Sarah’s approach and deciding that in this instance, discretion was the better part of valour, the advisor retreated in the direction of his study, leaving the two lovers alone. On seeing Sarah, Jareth gave her a soft smile, before approaching her with the intention of taking her in his arms.

 

“I missed you this morning” he murmured, when he was standing near her; however Sarah’s fierce glare stopped him from going any further.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me about Danae?” Sarah asked her voice dangerously soft.

 

“Did she tell you?” Jareth asked in return, hoping to find out about Danae’s feelings, the Princess was currently refusing to speak to him.

 

“You didn’t answer my question” she countered, anger welling up inside her.

 

“I was going to tell you.”

 

“When?” she scoffed.

 

“This morning, I was going to explain what was happening to you this morning.”

 

“That’s convenient.” She said before turning and starting to walk away.

 

Jareth, not understanding her meaning, or the source of her anger, hurried after her, grabbing her arm and spinning her round to meet him.

 

“Get off me” she cried angrily.

 

“Not until you tell me why you’re so angry.”

 

“I’m angry because you didn’t tell me about Danae” she glared at him icily, “And I never would have slept with you had I known”

 

“Sarah, I…” he started to defend himself, however Sarah cut him off.

 

“You tricked me Jareth.” She finished, hurt in her voice, she felt used and betrayed.

 

“I didn’t mean to.” He answered softly,

 

“I trusted you, and you completely betrayed that trust.”

 

“I’m sorry; I never meant to hurt you like this.”

 

“Well it’s too late for that Jareth.” She spat angrily. “Now let me go” she demanded. Jareth acquiesced, He let go of her arm dejectedly, and Sarah hurried back towards the privacy of her own chambers, as he sank to the floor. The last thing he had ever meant to do was to hurt Sarah, but he had managed to do just that. Everything was such a mess at the moment, Danae currently hated him, and Sarah despised him, not that he could blame them. But it wasn’t entirely fault, he couldn’t help the dire political situation, Danae understood his powerlessness in the situation, and she would do anything to stop the Goblin Kingdom from falling. He could in some way, understand Sarah being upset about last night. To some extent he had used her, last night had been an escape for him, he had wanted something for himself. Yet he had strong feelings for the girl, he couldn’t deny that he was falling for her. He sat there wallowing in despair, not knowing what he could do to make things right again. He was still sitting there dejected when his sister returned to the castle from her archery, and sat down slowly beside him, resting her head on his shoulder.

 

“Hey” he croaked to her hoarsely.

 

“Hey” she whispered back quietly, before sitting together for a while in companionable silence, both temporarily leaning on each other’s strength. “Jareth?” she asked after a few minutes of studying her brother’s face. He turned to her as she continued “What’s the matter?”

 

He shook his head sadly, “Everything is so messed up Nae.” He cradled his head in his hands “Sarah hates me, I’ve done wrong by you”

 

“Jareth no.” she exclaimed “You’ve done nothing wrong by me. Circumstances are what they are, and I would have had to marry somebody eventually, better Ivenan than somebody I don’t even know.”

 

“He’ll look after you, you know that right?” Jareth started explaining to her “I know that he will do everything in his power to take care of you. I know he’s not Roland, and that you’re not in love, but he cares for you.”

 

Danae nodded, tears in her eyes as she spoke “It’s a good match Jareth. I just want the impossible.”

 

“Roland?”

 

She didn’t need to speak to confirm her feelings, from the day she was born Jareth had watched over his sister, and at this exact moment he could read her like a book. She was hurting so much, and though the pain was less than it had been initially she was still struggling to cope with it on a daily basis. “Jareth?” she said in a tiny voice.

 

“Hmmm?” he answered deep in thoughts which had now turned to the situation with Sarah and how he was going to fix that mess.

 

“I think it’s my fault that Sarah isn’t speaking to you” Jareth looked at her perplexed, “I let her believe that you were forcing me into the match with Ivenan.”

 

“Oh” said Jareth softly as Danae began to break down.

 

“I’m so, so sorry.” She sobbed into his shoulder. “I was angry with you because things between you and Sarah are so simple, and everything that has happened is so unfair.”

 

Jareth wrapped his arms around his sister tightly. “Hush now; it’s not your fault.”

 

“No, it is” she sniffled back.

 

He repeated himself firmly “No it’s not. Sarah and I have quarrelled over an entirely different matter, one that does not directly involve you.” Seeing Danae’s confusion he elaborated, “Sarah is angry because I did not inform her of your engagement last night.”

 

“Oh”

 

“I made a mistake in not telling her, one I want to rectify as soon as possible.”

 

“Is there anything I can do?” Danae asked concerned.

 

“I don’t think so” he replied sadly.

 

Danae decided to change the subject to more pressing matters, “What time are we expecting Ivenan to arrive with the contracts?”

 

“Any time now. Danae.”  He suddenly started speaking in a soft gentle voice “I’m so sorry about the way that things have turned out for you.”

 

“Jareth it isn’t your fault.” She countered.

 

“I know, but I still feel responsible. You know if there was any other way out of this I would have taken it. I would have happily agreed to any match for myself, regardless of whoever it is.”

 

“I know” she replied softly, as she wrapped her arms around her brother, offering a small measure of comfort.

 

 

 

Neither of the two noticed a pair of green eyes blazing angrily in the doorway, having appeared at the Goblin King’s last words. Sarah was just walking back to make peace with Jareth, she hated it when she argued with anybody and things with Jareth had the potential to become very ugly and Sarah thought it best to reconcile things before they became any worse. She reeled hearing Jareth’s words, he would happily marry somebody else, she really meant that little to him. Tears streaming down her face she turned and ran back upstairs. Hearing the scuffled footsteps from the other room, Jareth and Danae jumped up to identify the intruder, however when they looked there was nobody there apart from a quick flash of the hem of Sarah’s dress, which Danae quickly identified as it disappeared round a corner. Jareth, on Danae’s command hurried after the retreating girl, who seemed to be completely lost in a wing of the castle that she had never entered before, Jareth noticed that they were now not far from his chambers, but Sarah was now heading away from his room, and towards the staircase hall. He heard the door shut in front of him and followed her in.

 

Sarah looked at the enormous chamber surrounding her and her head swam. There were stairs everywhere, going in every direction, some were the right way up, but most were inverted, upside down or going sideways. She hurried along a walkway until she reached the edge. Her mind ran wild as she remembered the last time she had been in this room.

 

She had barely minutes to find her brother; she had left her friends waiting for her in the throne room, while she hurried to find her brother. She walked across one of the ledges, and down a set of stairs, then back up another set. She looked around, but all she could see were more stairs, going in every direction. She looked down and standing below her, upside down was the Goblin King, looking menacing in his dark armour.

 

“How you turn my world you precious thing.” He jumped down; there was no other way to describe it, before reappearing through one of the sideways corridors, completely defying gravity.  “You starve and near exhaust me.”

 

She paused, terrified, breathing heavily, she gasped as he appeared directly behind her, walking towards her, looking right through her, “Everything I’ve done I’ve done for you” before he walked into her, she braced herself for a blow, but he passed right through her body.

“I move the stars for no one.” His voice bitter from having to play the villain, from having to act out this role yet again. He walked off the ledge, moving to walk underneath it, she followed his movements, “You’ve run so long, you’ve run so far” when they reached the edge of the walkway he flipped himself up, so he was standing in front of her. “Your eyes can be so cruel” he told her, with the tiniest hint of a smirk on his face, as he held up one of his crystals for her. “Just as I can be so cruel” he said before turning and throwing the crystal with all his might. Sarah watched as it landed, and started bouncing up a set of steps, then into the hand of a small baby, however the movement of the crystal was unnatural, it was as if the baby had called the sphere to him, he was becoming Jareth’s. “Though I do believe in you.”

 

However Sarah was too preoccupied with the sight of her brother to listen to the rest of the Goblin King’s words. “Toby” she yelled out, trying to catch the child’s attention. She ran up and down flights of stairs, trying to get close to her brother while the Goblin King looked on. She looked up, to see her brother sitting, on what she believed to be the ceiling.

 

“Yes I do.” then his voice softened and she could no longer hear him “Live without your sunlight, love without your heartbeat. I can’t live within you.” He continued to watch the girl searching, his mismatched eyes cool and emotionless. He had done this many times, though none had ever gotten this far.

 

She ran around, hopelessly searching for her brother, but nothing helped, every time she took her eyes off him, even for a moment, he seemed to move, and he was crawling up staircases which were impossible, even if he didn’t move she had no way of getting to him. She thought she was starting to get close “Toby” she called again excitedly but then he moved, she called her brother’s name again dejectedly.

 

Then she saw him, sitting on a ledge, perilously high, “Toby” she called desperately, before making her decision. Eyes shut; she screwed up her courage and jumped.

 

 

“Sarah?” she span around to see Jareth standing behind her. He looked at her face, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

 

“Leave me alone” she tried to walk past him but he stopped her, she was now trapped between Jareth and the ledge.

 

“Not until you hear me out” he answered coolly.

 

“Fine” there really wasn’t anything she could do, there was nowhere to go, and she didn’t really fancy jumping again.

 

“Sarah, I’m not forcing Danae to marry Ivenan, you’ve interpreted things all wrong.”

 

“She doesn’t want to marry him” Sarah argued.

 

“I don’t want her to marry him!” Jareth shouted snapping suddenly. He continued in a cold voice, “There’s a war brewing Sarah, and the only chance we have of winning is with the help of Elgard, now King Menus agreed to the alliance, on the condition that Danae married one of his sons, Roland is dead, and Carstonan has been married these past forty years, so Ivenan is the only choice left. This was the only choice we had, and Danae made it herself.”

 

“You still lied to me” Sarah replied angrily.

 

Jareth’s entire body slumped, despair etched on his face, as he walked towards the angry girl, and stroked a strand of her long brown hair. “I just wanted to escape” he said sadly, “I wanted to leave the world behind with you. And I’m truly sorry, it wasn’t right of me to do so.”

 

“Jareth, I…” she started, but stopped, not knowing what to say, however her voice was softer now.

 

“I want to leave you in no doubt of my feelings for you Sarah.” She looked up and her green eyes met his mismatched ones, and she felt all anger drain away from herself. And she tilted her head up and kissed him gently. 

 

 

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