The Tale of the Labyrinth By Eamane-Shu
The weeks
following Danae’s wedding had been full of tension, they were standing on the
edge of a great storm waiting for it to strike. Nobody knew when the attack
from the hostile kingdoms was going to come, however they were prepared for the
onslaught. Troops had arrived from Dehairl and Elgard last week, and the
horsemen from Hestonia were due to arrive any day. The fields behind the
Labyrinth had become an encampment for the Greatest Army ever seen by the four
Kingdoms. It had been decided, in a recent war council held by the rulers of
the four countries that the army should be led by three men. Ivenan was
representing Hestonia, on behalf of Danae, as well as his own country. Leastin,
one of Jareth’s many cousins was representing Dehairl. The duty of leading the
army, as well as representing the
It was, by
chance would have it, Sarah who first saw the approaching enemy army, merely
hours after Hestonia had arrived. She was wandering in the gardens, picking
flowers, mainly rosodils, an odd cross between roses and daffodils, which Sarah
found to be quite amusing. She had decided to arrange some in Jareth’s chambers
to add some cheeriness to the room, as there was a distinct lack of colour in
the room. She had looked up from tugging at the stem of one of the tougher
flowers, to the views out across the labyrinth, and the plain’s outside its
boarders when she had seen it. A mass off dust coming off the plain, she
squinted and moved her eyes down, her eyes began to make sense of the image
before her; the dark patch was thousands upon thousands of bodies marching,
their armour glinting in the sunlight. The rosodils fell to the ground as she
began to run back to the castle to sound the alarm, time seemed to slow down as
her feet pounded on the ground, she was almost there now, she ran up the steps
and into the throne room.
The Goblin
King was sitting on his throne, enjoying a few moments of well earned peace.
However, it was short-lived, as Aldous and Ivenan soon cornered him to discuss
battle plans. His mind soon drifted off, he had never really been a man to plan
such things, and he preferred to act on instinct.
“And the
Hestonian Horsemen will ride round the back, cutting off their retreat. What do
you think?” Ivenan finished.
The Goblin
King made no reply. “Your Majesty?” Aldous called to him softly, still no
answer.
All three
were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Sarah, who was panting heavily, her
eyes wild and frightened. Jareth leapt off his throne as soon as he saw her
distressed state.
“They’re
here.” The panic in her voice was undeniable, “The army is here.”
Jareth suddenly
changed course, instead of walking to Sarah he walked right past her to stand
on the small platform directly outside the castle, followed closely by Aldous
and Ivenan. The strong wind whipped his hair back and forth as he stood staring
off into the distance, a look of shock on his face. No matter how many battles
he had previously fought in, nothing could prepare him for the invasion of his
own country. The weight on his shoulders suddenly increased threefold, if he
didn’t win this battle, if he couldn’t protect his people, countless would
suffer at the hands of his enemies.
He sighed
deeply before looking up and meeting the eyes of the other three, who were
watching him intently. “They will be here at dawn” he predicted gravely, “Send
emissaries, demanding that they leave this land immediately, or we will declare
war upon them” he instructed Aldous. “If they do not heed us, we battle at
first light”
Everyone
remained silent. It was clear that an army of that size had come into the
Goblin Realm for a purpose, and that no number of emissaries could turn them
away. It was merely a formality, one of the many rules of war that the nine
kingdoms stuck to religiously.
Dinner that
night was eaten in total silence, and most of the table were elegantly pushing
their food around their plates, nobody had any appetite, and tomorrow was
looming over them like a dark cloud. Danae, especially seemed very distressed,
although the current events had been foreseen over two months ago, now that
they had arrived they still seemed sudden and unexpected.
Later that
evening, Jareth spent a long time saying goodnight to Danae, while they were
sitting in the parlour along with Sarah, Aldous and Ivenan.
He hugged
the princess tenderly, if the battle was to go ill, this would be the last time
he ever saw her.
“Jareth,
I’m scared” she whispered to him quietly.
“There is
nothing for you to be afraid of.” He told her firmly, if anything went wrong
she was under strict instructions to get herself and Sarah to Hestonia where
they would be safe, as it was surrounded by nearly impenetrable mountains.
She flung
herself into his arms and held him tightly “I’m scared I’m never going to see
you again” she replied, tenderly brushing a strand of his hair off his face.
He didn’t
reply to this but held her tightly before retiring to his room with Sarah. That
night they made love slowly, before falling asleep in each others arms.
When Sarah
awoke the next morning Jareth was gone, she hurriedly dressed and then ran down
to his study in hopes of catching him before he left for the battle, however
she only found Danae and Aldous, who were reading through a few pieces of
paper. On Sarah’s entrance they looked up, as the young girl, breathing heavily
began to sway slightly. She brought her hand to her chest, which was feeling
uncomfortably tight.
“Jareth?"
She asked them woozily. She had meant to ask them where Jareth was, but she
couldn’t find the breath.
The last
thing she saw was Danae and Aldous rushing to her side as she fell to the floor
and everything went black.
Jareth
reeled his horse round and urged it forward to go and catch up with Ivenan.
“Send the second brigade forwards, and the horsemen round the back, we’ll cut
them off where they stand.” The battle was going well, the
Ivenan
nodded his agreement and signalled the banner man, who ordered the charge
“We’re winning Jareth” he commented. The Goblin King grinned ferally, before
spurring his horse to join in the battle. Although generally a peaceful man and
war would always be his last option, there was a part of him, the predatory
part, which enjoyed the fight and the kill. He unsheathed his sword and joined
in the carnage.
When Sarah
came to, she was lying in a bed in the healer’s quarter with an anxious Danae
sitting beside her.
“What’s
happening with the battle?” she asked trying to sit up.
But her
efforts were quelled by Danae, who pushed her back down on the bed gently.
“Early reports indicate that things are going our way” she reassured Sarah
calmly. And the dark haired girl settled back down on the bed.
“What
happened? The last thing I remember is looking for Jareth in his study.”
“You
fainted” Danae explained “And you gave us all quite the scare.” She smiled
warmly before kissing Sarah on the cheek warmly. “I’ll check in on you later.”
Before leaving the room, as Danae closed the door Sarah managed to catch a
glimpse of Aldous talking to the princess in hushed tones as they headed back
into the main part of the castle. Unfortunately the pair was too far away for
Sarah to catch any of their conversation, no matter how hard Sarah strained her
ears.
A matter of
moments after Danae had exited the healer came back in to see her patient. The
healer was a pretty, mild mannered woman by the name of Rosalita. Sarah had
only ever visited her once since her arrival in the underground, and that was
some months ago when she had sprained her ankle while running to tell Danae
some gossip she had just heard from one of the servants, she had tripped over a
loose rock, or perhaps a wayward goblin. Jareth had seen the whole event and
came rushing to her side, and on seeing her injury, he had picked her up as if
she weighed nothing at all, and carried her to the healer.
Rosalita
was, by reputation very competent. She had a pleasant bedside manner, though
would brook very little nonsense.
“And how
are we feeling now?” she enquired warmly, seating herself at the edge of the
bed, and raising her hand to Sarah’s forehead.
“Better,
thank you” Sarah replied sitting up.
“When did
you last eat something?”
“I didn’t
really manage to eat much last night” Sarah confessed, but then again nobody
had, there had been an awful atmosphere over the dinner table.
“You need to
eat regularly.” She chastised gently, before returning to her normal brisk,
though friendly manner. “Well I did a complete check over on you, and there
doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with you.”
“Do you
know why I fainted?” Sarah interrupted anxiously.
The healer
nodded “A few reasons I should imagine. Mainly a combination of little food and
extremely stressful circumstances” she paused for a moment, “However there is
one more factor.”
Sarah
looked at her eagerly and she spoke again. “Sarah, were you aware that you’re
pregnant?”
Sarah
stared at her, her eyes wide “Are you sure?” she choked out.
Rosalita
nodded warmly. “Quite sure, you’re probably about two months along I should
think. Congratulations my dear” she embraced the girl warmly, “Now I want you
to rest here for the rest of the morning, and I’ll have some food sent up, and
we’ll see how you feel after you’ve eaten.
And with
that she left Sarah alone with her thoughts. Her hand unconsciously strayed
down to her abdomen, there wouldn’t be a bump for a while, but there was a baby
inside there. Then it dawned on her, how would she tell Jareth? Would he be
pleased or would he be angry? She shook her head; of course he would be
pleased. She was so excited; she had just created a new life with the man she
loved. The man she loved, in that moment it came to her, and she wanted to sing
it from the rooftops. She was in love with Jareth.
At that
precise moment Jareth was removing his sword from the chest of a pike-man. He
had lost his horse over an hour ago and was now fighting on foot, looking and
feeling slightly worse for wear. The battle was almost over and he was tiring.
His soft blond hair was matted with blood, and his clothes were covered in a
dark, red-brown mixture of blood and dirt. There was a nasty gash on his right
arm, where he had been hit by a fierce swordswoman. He took a moment to look
around the battlefield; everywhere the eye could see was littered with corpses,
with hundreds upon hundreds of men still fighting to the death.
Suddenly he
began to notice smoke, vast quantities of smoke rising from the battlefield,
making the air thick and acrid. He span round trying to locate the source of the
flames, and in doing so realised his enemy’s plan. The alliance had realised
that their efforts were going to fail, and to cut their losses they were
burning the battlefield, and everybody on it while they fled. The flames were
everywhere, surrounding him, and the rest of the battlefield, cutting off all
exit routes. It at the moment that Jareth realised there was no way out, that
somebody let fly an arrow. Jareth, momentarily distracted by the events around
him did not see it coming, and therefore did not have time to stop it.
It hit him,
hard, penetrating the soft area of his abdomen, just where his breastplate
stopped. He had never felt such excruciating pain in his life as the fatal
arrow wound he had just received. He moved his hand to the wound, then to his
face, his black leather gloves were now tinged red with his own blood. He
started to cough, a small smear of blood now marking his pale face. He sank to
his knees, weak; he no longer had the strength to stand up. The flames were
getting closer now, and he could hear the screams of the men around him, dying.
His
thoughts turned to Danae as he crumpled to the ground. She would be alright,
Ivenan, who had been at the top of the hill only minutes before the smoke had
come, Ivenan would take care of her. As his body started to go numb his
thoughts turned to dark hair and a pair of startling green eyes, as the rest of
the world faded away and everything else went dark.