The Tale of the Labyrinth By
Eamane-Shu
“I thought I’d lost you
again, and I never got chance to tell you how much I love you.” Sarah cried as
she kissed him. Jareth stared at her as he sat up slowly, a huge grin spread
across his face slowly, before he threw back his head and laughed out loud. She
loved him back; it was the best thing he had ever heard in his life.
“Well that’s good to
hear” he told her jollily, “makes this a lot easier!”
“Makes what a lot
easier?” Sarah sighed; she was in no mood for Jareth’s riddles.
“Sarah, I should have
done this years ago.” He told her with a smile.
“Done what?” she was
confused, and was hoping he was going to get to the point some time soon, her
leg was starting to cramp and she would quite like to stand up.
Seeing her impatience,
Jareth took her hand in his “Marry me Sarah?” he whispered, bringing her hand
to his lips.
Sarah’s eyes widened.
He had just asked her to marry him. This was a dream; the entire last couple of
weeks had been one perfect dream. “Yes” she said simply smiling back at him.
He leant forwards and
kissed her gently on her neck, “Next week?” he murmured into her hot skin.
“Next week?” she
squealed, “But I don’t have a dress, and there have been no preparations! Do
you even remember how long Danae’s wedding took?”
“Oh they’re just
details Sarah; we can manage it in a week! What do you say?”
“Yes!” she squeaked
happily, causing Jareth to grin with delight, he ran his hand gently along the
curve of her jaw, before tilting her face upwards to meet his lips.
“You have no idea how
happy you’ve just made me” he grinned.
However their happy
moment was interrupted by an excited squeal coming from the garden. Sarah
glanced over to see what Jelana’s excitement was all about. Her gazed drifted
from where Camille was sitting quietly doing some of her embroidery, while
keeping her eye on Sarah’s child, who was currently running as fast as her
little legs could possible carry her towards a figure with dark hair. When she
reached him he picked her up and threw her into the air as she giggled and
squealed with delight, before she wrapped her arms tightly round his neck.
Ivenan was home.
Sarah smiled to
herself, she’d missed him in the two weeks he had been gone, she missed his
calm council, and his ability to listen, especially due to her conflicts
surrounding Jareth’s return.
Sarah looked over to
Jareth, his eyes smouldering as he watched his brother-in-law greet his
daughter, he was jealous. Sarah sighed as she spoke to him “He’s been like a
father to her you know.”
“Has he?” Jareth inspected
his glove, trying to appear nonchalant.
“But he was never you.”
Sarah told him patiently, “Give it a few weeks for her to get to know you and
I’ll explain who you are.” Jareth sighed, he was still disappointed, so Sarah
continued, “She’s very young Jareth. She won’t understand now, and when she’s
older she won’t even remember that you weren’t there.”
“Really?” he asked
desperately.
“I promise” Sarah
replied, “What matters is that you’re here now.”
And hand in hand they
walked down to where their daughter was playing happily in the gardens. Jareth
spent the rest of the afternoon chasing, and being chased by, what he
considered the most beautiful, cleverest child that had ever come into
existence.
His encounter with
Ivenan was met with some shock, when Jareth appeared in the garden, alongside
Sarah, Ivenan’s face paled, as if meeting a ghost, and it took him a while to
believe that Jareth was real, and not the after effects of the wormwood he had
consumed during the celebration of the birth of his first born child.
Within an hour of
Jareth and Sarah announcing their engagement, preparations for the wedding had
begun to take place. Sarah was whisked off by Danae, all the way to Threasedene
to order her wedding dress. She chose a soft champagne organdie material, as
Danae suggested that white would not be considered the most appropriate of
colours. A team of eleven dressmakers were hired; who would work around the
clock over the next eight days in order to ensure a dress, fit for the enormity
of the ceremony would be ready on time. The coronation of a royal was a large
affair, and a royal wedding to boot, it would be the largest celebration that
the
Danae had been
incredibly busy, mainly investigating into the attempt on her brother’s life.
The assassin had been apprehended barely minutes after he had let the shot off.
However, he was not acting of his own accord, though he adamantly refused to
name his employer, despite Ivenan’s persuasion tactics. Eventually, after much
digging around, and after the exchange of a few gold pieces, signs were found
suggesting a group of minor Nobles, though there was no evidence to incriminate
them. However, after a few choice threats were made Jareth announced it
“Doubtful that they will try it again.”
“But why attack you in
the first place?” asked Sarah, confused by the recent events.
Jareth was at a loss,
so Aldous explained things to her “Well you see, Danae, being much younger than
Jareth, was much more naive, and they found her much easier to manipulate than
Jareth.”
Sarah frowned, so
Ivenan continued “Which meant that they didn’t want Jareth returning to the
throne, they would much prefer Danae to continue her role.”
“But there will be no
more attacks” Jareth assured her, and Ivenan agreed.
Danae just ran her
fingers through her hair anxiously and sighed, “Well I will be much happier
when Jareth is finally crowned, and we can all breathe easily.”
However despite Danae’s
worried the time passed with little incident, no more attacks were made, and a
feeling of celebration and excitement was in the air. Over the next week the
Goblin City began to fill up, gypsies, and fair-folk began to arrive, turning
the streets of the Goblin City into one enormous carnival, the streets were
cramped with all sorts, market stalls stood side by side with dancing girls,
sword jugglers, flame throwers, and fortune tellers, and this was to name just
a few. Children could be seen in the streets eating apples dipped in toffee, or
munching on potatoes still in their skins with salt and butter, sold from the
market stalls. Every day it got busier and busier, much to Hoggle’s annoyance.
“I wish they’d all just go home” he muttered to Sarah as she stared out the
window, looking at the crowds of people who had descended on the city “could
barely get through, a pain they are, the whole bloody lot of them.” But Sarah
just smiled and blocked his grumbling out; nothing could bring her down from
the cloud that she was floating on.
It wasn’t just carnival
folk who were arriving, the majority of the nobility had turned up on their
doorstep, and the castle was full to bursting point and more guests were still
due to arrive. It was driving Sarah, and possibly Danae completely insane;
everywhere she turned there was another face, which neither of the girls could
put a name to, ready to offer their congratulations on the up and coming
ceremony. Only Jareth was enjoying himself, having been out of the loop so long
he was positively basking in all the attention, while his bride-to-be, his
sister and his brother in law took to hiding in various spots in the castle.
They all suspected that Jareth’s enjoyment was mainly to do with the fact that
he liked to show people that he wasn’t actually dead.
Sarah could often be
found, taking a bit of peace and quiet in Jelana’s room. Her daughter disliked
the business of the castle, and the attention from all the unknown faces, so
Sarah allowed her to stay with Camille for most of the week, away from prying
eyes, then sneaking up to spend as much time with her daughter as possible.
Sometimes Jareth joined them, and they stayed like this for a couple of hours
at a time, playing, talking and sometimes just watching their daughter sleep.
It seemed that no time
at all had passed, and suddenly the day of the wedding had dawned. Sarah’s
dress, much to the combined relief of her and Danae, had arrived late last
night and fit perfectly. It was an enormous, but still fairly simple dress; it
was strapless bodice, attached to a full skirt with a train that flowed out
behind her. Around the top of the bodice, and at the hem of the dress there
were tiny black beads stitched into an ornate pattern, as well as flowing down
the back of the dress from her bodice, to where the train started. Sarah’s dark
curls were pinned up above her head, leaving her neck gracefully bare. The
maids had been tending to Sarah for hours and she was just about ready when
Danae arrived to oversee the final preparations. She handed Sarah a box
containing a string of perfect black pearls, they shone, the iridescent colour
of pewter.
“A bride cannot even
consider getting married without any jewels! Danae smiled as she clasped the
necklace around Sarah’s neck.
“Oh Danae” breathed
Sarah “they really are perfect.”
“They were Jareth’s mothers”
the princess replied “He gave them to me years ago, but I suspect that they
look better on you.”
Sarah turned away from
the princess to stare once more at her reflection, unconsciously rubbing the
pearls as she did so. “Who is Jelana with?” she asked suddenly. Camille had
taken her daughter off earlier that morning, but the nursemaid was planning on
attending the ceremony, and Sarah did not really want her daughter attending
the ceremony as it was far too long, and she would no doubt get bored.
“She’s with Camille’s
daughter for the moment” replied Danae, as she put her small crown on her
forehead “she’ll be at the feast later, when it gets a bit quieter. Are you
ready then?” she asked with a smile.
“How do I look” Sarah
relied nervously.
“Perfect” Danae smiled,
we should go, "everybody’s waiting."
Sarah followed Danae
down to where Jareth was waiting for her in the ante chamber just off the ball
room, where they were to be married. As Jareth and Sarah already had a child
together it was considered tacky for them to have a virginal ceremony in the
temple, like Danae had. He was wearing a matching outfit, he looked resplendent
in a black britches and shiny black boots, with a white poet’s shirt underneath
a black jacket with white embroidery to match Sarah’s dress.
“You look beautiful” he
murmured into her ear, pressing his cheek close to hers. He kissed her tenderly
as Danae and Ivenan left the room as they heard their announcement.
“Danae,
Goblin Queen and Ivenan, King Consort.
Jareth and Sarah walked
hand in hand towards the door, they would be announced next. “Lady Sarah,
ambassador for the Goblin Realm and Prince Jareth, heir to the Goblin Throne.”
They walked down to the front of the room where Aldous, as the highest ranking
advisor was waiting to perform the ceremony.”
When Sarah looked back
on the day of her wedding, she remembered little of it, the ceremony flew by in
a blur, she remembered her hands joining with his, and she remembered their
lips touching in the sweetest of kisses, however apart from that it had all
passed to fast. The same with Jareth’s coronation, or re-coronation as Danae
had taken to referring to it. She could remember Danae placing the crown on
Jareth’s head, then moving and placing a circlet, very similar to her own, onto
Sarah’s forehead, before someone let up the cheer.
“All rise for the new
Goblin King and Queen”
Soon they were seated
side by side on their thrones, Danae and Ivenan sitting slightly to Jareth’s
right on a slightly lower platform. She looked over at her new sister-in-law
and caught her eye. Danae grinned at her wickedly, she obviously had something
planned for during Jareth’s speech, and Sarah couldn’t wait to see what it was.
Jareth took her hand in his, as she heard a familiar voice coming from the
other end of the room.
“Mommy, mommy!” Jelana
called excitedly as she ran over to greet her mother, wrapping her tiny arms
around her neck tightly. Jareth smiled as he looked at his two favourite girls
and Sarah smiled in contentment.
Everything was exactly
how it was meant to be.
A/N: this is the first
fic that I have ever written; hopefully you can see an improvement between the
earlier and later chapters, as the whole writing process has been an enormous
learning curve. And I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve
enjoyed writing it!!!!
I would like to say a
HUGE thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! To the following reviewers!!!
Amy, Aowyn, Bara Zeco,
Bluegreenskye, Cariah Delone, Dawn 1, Destiny Hunter, Draegon Fire, If 666,
Innogen, ItsACrystalNothingMore, Janine, Jedi Kamoga, Kichiko, KriCet xO,
LabyLuvrPhx, Lady of the Labyrinth, Moon Dragon 1288, MoonJava,
Princess-RainbowRose, Redhead Ruth, Sakura-Kon, Sharezad 1, Silverwing 02,
Snapemoment.com, Solea, Sporatic, Spinner, Stormygurlz and
White-Dragon-Goddess.
Without your praise and
encouragement this fic would never ever have been written, during the darkest
moments of writers block, and even when things have been going ok, you guys
have inspired me to get my arse back at the keyboard and rustle up a new
chapter.
I would also like to
give a special shout out to the following:
Dawn1: Your praise and
encouragement has given me more than you know, it means a lot to me!!!!
Amy: For standing up
for author’s rights everywhere.
and
Solea: For the much
needed crit!!!!!!
Thank you for reading
this!!!! I really hope you enjoyed it!!!
If you did, the
review button is down a bit; hearing that people like stuff makes my day!!!
If you didn’t, let me
know and my next attempt will hopefully be a bit better
Love to you all!!!
Eamaneshu xx