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Disclaimer: See Prologue
Rating: Story R/Chapter PG-13
Beta: Devil Girl
Previous Chapter:Prologue - A Legend Is Born

Tears Of A Goblin King



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Ch 1 - A Chance To Get It Right

Heaven bent to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight

~Fallen by Sarah McLaughlin~

Jareth the Goblin King watched in dismay as Sarah Williams launched herself into the air and dropped off the side of the stone stairway. The spell was broken and the Escher Room cracked and splintered beneath his feet. He was thankful that he’d had the forethought to toss a crystal of protection to the stolen child a few minutes earlier. In the ensuing chaos of the shattered spell, the King drifted toward the floor far below, cushioned by the magic that fueled him, but he knew it would take most of his remaining power to protect the girl from being smashed to bits by fragments of enchantment and rock that tumbled in disarray. And there was no force in the Underground that would have been strong enough to shield both humans, if the babe weren’t already clutching the crystal.

It was done, over; the boy would never belong to the Underground. Even as the King faced off against Sarah for the real challenge, Toby was safe in his crib at home. Jareth knew this was his last chance to keep the girl with him, and break the Curse, but he had exhausted most of his magic in the last thirteen hours. He would have to win this battle of wits the old-fashioned way, with words. He had one crystal left, and it has been saved to either take her home or keep her there with him for all time. It was his chance to finally set things right.

Truth be told I’ve tried my best
But somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
And the cost was so much more than I could bear

~Fallen by Sarah McLaughlin~

As Sarah landed lightly on the stone that appeared to be hanging in midair, she was shivering with exhaustion. The adrenalin rush that had kept her going for the last eleven hours was gone and she was left feeling drained. It took all her energy to keep from trembling as she faced the Goblin King one last time.

Gone was the vibrant man who had frightened and intrigued her. One look at his grayish complexion made her heart beat in her throat and her stomach clench. But it was too late; there was nothing she could do. She had to have her brother back, no matter the cost. She hardly heard what he was saying as she dug deep for the one phrase that kept slipping her mind, ‘but oh how it hurt to think it. It would rip her apart to say it.’ Finally she mustered her courage and uttered the words, which would end it all, “you have no power over me.”

Jareth groaned and tossed his remaining crystal in the air. But for some reason the magic didn’t exploded above them and rain down on their heads as it was meant to. The King reached high with an ungloved hand to set free the power that was contained in the spinning globe above them. On contact he felt a tingle of confusion run through his body as the spell hung in midair, unsure of what it should do. In a moment of frustration and anger, Jareth took control and muttered carefully crafted words to send the girl back to her own world.

As he turned into owl form, his temper was white hot. He’d failed! How could such a thing happen? He’d been so sure all his life that the Curse was one of the dark legends of the Labyrinth. Then it had sent Sarah to him; now he knew there was much more to it than just tall tales.

He beat his wings harder and rode the air currents high above the trees. How could the mortal girl have gotten free? She’d passed the test by getting through the great maze. No other human in the history of his family had gotten that far. She’d even been able to get help from beings that showed allegiance to no one but themselves and their king. So why was it that she wasn’t beside him now? What was there about the ancient Curse that he’d failed to remember?

In exhaustion, the white barn owl came to rest on the tree outside Sarah’s window. Inside she was laughing and dancing with her friends from the Underground. For a moment he was sorely tempted to let his presence be known. If she wanted to see the others, might she not want to see him as well? He had until sunrise the next morning to be able to visit her in human form. Was there still a chance? Something was nagging at the back of his mind. It had to do with the spell that should have sent Sarah home, but instead had floated in the air above their heads, and curled around them. He was too tired to concentrate. He’d missed some small detail. With a flap of his wings he took flight and let the peace of the moonlit night cool his anger. He needed to think. There had to be a way to set things right. This mortal girl was his only chance to find happiness and restore his Kingdom, if the Curse was to be believed. He refused to suffer the way he’d seen his grandfather suffer and he wasn’t sure the way his father had chosen to circumvent things was any better. Jareth was finished with games. The girl should have been his. He was determined to discover where it had gone wrong.

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise,
I must think of a new life,
And I mustn’t give in.
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too,
And a new day will begin.

~Memories - Barbara Streisand~

Sarah Williams watched as her friends climbed back through her mirror. “So that’s how it’s done,” she smiled and muttered to herself, all the while wondering if she was really Alice and had been to Wonderland.

“Good-night, my Lady Sarah,” Sir Didymus called as he disappeared. That left only the dwarf, standing on her dressing table waiting his turn to step through.

“Sarah,” he whispered, “you gonna be all right.” He could tell something was bothering her. He was her friend so he’d helped her, but he hadn’t expected her to leave the Underground. Now he wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing.

“Sure, why not?” She shrugged and stepped toward him. Sarah needed to hug someone badly, but Hoggle pulled away from her outstretched arms, unwilling to let her touch him.

“Sorry Little Lady, but you remember what happened last time.” He had the good grace to look sheepish, but there was no way he was taking chances with Jareth’s temper. It was going to be bad enough when he got back to the Castle. If Sarah kissed him again it would be the Bog for him for sure.

“Hoggle, what happened to…HIM?” She felt her eyes prick with tears as she asked and ducked quickly in an attempt to hide her emotions. It hurt, but she needed to know. She’d kept a careful watch on the dark corners of her room while she’d danced and partied. She couldn’t imagine she’d destroyed him, but she didn’t know what else could have happened. She remembered thinking that if he were alive, he would have joined them. As the night grew late and he still didn’t show up, her doubts mounted. Though off and on during the party her neck had itched as if she was being watched. It frightened her more than she cared to admit.

“Jareth?” Hoggle shrugged. “I’s don’t rightly know.” And even if he did, he knew it would mean a trip to the Bog if he told Sarah anything, kiss or no kiss.

“Did I kill him?” It was more a sob than a question. Sarah had been fighting the thought ever since she’d uttered the words that had caused him to disappear.

“AAHHH,” Hoggle sighed in exasperation and reached out a gnarled hand to pat Sarah’s softer, smaller one. “You gots to remember Jareth’s a survivor. You never can tell where he’ll turn up.” He clamped his mouth shut as his eyes strayed to the window on the other side of the room. The dwarf knew that if there was a large white owl sitting on the tree branches watching and listening, too much had already been said.

“How could he have survived the destruction of that magic room?” Her large green eyes swam with tears.

“Well now…he’s got powerful magic; that one does.” Hoggle whispered, though he was sure the King was alive and well back in his castle, he didn’t know how much he was allowed to say.

“But I…” Sarah’s voice was mixed with all the pain, fear, and loss Jareth had made her feel.

“Remembers what he told you, ‘things aren’t always what they seem’.” Hoggle nodded grimly. As he scuttled quickly through the mirror, he damned both his King and himself for tonight’s actions.

“God, what have I done?” Sarah muttered and touched her mirror in an attempt to reach through to Hoggle, but her hand was met by cold glass. “No,” she whimpered as she turned and slumped on her bed, her mind filled with conflicting feelings.

All the while she’d been in the Labyrinth her goal had been clear. Every move she’d made had been done with conviction, until she’d reached the ballroom. That was where everything had fallen apart. From the moment she’d faced Jareth beside Toby’s crib, she’d known he was powerful and dangerous, but she hadn’t feared him. That had all changed when they’d danced. She’d felt something move deep within her. It had been like a hand had reached in and squeezed her heart; sending ripples of…of…of something through her entire body, as odd mismatched eyes had looked knowingly back at her.

“This can’t be,” she shivered as she forced herself to examine the fear that still lingered. But it was too much for her innocence to understand. She could hardly catch her breath, and with a sob she rolled over on her bed to clutch her pillow protectively to her body. “It was only a dream, I dreamt it all, and nothing was real,” she cried out as she hid from the feelings she’d glimpsed, and then pushed away. “Tomorrow I’ll know it was only my imagination getting the better of me…tomorrow…”

The Space Between
What’s wrong and right
Is where you’ll find me hiding,
Waiting for you;
The space between
Your heart and mind
Is the space we’ll fill with time

~The Space Between ~ The Dave Matthews Band~

While Sarah slept and tried to turn memories into dreams, Jareth acted. He called a meeting with Sir Didymus, Ludo and Hoggle. Though the invitation was worded casually, all three feared for their futures if they didn’t appear at the appointed time.

Jareth was dressed as befitted a King meeting with his subjects, dark gray breeches fitted snuggly into tall black leather boots. His shirt was the usual off-white silk, open halfway to his navel, so his medallion of power was visible to all.

He stood behind his desk and looked down his nose at each creature as it stumbled though the door. With his hands gripped behind his back he appeared taller and more imposing than he was. It was a stance he’d carefully perfected over the years to intimidate without having to say a word. The silence in the room dragged on until even the unflappable Didymus began to squirm under his gaze. That was Jareth’s cue to begin, “Well?” His brow rose and he stepped closer to his subjects. “I’m waiting for your explanations.”

“Sarah friend,” Ludo drawled and nodded at his King, as if that said it all.

Jareth shrugged and shook his head. It was more than he’d expected from the Rock Conjurer. The beasts weren’t known for their intelligence and few were able to gain their loyalty.

“Your Majesty,” Sir Didymus broke the silence that followed. “My Lady Sarah was a damsel in distress, as a Knight of the Underground Realm; I was honor-bound to help her.”

“A damsel in distress? Are we speaking about the same girl? The one who tricked all of you into assisting her, then knocked down your bridge, ripped through Agnes’s junkyard, blew up my gate and fractured not one, but two rooms that were bound by magic. And I have yet to get the final tally of damage from the Goblin City. I’d hardly call her ‘in distress.’ More likely the Labyrinth needed protection from her.”

“Well, Your Majesty…I ahh…ahh…Lady Sarah was a maiden in need of help, you may be correct that distress was too strong a term, but my honor---” Didymus ground to a halt as Jareth shook his head.

“And Hogwart, what is your excuse?” The King towered over the dwarf.

“It’s Hoggle,” the little man whispered as his throat closed in terror. He knew what he needed to say, but it wasn’t something that the others should hear.

“Is this something we’ve been over before?” Jareth knelt and raised his brow. Both remembered the warning the King had given Hoggle about being kissed by Sarah.

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Are you sure? Do I smell the Bog in your future?” He rose to stand very straight as he watched Hoggle cower at his feet. This was getting him nowhere. They obviously didn’t know anything useful.

“Nnnooo, please, I’s telling you the truth.” Hoggle looked up with angry eyes.

“Very well, go, leave, all of you!” The King ordered and turned away from his fleeing subjects. Moments later a small sound alerted him to the fact that he wasn’t alone. “Well, is there something you’d like to add?” He turned and watched Hoggle grip his hands and shuffle his feet.

“I ahh…Your Highness…”

“Well? I’m waiting!” Jareth glared.

“It was you,” the words tumbled out of Hoggle’s mouth before he could stop them. “It was you who mades me help her.”

“Explain,” Jareth gritted his teeth and fought the urge to send the dwarf flying out the door. The little man had spent more time with Sarah than any of them: if there was knowledge to be gained he most likely had it.

“I’s been your gardener at the gate for a long time,” Hoggle swallowed. “In all that time…in all that time…”

“Come, come Hoggle, out with it.” Jareth sat behind his desk and motioned the dwarf to take a seat across from him.

“Well, Sir, in all that time you’ve never shown the slightest bit of interest…until today, until Sarah,” he whispered the girl’s name as cold eyes stared into his.

“And that is significant because?” The King tilted his head to the side, as his stomach tightened. He prided himself on his ability to project any image he chose to his people. Somewhere he’d slipped up.

“Because she gots your attention. You sent the cleaners after her, but opened a door for her to get away. You was goin’ to toss me in the Bog, if she kissed me, but then didn’t let us fall in. You was there at every turn and twist to be sure she didn’t gets hurt. It had to be you who made that rope appear in my hands when she was being attacked by the fireys, cause I didn’t have no rope with me.”

“You’re imagining things, Hoggle.” Jareth leaned back in his chair and casually examined the pen on his desk.

The dwarf caught his breath when he was called by his correct name for the second time in a row. It was a small thing, but coming from the King it had importance. “She’s the one, ain’t she?” He whispered. “She’s the one who can break the Curse?”

“I had hoped,” the great King sighed. “But it’s too late, what’s done is done and what’s said is said. Sarah has gone back to the Aboveground. She will forget all about us and the book that brought her to us will disappear until it is time for the next Goblin King to…to...” He shrugged, doubting he would ever produce an heir since Sarah had defeated him.

“I’m not so sure it’s over,” Hoggle stuttered.

“Unless she calls for me by name, I can only approach her in owl form. No amount of magic in all the worlds will change that.” He pulled at the wrist of his left glove to keep from conjuring a crystal and taking a peek at Sarah.

“She thought she kilt you,” the dwarf added quietly. “And it made her cry.”

“Cry? You must be imagining things. I watched her from the tree outside her window and she was happy. You were all happy,” he leaned across his desk to emphasize his words. “Doing what appeared to be victory dances at my defeat. I doubt sincerely that she shed a single tear at the thought of my demise.”

“Your Majesty, I knows what I seen, and I seen her eyes fill with tears when she asked about you. Then well…I’s…I’s watched her from the other side of her mirror after she thought she was alone. She lay on her bed and cried. It liked to broke my heart.”

“Thank you, Hoggle. That will be all.” Jareth stood and walked to the window in what appeared to be an act of dismissal, but it was really to watch the huge moon that shone down on both his world and Sarah’s. He had much to think about, but at the moment none of it made much sense. “Hoggle, one more thing,” he didn’t bother to turn, his magic told him the dwarf had only made it as far as his office door. “The portal through Sarah’s mirror will be left open for you, Didymus and Ludo.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” The dwarf beamed with delight. They would get to see Sarah again, but more importantly, maybe he could help lift the blight that had been laid on his world by an angry Fae thousands of years ago.

And what if fate has already played its hand
And there’s no future left in the plan
What if this is what lies in store
It only makes me want you more

~At This Time~ Pat Benatar~

“Your Majesty,” a tall dark-haired, blue-eyed Fae knocked on Jareth’s office door. “I’ve brought you some dinner.” The man who entered was as dark as Jareth was fair. Though they were about the same height, the King had a slim, wiry strength that had fooled more than one opponent, while the darker man was built as if he spent more time on the training field, than attending in an office, which was not the case.

“You heard, Declan?” Jareth quickly dispersed the crystal he’d used to check on Sarah, before he turned to acknowledge his assistant and friend. For the first time since the girl said the fateful words he was feeling some hope. What he’d seen in the crystal appeared to support Hoggle’s theory. A tear had run down Sarah’s cheek, even as she slept.

“It would have been hard to miss. Dwarves aren’t known for their quiet speaking voices, that one especially.” His words were accented with a slight lilt that would make a human think of four-leafed clovers and leprechauns.

“So, what do you think?” Jareth settled behind his desk and began to dig into the large meal that was set before him. Sarah’s call that afternoon had interrupted his lunch and he hadn’t eaten anything while she’d been in the Labyrinth.

“Was the dwarf speaking the truth?”

Declan and Jareth had been raised together, and the question needed no clarification, they knew each other too well. It would have been easy to attempt to evade it. The blonde Fae was a master at misdirection, and Declan knew when to pull back, but the dark-haired man was Jareth’s advisor and a smart king didn’t lie to an advisor when he was looking for answers. “I helped,” Jareth said quietly and put down his fork.

“Ahhh, I see.” Declan’s brows rose, until they were hidden by unruly curls that brushed his forehead.

“Do you, because I don’t!” Unable to put a name to what he was feeling, Jareth stood and threw his napkin onto his desk in disgust. “At the time…” He searched for words that eluded him. “At the time…it’s hard to explain…I felt a compulsion to be in the Labyrinth with her. I needed to know that she was safe, even as I teased and tormented her. It makes no sense. By the Seven Crystals, she’s just a child, and a human child at that. What was I thinking?”

Declan’s mouth dropped open and he stared at the Fae who was like a brother to him. In a battle there was no one he’d rather have at his back, and he doubted there was much he didn’t know about his Monarch. As boys they had terrorized the Goblin City, and as much of the Underground as they could under the vigilant eye of Jareth’s parents. As young Fae males, they’d drunk and gambled together; fought at the other’s side in many the pub and tavern; and enjoyed many of the same women. The idea of Jareth being inappropriate with a young girl, especially one who couldn’t defend herself against his magic was totally unexpected. “You…ah…you…didn’t…?”

The Goblin King turned and what he saw made him smile for the first time in hours. “Oh do close your mouth, Declan, you look like a fish out of water. You needn’t look so worried. I was a perfect gentleman, or maybe I should say I was a perfect imaginary Goblin King.” He bowed to hide his scowl as he remembered what Sarah thought of him and the part he’d been forced to play. “I was powerful enough to grant her every wish, but it would seem not so powerful that I gained her brother as a bargaining tool. I was frightening, without putting her in any real danger, and yes, I was charming when I danced with her at a ball.”

“You sent her the Ballroom dream and then joined her in it?” It was an unheard of precedent that worried Declan. “It sounds like Hoggle was right; Sarah really did capture your attention.”

“It’s an excellent distraction for young girls.” The King shrugged, dismissing the fact that he’d never before entered into that dream with any of the girls, only sent an illusion of himself. “Besides, there is more power in the Ballroom dream than my charm.” He sighed at what he’d learned of Sarah’s innocence as she’d walked through the crowds of other dancers and tried not to remember how tightly she had gripped his hand and shoulder as the crowds of Fae began to push in around them. In the Ballroom, everyone appears to him as they are on the inside. It was an excellent tool and one the Goblin King had used on more than one visiting dignitary.

“Jareth…” Declan almost growled at his King. Too much was at stake to be playing mind games.

“All right, all right,” Jareth glared. He knew that if it were anyone but Declan he could pull on his kingly persona and they would back down, but the dark-haired man knew him too well and this was too important for evasions. “I was careful. We only danced for a short while and the entire time she was in the Labyrinth I didn’t take my gloves off.” Both men knew the power that could be conveyed in a touch, especially when dealing with humans. “If she’d been older I might have been tempted, but she wasn’t. What’s done is done and there is no going back.” It might have been Jareth’s way out. He might have ended the Curse right then and there if he’d brought all of his considerable charm into play. The fact that he hadn’t was not lost on either man.

“You need more information. I think you should go and see Wiseman at first light. He’s the keeper of the archives and has been warning you about the Curse for decades. You just chose not to listen.”

“That old man lives smack in the middle of the Labyrinth, I should have had him in here with Hoggle, Didymus and Ludo. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out he helped her too.” Jareth ignored Declan’s comment about the Curse. It was too late to do things differently.

“He most likely did. The old man is a soft touch for a pretty face and his Hat is even worse.”

“You’re not being a great deal of help tonight.” Jareth grumbled at his friend.

“How about this,” Declan offered. “If Sarah is the one, then the Curse is going to be affecting her too, probably more than you, given the fact she’s human and they have all those messy feelings you say you don’t have.” He grinned taking a verbal jab at Jareth. It was only fair after all the teasing he had received when he’d fallen in love with and married Merilee, youngest daughter of Luthor, High King of the Elves.

“Actually Declan, that’s no help at all!” He ground his teeth in frustration. “Sarah is a young girl.”

“Yes, but one of the nice things about young girls is that they grow up.”

Long after Declan left, Jareth sat and brooded over his cognac. He knew he was tired and had expended more than his usual store of magic, but his mind wouldn’t let him rest. He was tempted to let the entire matter go; forget that the girl had even been in the Labyrinth, but every time he tried, he was haunted by a pair of deep-green eyes. In exhaustion, his head fell back and his eyes fluttered shut. As he took deep, even breaths, he could almost smell her delicate scent and it made his blood pound.

“Jareth,” a soft feminine voice called to him from the door to his study.

For a moment Jareth’s mind played tricks on him and he saw Sarah standing there, her deep brown hair glinting in the firelight. Then the image changed, green eyes turned to blue and brown hair to blonde. A diminutive Fae, who looked much younger than her 1000-plus years, walked into the room. “Mother, what are you doing here?” He rose and offered her the chair beside his, in front of the fire.

“It’s been over five hours since your Sarah left, did you expect me to quietly pace my castle and wait for you to come to me?” Livia, dowager Queen of the Goblins looked quizzically at her son.

“I’d hardly call her ‘my Sarah’.” Jareth poured her some cognac, and squirmed. It was apparent his mother’s magic was as in-tune as ever. He had never been able to get anything past her when he was young. He’d hoped that had changed. “After all, she is very young, even for a human.”

“Sit down, Jareth. I realize that this is one conversation that it would have been better for your father to have had with you, but since it is obvious Cormac didn’t, that leaves it to me.” She watched her son settle in the wing-backed chair beside hers then reached out and touched his hand. “It bothers you that she was in her early teens, doesn’t it?”

“Mother, what are you implying?” Jareth looked outraged and a bit hurt. His feelings were too close to the surface and some of them were ones he refused to recognize.

“Darling, we’re Fae,” she flashed him an impish grin. “We’re known for indulging our pleasures. When has age ever been a difficulty when dealing with other races?”

Jareth had to fight the childish urge to plug his ears and hum loudly to drown out anything more she had to say. Never in his adult life had he expected to have his mother sit across from him and question him about his desires. “As King, I forbid this conversation to go any further.” He sat up very straight and removed all emotion from his face.

His response drew a gentle smile from his mother. “Jareth, my darling, you love her, don’t you see that.”

“I do not!” He stood quickly, his temper and frustration boiling over. “Fae don’t love!”

“Sometimes you’re too much your father’s son.” Livia looked at him sadly, wanting so much more for him than her spouse had been given. “Unless you want to end up like he did, a sad, old man, dead before his time, you’ll sit back down and listen to what I have to say.”

“All right, mother,” Jareth sighed. “But this conversation must stay within the bounds of propriety.”

“Spoken like a true king,” she teased. “Now sit down again, relax, and close your eyes.” Livia tried hard to sound calming and not like a mother dealing with a recalcitrant child. Jareth may have been over 500 years old, but there were times he acted as if he were still 5. “I want you to picture Sarah…” she whispered.

“Mother…” Jareth gritted his teeth.

“You’ve trusted me all your life, why do you think I would do something that would harm you now?”

“It’s been a trying day.” He sighed.

“And I’m trying to help.” She smiled at her play on words, but for once her son didn’t appreciate her wit, so she changed tactics. “Use some of that stubbornness that is so much a part of your nature, and trust me. You are going to need all the tenacity you’ve got, if we are going to change things for the better.”

He doubted there was anything his mother could do to help him, but if he wanted her to go home and leave him alone, he realized he was going to have to cooperate. His eyes closed and images of Sarah floated through his head. He finally chose the one of her in the Ballroom Dream. It made him smile, but Livia was the only one who realized his emotions were on display.

“Now, son, I know that you’re tired and so is your magic, but I want you to use whatever power that is left to you and change that picture you have in your mind. Age her, age her until she is 18…20…then finally 24.” Livia grinned as she watched her son’s shoulders relax and the look of joy pass over his face. “See Sarah as she shall be at 24, no longer a child, but a woman. Let go the tight reign you keep on those emotions of yours. Set your feelings free and see where they lead you. They will tell you the truth of it all.”

“Ohhh,” Jareth moaned. He felt like he was drowning and could hardly breathe, as he used all his power to change the picture in his mind. Sarah was slim and lovely, all the roundness gone from her cheeks, but she had curves in all the right places. She was a woman, just as lovely as she had been earlier in the evening, but no longer too young for him to touch. In his mind, he was beside her and she turned willingly into his arms. This time as they danced their lips met and their arms tightened around one another. He felt the ice he kept carefully in place around his heart break away and he knew with certainty that Sarah Williams was the being he would need until his dying day. “Sarah,” he whispered her name as he could see their kiss deepen and he felt her silky skin beneath his bare fingers.

“Jareth,” Livia gripped his gloved hand to break the spell he was caught in.

“How did you know, mother?” He whispered as he worked to replace the image of Sarah nine years from now, with the one of the teen she really was.

“Because we are Fae and there would only be two reasons you’d have gotten involved with the human girl: lust or love.” She smiled gently hoping it would take the sting out of her words. “Since you had a hard time even thinking about it, I knew it wasn’t simple lust. Besides, I’d hoped I’d raised you better than that!”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Jareth wasn’t sure how to word his question without hurting her feelings. “How could you have known what I was feeling, unless you’ve experienced it? You and father always seemed so…so…”

“Casual with one another,” Livia finished the sentence for him.


“We were, but we were the best of friends and in our own way cared deeply about each other. Like you, your father chose not to believe in the Curse. He had seen it kill his father and his grandfather before that, so he determined it did not exist and therefore could not hurt him. Unfortunately for him, all the determination in the world will not free you from a magic spell. He ended up meeting his human girl too late, and was totally unprepared for it. We had married three years earlier and you had just been born. I would have set him free, because I knew what it was like to meet your other half then lose him.” Livia looked sadly into the past and thought of a young Fae, who had died saving the life of his King, hundreds of years earlier. “But it was too late. A divorce in the monarchy would have destroyed the Goblin Kingdom.”

“Mother, you and father did it, why can’t I?”

“What do you mean, dear?” She looked at her beautiful son so very proud of him in his time of trial.

“Just get on with my life.” He nodded, and tried to push away any lingering feelings for Sarah. “Find myself a Fae woman who will help me rule this land. One who is untouched by love, but open to the idea of friendship.”

“Because life has so much more to offer than that and this Curse needs to end!” Livia sighed, afraid she was going to have to tell more of the story than she’d planned. “From what you told me and what I know of Cormac, I believe one of the ways the Curse works is to send the humans to us when it would be morally reprehensible to be with them no matter what your heart tells you. It’s a small thing, that takes very little magic, but it can make all the difference. I also believe that they are affected in the same way.”

“Tell me all you know, Mother, there has to be a way out of this.” Jareth shook his head in frustration, feeling trapped no matter which way he turned. The idea of Sarah suffering was unthinkable.

“When Caliban built the spell, he wanted to punish not only the Goblin King for denying him his human wife, but women of the Aboveground as well. His wife hadn’t been strong enough to complete the Labyrinth, and he considered that treachery. For that I believe he wanted to give pain and suffering to the women of the future who would have been paired with Goblin Kings. I don’t know what is in store for your Sarah, but I do know what happened to Cormac’s Moria.”

“If it will help me understand what I’m to do, than you had better tell me, otherwise, I think it is a bit more information about my father than I want to hear.”

“Jareth, you need not worry, your father was totally honorable in this matter, both to me and to Moria.” Livia sadly patted her son’s arm. “It was Cormac who suffered the most. There was little I could do for him, except be there to listen to him when he needed someone to talk to, as he had been there for me when…when my other half died before we were old enough to marry.”

“I’m sorry, Mother, I had no idea you and father had so much pain in your lives.” Jareth whispered. He’d always known his mother was strong, but hadn’t realized the depth of her strength until that moment.

“You were our son, it is only right that you didn’t know these things.” She sat straighter and took a sip of her cognac before continuing her story. “Moria was a young woman of about 24 human years. She would have been old enough to have been with your father, but the way they met prevented it, even if Cormac hadn’t already been married. Moria wished her son away to the Goblin King, but not for the usual reasons. Her son had been born too early, at barely 24 weeks. She’d had the little red book with the story of the Labyrinth since she was a child and part of her believed in its power. In desperation to save the life of her son, she called upon the Goblins to take him and hopefully cure him. Challenging the Labyrinth to win the babe back was never even a question. Moria handed over the boy child and that was it. But she was as trapped as Cormac was. She in the Aboveground, with no memory of her son, or the man she would love until her dying day. Her life must have been an empty one. I’m thankful her years were few compared to ours. Your father had the child, but it was the woman he loved. I think he spent part of every night keeping an eye on her, in owl form, until the day she died. Then he slowly began to die himself.”

“What happened to the child? Was father’s magic able to cure him?”

“Yes, more than that really. The babe was so premature, that the same magic that cured him, changed him. He seemed to absorb it like a small sponge, until he was no longer human, but Fae.”

“Declan,” Jareth gasped. “That explains his accent and unusual hair coloring, though why he would speak in such a way makes no sense.”

“Yes,” Livia nodded. “As to his speech pattern, the Magic works in strange ways. I like to think that, like his coloring, it is a gift left to him from his mother.”

“Does he know?”

“I told him about his parentage, and he told Merilee, before he asked her to marry him, but the rest I’ve never told another living soul.”

Jareth nodded as he realized the grave responsibility Livia had passed to him. “You needn’t worry mother. Declan has been like a brother to me for 500 years, nothing is going to change that.”

Chapter 2 - Between The Darkness And The Light



Latest Month

September 2012





Cinderella walked on broken glass,
Sleeping beauty let a whole lifetime pass.
Belle fell in love with a hideous beast,
Jasmine married a common thief.
Ariel walked on land for love and life,
Snow white barely escaped a knife.
It was all about blood, sweat, and tears.
Because love means facing your biggest fears







La Vita Nuova

Midnight courage of the heart...Jen Kirkwood



Shakespeare is easy, life is hard...Wheels







Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn... Keats

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