Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wings: A Labyrinth Fic ❯ Chapter 2

Part 2

Sarah woke up in the morning, still sitting against the couch. She opened her eyes and pushed her hair back, expecting to see her guest asleep next to her, but instead she found herself alone in an empty room. She stood up quickly, searching around the house, looking for either blood or goblins, but there was nothing. She checked the front door and found it locked, and all of the windows were still shut. With a muffled groan she went to her backdoor and found it slightly ajar.

When she opened it and went out, however, she sighed in relief. Jareth was standing outside in her backyard, staring out over the city. Her house was situated just right on a small hill, so that half of the city was spread out in a nice view. She quietly stepped out and joined him, noticing that he'd somehow managed to bandage and splint his arm, and put it up in a sling.

"You all right?" she asked slowly.

He nodded. "Your world...is very strange..."

"Some would say yours is stranger," she smiled.

"Perhaps, but it does not change. Every time I am here, it seems that everything has altered somehow. My world is fairly static, without variation. Your world seems to...thrive...on change."

"Were you getting bored?"

He laughed bitterly. "If only that were the problem...No, Sarah. I am unused to change. I had thought you could bring that to my kingdom. That was the real reason I took your brother. I thought if I could keep him, I could keep you."

She looked away at the flower garden. "Is that the only reason you wanted me there?"

Jareth smiled and shook his head. "No. Certainly not the only reason."

Everything was quiet for a few moments. The sun wasn't up over the horizon entirely yet. She took a deep breath and looked up at him.

"Jareth, what happened? What chased you out?"

"The most evil and terrible monster in my entire realm, something that even my goblins wouldn't stand a chance against, although that's not really saying much."

"What is it?"

"My sister."

"Your...sister?" she asked hesitantly. "Is she anything like you?"

"Arin is a cruel, deceitful little monster who'd rather see the labyrinth fountains flow with blood and the hedges grow poisoned apples than actually take care of the goblins and creatures inside," Jareth growled. "The oubliettes are probably full right now, and I shudder to think what she's putting the cleaner to use for."

Sarah didn't answer, and Jareth noticed her mild confusion.

"Look," he said slowly, "I may not be the nicest person in the two kingdoms, but I do keep things running smoothly in that labyrinth and that is certainly not the easiest job in the world. It's hard enough keeping the bog of stench from overrunning its boundaries every spring, and I had just gotten all of the faeries to stop attacking my goblins when suddenly I have to defend my kingdom from my sister, who for some reason became even more powerful than I remember."

"I guess if I had to take care of that maze, I'd have a bad temper, too," Sarah gave him a small smile. "Is she the one that hurt your arm?"

Jareth nodded grimly. "I didn't expect her to be so powerful. When she barged into my castle and started to attack me, I thought she would be an easy fight. I didn't realize what kind of power she had until she revealed the griffin's heart."

"A real griffin heart?" Sarah wondered. "Those exist?"

"Well...in a way. It was a living griffin, but the heart is a large ruby that channels magick and magnifies it. It...made her stronger than I am." Jareth shook his head. "I should have killed her outright, instead of playing my games."

"You would have killed your own sister?"

"Of course," he answered without hesitating. "Our family has always fought over the throne. My father hated me, so he made me heir to the kingdom just before he died."

"Why would he do that if he hated you?"

Jareth smiled and looked back up at the clouds. "In the hopes that one of my siblings would kill me. But I learned the maze as fast as I could, and I managed to trick each of my brothers into various traps."

"How many brothers did you have?"

"Four. I was always the lightest of the three, so I could maneuver around places they couldn't. I drowned one of them in the bog, left one in an oubliette, trapped one in his favorite dream, and lured one into the dragon's cave." He sighed. "But I never expected Arin to come after me. She said she was going to the second kingdom and wouldn't return."

"But now she's back," Sarah murmured. "And destroying your labyrinth."

Jareth nodded. "I have to get back there and stop her. Do you remember where you found me?"

"Yeah, you were in the rose bushes," she answered, pointing at her plants. "Why?"

Jareth turned and headed for the roses. "She doesn't know how to use the labyrinth's magick. If she managed to send me out, she had to use a pathway that already existed." He knelt down and peered into the darkness under the thorns and leaves. "So...if she didn't know how to close it off, it should...still...be...here!" He sat back and smiled smugly. "It's still under all that. I can widen it, return and--"

"And what?" Sarah interrupted. "Bleed on her?"

"What?"

"Jareth, your arm is broken and you're obviously exhausted. Do you really think you can just take off and smack her around? You need time to rest."

Jareth sighed and shook his head. "I wish I could. Sarah, Arin is destroying my kingdom and everything in it. I have to kill her without wasting any more time."

Sarah groaned and ran her fingers through her hair. "Damn...all right, fine. I'm coming with you."

"No! It's too dangerous, you'll get killed."

"Look, you have to go through my roses and tear them out to get to your labyrinth, so I think it's fair that I go with you. Besides, you might need a pair of hands that work."

Jareth narrowed his eyes. "That was a low blow."

Sarah smiled. "Just hang on a minute, I'll be right back." Knowing he couldn't dig her roses up quickly, she ran inside and locked all her doors and windows, then wrote a quick letter to her father saying she would be out of town for a few days and could he drop by her house now and then to make sure it was fine? She slipped on her cheaper bracelets and rings, just in case she ran into that bird-headed man again, and went back outside. Jareth was still sitting by her roses, patiently waiting for her to get back.

"Well, are you ready?" he asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

She sat down beside him and started to pull her rose bushes out of the ground. "You don't mind anymore?"

"I might as well have some help," he admitted. "And I suppose it would be best if it came from the only person to ever beat me at my own games."

Sarah jerked the second bush out. "Of course, I did have some help."

"You were willing to have help," he said, helping her with one hand. "No one else ever did."

"Finally!" she gasped, digging the third bush out. "What's that?"

They both looked down into the ground, at what looked like a swirling whirlpool in the dirt.

"That would be the path," Jareth said. He grabbed the edge of the whirlpool and pulled at it, stretching it out in all directions until it was large enough for them to jump into. "We'll probably pop out at the beginning of the labyrinth, so watch out for those faeries."

He stood up and jumped down into the vortex, and Sarah took a deep breath before following. There was a brief feeling of disorientation as the darkness spun around her, tossing her backwards and forwards as she fell, and then a surprisingly soft landing on orange dirt.

"Jareth?" she called, looking around. "Where are you?"

"Over here!" he replied, and she spotted him standing next to the bushes outside the wall. "Get that lantern on the rock, will you?"

She glanced in the direction he pointed and found an old lantern laying sideways on a large boulder. When she picked it up, the candle inside crumbled to dust. She grimaced and blew out the powder, then opened the little latch and took it over to him.

"Hold it open," he said, leaning closer to the bush. Without warning, he darted forward and caught something in his hands. He turned as fast as he could and tossed something into the lantern. Sarah shut the door and looked inside. Jareth had caught a little faerie, blonde with a white gown and silvery wings.

"Why do you want a faerie?" she asked curiously, trying to ignore the creature as it hissed angrily.

"We'll be traveling during the night," he answered. "Those things give off enough light that I won't have to waste any magick for that."

They started walking around the wall, slapping away the occasional winged sprites as they dived at them, trying to free their trapped comrade. Sarah noticed that a lot of the hedges out here were dying and the blossoms had dried up.

"Things really are dying out here," she whispered. "Well, when do we go into the labyrinth?"

"When we find someone to open the door for us," he answered. "I'm sure Arin hasn't started her attack out here yet, so the door-gnomes must still be out here."

"Where's Hoggle?" she asked. "He should be out here."

"No, he and Bludo were trying to barricade off sections of the labyrinth when I was tossed out. With any luck, they're still all right."

Sarah sighed and kept looking around for anything vaguely resembling a door-gnome.