Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wings: A Labyrinth Fic ❯ Chapter 14

Part 14--Epilogue

Thick clouds covered the moon and the stars. Sarah and Jareth walked through the empty goblin city with the faerie giving off their only light. Sarah pressed closer to Jareth and watched the shadows move around them. The faerie's light flickered over the broken bricks and burnt rooftops and splinted sticks of what used to be goblin houses and goblin kitchens and goblin beds.

"It feels so lonely," Sarah whispered. "Is anyone left up here?"

He shook his head. "Maybe a few that couldn't run, and she never found. Not many."

"Can we bring them back?"

"I don't think so. Everything has limits." He stared at himself, one arm still in its sling and the cut slowly healing on his other arm. "I won't be back to full power for a little while."

"So what do we do? Will the others come back soon?"

"You mean the ones that ran to the underground? They'll come back as soon as they know it's safe. Ludo's probably telling them now."

"That's fast. We just killed her."

"Yes, but anyone could have picked up the amount of energy moving in that room. I'm sure they're on their way already. The labyrinth is quick to call back its own."

Sarah turned around and looked behind them. "It's not moving at all. It isn't dead, is it?"

"It's resting now." He turned and looked at her. "Sarah, I have to ask you something. The magick that Arin gave you...would you use it for me?"

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"All of this," and he swept his hand around at the labyrinth. "It's too tired to repair itself. I can't even begin to heal it until I'm back up to full strength. But if you gave it just some of what you have...I promise it won't hurt, and you won't lose all of--"

She put her fingers up to his lips, and he quieted. "It's all right. But I don't know how. You'll have to show me."

He smirked. "Did I have to show you how to create a crystal?"

She shook her head. "But I saw you make them. I just copied that."

"Have you ever seen fireworks?"

"Fireworks? You have those here?"

His smirk turned into smile and he grabbed her hand. "Come on. We can do this best from the clock tower."

She smiled and let him tug her forward, the faerie jostling in her lantern. "What clock tower?"

They pulled up short at the center of the goblin city, at the foot of a clock tower that would have been forty feet tall if the top half hadn't been blown off. The face lay on its side a few feet away, the hands pointing at the eleventh hour.

"Are you sure it's safe?" she asked. "It might be unstable."

"We'll be fine." He opened a door on the side and led her in. Nothing like the castle turret, these steps went up in a gradual spire until they both could look out over the cracked top twenty feet up. Sarah leaned over the broken wall while Jareth sat up on the corner and let his legs dangle. "This way we have a decent view."

Sarah stared out over the labyrinth. From here she could see the twisting corridors still standing, the crushed rubble of destroyed paths, burned gardens and even the far wall that circled the maze, charred black. "Just copy fireworks, right?"

He nodded. "Try it."

She raised her hand. A bit of electricity coalesced at her fingertips and sparked out, but it fizzled in the air and disappeared. Jareth opened his mouth to offer some advice, but the look on her face kept him quiet. She stamped her foot and pointed her finger back up at the sky. "Get up there, dammit."

Blue energy shot out of her hand and whistled into the air, exploding in a flash of neon sparkles that drifted to the ground and soaked into the dust. Grass shot up with flowers complete with dewdrops, and one of the broken cobblestones mended.

Sarah spotted the sudden sprout and giggled, jumping up and down while she clapped. "All right, let's rock!" Colors shot out of her, emerald green, ocean blue, daffodil yellow, indian paintbrush red, royal purple, mother of pearl, all streaking through the sky in various directions, north, east, south, west, exploding loud enough to rumble the fragile walls and shake them back into shape. Wherever a glowing ember touched the ground, stones came back together, dried mushrooms or blackened hedges filled out and colorized. The air filled with whistles and Sarah's joyful cries. She sent up white spinners she'd seen at Chinese New Year celebrations, she sent up patriotic red white and blue from the fourth of July. She released Mardi Gras mask designs and unicorn shapes. The sky swirled like Starry Night and oil paint hurled at the stratosphere, dripping water colors back to turn the dust into black mud and swirl something living out of the mix.

All over the labyrinth, in sight and out, blood and bodies sunk into the ground, heading for the necropolis or any patch of ground that seemed comfortable. The walls couldn't reach their previous heights and left their tops unfinished. Gates lacked their usual ornamental knobs and markings. The tiles still weren't turning her lipstick marks, but the tiles were all in one piece now. She fired a huge burst at the dried waterways, like a river from her hand, and screamed for joy when the fountains erupted again, spouting water dozens of feet into the air and splashing down, washing away the blood and burns.

She turned to say something to Jareth, but the look on his face stopped her. He stared up at the colors still blazing in the sky, his mouth slightly open as if he had taken a deep breath and forgotten to release it. His eyes were wide. He leaned forward and scanned the sky for every burst.

Sarah smiled. He looked a little like Toby. Not quite, but a little.

Light erupted, not from her fingertips, but from a far part of the labyrinth. She wanted to take a look and found herself slowly rising into the air, lifted by some pressure under her feet. She gasped and tried to grab something before she rose too high. Jareth's hand closed around hers, but he didn't hold her down. He smiled and pushed her farther until he had to let her hand slip away.

Still letting more fireworks go, sending neon ribbons around the moon, she gazed at the white light coming from the labyrinth itself. She squinted, and spotted the fountain she and Jareth had climbed down...a few days ago? God, it seemed so long. Like a spotlight pointed at the sky, the light began to flicker with shadows as something made its way up the ladder.

Faeries flew out first like a swarm of butterflies, followed by a real swarm of butterflies and then flocks of birds. Sarah wondered how they had flown underneath the ground. Next came fireys, goblins, larger creatures she couldn't identify...and then a few she knew on a first name basis. She counted. Ludo, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, his steed...she shrieked and did a flip in the air. She drifted back down to Jareth, all alone in the darkness of a broken clock.

"They're alive," she said. "Not all of them, but there are so many of them."

He smiled and stood. "Will you stay for the celebration, then? I know they'd love to see you again. They'll all want to know how you did it."

She put her hand on his face. "How we did it."

Jareth shook his head. "No. You're bringing it back."

"I couldn't have known how to do anything if you hadn't walked me through it. Come with me."

"No, they don't want to see me. Besides, I need to return to the castle. There are things I need to start moving again, the water wheel clocks, the scrying pools..."

"Jareth."

He looked at her. "You're going to leave again. And I have work to do."

She smiled. "You know something?"

"I know a great many things."

"And for all that, you don't know how easy you are to read." She lifted a few inches off the ground so she could look him in the eye. "You will always be a rotten liar."

"Sarah?"

"You're going to need help fixing everything, aren't you?" She tapped his broken arm. "And you still have one broken wing. You still need help flying."

"I..." he looked down. "I...are you sure? You have a life outside this labyrinth."

"Yeah, my own little empty house in the rough part of town with my own stalker...oh, and dead rose bushes, too."

Jareth smiled and stood straight. "I usually have climbing roses around my bedroom window..."

She paused. "Our bedroom window?"

"...I will be your slave."

A dull roar built of laughing and cheering grew louder as it neared the goblin city. Sarah smiled at the glow from the faeries lighting the way.

"I don't think we'll be alone for much longer," she said. "Stay here with me?"

"You'll stay beside me?"

"I promise." He looked up again. "It looks like there's a lot of light coming our way."

Sarah grinned and lit a little glowing puffball in her hand. "That's no problem anymore."

"Then maybe we should let our faerie go?"

"Oh!" She looked down at the lantern and the faerie with her hands pressed against the glass, wings fluttering as her sisters approached. "Think she'll bite us?"

"I think she'd rather go and brag to her friends." He undid the clasp holding the lantern shut. "As I think you want to."

"Just a little," she said as she held her arm out. "Ready?"

"Ready."

She wrapped her arm around his waist, about to fly both of them out, but he leaned down and stole a kiss before she could blink. She smiled around it and responded in kind. At the goblin city entrance, the impromptu parade halted as hundreds of labyrinth creatures stared at their cold king kissing the one mortal who'd thoroughly bested him.

Sarah almost broke into a fit of giggles when she heard Ludo speak.

"Sarah...queen?"

She broke the kiss for a moment and waved. "Maybe we should have just a little more privacy," she whispered. She raised her hand one more time, creating a burst of harmless sparks that spread out from her fingers and widened in circles around them, renewing themselves after every flash so that soon the entire city filled with light while the new queen laughed.

The faerie finally pushed her lantern open and flew out, heading not towards her sisters but instead zooming into the sky, stretching her wings for the first time in days and spiraling loops while leaving behind a glow of gold and pearl. She left the bright goblin city and disappeared into the darkness, trailing light into everything she passed before she circled back, swearing every other minute and giggling the rest.

The End