Part 7
Rating: M
Thanks so very much to knifeedgefic for the super-speedy beta, and, as well, to lightup_tea and for their feedback.
Cross-posted at Labyfic.
Advent
Part 7
I put out an arm and pushed Sarah behind me. “Get out.”
Jareth tilted his head, still smiling. “Noble and ignoble at the same time. Chivalry and inhospitality, hand in hand. Why such strong words for me, Tobias?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said: Get. Out.”
The smile had gone. “You know, I don’t believe I will.”
“Get out, or I’ll -”
“Or you’ll what?”
I ran at him, fists swinging - I’d ram him back through that door and to hell with my wall - but then he flicked the fingers of one hand and I - stopped.
I don’t know how else to describe it. I was frozen in mid-stride, my face locked in a grimace, and Jareth was walking up to me with a look of mild interest.
“Such violence, in one so young. Tsk.” He smirked. “I wonder what he means by it?”
I tried to yell - but I couldn’t do that, either. Every part of me was completely locked up.
Jareth adjusted one glove. “Well, Sarah?”
He lingered over her name.
“What do you think he means by it?”
Then he turned to look at her.
I saw a distorted Sarah reflected in the gold of the magical door. I saw her tense and throw one look behind her shoulder -
“No,” Jareth breathed. He tipped up his chin - that was it, believe me - and the door to my room slammed shut. I heard the click of a lock.
I heard something scrabbling at the wood of the door, but I only saw Jareth circling me, lips curled in a smile. “My, that does look uncomfortable. So, my young prince …” and he gently pushed my arms down to my sides, tapped my foot in mid-air so it came to rest on the carpet, and eased my back against a wall.
It occurred to me that now I could see everything.
“Dad! Mom!”
“Sarah, I have cast a spell of silence every time I have been in this room - that is to say, eight times. Those two,” he made a dismissive gesture in the direction of my parents’ bedroom, “wouldn’t hear an abduction if their lives depended on it.” He paused. “Fortunately, their lives do not depend on it.”
I saw Sarah frantically rattling the doorknob. She clawed at the paint on the doorframe, then jerked her fingers back with a yelp.
“For the last time, no.” Jareth’s voice was icy. “Believe you me: that spell caught my attention when first I saw it. And it took me a surprising amount of time to unravel - where did you come across those runes, Sarah?”
She had turned to face him. I saw that her face was white. “A book.”
“A book - he spat. “Where?’
“A rare book library, in - in the palace archives. Under the highest security. In Istanbul.”
Jareth looked nonplussed, but only for a minute. “Ah.” He grimaced. “Byzantium. I must have forgotten about that one.” He paused in thought, then shrugged. “I shall soon remedy that little oversight … but Sarah …”
He took one step toward her and she stepped away. Her back hit the door with a thump.
“Sarah …” he purred. “You don’t look pleased to see me.”
“Still a little slow on the social uptick - uptake, Goblin K -”
“Oh, are you trying to insult me?” Jareth’s voice was low and sleek. “You seem rather tongue-tied tonight. Why is that?”
“No, the question is: why have you come here?!”
“Why, Sarah, isn’t it perfectly obvious? I have come to take back what is mine.” He tilted his head towards me. “Since your first-born child is nowhere to be found.”
“You bastard - you can’t take him!”
“I think you’ll find I very much can.”
The Goblin King turned towards where I rested against the wall, still frozen. He narrowed his eyes, and then plucked one, two, three crystals from mid-air and began to cast a spell. At least, I figured that was what he was doing. I could smell the magic in the air, and I could see the color draining from Sarah’s face.
“Stop - you can’t -”
“All the words in the world will not change the fact that young Toby here has breathed the air of the Labyrinth,” he wafted a crystal towards me, “has eaten the food of the Labyrinth,” another crystal, “and has been sealed by me, to the Labyrinth.” The last crystal floated before my eyes.
They all sparkled into a fall of dust at the same time.
Nothing really happened. I said, “Huh,” - oh, except my voice was back. And I somehow felt a lot calmer. Almost as though I had been drugged.
Then I looked closer at Sarah. She was scanning the room frantically, until she met my eyes and ran to my corner of the room.
“Toby? Toby?”
I watched, a bit bemused, as her hands went right through my body and touched the wall.
“He’s more than halfway there, you know.” Jareth sounded bored. “He may look insubstantial here, but all it will take is one closed door,” he flicked his eyes at the golden one, “and a Forest Prince in dreams will become a ruler in reality.”
“Forest -” Sarah’s voice croaked. She coughed to clear her throat. “Forest Prince? Just what the hell does that mean?”
“Ah, Sarah …”
The Goblin King gazed at her, his eyes half shut. “… It means this.”
He stretched out one arm along the wall, in front of the door. His black cape unfurled alongside it. He traced the index finger of his free hand along the line of his arm. He flicked all his fingers out …
And sparks and motes of magic began to cascade down, down over his cloak. They painted a beautiful picture - a magical image of a forest, full of animals and brightness during the day. And then the moon rose, and I saw the Forest Prince, antlers on his head, running for joy through the darkened trees.
Then he turned into a deer completely.
And then he was torn apart by a wolf.
I watched it all, feeling detached, and wondering why on earth my sister had started crying.
"It might not happen that way, of course. He runs like the wind, now. And I had to prove my mettle flying before the Wild Hunt for many years - and I lived to rule as King. Regardless, he will be a prince - my Forest Prince."
“You monster -”
“Others have called me so - others older and more terrible than you. Even before they imprisoned me.” Jareth covered a yawn with his free hand. “But enough of this. Our bargain remains. Do you have your firstborn with you, Sarah Williams?”
She didn’t say anything. So the Goblin King screwed up his face and whined, “Give me the child …”
Sarah spat at him; he laughed. “But alas, there is no firstborn here, and thus your brother comes with me. Bid him farewell.”
“You have to give me more time - I didn’t know this had an expiration date -”
“Your brother was good enough to set it, the visit before last.”
“I’ve promised you a child - I swear to you, I’ll keep my promise.”
“Bargains, not promises, Sarah. Bargains.” A hard note entered his voice. “And since that child has to be born, as per our bargain, I find you have not kept to your word.”
“You just love to squeeze all the blood out of every single word, don’t you -” Sarah sounded hysterical. “Twist them all, and waltz in and out of my mind like it’s your own private goddamned crystal ballroom, you bastard -”
“You flatter me. However, I think you’ll find, if you remember correctly, that I did make a small mistake.”
Sarah was silent.
Jareth watched her, then continued. “In the wording of this bargain. It leaves you - shall we say - a slight … loophole, perhaps.”
I saw my sister straighten her back and face him squarely. “Tell me.”
His smile looked familiar. I couldn’t place it. And I didn’t quite get what he meant, when he replied:
“You tell me, Sarah. Tell me if you wish to hold to this interpretation of our bargain. After all … I only ever agreed - that your firstborn child would be mine.”
*
For a long moment, I didn’t hear anything. And I didn’t see them move. The Goblin King had only leaned back, slightly, after he had spoken - as though he wanted a better view of the effect of his words.
My sister was just standing there, staring at nothing. Then she shivered all over, like a tree with dry leaves. She crossed her arms over her chest - and wouldn’t meet Jareth’s eyes when he eased himself off the golden door and started prowling towards her.
He stopped about a foot away. “Well?”
A muscle twitched in Sarah’s jaw.
Jareth sighed, as if put-upon. Then he started walking around her, slowly. The hem of his cloak brushed her ankles.
“Really, Sarah, it’s not that complex a proposition. Promise me a child that is mine - in every sense of the word - and your brother goes free.”
Silence. He stopped, with a click of one boot, right behind her. She flinched.
“Sarah … What say you?”
Sarah drew in a deep breath. Her voice sounded brittle. “I say that firstborn is firstborn, and it isn’t born now, so -”
“In this case, I’m sure I would make an exception to that clause.” He brushed one gloved hand over her hair; she jerked away from him. “After all, I am also sure that these … matters can take a good deal of time.” He leaned closer. “In some cases.”
Sarah remained still. The Goblin King smiled a vicious smile and stepped even closer.
I had to wonder why he was just standing there, pressed against her. And then why would he do something as weird as smell her hair? Kind of nuzzling into it, like an animal. And he was brushing her hair to the side, with one hand, and smelling the nape of her neck. Then he licked her, just a bit, and I remembered what he had done in that dream, so that made sense. And my sister choking and trying to get away, and him grabbing both her shoulders from behind and yanking her back, that made sense too. It was very like both of them.
“You’re close,” he was hissing into Sarah’s ear. “So close - I can smell it, I can taste it on you.” He rested his forehead on her hair; I saw silver-gold and black intertwining. The Goblin King did something, pressed against her back, that made her gasp and try to crush his instep with her heel. He roped one arm around her shoulders in front and she froze.
“I can taste it …” He licked down her jaw and touched her pulse with just the tip of his tongue. “Why not try - who knows? Perhaps it would be just that simple. Just once.”
Then the Goblin King ran his free hand down from her shoulder to her hip, and coiled his fingers into her jeans, there. He moved his mouth back to her ear.
“Thin,” he said, his voice thick. “So thin. Too thin - a child might be a risk. We might have to wait. Or we might try - once. Perhaps twice. What say you?”
She didn’t say anything.
Jareth waited. Then he loosened his arm from around her neck; just enough to turn her face, slightly, so he could look into her eyes.
“Would it truly be so terrible, Sarah?”
I still didn’t hear her say anything. But I saw her mouth, “Yes.”
Jareth snarled in her face; she struggled to be free. He let go and she almost fell on the floor. “Have it your way.”
He strode back to the golden door, his black cloak flaring and his jaw set. Without another word he stripped off a glove and hit the door with one bare hand.
Even feeling as removed as I was, and calm, I had to say “Wow,” at the light that exploded through the room. Like a thunderclap might have been, if it were pure gold. When it died down a bit and I could see again, Jareth was standing in front of the door. It looked like he was drawing on it, with his bare hand.
He drew or wrote for a few moments, before he spared Sarah a glance. She had backed into a corner and was watching him intently. Jareth narrowed his own eyes and turned back to the door.
One line of writing. He flicked his fingers at the end of it and - just like that - the light in the room got dimmer. I heard Sarah gasp.
Another line, and another flick - and the light dimmed further. Another line - it got darker. And one more - and then the glowing golden door was the only light left.
Jareth’s silhouette was dark against the gold. I saw him tilt his head, considering.
“What -” I heard Sarah say. “What are you doing?”
“I should think it obvious. I am closing this door.”
“But - Toby -”
“ - is already living in my Labyrinth, heart and soul. I will take the last echo of his body from this mortal world, through here,” Jareth stroked the door, “and that will be an end to it.” He pitched his voice to carry, but did not turn around. “If you have any goodbyes, I suggest you say them now.”
“’Bye, Sarah,” I tried to say. My voice was only a whisper. I remembered so many things in this room. She gave me books, she sent me letters, she tucked me in at night and told me that she loved me. She tied me here with her words. But now it was too dark to read them.
“Toby,” she murmured. I think she might have been crying. “Toby, I’m so sorry.”
The Goblin King hissed in a breath, then exhaled. “Farewell, Sarah Williams.” He reached for the latch on the door.
“Jareth,” my sister said. “Wait.”
I saw his hand pause on the latch.
Sarah had crossed her arms over her chest again. Her lips were a tight line, and her shoulders hunched.
She took a step towards him.
Sarah couldn’t see his face; his back was turned to her. But I could see him. And I saw his eyes flare.
Instead, she moistened her lips and spoke again. “The thing is - part of that bargain is - is a child. And - that’s only nine months. Isn’t it?”
“Not necessarily,” he said to the door in an idle voice. “These things can take time.”
My sister’s teeth were chattering. “Then however long it takes - after - after a child - I mean, after it was born, then the bargain would be done.” It was hard to understand her. “Then I could -
go?”
“Hmm.” Jareth tapped his fingers against the latch. “It sounds to me as though you’re adding something that is not in the spirit of our bargain in the first place.”
“Jareth -” and she ran towards him and caught hold of his hand, and drew it away from the latch. “Just listen to me.”
“I’ve listened already.” He wrested his hand free.
“Please - please listen …”
“Then speak quickly.”
She still could not see his eyes. I could. But I could not place their expression.
“Jareth - Goblin King. If I go with you - if I - give you a child … my child - our child. Would you swear to me that you would never, ever do anything to Toby?”
“That is my side of the bargain.”
“Or the rest of my family?”
“Extraneous … but, in keeping to the spirit of our bargain - yes.”
“And - and after the child is born,” she drew in a deep breath, “after I give you my firstborn child - will you let me go?”
Jareth was silent.
Then he turned, to look my sister straight in the eyes, and she shuddered. He saw it; his lips twisted. “That is not in this bargain. And you have nothing left with which to bargain, Sarah.”
She closed her eyes. “I thought I might ask you to give this to me.”
He made a noise of contempt.
“Please, Jareth - I’m asking you: will you promise me that, after I give you my firstborn child - your child … that you will let me go?”
“I make bargains, Sarah, not promises.”
“I know.” She swallowed.
And then she did something that I hadn’t thought she would ever do.
She took his bare right hand in hers. He let her take it.
Sarah touched his palm with her fingers and then turned his hand over. She looked at its back. I saw her reach out a finger and trace - something.
Jareth’s eyes had followed her every move. They narrowed at the quiet sound of her voice.
“What’s this one?”
His own voice was rough. “Power.”
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she dragged in a deep breath. “You know, the book said that rune was lost.”
Jareth was silent.
I wasn’t really curious - I still felt wrapped in a dreamlike calm. But I did feel … something, winding through the haze and plucking at me. If I hadn’t been warm and sleepy, I might have felt all of its force. And it might have been terror.
It had something to do with the way he was looking at her, his eyes glittering. The light from the golden door was dying away, but I could still see his face, white as bone in the darkness.
And I saw his sharp teeth flash as she bent her head and kissed his hand.
Sarah remained there just long enough for me to wonder, distantly, why the hell she was acting like that, and then she straightened. She kept his hand pressed between her own.
“Please, Jareth. Will you promise me?”
She placed his hand against the side of her face. I saw his jaw clench, saw him swallow hard, saw his bare thumb brush over her chin.
“After I give you your child … will you promise to let me go?”
He caught the other side of her face with his other hand.
“Give me your promise,” Sarah whispered.
The Goblin King’s eyes flicked from her own eyes to her mouth, then back. He leaned forward. She let him. And then I saw my sister shudder as he caught at her mouth with his, and kissed her.
Thanks so very much to knifeedgefic for the super-speedy beta, and, as well, to lightup_tea and for their feedback.
Cross-posted at Labyfic.
Advent
Part 7
I put out an arm and pushed Sarah behind me. “Get out.”
Jareth tilted his head, still smiling. “Noble and ignoble at the same time. Chivalry and inhospitality, hand in hand. Why such strong words for me, Tobias?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said: Get. Out.”
The smile had gone. “You know, I don’t believe I will.”
“Get out, or I’ll -”
“Or you’ll what?”
I ran at him, fists swinging - I’d ram him back through that door and to hell with my wall - but then he flicked the fingers of one hand and I - stopped.
I don’t know how else to describe it. I was frozen in mid-stride, my face locked in a grimace, and Jareth was walking up to me with a look of mild interest.
“Such violence, in one so young. Tsk.” He smirked. “I wonder what he means by it?”
I tried to yell - but I couldn’t do that, either. Every part of me was completely locked up.
Jareth adjusted one glove. “Well, Sarah?”
He lingered over her name.
“What do you think he means by it?”
Then he turned to look at her.
I saw a distorted Sarah reflected in the gold of the magical door. I saw her tense and throw one look behind her shoulder -
“No,” Jareth breathed. He tipped up his chin - that was it, believe me - and the door to my room slammed shut. I heard the click of a lock.
I heard something scrabbling at the wood of the door, but I only saw Jareth circling me, lips curled in a smile. “My, that does look uncomfortable. So, my young prince …” and he gently pushed my arms down to my sides, tapped my foot in mid-air so it came to rest on the carpet, and eased my back against a wall.
It occurred to me that now I could see everything.
“Dad! Mom!”
“Sarah, I have cast a spell of silence every time I have been in this room - that is to say, eight times. Those two,” he made a dismissive gesture in the direction of my parents’ bedroom, “wouldn’t hear an abduction if their lives depended on it.” He paused. “Fortunately, their lives do not depend on it.”
I saw Sarah frantically rattling the doorknob. She clawed at the paint on the doorframe, then jerked her fingers back with a yelp.
“For the last time, no.” Jareth’s voice was icy. “Believe you me: that spell caught my attention when first I saw it. And it took me a surprising amount of time to unravel - where did you come across those runes, Sarah?”
She had turned to face him. I saw that her face was white. “A book.”
“A book - he spat. “Where?’
“A rare book library, in - in the palace archives. Under the highest security. In Istanbul.”
Jareth looked nonplussed, but only for a minute. “Ah.” He grimaced. “Byzantium. I must have forgotten about that one.” He paused in thought, then shrugged. “I shall soon remedy that little oversight … but Sarah …”
He took one step toward her and she stepped away. Her back hit the door with a thump.
“Sarah …” he purred. “You don’t look pleased to see me.”
“Still a little slow on the social uptick - uptake, Goblin K -”
“Oh, are you trying to insult me?” Jareth’s voice was low and sleek. “You seem rather tongue-tied tonight. Why is that?”
“No, the question is: why have you come here?!”
“Why, Sarah, isn’t it perfectly obvious? I have come to take back what is mine.” He tilted his head towards me. “Since your first-born child is nowhere to be found.”
“You bastard - you can’t take him!”
“I think you’ll find I very much can.”
The Goblin King turned towards where I rested against the wall, still frozen. He narrowed his eyes, and then plucked one, two, three crystals from mid-air and began to cast a spell. At least, I figured that was what he was doing. I could smell the magic in the air, and I could see the color draining from Sarah’s face.
“Stop - you can’t -”
“All the words in the world will not change the fact that young Toby here has breathed the air of the Labyrinth,” he wafted a crystal towards me, “has eaten the food of the Labyrinth,” another crystal, “and has been sealed by me, to the Labyrinth.” The last crystal floated before my eyes.
They all sparkled into a fall of dust at the same time.
Nothing really happened. I said, “Huh,” - oh, except my voice was back. And I somehow felt a lot calmer. Almost as though I had been drugged.
Then I looked closer at Sarah. She was scanning the room frantically, until she met my eyes and ran to my corner of the room.
“Toby? Toby?”
I watched, a bit bemused, as her hands went right through my body and touched the wall.
“He’s more than halfway there, you know.” Jareth sounded bored. “He may look insubstantial here, but all it will take is one closed door,” he flicked his eyes at the golden one, “and a Forest Prince in dreams will become a ruler in reality.”
“Forest -” Sarah’s voice croaked. She coughed to clear her throat. “Forest Prince? Just what the hell does that mean?”
“Ah, Sarah …”
The Goblin King gazed at her, his eyes half shut. “… It means this.”
He stretched out one arm along the wall, in front of the door. His black cape unfurled alongside it. He traced the index finger of his free hand along the line of his arm. He flicked all his fingers out …
And sparks and motes of magic began to cascade down, down over his cloak. They painted a beautiful picture - a magical image of a forest, full of animals and brightness during the day. And then the moon rose, and I saw the Forest Prince, antlers on his head, running for joy through the darkened trees.
Then he turned into a deer completely.
And then he was torn apart by a wolf.
I watched it all, feeling detached, and wondering why on earth my sister had started crying.
"It might not happen that way, of course. He runs like the wind, now. And I had to prove my mettle flying before the Wild Hunt for many years - and I lived to rule as King. Regardless, he will be a prince - my Forest Prince."
“You monster -”
“Others have called me so - others older and more terrible than you. Even before they imprisoned me.” Jareth covered a yawn with his free hand. “But enough of this. Our bargain remains. Do you have your firstborn with you, Sarah Williams?”
She didn’t say anything. So the Goblin King screwed up his face and whined, “Give me the child …”
Sarah spat at him; he laughed. “But alas, there is no firstborn here, and thus your brother comes with me. Bid him farewell.”
“You have to give me more time - I didn’t know this had an expiration date -”
“Your brother was good enough to set it, the visit before last.”
“I’ve promised you a child - I swear to you, I’ll keep my promise.”
“Bargains, not promises, Sarah. Bargains.” A hard note entered his voice. “And since that child has to be born, as per our bargain, I find you have not kept to your word.”
“You just love to squeeze all the blood out of every single word, don’t you -” Sarah sounded hysterical. “Twist them all, and waltz in and out of my mind like it’s your own private goddamned crystal ballroom, you bastard -”
“You flatter me. However, I think you’ll find, if you remember correctly, that I did make a small mistake.”
Sarah was silent.
Jareth watched her, then continued. “In the wording of this bargain. It leaves you - shall we say - a slight … loophole, perhaps.”
I saw my sister straighten her back and face him squarely. “Tell me.”
His smile looked familiar. I couldn’t place it. And I didn’t quite get what he meant, when he replied:
“You tell me, Sarah. Tell me if you wish to hold to this interpretation of our bargain. After all … I only ever agreed - that your firstborn child would be mine.”
*
For a long moment, I didn’t hear anything. And I didn’t see them move. The Goblin King had only leaned back, slightly, after he had spoken - as though he wanted a better view of the effect of his words.
My sister was just standing there, staring at nothing. Then she shivered all over, like a tree with dry leaves. She crossed her arms over her chest - and wouldn’t meet Jareth’s eyes when he eased himself off the golden door and started prowling towards her.
He stopped about a foot away. “Well?”
A muscle twitched in Sarah’s jaw.
Jareth sighed, as if put-upon. Then he started walking around her, slowly. The hem of his cloak brushed her ankles.
“Really, Sarah, it’s not that complex a proposition. Promise me a child that is mine - in every sense of the word - and your brother goes free.”
Silence. He stopped, with a click of one boot, right behind her. She flinched.
“Sarah … What say you?”
Sarah drew in a deep breath. Her voice sounded brittle. “I say that firstborn is firstborn, and it isn’t born now, so -”
“In this case, I’m sure I would make an exception to that clause.” He brushed one gloved hand over her hair; she jerked away from him. “After all, I am also sure that these … matters can take a good deal of time.” He leaned closer. “In some cases.”
Sarah remained still. The Goblin King smiled a vicious smile and stepped even closer.
I had to wonder why he was just standing there, pressed against her. And then why would he do something as weird as smell her hair? Kind of nuzzling into it, like an animal. And he was brushing her hair to the side, with one hand, and smelling the nape of her neck. Then he licked her, just a bit, and I remembered what he had done in that dream, so that made sense. And my sister choking and trying to get away, and him grabbing both her shoulders from behind and yanking her back, that made sense too. It was very like both of them.
“You’re close,” he was hissing into Sarah’s ear. “So close - I can smell it, I can taste it on you.” He rested his forehead on her hair; I saw silver-gold and black intertwining. The Goblin King did something, pressed against her back, that made her gasp and try to crush his instep with her heel. He roped one arm around her shoulders in front and she froze.
“I can taste it …” He licked down her jaw and touched her pulse with just the tip of his tongue. “Why not try - who knows? Perhaps it would be just that simple. Just once.”
Then the Goblin King ran his free hand down from her shoulder to her hip, and coiled his fingers into her jeans, there. He moved his mouth back to her ear.
“Thin,” he said, his voice thick. “So thin. Too thin - a child might be a risk. We might have to wait. Or we might try - once. Perhaps twice. What say you?”
She didn’t say anything.
Jareth waited. Then he loosened his arm from around her neck; just enough to turn her face, slightly, so he could look into her eyes.
“Would it truly be so terrible, Sarah?”
I still didn’t hear her say anything. But I saw her mouth, “Yes.”
Jareth snarled in her face; she struggled to be free. He let go and she almost fell on the floor. “Have it your way.”
He strode back to the golden door, his black cloak flaring and his jaw set. Without another word he stripped off a glove and hit the door with one bare hand.
Even feeling as removed as I was, and calm, I had to say “Wow,” at the light that exploded through the room. Like a thunderclap might have been, if it were pure gold. When it died down a bit and I could see again, Jareth was standing in front of the door. It looked like he was drawing on it, with his bare hand.
He drew or wrote for a few moments, before he spared Sarah a glance. She had backed into a corner and was watching him intently. Jareth narrowed his own eyes and turned back to the door.
One line of writing. He flicked his fingers at the end of it and - just like that - the light in the room got dimmer. I heard Sarah gasp.
Another line, and another flick - and the light dimmed further. Another line - it got darker. And one more - and then the glowing golden door was the only light left.
Jareth’s silhouette was dark against the gold. I saw him tilt his head, considering.
“What -” I heard Sarah say. “What are you doing?”
“I should think it obvious. I am closing this door.”
“But - Toby -”
“ - is already living in my Labyrinth, heart and soul. I will take the last echo of his body from this mortal world, through here,” Jareth stroked the door, “and that will be an end to it.” He pitched his voice to carry, but did not turn around. “If you have any goodbyes, I suggest you say them now.”
“’Bye, Sarah,” I tried to say. My voice was only a whisper. I remembered so many things in this room. She gave me books, she sent me letters, she tucked me in at night and told me that she loved me. She tied me here with her words. But now it was too dark to read them.
“Toby,” she murmured. I think she might have been crying. “Toby, I’m so sorry.”
The Goblin King hissed in a breath, then exhaled. “Farewell, Sarah Williams.” He reached for the latch on the door.
“Jareth,” my sister said. “Wait.”
I saw his hand pause on the latch.
Sarah had crossed her arms over her chest again. Her lips were a tight line, and her shoulders hunched.
She took a step towards him.
Sarah couldn’t see his face; his back was turned to her. But I could see him. And I saw his eyes flare.
Instead, she moistened her lips and spoke again. “The thing is - part of that bargain is - is a child. And - that’s only nine months. Isn’t it?”
“Not necessarily,” he said to the door in an idle voice. “These things can take time.”
My sister’s teeth were chattering. “Then however long it takes - after - after a child - I mean, after it was born, then the bargain would be done.” It was hard to understand her. “Then I could -
go?”
“Hmm.” Jareth tapped his fingers against the latch. “It sounds to me as though you’re adding something that is not in the spirit of our bargain in the first place.”
“Jareth -” and she ran towards him and caught hold of his hand, and drew it away from the latch. “Just listen to me.”
“I’ve listened already.” He wrested his hand free.
“Please - please listen …”
“Then speak quickly.”
She still could not see his eyes. I could. But I could not place their expression.
“Jareth - Goblin King. If I go with you - if I - give you a child … my child - our child. Would you swear to me that you would never, ever do anything to Toby?”
“That is my side of the bargain.”
“Or the rest of my family?”
“Extraneous … but, in keeping to the spirit of our bargain - yes.”
“And - and after the child is born,” she drew in a deep breath, “after I give you my firstborn child - will you let me go?”
Jareth was silent.
Then he turned, to look my sister straight in the eyes, and she shuddered. He saw it; his lips twisted. “That is not in this bargain. And you have nothing left with which to bargain, Sarah.”
She closed her eyes. “I thought I might ask you to give this to me.”
He made a noise of contempt.
“Please, Jareth - I’m asking you: will you promise me that, after I give you my firstborn child - your child … that you will let me go?”
“I make bargains, Sarah, not promises.”
“I know.” She swallowed.
And then she did something that I hadn’t thought she would ever do.
She took his bare right hand in hers. He let her take it.
Sarah touched his palm with her fingers and then turned his hand over. She looked at its back. I saw her reach out a finger and trace - something.
Jareth’s eyes had followed her every move. They narrowed at the quiet sound of her voice.
“What’s this one?”
His own voice was rough. “Power.”
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she dragged in a deep breath. “You know, the book said that rune was lost.”
Jareth was silent.
I wasn’t really curious - I still felt wrapped in a dreamlike calm. But I did feel … something, winding through the haze and plucking at me. If I hadn’t been warm and sleepy, I might have felt all of its force. And it might have been terror.
It had something to do with the way he was looking at her, his eyes glittering. The light from the golden door was dying away, but I could still see his face, white as bone in the darkness.
And I saw his sharp teeth flash as she bent her head and kissed his hand.
Sarah remained there just long enough for me to wonder, distantly, why the hell she was acting like that, and then she straightened. She kept his hand pressed between her own.
“Please, Jareth. Will you promise me?”
She placed his hand against the side of her face. I saw his jaw clench, saw him swallow hard, saw his bare thumb brush over her chin.
“After I give you your child … will you promise to let me go?”
He caught the other side of her face with his other hand.
“Give me your promise,” Sarah whispered.
The Goblin King’s eyes flicked from her own eyes to her mouth, then back. He leaned forward. She let him. And then I saw my sister shudder as he caught at her mouth with his, and kissed her.