In Love And War Chapter Two
Title: In Love And War
Author: waking_epiphany (Jamie)
Rating: PG-13...for now ;-)
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me; they belong to Jim Henson and Brian Froud.
Pairings: Jareth/Sarah. Duh.
Timeline: Five years since the end of the movie.
Summary: Five years after Sarah Williams destroyed the Underground and its king she finds herself once again fighting for the people she loves. A decrepit, crumbling carnival is the setting of Sarah and Jareth's final showdown for not only her friends' freedom, but Sarah's own. Is thirteen hours enough time for Sarah to solve the riddle of Goblin King's labyrinthine heart?
Author’s Note: This chapter was originally part of chapter one but made the chapter too long to post in livejournal, so now its chapter two. But who cares! Cause we finally get out intrepid heroine to meet her Goblin King! Huzzah for UST!
"I want cotton candy and a corn dog and a big stuffed monkey and a ninja sword and a ride on the roller coaster and - "
"Whoa, whoa, slow down, buddy," Sarah said, laughing. Her brother was dragging her with his one hand and pulling his drooping pants up with the other. He was in such a hurry to experience it all that he was practically running. Now that she had let Toby lead her around a bit, the carnival didn't seem so creepy. Sarah didn't like the look of the clouds rolling in, that was for sure. She wasn't sure what she would tell Jeremy if it started to rain. No way she was going to let her brother ride any rides if it was pouring, no matter the repercussions it would have with Toby.
"Tell you what, Tobe," Jeremy said, rounding on Sarah's brother. "How about we hit the roller coaster before we stuff you full of fair food. That way there's less of a chance for projectile vomiting when we are riding upside down."
"I'm going to projectile vomit?" Toby asked.
Jeremy considered this. "Yeah, probably."
"Cool!' Toby exclaimed, dropping Sarah's hand like a hot poker and latching onto her boyfriend's. They walked in the direction of the roller coaster with Cassie and Jon pulling up the rear. Sarah had full intentions of climbing aboard The Phoenix, a wooden roller coaster with enough upside loops to make Toby throw up and come back wanting more, until what looked like an old gypsy caravan caught her eye.
Sarah stopped, momentarily transfixed by the flickering candlelight that seemed to beckon to her from inside the caravan. Two old fashioned oil lamps hung outside the open doorway, lighting the leaf-strewn path for her. The clapboards of the caravan were faded red but the sign was a deep, bold violet that read: Madame Endora, Seer of the Past, Present, And Future.
"Sarah? Sarah!" Sarah tore her eyes from the fortune teller's abode, focusing her eyes on her brother, who had returned to her and was pulling on her hand impatiently. "The roller coaster man is waiting to start the ride! Come on!"
Sarah turned and, sure enough, her friend were waiting for her. The carnival worker, whose face was obscured by a hooded cloak of some kind, had his hands crossed in front of his chest and was tapping his foot with annoyance.
"Um...do you mind if I sit this one out?" Sarah asked her younger brother. She didn't like lying to him but she was very intrigued by the mystique surrounding the fortune teller's place. "I'm not that big a fan of roller coasters but I promise to buy your next corndog and ride the carousel with you right after."
Toby considered this scenario for a whole half a second before yelling, "ok bye," over his shoulder and sprinting up to the carnival worker, who seemed to be laughing softly because his shoulders shook under his coat.
"Are you sure you don't want in on this?" Jeremy asked, his hand finding the crook of her elbow and pulling her close. "If you're not on that thing you're going to regret it, I can tell."
"We have all night," Sarah reminded him, dislodging his grip from her arm. "We can go on it ten times. You won't even miss me."
"That's not even remotely likely," Jeremy replied.
She smiled and gave him a kiss. She intended it to be a peck but Jeremy suddenly pulled her into an embrace and pressed his lips against hers more deeply. She was suddenly very embarrassed to be doing this not only in front of her brother and friends, but a complete stranger as well. She heard the catcalls of her two friends, followed by the muffled "ewwww" of her brother, who were already seated in the cars of the roller coaster.
The wind kicked up suddenly and Sarah felt her boyfriend move away from her. The leaves swirled around them as they had a life of their own, dancing in the undercurrent. While everything else seemed to be moving around them, only the man at the roller coaster stood completely still. She stared at him for a moment, feeling unnerved by his silence but quickly pushing the thought away.
Jeremy turned away and climbed into the seat next to Toby. Her brother waved excitedly at her and Sarah waved back. The roller coaster man leaned over the controls and pushed a few buttons and pulled a lever or two. The coaster started up and Sarah watched as the train of cars slowly approached the first incredibly steep drop.
Sarah was already walking to the fortune teller's tent when her friend's screams were drowned out by the October wind. She stepped onto the ramshackle porch and almost screamed when a black cat yowled and hissed at her from underneath the porch steps. His luminescent whiskey colored eyes glared at her and for a second, Sarah found herself wondering why this cat hated her so much.
"Come here, kitty," Sarah cooed. "That's it, pretty boy. I won't hurt you." Slowly, the cat poked its head from underneath the caravan. It regarded her curiously and deemed her acceptable enough to scratch behind his ears. After he had gotten what he crept up the stairs and into the caravan, casting one, last disparaging glance in her direction. Sarah shook her head, chuckling to herself. Attributing human traits to animals was something she would have done years ago. Of course she knew this cat was just a cat. Still, she tread carefully as she ascended the three steps to the door of the caravan.
Heady, musky incense met her nose as she knocked on the doorframe.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" Sarah half hoped no one was inside. Her friends would be wondering where she was when they got off the roller coaster and, strangely, she felt a certain finality would occur if she crossed the threshold of this mystical place. She couldn't place what that finality would be but it would be absolute and unconditional. And yet when she heard the sound of bangles jangling together from inside, combined with the soft, red light emanating from within, Sarah felt compelled to move forward.
"Yes," a husky voice called to her. "Come in, child."
Sarah pushed aside the beaded curtains and crossed the doorsill. She shivered, a thrill of dread thrumming up her spine as she peered through the smoky interior of the caravan. Paisley scarves lay over lamps, casting the peeled wallpaper in a splash of red. Incense burned into crumbling piles of ash on lace tablecloths. Curtains hung in soft and luxurious folds. Bottles and vials were strewn about, filled with different colors of murky liquid. Books jacketed in suede, leather and velvet littered the floor and lined the bookshelves. Figurines and idols of fantasy peered out of cupboards. Candles of blood red, sable gray and midnight black dripped and sputtered onto the tables, covering everything in the waxy tallow. In the center of the small space stood a circular table, draped in a ruby colored shift and perched on top of it, lay a large crystal ball.
Sarah felt something brush against her ankle and she yelped. The black cat from outside rubbed itself around her feet, tripping her up. She stumbled slightly, putting her hands on a nearby end table to right herself, only to come face to face with a human skull. Sarah gulped and turned to the fortune teller, who was seated at the circular table in the center. Her hair was dark and streaked with silver but her face was covered with a tasseled shawl, making it difficult to get a feel for what she looked like. The older woman beckoned Sarah with a crook of her finger and a wink of her ocher colored eyes.
"Sit, my dear," the fortune teller purred in an eastern European accent. "I am Madame Endora. How can I be of service to such a beautiful stranger?"
"I think," Sarah started, her voice catching a bit. "...I think I'd like to have my fortune read."
"Alas," the woman said, her many bracelets tinkling a strange tune. "...the future is an every-moving entity, as murky and changeable as the sea. I feel that I would be able to see your path more clearly if a tribute was given."
Madame Endora gestured slightly to a box with a slit on top labeled "donations". Sarah blushed slightly, embarrassed to have forgotten her manners. She reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and pushed it through the slot on the top of the box. Madame Endora clapped her hands together and rubbed them and then placed them over her eyes and breathed deeply for a moment. She seemed to be collecting herself.
"So, dear one, through what craft should you like to behold that which has yet to pass?" Madame Endora asked in a low voice. "Perhaps through extinspicy, soothsaying by the entrails of animals?"
Sarah shook her head violently.
"How about tasseography, predicting through tea leaves? Or perhaps ceromancy, divining by studying the patterns in melting or dripping wax?"
"I don't think so," Sarah said hesitantly, not wanting to be rude.
"I am gifted in many forms of clairvoyance. Palmistry is popular, as is using the spirit board or astromancy. But no..." Madame Endora paused, gazing into Sarah's eyes. Sarah felt transfixed, unable to look away, as if the oracle was truly looking inside of her for answers.
"Yes," the old woman breathed, a smile playing on her thin lips. "Oh yes, it is so obvious now. The crystal balls sings for you, pretty girl."
Sarah's heart began to race and she felt a bead of sweat rolls down her forehead. Of course, it had to be the crystal ball.
"Don't be afraid, child. Allow me to show the path of your destiny. Stare into the crystal and your past, present, and future will unfold before your eyes."
Madame Endora rubbed her hands against the cool crystal and Sarah willed herself not to turn away from the sphere.
"Your past was fraught with danger and hardship."
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered..."
"In a single night you fought for something infinitely precious...fought tooth and nail. You have never gone through anything so trying."
"I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen."
"There have been so many twists and turns that is difficult to find your way as an adult in this mortal realm."
Sarah began to see shapes emerge in the shadowy crystal...but no, it was just the candlelight tricking her eyes, but she was beginning to get so very frightened. Pastel colors, swirling, undulating in the reflected light.
"A storm is coming, Sarah. You must be strong or be dashed upon the rocks. Your past and your future are two sides of the same coin and so is he."
"How did you know my name?" Sarah whispered, but the Madame continued, as if she didn't hear. The old woman was beginning to work herself up into a frenzied state, her shoulders rocking back and forth as she gazed into the crystal. Sarah couldn't look away from the crystal now, she could see herself, she was so frightened and lost. Every turn led her down the wrong path and she was alone, so very, very alone...
"He will take the child...he will take them all."
"You asked that the child be taken. I took him."
"He is fearsome...but you not will tremble at his feet."
"You cowered before me...I was frightening."
"He would do anything to rule you...and he has."
"I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you."
"He's obsessed with you...it is not love but power he seeks with your destruction."
"But what no one knew is that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl..."
"The powers he has bestowed upon you are strong...stronger than even he realizes."
"...and he had given her certain powers."
"You have the gift, Sarah. The gift he gave to you and you must wield it...wield it to destroy him or he will destroy not only you...but the ones you love."
"This is insane," Sarah whispered, hyperventilating now, but she couldn't look away from the crystal, she could see herself in it. She was running, running through the rain with lightening crashing down around her. She could hear his laugh, his cruel, unforgiving laugh echoing in her mind. She saw Toby and Cassie and Jon and Jeremy, and, Oh God, Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus too. They were trapped, tied up, scared and alone. They were being guarded, she could see dark shapes surrounding them...it was goblins. They were being held captive by goblins. Sarah shook her head violently but the images were still in the crystal, a lighter relief against a murky black.
"He will have them, Sarah...and he will have you. You will be a slave to his every whim if you do not fight."
Sarah could scarcely heard her.. The images were moving fast now; too fast for her to fully understand what was unfolding within. The dark crystal was flashing now, showing her, then him, her, then him. He wasn't laughing now. He was scared and so was she but the pictures kept moving and she wouldn't take it anymore.
"No!"
The dark crystal shattered, sending shards of fortune telling device ricocheting in all directions. After she had caught her breath, Sarah looked around, not believing what she had done.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, trying to pick up some of the shards of crystal. "I didn't mean to...ouch!" One of the sharp pieces pricked her fingers and a drop of blood fell from her finger and was absorbed into the paisley scarf covering the round table. Sarah brought the bleeding digit to her mouth to try and stop the bleeding.
"It's alright, dear," Madame Endora said, waving her arms at the mess dismissively. The woman picked up the scarf Sarah had bled on and tucked it into a fold in her cloak. "That is not important. What is important is you beating the Goblin King. Here." Madame Endora reached over to a shelf and produced a velvet pouch and pushed it on Sarah.
"Take this. They are tarot cards and have been imbued with ancient magic. You are the one to wield them, using the powers he bestowed upon all those years ago. They will lead you down the path of your own redemption."
"How do you..."
"Know about the Goblin King?" Madame Endora supplied mysteriously. "He is a part of the magical world, as am I. I can feel his power...for he is here."
"Here?" Sarah gasped, turning around in her chair. She couldn't see him but yes, yes, she could feel him. There was an electricity in the air, as if it was charged with his magic. It felt like before, five years ago, when she stood in her father and Karen's bedroom and the French doors burst open to reveal the king of her dreams. She couldn't say his name, wouldn't say it...it would only make it real. She reached for the cards and put them in her pocket without even realizing it.
"It's impossible," Sarah whispered, though in her heart she knew it to be true. "I didn't call him, he can't come unless I call..."
"Anything is possible," Madame Endora said cryptically. "Perhaps you were not the one to summon him to this earth. Perhaps it has been you that has been wished somewhere not of this world."
Sarah let this realization wash over her. This was real. This was happening. She couldn't chalk this up to her imagination, she couldn't wait for everything to simply fade away with time. Unless...unless this was a trick. Unless the Goblin King was tricking her, wanting her to wish him to her somehow. Her friends would be done with the roller coaster now. She would go to them, find them, and they'd leave this god forsaken place.
"This is ridiculous," Sarah said, with more confidence than she felt. She pushed herself from the table, hearing the chair legs scrap against some of the dark, broken crystal that still scattered the floor. "I don't know who you are or what you think you are doing, but I don't believe in that stuff anymore. If...if Jon or Jeremy put you up to this, I'll certainly have a word with them. I'm done with this. I'm done."
She stood from her chair and turned her back on the shrouded woman. She made her way to the beaded curtains, tripping slightly on the black, yellowed eyed cat that crossed in front of her.
"The storm is coming, Sarah," Madame Endora called to her. "And you can do nothing to stop it. Beware. Beware..."
Sarah, as defiantly as she could, threw the beaded curtain aside and began to run.
Inside the caravan, the air around the black cat began to shimmer and smoke. After a few moments, a man stood where the feline had been. He appeared drained, his face pale and wan from the exertion of magic. He sat in the chair that Sarah had vacated, breathing heavily. Though he was out of breath and naked, he seemed pleased with himself.
"That was beautifully done, Mother," Ash said to Endora. The woman seated at the table untied the scarf from around her face to reveal beautiful, regal features. Mother and son both shared dark, flowing hair, a defined patrician nose and strange whiskey colored eyes. The queen handed her son some clothes, which he donned with some difficulty.
"I thought so as well," Endora said, twisting her mouth into a cruel grin. "She will be near impossible to stop her with those cards. They hold powerful enchantments...I daresay she might even be more powerful than you right now, my son."
"I just need her to be able to defeat Jareth," Ash said, trying to catch his breath. "I need her as docile as a lamb when he loses and she is mine."
"I doubt you will find her docile," Endora told her only son. "She is spirited...no doubt one of the reasons Jareth finds her so appealing, even if she is human." The Queen said the word with distaste, as if she were talking an embarrassing bodily function instead of a person.
"Then it will be all the more fun when I break her," Ash said with relish.
"The cards should help matters," Endora said. "The magic is strong and will help her overcome whatever obstacles Jareth has in store for her; however, every time she uses one it drains her a bit of her strength. She'll make it through the seven challenges, but unless Jareth helps her along the way, she will be very weak at the end. She might even die, if we're lucky."
"If we're lucky she'll live," Ash replied, tapping his fingers together in pleasure.
"Son, you know as well as anyone I find Jareth's presumption and arrogance repulsive," Endora started cautiously. "But isn't there a more practical way of beating him down? Couldn't you just overthrow him for leadership of the Labyrinth? Your father's will never accounted for a hostile takeover. This game the two of you are playing...have you ever thought you might lost more than you are set to gain?"
"You best hold your tongue, crone, lest you want it lopped off due to treasonous words against your High King," Ash said, pointing an accusing finger at this mother.
"Of course...my Lord," Endora said deferentially. "You know best." She knew her son did not know best, especially when dealing with offspring of her husband's dalliances. Jareth was cunning and not without skill in magic. The fair haired boy had been her husband's unapologetic favorite.
Endora still remembered that day all those hundreds of years ago that Avery walked into her parlor and handed her a screaming bundle swaddled in rags. She recalled looking down at the changeling, his eyes so different and strange, and wondering how long it would take to smother him. As High Queen, her husband was expected, almost encouraged to have affairs with other Fae women, since Fae fertility was so low. Even if the Queen could not carry a child, a boy with even half the King's blood could rule the land. But this boy was different...gifted in magic, certainly, but there was something distinctly off about him. Endora suspected he was somehow half Fae and half human...a hybrid considered freakish and wrong. She had never seen one before but she knew that was this abomination was when she first laid eyes on it. She raised Jareth as her own because she had to, not because she wanted to...something she never let Avery forget. Now that the king was gone, Ash could rid the imposter from Fae lands...at vulgar cost.
"I will use her to break him...then I will use her for myself," Ash whispered, forgetting his mother was even there. His mind was far away. The game was about to begin and he wouldn't miss a minute of it.
* * *
The carnival was shrouded in darkness. The sun had gone down...when had that happened? Sarah descended the stairs of the caravan at a run, trying to pick out the roller coaster out of the blackness. There were no bright, blinking lights anymore, no calliope music, no laughter. A clap of thunder startled her and she looked up into the coming darkness. The sky had that black green look of a storm approaching.
"Toby!" Sarah screamed into the wind. "Jeremy! Jon! Cassie!" She felt like the weather was conspiring against her, swallowing her calls before her companions had a chance to hear her. But then again, in the deepest part of herself that she hardly listened to anymore, she knew her friends weren't here. In the dying, forgotten part of Sarah that was ruled by fantasy, that was both terrified and fascinated the King of Goblins, she knew she would have to fight for them.
And fight for them she would.
There. She saw a light in the distance. She passed by the roller coaster...had it moved? It was dark and vacant, though Sarah thought she saw a flicker of movement along the floorboards. Was that a snicker? She searched the coaster cars anyway, feeling more defeated resignation than disappointment. She knew they wouldn't be there. She knew where she had to go.
Sarah followed the light, a bright glow that surrounded the big top tent in the center of the carnival. She started running again, feeling slow, fat raindrops pelting her face and hair. She heard the laughter now, some of it high pitched and whooping, some nervous and tittering, and one that was deep, arrogant and mocking. She ignored it and continued to run. She ran for minutes, hell, it could have been hours for the dread Sarah felt building up inside her.
When she finally reached the tent it was lit up like a Christmas tree, almost blinding in its brightness compared to the bleak surroundings. It was a huge monstrosity of a thing, like a giant fortress of canvas and light. But more than that she could feel a change, a shift in the air around her when she approached. It even smelled different, of course it smelled like popcorn and cotton candy but there was something else...a dampness, an ancient, green smell of earth and age. It was a scent familiar to her and Sarah inhaled deeply, savoring it. She felt she could almost grasp what it reminded her of but the memory slipped away almost willfully.
For a few moments Sarah stood and stared at the flap in the canvas where she knew she would enter. Her heart was beating wildly and she felt like she couldn't quite catch her breath. Her feet wanted to move, they wanted to carry her inside, but her heart throbbed with dread. She knew what she would find inside but could she face it? Sarah felt dread, fear, but strangely what she felt most keenly was alive.
With very precise determination, Sarah peeled back the flap and stepped inside the big top tent. She stepped just inside the tent but no further before she felt her foot catch on something and she fell to her hands and knees. She felt something pierce through her knee...a shard of dark glass. Glass like the black crystal in Madame Endora's caravan. Blood oozed out of a shallow cut and started to stain the fabric of her denim but she hardly felt it. She had to look up, she knew she did, and she felt her eyes being drawn to the light in the center of the ring.
She was being drawn to him, like she always was...like she was always meant to be.
He stood with his back to her, resplendent in ringmaster's garb. Tall, knee length boots wound their way up lean, muscular calves. Black pants that looked tight enough to be painted on coated his strapping thighs. He wore a dangerously seductive open-necked white shirt under a tight red coat with tails adorned with many shiny, gold buttons. His wild, blond hair was capped in a top hat cocked at a rakish angle. And, like all ringmasters, he carried a whip; a cruel, tasking weapon that Sarah did not desire to see close up.
She couldn't believe how fast her heart was beating. She felt like he could hear it even though he was feet away. She knew she had to approach him; she couldn't bear to let him see her on her knees like this. She would not appear subservient to him in any way. Gingerly, she wiped her bloody hand on her jeans and stood. She walked painfully, but steadily, until she stood mere feet from him. She saw him start to turn; Sarah braced herself but no matter what she remembered, she wasn't prepared for him.
He was beautiful. Not good-looking, or attractive, or even hot. He was simply beautiful, in the way that sunsets are beautiful; naturally and breathtakingly so. His proud and willful mouth was open slightly, as if taken aback to see her. His face changed before she had even been sure she had seen his surprise and his mouth twisted into a cruel, predatory grin. She felt his eyes on her, taking in her dirty and blood stained clothes and her disheveled appearance. She knew she shouldn't care but Sarah felt exposed and bare to him under the scrutiny of those blue, mismatched eyes. The silence stretched between them, the two adversaries, and after years of thinking of what she would say to the Goblin King should he ever cross her path again, Sarah was speechless.
"Hello Sarah," the Goblin King said softly, his voice as sultry and melodic as song.
"Hello...Jareth."
She had never called him by his name, his true name, before. She rolled it around on her tongue, feeling it, finding it hard to say. Jareth closed the distance between then, putting only a few inches of space between their bodies. Yet in those few inches, years of fear and control, misunderstanding and magnetism, yawned open and treacherous between them. Sarah knew she'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared of him in that moment.
Yet she didn't budge. She wouldn't back away. So they stood, staring, at an impasse, waiting for the other to move.
In Love And War Chapter Two Soundtrack
1. Band of Skulls, "Friends". Listen to when: Sarah meets up with her friends and when she sees her friends off at the roller coaster.
Lyrics: All my life I've been wastin', wastin'
Wastin' all my money, all my time
All the time that I'm waitin', waitin'
Waitin for the moment you are mine
The song about yeah I'm thinkin', thinkin'
Thinkin all the things that I've done wrong
All the time yeah I was forgettin'
You were mine all along
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?mnmjwcdzjjm
2. Nox Arcana, "Madame Endora", and Nox Arcana, "Shadows Fall". Listen to when: Sarah listens to Madame Endora's prophecy.
Lyrics: Instrumental
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?4ohjzzjlitt and http://www.mediafire.com/?dnjdyn2yjmt
3. La Ley, "Everytime". Listen to when: Sarah and Jareth reunite.
Lyrics: Everytime is time to go
Everywhile is for us to hold,
along the way your destruction is my life
With little time, I will fly between your smile
cause everytime is time to go,
and everywhile is for us to hold
in many ways every dream is like a long road
it's my desire to protect your lips with mine,
with mine. . . .
From the stars and nowhere
and then all I'm feeling out to go
from the stars
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?jrrc2mdmmiy