Chapter 10

Appalled, Jareth made a desperate leap, but missed catching her by mere inches. He stood at the edge and looked down, half afraid of what he would find and not sure at all how to feel. Edana stood on a ledge about twenty feet below him, dusty but unharmed. She was peering up, looking quite pleased with herself, but was at the wrong angle to see him because of the shape of the rocky cliff side. Now that he knew she had planned the trick, had stolen that glance behind her to make sure she had a safe place to fall, he allowed his wrath full rein. He snapped his fingers and appeared on the ledge behind her while she was still gazing up and trying to find him.

Edana felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and was immediately filled with dread. She should never have tried to trick him, not like this, and too late she realized it.

Jareth spun her around and she would have lost her balance except that he slammed her back against the cliff wall. He was pleased to see the terror plainly written on her face. "Don’t you ever," he said in a low voice, "ever do that to me again. Do not forget your place. I have far more important things to do than chase after an errant child. Running a kingdom is not an easy task, and you are contributing to its laboriousness as completely as possible. I would rather have discussed this more civilly, but as you seem intent on making things miserable, so be it." He stopped speaking in that strange, deadly calm voice and looked at her. He was shocked to see tears in her eyes. Everything about her led him to the conclusion that something would have to be terribly important to bring about such a reaction.

She looked at him through the fuzziness of her tears and knew that she had pushed the limit too far, exactly what she had not intended to happen. At the moment, Edana was in serious fear for her life. She had never seen Jareth so enraged, not even when he had caught her using the crystal. To say she was petrified was an understatement. She was nearly in a panic. Mostly her fear was the immediate concern for what Jareth would do to her, but her own feelings for him that she could not shake no matter how hard she tried also were a major contributing factor. His blue eye was so pale it was closer to silver, a response to the intensity of emotion he was experiencing. She flinched away when he raised a hand, but it was only to wipe away the tear that had escaped and was travelling down her cheek.

"What am I going to do with you?" he implored, his voice gentle now, and troubled. "Come back to the castle with me. No stipulations – no Sarah. I’ve found out something you need to know about." For a moment, Jareth was sure Edana was going to refuse, she looked so torn, but then she nodded. In a matter of seconds, they stood in the center of the throne room and Edana was crying softly. He pulled her into an embrace, and she did not refuse, sobbing brokenly against his shoulder. "I was terribly worried about you," he said softly. "I’ll bet you never would believe it, but it’s true."

His words calmed Edana, and shortly she had managed to bring herself under control again.

Jareth led her to the throne and sat her down in it, kneeling on the cold stone before her. "This will probably be the death of me, but I’ve found out something fascinating."

She looked at him curiously and realized she must look a fright. She almost laughed. A few minutes ago, he had nearly killed her, and now he had just seated her in his throne and was about to tell her a secret? She could not figure him out, but despite his temper he intrigued her.

"Can you call a crystal?" he asked, almost excitedly.

Edana looked at him as though he was crazy. "Oh course not."

Jareth cocked his head to the side and gave her a look of utter exasperation. "Would you care to give it a try first?"

"How?"

He shrugged. "However it happens. If you can do it, you can do it."

Edana considered this. She couldn’t figure out why Jareth was asking her to do such a strange thing, but she certainly preferred the way he was treating her now to earlier. She felt she should at least try. She closed her eyes and held out her hand, palm up, and thought about the mild electrical current sort of feeling she had experienced when she held the crystal the last time. She was astonished to feel a cold weight in her hand, and opened her eyes to see a perfect glass sphere resting there. She was awestruck.

Jareth smiled at her in wonderment. Then he rose from his crouched position before her and began pacing. "You have it then," he thought aloud. "But to what extent? And why?" He spun around suddenly, the cloak he still wore billowing out around him. "We’re going to have to try some things and see just what you’re capable of," he concluded.

"Jareth, I have no idea what you’re talking about."

The Goblin King laughed, and bent to pull her to her feet. "You, my dear, are a Sorceress."

Edana’s jaw dropped. "Impossible."

"I know. And yet the evidence is here," he indicated the bauble she still held. "Nothing is absolute in the Underground, I suppose we should not be surprised. How you acquired such powers is still a mystery, though." He pondered the situation for a few minutes, then abandoned it with a broad grin. "I suppose you’ll have to stay here – until you learn how to use magic, at any rate."

"Don’t be cocky," Edana told him. They both knew she was only kidding when she warned, "I can still wish myself away by defeating you. I still know the words…"

"Then why didn’t you use them when you had the chance?" he challenged her.

She looked up at him, then away. "I didn’t want to leave," she said solemnly.

* * * * * * *

Later that day, Edana was seated in the garden, enjoying her surroundings. She had found a stone bench, held up by a carved owl at either end, and placed underneath a rose arbor thickly hung with bright flowers. It was a beautiful spot, offering a marvelous view of the rest of the gardens with their high fountains and multitude of flowers. Jareth was inside, discussing political matters with the Elven ambassador who had finally arrived, having been waylaid by a marauding trio of outlawed Elves before he had even reached the fringes of Elven territory.

Thoughts that had jumbled unpleasantly in her mind for the past few weeks since she had come to the Underground were working themselves out. She would not be belligerent about it any longer – she was falling hard in love with Jareth, despite his downfalls of character. If he did not feel the same way about her, there was nothing to be done about it, but she would not deny it anymore. Truthfully, she reflected, she was glad she was still capable of the emotion. She had been so cynical for so long that she had begun to fear that she would never be able to fall in love with anyone. It was something of a relief, as much as a mixed blessing.

That out of the way, her thoughts turned to this strange talent which had accidentally surfaced in her. Jareth had said that no one from outside the Underground should be able to perform magic. He had speculated that something must have happened when she came through. No other people from Aboveground had ever displayed the talent, unless they failed the Labyrinth or some test in one of the other kingdoms and were forced to become an inhabitant of the Underground. The process of transformation into a magical creature, of course, awarded them the associated magic abilities. As she brooded on this thought, she saw the Goblin King ambling towards her from the far end of the garden.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" he offered. When she agreed, he led her quickly out of the garden and down a path that led into a very dense forest. He had said nothing so far, and although he was smiling his hazel eyes held a worried look. This bothered Edana, but she wasn’t sure why.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You’ll see," he answered vaguely.

She found this odd, but perhaps their destination was a surprise. They had kept up the rapid pace for perhaps fifteen minutes, when Edana figured out what it was that was bothering her. It hit her like a bolt of lightning. Jareth has one blue eye, and one brown – not both hazel. She turned and ran in the opposite direction, but the man beside her had been anticipating such a response, and chased after her. He easily overtook her, pushing her roughly to the ground and holding both her wrists in one strong hand. "Who are you?" she demanded, breathing hard.

The man laughed. "So, you figured it out? Much sooner than I had expected. Well done," he acknowledged. He allowed the illusion making him look like Jareth to dissipate.

Edana found herself staring up at a devilishly handsome man. He had dark brown hair cut to chin length, the same hazel eyes that had clued her in to his being an imposter earlier, and sharp features. He was about the same build as Jareth, she saw as he hauled her roughly to her feet, still holding onto her wrists tightly.

"I am the answer to your every wish," he said with a sinister chuckle, addressing her original question. "You just don’t know it yet. I command powers far greater than your insignificant Goblin King does. But we’ll talk later. Right now, we have a few loose ends to tie up." A shimmering, red in colour, began all around him, the light intensifying and moving outwards so that soon Edana could not look at it for fear of blindness. She opened her eyes to a deafening roar, and found herself face to face with a dragon the size of a small house. The creature was of a deep red, so dark it was almost black, with armor-like scales covering its entire body and claws a foot long at the end of each finger. It was drumming them on the ground boredly as it observed her through half-closed yellow lizard eyes.