BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The banging on the door echoed through the room behind it, giving fair indication of the intent behind the sound. The door would not hold, Sarpedon knew, and those behind it would soon come through it into the room. He looked at the babe in the cradle before him, and knew what he would do.
"Open before the king!" The voice reverberated throughout the room, its owner knowing the room held no escape for it's occupant, and that the game was up. Nowhere to run. Little did the soldier know that Sarpedon had no intention of running, but that the infant he held would not be with him when they entered.
He took a breath, and began to say the words. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now."
With a loud crash, the door gave way. Soldiers rushed into the room, grabbing Sarpedon and binding him tight and taunting him about how he would beg for death before they were done with him. But all chatter stopped as a regal shadow came across the entry way.
"Your majesty, we have the kidnapper!" the captain pronounced, his head bowed. The king paid no attention to him, however; his gaze was focused instead on the cradle in the corner from which rustling could be heard.
He approached slowly, and carefully moved his hands to the blanket in front of him, and the head peeking out from under it - a head he knew well. But yet, something was wrong. Though he looked like his son at first blush, still he could tell this did not seem like Glaucus at all. He wasn't right. Something about his… aspect was wrong.
"What have you done, traitor!"
But Sarpedon simply smiled wryly. "Whatever do you mean, your majesty. Is that not your son?" The others did not know what their king meant, but he knew his son as they did not, and could tell this was not the son he knew.
And then, it occurred to him. With horror, he gazed at the child before him and uttered the word, "Changeling."
The soldiers now all stared at the baby as well, as the king spoke sternly to the babe that was not his son. "Be gone with your glamour, goblin."
The soldiers now saw that the swaddled creature by their king looked nothing like his son, and in fact did not really look human. In fact, he didn't look human at all. In fact, he looked most clearly to be a monster. The creature laughed and scampered away through the door, but when the soldiers went after him he seemed to have disappeared.
The face of king slowly and deliberately turned to contortions of hideous rage and hate that could have frightened Medusa herself. He turned to the captive behind him with bloodlust filling his soul. "WHERE IS HE, SARPEDON! WHERE IS MY SON!!!"
But Sarpedon remained calm as ever, with the fortitude that comes from knowing you will soon die regardless of what your next actions should be. "You know where he his, King Minos. As you have made me suffer, so too shall you now suffer."
His face fell. He was prepared to tear this man apart, but death would be too kind. Sarpedon thought he had suffered, but that was nothing compared to what would befall him now. Minos simply ordered the guards to take him away. He must think. He must prepare. Perhaps the Goblin King would come simply for being asked, but as it was not he who wished Glaucus to that kingdom, the path would most likely not be so easy. And time was short.
The wisest in the land. When he was younger, Polyidus would have thought such accolades to be the greatest of honors, a gift of greatness. Now he knew it to also be a curse. Though he wanted for nothing in his gilded cage, it was a cage nonetheless, and any luxuries he received were only at the whim of his captor. Should he ever refuse Minos, he would find his cage would lose all its gilding very quickly. And no matter what problems he solved for his king, no matter what solutions he found, he would never be granted that which he wanted most of all: freedom. He could never leave Knossos , much less Crete. And so he spent his days studying, creating, finding diversion in whichever way he could to try to forget the fact that the respected and admired Polyidus was a prisoner.
He was reading dialogues from Athens in his study when his captor burst in with frantic eyes seeking him out. "I need... to know... the way... to the Goblin City!" Minos panted as he caught his breath. The Goblin City? Did the king actually want to call upon the Goblin King himself? Did he realize what he was asking?
Polyidus thought a moment, then responded. "There are ways. There are always ways. But, my lord, there would be risks, consequences to such a thing. There are always consequences."
"Damn all that! My son is taken by the beast, and I intend to get him back."
So, that is what happened to Glaucus. Polyidus did in fact know how to reach the Goblin Lands. This was knowledge most arcane, but it was still known to some. He went over his table and opened a chest, mumbling to himself, " Phoenix egg... Hair of a Siren... Thread of the Three… Ah, here it is." He then produced a seemingly ordinary glass ball.
Minos looked confused. "So tell me, wizard, how will this get me to my son?"
"I'm no wizard, as I've told you before. But I know a thing or two of this world – and of the others beyond ours." He stooped down and began drawing a circle on the ground with some sort of powder, his hands doing so in an erratic manner that at first would seem to convey the shakes that come with age, but that a careful observer would see were in fact quite deliberate. And, one who was especially observant might even have noticed the line was in fact not a solid line, but contained within it the tiniest of markings scattered throughout.
When he was done, he handed the sphere to Minos. "What is this?" asked the king.
"It's a crystal, nothing more," the old man intoned. "But when you hold it this way," he moved the Cretian's hands slightly, "and step into the circle, it will help guide you to the one you seek."
As Minos approached the circle, the old man added, "One more thing: here you may be king, but when you are in His realm you will be playing by His rules. But His rules are still rules, so there is still a chance to get your son back. Gods speed you on your journey, your majesty." With that, the ruler of Crete entered the circle.
Nothing changed. He was still in the room. Polyidus was on the other side of the circle, seemingly lost in thought. "Fool, you did something wrong." But the old man seemed to not hear him. "Did you hear me? I've traveled nowhere."
"Quite right, nowhere is exactly where you are." The voice echoed from behind him. Minos turned to see a tall man, in strange robes and even stranger hair. So strange was his appearance and so confident his manner, that at first he thought this might be one of the gods. But he knew this was simply the nearest thing to the gods. This was a king.
"Are you the Goblin King? If so, I demand you to release my son."
"Demand? Tsk, tsk. You'll find I consider requests more likely than demands. As a king you should relate to that. The child was offered to me, the words were said, and now he's mine. You've other children, haven't you? Just be happy with those. Forget the babe."
"The child is mine, not Sarpedon's. He wasn't his to offer."
The Goblin King shrugged. "He was the only one with the child at the time, and is also blood. But the details don't matter. The rules are as they are, the child is mine, and you would best be on your way."
"I'll not leave without him! I am a son of Zeus, and I do not shirk from a fight!"
"Please. If everyone who claimed to be a son of Zeus really was then half of Greece would be of his line. Not that he hasn't had quite a few..."
Minos was ready to launch himself at this lord of goblins, but held himself back. He still needed to find Glaucus, and if he killed the villain now he may never find him. And then, he remembered Polyidus's words. "Are you telling me there is no way to get my son back, that there are no… rules for this."
The king of goblins' smile disappeared. "Oh there's a way. But it won't be conquered by the likes of you. It's over here." He stepped out of the circle. Minos followed, and suddenly was somewhere else entirely.
The tall king smiled. "But where are my manners? I should introduce myself, king to king." He waved his hand with a flourish. "I am Jareth, and this is my labyrinth."